4 ms·

Princeton Bitcoin textbook is now freely available

247 points by t3hSpork 11y ago

roymurdock 11y ago
Here's the link to the actual PDF: https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/princeton_bitcoin_book.pdf?a=1 https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/p...
mgraczyk 11y ago
I read this book when I took CS251 last fall. It is an accessible, mostly nontechnical overview of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. For those interested in reading the book and learning more about cryptocurrencies, I recommend going through the CS251 reading list which includes this book. https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html
kang 11y ago
I found the book(& course notes) to be interesting but non-technical & little verbose. For those wanting to read technical subject matter I'd recommend the bitcoin developer reference & bitcoin developer guide at bitcoin.org
- bjornsing 11y ago
  Why not Satoshi's original paper [1]? 1. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
  - olalonde 11y ago
    That's a good place to start but it's also light on technical details and Bitcoin has evolved a bit since then.
asafira 11y ago
Michael Nielsen has a nice intro the protocol, for those looking for another source: http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/ http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-a... (he has other articles I would recommend taking a look at, too --- check them out if you're interested! )
- roymurdock 11y ago
  This is the resource I recommend to all of my friends as well. Great walkthrough.
jbpetersen 11y ago
Despite being a little outdated and justifiably overly focused on the computer-science aspects, this is a huge improvement in bringing academia up to speed on cryptoeconomics.
sandworm101 11y ago
>> Princeton University Press is publishing the official, polished, and professionally done version of this book. It will be out in summer 2016. Is this really freely available? I'd much rather see Princeton release this book to the public domain.
- pmorici 11y ago
  You can download the draft as PDF right from their site.
  - sandworm101 11y ago
    Yes, but that isn't free imho. Can I host a copy on my own website? Can I include the book as part of a course taught at my school? Can I integrate chapters of the book into another book that I may be writing? Making a copy available for reading isn't the same as making it free.
    - lololomg 11y ago
      Some people are just never happy about anything
    - logicallee 11y ago
      That's not really free though, is it? Because I can't really just start hosting it, claiming to be its author, and have people believe me. (White-labelling). For that to happen, the original authors have to stay anonymous, it has to have much less branding included. So it's not really all that free in my opinion, even with your additions. /s
      - logicallee 11y ago
        in other words: your standards are too high. It's free because you don't have to pay for it.
- rwallace 11y ago
  While I think the notion of intellectual property is a mistake, when someone offers us a half-full glass of lemonade, to respond with a complaint that the glass is half empty is extremely poor form.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
iamcreasy 11y ago
One of the author of this book already had a MOOC about Bitcoin on Coursera. Link : https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech
esseti 11y ago
epub or any ebook ready format?
nissimk 11y ago
Since nobody has mentioned it yet, Andreas Antonopoulos' book, "Mastering Bitcoin," is quite good. You can build the ePub from source: https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook Or get it from oreilly: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do

247 points by t3hSpork 11y ago

Here's the link to the actual PDF: https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/princeton_bitcoin_book.pdf?a=1 https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/p...

mgraczyk 11y ago

I read this book when I took CS251 last fall. It is an accessible, mostly nontechnical overview of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. For those interested in reading the book and learning more about cryptocurrencies, I recommend going through the CS251 reading list which includes this book. https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html

kang 11y ago

I found the book(& course notes) to be interesting but non-technical & little verbose. For those wanting to read technical subject matter I'd recommend the bitcoin developer reference & bitcoin developer guide at bitcoin.org

bjornsing 11y ago
Why not Satoshi's original paper [1]? 1. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- olalonde 11y ago
  That's a good place to start but it's also light on technical details and Bitcoin has evolved a bit since then.

asafira 11y ago

Michael Nielsen has a nice intro the protocol, for those looking for another source: http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/ http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-a... (he has other articles I would recommend taking a look at, too --- check them out if you're interested! )

roymurdock 11y ago
This is the resource I recommend to all of my friends as well. Great walkthrough.

jbpetersen 11y ago

Despite being a little outdated and justifiably overly focused on the computer-science aspects, this is a huge improvement in bringing academia up to speed on cryptoeconomics.

sandworm101 11y ago

>> Princeton University Press is publishing the official, polished, and professionally done version of this book. It will be out in summer 2016. Is this really freely available? I'd much rather see Princeton release this book to the public domain.

pmorici 11y ago
You can download the draft as PDF right from their site.
- sandworm101 11y ago
  Yes, but that isn't free imho. Can I host a copy on my own website? Can I include the book as part of a course taught at my school? Can I integrate chapters of the book into another book that I may be writing? Making a copy available for reading isn't the same as making it free.
  - lololomg 11y ago
    Some people are just never happy about anything
  - logicallee 11y ago
    That's not really free though, is it? Because I can't really just start hosting it, claiming to be its author, and have people believe me. (White-labelling). For that to happen, the original authors have to stay anonymous, it has to have much less branding included. So it's not really all that free in my opinion, even with your additions. /s
    - logicallee 11y ago
      in other words: your standards are too high. It's free because you don't have to pay for it.
rwallace 11y ago
While I think the notion of intellectual property is a mistake, when someone offers us a half-full glass of lemonade, to respond with a complaint that the glass is half empty is extremely poor form.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

iamcreasy 11y ago

One of the author of this book already had a MOOC about Bitcoin on Coursera. Link : https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech

esseti 11y ago

epub or any ebook ready format?

nissimk 11y ago

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, Andreas Antonopoulos' book, "Mastering Bitcoin," is quite good. You can build the ePub from source: https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook Or get it from oreilly: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do