bitcoinbook/README.md

# Mastering Bitcoin

Mastering Bitcoin is a book for developers, but the first two chapters cover bitcoin at a level that is approachable to non-programmers. Anyone with a basic understanding of technology can read the first two chapters and get a great understanding of bitcoin.

This repository contains the complete [first edition](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/tree/first_edition), published in Dec 2014, and the complete [second edition](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/tree/second_edition), published in June 2017.

# Issues, Errors, Comments, Contributions

If you know how to make a pull request to contribute a fix, please write the correction and use a pull request to submit it for consideration against the [develop branch](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/tree/develop). Otherwise, please submit an issue, explaining the error or comment. If you would like to contribute extensive changes or new material, please coordinate with the author first. Contact forms can be found on his website https://antonopoulos.com/

# Reading this book (Where is the PDF?)

To read this book, see book.asciidoc. Click on each of the chapters to read in your browser. This is not as convenient as reading a PDF or an ebook on your e-reader. Convenience costs money (see below).

The 2nd edition of "Mastering Bitcoin" is available under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, not a CC-BY-SA license.

It is deliberately not available as a PDF. Why? Because a PDF is a "derivative" product, which is what the ND prohibits. That's because the publisher (O'Reilly Media) is a for-profit publisher and puts considerable resources behind distributing the book. The book will eventually (within a year of publication) be released under a CC-BY-SA license, at which point PDF and translations will be allowed. Until then, making PDF copies violates the license and hurts the publisher's (and the author's) ability to make a living. Furthermore, if you make it so the publisher can't recoup their investment, they will delay the release into CC-BY-SA.

Please don't create or distribute PDFs until the license is changed to CC-BY-SA. It is rare for a publisher to agree to even a CC-BY-NC-ND license. Don't make it harder for free culture by violating even that, already generous, license. 

# Published

"Mastering Bitcoin (Second Edition): Programming the Open Blockchain" is now available in paperback and e-book formats by many book sellers, worldwide:

* [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Bitcoin-Programming-Open-Blockchain/dp/1491954388)

Mastering Bitcoin (First Edition) is also published in Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified) by publishers in the respective countries.

Mastering Bitcoin (Open Edition), based on the First Edition has been translated by volunteers into more than a dozen languages. Translations are available for free under CC-BY-SA license on https://bitcoinbook.info

# Source

The book's source code, found in this repository, is kept synchronized with the print and ebook editions.

## Mastering Bitcoin - First Edition

The tags [Edition1Print1](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/releases/tag/Edition1Print1), [Edition1Print2](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/releases/tag/Edition1Print2) correspond to the two existing prints of the Mastering Bitcoin (First Edition) as published by O'Reilly Media.

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dct:title" rel="dct:type">Mastering Bitcoin - First Edition</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="http://antonopoulos.com/" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Andreas M. Antonopoulos LLC</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.

This "Free Culture" compliant license was approved by my publisher O'Reilly Media (http://oreilly.com), who understand the value of open source. O'Reilly Media is not just the world's best publisher of technical books but also a strong supporter of an open culture and the sharing of knowledge.

Thank you O'Reilly Media!

## Mastering Bitcoin - Second Edition

The [second_edition](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/tree/second_edition) branch, is the source for the published versions of Mastering Bitcoin (Second Edition).

The tag [second_edition_print_1](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/releases/tag/second_edition_print_1), corresponds to the first print of the second edition.

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">Mastering Bitcoin - Second Edition</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="https://antonopoulos.com/" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Andreas M. Antonopoulos LLC</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.

It is expected that the second edition will be released under a CC-BY-SA license within a year of publication.

# Translations

If you are interested in translating this book, please join a team of volunteers at https://www.transifex.com/bitcoinbook/mastering-bitcoin/
Free copies of "Mastering Bitcoin Open Edition", translated in many languages, can be downloaded from https://bitcoinbook.info