Bitcoin Forum

One of the most common advises in this section, generally posted by other newbies, is that you need to "learn bitcoin" to "succeed". I think it's counterproductive.

You need to learn only two things - how to use Bitcoin and how to not lose it. The rest depends on what you want to do. You don't need to learn how to trade if you don't plan trading. You don't need to learn how Bitcoin works on a very low level if you don't plan to become a Bitcoin developer. Sure, it's good to know, but it's not necessary to "succeed". You don't need to learn all about mining if you don't plan to mine. You don't need to learn advanced cryptography if you are not a developer.

There's two ways to make money with Bitcoin - buying and waiting for the price to rise, or doing some Bitcoin-related work. And the first doesn't require any deep knowledge, just have an exit strategy and don't panic sell. Reading this forum for many hours per day alone won't make you rich.

bitcoin is multifaceted and covers a vast array of knowledge bases in different topics, including economics, computer science, game theory, cryptography, and the history of money. This reason alone is why most people say that you must find the areas of bitcoin that interest you the most and then dig deep into them.

However, the phrase "how not to lose it" is easier said than done. You still have to do a bit of legwork, including running your own node, understanding how an air-gapped wallet and multi-sig wallet work, coin mixing, as well as inheritance planning. Still, I agree that every bitcoiner should force themselves learning those.

Sure, but it'll help you easily thrive and qualify in most of the campaigns.

Your advice is simply the best. Everyone must know basic steps to protect their capital first. Safety for their capital must be their first priority. Unfortunately, people mostly forget about it and they only chase for profit that is related to risk.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5421039.0)

Just like people chased for profit, accept risk and ignore basic steps to protect their capital and eventually lost money in FTX, Celcius, Voyager ...
They must know where are best places to store their bitcoin and I am sure it should not be on exchanges, online accounts.

Very simple, sometimes some people forget to learn simple things due to being obsessed with high things. Ideally, buy at low prices and then sell at high prices, this is all you need to know as basic knowledge about Bitcoin. The rest is how to store Bitcoin safely, in my opinion this section is relative, the safest place depends on each individual. No need to force yourself to jump to higher things while the basic tricks have not been learned. Do it according to the level of ability of knowledge that is mastered, if don't have any further plans yet, no need to force yourself to learn something that is not needed.
 

Sure, in-depth Bitcoin knowledge is not needed if you only want to buy and sell for a profit. The basics would suffice for you and maybe a little extra bit to properly secure your wallet. Trying to learn things you have no interest in for the sake of it, like trading would be counter productive cause it would lead you to get overloaded with information.

This should not discourage anyone who really wants to learn the intricacies of Bitcoin, go ahead by all means. The process of gaining knowledge in one area could prove useful in that area and even other aspects as well, in this case it would help sharpen your understanding of how the financial market and money works.
Just try to pace yourself.


I would argue that running your own node and understanding of how multi-sig wallet works are not criteria for securing your bitcoins.
The first helps the decentralization of the network and your security, and the latter could add an extra layer of security if you know what you're doing, but a simple 1-of-1 would suffice for security as long as you keep to the basic rules.

Yes for a lot of people who are only interested in purchasing and selling Bitcoin to profit from the cryptocurrency industry don't necessarily need to be experts in all aspects before they will be successful.As the original poster stated, this individual only needs to know the basics.Therefore, that is the area you will be dealing with, and that is where we will need to focus and have in-depth information. As for myself, I always purchase in bitcoin when the price is low and hold them for a while, and then sell when the price increases, so I've focused a lot on how to make my Bitcoin investment more secure. However, it is a good bargain if we are knowledgeable about every facet of Bitcoin. 

True, most people only teach how to use Bitcoin and use it in trading to get profit, even though that is the wrong thing because it will build the wrong mindset of people about Bitcoin. Because from the beginning the mindset is about profit, profit, and profit, so when they lose on BTC trading they think that this is a scam or they are not aware of being able to store their Bitcoin safely.

Many people are want to learn Bitcoin in depth not because they're want to become a developer, but they're want to participate in signature campaign ::)

Nothing wrong about that, but you can easily found that where they will create a merit fishing thread about Bitcoin related topic and it has been discussed for many times. Usually they will talk about Bitcoin and privacy, but if you dig their post, you will find if they're using a centralized exchange :D

Signature campaign might not make you rich, @OP. But for third world countries it's really a lot for them.

Yeah, there are some specifics on what shall one needs to learn. If it's just about investing then those two that you've mentioned is what they need to learn.
While I am seeing those newbies who have the intention to learn how to profit through trading, they're rushing things and just want to get there as soon as possible.
But even if they want to get there so fast, they need to go through with various losses. Everything you said are correct and if there are newbies there that still don't know what to do, take these wise advises.

Well, you actually do have a point mate; and the thing is, everyone would love to learn and know every aspect of Bitcoin if they can and have the knowledge threshold for it, users who aren't good in mathematics, codes, cryptography, etc, would struggle very much with the technical aspects of the network, not that they do not wish to know it, but they don't have the background knowledge and if they decide to acquire that knowledge, it would take them quite a lot of time, so they basically just stick with the most important aspects and that which they are good at.

Having said that, it is still pertinent to have a general knowledge of almost all apects of Bitcoin, leaving the specifics out of it, what i mean is, you might not want to mine, or know the intricacies of mining, but you should have the general knowledge of what mining is, and what it does in the network. Another example is, one might not know the calculations involved in generating private and public keys, but they must have the general knowledge that private keys is like a secret pin to their wallet, whilst their public key isn't, that's the general knowledge i'm talking about, without technically going into the specifics.

I agree with your views on this, I mean no matter how much advice people give about bitcoin, if someone doesn't want to get involved and doesn't dare to take risks it will also be useless.


Using bitcoins is more generally placed on investments because so far not many countries or purchasing services use bitcoins to pay, which means that what needs to be understood is only two functions, investment and how to get profit.

To explain these two functions would cover some of the basics of bitcoin, but I think a lot of people have explained it properly. I just want to say that you don't need a lot of knowledge about bitcoin, if you are just taking profit from investment because the most important thing is implementing a long-term strategy is far from enough, the more you learn the more consideration so it will give birth to a lot of doubts.

In general, long-term investment does not require a broad understanding of bitcoin, we are only required to understand buying patterns and in the end keep bitcoins as long as possible in a safe wallet. While an exit strategy is also not needed for long term investment, because we have set it at the price we want.

But in further cases we have to understand bitcoin so as not to panic when the price hits a period low, because most people will make mistakes in these conditions if they don't have knowledge in bitcoin.

If I understand your point very well, you're basically admonishing that people should be focused on one particular area in the forum to learn it well be it trading, mining or developer, and gain some level of mastery in it other than becoming a jack of all trades and a master of non.
It really does make sense a lot as focusing on a particular aspect of the forum helps in reducing distraction when rather engaged in wanting to learn so many different aspects to make profit with bitcoin only to end up finding out you were just wasting time and losing assets too by trying to multitask at same time when you could have started with one at a time and be better off.

Agree on this , its when to enter and when to exit, also want to add to OP post is when to spot a scam project and a decent project, most people will just jump into a project without knowing, like my friends in a group said, Take profit when your happy, that's it, wait for another chance or opportunity, you don't have to wait years, its only about the timing.

I think the post is more about just learning what you need to know or what you're really interested about. You don't need to master unless it's necessary. You can simply learn those two basics that are mentioned in the OP. There's no need to master all the technicalities behind sending or receiving bitcoin and how to secure them properly.

Learn what you want because bitcoin covers all what is needed in terms of technology, of course maybe a lot of people trade, so this needs to be learned about the technicalities, there are many different methods about this and once you understand it will be an advantage what you get from trading, but it's simpler for bitcoin is to buy and hold as an investment waiting for higher prices. This is a simple method but needs to be done by anyone.

Mining, I don't like it, so I never discussed or explored this matter, because I prefer what is easy to understand in my mind so it won't be stressful because I think too deeply about mining, to be honest, it's very difficult for me to understand this.

Doing work related to bitcoin maybe what we think of here is a signature campaign that gives more bitcoins as a fee.

Apart from other strategies, where to get more bitcoins, then by continuing to buy or even by using DCA, this is clearly more capital-intensive, remember that an increase in bitcoins will definitely occur.

When I first started learning about bitcoin, my goal was to learn how to understand the technical aspects of it. I tried several times to learn it, but my brain was incapable of grasping any of those concepts. I'm not a developer and have no plans to become one in the future, but I like the concept of bitcoin and intend to continue using it. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't understand the technical aspects of bitcoin, which I assumed I needed to be a pro at holding bitcoin. After many trials, I realized it was not necessary and decided to focus on the fundamentals of bitcoin, such as how to use it and how not to lose it.


Actually, you just said it correctly; there's no need to burden your brain here. When you master these two strategies, you will never regret owning bitcoin in your life.

I'm not saying that people should only specialize or that they should never learn in general about Bitcoin. What I'm saying is that their efforts should have a clear goal. People should ask themselves whether they are interested in Bitcoin because they value its core values, or because they want to make money. And if they only want to make money, then they should optimize the time they spend on studying Bitcoin.

My lecturer will always say that an educated person is someone that knows something about everything. The bitcoin space is too big, complex, and versatile that it might be very difficult to learn everything about it in a few years. And the sector is even dynamic and one needs to be current on new development and innovation.

I want to deeply appreciate OP for this great advice. This is because sometimes I feel that I am not allocating enough time to the study of bitcoin. You have just given me a clear scope of the aspect of bitcoin I am interested in. Since my interest is keeping my coin till the price appreciates, I should focus on that. But this doesn't also mean that I should study materials on other aspects of bitcoin because it can also be beneficial.

Your opinion is clear but learning and understanding the two areas that you listed out is like learning the whole thing about Bitcoin. Trading aside as it is another aspect of crypto in it entirety, how to use Bitcoin and how to secure it is the most fundamental aspect of Bitcoin and cover like 70%. If you study the both to the core, then you're almost a pro in Bitcoin. In my opinion, the title should have been the fundamental aspect of Bitcoin you should focus on. How to use Bitcoin is not only limited to selling Bitcoin for fiat or buying something and pay with Bitcoin, it goes beyond that. Learning how to Securing your Bitcoin has no limitations also.

Most of those topics are merit fishing, they are full of useless advice because the ones that make them are trying to make it look merit-worthy more than actually informative.



This!

Bitcoin is a tool, that's what I love and I always told people to love it!
You use it as you like it, as you wish, you want to trade be my guest, you want to store coins for 10 years nobody is stopping you, you want to send remittance with it just do it, you want to hide money from your wife and pay for some nasty porn, your choice man!
Unfortunately too many forget this and think Bitcoin comes with a user manual, no, use it as you like for your own for your needs, and each individual has different needs and different perspectives on both freedom and security.

Billions are using debit cards and I doubt more than 0.1% know how is information from a piece of plastic is linked to a bank account, but they use it nevertheless and don't care and haven't had a problem with it, you don't need to a be a genius cryptographer to use bitcoin either and most likely you will never need that knowledge. More than that, I think that overcomplicating the whole newbie experience with tons of info is doing more harm than good to general adoption.

I agree with you OP, just like the member above stated, some of those thread are just for merit phishing. But there is a necessity for learning them all as well. It's always said that no knowledge is a waste. If a person has the time to learn, then they should learn according to their capabilities. Learning more about Bitcoin gives the person an essential knowledge that they can also educate other people about. Almost every day there are new members registered in this forum; some also require knowledge, and perhaps someone who has learned a lot about Bitcoin could give them answers to their questions.

Believe it or not, it is just as important to learn and know more about Bitcoin when one has the time to.

As a newbie, it is not possible to know everything about Bitcoin from the beginning, but knowing some information about Bitcoin, Bitcoin usage will help. When a newbie learns a little bit about Bitcoin and researches Bitcoin, he will later learn a huge amount about the science.
@OP, The two things you mentioned are enough for a bitcoin user. If a user knows how to use bitcoins and how to avoid losing bitcoins. There are a lot of details you need to know about trading when it comes to recovering Bitcoin losses. A newbie entering trading with little knowledge of trading will definitely face losses instead of profits. So in this case, if he does not know other things about Bitcoin, he must know about trading.


Although there are many ways to earn bitcoins, trading and holding are generally the most important. Holdings mainly depend on when you enter the market. If you invest in Bitcoin during a high market, you have to wait until the next high market. But in buying you must invest in the market in dumping situation.
Above all, one of the problems that a newbie faces in trading is excessive greed and heavy losses in trading. So if a newbie is going to trade, he has to control his greed and trade.

There is no end to education. As long as man lives on earth, he continues to learn from the earth. Education in books is not only education but you will constantly learn something from the work you will do in real experience. Bitcoin is no exception.

Education about Bitcoin is extremely important.  And I think there is no end to learning about Bitcoin. If you want to become an investor or earn profit by investing in Bitcoin then you must know about this. Because if you invest without knowing the investment information then you can lose your money. First of all learn how to protect your money. Once you know how to protect your money, then you need to know how to use that money to make a profit. Basically every step of Bitcoin requires people to learn.

This is just like my disciplines in programming. You don't really need to learn everything and all those technical stuffs. From the past years of my career in software dev, I've been hearing new terminologies and frameworks in my field that I don't even know. It is still a plus to learn it, but you don't really need to learn it unless the company requires you to do so.

In Bitcoin, I haven't learned the techy stuff since I usually just hold it anyway while taking precaution on how I keep it safe and secured. Don't mind about gatekeepers.