bitcoinforthepeople on Nostr: Been thinking of writing a Bitcoin book geared toward introducing those completely ...
Been thinking of writing a Bitcoin book geared toward introducing those completely unfamiliar to why Bitcoin is important. I haven't proofread this but here's the Introduction. Be kind and tell me your thoughts. (Formatting isn't great for a post...)
Introduction
This book is meant to be a basic introduction to Bitcoin and why it’s important, as well as, how it is money.
Although I’ll cover Bitcoin in more detail in this book such as the decentralized network, blockchain, proof of work, etc.; the first portion of the book will cover what money is. It seems like a simple thing to define and unnecessary to cover since you probably know what money is already. You use money every day. You buy things with it, you send it to people, you save it, and invest it. So, you must know WHAT it is and HOW it works, right?
Well, maybe. But maybe not. Simply using money for all its designed purposes doesn’t inherently mean you know what it really is and how it actually works. For instance, have you ever been on a plane? Were you only able to board that plane because you knew exactly how lift works or because you’re an aeronautical engineer? If you answered no to either, don’t worry neither am I. But clearly you don’t have to know or fundamentally understand how something works in order to utilize it for its intended purpose. Returning to the money theme here’s a question for you. When you took out that mortgage on your home, where did that money come from? I always thought that rich people gave their money to the bank and then the bank loaned out the rich person’s money to me for say 5% interest and then the bank would keep 1% of that and pay the rich person 4% for the use of his money. Well, this isn’t remotely how you and I getting a mortgage works. If you had $500,000 at your disposal, would you give it to a bank to make 4% interest over a thirty-year period? Not to mention that mortgage issuing is a risky business to be in. Plenty of people fall through on their obligations to repay that debt.
Covering what money is and how it works is essential to understanding why Bitcoin is so amazing.
The goal of this book is to cover these topics with a bit of a wide brush however. I want this book to serve as the dipping of your toes into the water. After reading this book, I want you to have the right questions in your mind going forward as you decide for yourself if Bitcoin is a topic worth diving into which I clearly think it is.
Covering all the ins and outs of money and Bitcoin isn’t this book’s goal either, which would require volumes and there are already plenty out there which cover these topics in great detail.
This book instead is intended to be a relatively short book for a simple reason. If you’ve picked up this book or it was given to you, it’s because you heard about Bitcoin and have no idea where to start and probably have a lot of questions. I was in that same boat. And like you, if someone recommended that I read “The Bitcoin Standard” by Saifedean Ammous (a great book once you hopefully have a little motivation from this one) when I first started out, I likely wouldn’t have invested that amount of time and energy into the subject. Granted however, The Bitcoin Standard had yet to be published when I ventured into those unfamiliar waters.
This book is intended for your brother, sister, mother, or father who you keep telling about Bitcoin but don’t have the time or thought formulation to lay it out to them in a simple manor. You’ve gone too deep down the rabbit hole already and when your dad asks “what is bitcoin?” and you respond “Freedom”, although your answer may be correct, it didn’t do him a whole lot of good. May this book serve as some sort of communication line from those of us who are so far down the rabbit hole that our speech has been deformed by the twists and turns of the depths from which we are attempting to communicate from.
Simply put, this book is for those of you with family members trying to show you something they have good reason to show you but aren’t quite sure just how to do that.
Introduction
This book is meant to be a basic introduction to Bitcoin and why it’s important, as well as, how it is money.
Although I’ll cover Bitcoin in more detail in this book such as the decentralized network, blockchain, proof of work, etc.; the first portion of the book will cover what money is. It seems like a simple thing to define and unnecessary to cover since you probably know what money is already. You use money every day. You buy things with it, you send it to people, you save it, and invest it. So, you must know WHAT it is and HOW it works, right?
Well, maybe. But maybe not. Simply using money for all its designed purposes doesn’t inherently mean you know what it really is and how it actually works. For instance, have you ever been on a plane? Were you only able to board that plane because you knew exactly how lift works or because you’re an aeronautical engineer? If you answered no to either, don’t worry neither am I. But clearly you don’t have to know or fundamentally understand how something works in order to utilize it for its intended purpose. Returning to the money theme here’s a question for you. When you took out that mortgage on your home, where did that money come from? I always thought that rich people gave their money to the bank and then the bank loaned out the rich person’s money to me for say 5% interest and then the bank would keep 1% of that and pay the rich person 4% for the use of his money. Well, this isn’t remotely how you and I getting a mortgage works. If you had $500,000 at your disposal, would you give it to a bank to make 4% interest over a thirty-year period? Not to mention that mortgage issuing is a risky business to be in. Plenty of people fall through on their obligations to repay that debt.
Covering what money is and how it works is essential to understanding why Bitcoin is so amazing.
The goal of this book is to cover these topics with a bit of a wide brush however. I want this book to serve as the dipping of your toes into the water. After reading this book, I want you to have the right questions in your mind going forward as you decide for yourself if Bitcoin is a topic worth diving into which I clearly think it is.
Covering all the ins and outs of money and Bitcoin isn’t this book’s goal either, which would require volumes and there are already plenty out there which cover these topics in great detail.
This book instead is intended to be a relatively short book for a simple reason. If you’ve picked up this book or it was given to you, it’s because you heard about Bitcoin and have no idea where to start and probably have a lot of questions. I was in that same boat. And like you, if someone recommended that I read “The Bitcoin Standard” by Saifedean Ammous (a great book once you hopefully have a little motivation from this one) when I first started out, I likely wouldn’t have invested that amount of time and energy into the subject. Granted however, The Bitcoin Standard had yet to be published when I ventured into those unfamiliar waters.
This book is intended for your brother, sister, mother, or father who you keep telling about Bitcoin but don’t have the time or thought formulation to lay it out to them in a simple manor. You’ve gone too deep down the rabbit hole already and when your dad asks “what is bitcoin?” and you respond “Freedom”, although your answer may be correct, it didn’t do him a whole lot of good. May this book serve as some sort of communication line from those of us who are so far down the rabbit hole that our speech has been deformed by the twists and turns of the depths from which we are attempting to communicate from.
Simply put, this book is for those of you with family members trying to show you something they have good reason to show you but aren’t quite sure just how to do that.