Study Bitcoin

This repo is an archive of materials used to study Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies' technology.

Most university courses use Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies as references. We decided to choose the latter option.

Courses

The original course for the book is available in Coursera. Also, you can find course material (Textbook, Lecture videos, and slides) here.

Other courses that might be useful for their material:

• CS 5437: Principals and Practice of Cryptocurrencies Cornell

• CS795: Blockchain Technologies George Mason University

• ECE/CS 598AM: Cryptocurrency Security University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

• • Syllabus

• Cryptocurrency Cabal

Outline

Following is the outline of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies:

• Preface — The Long Road to Bitcoin
  1. • Traditional financial arrangements
  2. • The trouble with credit cards online
  3. • From Credit to (Crypto) Cash
  4. • Minting Money out of Thin Air
  5. • Recording Everything in a Ledger

1. Introduction to Cryptography & Cryptocurrencies

   1. • Cryptographic Hash Functions
   2. • Hash Pointers and Data Structures
   3. • Digital Signatures
   4. • Public Keys as Identities
   5. • A Simple Cryptocurrency

2. How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization

   1. • Centralization vs. Decentralization
   2. • Distributed consensus
   3. • Consensus without identity using a block chain
   4. • Incentives and proof of work
   5. • Putting it all together

3. Mechanics of Bitcoin

   1. • Bitcoin transactions
   2. • Bitcoin Scripts
   3. • Applications of Bitcoin scripts
   4. • Bitcoin blocks
   5. • The Bitcoin network
   6. • Limitations and improvements

4. How to Store and Use Bitcoins

   1. • Simple Local Storage
   2. • Hot and Cold Storage
   3. • Splitting and Sharing Keys
   4. • Online Wallets and Exchanges
   5. • Payment Services
   6. • Transaction Fees
   7. • Currency Exchange Markets

5. Bitcoin Mining

   1. • The task of Bitcoin miners
   2. • Mining Hardware
   3. • Energy consumption and ecology
   4. • Mining pools
   5. • Mining incentives and strategies

6. Bitcoin and Anonymity

   1. • Anonymity Basics
   2. • How to De-anonymize Bitcoin
   3. • Mixing
   4. • Decentralized Mixing
   5. • Zerocoin and Zerocash

7. Community, Politics, and Regulation

   1. • Consensus in Bitcoin
   2. • Bitcoin Core Software
   3. • Stakeholders: Who's in Charge?
   4. • Roots of Bitcoin
   5. • Governments Notice Bitcoin
   6. • Anti Money‐Laundering
   7. • Regulation
   8. • New York's BitLicense Proposal

8. Alternative Mining Puzzles

   1. • Essential Puzzle Requirements
   2. • ASIC‐resistant puzzles
   3. • Proof‐Of‐Useful‐Work
   4. • Nonoutsourceable Puzzles
   5. • Proof‐of‐Stake and Virtual Mining

9. Bitcoin as a Platform

   1. • Bitcoin as an Append‐Only Log
   2. • Bitcoins as "Smart Property"
   3. • Secure Multi‐Party Lotteries in Bitcoin
   4. • Bitcoin as Public Randomness Source
   5. • Prediction Markets and Real World Data Feeds

10. Altcoins and the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

    1. • Altcoins: History and Motivation
    2. • A Few Altcoins in Detail
    3. • Relationship Between Bitcoin and Altcoins
    4. • Merge Mining
    5. • Atomic Cross‐chain Swaps
    6. • Bitcoin‐Backed Altcoins, "Side Chains"
    7. • Ethereum and Smart Contracts

11. Decentralized Institutions: The Future of Bitcoin?

    1. • The Block Chain as a Vehicle for Decentralization
    2. • Routes to Block Chain Integration
    3. • Template for Decentralization
    4. • When is Decentralization a Good Idea?