About Me

My name is Greg Walker, I'm 35, and I'm from Wales (UK).

I've been making websites since I was a kid. I thought it was cool how you could create something on your computer and upload it to the Internet for anyone in the world to see.

One of my first websites was a stick figure animation site. I was 14 at the time, so I didn't have much to offer to the world. But what I did have was a copy of JASC PaintShop Pro 5 and a print-out of the HTML 4 specification, so I started making stick death animations and uploading them to my website. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and it's where I got my first taste of making images and websites.

I started working on my next website when I was 18. I was really interested in online poker at the time, so I thought it would be cool to make a poker strategy website. I spent about 5 or 6 years straight working on it, and learned a lot about writing, building websites, and programming (well, PHP at least). But one day I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of my life playing and writing about poker, so I stopped.

Thankfully, it was around this time that I heard about Bitcoin.

It was 2013, I was 24, and I was looking to buy some goods online. Bitcoin was the preferred payment option, so I bought me some bitcoin and made the purchase. I was completely blown away. Not just by the product I bought, but also by how easy and seamless it was to send money across the Internet using bitcoin. It felt like freedom, and I didn't understand why something like this hadn't existed before.

So that's when I started looking into how Bitcoin worked.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and I thought it would be cool to make a website explaining how it worked. I thought I was pretty good at explaining stuff after all that time spent writing about poker strategy, and Bitcoin seemed like a fun challenge, so why not give it a go.

So, since 2015, I've been working on this website on-and-off (mostly on). Turns out Bitcoin is a bit of a bigger topic than I expected it to be, and I've had to learn a lot more about computers and programming along the way. It has been hard work at times, and I've spent more time working on this website than I ever expected.

But it's completely worth it though; because I still think it's cool how you can create something on your computer and upload it to the Internet for anyone in the world to see.

Personal

If someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I make websites. If someone asks me what my hobbies are, I make up a bunch of stuff that isn't related to what I do for a living.

However, for the sake of appearing more interesting, I also enjoy; walking, going to gigs, and drinking beer. Sometimes I like to combine all three.

Here are a few bands/artists that I like:

• Lamb of God
• Devil Driver
• AFI
• HIM
• Shania Twain

A few other fun facts:

• I studied Physics in University, but I dropped out after the first year to make websites instead. It's yet to be seen whether this has been the better career path, but I don't regret it.
• I've had dreadlocks since the age of 25. My hair is quite thick and wiry, so I always used to shave it really short as a kid. But at some point in my twenties I got fed up with shaving it, so I let it grow, and the only option from that point onwards has been to store it in the form of dreadlocks.
• I'm Welsh. I don't speak it, but I sound it.

Interviews

Here are a few interviews/podcasts I've done:

• The Bitcoin Podcast (12 March 2017)
• Bitcoin Prosperity (13 May 2020)
• Bitcoin OP_UXUI (19 January 2022)
• The Crypto Radio (21 March 2025)

Presentations

I've done a number of live presentations about how Bitcoin works over the years. I also ran a small meetup group called Bitcoin Sheffield between 2019 and 2020, which was great fun (thanks to everyone who came).

Here are a couple of videos of my presentations:

• Getting Started With Bitcoin
• How Does Blockchain Work?

I don't do as many presentations these days, but here's a list of ones I've done in the past:

Development

I always find it interesting to read about other people's development environments, so here are some of the software I use most regularly:

Operating System: Xubuntu

I've done my time distro-hopping, but ultimately I just came back to one that "just worked" and has a good availability of programs ready to install. I've gone for the Xubuntu flavour because I really like the simplicity of the XFCE desktop environment.

Code Editor: VS Code

I spent a very long time trying to create the perfect Emacs configuration, and I feel like I got pretty close, but when it comes to website development I don't think you can beat the benefits of a graphical editor like VS Code. I think Emacs is amazing, and I still use Vim for editing configuration files, but the bulk of my development work takes place in VS Code.

Text Editor: Mousepad

I do all of my writing in a basic text editor called Mousepad. It's just really lightweight, basic, and gets the job done. I'm writing this in Mousepad right now.

Another interesting fact about me is that I use the Colemak keyboard layout.

I used to use two fingers to type, but in 2015 my internet friend mentioned the alternative Dvorak/Colemak keyboard layouts, so I selected Colemak and used it as an excuse to learn how to touch type properly. It took a painful couple of weeks to get the hang of it, but it's one of the best investments of my time I've made.

Tools

Here are some specific tools that I've used to make this website:

• Bitcoin Core – The original Bitcoin program
• Redis – Caching database
• PHP – Programming language for dynamic webpages
• Tachyons – Lightweight CSS framework (customized to use Tailwind CSS colors)
• HTMX – Easy Javascript framework for creating interactive webpages
• LibreOffice Draw – Diagram-making software
• Highlight.php – Code highlighter (runs on the backend)
• Tippy.js – Simple javascript tooltips
• PHP-Markdown-Extra – Markdown to HTML converter
• PurgeCSS – CSS cleaner-upper
• YUI Compressor – CSS compressor
• UglifyJS – Javascript compressor
• Tabler Icons – Cool SVG icons
• SV Basic Manual – A pretty cool font

Resources

• Bitcoin Optech Style Guide – Naming conventions for technical documentation

Testimonials

I think this website is pretty awesome, but don't just take my word for it!

Thanks

Even though I made this website by myself, I didn't make it all by myself.

Firstly, it would be inappropriate to not thank Satoshi Nakamoto. I think Bitcoin is really cool, and the world is a better place because of his/her creation. I'd also like to add that whilst everyone knows the name, not a lot gets talked about the person behind it. If you read their words you'll find that they're a clear and precise writer. They claimed to be better at code than words, but I've found them to be equally exceptional at both.

Secondly, the following people have been massively helpful in my understanding of how Bitcoin works:

• Pieter Wuille (see pieterwuillefacts.com for further information)
• Gregory Maxwell
• Murch

Other people who have helped me that I would like to mention include: theymos, Ava Chow, Nick O'Dell, Nate Eldredge, Antoine Poinsot, and Wladimir J. van der Laan. That's not everyone, but it's everyone I can think of off the top of my head

Some other bitcoin people who I think are cool and worth following include: 0xB10C, mononaut, Cobra, Craig Raw, TheGreatMuffin.

Thirdly, outside of Bitcoin:

• Randy Ray – Inspired me to become a better writer. I've always wanted to be as good a writer as Randy Ray is.
• Michael Bluejay – His output and writing organisation is an inspiration.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has contacted me over the years. I can't thank you enough for all the corrections, suggestions, donations, reports of downtime, and all the kind words.

Your feedback means a lot, and it makes everything worthwhile.

Contributors

The following people have helped with contributions to the site:

• Greg Tonoski
• Iridium
• Destiny Obamwonyi
• Adam Mycroft
• Alex Joly

Again, this is not an exhaustive list (and I have only added this section recently), so apologies if I have not mentioned you here.

Contact

The best way to contact me is via email:

gregDELETEME@learnme­abitDELETEMEcoin.com

Alternatively, I go by the username in3rsha (or inersha) on most platforms:

• X / Twitter
• GitHub
• Bitcoin Stack Exchange
• Reddit

My username in3rsha is a phonetic spelling of the word "inertia" (with a 3 thrown in for good measure). It's the topic I was studying in Physics lessons at the time, and I thought it sounded like a cool word for a username.