Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:00 pm

Just finished reading Bitcoin for the Befuddled and posted my review on Amazon. Here's the review and links.Great book for Bitcoin Newbies and beginning coders stepping into the Bitcoin Realm.Ok, there were a couple things I wasn't fond of in this book. There were lots of comic strip explanations, examples and metaphors. I felt some of the examples/metaphors were a little questionable but all in all the book really is great and a beneficial contribution to the space.The book covers:Wallets and Nodes are covered with light talk about Authoritative Nodes and SPV Nodes. Nodes are explained in a way that is sufficient for the Newbie or lesser informed Bitcoiner.Blockchain is explained decently but still simply enough that everyone gets it.Symmetric and asymmetric key encryption is demonstrated in a very simple way using easy to follow examples, step-by-step, walking you through the process and showing you how it relates to Bitcoin Signatures.Elliptic Curve Cryptography and where it lies within Bitcoin Address creation is covered in a layman's way so that anyone can get it.They go over Bitcoin Mining with pretty good detail and discourage mining for profit. The two authors describe details about hash rates and difficulty levels simply so that the average person can understand, but developers will benefit as well.Price volatility is also slightly covered with references to valuation increases and decreases over time. It's actually presented as a “Caveat emptor” but leaves you feeling very optimistic about the future of Bitcoin.Code writing is also covered. Node.js, Bitcoin Core Client deployment, Java, JSON-RPC are all very thinly covered but in a way a novice developer can get started and continue with research online. Great door opener for developers who haven't yet investigated Full Bitcoin Nodes and interacting with such.I am sure there was more covered in the book than I have listed here. I read it a while ago and haven't had the time to post my review until now. All in all I would tell everyone to add this book to their Bitcoin Collection from novices to experts.