Bitcoin Forum

I don't know if this sub forum is the right place to ask this or not but here it goes, i want to get started in bitcoin/altcoin development, know about how the system works instead of just using it and get to know how transactions work, how miners, wallets and coins are developed. A little information about my background, i have been C++ college courses for a year, data structures, object oriented concepts and the rest. i have also been web developing using node among others for a year, i tried checking out github repos of coins like bitcoin and ethereum but it's a little to big and i don't know where to start. I know you have to start somewhere so if you've been in my shoes a few years ago, how did you get better at it? how did you start? thanks.

Read the Bitcoin whitepaper first: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
That will give you a full understanding of how Bitcoin, the Blockchain and mostly everything related work.

Start prying with the source code afterwards, view it, fork it, whatever you want. Try to understand piece-by-piece.

I've read the whitepaper a couple of times, and watched some youtube videos too. i have a good understanding of how the blockchain works in general but not the code, once i start reading the source code i get confused, there's too many files on the github repo of bitcoin that i honestly can't even figure out where it starts.

Here you go:
https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-guide
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook

In my own experience i started my bitcoin using coins. ph it is a bitcoin wallet in where you can store your bitcoins. And by this wallet you can also receive benefits just like having a 50 pesos in philippine peso for every friend that you can invite and will use the coins. ph you can also receive benefits for every transaction that you will do using bitcoin

analyse existing code that isn't already over-developed / production-ready. do not fork some existing coins. you will never understand the important basics in programming them if you just try to crawl through 10000 lines of code and hundreds of files.

start here: https://medium.com/@lhartikk/a-blockchain-in-200-lines-of-code-963cc1cc0e54
and than try to understand this: https://hackernoon.com/a-cryptocurrency-implementation-in-less-than-1500-lines-of-code-d3812bedb25c

As you already know C++. It will be good as Bitcoin Core is written in C++. You should now focus on C++ with OpenCL / Cuda for GPU programming for specifically programming with crypto technology. Also, there is a book called Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos. It is a good book to be started with Bitcoin technology.

First of all, you should use the search function of the forum - only recently there was a VERY similar thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1943736.0).

The Bitcoin whitepaper and the two resources xdeltax posted are already a good start. Then I would read the technical documentation of the Bitcoin protocol, as that's what is important - not a single implementation like Bitcoin Core or, let's say, Electrum.

I would recommend, too, "Bitcoins the hard way (http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bitcoin.html)", to know how transactions and other basic Bitcoin mechanisms work and be able to write simple scripts that access the Bitcoin network and do useful things - without any client.

I would recommend a basic knowledge of C++, and to play with Litecoin source code. If you have compiled programs in Linux, you're on the right path.

who here wants to just team up and create or fork a altcoin???? i don't know coding but i know i could handle the marketing part

Here. I can clone any coin  ;D

Back in 2013, I started cloning BTC/LTC code and starting my own coins, then creating an MPOS pool and start mining and watch it work away.

I'm no coder, nor am I wanting to start my own currency, I just wanted to understand how it all worked and this sort of thing was invaluable to me.

Many a sleepless night trying to get this working  ;D

Anyway, good luck.

I also have the same concern about this Bitcoin and it's development. How it is working and what is the business is this. Is bitcoin developed to help people only or somebody is earning by developing this. How the wallet are working? Is that possible we can run a wallet business?

The developer guide is always a good place to start, better than the white paper if you ask me. Everything about the blockchain like the hashing, proof of work and all the other stuff is explained well enough for a non-coder to understand.