A hell of a lot to get your head around when it's all new to you like me but heres some links I've found to be good resources. No particular order. Charts http://cryptmarketcap.com/ http://bitinfocharts.com/ http://coinmarketcap.com/ Exchanges https://www.cryptsy.com/ https://btc-e.com/ https://coinex.pw/ https://bter.com/ General info http://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets https://bitcointalk.org/ Please add if you think they are worth looking at.
Cryptos can react violently to news. If bitcoin moves due to good or bad news, most of the alts tend to track bitcoin but often more violently. News http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/ http://bitcoinmagazine.com http://www.coindesk.com I've overlooked this in the past.
These places are heavily biased in favor of Bitcoin If you're going to use /r/Bitcoin, make sure you view the r/New section, because many negative stories get downvoted to oblivion or don't get many upvotes Some relevant websites: http://www.coinwarz.com - Profitability/Difficulty charts https://www.tradingview.com/ - Charts/TA, free signup to save alterations http://translate.google.com.au/tran...ttp://tieba.baidu.com/f?kw=%B1%C8%CC%D8%B1%D2 - Baidu Bitcoin discussion http://translate.googleusercontent....um.php&usg=ALkJrhigIszF7jM3YOsRgRf9kjojEnG6aA - Another Chinese Bitcoin forum
Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/ Further reading.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashcash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg09997.html http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
