Bitcoin knows rules, not rulers.

A bitcoin education site


"It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did" – Trinity, The Matrix

Recommended introduction video: Wences Casares Explains Bitcoin 

Step 1: Introduction 

"You take the blue pill... the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill... you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Hello, my name is Dario. I created this site to help you on your journey down the bitcoin rabbit hole. It is a curated list of some of the most helpful resources on bitcoin education. My goal is to help onboard new users by sharing information. When I met bitcoin, I initially thought it was a scam. I went through all of the thoughts and emotions most people have when they hear of bitcoin for the first time. And like most people, I was quick to dismiss it without ever pondering what it was, why it was created or how it could help me. Like most people I meet, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about bitcoin without taking a moment to study it. That is why I'll ask you now to let go of everything you think you know about bitcoin; your biases, your preconceived and reflexive notions and even your past experience with other cryptocurrencies. Beginning with a clean slate and thinking in first principles is important for understanding bitcoin, but it is hard to do and admittedly takes a long time. I was entering my second year of medical school when I first heard of bitcoin... and honestly I paid no attention to bitcoin. It was easier to be ignorant, cynical and passive. A costly mistake.  

"Ignorance is bliss" – Cypher, The Matrix

When I graduated from medical school, I was beginning to learn the full repercussions of my student loan debt and learned how difficult it is for most people to survive without perpetual indebtedness. Coming from an immigrant, working class family, financial freedom seemed a fragile dream. I sought out to learn as much as I could about investing and finance. I read books on rational investing, diversification, real estate and even a book on trading. I secured an eager financial advisor, opened the recommended accounts, put my money in the accepted assets such as index funds and sovereign debt, and I bought all sorts of insurance. No one explained why the system worked the way it did or what the rules were. It seemed some could use the complexity of the system to their advantage and others could bend the rules (or even ignore them altogether). The best thing a rational investor could do is be inflexible, robotic and faithful to the plan. Ignoring the "macro" environment was critical to being a successful investor. Yet, no matter how much I learned, I felt like an impostor. 

"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Why did I have to risk my money at all through investment? Why couldn't I just save? I had to look at myself in the mirror and convince myself I understood how stock or bond markets really worked. I had to believe I had control over my financial future and believe the rules were known and fair. Did I have a say in how much stock a company could issue? Could I control if a country paid it's debt back to me with devalued money? Was the real estate I rented out being taxed and maintained appropriately to justify the risk? Why did saving cash result in negative returns? All I wanted to do was save my money for the future for when I would need it most. 

"Denial is the most predictable of all human responses" - The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded

And that is where bitcoin becomes important. Bitcoin is money. It is best form of money ever created. And to understand bitcoin, one must first understand money. Bitcoin's unique properties make it a sound money; a money that can not be devalued or confiscated. And because of this, bitcoin is savings.

"Remember... all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Bitcoin has taught me about our current monetary system, where the government, and not the free market, decides what is money. The monetary system we were born into is purposefully opaque, subjective, involuntary and confusing, which is incredibly useful to a select few who can manipulate it to their benefit at the expense of everyone else. Bitcoin's monetary policy is different. It is transparent, objective, voluntary and simple. Bitcoin therefore is a threat to the monetary world order. And not surprising, all beneficiaries of this world order, from the mainstream media to legacy finance, have been on the offensive to cripple bitcoin when possible. 

"Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without" – Merovingian, The Matrix Reloaded

And yet, bitcoin lives on. It continues to persist and thrive despite being a free market money born outside of the mainstream. Although the price of bitcoin in a particular currency is what attracts most people to bitcoin, it is bitcoin's properties as the best money that convince many to stay. Bitcoin attempts to fix our money. And in doing so, it also begins to fix people by altering their time horizons, values and incentives. Bitcoin's revolutionary properties, like the internet itself, catapults individuals into the realm of self-sovereignty as it enables property rights, trade and savings free of corruption and manipulation by rent-seeking or malicious intermediaries. 

"You have to let it all go, Neo - fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind!" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Bitcoin is many things; a money, a computer network, a technology, a clock, an ethos, an ideology, a movement and, above all else, a system of trust. It can invoke strong reactions from the public who are still grasping how it may fit into their lives. The initial reactions to bitcoin are usually reflexively negative. "Bitcoin is a scam...bitcoin is too new...some other cryptocurrency is better...bitcoin is too complex...no one accepts bitcoin...the government can just shut bitcoin down...bitcoin is fake...bitcoin is a bubble...the government will never *allow* bitcoin...I'm too late to bitcoin...bitcoin is printed out of thin air..." Ironically, most people never stop to question the very monetary order that controls their lives. They never stop to consider how the current fiat monetary system works, or who controls it, or why is it so? 

“There’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind.” - Morpheus

Falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole exposes this unjust system of rulers, not rules... where money can be willed into existence by political pressure or corruption. The ability to create money this way can create a honeypot for those who wish to seize this power for their own interests, such as special interest lobbies or political bad actors. Could there be a better system? And do we have the power to choose for ourselves? 

"I don't like the idea that I’m not in control of my life" – Neo, The Matrix

If you ask most people, they simply want to be able to earn a decent living by providing valuable work to society, without the fear and uncertainty of economic downturns. After all, to be able to save for an unknowable future, so it is a little more secure and certain, is a universal part of being human. The economic events of the last few decades, however, have been unprecedented causing more uncertainty and fear as we contemplate that future. Inflation manipulates our behavior to seek refuge in risk assets and drives us to consume in the short-term instead of saving for the long-term. As the value of our money is certain to degrade over time in the fiat system, holding fiat money itself becomes one of the riskiest choices. Many are waking up to the injustices in the monetary system, as some people have the ability to print money (or loan money that doesn't exist) at the expense of everyone else, or have special access to new money before prices rise for the rest of us. It is no surprise the most sought after jobs in the world are those in finance. This system fuels wealth inequality and may be one reason wealth concentrates in such few hands. But bitcoin disrupts this system and can provide a foundation for much needed transparency, simplicity, fairness and hope. 

"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Bitcoin was designed as the native currency for the internet without the need to trust an intermediary such as a corporation, bank or government. It has a capped, finite supply of 21 million coins making it a deflationary currency as opposed to an inflationary one. Its monetary policy is known in advance and is incredibly difficult to change thus making it a more honest and transparent system than the fiat one in control today. It is a money that exists in the digital realm for the digital age. A money that can not be cheated, debased, confiscated or censored, which is a revolution in money and trust.  It's unique attributes give it the power to disrupt the centralized legacy financial industry, as well as upend the government's unethical relationship with money.

"Never send a human to do a machine's job" – Agent Smith, The Matrix

Bitcoin is an open, decentralized, permission-less, censorship-resistant, immutable ledger that keeps track of the ownership of a capped supply of 21 million digital coins without needing to trust an intermediary. A bitcoin is divisible to smaller units called "satoshis" or "sats" (100,000,000 sats = 1 bitcoin). It eliminates the "rent seeking" behavior of middlemen as well as eliminating the "exorbitant privilege" nation-states hold by controlling the money printers. Bitcoin users are free to run "node" software on their computers to ensure transactions follow the network's consensus rules while maintaining a copy of the full transaction history. This way, no one is able to "cheat" the network, irrespective of how much wealth or political influence they may have. Bitcoin knows rules, not rulers. No one individual controls the rules which govern bitcoin (not even it's mysterious creator; Satoshi Nakamoto). The rules are openly known and agreed upon by all participants and enforced by the node software. Anyone can run a node. Anyone can participate in bitcoin with the poorest playing by the same rules as the richest. The bitcoin network does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, nationality, creed, sex, sexual orientation, creditworthiness, criminal record or political affiliation. Anyone can create a wallet, memorize it's private key, and receive and send transactions without anyone else's permission. In this sense, bitcoin is fair and inclusive, serving as "public infrastructure" for savings and payments without the risks of proprietary corporate or state financial services. The bitcoins come into existence through a process called "mining," where specialized computers are rewarded in the newly-minted bitcoins, for maintaining an agreed upon timeline of transactions throughout time and space, while also securing the network from adversarial attacks to prevent fraud or unilateral control of the network. The issuance schedule is known in advanced with the supply of issued bitcoins halving every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years), making it a deflationary currency. The value or purchasing power of bitcoins continues to increase exponentially over time as demand for them increases while it's supply schedule remains fixed. And unlike gold or other commodities, where increased demand eventually leads to increased supply, bitcoin's monetary policy, embedded in it's code and maintained throughout it's decentralized network, will not change. 

 “You hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability!" - Agent Smith

Mining has gained notoriety over its consumption of electricity. Yet, it is this consumption of electricity which gives bitcoin a footing in the physical realm, ensuring there is a cost to it's creation and security. This is an important point when we consider that although bitcoin may exist in the digital space, it is bore out of real work in the physical realm, which gives it it's unique properties as good money. The reward amount is predetermined and known to all. Miners do not have the power to cheat or influence the network to create bitcoins for themselves. They must follow network rules or else will end up spending costly electricity without a chance at reward. The technical aspects and game theory of bitcoin are explained in the "white paper." 

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” - Morpheus, The Matrix 

Although bitcoin education naturally begins with the technical attributes of this revolutionary innovation, it runs the risk of overwhelming computer science novices, which may reflexively deem it too complex, out of reach or esoteric. Even more daunting can be learning how to do bitcoin securely, responsibly and privately. However, zooming out is critical to capture the importance of this discovery and it may be more useful to consider the problems bitcoin aims to solve first (and there are many). Learning why bitcoin is important is the first step to discovery. The rest will follow, such as how to buy it securely, how to use the network safely and how to store it responsibly. The goal of bitcoin is ultimately to be your own bank.  

"Neo, sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path" – Morpheus, The Matrix

Therefore, I will do my best to provide an educational walk through as if I were discussing this topic with a friend. I will lay the groundwork for a journey through bitcoin's near infinite library as to not overwhelm but introduce and enlighten. This curated list of pieces are from some of the brightest minds and educators in the space. Although not exhaustive, these first encounters inspired me, and countless others, to take the "orange pill" in financial sovereignty. I will periodically update and add to this list. If you think there is something I'm missing, please reach out to me (contact information below). 

"I can only show you the door, you're the one that has to walk through it" – Morpheus, The Matrix

More questions will follow as bitcoin encompasses multiple realms; computer science, economics, finance, law, philosophy, history, mathematics, psychology and even art. This is a primary reason why explaining bitcoin is challenging. It is easy to be overwhelmed and even easier to be misguided, especially in light of competing cryptocurrencies that promise to be "the next bitcoin" and thinking in terms of fiat money. There is also endless criticism, skepticism and apathy surrounding bitcoin, as it is still poorly understood in its infancy. However, as you will learn, the use case for bitcoin has never been more important. Good luck and if you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

“The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.” - Trinity

Step 2: Why bitcoin? 

"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without the burdens of going through a financial institution." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"Gold is just bitcoin that can’t be sent over the internet "– Edward Snowden

I recommend watching the following videos before continuing on: 

I recommend reading the following articles: 

I highly recommend reading Der Gigi's book 21 Lessons. It is a poetic masterpiece and worth rereading several times along your journey. He offers it for free on his website although you could purchase it as well to support him in his efforts to educate. 

"The fact that new coins are produced means the money supply increases by a planned amount, but this does not necessarily result in inflation. If the supply of money increases at the same rate that the number of people using it increases, prices remain stable." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"Whenever someone finds proof-of-work to generate a block, they get some new coins - The proof-of-work difficulty is adjusted every two weeks to target an average of 6 blocks per hour (for the whole network) - The coins given per block is cut in half every 4 years." - Satoshi Nakamoto

Step 3: What is wrong with our money? 

"What do all men with power want? More power" – The Oracle, The Matrix Reloaded

"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair." - Sam Ewing

"By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens." - John Maynard Keynes 

"Inflation is taxation without legislation." - Milton Friedman 

"Inflation makes the wealthiest people richer and the masses poorer." - James Cook

"Inflation is a form of tax, a tax that we all collectively must pay." -Henry Hazlitt 

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists." - Ernest Hemingway

"Continued inflation inevitably leads to catastrophe." - Ludwig Von Mises 

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation." - Vladimir Lenin 

Step 4: Is bitcoin a scam? 

"It's hard to imagine the Internet getting segmented airtight. It would have to be a country deliberately and totally cutting itself off from the rest of the world." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.” - Thomas Paine

“Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act.”—Ludwig Von Mises

"Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

Step 5: Why not other cryptocurrencies? 

"Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for double-spending. The network works like a distributed timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"When a node finds a proof-of-work, the new block is propagated throughout the network and everyone adds it to the chain and starts working on the next block after it." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"I don't believe a second, compatible implementation of Bitcoin will ever be a good idea. So much of the design depends on all nodes getting exactly identical results in lockstep that a second implementation would be a menace to the network." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

TLDR: Many of bitcoin's competitors claim to be a better version of bitcoin on some metric. Whether its settlement speed, number of transactions per block, size of a block, privacy features, ease to run a node or ease to mine, etc, many will claim some breakthrough that alluded Satoshi Nakamoto. However, as many have come to learn, at the expense of time and treasure, bitcoin's design establishes it as a revolution in trust and value transfer by prioritizing security and decentralization. Thus far, none of the other projects have been able to create a truly decentralized network, with no single point of failure, timely final settlement and with no one person or group in control. This is one reason why bitcoin is seen as public infrastructure or a commodity. 

The alt coins (alternative cryptocurrencies) number in the tens of thousands, with nearly all trending to 0 against bitcoin. Sadly, these projects appear to be vehicles for project founders to steal money from users who are bedazzled by the promise of "getting in early" on some breakthrough. You will come to learn why these projects are affinity scams and securities (in the eyes of financial regulators) and why bitcoin is a one-time breakthrough, like the internet itself. Bitcoin is a protocol for transferring value across the internet without the need for an intermediary; it is a trust-less system open to all. The same can not be said about the countless number of cryptocurrencies. Although bitcoin may have perceived tradeoffs, it's engineered to be a unique final settlement layer for value. It's confirmation times may appear to be longer than it's competitors, but this unique design allows it to be truly decentralized and secure. 

As novices begin to learn about bitcoin they are naturally curious about alt coins as many could lead to riches in a speculative fervor where the market lumps all cryptocurrencies together (even bitcoin). But this amounts to gambling and the majority of people who buy alt coins end up losing their hard-earned money. Data shows it is far wiser to save your wealth in bitcoin and not engage in trading crypto. Many also focus on the price of bitcoin and are intimidated or discouraged by it's dollar price. However, bitcoin can be purchased in increments and it is more honest to consider how many satoshis you can buy with $1. What is most important in this undertaking is understanding how bitcoin fixes the money and how early it is for the majority of people to use it as a savings vehicle. Many of called bitcoin a discovery in money... as Michael Saylor has famously said "there is no second best."

*Interesting website which compares how many altcoin confirmations would be equivalent to 6 bitcoin confirmations (bitcoin is the most secure final settlement layer): howmanyconfs.com 

"I would be surprised if 10 years from now we're not using electronic currency in some way, now that we know a way to do it that won't inevitably get dumbed down when the trusted third party gets cold feet." - Satoshi Nakamoto

Step 6: What is bitcoin's origin story? 

"Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton 

“To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.” - Anthony Burgess

"None are so hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

“I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.” - Banksy 

I recommend the following articles which helped set the stage for what would become bitcoin. Many of these articles are written by pillars in the cryptography and privacy space and offer insight into the cypherpunk worldview. 

First, I recommend this 4-part video series created by ReasonTV: Cypherpunks Write Code 

Articles

For a more technical overview of bitcoin's origins and the problems it has solved in computer science, please visit: The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. 

For more technical overview of bitcoin's inner-workings: Understanding the Technical Side of Bitcoin by Pierre Rochard 

Another beautifully written article by Der Gigi on the origins of bitcoin can be found here: Magic Internet Money 

Step 7: How do I bitcoin? 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Lao Tzu

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" - African Proverb

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - Confucius 

"It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy." - Satoshi Nakamoto

There will naturally be debate on what is the *best* way to do this. However, I believe for the novice the simplest, most user-friendly approach is safest and least intimidating. Getting "off zero" is important; "the enemy of good is perfect." I have recommended wallet apps and exchanges below. I would recommend downloading a bitcoin wallet on your mobile phone. The new wallet will generate a series of random words which are the "private key" of the wallet. It is critical to understand these words *are* your ownership over your bitcoins. Do not store these words on a computer, take a photo of it, or expose it online or in the physical world. The best practice is to physically write the words down on paper and store it in a safe or a hidden place in your home. Laminating your sheet of paper or etching it on steel to protect it from the elements is also recommended. Be sure to let your spouse know where the private key is as this will be the only way your heirs can recover the bitcoin. Anyone who has access to those words will have the ability to steal your bitcoin (and there will be no way to ever get it back). I suggest familiarizing yourself with wallet best-practices, how to transact with bitcoin, how to store your bitcoin private key with tutorials below. The next step is to buy bitcoin (more on that below). I would caution against leaving your bitcoins on exchanges. Although this may seem safer than taking responsibility over your bitcoin's custody, it exposes you to counter-party risks if the exchange is fraudulent or bankrupt (for example, Mt. Gox, FTX, Binance, etc). Bitcoin was invented so you could "be your own bank." Trusting your bitcoin with an intermediary is a sure way to lose your bitcoin. "Not your keys, not your coins" is an established proverb in this space. 

Once you've accumulated a significant amount on your mobile wallet, I would recommend purchasing a hardware wallet for cold storage. These types of wallets are seen as *safest* because they are not connected to the internet and can be used via *air gapped* means; you never have to plug them into a computer or connect them online. It is nearly impossible to *crack a private key* but I would also recommend adding a passphrase to your hardware wallet's private key to make it exponentially harder to brute force attack. I recommend using "bitcoin only" products. 

I recommend using Strike and Cash.app for buying your first bitcoins. You would need to follow their anti-money laundering law (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules by providing your ID before making purchases and you would need to link a bank account. Important to note "the system," and therefore the government, will be able to follow the ownership paper trail via blockchain analytics. Therefore, bitcoin purchased through these formal channels are not "secret" (non-KYC) bitcoin. For that you would need to purchase peer to peer (p2p) either in the physical world (such as a meetup) or an p2p online exchange (for example, robosats, peach, hodlhodl, etc). For large purchases of bitcoin, Swan and River are reputable bitcoin-only exchanges. 

Videos

Wallets

Exchanges

Debit Card

"Blocks contain a history of the bitcoin addresses that a coin has been transferred to." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"New transactions are broadcast to all nodes." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"The advantage of letting bitcoin download and verify the blocks is that you do not have to trust the person you're downloading them from." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"Once a transaction is hashed into a link that's a few links back in the chain, it is firmly etched into the global history." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

Step 8: Where can I find other resources? 

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.” - Alice in Wonderland

I recommend the following video series with Michael Saylor from the "What is Money?" Show by Robert Breedlove:

Websites: 

Podcasts:

Youtube Channels: 

Courses:

Books:

Interesting site with books recommended by well-known bitcoiners: Bitcoiner Books 

Stores

Dashboards

Nodes

Home Mining 

Blockchain Explores

News 

Projects

Tutorials

Tools

"It's more typical of a precious metal. Instead of the supply changing to keep the value the same, the supply is predetermined and the value changes. As the number of users grows, the value per coin increases. It has the potential for a positive feedback loop." - Satoshi Nakamoto