Topic: Is it possible to understand bitcoin deeply without having an IT background? (Read 348 times)

i'm not interested in the actual nuts and bolts and it's doubtful i'll ever get a proper grasp of it.

what's truly interesting to me is the human factor - bitcoin's acceptance, how people will choose to use it, who will embrace, who will oppose it.

i'll never have the technical understanding others have so i'll leave them to it. if something really important comes up i'll wait for a ELI5.

I don't think you need an IT background at all.

A mathematic background is much more necessary to understand the advancements that bitcoin uses (second possibly only to a high level computer science award - as in a pre-university level computer science that's at a greater level than general understanding as it needs to include priv key and pub key encryption)

For sure it is possible, now days you don't really need to school to learn a thing, you only need dedication because all the info is already on the web. In my personal experience wasn't easy, when i join to bitcoin world i used to be a script kiddie who only can do some simple scripts with bash linux, and after 4 years i have learned JS and become a backend developer. The trick is to learn what you can do and what you can't, that's all, once you already learn the rules and how this machine works then limit is the imagination.

Isn't easy, no one say it would be, but with patience and dedication is possible.

the only problem is if the interpreter of the code is lying to you, otherwise it's just super simple... but again if the interpreter of the code lie to you, how could you know what is really going on.

if you want something more complex, but still easy, try prefetching.

anyway some don't understand... a chick comes from an egg... and the egg come from the hen with the help of the cock.

Bitcoin is a multi-functional system. It is a payment service, and it isn't too difficult to gain sufficient knowledge to utilise this. It is 'intelligent money' and to take advatage of this, you need to have a deeper and more comprehensive knowledge, especially if you want to become involved in it's evolution. It is a store of wealth, and you don't really need to have any knowledge to take advantage of this. However, I think the greatest challenge is in understand the macro-economic changes that Bitcoin has brought to the world. It has created an alternative to the corrupt fiat sytem that gives sovereign states the chance to break free of the current system of debt slavery.

I've been learning about Bitcoin since I was 15! It was all very new and confusing at first (and this was back in 2013... it's evolved so much since then), but overtime, and by asking questions and participating in communities, I began to learn more and more. I now have several years of Computer Science teachings, but that more or less came as wanting to learn a broader education in the field of what I find so fascinating. I consider myself more knowledgeable than most in the space, and that has little to do with my other knowledge of CS.

Thanks for your replies, especially for this one:


I had watched some of his YouTube videos before writing this post, but I hadn’t read his book. I’ve started reading it (I’m half way) but I’m sure it will take me a lot of effort to understand the code developers use. I’m just skipping those parts, as he suggests, because I don’t understand anything.

Anyway, I’ll keep learning slowly but steadily and I’ll re-read it in the future trying to understand those parts.


I also think those courses are a good idea, I hope some about the technical aspects of bitcoin are published at some point and I can use them.

I'm an ex mainframe software and systems designer/programmer. I wrote mainly in assembler language, and a bit of PL/1. I was an early member of the British Computer Society. I moved into hardware sales, and I didn't keep up with the changes. Most of my knowledge is now pretty redundant - who wants to know about interrupt stack handling these days. I'm way behind on things like SHA256 and merkle trees.

What I have found is that you need to do some hands on experiments, and if you don't understand something, then read about it. You can also ask questions here on Bitcoin Talk, and there are some helpful and knowledgeable members ( What happened to Danny Hamilton and Shorena? ). Theymos has suggested that we should have some courses here, and that is a great idea. I think that joint educational projects is another alternative for learning, and that is why I am keen to start my Onkly project. It's as much for my educations as well as for other members here.

I explained "Bitcoin" to a 86 year old lady last week and she grasped it immediately. I helped her to setup a online Bitcoin

wallet and she is buying things online daily now. She cannot get enough of Bitcoin and she is constantly asking questions via

WhatsApp about Bitcoin. It is incredible how people evolve, if there is a incentive to do that. She wanted a safe method to buy

things online and now she is flying. 

You will understand everything if you try. Like you said, at first everything will be extremely confusing, but the more you start to go through everything (i mean taking the help of the internet to understand those specific technical parts) the better you will understand. But yeah, to go deeper you might need to have some basic knowledge of computer science.

"Of course I have IT experience!.... I read emails... write emails...reply to emails... delete emails..." - Jen Barber, The IT Crowd

Most people have some degree of background in IT and understanding Bitcoin (or any ALT for that matter) is not a boolean variable, but more of a grey shade. Let´s say that I know enough for what I need.

Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough. No one born lucky with an extra. There is nothing supernatural. It's us who guide us where to go 
We are the writer of our own history. When you say something impossible then you are actually limiting yourself. It's not gonna help you at all.


PS: No disrespect to satoshi and nullius by the way.

Well, I consider impossible to become like Satoshi even if you study hard lol
People think that Satoshi could also be a group of people.

Anyway, Satoshi creation was revolutionary, and now he made history.

Nullius is just a smart guy.

Can we rephrase it: Anyone can be nullius if they study for years. (Just a little positive reinforcement)

I wonder why did not you have satoshi in mind instead of nullius 

PS: By the way, what you said had nothing wrong at all. Hope it did not annoy you.

Yes it is.

I studied something totally unrelated to IT in the university. But I always liked computers, technology...

If you really want, just get this book:
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/book.asciidoc
Mastering bitcoin, from Andreas Antonopoulos. You can buy it on Amazon or just read it there for free.

It will explain you everything you need to know. There is one chapter in the book that he says that if you are not a professional coder, you can just skip it (he explains commands in Bitcoin Core software in this chapter)

After reading it, I even got a certification from https://cryptoconsortium.org/

So yes, everyone can learn how it works.

Deeply, well, it depends what do you call deeply... You will never be a nullius without studying for years....

I think it depends on personal level, do you REALLY want it to know (?), have extensive desire kind of stuffs.

I have a computer engineering degree. Early times in my professional career, I was expert in C/C⁺⁺, Java, VB/VB.NET, php, ASP.NET and some other computer languages. I have made complex desktop applications and all those sorts of stuffs. I gave up IT profession long ago but still I understand these tech stuffs very well than average joes. But honestly speaking I do not have much idea about the technical side of Bitcoin. I never had this interest at all. I had these times when I thought: ok - that's it! I am going to dig it deep and then again I thought ya screw it LOL. So, still I do not have much idea and I do not feel to learn the technical side either. May be someday I will and then I will figure out that I had it.

My point is, you do not have to study computer science and engineering to understand something these days. You need your interest. Do you find it interesting to break down technical stuffs of bitcoin? Do you find it fascinating when you study the technical stuffs? If yes - then you will find everything online. You just need to know how to find stuffs online and you will figure this out too once you start.

I was never a marketing person as I said my study was computer engineering but I had this extensive desire to become a marketing professional and I turned one without even studying Business studies.

So yes, IT IS possible  

I have not an IT background and, at first, everything about bitcoin protocol seemed a puzzle to me. As time goes by, and I read more, what seemed unintelligible before, starts to make some sense. But I’m wondering if I will be able to understand it deeply without having studied computer science.

Do you think it is possible? Has any of you done it?