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.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
Offered By
Princeton University
About this Course
4.7
1,875 ratings
Skills you will gain
Bitcoin NetworkBlockchainsCryptocurrencyBitcoin
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Week
1Introduction 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.
6 videos (Total 59 min), 1 reading, 1 quiz
6 videos
Welcome1m
Cryptographic Hash Functions18m
Hash Pointers and Data Structures8m
Digital Signatures9m
Public Keys as Identities5m
A Simple Cryptocurrency14m
1 reading
Course Information10m
Week
2How 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.
5 videos (Total 74 min)
5 videos
Distributed Consensus13m
Consensus without Identity: the Block Chain17m
Incentives and Proof of Work19m
Putting It All Together18m
Week
3Mechanics 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.
6 videos (Total 78 min)
6 videos
Bitcoin Scripts15m
Applications of Bitcoin Scripts14m
Bitcoin Blocks5m
The Bitcoin Network18m
Limitations & Improvements11m
Week
4How 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.
7 videos (Total 81 min), 1 quiz
7 videos
Hot and Cold Storage13m
Splitting and Sharing Keys11m
Online Wallets and Exchanges19m
Payment Services8m
Transaction Fees5m
Currency Exchange Markets16m
Instructor
Arvind Narayanan
Associate ProfessorComputer Science
About Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.
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