The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction

Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by jstalin on Friday March 22, 2013 @10:12AM (#5422972)

Does anyone know of an explanation of the bitcoin protocol in plain English? I'm a non-math guy who's trying to write a legal treatise on the use of bitcoin, and I'd like to give some background on how it works to my readers. Can anyone help?

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by eof on Friday March 22, 2013 @10:31AM (#5423101)

Have you tried just the original white paper? You can understand without understanding the underlying algos. bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by jstalin on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:43PM (#5424022)

I have, but it doesn't seem to discuss how mining works, for instance.

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by arpp on Friday March 22, 2013 @02:02PM (#5424519)

but it does, check it again: 4. Proof-of-Work

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by eof on Friday March 22, 2013 @07:32PM (#5426474)

Yes. 4. Proof-of-work combined with 6. Incentive

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by adventureloop on Friday March 22, 2013 @10:22AM (#5423047)

The Security Now episode on bitcoin was quite good. Steve Gibson also provides transcriptions of all of this episodes.

http://twit.tv/sn287

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by dmiladinov on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:00PM (#5423753)

You can find the transcripts on his site here: http://www.grc.com/sn/past/2011.htm , scroll down to find episode #287.

Direct links to them for your convenience:

Html transcript here: http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-287.htm

Text transcript here: http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-287.txt

Pdf transcript here: http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-287.pdf [pdf]

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by drcross on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:27PM (#5423930)

There's a small bit of irony when a legal student is asking for an explanation of maths in plain language. Sorry if I sound a little jaded.

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by jstalin on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:39PM (#5423996)

Thanks. I'm not a legal student, I'm an attorney doing some research on the issue. I was just looking for some help understanding the more difficult math concepts. Sorry that I don't live up to your standards.

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by s0rce on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:42PM (#5424012)

I think the irony was that legal documents are notoriously difficult to understand.

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Re:The Big Book of Bitcoin - An introduction by erikpukinskis on Friday March 22, 2013 @12:46PM (#5424038)

I wrote a explanation in lay terms on my blog a while ago:

http://snowedin.net/blog/2011/04/05/bitcoin/

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