update and reformat README.md

* updated references to files which have since been moved
* added reference to licensing
* added brief summary in case a non-technical user happens upon repo first
* miscellaneous Markdown-isms to make the doc more attractive
* remove unused symlink README -> README.md

I double-checked the makefiles and whatnot to ensure that the README symlink is
not being referenced. It is not. Rather, `doc/README` and
`doc/README_windows.txt` are copied for distribution.

1 files changed, 63 insertions, 47 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1ecb8c7efe..58dc2969a6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,66 +1,82 @@
-
 Bitcoin integration/staging tree
+================================
+
+http://www.bitcoin.org
+
+Copyright (c) 2009-2012 Bitcoin Developers
+
+What is Bitcoin?
+----------------
+
+Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to
+anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate
+with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried
+out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source
+software which enables the use of this currency.
+
+For more information, as well as an immediately useable, binary version of
+the Bitcoin client sofware, see http://www.bitcoin.org.
+
+License
+-------
+
+Bitcoin is released under the terms of the MIT license. See `COPYING` for more
+information or see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.
 
 Development process
-===================
+-------------------
 
-Developers work in their own trees, then submit pull requests when
-they think their feature or bug fix is ready.
+Developers work in their own trees, then submit pull requests when they think
+their feature or bug fix is ready.
 
-If it is a simple/trivial/non-controversial change, then one of the
-bitcoin development team members simply pulls it.
+If it is a simple/trivial/non-controversial change, then one of the Bitcoin
+development team members simply pulls it.
 
-If it is a more complicated or potentially controversial
-change, then the patch submitter will be asked to start a
-discussion (if they haven't already) on the mailing list:
-http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=bitcoin-development
+If it is a *more complicated or potentially controversial* change, then the patch
+submitter will be asked to start a discussion (if they haven't already) on the
+[mailing list](http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=bitcoin-development).
 
-The patch will be accepted if there is broad consensus that it is a
-good thing.  Developers should expect to rework and resubmit patches
-if they don't match the project's coding conventions (see coding.txt)
-or are controversial.
+The patch will be accepted if there is broad consensus that it is a good thing.
+Developers should expect to rework and resubmit patches if the code doesn't
+match the project's coding conventions (see `doc/coding.txt`) or are
+controversial.
 
-The master branch is regularly built and tested, but is not guaranteed
-to be completely stable. Tags are regularly created to indicate new
-official, stable release versions of Bitcoin.
+The `master` branch is regularly built and tested, but is not guaranteed to be
+completely stable. [Tags](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tags) are created
+regularly to indicate new official, stable release versions of Bitcoin.
 
 Testing
-=======
+-------
+
+Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more pull
+requests than we can review and test. Please be patient and help out, and
+remember this is a security-critical project where any mistake might cost people
+lots of money.
+
+### Automated Testing
 
-Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more
-pull requests than we can review and test. Please be patient and help
-out, and remember this is a security-critical project where any
-mistake might cost people lots of money.
+Developers are strongly encouraged to write unit tests for new code, and to
+submit new unit tests for old code.
 
-Automated Testing
------------------
+Unit tests for the core code are in `src/test/`. To compile and run them:
 
-Developers are strongly encouraged to write unit tests for new code,
-and to submit new unit tests for old code.
+    cd src; make -f makefile.linux test
 
-Unit tests for the core code are in src/test/
-To compile and run them:
-  cd src; make -f makefile.linux test
+Unit tests for the GUI code are in `src/qt/test/`. To compile and run them:
 
-Unit tests for the GUI code are in src/qt/test/
-To compile and run them:
-  qmake BITCOIN_QT_TEST=1 -o Makefile.test bitcoin-qt.pro
-  make -f Makefile.test
-  ./Bitcoin-Qt
+    qmake BITCOIN_QT_TEST=1 -o Makefile.test bitcoin-qt.pro
+    make -f Makefile.test
+    ./Bitcoin-Qt
 
-Every pull request is built for both Windows and
-Linux on a dedicated server, and unit and sanity
-tests are automatically run. The binaries 
-produced may be used for manual QA testing
-(a link to them will appear in a comment on the pull request
-from 'BitcoinPullTester').
-See https://github.com/TheBlueMatt/test-scripts for the
-build/test scripts.
+Every pull request is built for both Windows and Linux on a dedicated server,
+and unit and sanity tests are automatically run. The binaries produced may be
+used for manual QA testing -- a link to them will appear in a comment on the
+pull request posted by 'BitcoinPullTester'. See `https://github.com/TheBlueMatt/test-scripts`
+for the build/test scripts.
 
-Manual Quality Assurance (QA) Testing
--------------------------------------
+### Manual Quality Assurance (QA) Testing
 
-Large changes should have a test plan, and should be tested
-by somebody other than the developer who wrote the code.
+Large changes should have a test plan, and should be tested by somebody other
+than the developer who wrote the code.
 
-See https://github.com/bitcoin/QA/ for how to create a test plan.
+See `https://github.com/bitcoin/QA/` for how to create a test plan.