Grokking Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a fascinating subject and I've read many books on the topic - Internet of Money Vol. 1 + 2, The Bitcoin Standard, Mastering Bitcoin, Programming Bitcoin. If you're looking for an up-to-date introduction into the technical workings of Bitcoin, look no further, this book is for you.It's best to look at this book as the spiritual successor to Andreas Antonopoulos's "Mastering Bitcoin". Both offer an in-depth "peak under the hood" of sorts into the technical aspects of Bitcoin. I would highly recommend reading both of them as the authors have very different, yet highly complementary writing styles. Bitcoin is a difficult and strange subject for most, so IMO it's important to tackle the subject from a variety of perspectives. I label Grokking Bitcoin as the successor to Mastering Bitcoin for two reasons - 1) it's more up-to-date. Bitcoin moves fast and Grokking contains some of the tech developments since Mastering's printing. 2) it has the advantage of time. Many of the analogies and explanations for certain subjects have evolved and improved over the last 18 months as the Bitcoin community has grown. Kalle takes advantage of this and the end result is a product that's easier for beginners and non-technical types to engage with.Let's get to the book itself. I can not imagine the mechanics of Bitcoin being written in simpler language. I often times found myself thinking that my mother would be able to easily follow the explanations that Kalle provides. It's evident that the author put an incredible amount of thought into every word. The book is simultaneous dense and succinct and even educated Bitcoin readers will be impressed. Make no mistake though - just because the author uses clear, simple language does NOT mean that he's glossing over the more technical aspects. The book is comprehensive and the reader will come away with a sophisticated appreciation of Bitcoin. Additionally, the diagrams are top notch and facilitate deep understanding of the topic at hand. Kudos to whoever at Manning did the illustrations. I am confident that many of Kalle's paragraphs and diagrams will be used for years to come and will eventually find their way to both the classroom and Congressional hearings. Additionally, I really enjoyed how every chapter has a section of exercises at the end - and how the author provides answers at the back of the book. These allow the reader to test their understanding of the reading and verify that they're thinking about the topic correctly.Overall, if you're interested in Bitcoin this is a must read. At the time of my writing, the book only has two reviews on Amazon. This saddens me. Do not let that influence your purchase decision, this is simply one of the best books on Bitcoin that exists today.

I have been interested in learning more about Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, for awhile now, and finally took the plunge and started ordering some of the more highly rated books. I am a few chapters in on this one, and loving it so far. I like the level of detail and examples that this book provides, and if this is a common feature of the "Grokking" series I may need to look into other titles in the series. I will say that there is caveat though: this book does throw you a bit into the deep end, and kind of hand waves over some of the necessary background info, especially surrounding cryptography. I have some background in cybersecurity so that didn't phase me, but someone coming at this brand new, with no programming experience and having never heard of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, may be a bit overwhelmed. However, I do believe that most people who would seek this particular book out for its level of detail very likely has the necessary background to jump in, so I wouldn't ding the rating at all for that.

Author does a great job in illustrating some of the complex topics used in Bitcoin in a very straight forward and easy to understand way. Would highly recommend this book for both newbies and more experienced Bitcoiners.

This is a great book for people who are interested in the technical details of Bitcoin. This is a great resource and well done. You should definitely buy this book, it's a great resource!

If "The Bitcoin Standard" got you down the rabbit hole, Grokking Bitcoin will reinforce key technical aspects on the things you love about Bitcoin. An absolute must have!

Dense with information and exercises to test your knowledge. Great reference to start understanding Bitcoin at a deeper lever.

From spreadsheets to blockchains, this book cleverly goes through the elements of a blockchain, specifically the Bitcoin blockchain, in ways that programmers and Liberal arts type people can understand. While this could be used for a multidisciplinary college course on Bitcoin, this isn’t too terribly comp sci heavy. Honestly, the pictures do a fantastic job of getting most of what you need to know across…you still have to be able to read, but if you’re not into that kind of thing, you can learn an awful lot by studying the graphics.

I really got a lot of value out of reading this book. Kalle has broken down Bitcoin into pieces in a way that is easy to learn, and nicely broken down into explanatory graphics. This book is a little more dense going so it's definitely not the first time Bitcoin book, this book is best to read after you have already read books such as Bitcoin Money, Inventing Bitcoin, The Bitcoin Standard etc.

Thanks. Very well done and covering all that I wanted to know about bitcoin principles.

Buen libro

Written in a clear and easy to understand style, this book is a terrific resource for understanding this amazing technology. Highly recommended.

A great book to understand Bitcoin

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