[FREE COURSE] Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies

[pilscoop]

Coursera launched this course a couple of weeks ago, you can still sign up for it.

https://coursera.org/course/bitcointech

COURSE CONTENT:

Intro to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies
Cryptographic Hash Functions
Hash Pointers and Data Structures
Digital Signatures
Public Keys as Identities
Simple Cryptocurrencies

How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization
Centralization vs. decentralization
Distributed consensus
Consensus without identity: the block chain
Incentives and proof of work
Putting it all together

Mechanics of Bitcoin
Bitcoin transactions
Bitcoin scripts
Applications of Bitcoin scripts
Bitcoin blocks
The Bitcoin network
Limitations & improvements

How to Store and Use Bitcoins
Simple Local Storage
How to Store and Use Bitcoins
Secret Keys
Hot and Cold Storage
Splitting and Sharing Keys
Online Wallets and Exchanges
Payment Services
Transaction Fees
Currency Exchange Markets

Bitcoin mining
The task of Bitcoin miners
Mining hardware
Energy consumption & ecology
Mining pools
Mining incentives and strategies

Bitcoin and anonymity
Anonymity basics
Overview of Bitcoin deanonymization
Mixing
Decentralized mixing
Zerocoin and Zerocash
Tor and the Silk Road

Community, Politics, and Regulation
Consensus in Bitcoin
Bitcoin Core Software
Stakeholders : Who’s in Charge?
Roots of Bitcoin
Governments Notice Bitcoin
Anti Money-Laundering Regulation
New York’s BitLicense Proposal

Alternative Mining Puzzles
Essential Puzzle Requirements
ASIC Resistant Puzzles
Proof-of-useful-work
Nonoutsourceable Puzzles
Proof-of-Stake

Bitcoin as a platform
Bitcoin as an append-only log
Bitcoins as “smart property”
Secure multi-party lotteries in Bitcoin
Bitcoin as randomness source
Prediction markets & real-world data feeds

Altcoins and the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
Short History of Altcoins
Interaction between Bitcoin and altcoins
Lifecycle of an Altcoin
Bitcoin-Backed Altcoins, “Side Chains”

The future of Bitcoin?
The block chain as a vehicle for decentralization
Routes to decentralization
What can we decentralize?
When is decentralization a good idea?

[knight22]

All these lessons are available on their Youtube channel for free

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNcSSl ... uhBvOQzFzQ