Normies want to become techy person about Technical Bitcoin

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Greetings,

I'm not a techy person and wanted to understand anything about Bitcoin. I know the Bitcoin definition is, how it's work, and other simple understanding. But if someone asked me about lightning network, how to open a channel or somewhat script/code, I have no idea about it. I might know the definition and can follow the tutorial from the guides created by experts in this forum, the thing is I don't completely understood how it can worked and what's the origin/cause of that upgrade/features? Just like 1 + 1 = 2, why the answer is 2, not 3 or 4... why does + is plus, not minus? etc etc.

I saw many people in this sections (Development & Technical Discussion and Bitcoin Technical Support) are very knowledgeful, they can answering any questions comes up while I have no idea where they can know that! I mean, if someone have an issues I would using search engine and type the problem on search engine, then if I see a thread discussing a same problem I'll directly send that's link to the @OP. But those people can answer that based on their understanding, not using an answer from someone! I'm really impressed with that.

Does we need to practice and learn anything about Bitcoin to understand it all? e.g. setting up Bitcoin core, try to open new channel, try to mining yourself etc. I think that's costly enough, Bitcoin core need insane memory and to mine Bitcoin I need to buy mining rigs and many more... that's why I'm looking for the alternative (using electrum and not mine Bitcoin, but buy to hold). It's possible if I can understand those thing without practice and only read from other people experiences?

Thanks for reading.

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[Charles-Tim]

But if someone asked me about lightning network, how to open a channel or somewhat script/code, I have no idea about it.

You can read this about lightning network:

A Beginner's guideline to Bitcoin Lightning Network
The Lightning Network FAQ
Electrum Lightning Network walkthrough
Lightning Network Observer
All Lightning Network Threads In One Place

For ease, you can recommend wallets like Bluewallet if you are introducing someone to how to use lightning network if wallet like Electrum is not easy to understand. But for Electrum, I included a guide in the link above that will be very helpful for you.

I saw many people in this sections (Development & Technical Discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0) and Bitcoin Technical Support (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=4.0)) are very knowledgeful, they can answering any questions comes up while I have no idea where they can know that! I mean, if someone have an issues

This reminds me when I started on this forum, I go online for what I do not know, some experienced members always correcting me, I accept corrections but this does not stop me from reading online contents to gain more understanding. I seek for the books some experienced members on this forum are reading that helped them, some recommended me some books and the correction later reduced. Do not be affraid to post your opinion, if you are corrected especially by experienced members, accept it and you are already learning in the process. Read quality posts more than what you are posting.

But never post what you do not know about, you can ask question(s) on a newly created thread. Research more, request for articles you can read for a particular topic. Post your opinion, you will be corrected or not and you will learn more. It all means you are getting better than before.

Does we need to practice and learn anything about Bitcoin to understand it all? e.g. setting up Bitcoin core, try to open new channel, try to mining yourself etc. I think that's costly enough, Bitcoin core need insane memory and to mine Bitcoin I need to buy mining rigs and many more... that's why I'm looking for the alternative (using electrum and not mine Bitcoin, but buy to hold). It's possible if I can understand those thing without practice and only read from other people experiences?

If you are pratical about something, you will have more knowledge, if you are running a full node on a full client like Bitcoin Core, you will be able to answer question related to Bitcoin Core. I like to be practical, if you use Electrum which is the most reputed light client wallet on this forum, you will be able to answer questions partaining to it. If you read what experienced members are posting, you will also be able to answer some questions asked later.

If you need more information, you can ask.

[Coyster]

Does we need to practice and learn anything about Bitcoin to understand it all? e.g. setting up Bitcoin core, try to open new channel, try to mining yourself etc.

I have always thought about this in relation to Bitcoin, and i have come to understand that indeed "practice does make perfect", even if we look at it from a different point of view, practice is somewhat the best method of learning, that is why most schools are moving from a theoretical aspect of learning to a more practical/pragmatic one.

I mean, it is always better to learn when you are actually trying it out, by extension putting it into practice, you can read about a whole lot of things and formulas, but it definitely feels much better when you actually do it, for example you can go online and read exactly how to drive a car, but until you actually feel the brake with your feet, you prolly can't say you know how to drive even if you can theoretically. I think it is the same with a user who uses a hardware wallet and another who has not seen one before but has read about it, i think 8 out of 10 the former will definitely be more knowledgeable about HW wallets.

Having said that, it is not to say that we can't learn through theory, but we learn better pragmatically.

[pooya87]

~I have no idea where they can know that!

Well, this doesn't happen overnight. For me at least, it's the product of being around and studying Bitcoin for about 8 years since I'm interested in the technology not just the price.

Does we need to practice and learn anything about Bitcoin to understand it all? e.g. setting up Bitcoin core, try to open new channel, try to mining yourself etc.

Ask yourself this: do you know how your computer actually works under the hood?
The answer is that you don't need to, but you need to know how to turn it on and off, connect to internet, what is a browser, etc. It is the same for bitcoin. You don't need to understand it at a technical level and you don't need to learn everything. For example you may never want to run a full node or use lightning network so there is no need to ever learn about them. But you need to learn what a wallet is, how to create one safely, send transactions, what are fees and how they are calculated, and stuff like that which help you use bitcoin.

But if you want to learn more, don't overwhelm yourself. Start slowly and from the basics. For example you can start by reading Mastering Bitcoin book by Andreas Antonopoulos then move on to more advanced understanding of the technology.

[ABCbits]

Does we need to practice and learn anything about Bitcoin to understand it all?

You only need to learn the basic (which you already do) to be able to use Bitcoin.

e.g. setting up Bitcoin core, try to open new channel, try to mining yourself etc. I think that's costly enough, Bitcoin core need insane memory and to mine Bitcoin I need to buy mining rigs and many more... that's why I'm looking for the alternative (using electrum and not mine Bitcoin, but buy to hold). It's possible if I can understand those thing without practice and only read from other people experiences?

If you want to try using Bitcoin Core at lower cost, consider using Bitcoin Testnet instead which have lower blocksize.

But if you want to learn more, don't overwhelm yourself. Start slowly and from the basics. For example you can start by reading Mastering Bitcoin book by Andreas Antonopoulos then move on to more advanced understanding of the technology.

Jameson Lopp also have nice list of technical resource at https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/technical-resources.html if you don't know where to continue after reading Andreas book.

[hatshepsut93]

You can develop just enough understanding of how Bitcoin works for most purposes by reading a decent book and a few articles or discussions. You don't need to mine to understand how mining works, in fact I won't be surprised if many miners don't know all the details, because they just turn on their machines, do some configuring from a guide and then just maintain their operation. You also don't need to know all the details of the LN protocol to open a channel and start making LN transactions.

But to understand Bitcoin you need a very basic understanding of modern cryptography. The properties and purpose of hash functions, public key cryptography, symmetric cryptography, measuring bits of security and so on. This can even save you from some newbie mistakes like creating your own unsecure brainwallets.

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If you need more information, you can ask.

Oh well it's really heart warming to read your post and how you act to low rank member, thank you. Of course I'll create another new thread with specific discussion that make me confused or not understand it properly.

Well, this doesn't happen overnight. For me at least, it's the product of being around and studying Bitcoin for about 8 years since I'm interested in the technology not just the price.

-snip-
But if you want to learn more, don't overwhelm yourself. Start slowly and from the basics. For example you can start by reading Mastering Bitcoin book by Andreas Antonopoulos then move on to more advanced understanding of the technology.

8 years is really a long journey and you must be one of the early adopter.
Yep, I've read his book since many people often mentioned his name in many thread and I also watch his Youtube, for me it's easier to understand.

Jameson Lopp also have nice list of technical resource at https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/technical-resources.html if you don't know where to continue after reading Andreas book.

That's indeed a good list, thank you

But to understand Bitcoin you need a very basic understanding of modern cryptography. The properties and purpose of hash functions, public key cryptography, symmetric cryptography, measuring bits of security and so on. This can even save you from some newbie mistakes like creating your own unsecure brainwallets.

You're true!
I know Bitcoin is secured with cryptography but I don't know anything about you mentioned above lol, I only know it's encrypt and decrypt with a key, well seems I need to understand it first before jump to the technical thing. Thanks anyway.

[hatshepsut93]

But to understand Bitcoin you need a very basic understanding of modern cryptography. The properties and purpose of hash functions, public key cryptography, symmetric cryptography, measuring bits of security and so on. This can even save you from some newbie mistakes like creating your own unsecure brainwallets.

You're true!
I know Bitcoin is secured with cryptography but I don't know anything about you mentioned above lol, I only know it's encrypt and decrypt with a key, well seems I need to understand it first before jump to the technical thing. Thanks anyway.

I can recommend cryptography videos from the Computerphile Youtube channel:

SHA: Secure Hashing Algorithm

What are Digital Signatures?

Also a book Cryptography: An Introduction by Nigel Smart - free PDF

And if you're familiar with any programming language, you can also download any cryptography library for it and have some practice with cryptographic functions.