About Bitcointalk Academy

Bitcointalk Academy is a free, community-built education platform for new members of bitcointalk.org. It exists because the oldest Bitcoin forum on the internet has a steep learning curve, and most newcomers wash out before they ever experience its long-term value.

Why this exists

For 15+ years, Bitcointalk has been where serious Bitcoin discussion actually happens. The forum rewards consistency, evidence, and patience — and punishes spam, plagiarism, and scams. Both halves of that bargain are unforgiving to people who don't know the rules yet.

The Academy flattens the first 30 days. Seven free courses cover every practical thing a new member needs: how the forum is organized, how merit works, how to avoid scams, how to verify your wallet, how to earn safely, how to build trust over years. Each course ends with a certificate. Together they unlock a verifiable Forum Passport.

What it is not

• Not affiliated with theymos or Bitcointalk.org officially.
• No paid courses, no paywalls, no tokens — education is always free.
• Not collecting unnecessary data — auth + progress only.
• Not trying to replace the forum — designed to send better users to it.

How it stays free

Hosting and domain costs are minimal (about $115/year for VPS + domain). Those are funded by community donations in Bitcoin (on-chain + Lightning) and by clearly-labelled advertising — primarily sponsored listings in the Campaign Directory. Education content is never paywalled and never sponsored, and donations keep the ad load light. Everything else is volunteer time. The platform's content is open-source. The site's code is too.

Featured Educators

Most lessons are grounded in writing by long-tenured forum members. When their work shaped a lesson, they're credited as Featured Educators — with their permission, and with every credit linking back to their forum profile.

Get involved

• Submit a Voices interview — your story shapes the next generation of forum members.
• Share your referral link — top promoters become permanent Founding Promoters.
• Send corrections, suggestions, or partnership inquiries — every message is read within 48 hours.
• Donate — keeps the server on and the domain renewed.

License

Course and blog content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). The site's codebase: MIT.