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Jonathan_Graehl comments on General Bitcoin discussion thread (June 2011) - Less Wrong Discussion
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Yes, I had an ulterior motive in starting this topic right this moment. See, I'm trying to close the inferential gap in explaining Bitcoin to the layperson, so I wrote up a blog post explaining the relevant cryptographic pre-requisites. (It's based on discussions with an economist who plans to write about Bitcoin soon.)
I would appreciate any corrections. Also, this is another case of me claiming to be better at explaining stuff than most people, so see if I live up to the standard (preferably from those that don't already understand this stuff). The economist I talked to found my explanation must more helpful than Wikipedia (and I, too, found the site's explanations not very helpful in my self-education about cryptography).
(Edited to fix typo)
Edit2: Now my long-time frenemy and economist Bob Murphy links the post with approval, though yes, he doesn't specify that it's more of a "cover of the pre-requisites" than an explanation of Bitcoin itself.
re-requisites -> pre- ?
I skimmed it and nothing jumped out at me. I understand public key crypto.
Your blog post made me think an explanation of bitcoin mining and transfer would occur. It never did. There was this:
... which isn't a very complete. The only thing I learned (I know nothing about Bitcoin mining or transaction protocols) is that apparently lots of nodes end up knowing about every transaction (paying attention only to transactions moving a particular coin that are signed by its last known owner).
So, I gather your explanation of Bitcoin is yet to be written.
What Tim Tyler said. Remember, the layperson has a HUGE inferential gap between their knowledge and Bitcoin, and closing that gap requires solving the problem -- itself very difficult for most -- of explaining cryptography and what it can accomplish. Otherwise, people can't grasp how the scarcity and security come about.
Silas did say this was:
It doesn't have much about Bitcoin - and instead covers the basics of digital signatures and hash functions.
Update: I've attempted a more "big picture" summary of how Bitcoin works as a whole, rather than just the prerequisites.
I'm interested in hearing comments about clarity or accuracy.
It's new info for me, so I can only hope it's accurate.
It's a good explanation. I'd know where to mount further details if I wanted to find them.
Thanks, glad it provides some of the clarity you were looking for.