Chevron Left
Back to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies by Princeton University

4.6
stars
3,023 ratings

About the Course

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....

Top reviews

NG

Dec 22, 2017

I've gained a strong knowledge of Bitcoin's architecture but wish this course was updated to include the developments of the last two years. A few lectures on alt-coins would have been useful as well.

MB

Mar 10, 2018

Great course, a very broad and in-depth overview of concepts surrounding cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in particular. Would be great to have an update of course; perhaps once the ICO craze is over? (-:

Filter by:

26 - 50 of 709 Reviews for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

By Anson L

•

Sep 7, 2020

Meaningful course which gives you the brief idea of what Blockchain is. Although when it's 2020 there are more new initiatives in the blockchain and crypto market. Still a good start for amateurs.

By Jurgen P

•

Apr 15, 2024

Too old and outdated. No certification was provided. Programming tasks require knowledge and skills that are not taught in the course, yet are required to complete it! To repeat: The required assignments to pass this course are NOT EVEN TAUGHT in the respective course material!! Although the programming assessments aren't mandatory and there's no certificate either way, without passing the assessments, the course isn't considered complete, which is annoying as the course 'sticks' around on my dashboard. PLEASE FIX THIS!

By Hugh W R I

•

Nov 25, 2023

They haven't update d this in a long time and the 2nd test is still broken, you cant pass to get a certificate.

By Trilok D

•

Jul 11, 2024

Quite detail and time-worthy. I would like if this course get updated from 2015 till now so it could be more relevant in current times.

By Talha A

•

Aug 4, 2024

pl provide certificate for this

By Er.Kalpukuri R

•

Apr 25, 2022

good

By Joe F

•

May 1, 2022

Although far more technical than I anticipated, the course material was good and presented well. HOWEVER, in 2022,, it is very dated material, given it is seven (7) years old!! I stuck with it because the material was good - but I also anticipated (hoped) that there would be an update toward the end of the course - there was not.

I am not a programmer, and never intended to attempt the 3 programming assignments (an option indicated in the Professor's notes). However, I suspect anyone inclined toward programming would find this to be even more dated material. Perhaps a still relevant foundation, but needs an update to current!!

By Jeff

•

Jul 4, 2017

Not a big fan of this course. I wanted to learn about the different types of currencies and their usage, but these guys go way too deep into the code structure, even making the 1st assignment code based. Just because I am interested in cars, doesn't mean I necessarily have to know how to build one. I merely need to know some base facts, it's safety, handling, fuel economy, size etc. Their approach is way more mundane and impractical for daily needs of working with Cryptocurrencies, going way too deep into early theory and applications.

By Joseph N

•

Oct 30, 2022

Only did the first week. The material is not bad but the assignment is a dumpster fire. You'll spend the vast majority of time trying to get the thing to run instead of focusing on the very minor task of developing the cryptographic solution.

Dont take this course. Instead just go here.

https://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu

All the assignments are here and all the videos - it is the source from which this course was created. Save yourself the headache and just skip coursera for this one.

By André L d A R

•

Oct 26, 2019

Excellent course by the Princeton University!

I have been studying blockchain in order to better understanding its potential paradigm shifts and was somewhat discouraged at first by the course's focus on specifically Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies, but am happy to say that it fulfilled my expectations on explaining decentralized ledgers of trust (i.e. blockchain itself) in broader terms, along with alternate use cases and implications for the future.

Very complete conceptually and technically. The assignments delve into Java code and greatly add to technically understand the intricacies of the subject, but aren't really necessary for grasping a conceptual understanding of the matter (for programmers or those who can manage their way into code, though, they're definitely worth going through!).

Congratulations to Coursera and the Princeton University for making available a course as good as this for free!

By Kedar J

•

Nov 7, 2017

This was a great course that gave me introduction to diverse topics ranging from Cryptography, Consensus in distributed systems, blockchains and bitcoin of course. It is true that the course is a bit outdated (from pre Etherium days) however, anyone who wants to have a great understanding of foundations of bitcoin blockchain will still find it useful.

The assignments are designed to test your understanding and I did have to refer to some additional material on bitcoin.org to understand some of the concepts. Also I had to learn Java to complete the assignments. For Java experts, the assignments may not be very tough to deliver.

Lastly, I would like to give a huge shoutout to the mentors. They are very responsive with the questions and the course has a good vibrant discussion forum. You are likely to find answers to all the questions you may have while taking this course.

By Paul P

•

Oct 8, 2020

Even though the course is 5 years old, it is great at covering the inner workings of bitcoin. The programming assignments are sometimes challenging (this is not trivial material in the first place, but also the assignments are not crystal clear, some online graders run out of memory, and a decent knowledge of Java is advisable - I personally did not know Java but know C++ and the programming concepts in both languages are close enough that I could make the transition with reasonable effort). Nevertheless, I find that the assignments are really key to get a good understanding of how bitcoin works. I would strongly advise anyone considering this class to allocate the time to also do the programming assignments, even though they are optional.

By Ryan C

•

Jul 3, 2017

I came to this course with more of an interest in blockchain than in the cryptocurrencies which are built on the blockchain technology. That being said, I found this course to be really informative. The Cryptocurrency angle was really helpful in illustrating the basic principles of blockchain. I also found myself much more interested in cryptocurrencies than I thought I was. I have recommended it to colleagues as a fun way to get your head around blockchain basics. I should mention that I really had to reach back to my CS undergrad days to remember Java syntax to completed the assignments! These were fun activities, but I would caution someone with no programming background.

By Luca C

•

Aug 7, 2017

Great course. I appreciated the hands-on experience that the assignments are designed to deliver.

The course is an excellent introduction to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, and provides plenty of references for further reading. High quality materials (it's a pity that the lecture slides aren't available for separate download, though).

The owners of the course went great lengths to ensure even people without a deep computer science or programming background can avail of the more generic concepts (even though some level of familiarity seems to be implicitly assumed to be able to pass the assignments, which however are optional).

I highly recommend this course.

By Pei O

•

Jan 20, 2018

I tried to learn the concept of bitcoin and browsed several other videos and articles in the Internet. Yet none of them gave me a clear idea of the bitcoin technology and infrastructure. This course give me good understanding of the bitcoin ecosystem. I highly recommend this course.

Something which could be improved are the videos. The videos show the lecturers sometimes and the slides other times. The segments showing the lecturers can be significantly reduced and showing the slides videos only. It is much easier for the students to comprehend the contents in that way. The lecturers videos can be embed as a small block in the slides videos if desired.

By Ibnu B

•

Jun 29, 2022

This course is very good and very useful for a bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiast or someone who is studying bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Because in this course will answer frequently asked questions like, How does Bitcoin work, What makes Bitcoin different, How secure is your Bitcoin, How anonymous are Bitcoin users, What determines the price of Bitcoin, Can cryptocurrency be regulated, What might happen in the future. And finally we can separate the fact and fiction of a bitcoin and cryptocurrency and also its application in a technology.

By Alex P

•

Nov 4, 2022

Excellent background and context for those new to this space (like me). The course directors thoroughly and comprehensively step you though the technology that underpins Crypto currencies. The assignments are aimed at those with a coding background however those with no coding experience should not be put off by this course. Extremely valuable time invested that I'm sure will pay itself back - thank you Coursera and Princeton University.

By Kyle R

•

Jan 18, 2022

Excellent overview of technologies and motivation for how these technologies are being used. Given how time has passed, could be interesting to update some things with current issues such as use of bitcoin/blockchain in many technologies (i.e. what blockchain does & doesn't do), updates to mining efficiency/power consumption/sustainability, use of block chain technologies in industry & startups etc.

By 20-180 I H

•

Jun 13, 2022

great course. The course covers not just mechanics of bitcoin and some altcoins per se, but also explains philosophy behind block chain, reasons why particular design decisions were made, alternatives considered and how the system protects itself from possible attacks. The material is also interesting as an application of different crypto primitives (but their nature is not covered).

By Flavio L M A

•

Oct 28, 2021

Great course. Old, but still valid, specially if you are entering the BTC world and want to know more details. Programming exercises will be difficult for people without dev background... Unfortunately it does not provide a certificate...

By Evangelos P

•

May 15, 2021

This course brings me a lot of information and completely demystifies the subject. In addition, the proposed exercises are excellent and illustrate key concepts of Blockchain. Thanks to the Team for all their efforts!

By Leonel B

•

Jul 20, 2021

Curso de excelente nivel, muy completo donde se puede aprender desde el origen de las criptomonedas hasta lo mas actual sobre politicas de uso, intercambio y aceptacion a nivel mundial.

By ASAD J

•

Nov 25, 2022

It is the best skills to earn more money in the future because the up coming future currency is also based on Bitcoin and in the future crypto currency is top rated currency.

By Paulo S

•

Nov 7, 2023

Given blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies are evolving so fast the course is now (@nov2023) slightly dated, but it was still an excellent experience. Thanks!

By NISHA S

•

May 17, 2021

it's real really amazing . the content which this course covers really helpful which helped me to understand the cryptocurrency concept.