Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

Princeton University

About this Course

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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.

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

45%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Approx. 23 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, English, Spanish

Skills you will gain

Bitcoin NetworkBlockchainsCryptocurrencyBitcoin

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

45%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Approx. 23 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, English, Spanish

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.65/5 (96 Ratings)

Arvind Narayanan

Offered by

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.

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating95%(15,854 ratings)

Week

Week 1

4 hours to complete

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.

4 hours to complete

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

Week 2

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 74 min)

5 videos

Centralization vs. Decentralization4m

Distributed Consensus13m

Consensus without Identity: the Block Chain17m

Incentives and Proof of Work19m

Putting It All Together18m

Week

Week 3

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

6 videos (Total 78 min)

6 videos

Bitcoin Transactions11m

Bitcoin Scripts15m

Applications of Bitcoin Scripts14m

Bitcoin Blocks5m

The Bitcoin Network18m

Limitations & Improvements11m

Week

Week 4

4 hours to complete

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.

4 hours to complete

7 videos (Total 81 min)

7 videos

How to Store and Use Bitcoins6m

Hot and Cold Storage13m

Splitting and Sharing Keys11m

Online Wallets and Exchanges19m

Payment Services8m

Transaction Fees5m

Currency Exchange Markets16m

Week

Week 5

1 hour to complete

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?

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 86 min)

5 videos

The Task of Bitcoin Miners10m

Mining Hardware23m

Energy Consumption & Ecology14m

Mining Pools14m

Mining Incentives and Strategies23m

Week

Week 6

2 hours to complete

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.

2 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 112 min)

6 videos

Anonymity Basics26m

How to de-anonymize Bitcoin18m

Mixing21m

Decentralized Mixing14m

Zerocoin and Zerocash19m

Tor and the Silk Road11m

Week

Week 7

4 hours to complete

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.

4 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 75 min)

8 videos

Consensus in Bitcoin6m

Bitcoin Core Software10m

Stakeholders: Who's in Charge?9m

Roots of Bitcoin9m

Governments Notice Bitcoin9m

Anti Money-Laundering5m

Regulation11m

New York's BitLicense Proposal10m

Week

Week 8

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 45 min)

5 videos

Essential Puzzle Requirements5m

ASIC Resistant Puzzles13m

Proof-of-useful-work9m

Nonoutsourceable Puzzles7m

Proof-of-Stake "Virtual Mining"8m

Week

Week 9

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 85 min)

5 videos

Bitcoin as an Append-Only Log16m

Bitcoin As Smart Property16m

Secure Multi-Party Lotteries in Bitcoin10m

Bitcoin As Randomness Source18m

Prediction Markets & Real-World Data Feeds23m

Week

Week 10

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

4 videos (Total 64 min)

4 videos

Short History of Altcoins21m

Interaction Between Bitcoin and Altcoins15m

Lifecycle of an Altcoin15m

Bitcoin-Backed Altcoins, "Side Chains"11m

Week

Week 11

1 hour to complete

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.

1 hour to complete

4 videos (Total 84 min)

4 videos

The Block Chain as a Vehicle for Decentralization14m

Routes to Blockchain Integration28m

What Can We Decentralize?24m

When Is Decentralization a Good Idea?16m

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Will I earn university credit for completing the Course?
This Course doesn't carry university credit, but some universities may choose to accept Course Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more. Online Degrees and Mastertrack™ Certificates on Coursera provide the opportunity to earn university credit.

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Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies