Home › Guide
The Bitcoin guide
Free, in-depth articles drawn from Bitcoin: The Complete Guide, one per chapter and in the book's order. Each piece stands alone, so jump to whatever you came for; if Bitcoin is new to you, start at Chapter 1 and read forward. No paywall and no affiliate noise, just the mechanics, history and context.
Chapter 1 · Start here
What is money? The problem Bitcoin was built to solve
Money is a shared fiction that mostly works. What it does, where it fails, and why Bitcoin had to start with this question.
Chapter 2
The origins of Bitcoin: from the 2008 crash to the genesis block
Decades of failed digital cash, a financial crisis, and the nine pages that finally cracked it.
Chapter 3
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Every serious candidate examined
The candidates, the evidence, the court rulings, and why the disappearance might have been the point.
Chapter 4
How does Bitcoin work? Blocks, UTXOs and mining in plain English
Blocks, UTXOs, mining and the halving: the actual machinery, walked through without hand-waving.
Chapter 5
Bitcoin wallets explained: hot, cold and how to choose one
A wallet holds no coins at all. What the keys really are, hot versus cold, and how people actually lose them.
Chapter 6
Bitcoin scaling explained: the Lightning Network and beyond
Why the base chain is slow on purpose, and how Lightning moves everyday payments off it.
Chapter 7
Bitcoin forks explained: every major fork and what happened to it
Every fork is a governance fight. Bitcoin Cash to Taproot, and how each rebellion fared against BTC.
Chapter 8
How to buy and sell Bitcoin safely: exchanges, fees and custody
Where to buy, what it really costs, and the custody decisions that matter more than the price you paid.
Chapter 9
Bitcoin derivatives explained: futures, options and perpetuals
Futures, perps and options: how leverage works, and how quickly it liquidates the unprepared.
Chapter 10
Bitcoin institutional adoption: ETFs, treasuries and Wall Street
From laughing stock to spot ETFs and corporate treasuries: how Wall Street changed its mind.
Chapter 11
Bitcoin hacks and fraud: Mt. Gox, exchange failures and scams
Mt. Gox to FTX: how the money was actually lost, and the habits that would have saved most of it.
Chapter 12
Bitcoin and crime: Silk Road, ransomware and the myth of anonymity
Bitcoin is not anonymous. Silk Road, ransomware and why the ledger keeps betraying its criminals.
Chapter 13
The future of Bitcoin: de-dollarisation, CBDCs and mass adoption
De-dollarisation, CBDCs and the honest version of what mass adoption would actually take.
FTX vs Mt. Gox: the two great exchange collapses compared
Theft versus fraud, 850,000 coins versus $8bn, and why the Gox creditors who waited longest came out best.
Free Bitcoin reference tools
Living data resources, free to use and cite, built to go with the guide.
Bitcoin by the Numbers
Live price, supply, hashrate and the full halving schedule with block heights. Updated hourly.
The Complete Bitcoin Timeline
Every milestone from the 2008 whitepaper to today, sourced and filterable by theme.
The Crypto Hack & Collapse Database
Every major crypto hack, exchange collapse and fraud, with amounts, dates and outcomes.
The whole book, one chapter at a time
Every article here is drawn from a chapter of Bitcoin: The Complete Guide. If the free articles are useful, the book ties them together and goes deeper on every one.