When I started in the cryptocurrency space, I quickly realized that it definitely isn’t a spectator sport. I needed to immerse myself fast and keep up to date with the vast amount of content available online.
It can be daunting to figure out how to get started. Having access to a concise list like the one in this post would have been invaluable for me when I started out. I hope you find value in it too. Here is a list of links, podcasts and reference material that would be useful for anyone wanting to get started in the world of crypto currencies.
PAPERS
* Satoshi Nakamoto – A Peer to Peer System (https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf):
Initially published online in 2009, this paper is the seminal work that started the crypto wildfire. It is a fairly technical read, however, for the non-technical eye. Reading through the introduction should be enough for you to at least proudly answer: “Yes, I’ve read the paper!” Because, trust me, you haven’t gotten the “Have you read the paper?” question yet, it’s coming!
* Vitalik et al. Ethereum white paper – (https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper)
Another great paper that marked the next leap in the shared ledger development space — ethereum. Ethereum has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception two years ago to become second biggest crypto currency by market cap.
* Farzam Ehsani – The Advent of Crypto Banking – (http://foundery.co.za/download/files_1/The_Advent_of_Crypto_Banking.pdf).
If it wasn’t for the wide interest generated by this paper both locally and gobally, you could accuse me of being biased since I have the privilege of working with Farzam. In this paper, Farzam takes us through the history of money as well as some basic money principles. He dives deep into what a central bank issued digital currency might look like. Farzam describes the paper as: “…aiming to provoke deep introspection about our banking system and the role of central and commercial banks within this system.” . There are nuggets such as;
“And so to say that we need regulation certainly does not imply that all regulation is good. Some regulations do not serve the best interests of society and as such should be abandoned.”
PODCASTS
I love podcasts. On average, I listen to five different podcasts a day on various subjects and one of those subjects has to be Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. There is a lot of noise in the space and in the midst of that noise there are a few gems I would recommend . In my humble opinion dear reader these two the most important simply because I found myself coming back to them a couple of times and I get new insights with every listen.
- Unchained – Why the first employee of Coinbase launched a hedge fund (https://www.forbes.com/podcasts/unchained/#474132945b4f)
Coinbase is one of the first mainstream bitcoin exchanges that let people actually buy bitcoin using fiat currency. Olaf Carlson-Wee was one of their first employees dealing with customer support. In this episode, he gives a candid view into his life at Coinbase and the drivers of crypto currencies.
- Epicenter: Jimmy Song (https://epicenter.tv/episode/189/)
This episode gave me a lot of insight into the bitcoin scaling debate. Jimmy Song really knows how to simplify complex subjects.
BLOGS
- Jimmy Song (https://medium.com/@jimmysong) twitter: @jimmysong
Jimmy Song is a bitcoin developer with deep knowledge of anything and everything related to bitcoin. . He tackles some of the most complex subjects on cryptography and blockchain and explains them in simple English. In addition, posts are normally no more 10 minute reads — which is really great if you don’t have a lot of time to get into the nitty-gritty of the subject.
- Peter Todd (https://petertodd.org/) twitter: @petertodd
Peter Todd is a bitcoin core developer. He’s very sharp and challenges the status quo (and not only for bitcoin). He is highly opinionated on where the bitcoin protocol should go especially regarding some of the hot topics such as scaling and timestamps. I don’t necessarily enjoy some of his adversarial approach when raising issues on Twitter, but I follow him anyway .
Reddit is one of the most popular websites on the internet. It is no surprise that many cryptocurrency communities exist and thrive there. There are many subreddits for different cryptos but I find myself going to these three on a regular basis. A key takeaway for me having been following these subreddits is just understanding the discourse conventions of the different communities on there. I’d suggest following them for a week and see if you are able to pick up on this as well.
- /R/Bitcoin – 297036 subscribers
- /R/Ethereum – 109329 subscribers
- /R/BITCOINMARKETS – 44610 subscribers
NEWS WEBSITES
There are a number of news websites that cover crypto currencies and block chain technology. I tend to find myself returning to these three:
CONCLUSION
The cryptocurrency community is growing at an alarming rate. A single post cannot do justice to the amount of relevant content out there. There are many resources I have skipped in this post — my intention is to help ease you into this space without feeling overwhelmed by information overload. I hope this will be a decent starting point to help you find more useful resources.
by Mandla Magagula
