Bitcoin Course Textbook

In the previous post, Bitcoin Course on Youtube, I noted,

'If you just want the lectures, simply subscribe to this channel. In this lecture (click the time to jump to the section): [...]' The 'jump to sections' correspond to the section headings of the first chapter of the course textbook.

The course textbook, 'Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies' by Arvind Narayanan et al (Draft — Feb 9, 2016), doesn't include a table of contents, so I created one myself. It can also be used as a general guide to the Youtube lectures, to locate the lecture on a a specific section.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Cryptography & Cryptocurrencies
1.1 Cryptographic Hash Functions
1.2 Hash Pointers and Data Structures
1.3 Digital Signatures
1.4 Public Keys as Identities
1.5 A Simple Cryptocurrency [GoofyCoin]

Chapter 2: How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization
2.1 Centralization vs. Decentralization
2.2 Distributed consensus
2.3 Consensus without identity using a block chain
2.4 Incentives and proof of work
2.5 Putting it all together [Cost of mining; Getting a cryptocurrency off the ground; 51-percent attack]

Chapter 3: Mechanics of Bitcoin
3.1 Bitcoin transactions
3.2 Bitcoin Scripts
3.3 Applications of Bitcoin scripts
3.4 Bitcoin blocks
3.5 The Bitcoin network
3.6 Limitations and improvements

Chapter 4: How to Store and Use Bitcoins
4.1 Simple Local Storage
4.2 Hot and Cold Storage
4.3 Splitting and Sharing Keys
4.4 Online Wallets and Exchanges
4.5 Payment Services
4.6 Transaction Fees
4.7 Currency Exchange Markets

Chapter 5: Bitcoin Mining
5.1 The task of Bitcoin miners
5.2 Mining Hardware
5.3 Energy consumption and ecology
5.4 Mining pools

Chapter 6: Bitcoin and Anonymity
6.1 Anonymity Basics
6.2 How to De-anonymize Bitcoin
6.3 Mixing
6.4 Decentralized Mixing
6.5 Zerocoin and Zerocash

Chapter 7: Community, Politics, and Regulation
7.1: Consensus in Bitcoin
7.2: Bitcoin Core Software
7.3: Stakeholders: Who's in Charge?
7.4: Roots of Bitcoin [Cypherpunk and digital cash; Satoshi Nakamoto]
7.5: Governments Notice Bitcoin
7.6: Anti Money-Laundering
7.7: Regulation
7.8: New York's BitLicense Proposal

Chapter 8: Alternative Mining Puzzles
8.1 Essential Puzzle Requirements
8.2 ASIC-resistant puzzles
8.3 Proof-Of-Useful-Work
8.4 Nonoutsourceable Puzzles
8.5 Proof-of-Stake and Virtual Mining

Chapter 9: Bitcoin as a Platform
9.1 Bitcoin as an Append-Only Log
9.2 Bitcoins as “Smart Property”
9.3 Secure Multi-Party Lotteries in Bitcoin
9.4 Bitcoin as Public Randomness Source
9.5 Prediction Markets and Real World Data Feeds

Chapter 10: Altcoins and the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
10.1 Altcoins: History and Motivation
10.2 A Few Altcoins in Detail [Namecoin; Litecoin; Peercoin; Dogecoin]
10.3 Relationship Between Bitcoin and Altcoins
10.4 Merge Mining
10.5 Atomic Cross-chain Swaps
10.6 Bitcoin-Backed Altcoins, “Side Chains”
10.7 Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Chapter 11: Decentralized Institutions: The Future of Bitcoin?
11.1 The Block Chain as a Vehicle for Decentralization
11.2 Routes to Block Chain Integration
11.3 Template for Decentralization
11.4 When is Decentralization a Good Idea?

Many chapters also have an additional section for 'Further Reading' and/or 'Exercises'. Some months after I first posted about the Online Bitcoin Course (March 2016), the course textbook appeared on Amazon.com: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction, (Hardcover - 19 July 2016). Recommended!

Bitcoin Course on Youtube

While waiting for the New Online Bitcoin Course to start, I discovered the old course on Youtube.

Lecture 1 — Intro to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies (58:41) • 'First lecture of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies online course.'

The description continued,

Published on Feb 16, 2015 • Course website:
https://piazza.com/princeton/spring2015/btctech/home

For the full experience, sign up via the link on that page. If you just want the lectures, simply subscribe to this channel. In this lecture (click the time to jump to the section): [...]

The 'jump to sections' correspond to the section headings of the first chapter of the course textbook. This first lecture and subsequent lectures are on the Youtube channel, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies Online Course, which is dedicated to the course. My guess is that this is the first incarnation of the course that eventually appeared on Coursera.

New Online Bitcoin Course?

In last week's post, Bitcoin in the News : 2016-08, I wrote,

One of the few 'fortunately' stories harks back to 'Online Bitcoin Course' (March 2016), which was taken down at the end of June. Is that the same course or a new course? I'll find out in a future post.

I signed up for the new course and was informed via email,

You’re enrolled in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. We’ll let you know the moment the course opens for learners. For now, we’re busy putting the final touches on things. See you soon!

The email pointed to another page, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies - Princeton University (coursera.org), that starts,

About this 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? [...] 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.

That leads to the same final question as my previous post: 'Is that the same course or a new course? I'll find out in a future post.' Title this current post; 'Kicking the Can'...

Bitcoin in the News : 2016-08

August was not a good month for bitcoin. Even though I lost five days of Google news alerts (11-15 August; see Site Available Again), I can't imagine that the missing days would have changed the month's tone significantly. The first story of note, a continuation from July's Bitcoin in the News : 2016-07 More++: 'Bitcoin not money Miami judge rules', sounds like an unfortunately/fortunately scenario.

• 2016-07-31: Florida Judge Deals a Blow to Bitcoin's Legitimacy (financemagnates.com) • 'Another tough development for those who advocate the spread of Bitcoin as an alternative currency'
• 2016-08-02: A Victory for Bitcoin Users (cato.org) • 'Miami-Dade Florida circuit judge Teresa Pooler dismissed money-laundering charges'

There was nothing unfortunately/fortunately about the next story. It was 'unfortunately' from start to finish.

• 2016-08-03: Bitcoin Worth $72M Was Stolen in Bitfinex Exchange Hack in Hong Kong (fortune.com)
• 2016-08-08: Bitfinex users to share 36% of bitcoin losses after hack (bbc.com)
• 2016-08-17: The Wretched, Endless Cycle of Bitcoin Hacks (bloomberg.com) • Good explanation of how the theft was orchestrated.

That story says 'hack', the next says 'attack'. When all is said and done, what's the difference?

• 2016-08-18: Bitcoin 'targeted by state sponsored attackers' says Bitcoin.org (theregister.co.uk) • '"Bitcoin.org has reason to suspect that the binaries for the upcoming Bitcoin Core release will likely be targeted by state sponsored attackers," the organisation says'
• 2016-08-18: Bitcoin.org warns of potential attack by 'state-sponsored hackers' (uk.businessinsider.com) • 'Users are being warned that an upcoming release of digital currency could be targeted by "state-sponsored hackers."'

In August, the word 'attack' was frequently associated with bitcoin.

• 2016-08-22: How Bitcoin helped fuel an explosion in ransomware attacks (zdnet.com)

One of the few 'fortunately' stories harks back to Online Bitcoin Course (March 2016), which was taken down at the end of June.

• 2016-08-07: Coursera Course on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Begins Soon (themerkle.com)

Is that the same course or a new course? I'll find out in a future post.

Blockchain Metadata

I have time for one post before I have to get back to this month's news. Let's continue with Bitcoin at Princeton, where the last post was Core Developers (June 2016):-

While working through the lectures, I've noted a few topics worth pursuing on this blog.

The next lecture topic I noted is 'Bitcoins as "Smart Property"', which is covered in section 9.2 of the course textbook:-

Now we’ll talk about using bitcoins to represent something other than a unit of currency in the Bitcoin system. [...]

Fungibility: This also leads to an interesting observation: bitcoins aren't fungible. In economics, a fungible good is one where all individual units are equivalent and can be substituted for one another. For example, gold is fungible since one ounce of (pure) gold can be substituted for any other ounce of gold. But this isn’t always true of Bitcoin because every bitcoin is unique and has a different history. [...]

Smart Property: Could this non-fungibility property be useful? We’ve already seen why it can be bad for privacy because of the potential for deanonymizing users. In this section we’ll look at why it can also be useful to give meaning to the history of a bitcoin.

The clever example to illustrate this topic is 'writing on currency'. A few examples were given in the corresponding lecture.

Left to right, top to bottom:
'I [George Washington] grew hemp'
'HAWAII'
'Not to be used for bribing politicians'
'This is $1 more than Bank of America paid in taxes!'

The textbook explains,

Let's think about what it would mean to give meaning to the history of ordinary offline physical currency. Suppose we wanted to add metadata to offline currency. In fact, some people already do this. For example, they like to write various messages on banknotes, often as a joke or a political protest. This generally doesn’t affect the value of the banknote, and is just a novelty.

I wasn't sure about the legality of this, but Yes, It's Legal! (stampstampede.org):-

Many people assume that it’s illegal to stamp or write on paper currency, but that’s not the case. It’s illegal to destroy paper currency or deface it so much that it’s no longer recognizable and has to be taken out of circulation.

That is not the case in the examples shown above. Back to bitcoin and the Princeton text:-

But what if we could have authenticated metadata attached to our currency -- metadata that cannot easily be duplicated? One way to achieve this is to include a cryptographic signature in the metadata we write, and tie this metadata to the serial number of the banknote.

And that opens the blockchain to a new universe of potential uses. I'll explore these in another post.

Bitcoin in the News : 2016-07 More++

I'd be surprised if anyone noticed, but I skipped my previous weekly post on this blog for reasons explained on another one of my blogs in Site Available Again:

It's been a week since my previous post on this blog, Site Unavailable, where I noted, 'I'm suspending new posts until the [m-w.com] site is available again. Apologies for the interruption!'

In this post, I'll continue with Bitcoin in the News : 2016-07 Halving. That was already the third consecutive 'Bitcoin in the News' post -- making this the fourth -- and since I'm talking about events from last month, the word 'news' is a stretch. Along with the 'Halving', there were a number of other recurring topics in July.

Brexit:-

• 2016-07-06: How The Post-Brexit World Could Belong To Bitcoin (forbes.com)
• 2016-07-10: Pound sterling becomes more unstable than Bitcoin following Brexit (independent.co.uk)
• 2016-07-14: How Brexit Is Affecting The Bitcoin And Blockchain Industries (forbes.com)

ETFs:-

• 2016-06-30: Winklevoss choose BATS over Nasdaq for bitcoin ETF (uk.businessinsider.com) • 'BATS Global Markets'
• 2016-07-13: New Bitcoin ETF Challenges Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust by Offering Insurance (cointelegraph.com) • 'A new Bitcoin ETF called SolidX Bitcoin Trust '
• 2016-07-18: As Race To Offer First Bitcoin ETF Heats Up, New Company Files To Create An Ether ETF (forbes.com) • EtherIndex LLC; 'The move comes on the heels of the SEC opening a proposal for a Bitcoin ETF by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini for public comment, and a filing last Tuesday by SolidX to launch a Bitcoin ETF.'
• 2016-07-15: CME Exec: Bitcoin ETFs Signal Digital Asset Maturity (coindesk.com)

Miami:-

• 2016-07-25: Bitcoin Is Not Money: Miami Judge (fortune.com)
• 2016-07-25: Bitcoin not money Miami judge rules in laundering case (miamiherald.com)

Ethereum DAO:-

• 'Website is offline': Bitcoin Core Developers Comment on The DAO Disaster (coingecko.com) • DAO = Decentralized Autonomous Organization
• 2016-07-28: Ethereum Fiasco Justifies Principled Decisions of Bitcoin Developers (cointelegraph.com)

The Donald:-

• 2016-07-05: Donald Trump Presidency Could Be a Boost to Bitcoin (coindesk.com)
• 2016-07-08: Bitcoin's Price Impact From Trump Presidency (pymnts.com)

While none of the above topics casts a particularly favorable light on bitcoin -- except perhaps the ETF news -- other stories were distinctly negative.

• 2016-07-03: Bitcoin Ransomware May Soon Become a Thing of the Past (newsbtc.com)
• 2016-07-06: New partnership aims to clamp down on use of bitcoin for child porn (reuters.com)
• 2016-07-17: EUIPO Finds Bitcoin Hinders Anti-piracy Efforts (themerkle.com) • EUIPO = European Union Intellectual Property Office
• 2016-07-20: Bitcoin Evangelist Charlie Shrem Released from Prison (cryptocoinsnews.com) • 'convicted on charges of money laundering and acting as an unlicensed money transmitter'
• 2016-07-21: Texan gets one-and-a-half years in prison for running bitcoin Ponzi scheme (reuters.com) • Trendon Shavers

No summer doldrums for bitcoin!

Bitcoin in the News : 2016-07 Halving

This is the third consecutive 'Bitcoin in the News' post on this blog, since the previous posts -- 2016-06 Price and 2016-06 More++ -- were followed by a break in blogging. Like the price action in the previous month, the month of July was dominated by a single story: 'the Halving'. I counted four types of stories that appeared during the month.

The nailbiting (fearmongering?):-

• 2016-07-06: As Bitcoin Halving Approaches, 51% Attack Question Resurfaces (coindesk.com)
• 2016-07-08: Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves (reuters.com)

The explanations:-

• 2016-07-09: Here's your simple guide to the bitcoin halving (finance.yahoo.com; Daniel Roberts)
• 2016-07-09: The Halving: Then & Now - a Bitcoin Magazine Infographic (nasdaq.com)

The big day:-

• 2016-07-10: Bitcoin Drifts Lower After Technical Milestone (wsj.com)
• 2016-07-11: Bitcoin rewards halve for virtual cash money miners (bbc.com)

The aftermath:-

• 2016-07-16: Why Bitcoin's Halving Was a Boring Vindication (coindesk.com)
• 2016-07-21: Halving Aftermath Points To Rosy Future For Price Of Bitcoin (nasdaq.com)

As for other July stories, it looks like I've inadvertently set up a fourth consecutive news post.