Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the most discussed and least understood asset of the last two decades. Most people can tell you it is scarce and volatile. Far fewer can explain where the scarcity comes from, who enforces it, or why anyone believes it will hold. This course answers those questions mechanically rather than rhetorically. It covers the problem the 2008 paper set out to solve and what made the proposal novel. It explains mining and proof of work, and why the energy consumption is the security model rather than an inefficiency. It covers the difficulty adjustment that keeps blocks arriving on schedule no matter how much hardware joins the network, the halving timetable, and where the twenty-one million limit actually comes from — which is not where most people assume. It explains the UTXO model, the genuinely surprising fact that Bitcoin stores no account balances anywhere, and what that means for how transactions behave. Chapter 3 is hands-on. You will verify Bitcoin’s current supply yourself rather than taking a figure on faith, read a real transaction and reconcile its fee from the raw data, and watch the fee market move. The course then covers the limits honestly. The custody problem, and the millions of coins permanently lost to forgotten keys. The energy debate, presented from both sides. Scaling constraints and what has been built to work around them. Volatility, and the serious arguments for and against Bitcoin functioning as a store of value. It does not tell you what to conclude. It gives you the material to conclude something yourself. No prior technical knowledge is assumed. No programming, no mathematics beyond arithmetic, and no requirement to own or buy anything. Length: about 90 minutes · Format: written lessons, self-paced · Prerequisite: none · Access: All-Access Membership · Certificate: on completion. A note on order. Blockchain from First Principles covers the underlying technology and is useful before this course, but it is not required. This course stands on its own.