Bitcoin: A Simple Guide for Beginners: What You Need to Know About Bitcoin;

A simple introduction to Bitcoin.

This book is a simple introduction to Bitcoin and assumes minimal technical knowledge.

Shorter companion pieces to this are:

Bitcoin’s network in one infographic
Inside bitcoin’s blockchain (infographic)
A gentle introduction to Bitcoin mining
In the popular media, you will often read comments like “Bitcoins are stored in a digital wallet”, or “You can send money using blockchain technology”. These comments can be misleading and can confuse. By the end of this, you should understand enough to participate in a dinnertime conversation about bitcoin, and not be mystified by the topic.


Bitcoin
Although people refer to bitcoin as a decentralized digital currency, I prefer to think of it as an electronic asset, to sidestep questions around which government backs it and who sets the interest rate, which is often a mental block in understanding Bitcoin.

As an electronic asset, you can buy bitcoins, own them, and send them to someone else. Currently (Sep 2015) there are around 14 million bitcoins that have been created, increasing by 25 bitcoins every 10 minutes or so, with an agreed limit of 21 million, the last of which should be created a little before the year 2140.