The complete edition
Defending Bitcoin
The whole book, free to read. Fifteen chapters on defending Bitcoin the way we defend every other piece of critical infrastructure.
Start readingFrom the beginning- 01Chapter 1 - Bitcoin: The Decentralized ProtocolBitcoin solved the decades-old problem of digital cash by combining proof-of-work, public-key cryptography, and a peer-to-peer ledger into the first working decentralized monetary protocol.25 min
- 02Chapter 2 - Bitcoin: The Hardest Money Ever MadeMoney evolves toward whichever medium is hardest to produce, and Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply and verifiable scarcity make it the hardest money ever made.25 min
- 03Chapter 3 - Cybersecurity FundamentalsCybersecurity is the management of digital risk through layered controls that protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and you already practice it every day whether you realize it or not.26 min
- 04Chapter 4 - Industrial Control SystemsIndustrial control systems run the physical world, and securing them demands a different mindset from IT because availability, safety, and uptime matter more than data.28 min
- 05Chapter 5 - Bitcoin as Critical InfrastructureBitcoin already functions as critical infrastructure through its payment role, its industrial mining footprint, and its distributed node network, and it deserves the same defensive seriousness we apply to power grids and pipelines.25 min
- INTPart II Introduction6 min
- 06Chapter 6 - Exchange & Custodial FailuresEvery major exchange collapse, from Mt. Gox to FTX, taught the same lesson: trusted third parties are security holes, and the only reliable defense is self-custody.33 min
- 07Chapter 7 - Securing Your Bitcoin Private KeysSelf-custody shifts responsibility from the exchange to you, and the private key, seed phrase, hardware wallet, and multisig form the layered foundation of personal Bitcoin defense.42 min
- 08Chapter 8 - Privacy and Physical SecurityPrivacy in Bitcoin is a security control, not a political stance, because what attackers know about your holdings determines whether you ever become a physical target.40 min
- 09Chapter 9 - Mining CentralizationA 51% attack remains Bitcoin's most cited theoretical threat, and the defense is a mining ecosystem that stays decentralized across pools, geography, and stratum protocols.41 min
- 10Chapter 10 - Node-Level Threats and Client-Side DefensesYour node is your independent view of Bitcoin, and eclipse attacks, software supply-chain risks, and connectivity failures are the threats that corrupt that view.34 min
- 11Chapter 11 - Arbitrary Data & Witness AbuseArbitrary data protocols like Ordinals exploited Bitcoin's flexibility to flood the chain with non-financial content, and noderunners have real filtering tools to push back.37 min
- 12Chapter 12 - Governance RisksBitcoin's governance is emergent rather than formal, and when too much practical influence concentrates in one implementation or contributor pipeline, the monetary properties that matter most are what come under threat.42 min
- 13Chapter 13 - Political and Regulatory ThreatsPolitical and regulatory pressure can't shut Bitcoin down, but it can shape who gets to use it, and jurisdictional awareness, privacy controls, and alternative rails are the defenses that keep it open.37 min
- 14Chapter 14 - Grid and Network FailuresBitcoin depends on electricity and connectivity that it doesn't control, and distributed redundancy, alternative relays, and satellite or mesh paths keep the network reachable when the physical layer fails.28 min
- 15Chapter 15 - Quantum and AI: Emerging ThreatsQuantum computing threatens Bitcoin's cryptographic foundation decades from now, while AI is already reshaping the development pipeline and the attacker toolkit today, and both demand preparation before the threats fully arrive.44 min