Bitcoin Forum

(If you don't know me: I'm the creator of Bitcoinica.)

Edit: You can also answer at http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1232/im-planning-to-write-a-book-about-bitcoin-any-ideas (http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1232/im-planning-to-write-a-book-about-bitcoin-any-ideas)

Today I did a simple search on Amazon.com, didn't find any books about Bitcoin. So I decided to write my first book for Bitcoin, for newbies and Bitcoin lovers.

I'm personally highly interested in Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Computer Science (Cryptography) and Finance - almost everything about Bitcoin. (Bitcoin is a gift for me.) Therefore, I think I should be able to cover Bitcoin in different aspects, contexts and perspectives.

Planned to cover:

Part I: Theory (basics)
Cryptography
Open source
P2P and the Internet
Free market
Fiat vs Crypto (Centralized vs Decentralized)

Part II: Applications
The Bitcoin client
Mining
Exchange and Trading
Goods and Services
Deviations (such as alternate block-chains or Bitcoins in other formats)

Part III: The Ideal
Libertarianism, Capitalism and Anarchism
Bitcoin as a currency
Challenges and solutions (security, deflation, government shutdown, etc)


That's it. I'm going to write in simple English after thorough research. (I don't know *everything* about Bitcoin yet.) I hope this book will be helpful for Bitcoin lovers and potential Bitcoin lovers too.

Any ideas about the content, publishing, format, book name, preface writer, appendices or anything else?

Suggestions are welcomed.

Just some suggestions on structure.  In order to reach a broad audience, you'll want to give a very high-level overview of how bitcoin looks to an unsophisticated end-user, then cover the politics, economics and ideology, then the applications, and last the crypto and other protocol details for reference.  Putting the theory first will drive most potential readers away.

Hmmm... My thinking is a bit different. Tell me if I'm wrong.

The theory part *is* the high-level overview. It's like the introduction of cryptography for a complete newbie. I'm not even going to write about the technical details because they can be found on the Bitcoin Wiki, or simply everywhere on the Internet.

I love explaining things in examples, so perhaps the Part I will be full of examples to help the reader understand how Bitcoin (the project, the software, the market) works.

Is this what you expect to read about?

Oh, sounds similar what I was suggesting, yeah.

When you write it get the community to review sections of it, you don't have to take all of our advice but it's worth considering. If it's well enough written the community(vendors espically) may be willing to sponsor a print run here or somewhere similar http://www.ubuildabook.com/

Hey, why don't you take a look at Autarchy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autarchism

Anarchism carries a load (1870 - Viena). I consider Autarchism an evolution. Anarchism scare people off.

If I have finished the book, I will release beta version for sale. Beta version includes the ebook and final paperback. There're two benefits:

1. Beta version can help me make changes or improve content.
2. Beta sales can collect funds for printing.

The prices for beta books and final books will be the same. So perhaps those who want to read the ebook can get them earlier, and maybe give the paperback books to their friends as gifts when they arrive.

Even microsoft can't sell a beta of their os, why would someone pay to find errors in and make suggestions for your book?

I'm not sure if I will have the caliber. But beta book works very well:


Microsoft can sell beta OS for the same price if that includes the final version. It's just that they're not doing that.

Fiat and bitcoin are not mutually exclusive so I don't think it's logically sounds to pit them against each other.

I'm sorry, what does this have to do with Bitcoin at all?

Add pictures of beautiful women in various stages of undress.

Good point. My concern is that "if bitcoin becomes fiat in the future your readers will have no idea what you are talking about".

I haven't read the message yet. Is the message some sort of initiation ritual that every bitcoiner must undergo? I have to confess that I engaged in multiple Bitcoin transactions without undergoing the ritual.

I'm a libertarian myself, so is a large portion of this forum, but bitcoin itself possesses no political ideology. It's just a bunch of code, and a few terabytes of data spread across thousands of computers. It's easy to convert someone into bitcoining, because once you give them the source code they can convince themselves it's free of bugs and malicious intent. It's very difficult to convert a statist into Libertarianism because they lived their entire life under the protection of the State. That's why I don't think people should mix political messages into a treatise about Bitcoin, because it will undoubtedly hinder Bitcoin's growth.

+1

Also, have a story about flying elves. That would make it pretty interesting.

Don't forget that bitcoins are made from unicorn horns by leprechauns. The bitcoin network is a system of tubes run by squirrels in cages drinking beer and watching synchronized swimming.

+1 No words at all, just on the cover.

Do not forget to thank me and satoshi in the credits.

Maria.

You wrote a whole book in 1 day?  ???

Judging by your posting history, it will be 300 pages of Bitcoinica plugs ? I haven't seen any insightful posts from you on the topic of Bitcoin, so I really have to ask what do you think qualifies you to explain the concept to others ?

  What is your contribution?

"She"'s one of the best scammers, so one of the only ones making money from BTC.

Why do I must qualify something to contribute? I don't have the habit to post on forums. Posting about Bitcoinica is because that's the only way I can keep connected to my clients.

I prefer writing a book and let people calm down and enjoy. I don't want to argue with trolls just to gain the qualification.

I'm not asking you for anything, why do I need qualification?

Before I launched Bitcoinica, I was not qualified to build a trading platform that the big guys can't deliver in months?

I

If you're going to write a book sentences like that can't happen, I'm not saying you're not qualified, the only way you get qualified is by doing things, but if you're going to write a book about bitcoin the book is either going to be a failure or a book by you AND the bitcoin community, betabooks is going to keep you from getting off the ground 20 dollars to help write a book and be uncredited? let me say... no. You need input from other buisness ventures on the forums and otherwise, developers who've written the client(s) people who've made custom mining hardware people trying to get the word out and judging by the way you're starting off i don't think you're going to get very much of it.

By all means you are free to contribute all you want, and you don't have to prove anything to me or the community. A good book is a proof in itself.
However you must realize you do need to be qualified in the subject at hand before you can expect to produce a good book. You can't make it up as you go along. Otherwise it's an exercise in futility, time better spent fixing the consistency problems of your database before you suffer the fate of bitomat.pl and the like. Take it as a friendly advice - you achieved much more than the average troll on these forums, better consolidate your position and do one thing right, than diversify into a myriad of flaky activities.

Idiot. IQ must be around 65.

Maria.

Heh.  Very convincing comeback!

Thank you. I just want to find a comfortable way to contribute. I will definitely publish chapters of chapters of work on this forum and enable discussion, and take the points of other commenters can credit them accordingly. It's just that I don't have the time and space to consolidate what I know about Bitcoin. (I do chat with many members in this forum on Skype, about the market, economics, political implications and even philosophy, so don't worry, I'm not that kind of person who doesn't know anything but wants to do everything.)

I choose to write a book because I can't concentrate on coding all the time (it's highly stressful). Doing something else can help me relax a bit, and reduce probability of making mistakes in my code as well.

I won't be the only author, I guess. At least I have a friend to help me proofread. (He's quite established in the forum.)

That said, big things at Bitcoinica will come along. Thank you for your suggestion!

can you pls talk bout ppl's IQ in another thread, you obviously made a joke and no one got it


@zhoutong good ideea with the book but do read all you can about the btc protocol and all related parts not to make the same mistakes that news and blog writers do too often, i think this is the community biggest fear. Like a poster before me said it's better to have your book structured from "outside to inside" to get get an uneducated person's attention without boring him with details right from the start.

I would love to review as you write, and if you decide to follow some community suggestions I think it would be an unique experience for us and an honor to collaborate in such a new manner. Looking at it this way, I think you're doing history here, it was never done, have the public help the writer, write a book for them :) . Wish you luck with the project.

You're right. Bitcoin is an open community that accepts new ideas.

However, every needs a start. The difficulty of "joining the conversation" is keeping many newbies out of the real Bitcoin community.

I want a revolutionary way that helps them to understand the basics about Bitcoin *all at once*, instead of keeping ask questions that no one wish to answer. I'm helping them to find answers themselves. That's why it's a book, not a blog or forum post.

I will credit those who help, but the nature of my work doesn't require much of collaboration within the community. Because they are going to find their own answers anyway. I don't have to teach them how to build a mining rig or Bitcoin exchange, I just have to let them understand why Bitcoin is an idea worth spreading, and how Bitcoin works to solve some of our banking problems - these are personal understanding and general knowledge, not necessarily experience of many other people.

I'm not qualified professionally I admit, but I do have a wide scope of understanding - I think the community needs someone who knows Bitcoin fairly well in different perspectives (philosophical, economic, financial, cryptographic and political) to give the project a start. There may be experts around, but most likely they are not that newbie-friendly. Potential Bitcoiners are curious, but unfortunately some of our forum members are destroying their curiosity - we need to know what they want to know, before they lose their interest.

This book project should more practically a personal project. We have Bitcoin Wiki that every can contribute, but again, it's not that newbie-friendly. That's why I'm asking for ideas and feedback, not actual contribution on the content. I will do thorough research before claiming anything in the book, and I will publish some content (especially more controversial parts) on the Internet to generate comments and debates - and I will credit anyone who has ever helped.

Thank you for your feedback!

Thank you!

Yes, I'm an Economics student, and I'm also a Rails developer, a trading enthusiast and a Libertarian Anarchist. I'm never like a journalist. I worry more about the boredom when I talk about too many things rather than the lack of scope of understanding.

If I finally decide to start the first page, I will start the Beta Book program after I have completed at least 50%. (Copyright license hasn't been decided yet, but it may be proprietary if the publisher requires so.) I'm not sure about the price, but I'm thinking about 5-8 BTC for the beta book which will include the final paperback edition. (Reviewers get the same price, but can access to the content earlier.) The price will only be used to offset the cost of publishing and some of my personal expenditures related to writing the book. If there's excess, I will gather ideas from everyone about what to do with them.

One worry is about the publishing. In order to reach out to more people, a publisher may be required (like Wiley). But I'm not sure about the the details.

Anyway, I'm completely open to the idea of open sourcing the book and making it freely available if publishing is an issue.

Might want to expand your definition of what fiat is

Would a simpler approach be like how Doyle Brunson structured his How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker book? Each chapter was written by an expert of their best poker game--stud, holdem, omaha, etc.

Here's my suggestion: don't do it!

Here's my suggestion: Just Do It!

http://marvinlee.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/screw_it_lets_do_it.jpg

Why not make it an open source book?

Finalize the outline and publish it on github, and let members of the community send you pull requests as additions and/or revisions. Knowledgeable Bitcoiners can comment and vote on pull requests to the master branch. Not only would this satisfy the peer review requirement you have (beta book) but it would be a cool endeavor to publish a true "peer to peer" and open-source book about a peer to peer and open-source software project.

It would also be an abstraction of version control systems that you could enjoy as a programmer. :)

That's a good idea, but as I said, we have Wiki, but it doesn't help much in terms of content quality.

Reading a book should be an enjoyable process, so appreciating the author's writing style is quite important. The reason why I won't release the book before 50% progress is that the foundation must be good enough, with careful content design.

The best stuff (books or software) is almost always proprietary. Most open source projects are not newbie-friendly either.

I don't think we need initiators for.different kinds of projects that much, instead, we need people like Satoshi who can do a big thing on their own elegantly.

zhoutong, just to let you know I am currently working on a Bitcoin book that I will also be publishing as an ebook soon.

This shouldn't stop you from writing your own book as our books will definitely be different. There are a half-dozen books on Starbucks, for example. Each of them is unique.

From your outline, it looks like you are focusing on the technical and philosophical aspects of Bitcoin. I focus more on the business aspects. The more information out there on Bitcoin the better.

Good luck.

Do you have an outline you could share with us, Alex?

Thank you for letting me know. I knew that someone else could be doing the similar things.

I'm not exactly focusing on technical and philosophical aspects, basically the purpose of the book is to introduce Bitcoin to newbies, and present the revolutionary currency to them in an interesting way. If you want to target existing Bitcoin users, business will be a great way to go - Bitcoin needs more entrepreneurs. Either way is perfectly fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx16a72j__8&feature=player_embedded

pyramid of wealth, bubbles, move along nothing to see here :P

Let's not forget the dummy series:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6187677458_2901d4d63c.jpg

I'd wait a few months to see if bitcoin falls more or stays as it is or increases... unless there's some new demand for it, I expect it will continue to fall.

Here's where I'm currently at. Things might move around.

Part I:
1. Introduction
2. How Bitcoin Works
3. Why Use Bitcoin
4. What is Money
5. Peer-to-Peer Technologies

Part II:
6. Satoshi Nakamoto & the Cypherpunks
7. Bitcoin's Competition
8. New Technology, Old Companies
9. Inflation, Deflation, and Stability
10. The Future

The first half generally deals with the basics needed to fully appreciate Bitcoin. It's geared towards people who have heard of Bitcoin but don't know very much about it. The second half contains more original research and analysis. My general goal is to relate Bitcoin to things people already understand.

I will probably publish them separately as ebooks and together in a paperback later on.


I guess by "business" I mean that I look at Bitcoin from the perspective of a business person rather than a computer programmer (i have no programming background). We both have the same goal of introducing Bitcoin to newbies, just in different ways.

Part III:  What Do I Do With This Bag I've Been Left Holding?

zhoutong. I like really what you are doing. At your age, that's really awesome. However, I don't think that you have enough credibility to write a book. You might be quite brilliant and the most knowledgeable expert in the field, but promoting a book requires more than that.

What I see is that you are trying to write a book for a non-specific parts of readers. They are not noobs, they are not casual people. They are like us, and I'm one of those interested to read this book just like reading this forum.

I would suggest that you make a blog instead. I have that need for writing. I want  to write. I participate in forums. You can participate in forums too or write a blog. I think a book should be dedicated for something. Like learning Forex or commodities trading. This has something specific and with value.

Write a blog. I'm sure you'll make more attracting your blog readers to your Bitcoinica service rather than taking on a new venture and starting from scratch with it.

Just my 0.02BTC

No you can't, that question is closed since it's not really appropriate for the StackExchange site. Glad to see you're getting the feedback you were looking for elsewhere though :)

Thanks.