Guidance for New Bitcoiners on the Technical Aspects of Bitcoin

Hey... So this thread is for anyone who's ever wondered: 1. How do I start learning about the technical side of Bitcoin? 2. Where do developers and protocol researchers kick things off? 3. What resources or hands-on projects can help me grasp concepts like Bitcoin Core, scripting, consensus, mempools, and more? I've been diving into the Development & Technical Discussion section lately, just browsing and trying to catch up with the conversations, but honestly, a lot of it goes over my head. Not because I’m not interested or don’t want to learn, but I'm kinda lost on where to start... lol. And I bet I’m not the only one. A lot of folks here, especially the newbies, have a solid grasp of the basics. They know why Bitcoin is important, how it tackles issues like inflation and government control, and the whole decentralization thing. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of how Bitcoin actually works on a technical level like what mempools are, the mechanics of mining, consensus rules in code, how UTXOs operate, or how a soft fork is implemented many just feel totally confused. They want to learn but have no idea where to begin. There’s no clear path. That’s why I'm starting this discussion. I’m hoping for input from those who really understand Bitcoin on a technical level the devs, the protocol researchers, the contributors... what would you suggest for someone just starting out?

This question have been asked many times on this forum, so i'll just give short answer. I'm just a geek though, not actual expert/professional. The common suggestion is to start by visiting "learn me a bitcoin" website[1] or reading Mastering Bitcoin book[2]. Both of them are available for free and legal. Jameson Lopp website have long list of technical information[3]. If you're looking for discussion or progress of certain topic, Bitcoin Optech[4] is also decent source. [1] https://learnmeabitcoin.com/ [2] https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook [3] https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/technical-resources.html [4] https://bitcoinops.org/

This question should set you straight! What is your reason for wanting to learn the technical part of bitcoin ? to impress the Bitcointalk community? or to have the root knowledge of bitcoin that in future you can be part of the guys who will inculcate the newer guys bitcoin tech? You have to have a good purpose for what you want then the resources @ABCbits provide above will be very useful to you, and the dedication to read them and practicalise what you read will give you the clear part. As time goes by you will find more resources to read while reading the above resources, Learnmeabitcoin.com is more like an ELI5 approach.

I just want to add more source from the link provided by ABCbits above to learn more about technical and development. Here's the link: https://github.com/yjjnls/awesome-blockchain All you need must be there, including other crypto like Ethereum and Monero. To learn development, you can try read this: DIY Build Your Own Blockchain.

One resource I have enjoyed a lot when I read it (several years ago, it's an old article) is Bitcoin the Hard Way. It is not for complete newbies, more for people which have already a bit of technical background (know how a programming language works) and already understand the basic concepts, but want to know how everything works "under the hood". So it's a possible next step after reading the resources provided by ABCbits. Basically the article is a collection of short Python scripts, which show you how to create a transaction manually without any software, connect to real Bitcoin nodes to broadcast it to the network, and so on. So you can see how a transaction really looks like, and what are the steps the nodes take to ensure communication between them flows smoothly. Another resource I enjoyed are some ELI5-style comics and presentations from X accounts, which are shared often in this forum and give a short introduction into difficult topics, such as: https://x.com/BTCillustrated/ https://x.com/Bitcoin_Devs