Bitcoin Academy

Why money exists at all, what makes some money better than other money, and what changed when money became digital entries in bank databases.

• Why money exists7 min read18 q.
• Properties of useful money8 min read18 q.
• Barter and coordination7 min read18 q.
• Gold as historical money8 min read18 q.
• Banks and digital balances8 min read18 q.
• Inflation and monetary supply9 min read18 q.
• The problem Bitcoin attempted to solve8 min read19 q.

Where Bitcoin came from, what the 21 million limit actually is, and how Bitcoin differs from the wider crypto market.

• Why 21 million8 min read18 q.
• Bitcoin versus bitcoin6 min read18 q.
• Satoshi Nakamoto7 min read18 q.
• The genesis block6 min read18 q.
• Peer-to-peer electronic cash8 min read18 q.
• What is a satoshi?6 min read18 q.
• Bitcoin versus the broader crypto market8 min read18 q.
• What decentralisation actually means9 min read18 q.

Blocks, transactions, nodes, miners, proof of work, difficulty, halvings, UTXOs, the mempool, fees and confirmations.

• Blocks and the chain9 min read18 q.
• Proof of work9 min read18 q.
• UTXOs, fees and confirmations10 min read18 q.
• Transactions8 min read18 q.
• Nodes8 min read18 q.
• Miners8 min read18 q.
• Hashes and nonces7 min read18 q.
• Difficulty adjustment7 min read18 q.
• Halvings7 min read18 q.
• Mempool7 min read18 q.
• Consensus and rule changes9 min read18 q.

Custody, keys, seed phrases, hardware wallets, backups, multisig, inheritance, scams and privacy basics.

• Keys, custody and seed phrases9 min read18 q.
• Exchange account versus wallet7 min read18 q.
• Hot and cold wallets7 min read18 q.
• Hardware wallets8 min read18 q.
• Backups9 min read18 q.
• Multisignature9 min read18 q.
• Inheritance8 min read18 q.
• Common scams8 min read18 q.
• Privacy basics8 min read18 q.

Buying, receiving, sending, reading addresses, choosing fees, block explorers, Lightning and merchant payments.

• Buying Bitcoin8 min read18 q.
• Receiving Bitcoin6 min read18 q.
• Sending Bitcoin8 min read18 q.
• Reading an address7 min read18 q.
• Selecting fees8 min read18 q.
• Block explorers6 min read18 q.
• Lightning Network9 min read18 q.
• Merchant payments8 min read18 q.

Energy, bans, anonymity, forks, quantum computing, volatility and Bitcoin's genuine limitations, answered honestly.

• Is Bitcoin energy waste?9 min read18 q.
• Can Bitcoin be hacked?8 min read18 q.
• Can governments ban Bitcoin?8 min read18 q.
• Is Bitcoin anonymous?7 min read18 q.
• What happens after all bitcoin is issued?8 min read18 q.
• What are forks?7 min read18 q.
• What are the risks of quantum computing?8 min read18 q.
• Why is the price volatile?7 min read18 q.
• What are Bitcoin's genuine limitations?9 min read18 q.

The single biggest reason people never start: wallets feel scary. Keys, addresses, backups and sending, explained step by step, then practised in a fictional simulator.

• A wallet holds keys, not coins8 min read18 q.
• Backups, recovery words and mistakes9 min read18 q.
• Receiving, addresses and sending safely9 min read18 q.