Here’s a collection of materials that will help with your basic understanding of blockchain technologies and digital currency.
Intro
New Yorker - The Invention of Money - 20-minute article/audo on the development of money and the modern banking system
Blockchain explained by Reuters
Bitcoin tech intro from Ars Technica
CoinCenter’s Background Summaries
An Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets - PDF
CoinCenter’s Paper on Bitcoin for policymakers in the US - PDF
We also collected some summaries from different sources and compiled them into Bitcoin Summary
Are you a developer? Here’s a good smart contract intro for you.
Books and Articles
2015 - Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper
For someone with no experience in digital currencies, we always recommend starting with Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper. Originally published in 2015, it’s getting more and more outdated, but still remains an entertaining read that gives you an appreciation of the space, quick overview of the technology behind Bitcoin and its major players.
2017 - How Money Got Free by Brian Patrick Eha
A more recent book with similar narrative.
2018 - The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
The latest plain-language Bitcoin book.
Mainstream News
To start, you can follow Inca Digital’ news feed. It has selected plain-language articles for non-technical readers.
YouTube Videos/Channels/Podcasts
Epicenter - interviews with the major players.
Forbes Unchained is another good podcast.
Videos that explain Bitcoin
5 minutes on why Bitcoin is important - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g1XFU8Gto
45-minute talk on why Bitcoin is important in finance - https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ONvg9SbauMg
How Bitcoin works in 5 minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jOJk30eQs&t=32s
30-minute explanation with moderate technical detail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4
45 minute documentary by Square 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJmd_tNhlM
1 hour documentary by Vice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNssKmeXrGs
Another side of Bitcoin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8kua5B5K3I
Blockchain RSS
To keep up with the latest blockchain tech developments, you might want to follow our RSS feed. It’s a mix of blogs and twitter accounts of the main people in the space. The posts are often very technical, but it’s still a good place to start building your own RSS feed by following people you understand.
Ask @evgenyd for access to our shared Inoreader account that has over 500 blockchain-related feeds.