Bitcoin Forum

Will we have the book 'Bitcoin for Dummies' soon?

I was thinking along similar lines. If nobody's written it, who's willing to get this baby off the ground?

Things I would like it covering:

1) A good introduction to money and the implications of bitcoin for Economy, namely for a Anarcho-capitalism model of society.
2) A good introduction for assymetric encryption
3) Elliptic curves and Elliptic curves cryptography background, the role of ECDSA in bitcoin (Key-pair generation, Signature Generation, and Signature Verification)
4) Crytography concepts: hashing, National Security Agency, etc.
5) Satoshi paper in very digestible bytes
6) More computer power meaning more irrevocability. The scarcity and rarity being given by the hard coded timely fashion and not by the electricity and computer resources used.
7) Making it clear that coins only exist as balances associated with a bitcoin address and that what you actually keep are the private keys.
8) Explaining that a private key is like a password that enables you to spend from a bitcoin address, that is made of 256 bits, that is, 256 zeros and ones, but is usually expressed in more condensed formats using hexadecimal numbering.
9) Explaining that private keys and public keys form a pair like a key and a locker and that the bitcoin address is very much the counter-part of the private key, that it follows directly from the public key. But their mathematical properties are very particular because it is possible to calculate in some fractions of a second the bitcoin address, in a pair, from its private key. But the reverse would take countless millions, if not billions of years as it would have to be done by trial and error, even if quantum computers were used.

10) Going through a simple version of Satoshi client code, ultra well commented, with UML diagrams and all software architecture behind it, all very well explained and documented. A kind of "Satoshi's Original Bitcoin Client - An Operational View" on steroids!!!

11) Commons myths, FAQ,
http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=66
http://coinlab.com/pdfs/a-bitcoin-primer.pdf
http://blog.oleganza.com/post/32725987418/bitcoin-non-technical-faq

An inpiration, and 99% transpiration...
Much much more. Making us all code and technical savvys!!

Can this also be done for a www.skillshare.com class

This sounds great, but not what I would expect in a "for Dummies" book.

good thread

I expected this thread to include paypal's logo and nothing else.

I agree a "for dummies" paper (as opposed to a FAQ) would be hugely valuable but which topics should be included is a really interesting question. 

For example, people use money and payment systems every day without a second thought for what it means for something to "be" a currency or wondering how the payments systems actually work.

So a key question is:  to what extent does an introduction to Bitcoin need to establish a baseline knowledge of these topics sufficient to explain how/why Bitcoin fits into their mental models?  There is so much baseline knowledge required before the nuances of Bitcoin itself can be explained/understood and is it realistic to expect that most users would really make any attempt to acquire this knowledge if Bitcoin went mainstream?

I mean... imagine what a paper that truly explained everything would have to cover....

1) help the reader rethink what it means for something to "be" a currency or money --- without overwhelming them with incompatible economic models and whilst realising that most people haven't given a moment's thought to why they are happy to exchange real goods and services for pieces of paper with a country's currency printed on them.    Don't underestimate this:   you have to get the lay reader to realise there is nothing particularly special about gold or dollars whilst simultaneously helping them figure out which properties are desirable and so help them appreciate why a Bitcoin-like currency has potential value whilst some other schemes don't.     Perhaps a key test would be:  would it be possible to explain why Bitcoin can be seen as a valid currency without mentioning the words "fiat", "chartal" and "debasement"?  i.e. using language and concepts in common usage?

2) how do payment systems work?  Again, most people have never given this a moment's thought.  Take the UK payments system:  individuals can "send" money between bank accounts near-instantaneously using the "Faster Payments" system. They have no idea that this system sits in a hierarchy with the CHAPS RTGS sitting above it and with net settlement between banks typically happening on the books of the Bank of England.  If you told them that the Bank of England might be (indirectly) involved when they pay their builder, they'd be astonished.... yet understanding that "payments" are implemented as accounting entries in a hierarchical system is critical.   If you don't have at least a grasp of how existing currencies and their payments sytems work, it's little wonder that so many people on these boards still labour under the misconception that wallets somehow "store" their coins.   Yet if people don't feel a need to understand this with today's systems, can one really expect them to invest time in figuring it out here?   So perhaps a key test would be:  could a simple description of mainstream payment systems be written into which a Bitcoin explanation could be slotted, that highlighted the differences (e.g. around finality, identity, etc)?

3) the proof-of-work system and associated cryptography. I wonder if this needs to be covered at all - or at least anything other than cursorily.   Does understanding how it works help a beginner in any way apart from giving comfort that the system is well-thought-through?

There are still people, even today, trying to understand Einstein's theories, for the sake of it.
With money is a bit different, because if we are to be in control in makes a whole difference, even psychologically, to understand it all.

I hope we will have Disney, Simpsons, and so help us all figure the pages of the book to make all pieces of the puzzle fit.
I really want it 'from the Book'...

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/05/12/97002-paypal.jpg

:D