Beginners
This section is for beginners who are completely new to Bitcoin and want to learn the basics of how it works and how to get started using it.
Start here:
Getting started
So you want to get started using bitcoin? Here are the basic steps:
- Wallets
- A quick guide to bitcoin wallets, and recommendations on which ones to use.
- Exchanges
- Recommendations on the best exchanges to buy bitcoins from.
- Sending
- How to send and receive bitcoin using a bitcoin wallet.
- Security
- How to keep your bitcoins secure.
Guide
This is a very quick guide to how bitcoin works for beginners.
I wrote this guide when I was first learning about Bitcoin. I wanted to write something that gave a fast overview of what bitcoin is, and explain the most common terms I kept hearing about. I mean, what the hell is a "blockchain", "mining", and a "private key"?
So if you have no idea about how bitcoin works and want to get up to speed as quickly as possible, this guide is for you.
- The Bitcoin Network
- Node
- Mining
- The Blockchain
- Blocks
- Difficulty
- Transactions
- Outputs
- Locks
- Keys & Addresses
- Private Keys
- Public Keys
- Digital Signatures
- SegWit
This guide is completely non-technical and should only take about 60 minutes. If you want to learn more, see the technical section for more detailed explanations.
New Tool: Bitcoin Tracer
September 2026
I've made a tool that allows you to check for connections between your addresses.
It's useful for:
- Checking if you've connected your addresses in any way (for privacy)
- Proving you have transferred coins between wallets (for compliance checks when selling on exchanges)
The short connection searches are free, but I have to charge for the more complex queries due to the computation costs.
Anyway, it's live now, and I'm not aware of any other tools like it, so I thought you might want to check it out. You may find it useful at some point.
Thanks as always for supporting the site.
Greg.
P.S. This tool is new, so any feedback is appreciated.