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Mastering Bitcoin
- bsirkia 13y agoI've never read an O'Reilly book but have obviously heard of them, are they generally effective at communicating more than general principles? If I regularly read blog posts and essays written about Bitcoin, would this book be worthwhile? If not, what audience is this book targeting?
- waterlesscloud 13y agoI'm generally happy with the O'Reilly books I've bought. What they cover depends on the book. Some, particularly some of the language or OS books, are reference-oriented. Not the kind of thing you'd necessarily read straight through. Some, the "intro" books, are just what that sounds like. Enough material to get started. I don't know if I have any O'Reilly books I'd consider "deep", exactly, but I don't think they really aim at that. In general, my experience is the books are what the titles say they are.
- bsirkia 13y agoRight (and thanks for the response), so I would expect "Mastering Bitcoin" to go in to great detail...
- Zigurd 13y agoHere is your decoder ring for O'Reilly "Animal" titles: "Learning..." For beginners "Programming" For intermediate-level "Mastering" For advanced-level books The "animal" books have the line-art drawings of animals on them. O'Reilly has other series, including books on general audience topics. There might be other key words indicating the level of the book if it isn't a programming book, but that's the nomenclature behind Programming Android I would expect this book to go deep on bitcoin.
- msvan 13y agoTable of contents, possibly out of date but should give you a general idea of what's in it: http://pastebin.com/w9isSyer http://pastebin.com/w9isSyer.
- mriou 13y agoI'm really glad Andreas is writing this book, should be a great way for more developers to get involved. Crypto-currencies are unfortunately still a little too arcane and books like these help maturation.
- sillysaurus3 13y agoIf you're interested in learning more about the technical operation of bitcoin, or if you're building the next great bitcoin killerapp or business, you will find this book essential reading. From the basic use of a bitcoin wallet to buy a cup of coffee, to running a bitcoin marketplace with hundreds of thousands of transactions, or collaboratively building new financial innovations that will transform our understanding of currency and credit, this book will help you engineer money. You're about to unlock the API to a new economy. This book is your key. I hope this book has a very thorough section on securing your app, because that's probably the biggest problem that you'll face.
- Adlai 13y agoAndreas is the CSO of Blockchain.info, a site which takes client security seriously enough that they never touch their client's private keys, rather than "handing out IOUs to their users"; maybe we'll see a rise in adoption of this approach.
- olalonde 13y agoBlockchain is just a wallet though. Many use cases (e.g. exchanges) require a trusted third party to be in control of the coins. I agree that there is no reason to hold coins if your use case doesn't absolutely require it.
- maaku 13y agoThey've had some pretty horrible mistakes with respect to security though (before Andreas' time though, so no reflection on him), and the basic model of a web wallet is inherently broken...
- ericb 13y agoI went to order. Does $7.50 for the lowest shipping option seem high? Am I just sheltered living in the world of free shipping?
- STRiDEX 13y agoA little of both. I don't see it available on amazon yet.
- boredinballard 13y agoThat does sound a bit high, they should have media mail from USPS as an option, it's pretty much the cheapest way to ship books. Shipping 1lb is about $3, and material should be at max $1. They should easily be able to ship a book for around $4. Media Mail is pretty freaking slow though.
- mwilcox 13y ago$7.50? Try living in New Zealand where the only option is $49.50 shipping: http://i.imgur.com/PR6V6SN.png http://i.imgur.com/PR6V6SN.png
- ninguem2 13y agoYou are probably better off with the ebook. They are DRM free so you can print it if you like.
- Zigurd 13y agoIt's a pre-order and scheduled for August. Sometimes <cough>massively and all the time</cough> book schedules slip. When Amazon lists it it is probably in editing.
- joeblau 13y agoAre there any Bitcoin for dummies books?
- victormx 13y agoGreat, I thought that there would not be a good option but seeing the content and author it's a must have
- userbinator 13y agoIt would be great if they started accepting Bitcoin to buy this book.
- clarkm 13y agoHere's a 40% off discount code: WCYAZ It brings the price down from $29.99 to $17.99, but also takes away free shipping so YMMV. And if you're interested in some more details about the book, here an outline that was posted a while ago: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KKV_VEmGPsPr74rFhhpqmdkFPuLRh6tSEQvsXdOcoZA https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KKV_VEmGPsPr74rFhhpqmdkF...
- tlrobinson 13y agoAndreas is the man. One of the best voices in the Bitcoin community. Looking forward to this.
- kordless 13y agoI have another good title for the second in the series: "Biting Mastercoin"
- pearjuice 13y agoAh, a friendly reminder than in a gold rush it is best to sell shovels.
- FatalLogic 13y agoOr, a reminder that if you want change, you have to educate. Actually, in a gold rush, the very best thing for most individuals is to be among the first to start digging. Profits from shovel selling (and book publishing) are marginal.
- droope 13y agohttp://www.leighdrogen.com/selling-shovels-in-a-gold-rush/ http://www.leighdrogen.com/selling-shovels-in-a-gold-rush/
- sarreph 13y agoI'm waiting for Mastering Dogecoin.
- hmsimha 13y agoYou'd think there would be a bitcoin pay option, but I guess they don't have the option since it's published through o'reilly
- jabits 13y agoMastering Dollars...why not?
- thomasjames 13y agoThis is an irrelevant comment, but I miss the classic O'Reilly font.
- nroose 13y agoI find it hard to tell what will happen with Bitcoin tomorrow, much less in 5 months... I am under the impression that there's a decent chance that by August, the Bitcoin story will be a great story to write a novel about. I guess there is also the chance that it will evolve and achieve some level of legitimacy. But for that to happen, a lot needs to happen between now and then, and I find it hard to believe that a book announced now will include that part of the story. I used O'Reilly books extensively 10-25 years ago, but I have found them (and pretty much all other printed technical books) out of date too quickly in the last 5-10 years for them to be useful for technical stuff, and Bitcoin is evolving faster than even most things in the tech world.
- sandGorgon 13y agowhy is the ebook is not available for pre-order ? seems strange
- enko 13y ago> Ships via DHL International Express ($49.50) Uh, no thanks. And there's no cheaper option. Is it possible to get early access to the ebook?