Bitcoin Forum

My article for O'Reilly's Radar blog:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/05/bitcoin-is-a-money-platform-with-many-apis.html

O'Reilly is researching the possibility of a technical book on bitcoin. This blog entry is intended to gauge interest in the topic.

Please read, comment and distribute!

Feedback and comments are very welcome - please help me improve my content. I will be doing additional blog entries for O'Reilly and other publications.

great article, Andreas.

That was an excellent article! I sure hope it gains legs.

I also think this is a great article as it highlights where the longer-term value in this ecosystem will be created..... i.e. the value of Bitcoin is not (just) in the value of the coins themselves but in the new innovation that could be unleashed through the idea of "programmable money".  

I would love to see a book along the lines you outline in the article - and would suggest some additional comments/areas for discussion

* You do a good job of arguing that there are several Bitcoin APIs but my sense as a relative newcomer is that, in reality, the APIs are a current weakspot. e.g. you only have to read the bitcointalk threads related to the v0.7/v0.8 fork and bitsofproof to see that the core protocol is 1) extremely complex and 2) poorly understood.   An O'Reilly book that gave people the idea they could/should work directly at the protocol level would be dangerous.  

* Similarly, whilst the scripting language is relatively straightforward, the way it works is nontrivial (e.g. the worked examples on the Bitcoin wiki really take some effort to comprehend).  If I were buying an O'Reilly book about "programming Bitcoin", I'd expect to see advice/recommendations on how to get started with scripting - e.g. how to set up a safe test environment, etc, etc.

* So perhaps a decent portion of the book should be focussed on various higher-level APIs?  e.g. you mention the JSON-RPC example - but I guess bitsofproof, bitcoinj and other implementations do too - I'd definitely be interested in a book that compared/contrasted them and helped me get started.

very good article!

Will

AA,
I'm not sure if you get much feedback but I really enjoy your insightful and enthusiastic commentary on Let's Talk BTC!.
Thanks for being one of the best Bitcoin analysts/spokespeople out there!

Be sure to listen in next week as we have some great content coming out!

Thank you for your kind words - I appreciate the support and the feedback. Let's Talk Bitcoin is a great way to discuss a topic and get feedback from the other hosts, contributors and after a week all the listener email. All the great ideas are not mine. I just put narrative and catch phrases around them ;-)

Seconded!  Given the evidence of AA's activities/projects over the past few months, I'd put him on the shortlist of Bitcoin's best representatives/evangelists.

wow, that was one awesome article! Some of the things it talks about I didnt even know existed within bitcoin.. very awesome!

Good job!

Great article, this aspect of bitcoin is often overlooked.

Saw your excellent interview with Bob English on RT the other day. Tried to post the link here but it wasn't up yet.. anyway great job.

edit: Here it is for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1byaarDhj8&list=UUFdbeeLmpiK0Bgf4hCrPfWw&index=1

Interview starts at 15:15.

great。。。。

Excellent article, I wish other online journalists were able to follow your example of precise and clear descriptions of bitcoin's inner workings.

I look forward to seeing your future contributions in this space.