Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and ICO Resources

Yesterday my neighbor asked me a question about ICO’s and cryptocurrency and wanted to discuss something he was thinking about doing. I realized that this could be a good topic for my daughter Rachel to work on as part of her independent study and started looking for a file I have (had) on resources I printed back in July. I turned my office upside down looking for the file and ended up doing some significant purging and filing as a result. I was pretty stressed out about it and started to recreate the list of resources. Finally, my neighbor showed up with a cocktail at my front door and…you guessed it…the file folder. I’d given it to his wife so she could take a look at the docs and she ended up leaving it on her filing cabinet for six months.

Taylor Pearson posted a list of the top cryptocurrency resources in July 2017 and I found the list incredibly helpful (it doesn’t seem to be available any longer so I’ve recreated below). I recommend consuming the information in the following order. I will be adding to the list over time now that I have a place to put the articles/podcasts I find (last updated 3/22/18).

1. Podcast: Interview with Nick Szabo (6/4/17): this is a great podcast with Tim Ferriss. Nick Szabo coined the term ‘smart contracts’ and designed the precursor to Bitcoin, Bit Gold.
2. Video: John Oliver on Cryptocurrencies (early 2018): John simplifies something somewhat complicated.
3. Article: Why Bitcoin Matters (1/21/14): Marc Andreessen wrote an article on some Bitcoin fundamentals.
4. Article: By reading this article, you’re mining bitcoins (12/17/13): this explains Bitcoin mining.
5. Blog Post: Cryptonetworks and why tokens are fundamental (3/13/18): this goes into greater detail on the process to create a cryptonetwork, tokens being synonymous with cryptocurrency and the various different layers of the cryptonetwork.
6. Blog Post: Fat Protocols (8/8/16): this article talks about the difference between the protocol and application layers of the internet versus blockchain.
7. Blog Post: Unenumerated: Money, blockchains, and social scalability (2/9/17): this goes into greater detail on ‘proof of work’, public blockchains and private blockchains.
8. Blog Post: A Beginner’s guide to Etherium (2/23/17): talks about the different between Bitcoin and Etherium and includes explanation of smart contracts.
9. White Paper: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform (July 2017): this goes into great detail into the history of Bitcoin and Etherium and applications and tokens.
10. White Paper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (date unknown): goes into greater detail on proof of work as the consensus mechanism.
11. Investor Bulletin: Initial Coin Offerings (7/25/17): explains ICOs
12. Why not to invest in cryptocurrency (4/8/18)
13. Podcast: ICORadio Episode 1: Blockchain Bytes: this is a good primer on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and where to buy/sell crypto.
14. Article: Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble: Stacy Feld highly recommends this article (thanks for the tip Stacy!)