Topic: 5 Resources to teach Average Joe about Bitcoin (Read 1939 times)

If I could understand your point well, you mean I should identify five reasons in Pidgin if I want to translate the thread? Am I right?

Yes, based on the thread, you give some tangible and educational links that will help a beginner accumulate or achieve bitcoin, and you also explain how a beginner to bitcoin can truly understand what bitcoin is all about.
Seeing this great and educational thread that will improve a lot on my local board is the main reason I developed an interest in translating this thread. because many members of my local board understand pidgin, even though some understand English, but sharing this thread with my local board will increase the number of those who join the forum without knowing what bitcoin is all about or even what the forum is all about, and some like to explain bitcoin to others but find it difficult to give reasons for the advantages of bitcoin. But if I share this thread with them, I think some of these issues will be reduced, and bitcoin will be understood more on my local board because all the information is already in the thread.

If I have in any way made mistakes in not answering the question correctly, please forgive me because no human being is perfect.

When you translate this topic in your own language, be sure to find resources in your language as well.
What is the point of translating the thread if the linked resources are in English?

Find 5 resources in Russian or pidgin, if you want to translate the thread, please.

video tutorials udemy.com/topic/cryptocurrency/free/

Hello, @fillippone I will like to translate this topic of yours to my local board (Naija local board).pidgin

You spent time educating me here just viewing few links I'd got details of what have been kinda hidden to me for a long while
Thank you
Thank you
From few views of the links I've seen that although halving is very good for Bitcoin SF we have one more thing to fear ...and that is a competing digital currency if there's any that is greatly competing then halving effect becomes minimized.
Also our current fiat currency is breaking in shambles we need to ensure we have quite a good number of Bitcoin.NFA

The link added below could be an entry point to getting more details about Bitcoin Scarcity and Decentralization...meant to be a learning link for newbies who'd be needing information regarding this features of Bitcoin

I'd like to add this:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5462150.new#new
[/list][/list]

This topic has always been in my suggestion list whenever any member ask that what are good sources to get information about bitcoin as beginners as it complies different resources for them at one place with authentic information rather then relying on fake sites spreading wrong information about bitcoin by people like Roger Ver so it's great that you have translated the topic.

I would recommend you to made a announcement in this thread as well so @fillippone can update this in the OP in that particular thread and others who might be willing to translate it don't waste time on it for the same local language.Altough I am sure if you have talk with him about the same but as this topic is new to his translation thread history so asking just to add it there as well.

Russian
5 Resources to teach Average Joe about Bitcoin
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/5-btc-5457628

Thank you @naim027 for your good work!
Yes, of course, you did the right thing trying to find resources in your local language. This is exactly the purpose of the thread!
I will add your translation to the OP!

Hi, @fillippone. Thanks Again For your good initiative. As I can see, There was another Translation of this post On my local board with the same source you provided. Which is not going to help those who are not experts in English that much. But here I did differently, I provided Local sources so that newbies (like me) can learn more about Bitcoin. There is less dedicated bitcoin website in Bangladesh just because Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are not legal there. Hope Bangladesh Government will unban crypto soon. and we will get more dedicated websites about bitcoin. There was more website about bitcoin, but due to legal problem. They have been forced to shut down their website. So it's always tough to find sources for newbies like me. I Added 5 Useful Sources at this moment. I could add Youtube videos if I want. but that's not going to help them that much. I will update this post often as soon as I find new sources.

Here is my Translation: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.58512511

Usually before answering questions, if he can speak Chinese, I would recommend him to watch this video collection, which is a 100 questions about blockchain produced by Huobi Exchange.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Lt411T7rg?from=search&seid=2934826109953210292
Unfortunately, I did not find the English version. If necessary, I can translate the text version into English.

Yeah, I remember it now. The topic was not bumped since January and I totally forgot about it. You should bump your threads more often. It's your fault that I forgot. I am sure there are other quality stuff that you have written hiding on long forgotten pages.

Bitcoin's innovation is NOT because of it being digital, even though its digitalness has allowed the facilitation of digital scarcity, which had never been achieved prior to bitcoin's various ways of incorporating proof of work across a network that could be verified and confirmed by peers.

There are lot of folks who would like you and me (us) to believe that there is some kind of magic in the digital aspects of money, but there are a whole hell of a lot of snake oil salesmen out there that want to either distract you into believing in their product or failing/refusing to recognize the true innovations of bitcoin - that are quite likely going to continue to exist in spite of various hard, social and even descriptive attacks on bitcoin.

Sure, if you want to get distracted into a variety of technical mumbo jumbo and various digital projects or even conceptualizing bitcoin as merely another one of many "digital" peers, no problem, but hopefully on a personal level you are creating a decent amount of stock and stack in bitcoin before getting too distracted by various other digital systems that may or may not complement bitcoin.. even though some people say that everything ends up being good for bitcoin (whether attack or not), so sure you can play with your various shitty projects that you want to erroneously conceptualize as bitcoin's equal, and even attack bitcoin in a variety of ways with poor amorphous and inadequate descriptions of it, but in the end, value is still going to gravitate into bitcoin and you can take the long route of playing around with other projects that you believe are very similar to bitcoin or the shorter route that at least recognizes bitcoin as our savior king daddy in terms of actual foundational values.      Perhaps you will thank me later.

Bitcoin(digital currency) is the currency of the future. At the start of the last century, we used the coins of gold and silver. Then after it, paper currency takes its place . Time passed swiftly, The banks started the plastic money( ATM,s, credit cards, and master cards, etc. After soon the digital currency era started. At this time a large number of important banks, traders, businessmen are involved in the business of digital currency. In short, the future currency is ......the digital currency.

Excellent! This is exactly why I started this thread and wanted as many translations as possible!
Hope many more will come in the future!

As @tranthuding said, I already translated the topic, and you even commented there and share one resource (that I just added to the first post).

Regarding this topic, it proved it be useful in real life too. Few months ago my younger brother wanted to dive in crypto and didn't really knew where to start, so I just shared him topic. Few weeks later, he shared this topic to the couple of his buddies that wanted in as well .

I know, and I also merited that post when it was published.

I forgot to add it to the thread
Help me translate my best posts in your Local Board

Something I will do right now.
Thanks for the head-up
(wondering if I missed any other translation).

There you go

• 5 resursa za podučiti prosječnu osobu o Bitcoinu
• It is easily to find if you know the following tip with one of Hidden pages/ features on the forum

You can change the userID to others when you need to quickly search for topics of other users, exclusively yours. With this method, you'll get a list of topics first, then you have to search with keywords to narrow down the list.

Additionally, you can narrow down the list by specific board id.

Rikafip's list of topics in Croatian board

Hi fillippone,
Do you know if this thread of yours was translated into Croatian? I can see that Rikafip mentioned about wanting to have that resource in the local boards, but I don't remember seeing the thread in the Croatian sub. Did anyone tell you that they translated it? Rikafip?

I finally found a video I saw a lot of time ago: a very clear explanation of how a blockchain work, together with a complete website to play yourself:

Blockchain 101 - A Visual Demo



Summary:


Warning. Timesink!

Thank you, a nice wrap up for beginners that gives the right idea of increased involvement in the ecosystem when you enter the rabbit hole.
Added to OP.

Why you might want to own some bitcoin (and how to do it responsibly)
A curriculum developer’s guide to learning Bitcoin in 2021

https://davidventuri.medium.com/bitcoin-learning-path-9ed73f2f11d9 (10 min read)

Here’s an overview of the guide:

    Introduction to Bitcoin
    Skin in the game & off the exchange
    What is money?
    Choose your own adventure
    I’m still having doubts
    Improve your self-custody setup
    Practice with testnet
    Buy more bitcoin
    Upgrade your opsec
    Join the community
    Next steps

Prerequisites:

    Mobile device (Android or iOS)
    Internet connection
    Email address
    Bank account

The section "Choose Your Own Adventure" includes some of the author's personal favorites as of January 14, 2021.
The resources are sorted into five groups.

    Technology
    Finance
    Economics
    Price projections
    Society
    Law & Politics

I stumbled upon it by a pure chance and I am for sure glad I did! While checking those resources you provided I thought it would be a good idea to have that in my local board since we can expect influx of new people now when BTC reached all time high.

As you, I also think that local boards are important part of bitcointalk and can help spread the word about bitcoin greatly. Not just because it is nice to be able to talk in your native language and therefore express yourself better, but also because when you are newbie bitcointalk can be initimidating place and having a place like that can help. I know it helped me at the beginning and I am probably not the only one.

Thanks, Rikafip,
it's nice to see a thread of your still looked after so much time: it means it is still helpful to other users.
Of course, the broken link was caused by a typo in the BBC code. I took the opportunity to correct a few other typos here and there.

Hey @fillippone!

I was going through those resources in the first post, and I noticed that link for one of them is broken, more specifically this one so I thought that maybe you want to update it.


Text is still there on the same website, here is the link
https://dergigi.com/2020/04/27/dear-family-dear-friends/

How could I forget a true masterpiece:

21 Lessons What I've Learned from Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole

https://21lessons.com/

by Gigi

Available for free online, printed edition on Amazon or even audiobook.
A few translation also available.

From https://dergigi.com/2020/04/27/dear-family-dear-friends/ which I found to be a tremendous introduction.

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This post is eligible for my project:



If you think you can help here, just visit the thread!

^By the way, no one click on Velkro's link there. It's a scam site.^
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=303026

Great list. It was missing before, a list so even very non-computer person could understand.
Andreas Antonopoulos is great example on this list, his oratoral skills are exceptional and he can explain Bitcoin as easy as breathing. Real talent.
Thank you for creating this.

https://medium.com/@Ravi_21M/how-i-introduce-a-newbie-to-bitcoin-4b473224af90

This is almost opposite to most of your resources thus far; very conversational (some Indian-English) and easy going, could be ideal for some guys.

I just want to share summary of Top 5 Website News of Cryptocurrency which newbie need to follow.
The reason is due to the Blockchain Technology and also the Cryptocurrency are keep updating and the regulation also keep changing.

In this article, they mention about Coindesk, Cointelegraph, CCN, Blockonomi and also Cryptovest.
To know details please refer to below links.


https://maishince.online/top-5-cryptocurrency-news-website/

Thanks!

I found another very good resource:

https://learnmeabitcoin.com/

I found this answer of a F.A.Q. particularly enlightening:

This is put together by a Bitcointalk forum user:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15174011

It's a great list, but I don't think there's many average joe's would be able to process it. I just don't see how people without computer science background are going to learn about hash functions and elliptic curves, most will just give up. This is not to say that something is wrong with those resources, but Bitcoin is pretty hard to understand, and people who work on Bitcoin software should take this into account and try to make it more friendly to average joe's whenever possible.

Loop.net is a great resource,it is like an encyclopedia of links to bitcoin learning

Coindesk now has a good beginner resource https://www.coindesk.com/information

Blockgeeks : Owned by Ameer Rosic,Blockgeeks trains people to be developers and also have free guides on everything crypto and blockchain

I have that one, more than one year ago: Available courses on Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology from colleges and Universities. The list contains courses from traditional courses to online ones (free or paid). People can start off with free courses first, then if they feel that they need more, paid courses to go. Lastly, they can choose to go to colleges/ universities to learn about blockchain if after first two steps, they become a real blockchain enthusiast

This thread should be stickied at the root of the forum.

Wow thx

Added another very interesting resource thanks to Mic!
Thank you again bro!

Slightly edited a description of an additional resource to better describe it.
Thanks Micgoossens for the input.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.52265437

I updated the OP adding references to the previously mentioned article and Binance Academy.

Found another interesting article:

The Bullish Case for Bitcoin

Interesting also because a few translation are already available, so it can help someone who doesn’t understand English.

Interesting write-up. I just gave you the merit for making me laugh and remember how I was 2 years back. When I heard of bitcoin for the first time, I felt like "I am gonna solve the cryptography SHA256 problem and find a number (nonce) which can decode the hash lower than the current target and subsequently I can earn the 12.5 btc easily."  Isn't that an absolute trash? So was I and many of us back in the early days of gaining knowledge on what is bitcoin and blockchain. It would be difficult to teach the newbies and make them understand unless they have the interest on learning the technology behind the bitcoin. Rather we can help them in understanding how important bitcoin is for the digital world and carrying out payments globally in a decentralized way.

Not every one of us needs to worry about the technical aspects of bitcoin and OTOH we shouldn't be forcing anyone to understand the technical aspects of cryptography, the code, the algorithms, the mining etc for investing in them. Rather we can teach them "Why we need Bitcoin for a better world?", The economic aspects, the decentralization and the trust model. Decades and centuries back we were thinking of a possible way to communicate with people residing in other end of the world in a cheaper and more faster way and they were realized by the invention of Internet, so is Bitcoin! The money we have is not controlled by any of the governments, can send payments all over the world in a go, a decentralized currency for the global population created by the people and for the people.

Both "The Internet of Money" volumes are a perfect read for people who are not technically strong in the code and willing to learn "Why should they use Bitcoin" and minimize their usage of fiat money.

Thank you LoyceV and bitmover for your inputs.

I agree that you don't need to understand bitcoin to invest in it.
Actually, this is true for every investment: you don't need to understand stock market to put money in it, and you don't need to understand fiat money to hold and use it for your everyday life.

But, this is recipe for disaster: not understanding the things you are putting your money into is the shortcut for an inevitable loss.

This is why I want to have at least a basic understanding on how  things work before putting my money into it.
In addition to that, bitcoin si something of a paradigm shift: it's brand new asset class and you need to think in a "strange" ways to many things you already know: the most important one being the money.

So this is something I want to do: give everyone a little bit of "start" in understanding Bitcoin. As bitmover said, everyone can approach  Bitcoin from very different angles, and be drawn into if by really different aspects: as the average Joe actually doesn't exist I want everyone to  find their "own" explanation in the provided resources.

There's a great responsibility in owning bitcoin. You gain financial sovereignty, but this comes at a cost: you have to understand how you gained it.
Otherwise is another slavery.

*Andreas Antonopoulos - Introduction to bitcoin .... and some more

*Saifedean Ammous - The bitcoin standard

Always good to hear and read...

I agree with this, get a wallet and start using it is certainly a good start.


I think "Average Joe" is a somehow a useless term. This average Joe doesn't exist, and everyone imagine this guy different (it depends on your country, your profession, your culture, etc)


Yesterday i was talking to a very intelligent friend of mine, who is an engineer. He asked me about bitcoin, and he was saying it wasn't backed up in anything, nerd money, worthless, everyone could create one etc.... He was basically asking for technical stuff, he wanted to understand why it is valuable and unique.

I had to explain to him about mining, proof of work, transactions, cryptography (public and private keys), hash.. and he liked it, he began to understand what is bitcoin about. He is not an "average joe", but who is ?

Explaining bitcoin to people always depend to who you are talking to.

Although you have listed some useful resources, I completely disagree with you
I don't think the average Bitcoin user needs to know how Bitcoin works. All they need is a wallet, and start using it. There are some pitfalls, but modern wallets take care of most of them already.
Back to the example of your mom: give her a funded paper wallet, ask her to install a wallet on her phone, make sure the backup phrase is secured, and let her sweep the funds from the paper wallet into the phone wallet. After that, she can use Bitcoin!

Of course there's the generic "don't invest more than you're willing to lose" (Google gives 86 million hits so I'm not quoting a specific source here), but that goes for all investments.

You should try to explain the basics in a few sentences, like: "Bitcoin is electronic cash, you and only you are responsible for your own money, there is no undo-button, the value can go up 1000% or down 90% in just a couple of months, and scammers are always trying to get it from you so be vigilant".
I don't think this has to be difficult, because that would mean Bitcoin would never be able to reach mass adoption. And if you think Bitcoin is difficult, try explaining fiat money! I'm still flabbergasted when I think of a private organisation that prints our money out of thin air, which caused almost any human and any government to be in eternal debt. The fiat money system is much more difficult to understand than Bitcoin. Makes you wonder why they never explained that in school doesn't it?

Thank you, it's a great contribution, but i think it can't make in the top 5, on Lopp resource website there's a link to a very similar quide from Coindesk.

Other example of excluded, yet valuable, resource:
Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology: Economics and Environmental Sustainability

When it come to teaching the average Joe from my perspective I usually do refer them to cointelegraph's Bitcoin 101 after I must have given them some pointers on what bitcoin is all about via personal lectures. I conclude by linking them to bitcointalk, a forum where they can build on the knowledge they must have acquired from other sources and for those who're interested in other platforms I give them this link; Where to discuss bitcoin which is also a part of the Cointelegraph's bitcoin101.

I often find myself in the difficult situation of answering this question:
"I heard about this Bitcoin thing, how can I buy it?"

Well, I don't like taking unnecessary risks, and buying bitcoin without knowing anything about it is, like every other "investment without knowledge" a golden path to losing your money.

So I want my mom/average Joe to have a basic understanding of what bitcoin is, before even thinking about buying some.
The problem that explaining Bitcoin is difficult; bitcoin is at the crossroad of cryptography, Economic and Monetary Theory, Game Theory, Computer Networking and data transmission.  Having knowledge of one of these fields not only is difficult, but also bias your explanation, and this might screw up the process.(if I know more about Cryptography, I would weight more this aspect, but It's not a guarantee this is the one would trigger my counterpart).

So here I want to post a collection of 5 resources (articles, videos, Twitter account, portals, you name it) where to head my potential investors.


This is the list.
My idea is to constantly update it as new materials comes online and according to your suggestions:

• Lopp.net Bitcoin Information & Resources
  A collection of resources about Bitcoin, from the basic reading (white Paper) to more advanced and very technical ones, both written articles and videos/animations from Jameson Lopp, Professional Cypherpunk (pls note Cypherpunk, not Cyberpunk)
  
  
• Bitcoin for Beginners
  A playlist of introductory videos from Andreas Antonopoulos, covering a different aspect of Bitcoin, what is it, how to buy, where and how to store it...
  
  
• Modeling Bitcoin's Value with Scarcity
  A Basic, simple and yet fascinating model to value Bitcoin. Not financial advice.
  
  
• The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
  A fascinating read, totally non-technical and not directly related to Bitcoin: if you don’t fall in love with Bitcoin after reading this, you never will.
  
  Quote from: fillippone on March 05, 2020, 08:45:29 PM
  I am a strong believer in the utility of local boards.
  I am lucky enough to be able to express myself in at least a couple of languages, but I know this is not the case for everyone.
  A lot of users post only in the local boards because of a variety of reasons either language or cultural barriers, lack of interest or whatever other reason.
  I personally know a lot of very good users (from the Italian sections mainly, for obvious reason) who doesn't post in the international sections.
  
  I think all those users are missing a lot of good contents posted on the international (English) section or on other boards.
  
  If you think you can help here, just visit the thread!