
Princeton Bitcoin textbook is now freely available - t3hSpork
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/randomwalker/the-princeton-bitcoin-textbook-is-now-freely-available/
======
asafira
Michael Nielsen has a nice intro the protocol, for those looking for another
source:

[http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-
protocol-a...](http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-
actually-works/)

(he has other articles I would recommend taking a look at, too --- check them
out if you're interested! )

~~~
roymurdock
This is the resource I recommend to all of my friends as well. Great
walkthrough.

------
roymurdock
Here's the link to the actual PDF:
[https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/p...](https://d28rh4a8wq0iu5.cloudfront.net/bitcointech/readings/princeton_bitcoin_book.pdf?a=1)

------
mgraczyk
I read this book when I took CS251 last fall. It is an accessible, mostly
nontechnical overview of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. For those interested in
reading the book and learning more about cryptocurrencies, I recommend going
through the CS251 reading list which includes this book.

[https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html](https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html)

------
iamcreasy
One of the author of this book already had a MOOC about Bitcoin on Coursera.

Link :
[https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech](https://www.coursera.org/course/bitcointech)

------
jbpetersen
Despite being a little outdated and justifiably overly focused on the
computer-science aspects, this is a huge improvement in bringing academia up
to speed on cryptoeconomics.

------
kang
I found the book(& course notes) to be interesting but non-technical & little
verbose. For those wanting to read technical subject matter I'd recommend the
bitcoin developer reference & bitcoin developer guide at bitcoin.org

~~~
bjornsing
Why not Satoshi's original paper [1]?

1\. [https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf)

~~~
olalonde
That's a good place to start but it's also light on technical details and
Bitcoin has evolved a bit since then.

------
nissimk
Since nobody has mentioned it yet, Andreas Antonopoulos' book, "Mastering
Bitcoin," is quite good.

You can build the ePub from source:

[https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook)

Or get it from oreilly:

[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do)

------
esseti
epub or any ebook ready format?

------
sandworm101
>> Princeton University Press is publishing the official, polished, and
professionally done version of this book. It will be out in summer 2016.

Is this really freely available? I'd much rather see Princeton release this
book to the public domain.

~~~
pmorici
You can download the draft as PDF right from their site.

~~~
sandworm101
Yes, but that isn't free imho. Can I host a copy on my own website? Can I
include the book as part of a course taught at my school? Can I integrate
chapters of the book into another book that I may be writing? Making a copy
available for reading isn't the same as making it free.

~~~
logicallee
That's not really free though, is it? Because I can't really just start
hosting it, claiming to be its author, and have people believe me. (White-
labelling). For that to happen, the original authors have to stay anonymous,
it has to have much less branding included.

So it's not really all that free in my opinion, even with your additions. /s

~~~
logicallee
in other words: your standards are too high. It's free because you don't have
to pay for it.

