Cryptocurrency 101

Reading List

I find people asking me with increasing frequency how they can start to seriously learn about cryptocurrency, tokens, and blockchain technology.

This space is extremely multidisciplinary, cross-cutting math, economics, cryptography, game theory, computer science, financial markets, distributed systems, governance, programming language theory, law, and many other areas. There aren’t many people who can be called subject matter experts in more than one of these areas — and each of these areas has its own jargon.

All of the specialized language means that reading up on cryptocurrency requires tenacity. It can be easy to start to skim or skip the parts that aren’t immediately intuitive. Don’t do this. Battle through.

The syllabus below ranges from the basic to the highly technical, but you don’t need prior knowledge to be able to get through it and grasp the general principles.

Required

Explain Like I’m Five (or please at least try…)

In Search of Value

Confidentiality & Privacy

Scaling, Governance, & Interoperability