Why I Started Learning Bitcoin
I started learning about Bitcoin in 2021. Not because someone told me to, but because I kept hitting the same wall: every resource I found was either too shallow or too technical. I work at Bitcoin Suisse — one of Switzerland's oldest regulated crypto firms — and I couldn't explain how Bitcoin actually works to the level my job required.
That gap bothered me. I could talk about Bitcoin as a product. I could discuss custody, staking, and regulatory frameworks. But when someone asked me how a transaction really works, or what happens to your coins when you die, or how the Lightning Network routes a payment — I didn't have a clear, honest answer.
So I started researching. Not casually. Systematically.
The Resource Problem Every Swiss Professional Faces
The first thing I discovered is that most Bitcoin resources are written for Americans. Tax guidance assumes IRS rules. Exchange recommendations point to Coinbase and Kraken US. Regulatory context references the SEC. None of it applies to a Swiss professional trying to understand how to report crypto on a Steuererklärung or whether a Bitcoin ETP on SIX is a better fit than self-custody.
The technical resources weren't much better. Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos is excellent — if you're a developer. The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous is interesting — if you want Austrian economics. Neither helps someone who just wants to understand how Bitcoin works well enough to make informed decisions about buying, storing, and passing it on to their heirs.
I tried YouTube, Reddit, blog posts. Each one gave me a piece. None gave me the full picture.
What Working at Bitcoin Suisse Taught Me
Working inside a regulated crypto firm changes your perspective. You see what questions clients actually ask — and they're not the questions that Bitcoin Twitter talks about. Swiss professionals don't ask "when moon?" They ask: What happens if an exchange fails? How do I report this to the cantonal tax authority? What's the professional trader test? Can my wife access my Bitcoin if I die?
These are real questions with real consequences. And I couldn't find a single book that answered them.
I also learned that even professionals inside the crypto industry have blind spots. Concepts I assumed I understood — UTXOs, address types, seed phrase derivation — turned out to be more nuanced than I thought. Getting wallets and security right took me longer than I'd like to admit.
From Personal Notes to a 19-Chapter Book
Each chapter started as a question I couldn't answer well enough. What are Runes? How are satoshis represented in code? What does a full inscription transaction actually look like? What about different address types and rare sats?
I used ChatGPT with deep research mode to explore these questions. I'd ask specific technical questions, get detailed answers, then verify everything against primary sources. I read the Bitcoin whitepaper. I read BIP proposals. I went through sections of the Bitcoin Core source code. I cross-checked AI answers against independent blog posts and developer documentation. I tested concepts against real transactions and real wallets.
The AI helped me research and draft the text. It was good at structuring content, maintaining a conversational tone, and answering specific technical questions quickly. But it couldn't verify Swiss-specific regulations. It couldn't share real industry experience. It couldn't know which details actually matter to a professional sitting across the table from a client.
So the workflow became: ask AI, read the source, verify against the code, write it down in plain language. Over five years, those notes became 19 chapters.
I chose to be transparent about using AI because it's a research and writing tool — the same way a calculator is a math tool. The research, the fact-checking, the editorial judgment about what matters and what doesn't — that's mine.
What I Got Wrong Along the Way
I misunderstood UTXOs for months. I thought Bitcoin worked like a bank account — you have a balance, and when you send some, the balance decreases. The reality is completely different: Bitcoin works with unspent transaction outputs, and understanding that changes how you think about privacy, fees, and wallet management.
I underestimated privacy risks. I assumed that because Bitcoin uses pseudonymous addresses, it was reasonably private. It's not. Once you link an address to your identity through a KYC exchange, your entire transaction history becomes traceable. The privacy chapter exists because I learned this the hard way.
I also got address types confused. P2PKH, P2SH, P2WPKH, P2TR — they all looked like alphabet soup until I traced through how each one actually locks and unlocks coins. That understanding is now in the technical deep dive.
Why Swiss-Specific Bitcoin Knowledge Matters
Swiss tax treatment of Bitcoin is unique — no capital gains tax for private holders, but the professional trader test can change everything. Get classified as a professional trader and you're looking at up to 40% income tax on your gains. That's why I wrote an entire chapter on Bitcoin taxes in Switzerland.
The same goes for inheritance planning. In Switzerland, your heirs have legal rights to your estate — but if your Bitcoin is in a hardware wallet and nobody knows the seed phrase, those legal rights are meaningless. An estimated 3.7 million Bitcoin are permanently lost because of this exact problem.
And the ETF situation on SIX is different from the US. Swiss investors had access to crypto ETPs years before the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. Understanding the trade-offs between a 21Shares ETP and self-custody requires Swiss-specific context that no American Bitcoin book covers.
Where to Start Your Own Bitcoin Journey
If I could go back to 2021 and tell myself one thing, it would be: start with how transactions work, not with why Bitcoin matters. The "why" makes more sense after you understand the "how."
Read one chapter. Just one. If it makes something click that didn't click before, read the next one. If it doesn't, this book isn't for you — and that's fine.
The whole book takes about 90 minutes to read. That's one train ride from Zurich to Bern.
Ready to start? Read Chapter 1 — it takes 8 minutes. Or download the free PDF.
