I'm planning to write a book about Bitcoin, any ideas?

[zhoutong]

(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

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.

[fivebells]

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.

[zhoutong]

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?

[fivebells]

Oh, sounds similar what I was suggesting, yeah.

[GimmeDemBitz]

Part III: The Ideal
Libertarianism, Capitalism and Anarchism:  Everybody Wants to be a Chief, Nobody Wants to be an Indian.

[deslok]

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/

[beckspace]

Part III: The Ideal
Libertarianism, Capitalism and Anarchism

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.

[zhoutong]

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/

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.

[deslok]

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/

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?

[zhoutong]

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/

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:

Writing books takes a long time. Our readers used to ask us whether it’s possible to get access to the material in a new book before it has been published—a sort of “beta test” form of the book, if you will. And so the Beta Book program was born. First, the drawbacks:

Before a book gets to the final, ready-to-publish state, it normally looks quite rough. It will have hundreds of typos and grammatical errors. It’s likely to have technical errors that would normally get corrected in a final read-through by reviewers. And it’ll certainly look fairly ugly—we don’t do any layout work until just prior to sending a book to the printer, so there will be widows, orphans, text split across page turns and so on.

The level of completeness of a beta varies by title and by the timing of your purchase. If you buy a beta book closer to the estimated completion date, you will be getting a more complete book. If you buy a beta when it is first released, then it is closer to the 50% complete mark.

Despite these challenges, we think the idea of giving you early access to the latest, cutting-edge, great material is important. It helps you out, and it helps us and the author as we get feedback.

http://pragprog.com/frequently-asked-questions/beta-books

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

[iamzill]

Fiat vs Crypto (Centralized vs Decentralized)

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

Libertarianism, Capitalism and Anarchism

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

[k9quaint]

Add pictures of beautiful women in various stages of undress.

[iamzill]

Fiat vs Crypto (Centralized vs Decentralized)

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

The very fact that they are not mutually exclusive is a good reason to compare them. Things that are mutually exclusive cannot compete with each other, so if they were mutually exclusive, there would be no reason to pit them against each other.

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

Libertarianism, Capitalism and Anarchism

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

For starters consider the message in the genesis block.

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.

[Elwar]

Add pictures of beautiful women in various stages of undress.

+1

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

[cbeast]

Add pictures of beautiful women in various stages of undress.

+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.

[buttcoin1]

Add pictures of beautiful women in various stages of undress.

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

[Maria]

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

Maria.

[Bitcoin Swami]

You wrote a whole book in 1 day? 

[BubbleBoy]

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 ?

[fivebells]

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

  What is your contribution?