Understand Bitcoin before you buy any.
I teach Bitcoin to adults who never expected to care about how money works. This book is that class: what Bitcoin is, why people trust it, and how to own a little without getting scammed. No math. No hype. Not financial advice.
Paperback and Kindle coming soon · Signed copies, paid in dollars or bitcoin
Why it matters: Chapter 3, Where money comes from“No man should work for what another man can print.”
If one of these sounds like you, yes.
“Everyone talks about Bitcoin and I feel behind.”
Chapter 1 gives you the sixty-second answer. Read it twice and you will be ahead of most of the people talking.
“Someone I love owns some, and I worry.”
Chapters 10 and 11 show how people keep bitcoin safe and how the common scams work, so you can ask good questions.
“I want to buy a little, carefully.”
Chapter 9 walks through a first purchase one decision at a time, with a written plan before you spend a dollar.
Looking for price predictions or get-rich tips? There are none in here.
Four steps. No math.
The whole system in four pictures. Chapters 1 and 4 take each step slowly.
- 1
You hold a key
A secret that moves your bitcoin. If an app holds it for you, the app holds the key.
Chapter 1 - 2
You sign a payment
Your wallet uses the key to sign it, like a signature no one can forge.
Chapter 1 - 3
Thousands of computers check it
Each one checks the rules for itself. No company runs the network.
Chapter 4 - 4
It joins the chain
About every 10 minutes, a new block links to the last. Changing an old one means redoing the work for every block since.
Chapter 4
Already know the basics? Every claim in the book has a source on the sources page, and the Orange Pages list the books, tools and events worth your time.
21 million, on a schedule.
New bitcoin arrive on a fixed timetable that halves about every four years. No person, company, or government can speed it up, slow it down, or print extra. Changing the rule would take most of the people running the software to agree, and in 17 years that has never happened. That one rule is why people call it scarce. Chapter 1 explains it, and Chapter 6 shows what it does to the price.
See the numbers
| Year | Bitcoin issued | Share of all 21 million |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1.62 million | 7.7% |
| 2013 | 10.63 million | 50.6% |
| 2017 | 16.08 million | 76.6% |
| 2021 | 18.59 million | 88.5% |
| 2025 | 19.80 million | 94.3% |
| 2030 | 20.48 million | 97.5% |
| 2040 | 20.91 million | 99.6% |
Running totals at the start of each year. The share is how much of the 21 million that will ever exist had been issued by then. 2030 and 2040 follow the schedule.
Use them today. Book or no book.
Is this a Bitcoin scam?
Got a text about a locked account, a giveaway, or your “wallet”? Paste it here before you do anything. Private, on your device.Check a messageHeard something about Bitcoin?
Energy, crime, Ponzi. Type it in and get my answer from the book, then the research if you want it.Check a claimDCA calculator
Any start month, any amount, run to today, with the worst stretch marked so you meet it on paper first.Run the historyWhat you will be able to do
Every chapter opens with the outcomes it promises and ends with a short check, so you always know whether it worked.
Short sections. Plain words. A picture when it helps.
When words get hard, there is a picture.
Every idea that trips up my students has a drawing in the book. Here are six. Click one to open its chapter page.
Ask the question you are embarrassed to ask.
Is it too late to invest in bitcoin?
People have said “too late” at every price for 17 years, and roughly 4% of the world holds any bitcoin at all. You are late, but it’s not where you think.
Chapter 6Is Bitcoin money for criminals?
Some criminals use bitcoin. Far more use dollars, and every bitcoin transaction sits on a public ledger forever, which is how investigators catch people who thought they were hidden.
Chapter 7Isn’t Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?
No. A Ponzi scheme has an operator who promises returns and pays early investors with newer investors’ money until it runs out. Bitcoin has no operator, promises no return, and pays no one; buyers buy from sellers at a market price. The price can still fall hard.
Chapter 8Is bitcoin safe to own? Can it be hacked?
The network has run since 2009 without being hacked, with one early exception in 2010 that was fixed within hours. Companies and apps around it have been hacked many times, and people have been tricked, so keeping bitcoin safe mostly means keeping it away from other people’s mistakes and your own.
Chapters 4, 10, 11“The class is called Bitcoin Basics, not Bitcoin Believers.”
Stacey Boyle, PhD
Start with Chapter 1. It is free.
Read it here, or download a printable copy with the sixteen questions on one page. No sign-up and no email needed.
16 pages, letter size. Print it, or share it with a friend.
What people are talking about
Headlines come from outside news sites. Links open the original story.
- The first U.S. bitcoin futures fund2021
The first U.S. fund holding bitcoin futures began trading on the stock market.
Wikipedia: History of bitcoin