Course Description
How does Bitcoin work? Why is Bitcoin called a "cryptocurrency"? What cryptography does it use? How is security maintained in a system with no central authority? This course will answer these and many more questions. In this course, you will learn the building blocks that make up the open, decentralized system that is Bitcoin.
We'll start by diving into the cryptographic algorithms used in Bitcoin and walk through how these tools are used to keep the system secure and running. This course is designed for students with a technical background, including some coding experience. Many of the examples and exercises will require some familiarity with coding to follow along.
When you finish this course, you'll be able to differentiate between public and private keys and understand how they are used in Bitcoin transactions, calculate the hash of a piece of data and explain why hashing is used in Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work consensus protocol, list the functions of a wallet, describe the utility of nodes on the network, and more. You'll have the foundations necessary for understanding, working with, and building on Bitcoin and other open cryptocurrency systems.
Step-by-Step Guide to Begin Credential
- Explore the CS120 course information
- Then log in or sign up for a Saylor.org account by linking your existing Google or Facebook accounts, or creating a standalone account
- You’ll then need to verify your account credentials via email and complete the user account profile to continue
- Navigate to the “Courses” tab at the top left of the page
- Then, either scroll to Computer Science or search for CS120
- Then select the course and enroll, free of charge