The creation and use of blockchain would have been completely impossible without the existence of the internet in it’s current form. This immensely complex technology is difficult to understand and, until recently, the intricacies of the tech has been enigmatic to most.

Fortunately, the age of the internet also facilitates learning on a scale and level of ease that has never before existed. In this Scribble we discuss some of the best free online resources for learning about cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

Princeton’s Free Online Course “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies”

This free online course lead by Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan provides a thorough explanation on the technical side of blockchain, most specifically bitcoin. The material can be a bit dense so a basic understanding of computer science may be helpful. Also, its important to know the course was released years ago and therefore does not include teachings on recent projects and developments in the space. Regardless the content is extremely valuable in understanding the technical basics of cryptocurrencies.

Link to course: http://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu/

This course is also available on Coursera

Ivan on Tech

Ivan Liljeqvist, known by his moniker ‘Ivan on Tech’ has been in the blockchain space since the earliest days. Since getting involved, Ivan has become one of the premier crypto education channels on YouTube. He has a very strong grasp on the technicals of every major ICO project and has a knack for explaining it quickly and clearly. He has now become a well known member of the blockchain community and continues to put out valuable content on a daily basis.

View IvanOnTech on YouTube

Major Project White Papers

As the saying goes, straight from the horse’s mouth. Reading the papers written by the earliest ground-breaking projects is a great way to get an understanding of the basics of the technology such as hashing and smart contracts and how they are used to accomplish the goals of each team. Most highly recommended is the document that started it all, Bitcoin’s 8-page whitepaper. Also, read the similarly revolutionary 36-page Ethereum whitepaper written by a younger, thinner Vitalik Buterin. We also recommend a look into Nano’s whitepaper for an interesting look into the scalability problem and how block-lattice could address it.

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