Bitcoin and Blockchain Basics: An Introduction to Cryptocurrency and Its Underlying Technology (English)
A comprehensive introductory work covering the history of monetary evolution, digital payment systems, cryptographic principles, and blockchain technology, providing an authoritative and clear academic framework for understanding the nature and applications of cryptocurrencies.
Detail
Published
22/12/2025
Key Chapter Title List
- Introduction: Some Definitions
- Money
- Digital Currency
- Cryptography
- Cryptocurrency
- Digital Tokens
- Blockchain Technology
- Initial Coin Offering
- Investment
- Conclusion
Document Introduction
This report is an authoritative introductory work that systematically explains the core concepts of Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the author, Anthony Lewis, is dedicated to providing readers without specific professional backgrounds with a clear and accurate foundational knowledge framework. The report emphasizes the inherent complexity of this field, whose understanding requires the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge from economics, law, computer science, finance, history, and geopolitics, while acknowledging the challenge of maintaining absolute precision in a rapidly changing environment. The book aims to maintain a neutral stance, neither exaggerating the potential of the technology nor overly criticizing it, guiding readers to form independent judgments based on facts.
The report begins by examining the nature of money and its historical evolution, delving into the threefold functions of money as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. It uses this framework to evaluate the performance of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. By reviewing the long history from barter, commodity money, representative money to fiat currency, the report reveals the universal pattern of the continuous evolution of monetary forms and the recurring phenomena of devaluation and reform. Building on this, the report critically assesses Bitcoin's suitability as money, pointing out its limited acceptance as a medium of exchange, high volatility as a store of value, and significant shortcomings as a unit of account, while also acknowledging its revolutionary innovation in enabling value transfer without specific intermediaries.
Subsequently, the report shifts to an in-depth analysis of existing digital payment systems, detailing the actual operational mechanisms of interbank payments, cross-border settlements, and currency exchange, including core concepts such as peer-to-peer transfers, correspondent bank accounts, and central bank real-time gross settlement systems. This section reveals the reality of the traditional financial system being highly centralized, hierarchical, and suffering from financial exclusion in certain regions, providing crucial context for understanding the double-spending problem Bitcoin attempts to solve and its peer-to-peer, permissionless transaction model.
On the technical level, the report dedicates considerable space to introducing the fundamentals of cryptography, including encryption and decryption, hash functions, and digital signatures, which form the cornerstone for understanding the security mechanisms of cryptocurrencies. Following this, the core section of the report provides a detailed explanation of Bitcoin's operational mechanism. It offers a systematic, step-by-step exposition of its design goals, the essence of the whitepaper, the account system, transaction structure, Proof-of-Work consensus, mining incentives, blockchain linking, the longest chain rule, and strategies to prevent double-spending attacks. Simultaneously, the report objectively points out the practical decentralization limitations of the Bitcoin network in areas such as node software concentration, mining hash power centralization, and protocol upgrade processes.
Finally, the report outlines different types of blockchain technology and their potential application scenarios, briefly introduces the classification of digital tokens and the process of Initial Coin Offerings, and highlights various risks associated with cryptocurrency investment. The book concludes with open-ended reflections on the future forms of money, emphasizing that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as a supplement to the existing monetary system or a new asset class, will have their ultimate role determined by practical utility and market acceptance. This report provides an indispensable foundational knowledge framework and critical analytical perspective for scholars, policymakers, investors, and enthusiasts who wish to move beyond superficial hype and gain a deep understanding of the essence of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.