Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies provides a comprehensive introduction to the revolutionary yet often misunderstood new technologies of digital currency. Whether you are a student, software developer, tech entrepreneur, or researcher in computer science, this authoritative and self-contained book tells you everything you need to know about the new global money for the Internet age. How do Bitcoin and its block chain actually work? How secure are your bitcoins? How anonymous are their users? Can cryptocurrencies be regulated? These are some of the many questions this book answers. It begins by tracing the history and development of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and then gives the conceptual and practical foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network as well as to integrate ideas from Bitcoin into your own projects. Topics include decentralization, mining, the politics of Bitcoin, altcoins and the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the future of Bitcoin, and more.

Arvind Narayanan is assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. Joseph Bonneau is a postdoctoral researcher at the Applied Cryptography Group at Stanford University. Edward Felten is director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. Andrew Miller is a PhD student in computer science at the University of Maryland. Steven Goldfeder is a PhD student in computer science at Princeton.

"For people interested in the inner workings of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies, this is an excellent book."—Choice

"This book provides an outstanding treatment of a complex phenomenon—the rise of cryptocurrency technologies."—Wilko Bolt, Journal of Economic Literature

"This book is a very nice introduction to Bitcoin, its structure, how it can be used (and possibly abused), and how it might evolve in the future. . . . The authors have a relaxed tone and this book could easily be incorporated into an undergraduate curriculum."—Jeffrey Putnam, Association for Computing Machinery Computing Reviews

"Block chain technology is set to disrupt many different industries. If you want to get up to speed on this fast-moving technology, this book should be your first stop."—Campbell R. Harvey, Duke University

"Among this book's many features are lots of nice, concrete examples and pleasant anecdotes, as well as a highly readable and enjoyable history of cryptocurrencies. Strongly recommended."—Tyler Moore, University of Tulsa