Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos (Book)
Hello there and welcome to blockwhat?, awesome to have you here!
This series of reviews is here to give you a helping hand to further your understanding of blockchain technology and its ramifications. Things can get confusing quite easily in this space, therefore I’d love to share with you the resources that have helped me most to make sense of this all.
Today’s review will cover “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas Antonopoulos. While being mainly targeted at a technical developer audience, it is nevertheless a treasure to really grasp the way Bitcoin functions.
“Code talks. Talk walks.”
― Andreas Antonopoulos
“Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas Antonopoulos is a thorough and very in-depth explanation of everything Bitcoin.
Even though the book is mainly for programmers who want to build on top of Bitcoin, it also does a marvelous job at providing a broad introduction to the very first blockchain to have been created. No matter if you’re a developer, investor or simply interested non-technical reader, its a very comprehensive guide into the mysterious lands of blockchain.
The book takes the reader through every part of the system, from explaining the decentralized network, to the peer-to-peer architecture, the transaction lifecycle and the underlying security principles.
It gives a well-rounded and very specific explanation of the technological and cryptographic technologies incorporated into Bitcoin, leaving the reader with a nuanced and fact-based understanding of the different aspects that go into powering this groundbreaking innovation.
Apart from the technical explanation, Antonopoulos also gives an overview over applications and alternative chains that were built on top of Bitcoin.
Everything is very well illustrated and enriched with examples, code snippets, user stories and analogies that help understand the key technological concepts incorporated in Bitcoin.
Definitely a worthwhile read, even for non-techies!
Andreas Antonopoulos is a Greek-British computer scientist and one of the most ardent voices for Bitcoin, having been involved in the cryptocurrency since 2012.
He has his roots in open networks and open source projects already since as early as 1990 though and worked as a freelance consultant for businesses involved in that space.
Apart from being a highly active and engaged speaker on Bitcoin and blockchain technology all around the world, has written hundreds of articles on the topic and also authored three other books (which will also be reviewed here soon).
You can find him on Twitter right here: https://twitter.com/aantonop
If you’re interested in reading his book “Mastering Bitcoin” and diving head first into the marvelous world of the technology behind Bitcoin, you can do so easily.
In the true spirit of open source, he has written and published his book as an open source project, having received many contributions from other people on github — this is where you can also find the book for free:
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook
If you’re like me more a physical book type of person, that you can also support him financially by going to your local bookstore (and support that as well!) and order it.
Otherwise I’m very confident in your cyber skills to find the book somewhere in the lovely cyber world of ours.
All the best
Till
If you’re interested in more awesome resources to enhance your knowledge about blockchain, check out these other reviews:
- Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper (Book)
- The Truth Machine by Michael J Casey and Paul Vigna (Book)
- Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott (Book)
- Blockchain Innovation by Frederick Munawa (Podcast)
- Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos (this review)
- Blockchain and the Law by Primavera De Filippi & Aaron Wright (Book)
- Mastering Ethereum by Andreas Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood
- Homo Sapiens by Noah Yuval Harari
- Homo Deus by Noah Yuval Harari
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Noah Yuval Harari
