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Princeton University

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

Princeton University via Coursera

Overview

To really understand what is special about Bitcoin, we need to understand how it works at a technical level. We’ll address the important questions about Bitcoin, such as: How does Bitcoin work? What makes Bitcoin different? How secure are your Bitcoins? How anonymous are Bitcoin users? What determines the price of Bitcoins? Can cryptocurrencies be regulated? What might the future hold? After this course, you’ll know everything you need to be able to separate fact from fiction when reading claims about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You’ll have the conceptual foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network. And you’ll be able to integrate ideas from Bitcoin in your own projects. Course Lecturers: Arvind Narayanan, Princeton University All the features of this course are available for free. It does not offer a certificate upon completion.

Syllabus

  • Introduction to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies
    • Learn about cryptographic building blocks ("primitives") and reason about their security. Work through how these primitives can be used to construct simple cryptocurrencies.
  • How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization
    • Learn Bitcoin's consensus mechanism and reason about its security. Appreciate how security comes from a combination of technical methods and clever incentive engineering.
  • Mechanics of Bitcoin
    • Learn how the individual components of the Bitcoin protocol make the whole system tick: transactions, script, blocks, and the peer-to-peer network.
  • How to Store and Use Bitcoins
    • This week we'll explore how using Bitcoins works in practice: different ways of storing Bitcoin keys, security measures, and various types of services that allow you to trade and transact with bitcoins.
  • Bitcoin Mining
    • We already know that Bitcoin relies crucially on mining. But who are the miners? How did they get into this? How do they operate? What's the business model like for miners? What impact do they have on the environment?
  • Bitcoin and Anonymity
    • Is Bitcoin anonymous? What does that statement even mean—can we define it rigorously? We'll learn about the various ways to improve Bitcoin's anonymity and privacy and learn about Bitcoin's role in Silk Road and other hidden marketplaces.
  • Community, Politics, and Regulation
    • We'll look at all the ways that the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technology touches the world of people. We'll discuss the community, politics within Bitcoin and the way that Bitcoin interacts with politics, and law enforcement and regulation issues.
  • Alternative Mining Puzzles
    • Not everyone is happy about how Bitcoin mining works: its energy consumption and the fact that it requires specialized hardware are major sticking points. This week we'll look at how mining can be re-designed in alternative cryptocurrencies.
  • Bitcoin as a Platform
    • One of the most exciting things about Bitcoin technology is its potential to support applications other than currency. We'll study several of these and study the properties of Bitcoin that makes this possible.
  • Altcoins and the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
    • Hundreds of altcoins, or alternative cryptocurrencies, have been started, either to fix Bitcoin's perceived flaws or to pursue different goals and properties. We'll look at everything that goes into an altcoin and how they interact with Bitcoin.
  • The Future of Bitcoin?
    • The use of Bitcoin technology for decentralizing property, markets, and so on has been hailed as a recipe for economic and political disruption. We'll look at the technological underpinnings of these proposals and the potential impact on society.

Taught by

Arvind Narayanan

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 33 Class Central reviews

4.6 rating at Coursera based on 2988 ratings

Start your review of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

  • Joel West
    RECOVER LOST OR SCAMMED CRYPTO/BTC/USDT – CONTACT ROOTKIT HACKER In the wake of a devastating cyber attack that targeted my Bitcoin account, resulting…
  • Anonymous
    RECOVER LOST OR SCAMMED CRYPTO/BTC/USDT – CONTACT ROOTKIT HACKER In the wake of a devastating cyber attack that targeted my Bitcoin account, resulting…
  • Profile image for Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
    Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
    Thorough in content and very well structured, this course takes you from the basics of cryptography to a sweeping overview of how Bitcoin and cyptocurrencies work, their ecosystems, impact, political effects, ramifications, potential and more. I p…
  • Anonymous
    So guys, this is my experience: The thing is, I like to take risks, so long as it will bring profit by which i mean cash, money. i saw an ad about a binary thingy that promised massive returns after investing, i did not make thorough research or in…
  • Anonymous
    Hi guys My name is Heita Minami, i Have finally decided to share my own  Fair share of online fraudulent activities.Most victims of the scam contact their wallet account provider, their bank or the law enforcement, a few end up hiring a lawyer to su…
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    I am one strong headed person, i'm the type of person that likes to see before believing, i and i learnt the hard way.What I am trying to say is my journey of investing in a wrong bitcoin platform even after warnings from my mom not to do so, I stil…
  • Profile image for Mike Tharp
    Mike Tharp
    I was given step-by-step instructions to the victim on how to trade crypto like his friend by first downloading an app called Trust. After which he convinced me that I had to borrow nearly $370,000 from friends and family to trade crypto on the app.…
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  • Anonymous
    Excellent course.
    Cleanly separates the different pieces that go into making bitcoin, and explains each of them simply and clearly. Covers not only bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but also the wider implications and applications of the blockchain to non-currency applications.

    Highly recommended for anyone interested in bitcoin or the blockchain.
  • Anonymous
    I know Being a scam victim can be depressing, you will be given empty promises. They usually stop replying after achieving their aim, which hurts even more, i have been there too as I was too ambitious and wanted financial security which made me invest a very huge chunk of my life savings. With the thought I would be getting back my supposed profit but it was not forthcoming despite how hard I tried. I had already lost hope until I contacted a team which was just a leap of faith as I wasn't going to go down without a fight. this recovery expert that helped me get a significant sum of my investment back. Do not brood alone, make a move too, send a mail to them Hacking Professional3 At Gmail Dot Com.
  • Anonymous
    I have made regrettable mistakes in my life that I felt can not be remedied and investing in the wrong binary was one of them. O! how i thought my life ended. cos it was my life savings of about 450.000usd. The good thing was that I did not give up, I did lots of research, asked the right questions to the right people until I was fortunate enough to be in contact with this recovery expert that worked tirelessly to help me recover 90% of my savings. Backend Recover At Rescue Team Dot Com came through for me. You can reach them any time any day, they are available to help you out. I got to warn y'all it was not really easy but it was worth it.
  • Profile image for Kirstie Langan
    Kirstie Langan
    I became a victim of a bitcoin scam and lost a significant amount of money. This incident happened a month ago. The way I handled the situation and recovered my money was to reach out to the right recovery support, via an email on; Hackrecovery AT Yandex DOT ru, I was in a complete despair. I started to feel a little better about myself as soon as I wrote them a letter. The good thing here is that I didn’t have to worry about anything during the process; all I had to do was wait for them to finish and return all my lost money to my wallet. I really commend the whole process. 
  • Very interesting course explaining cryptocurrencies in different aspects. Highly recommended to anyone interested in bitcoins, cryptocurrencies or just normal currencies as well.
    As mentioned in other comments, please, note you will not have any types of homework and will not get any statement of accomplishment.
  • Anonymous
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  • Omer Mohamed
    This was a very informative course , Will diffidently help as a first solid step into Cryptocurrency world.
    However, they should state that this course required a programming background for submitting the assignments .

  • Anonymous
    great course I have learn some basics about bitcoin, cryptocurrency
    it' an interesting course to be taking by student who are not necesserly Data scientist or computer science. I recommend for everybody to get out of. his/her comfort zone to learn something new.
  • Profile image for Martin Jošt
    Martin Jošt
    I love the topics and the depth of the knowledge, but for this much time invested it would really be great to get some kind of a certificate. It carries quite some weight these days.
  • Anonymous
    This is just awesome. I think at present the best lecture on bitcoin that I have come across. Covers all areas.

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