Chapter 16
IN THIS CHAPTER
Comparing cryptocurrency exchange rates
Using mining profitability estimation tools
Looking at cryptocurrency specific Wiki’s
Understanding cryptocurrency White Papers
Reviewing various visualization resources
A ton of helpful resources are online for aspiring cryptocurrency miners or those interested in learning more on the topic. We have split them into ten different categories, from resources that can help you track the price of cryptocurrencies to cryptocurrency whitepapers. Reviewing these resources can keep you busy for many happy hours!
Following are sites that provide aggregated exchange rates and market capitalization for cryptocurrencies, a few of the more reliable sources in the industry. Note that in some cases exchanges have fed bad data to the tracking sites, but in general the data is good:
https://coincap.io
www.coinlore.com
https://coinmarketcap.com
www.cryptocompare.com
https://messari.io/screener
www.worldcoinindex.com
We discussed how to calculate cryptocurrency mining profitability in Chapter 11, and we also cover how to use mining profitability tools found online. Use these tools often when considering which cryptocurrency to mine and when thinking about expanding. Here is a quick list of some popular profitability tools:
https://insights.braiins.com
www.coinwarz.com/mining/calculators
https://whattomine.com/calculators
Reddit is among one of the top social media sites for cryptocurrency communities to discuss and debate the trending topics of the day. In this section, we give you a list of some of the top cryptocurrency Reddit pages.
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoincash
www.reddit.com/r/dashpay
www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin
www.reddit.com/r/ethereum
www.reddit.com/r/litecoin
www.reddit.com/r/zec
Blockchain explorers provide an easy way to audit blockchains directly from your web browser. They can search for blocks, transactions, hashes, and addresses. In this section, we offer a list of useful Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain explorers. For other cryptocurrencies, try a search engine query. Many smaller cryptocurrencies are not popular enough to have explorers, but some do. We include a few explorers for small blockchains you’ve perhaps never heard of at the bottom of the list.
www.blockchain.com/explorer
https://blockchair.com
https://live.blockcypher.com/btc
https://blockstream.info
https://btc.cryptoid.info/btc
https://mempool.space
https://oxt.me
https://tradeblock.com/bitcoin
www.etherchain.org
https://etherscan.io
https://blockchainexplorer.lykke.com
https://chainz.cryptoid.info/slr
While blockchain explorers are good resources for finding textual and numerical data for your favorite blockchains, some creative individuals have taken this concept a step further. There are many visually appealing data visualizations for the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space. Here are some of our favorites:
https://info.elliptic.co/hubfs/big-bang/bigbang-v1.html
www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~dmcginn/adjmat.html
https://blocks.wizb.it
https://bitcoin.sipa.be
http://bitcoin.interaqt.nl
https://bitcointicker.co/networkstats
https://bitnodes.io
https://coin360.com
https://mempool.space
https://oxt.me/landscapes
https://statoshi.info
Cryptocurrency data, comparisons, and statistics websites can be very useful, helping you to compare between cryptocurrencies. Here are several good cryptocurrency data aggregators:
https://markets.bitcoin.com/crypto/BCH
https://bitcoinvisuals.com
https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume
https://bitinfocharts.com/cryptocurrency-charts.html
https://coin.dance
www.coindesk.com/data
https://charts.coinmetrics.io/network-data
www.crypto51.app
https://howmanyconfs.com
Wikipedia has pages for most of the top cryptocurrencies, but these pages are often fairly short descriptions and not a deep dive resource that can cover every aspect of a typical cryptocurrency. Not to worry — some cryptocurrencies have their own (or multiple!) Wiki-style directories that define many of the terms and aspects associated with that cryptocurrency.
Some of the following Wikis also cover other cryptocurrencies. For example, BitcoinWiki has information on not only Bitcoin, but many other cryptocurrencies, too.
https://en.bitcoin.it
https://en.bitcoinwiki.org
https://wikicryptocoins.com/currency/Main_Page
www.indexuniverse.eu/the-ethereum-wiki
https://eth.wiki
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki
https://litecoin.info
The Bitcoin and cryptocurrency explosion that has occurred over the past decade all started out with Satoshi Nakamoto’s release of his idea to the Cypherpunk Mailing List (archives found at https://mailing-list-archive.cryptoanarchy.wiki
), some code, and an accompanying whitepaper.
Since then, many (countless?) whitepapers have been released, describing a wide variety of cryptocurrency and blockchain systems. We have compiled a short list of links to read some of the most popular cryptocurrency whitepapers over the past decade. You can search for others, of course, but many cryptocurrencies were launched without whitepapers (Litecoin and Dogecoin, for example).
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140111180823/http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper
www.getmonero.org/library/Zero-to-Monero-1-0-0.pdf
http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf
This site contains the entire known writings of Satoshi Nakamoto (whoever he/she/they is/are!; see Chapter 1), along with numerous other documents that “serve to contextualize Bitcoin into the broader story of cryptography and freedom.” It’s required reading and a great way for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to go down the rabbit hole: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/literature
.
A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto, written by Eric Hughes, is a foundational document that many cryptographers and cryptocurrency users have read over the years. It’s an interesting introduction to the politics behind the origins of cryptocurrency: www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html
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After 13 years of Bitcoin, if anyone claims they completely understand Bitcoin, they’re either fooling you or fooling themselves. Bitcoin is a nice, humbling lesson in lifelong learning. Even as we type these words, we know we can’t cover everything about Bitcoin, and we’ve likely missed many important details, but the following resources should help. As the common Bitcoin saying goes, “Stay Humble, Stack Sats.”
There are more education resources available now than there ever have been for Bitcoin. It is easier than ever to become a basic Bitcoiner. Here are some of our favorite repositories of resources and learning tools:
www.cryptoofcourse.com
www.21lectures.com
www.bitcoinedu.com
https://learn.saylor.org/course/view.php?id=468
www.hope.com
www.bitcoinlessons.org
https://saifedean.com/eco21
www.bitcoinsupport.com
www.youtube.com/c/BTCSessions
www.casebitcoin.com
www.lopp.net
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/talks
https://teachbitcoin.io