-Blockstack is a new decentralized web, where users own their data and apps run on user devices without the need for hosting. Developers can build
-serverless apps without the need to trust any centralized services or infrastructure.
+Blockstack is a new decentralized web, where users own their data and apps run on user devices without the need for hosting.
-For more info on Blockstack see: http://github.com/blockstack/blockstack
+Blockstack Core handles the main functionality of the system. It is responsible for processing blockchain transactions, creating virtualchain state, and building the peer network amongst other things. Blockstack Core provides RPC and RESTful interfaces for Blockstack clients.
-**Blockstack Core is the reference implementation of Blockstack.** It is responsible for processing blockchain transactions, creating virtualchain state, and building the peer network amongst other things. Blockstack Core provides a RESTful interface for clients and also comes with a command-line-interface (CLI).
+The latest stable release of Blockstack Core is 0.14.0.
-##Table of Contents
+Learn more by visiting [the Blockstack Website](https://blockstack.org) and checking out the in-depth articles and documentation:
-- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
-- [Development Status](#development-status)
-- [Blockstack Docs](#blockstack-docs)
-- [Contributing](#contributing)
-- [Community](#community)
-
-##Quick Start
-
-The fastest way to get started with Blockstack is with pip:
-After installation, you can start Blockstack Core and index the blockchain:
+You can also read the Blockstack paper:
-```bash
-$ blockstack-server start
-```
+- ["Blockstack: A Global Naming and Storage System Secured by Blockchains"](https://blockstack.org/blockstack.pdf), Proc. USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC ’16), June 2016
-Next, visit the [basic usage docs](https://blockstack.org/docs/basic-usage) and [extended usage docs](https://blockstack.org/docs/basic-usage) to learn how to register names of your own, as well as transfer them and associate data with them.
+**Developers**: You can try out Blockstack Core in a local sandbox using our [integration test framework](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-integration-tests/tree/rc-0.14.0).
-If you encounter any technical issues in installing or using Blockstack, please [search the open issues](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/issues) and start a new one if your issue is not covered.
+###Community
-##Development Status
+If you ever need more help or want to know more and chat with the user and developer communities, please stop by the [Blockstack Slack](https://blockstack.slack.com). This project uses the \#core channel.
-**v0.14.0** is the current stable release of Blockstack Core (available on the master branch).<br>
-**v0.14.1** is the next release candidate for Blockstack Core (available on the [v0.14.1 branch](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/tree/rc-0.14.1b)). See the [release notes](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/issues/281).
+###Installation
-Most of the development is happening in the [v0.14.1 branch](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/tree/rc-0.14.1b). Please submit all
-pull requests to that branch.
+The fastest way to get started with blockstack is with pip:
-##Blockstack Docs
+```
+sudo pip install blockstack
+```
-You can learn more by visiting [the Blockstack Website](https://blockstack.org) and checking out the in-depth articles and documentation:
+If you encounter any problems during the pip install, see the [detailed installation
+First, start the Blockstack server and index the blockchain:
-- ["Blockstack: A Global Naming and Storage System Secured by Blockchains"](https://blockstack.org/blockstack.pdf), Proc. USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC ’16), June 2016
+```bash
+$ blockstack-server start
+```
-If you have high-level questions about Blockstack, try [searching our forum](https://forum.blockstack.org) and start a new question if your question is not answered there.
+Next, visit the [usage docs](https://blockstack.org/docs) to learn how to register names of your own, as well as transfer them and associate data with them.
-##Contributing
+###Contributing
We welcome any small or big contributions! Please take a moment to
[review the guidelines for contributing to open source](https://guides.github.com/activities/contributing-to-open-source/) in order to make the contribution process easy and effective for everyone involved.
-**Developers**: You can try out Blockstack Core in a local sandbox using our [integration test framework](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-integration-tests/tree/rc-0.14.0).
-The code and documentation copyright are attributed to blockstack.org for the year of 2017.
+The code and documentation copyright are attributed to blockstack.org for the year of 2016.
This code is released under
[the GPL v3 license](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html), and the docs are released under [the Creative Commons license](http://creativecommons.org/).
