Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I was trained as a software engineer but did not have a career as one. Ventured into CNC Precision Machining and out of job 2 months ago. Since I have some knowledge about software, I would like to learn something about bitcoin. Meanwhile just helping my ex colleague to market machinable glass ceramic, as this type of material is too unique and I end up having too much time. Learning something new is important.

I would like to learn and may be set up my miner as well.
Please do help to point me where to start.

Do you know what you want to learn, the topic itself is quite big, also how do you learn best?

I started learning about bitcoin by getting hold of some and using it to transfer funds to myself and a few friends for example.

If you're not too code oriented, you might want to look into hashing algorithms, digital signatures (bitcoin uses elliptic curve but you could start at rsa to get used to that type of encryption) and then move on to looking at blockchain. There's quite a few good Wikipedia pages on these where you should be able to learn everything you need to know - or find it from their external links at the bottom.

Finally, if you are quite experienced in programming (you didn't say how long you spent learning/practicing it) you could look at either passing the bitcoin source code through an interpreter (a type of code translator that takes an application line by line and runs it) or looking at constructing your own version of certain parts of the software (as much as you want) .

You learn the same way how you learn programming languages and concepts — by doing a lot of reading!

Probably grab Andreas Antonopoulos' book, Mastering Bitcoin, if you'd like to take a look at the technicalities, or his The Internet of Money book if you'd like to know about the pure basics.

BTC does not require any special SW skills (unless you're planning to run your own full node for solo mining) as there's not much we can do with BTC besides sending/receiving.
Mining in general is more about HW stuff (cleaning, part replacement, solving power, heat and noise issues etc.)

I think you could better utilize SW skills with some smart-contract platform (ETH, ADA, DOT, TRON...) where you can actually code your own application on top of it.

Learn what exactly? It is just too broad.
You can learn to use bitcoin as a currency which is basically like learning how to use a new application with some security related matters. It takes about 20 minutes to learn this.

If you want to learn how to mine, it also is easy you just have to buy a ASIC(s), find a mining pool and read their instructions on how to set things up and connect to their pool to start mining. This too would take about 20 minutes.

If you want to learn at a technical level then things become hard and it could take months to learn everything about bitcoin specially if you want to go deep. You don't necessarily need to be a "software engineer" for that either.

Based on my experience, I believe it is best to learn bitcoin in a hierarchical manner, beginning with beginners and progressing to advanced levels.

If you really want to learn the concept with just a simple explanation aided by illustrations, I think this website learn me a bitcoin (https://learnmeabitcoin.com/) is helpful. This way, you can find something that piques your interest.

Jameson Lopp also has tons of learning resource including mining. You just need to allocate some time reading it on a daily basis.
- https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html

Learn what? How does Bitcoin work in theory? What's the technical details of Bitcoin? It may take you some time to be familiar with it, but I'll leave you some links that may help you.

— Mastering Bitcoin (https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook)
— learnmeabitcoin.com (https://learnmeabitcoin.com/)
— Bitcoin information & resources (https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html)

If you understand it theoretically, you may want to dive into the technical stuff: developer.bitcoin.org (https://developer.bitcoin.org/).

Actually, sometimes I know it may be possible to have learnt about software engineering and yet not ever had of bitcoin, because cryptocurrency is a new trending field gradually paving way into the world's major market recently, and by that, you may find it difficult finding a certified body offering full crypto course. But moreover, you are in the right place, because in this forum, you could find the like minds of you who are crypto software engineers and are willingly ready to offer you some basic help..

So I will like you to check these section of the forum regularly
1. Beginners and Help
2. Development and Technical discussion

Because am sure you will be able to find relevant articles that could help you out..
Thanks

It will be easy for him to learn all about BTC and this forum. He does have programming skills because he is a software engineer I guess he can build his Bitcoin business on his own if he just has the right contacts and budget.

He can probably create a wallet of his own. Or join a big team, there are serious projects out there looking for software engineers.

Learning about bitcoin is easy as well as the hardest thing depends on how deep you want to learn about, if you are just wanted to learn how to mine bitcoin then its easiest you just need to know how to calculate the profits based on the hashrste your rigs can produce and electricity cost with mining difficulty.

You can explore the mining section to get further technical knowledge.

Ratimov(a member of the forum) compiled a list of books you can read about bitcoin and blockchain. you might want to check the thread if you are interested to read the books. it is quite a big list so you'll have a lot of books to choose from.

Welcome to the forum!

here's the link to the thread Big Library of Bitcoin & Blockchain Books (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5353061.msg57629860#msg57629860)

whoooppp same as me  ;D i graduate in my highschool as software engineering but i didn't work as one but i want still to be software developer some day

i know bitcoin since 2014 when second grade of highschool but it help me a lot since then, nothing is late when you want to learn and is my first year unemployeed because of the pandemic  :'( but thanks to god and thanks to crypto this crypto world still can buy me a coffe 

You need to specify that what particular field you are interested in bitcoin learning like mining or technical skills or try both at your end? See if you want to be technically sound about bitcoin then read lot of posts on the forum and books like Mastering Bitcoin which will give you idea about nodes,UTXO set, Locking and Unlocking script and how address are generated from Public key and Private keys etc. You are software engineer and you might feel easy to understand technical terms and coding used in bitcoin designing but you need to understand them at deep point and then you will have enough knowledge of it's working.But for mining you need ASIC machines and lot of setup and electricity usage for which you can watch videos over youtube and check whether it's profitable or not.Trading is simple but always remember to have hardware wallet like Trezor and Ledger Nano to save you from any hack of funds on exchanges and hot wallets and backup your seed phrases and keys.Rest you will learn when you start as it's a deep pool of knowledge.

Not everyone knows bitcoin but what good thing here is you are now exploring the world of crypto so better find more reliable sources of information which can help find more helpful things on your start up and also the most important thing you need to avoid are those mlm or any ponzi  type of investment.

 And since you are planning to set up your miner I suggest that you should visit the mining section time to time so that you can check those existing mining discussion and maybe from them it can solve your confusion about your upcoming project.

It sounded like you are implying that your profession is something that is familiar with bitcoin since it is all about software engineering hence it does not work that way. Bitcoin is something that you don't get to learn at school and I don't think there is an official course or subject that tackles cryptocurrency. As to what you have said, you are looking forward to learn more about it and build your own mining set up. First thing you should do is to never forget taking in the basics. Learn about bitcoin and how it functions. Afterwards, you should be able to involve yourself on topics that gives you wisdom with regards to it so that you can further expand your knowledge.

Thank you for advise. Let me do a good plan to learn.

There are lots of books and materials over the internet as other people tend to share information to everyone, this is what I like about this forum, information is everywhere, if you want to setup a miner for bitcoin, it would be best to visit the mining section, there are also videos regarding that in the internet, feel free to ask questions, as I am also same as you are when i first stumble about bitcoin.

I recommend reading a few books about bitcoin and you may find what you want to learn. We can't answer your question on point as your question is too broad to start with. Since you mention about mining then you should start learning about it and you can also do other things if you want to do more than just mining. We never know what you love to learn about bitcoin.