Further to #932117 I am going to share, week-by-week, the work I did to curate some beginner friendly eductional posts from Stacker News from over the years. These have been compiled into a "course syllabus," (i.e. a Stacker-News-Based-Course syllabus) for the student of the Bitcoin rabbit hole.

It has been called a 7-day course, although, it is for you to decide the appropriate intervals which you would like give yourself for each lesson. A thorough and extensive exploration of the resources provided in each lesson may be rather swift, or daunting, depending on your level of prior knowledge, enthusiasm and interest in the subjects. The point is to allow yourself to fall, as it were, into the proverbial rabbit hole, without losing track of your initial reasons for going there. Think of me as a rabbit-hole guide for those whose learning styles require a little bit of structure.¹

Lastly, as I post these, it would be great to get any feedback. Please feel free to let me know if any ideas here aren't any good - this is a work in progress - and share far and wide if you feel quite the opposite. The point here is to help those interested take their first baby-steps in learning about bitcoin.

Today's readings include a post from Oct 2023 that recounts some of the background of the arrest of Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht, who received a presidential pardon in January 2025, is credited by many bitcoiners as having established the first successful project integrating Bitcoin as internet-native money.

The second reading offers an introductory overview of some of the mores that are at the core of the bitcoin social movement, namely privacy, security, censorship resistance, inclusiveness and radical institutional distrust.

🎯 To develop an understanding and awareness for why bitcoin was developed

🎯 To study how the Silk Road implemented Bitcoin as an internet-native money

🎯 To inquire further into the mores at the centre of the bitcoin social movement, namely, privacy, security, censorship resistance, inclusiveness and radical institutional distrust

⚡️ 10 years after Ross Ulbricht's arrest for using Bitcoin on his website: #271272, by @nando ⚡️ The Philosophy of Bitcoin: #574573, by @IamSINGLE

👉 The Stacker @nando makes the case that Ulbricht's arrest was used to stigmatize bitcoin, and effectively make an example of challenge the state's absolute monopoly on financial transactions. Who else in recent history has similarly been made an example of?

👉 Part of Ulbricht's vision was to simulate an economic model that is not rooted in the state's instruments of force/coercion. Considering the historic background the war on drugs and the great financial crisis, what kinds of force/coercion do you think Ulbricht's project was addressing?

👉 Why do you think the social mores of bitcoiners exhibited in today's readings (privacy, inclusiveness, censorship resistance and institutional distrust) are generally not well represented in mainstream conversations about bitcoin? What sources do a better job of representing them? What media narratives are more predominant, from your experience?

👉 "Everyone gets bitcoin at the price they deserve," is a common adage used by bitcoiners. In this context, it's important to remember all the would-be millionaires (or billionaires) out there that spend their corn buying weed, drugs or pizza! At the time, nobody knew the future price of bitcoin.

⚡️ Who is Ross Ulbricht? Meet the creator of Silk Road!

⚡️ A Serious Discussion on Assange: #473226, by @thebitcoinbugle

⚡️ ₿itcoin - The 2nd Fire Discovery, by @DarthCoin

⚡️ Bitcoin Deaths

⚡️ Have fun tearing this apart, stackers: “BITCOIN: ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD”: #853706 by @frostdragon

⚡️ A Slice of Bitcoin History: The 10,000 BTC Pizza Story: #182542 by @baileyjakob