6 New Bitcoin Educational Resources

By Jon Matonis
Forbes
Monday, May 13, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/05/13/6-new-bitcoin-educational-resources/

In the fast-moving Bitcoin world, it’s crucial to stay up to date with the latest in educational resources and new media. The last two months have seen an explosion in media attention and a desire for new users to learn as much as possible about the global bitcoin economy. It is within this spirit that I present the latest Bitcoin educational resources to hit the web:

CoinDesk – This London-based resource and news operation aims to be the “Reuters of Bitcoin” according to its founder Shakil Khan. As an angel investor in Spotify and bitcoin startup BitPay, Khan noticed a gap in the news coverage for bitcoin and digital currencies in general when other entrepreneurs constantly questioned him about the bitcoin.

Also just last month, Khan assisted in orchestrating the sale of his mobile news gathering portfolio company, Summly, to Yahoo for approximately $30 million. Now, drawing on the experience of a few editors and freelance writers, CoinDesk largely covers the growing Bitcoin ecosystem for a general, non-technical audience. It still needs an RSS subscriber feed , but it is off to a brilliant start.

The Genesis Block – A welcome addition to the Bitcoin blogosphere, the writing is refreshing and sometimes technical. The Genesis Block claims to be your foundation for all things Bitcoin and they are a news and tutorial site covering mining, trading, economics, and businesses. The authors involved in the project include Phil Archer, Jonathan Stacke and Wayne Parker. Intentional or not, little else is known about the founders however they consistently crank out good content.

Bitcoin Education Project – The full name of this community-built resource is “Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto: The definitive guide to understand what the bitcoin is and why we should care about them.” Started by technology entrepreneur Charles Hoskinson and part of the Udemy network, this online Bitcoin course is one of many educational courses offered by the Udemy marketplace. The free course is organized into several mini-lectures covering Bitcoin basics and extending into specific topics such as wallets, mining, transaction fees, and cold storage. Interesting future content is crowd-funded on the site.

Khan Academy Bitcoin Series – Founded in 2008 by Salman Khan, the non-profit Khan Academy is on a mission to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Within the larger Finance and Capital Markets section, and then within the Money, Banking and Central Banks subsection, they currently offer a new 8-part Bitcoin series taught by Zulfikar Ramzan, a world-leading expert in computer security and cryptography. Receiving his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, Ramzan is currently the Chief Scientist at Sourcefire. Also, the interactive discussion below each lecture is particularly good.

Bitcoin Press Center – Launched by Andreas Antonopoulos as a sensible reaction to the bitter infighting regarding potential press contacts within the community, this resource supports multiple languages and time zones as well as targeted searches of individuals that have expressed a willingness to be available for media interviews. Billing itself as the global media center for Bitcoin and the best way to find a specific Bitcoin expert, the site accepts new nominations for Bitcoin experts with the only criteria being accuracy of their stated credentials and confirmation that they want to be listed.

Let’s Talk Bitcoin – This all-Bitcoin podcast is brand new on the scene and produced by Adam Levine, who has developed a loyal listener following in a short amount of time. Providing current news, topical interviews, and studied analysis, Adam is joined by Let’s Talk Bitcoin co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas Antonopoulos. The program started with an overly-ambitious daily schedule and is now available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which hopefully will prevent burnout. Listeners can also send in questions and comments.

Expertly produced and always knowledgeable, this important program is well on its way to becoming the de facto podcast for all things Bitcoin. My only complaint is that the audio hosting has jumped around a lot and it’s not always easy to find the segment that I’m looking for. Despite that, Let’s Talk Bitcoin is required listening and vitamins for your Bitcoin brain.