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Andreas M. Antonopoulos
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Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies 1st Edition

4.5 out of 5 stars 326 ratings

Want to join the technological revolution that’s taking the world of finance by storm? Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the requisite knowledge to help you participate in the internet of money. Whether you’re building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this practical book is essential reading.

Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its infancy and it’s already spawned a multi-billion dollar global economy. This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides you with the knowledge you need (passion not included).

This book includes:

  • A broad introduction to bitcoin―ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives
  • An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects
  • Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles
  • Offshoots of the bitcoin and blockchain inventions, including alternative chains, currencies, and applications
  • User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts

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  1. ISBN-10
    1449374042
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1449374044
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  5. Publication date
    January 13, 2015
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.32 x 0.66 x 9.17 inches
  8. Print length
    296 pages
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There is a newer edition of this item:

Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
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From the Publisher


The Extended Bitcoin Network

Different types of nodes on the extended bitcoin network

  • Reference Client
  • Full Block Chain Node
  • Solo Miner
  • Lightweight (SPV) wallet
  • Pool Protocol Servers
  • Mining Nodes
  • Lightweight (SPV) Stratum wallet

Intended Audience

This book is mostly intended for coders. If you can use a programming language, this book will teach you how cryptographic currencies work, how to use them, and how to develop software that works with them. The first few chapters are also suitable as an indepth introduction to bitcoin for noncoders—those trying to understand the inner workings of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

  • A broad introduction to bitcoin—ideal for non-tech users, investors, and business executives.
  • Technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects.
  • Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles.
  • Offshoots of the bitcoin and blockchain inventions, including alternative chains, currencies, and applications.
  • User stories, elegant analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When I talk about Bitcoin, I am sometimes asked 'but how does it really work?' Now I have a great answer for that question, because anybody who reads Mastering Bitcoin will have a deep understanding of how it works and will be well-equipped to write the next generation of amazing cryptocurrency applications" - Gavin Andresen, Chief Scientist, Bitcoin Foundation.

"Mastering Bitcoin is the best technical reference available on bitcoin today. And bitcoin is likely to be seen in retrospect as the most important technology of this decade. As such, this book is an absolute must-have for any developer, especially those interested in building applications with the bitcoin protocol. Highly recommended." - Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis), General Partner Andreessen Horowitz

"Bitcoin and blockchain technologies are becoming fundamental building blocks for the next generation internet. Silicon Valley's best and brightest are working on it. Andreas' book will help you join the software revolution in the world of finance." - Naval Ravikant, cofounder, AngelList

"The invention of the Bitcoin Blockchain represents an entirely new platform to build upon, one that will enable an ecosystem as wide and diverse as the Internet itself. As one of the preeminent thought leaders, Andreas M. Antonopoulos is the perfect choice to write this book." - Roger Ver, Bitcoin Entrepreneur & Investor

AT&T Tech Channel offers a video review of "Mastering Bitcoin"youtu.be/aR3P50L8kjw

About the Author

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a noted technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin. As an engaging public speaker, teacher and writer,  Andreas makes complex subjects accessible and easy to understand. As an advisor, he helps startups recognize, evaluate, and navigate security and business risks.

Andreas literally grew up with the Internet, starting his first company, an early BBS and proto-ISP, as a teenager in his home in Greece. He earned degrees in Computer Science, Data Communications and Distributed Systems from University College London (UCL), recently ranked in the world's top 10 universities. After moving to the US Andreas co-founded and managed a successful technology research company, and in that role advised Fortune 500 company executives on networking, security, data centers and cloud computing. More than 200 of his articles on security, cloud computing and data centers have been published.

In 1990, Andreas started teaching on various IT topics in private, professional and academic environments. Andreas honed his speaking skills in front of audiences ranging in size from five executives in a boardroom to thousands of people in large conferences. With more than four hundred speaking engagements under his belt he is considered a world-class and charismatic public speaker and teacher. In 2014, he was appointed as a teaching fellow with the University of Nicosia, the first university in the world to offer a Masters Degree in Digital Currency. In this role, he helped to developed the curriculum and co-taught the course.

As a bitcoin entrepreneur, Andreas has founded a number of bitcoin businesses and launched several community open-source projects. He serves as an advisor to several crypto-currency companies. He is a widely published author of articles and blog posts on bitcoin, is a permanent host on the popular Let's Talk Bitcoin Podcast, and a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (January 13, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1449374042
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1449374044
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.16 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.32 x 0.66 x 9.17 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 326 ratings

About the author

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Andreas M. Antonopoulos

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos is an acclaimed author, speaker, educator, and one of the world’s foremost bitcoin and open blockchain experts. Andreas makes complex subjects accessible and easy to understand. He is known for delivering electric talks that combine economics, psychology, technology, and game theory with current events, personal anecdote, and historical precedent—effortlessly transliterating the complex issues of blockchain technology out of the abstract and into the real world.

In 2014, Antonopoulos authored the groundbreaking book, Mastering Bitcoin, widely considered to be the best technical guide ever written about the technology. His second book, The Internet of Money, unveiled the “why” of bitcoin—and became a bestseller on Amazon as did the follow up books The Internet of Money Volume Two, and The Internet of Money Volume Three. Mastering Ethereum, a technical guide to the Ethereum network, was published in late 2018. His most recent book Mastering the Lightning Network explains Bitcoin's second layer payment network. His books have been translated and published in 14 languages so far.

He is a teaching fellow with the University of Nicosia, serves on the Oversight Committee for the Bitcoin Reference Rate at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and has appeared as an expert witness in hearings around the world, including the Australian Senate Banking Committee and the Canadian Senate Commerce, Banking and Finance Committee.

As an entrepreneur, Andreas has founded a number of bitcoin businesses and launched several community open-source projects. He serves as an advisor to several bitcoin and crypto-currency companies. He is a widely published author of articles and blog posts on bitcoin, is a permanent host on the popular Speaking of Bitcoin Podcast, and a frequent speaker at technology and security conferences and meetups worldwide.

Andreas can be contacted via twitter (@aantonop) or via the contact forms on his website aantonop.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
326 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this Bitcoin book to be a brilliant resource, particularly as a starter guide to understanding its internals. Moreover, the book receives positive feedback for its technical content, with one customer noting it includes deep math and programming in C and network layers. Additionally, the explanations are clear and detailed, making it suitable for tech-savvy individuals.

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52 customers mention "Book content"52 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's content, describing it as a brilliant and definitive guide that serves as an excellent starting point for understanding Bitcoin internals, with one customer noting it serves as a reference manual for crypto enthusiasts.

"...There is a relatively quick transition from the basics of bitcoin into the gritty details...." Read more

"...It is excellent and if you want to learn Bitcoin, this is a great place to start...." Read more

"This is the book to have in order to really help explain bitcoin at different levels, depending upon your particular interest(s)...." Read more

"...Overall, this is probably the best single reference on bitcoin and a great place to start digging deeper ... looking forward to second edition." Read more

46 customers mention "Explanation quality"46 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's clear and detailed explanations, with one customer noting its direct and to-the-point language.

"...The language is direct and to the point so there is quite a lot of information packed into the 200 pages...." Read more

"...Otherwise, very well researched and clearly written." Read more

"This book has been a joy to work with. It is coherent, well structured, technically accurate, and offers a wealth of external resources that will..." Read more

"...Bitcoin (and the Blockchain) is in my mind one of the most powerful ideas to emerge in a long time, and Andreas is right there making this..." Read more

26 customers mention "Technical content"20 positive6 negative

Customers appreciate the technical content of the book, finding it suitable for tech-savvy individuals and developers, with one customer noting it includes deep math and programming in C and network layers.

"...reading those outlets IS important, but this book is key to jump start your understanding if you aren't a super genius (I'm not)...." Read more

"...Also recommended for novices in the space, just skip some of the deeper code stuff...." Read more

"...in a long time, and Andreas is right there making this incredible technology accessible to such a diverse set of audiences...." Read more

"...The later chapters get highly technical and assume you have a programming background...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Chris Kleeschulte
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best of breed regarding Bitcoin technical fundamentals
    Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    It's a pleasure for me to write this review. I don't know the author or have any affiliation with him or the businesses that he consults with. I can't say enough good things about this book. I actually got the paper version of this. If you are a technical sort of person, this book is for you. I would say if you do tech support, system admin, programming, system security or anything where you have a baseline knowledge of digital systems, then this book will be good for you. If you know nothing of computer systems, then you may want to work up to this book. This text goes into the nuts and bolts of Bitcoin, the protocol, payment system and crypto-systems. I don't want to scare anyone away, however. This is a very quick read (something like 260 pages). I am not certain if the reason for this is that Andreas is just a great writer and was able to condense a broad topic in very few pages -or- Bitcoin itself just isn't overly complicated and lends itself to a concise text. I do know that I started reading this book with a ton of knowledge about Bitcoin (I thought), yet I still got a ton of information. It was though this book tied a bunch of free-floating ideas that weren't linked before. Instead of endlessly reading the Bitcoin wiki, the Bitcoin Core (formerly Satoshi client) source code, changelogs, bitcointalk forum and attempting to piece all of that together, this book does all that for you. I do think that reading those outlets IS important, but this book is key to jump start your understanding if you aren't a super genius (I'm not). Undoubtedly, you will come away with more questions about cryptocurrencies then when you started the book, but this is what is beautiful about life sometimes. One questions unlocks many more. I feel, after reading this book, that I can have an intelligent discussion with some high level people in the cryptocurrency world. The sorts of questions that I can ask someone like Gavin Andresen go beyond "what wallet would you recommend" to "let's discuss set reconciliation and the its importance to the p2p world at large". I feel like I have the fundamentals down thanks to this book.
    63 people found this helpful
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  • William P Ross
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Goto Resource For Learning Bitcoin
    Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is definitely the Bitcoin book to get if you are interested in the inner workings of Bitcoin. The later chapters get highly technical and assume you have a programming background. There is a relatively quick transition from the basics of bitcoin into the gritty details.

    The language is direct and to the point so there is quite a lot of information packed into the 200 pages.

    A nice balance between code shown, diagrams, and explanations was provided throughout the book. In some cases the explanations could have used a little more depth as author explains some highly techincal ideas quickly. Still, this is the only real substantial Bitcoin book out there for now.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Nicholas Galunic
    4.0 out of 5 stars Solid
    Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I just finished reading this after listening to Antonoplouos on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. It is excellent and if you want to learn Bitcoin, this is a great place to start. It really shines when he goes into detail of how to use open source code to noodle around with the blockchain and the client. It is not perfect though. The order of it feels reversed. The first few chapters are hard to understand without having a broad understanding of Bitcoin already. Also, the text assumes the graphics are in color but they are not. This makes it hard to follow some of the examples. The online version of the book (free) is actually better for this reason. Finally, it lacks motivation for why the protocol is structured as it is. For instance, it's not really clear here why Proof of Work is necessary. This blog post does a much better job:
    http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/
    Otherwise, very well researched and clearly written.
    44 people found this helpful
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  • Eric Bravick
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource !
    Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This book has been a joy to work with. It is coherent, well structured, technically accurate, and offers a wealth of external resources that will continue to enhance the reader's understanding of the space. Highly recommended for anyone attempting to understand Bitcoin at a deep level. Also recommended for novices in the space, just skip some of the deeper code stuff. The book is well written enough so that even a novice will gain significant understanding from it.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Jeff Flowers
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is the book you'll want around when a friend/family member asks you...what is bitcoin.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is the book to have in order to really help explain bitcoin at different levels, depending upon your particular interest(s). Bitcoin (and the Blockchain) is in my mind one of the most powerful ideas to emerge in a long time, and Andreas is right there making this incredible technology accessible to such a diverse set of audiences. So when someone asks, "what is bitcoin?" - this is the book you'll want to reach for.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Richard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mastering Bitcoin
    Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    It is written for programmers who are interested in learning about Bitcoin. It’s ok for beginners but leans towards people who are more familiar with Bitcoin. There’s a lot of programming language in the book.
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  • Abel Brown
    4.0 out of 5 stars The best bitcoin reference but does lack depth in some areas
    Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent coverage of bitcoin. The reason for 4 stars rather than five is that the explanations are sometimes not great. The discussion of elliptic curves was particularly poor (fig 4.4 etc) and often security/encryption techniques are left dangling (e.g. RIPEMD160 etc ). A lot of hand waving going on. A lot of discussion of "what" but very sparse on the "why". Anyway, I purchased a few additional references which cover cryptography in detail to fill the gap. Overall, this is probably the best single reference on bitcoin and a great place to start digging deeper ... looking forward to second edition.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Josh Lehan
    5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best Bitcoin book out there
    Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    By far the best Bitcoin book out there. Ignore the flood of spam books out there, trying to cash in on the Bitcoin wave of hype, hastily written by people who don't know what they are talking about. If you want a Bitcoin book, get only this book. This book is written by a leading person in the Bitcoin community and is the real thing. Buy it without question.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars All the way into the details!
    Reviewed in Spain on May 21, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Quite good! Is a tough read since it goes all the way into the details, but then this is what I wanted, so I'm happy I got it. Really well explained. I miss a few cheat sheets, or take away recap at the end of each chapter to gather all the important info at once, as there is a LOT of info that you have to digest.
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  • Cliente de Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book
    Reviewed in Mexico on June 6, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The best book that I read about Bitcoin, the concepts are showing very practical and I could understand well, Andreas its an authority in Bitcoin
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  • Davide C
    5.0 out of 5 stars Completo
    Reviewed in Italy on December 13, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Penso sia fondamentale per capire le sottigliezze di questa grande invenzione che è il Bitcoin. Forse non per tutti, ma se hai un background tecnico questo libro è irrinunciabile.
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  • Sunny
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
    Reviewed in India on July 30, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    One of the best books for bitcoin. A must read for everyone interested to know more about cryptocurrencies
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  • Renato Martins
    5.0 out of 5 stars Obrigatório para devs que querem aprender Bitcoin
    Reviewed in Brazil on June 26, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Livro obrigatório para developers que querem aprender sobre o funcionamento do Biticoin. O autor, que é uma das principais referências da área, explica em um bom nível de detalhe o funcionamento de carteiras, transações, criptografia, segurança etc. Em breve vou adquirir a segunda edição também.
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