Learn Crypto – The Best Crypto Course on the Internet

Motivation

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, DeFi, etc. are terms that are being thrown around a lot these days. You hear about it a lot on social media and on other places on the internet (especially when their prices are rising), but the vast majority of people do not know much about what they are or what they do.

My name is Harsh Strongman and I was one of those people. Naturally, being curious, I wanted to learn more about these technologies. I did what all of us do: a web search. And I found a myriad of resources, most of which were either too basic or too complex and filled with jargon. Moreover, they are entirely unstructured and I felt like I was picking up tiny pieces of information here and there, instead of learning in a structured, “builds on top of previous knowledge” way.

Since I could not find a decent non-technical resource that will allow me to learn about these technologies in a structured way, I decided to create one (in collaboration with Sergio from Your Coding Teacher).

This course will teach you everything you need to know about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, etc. as a non-developer (i.e. you can understand everything without having a technical background).

All the course content is freely available and self-paced i.e. you can watch and read as per your leisure.

You will notice that some concepts are covered in multiple resources or sections. This redundancy is a feature of this course, not a bug. We deliberately looked for resources that demonstrated key concepts from different angles and at different levels of complexity to ensure the best possible learning experience for you.

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Course Duration

ModuleContent DurationEstimated time*
1. Bitcoin18 hours3 weeks
2. Ethereum and Smart Contracts10 hours2 weeks
3. Web3 (Tokens, DApps, Oracles, IPFS, The Graph)11 hours2 weeks
4. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)52 hours9 weeks
5. Privacy Coins24 hours4 weeks
Total:115 hours20 weeks

*assumes that you devote 6 hours per week to your studies.

Note: The content must be watched/read in the order presented. Each resource builds upon the information and concepts learnt in the previous resources.

Module 1: Bitcoin

Preliminaries

The best way to learn a thing is to know its history. Before you start exploring the internals of Bitcoin, you have to know the history and context under which it was created and what problem it is trying to solve.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
The History and Evolution of Moneymoney, currency, barter, fiat, capitalism, history of money, trust, commodity money, paper money, currency printing, double spending problem, centralization, decentralization, motivation behind Bitcoin15 m

Before we get into the nitty gritty details, we want you to get a broad idea of what Bitcoin is and the technology we’re dealing with.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
What is Bitcoin and how does it work?ledger, public key, private key, digital signature, hash functions, proof of work, blockchain, mining, block reward30 m

There are a couple of technical ideas that you need to know to grasp how Bitcoin works. For example, hash functions are the basis for Public Key cryptography and Proof of work, some of the pillars of Bitcoin design. This is what we will cover now.

The content here might feel technical and intimidating, but it’s just there so you don’t find the words alien when they’re used later on. It’s okay if you don’t fully understand the topics at the moment.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Hash Functions

1. What is a cryptographic hash function
2. How hard is it to reverse a cryptographic hash?
hash function, digital signature, MD5, SHA-256, collision resistance20 m
Public key cryptography concepts

1. Summary video
2. What are Digital Signatures?
public key, private key, hashing, fingerprint, encryption, decryption, digital signature20 m

Optional: Chapter 2 of The GNU Privacy Handbook

Basic Bitcoin

This section is mandatory.

After finishing this section, you’ll be able to understand the Bitcoin whitepaper.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
The basic concepts of bitcoinhistory of Bitcoin, getting bitcoin, price discovery, QR code, satoshi unit, transaction fee, mempool bitcoin exchange, Bitcoin ATM, private and public keys, bitcoin address, base58, 21 million total supply, confirmations, blockchain, miner, halving, mining incentives, coinbase transaction2 h
Consensus in a decentralized network

1. Bitcoin Blockchain Consensus
2. Disambiguating the word “Consensus”
3. Disambiguating the word “fork”
4. What is Nakamoto Consensus (Optional)
byzantine fault tolerance, consensus, Nakamoto Consensus40 m
Nodes

1. What is the role of nodes
2. Types of nodes and forks
node, role of nodes in the network, consensus, 51% attack, full node, light/SPV node, pruned full node, archival full node, mining nodes, coinbase transaction, staking nodes, authority nodes, masternodes, lightning nodes, hard fork, soft fork30 m
Proof of work (PoW) and Consensus

1. Byzantine Fault Tolerance
2. Proof of Work
3. What is a 51% Attack
proof of work, byzantine general’s problem, byzantine fault tolerance, nakamoto consensus, 51% or majority attack20 m
Bitcoin Wallets

1. What is a Bitcoin Wallet and types of bitcoin wallets?
2. Visual explanation of wallets
wallet, HD wallets, full nodes, SPV light wallets, hot wallet, web wallet, desktop wallet, mobile wallet, hardware wallet, cold storage wallet, paper wallet, brain wallet, multi-signature20 m
The Bitcoin Whitepaper

1. The full text
2. Explanation
whitepaper3 h

Extending Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a living creature. Developers continue working on its codebase, introducing new features, improving the documentation, fixing bugs, etc.

A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a design document for introducing new features or information to Bitcoin. Submitting a new BIP follows a rigorous process to ensure the highest level of quality.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
1. The BIP approval process
2. BIP list (for reference)
List of all BIPs with explanation and status, how to add a new BIP10 m

However, Bitcoin can also be extended without altering its source code. Although it was designed as a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”, Bitcoin provides a number of properties that can be leveraged to create applications on top of it, known as Layer 2 solutions.

In this section we will explore some of the most notable examples.

Improving Bitcoin’s scalability

As we have seen in previous sections, a new block is mined every 10 minutes on average. These blocks have a size limit of 1 MB. These two facts limit the number of transactions that the network can handle per unit of time.

Multiple solutions have been proposed to solve this problem. Here we will cover some of them.

The Lightning Network is a protocol that tries to improve Bitcoin’s ability to quickly handle payments via routed payment channels.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Lightning Network

1. Video Introduction
2. Understanding the Bitcoin lightning network
3. (Optional) Understanding the Lightning Network Part I, Part II and Part III
payment channels, routed payment channels, lightning network, layer 2, multisig, hash time locked contracts (HTLCs), watchtowers2 h

Other solutions have been proposed to solve the scalability problem:

  • Although it is not its main purpose, Segwit is an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol that helps improving Bitcoin’s scalability by effectively making transactions smaller and solving the malleability bug which enables the Lightning Network
  • Increasing the block size, which resulted in multiple forks giving birth to Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision.
  • Schnorr signatures use a faster algorithm to create digital signatures and can combine signatures (from multisig transactions or from transactions with multiple inputs) effectively reducing the transaction size and improving the network capacity.
  • Side chains are blockchains (separate from Bitcoins blockchain) that enable Bitcoin’s and other ledger assets to be transferred back and forth between multiple blockchains.

Most of these concepts will be covered in more detail in the upcoming sections.

Tracking assets in the real world (Optional)

Beyond its original use as a digital currency, Bitcoin transactions have been used in clever ways to keep track of assets outside of the blockchain. There are different methods to use transaction metadata to encode the ownership of an asset (a song, a painting, etc.) in the Bitcoin blockchain. These methods are referred to as Colored coins. A notable example is Omni Layer.

Advanced Bitcoin

This section contains advanced and somewhat technical resources for those wishing to go deeper.

Mandatory

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Bitcoin Transactions (pre-Segwit)
1. Transactions in depth Part 1
2. Transactions in depth Part 2
multiple inputs, multiple outputs, locking and unlocking transactions40 m
Segwit  

1. Transaction Malleability
2. What is Segwit
segregated witness, transaction malleability25 m
The Script languagescript programming language, p2pk, p2pkh, p2ms, p2sh1 h
More Segwitsegregated witness, transaction fee20 m
Merkle Trees

1. Merkle Roots and Merkle Trees
2. Merkle Proofs (first 3 m only)
3. (optional) Data corruption and Merkle trees
4. How SPV nodes use Merkle trees
5. How SPV nodes communicate with full nodes
merkle tree, merkle tree leaf, merkle root, merkle proof, nonce1.5 h

Optional

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Bloom Filters
1. What are bloom filters and why they exist
2. Bloom Filters and SPV nodes within the Bitcoin blockchain
3. Bloom Filters and SPV
bloom Filters, privacy30 m
Elliptic Curve Cryptographyelliptic curve cryptography15 m

Bitcoin Mind Map

You can get the high resolution Bitcoin Mind Map by signing up to our email list.

The Future of Bitcoin

Since Bitcoin is a decentralized project, there is no official roadmap to rely on. However, these topics are part of the community discussion and might become relevant in the future.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Quantum Computing Risksrisks of quantum computing in the future10 m
Hot Topics

1. Schnorr signatures
2. Taproot
privacy, scalability, smart contracts15 m

Bitcoin FAQ

Resource
Can you spend unconfirmed receipts?
What happens if your transaction is never confirmed?
Why does each block store a Merkle root?
What’s the difference between SegWit and Native SegWit Address
Electrical Consumption
Coins and Tokens
Incentives
Is Bitcoin Ruled by Miners?
What is Economic Majority?
Common Myths about Bitcoin

Bitcoin History and Culture

Optional reads to become familiar with the culture and history of Bitcoin

ResourceTopics Covered
Bitcoin Auction: 10,000.00 BTC — Starting Bid 50.00 USDIn March 2010, user “SmokeTooMuch” auctioned 10,000 BTC for $50 (cumulatively), but no buyer was found.
The Story of The Bitcoin PizzaOn 22 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world transaction by buying two pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida, for 10,000 BTC
History of BitcoinA full chronological timeline of Bitcoin
The rise and fall of Mt. GoxStory of the first Bitcoin exchange
The Long Road To SegWit: How Bitcoin’s Biggest Protocol Upgrade Became RealityThe history of Segwit
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?Bitcoin Cash
What is Bitcoin SV (BSV)Bitcoin Satoshi Vison

Module 2: Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Starters

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
High level overviewA lighthearted introduction from the founder Vitalik Buterin himself2.5 h

Preliminaries

Ethereum is a distributed, unbounded state machine. This section will give an overview of what a basic state machine looks like.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Finite State Machinesfinite state machines20 m

Smart Contracts

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is a Smart Contract? (Video)smart contracts, trust, examples of smart contracts30 m

The Ethereum Protocol

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is Ethereum and how does it work? (Video)Ethereum network, Externally owned accounts, contract accounts, ETH transactions, transaction structure, state, consensus, wei30 m
What is Gas and what role does it play? (Video)gas, gas price, gas cost, gas limit, block gas limit, block size, infinite loops, turing completeness, EVM, gwei30 m
Mining Incentives

1. Block rewards and gas fees
2. Incentives on uncled blocks
block rewards, gas fees15 m
Transactions
1. UTXO vs Nonce Increments
2. Transactions in depth
account based blockchains, UTXO, EOA, Contract accounts, replay attacks20 m
Ethereum Virtual Machine (Optional, but recommended)Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), nonce20 m

Practical Exercises

ResourceEffort
Installing Metamask10 m
Getting Test Ether10 m
Simple Smart Contract Example Explained10 m
How to Compile and Deploy a Smart Contract20 m
The Problem With Random Number Generation in Ethereum10 m

Ethereum Improvement Proposals

Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards. The full list of EIPs can be found at eips.ethereum.org.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
EIP 1559

1. What is EIP 1559
2. EIP 1559 from a miner’s perspective (Optional)
EIP, first price auction, EIP 1559, feecap, base fee, inclusion fee (miner tip), base fee burning, miner extracted value, EIP 3368 (rejected)15 m

Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum 2.0 is a set of upgrades that aim to make the network more scalable, secure, and sustainable. At the time of this writing, the development is still in progress. These are the main technical ideas you need to know to understanding what the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 represents.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is Ethereum 2.0, explained with timelineproof of stake, validators, staking, beacon chain, sharding, casper protocol, eWASM25 m
Official docs (Optional)official docs 
Proof of Stake

1. What is Proof of Stake
2. PoS vs PoW
proof of stake, staking, forging blocks, docking20 m
Sharding (Note: This video is general and not ETH specific, ignore the block size being represented in MB)sharding, inter shard communication10 m

Layer 2

Layer 2 is a collective term for solutions designed to help scale your application by handling transactions off the Ethereum mainnet (layer 1), while taking advantage of the robust decentralized security model of mainnet.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is Layer 2 Scaling?rollups, plasma, channels, sidechains15 m

Ethereum History and Culture

Resource
The Prehistory
The History
The DAO Story

1. The DAO Hack and Smart Contracts on Ethereum
2. Ethereum Classic?
3. How the DAO Hack Changed Ethereum

Is it fair to compare Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Resource
The Lion and the Shark: Divergent Evolution in Cryptocurrency

Module 3: Web3 (Tokens, DApps, Oracles, Filecoin and IPFS, The Graph)

Tokens

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Tokenstoken, examples of tokens, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), currency tokens, asset backed tokens, reward tokens, governance tokens, utility tokens, security tokens, equity tokens, token standards, interfaces, difference between token and cryptocurrency, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)30 m
ERC 20ERC 20 Token Standard10 m
ERC 721ERC 721 Token Standard10 m
Art NFTs and Trading PlatformsExamples of NFTs with platforms where they are traded10 m

Wrapped Tokens

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Wrapped Tokens
1. What are Wrapped Tokens
2. How token wrapping and unwrapping works
wrapped Tokens, custodian15 m
How to wrap Ethereum to wETHwETH15 m

Decentralized Applications (DApps)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
How apps work?frontend and backend5 m
DApps

1. What is a DApp
2. Introduction to DApps
Decentralized Application (Dapp), benefits of DApps10 m
Exploring a DApp (Cryptokitties)  

1. How to play Cryptokitties
2. Examining the Cryptokitties codebasae
Cryptokitties, Fungible and non-fungible assets, ERC-20, ERC-721, Cryptokitties codebase, Events30 Min
Find and explore more DAppsPractical Exercise 

Ethereum Name Service (ENS)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is Domain Name System (DNS)domain name system10 m
Practical Exercise  

1. Type this IP address into your browser: 40.114.177.156

You will land on DuckDuckGo, a privacy oriented search engine. You can always connect to websites by their IP addresses (however, some websites will reject connections coming this way for security reasons).

The .com name is simply a DNS mapping to make things easy for humans to remember.

2. Register a domain name.Go to Namecheap and register a domain name for yourself. Register your FirstnameLastname.com.
 20 m
Ethereum Name Service (ENS)

1. What is ENS?
2. ENS Architecture (optional)
ENS, registry, resolvers, namehash15 m
Register an ENS DomainPractical Exercise15 m
ENS FAQcontroller, registrant, ownership, reverse record10 m

Oracles

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Oracles

1. What is an Oracle
2. Why do we need Oracles
Oracles, software and hardware oracles, deterministic blockchain, Decentralized Oracles, Chainlink basics, trusted execution environment20 m
The Oracle Problem

1. What is the Oracle problem?
2. Chainlink and the Oracle Problem
blockchain middleware, oracle problem,  need for separate network, centralized oracle risks, need for decentralized oracles15 m
ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is ChainlinkChainlink, how chainlink works, requesting contract, chainlink service level agreement contract (CLA), reputation contract, order matching contract, aggregating contract,15 m
How does Chainlink workThe chainlkin protocol: Reputation contract, order matching contract, aggregating contract10 m
Tokenomics and use casesChainlink use cases, tokenomics  

Note: Some of the use cases will be more understandable after you complete the module on Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
30 m
Chainlink factsheetChainlink, chainlink use cases, chainlink partners, network of oracles, threshold signatures, ERC677, chainlink tokenomics, total supply, initial token distribution, LockDeposit contract, Service Agreement (SA) model, mixicle, trusted computation framework (TCF), trusted execution environments (TEE), staking collateral, chainlink marketplaces, node reputation parameters  

Note: Mixicles will make more sense after you complete the module on Privacy Coins.
30 m
ERC-677 Tokens (Technical/Optional)Problems with ERC-20 tokens, EIP-150, call depth attack, ERC-223 tokens, ERC-777 tokens  

Note: Chainlink is an ERC-677 Token
10 m

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What are DAOs

1. What is a DAO
2. Discussion on DAOs
decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)35 m
DAO voting tutorialExample of voting on a DAO  

Note: The Snapshot platform is covered later in the DeFi section
10 m

Web 3.0 and Decentralization

Note: This is a different concept from semantic web, which is also sometimes called web 3.0.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Web3

1. What is Web 3.0
2. Web2 vs Web3
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 3.0 Foundation, web2 vs web315 m
The meaning of decentralizationDecentralization, Architectural (de)centralization, Architectural (de)centralization, Architectural (de)centralization, fault tolerance, attack resistance, collusion resistance20 m
The importance of Web3 and decentralization

1. Why decentralization matters
2. Why web3 matters
History of the internet, the importance of decentralization, the importance of web320 m

Filecoin and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is IPFSIPFS (Interplanetary File System), location based addressing, content based addressing, IPFS Objects, drawbacks, filecoin, applications, dtube10 m
What is FilecoinFilecoin5 m
Tutorial: How to upload and access files on IPFS (First 3 minutes only)How to use IPFS5 m
The IPFS Protocol (Ignore the command line demo and content on NAT)HTTP vs IPFS, Content ID (CID), immutability, routing, distributed hash tables (DHT), bootstrapping, kademlia, Interplanetary Name Server (IPNS), deleting content25 m
Importance of decentralized storage (including the podcast)Importance of decentralized storage on the internet, decentralized timestamping service45 m

The Graph Protocol

This section is somewhat technical and it’s okay if you don’t fully understand it. The graph protocol is primarily of developer interest.

What is a subgraph?  

The Graph protocol harvests data from the Ethereum blockchain and feeds it into its network of subgraphs.

A subgraph is effectively an indexing service configured to seek out transaction data from a particular smart contract or set of smart contracts. A subgraph defines which data should be indexed and how they will be stored and queried.

Once deployed, subgraphs could be queried by dApps to fetch blockchain data to power their frontend interfaces. In simple words, a subgraph is like a database.
ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is The Graph
1. High level overview
2. The Graph explained
The Graph (GRT), Graph Protocol, indexing, querying, Google of blockchains, ingestion services, indexers, consumers, curators, delegators, fishermen, arbitrators20 m
What is an Application Programming interface (API)API, API key, Software Development Kit (SDK)10 m
Why we need The Graph  
1. Before and after The Graph (optional/technical) (Read until “How to create a Subgraph”)
2. How Does The Graph Fit Into DeFi and Web3
Why do we need The Graph, GraphQL15 m
The Graph in Depth

1. Part 1
2. Part 2

(Ignore the math)
Full-Stack Decentralization, GRT Token use, Architecture, Protocol Roles, Service Discovery, Indexer Selection, Query Market, Conditional Micropayment, attestation, Indexer Staking, Curator Signaling, economic security, work token, indexer staking, thawing period, Sybil resistance mechanism, delegation, Curator Signaling, inflation reward, Proofs of Indexing, Subgraph Availability Oracle, Graph Explorer, Graph Name Service (GNS), subgraph manifest, subgraph composition, curation, WAVE Locks (work, attestation, verification, expiration), hash preimage, state channels, Query Verification, Single Attestation Disputes, Conflicting Attestation Disputes, Arbitrator, fishermen, The Graph Council  

Note: Some portions of this section will make more sense after you complete DeFi (more specifically, the content on bonding curves)
1 h

The Web3 Stack: Putting the Pieces Together

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
The Architecture of a web 3.0 application (Don’t worry about the JSON-RPC stuff)Web 2.0 backend and architecture, Web 3.0 backend and architecture, IPFS, Infura, Pinata, Swarm, querying the blockchain, The Graph, Polygon, Scaling L215 m

Module 4: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Note: This module has a bit of the chicken and egg problem. The resources teaching DEXs will sometimes reference the lending protocols (Compound, AAVE) as examples, while the resources teaching lending protocols will occasionally reference the DEXs. In this situation, it’s okay to not understand everything right away – just make sure you mark what you don’t understand and come back when you’re done with the entire module once.

Other than that, this module is a lot of fun as it has a lot of real world applications. You’re going to have a good time!

The Traditional Banking System

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
How the traditional financial system works (watch all videos)Banks, banking, Fractional reserve banking, M0, M1, M2, bank note, check, reserve ratio, leverage, reserve bank (central bank), treasuries, open market operations, bank rate, fed funds rate, target rate, money supply, gold standard vs fiat, fed funds rate, discount rate, repo and reverse repo transactions, deposit insurance, LIBOR6 h

What is DeFi

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Introduction to DeFiDecentralized Finance (DeFi)30 m
Linking TradFi to DeFiA lighthearted introduction by your course author45 m

Stablecoins

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Volatility
2. Liquidity
3. Collateral
4. Floating Rates and Fixed Rates (concept, comparison)
5. Pegged Currency
volatility, liquidity, collateral, floating rate, fixed rate, pegged currency, floating currency, crawling peg, clean float, Fixed vs Floating Exchange Rates (Arguments For and Against), Currency Peg40 m
What is a stablecoin and why we need themStablecoin, collateral peg, algorithmic peg, examples of stablecoins15 m
Types of stablecoins and comparisonstablecoin importance, collateralized stablecoins, real world collateral, crypto collateral, algorithmic stablecoins, USDT, USDT risks, USDC, BUSD, GUSD, DAI25 m
Tether (USDT)Mastercoin, Realcoin, OMNI Layer Protocol, Tether10 m
MakerDao

1. What is Dai and MakerDAO
2. How to Setup a CDP Vault on MakerDAO
3. MakerDAO Mechanism Design
stablecoin, DAI, MKR, MakerDAO, collateralization ratio, interest, SAI, multi collateral DAI, black thursday liquidation event, Product demo, vault, collateralized debt position (CDP), liquidation ratio, liquidation fee, liquidation price, Dai Savings rate, stability fee, emergency shutdown1 h

Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Shares/stocks
2. Financial instrument
3. Order Book
4. Markets
5. Exchanges
6. Broker-Dealer
7. Market Maker
8. Market Index
9. Long and Short
10. Leverage
11. Margin
12. Counterparty and counterparty risk
13. Trade Slippage
stocks, financial instruments, contract, financial assets, financial liabilities, equity instruments, order books, markets, financial market, exchange, trading, brokers, dealers, broker-dealer, market maker, bid, ask, spread, market index, long trades, short trades, leverage, margin trading, counterparty, counterparty risk, trading slippage1.5 h
What is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX)DEX, Centralized Exchanges (CEX), Automated Market Makers (AMM), how DEXs work, risks10 m
How Layer 1 order book DEXs workorder book based DEXs, 0x Protocol, 0x Relayer, Atomic Swap, wrapping15 m
Atomic SwapAtomic Swaps10 m
Liquidity Pools and Automated Market Makers (AMM)

1. What is an AMM
2. What is a liquidity pool
3. How do liquidity pools work
4. AMM math, concept, and need
5. Summary
automated market maker (AMM), constant product market maker algorithm, order book exchanges, liquidity pools, slippage, liquidity providers, impermanent loss, arbitrages (arbs)1 h
Impermanent Lossimpermanent loss10 m
Rug Pullsrug pulls with examples10 m
Uniswap

1. The story of Uniswap
2. How Uniswap Works
3. Uniswap v3 (Note: Video has an error at 6:10 – should be 3000 buy and 4000 sell)
Uniswap, History of Uniswap, UNI token (governance token), Sushi swap, Uniswap v1 vs v2 vs v3 comparison, concentrated liquidity, concentration multiplier, active liquidity, NFT liquidity token, LP token, licensing1 h
Slippage

1. What is slippage
2. Frontrunning and sandwich attacks
slippage, sandwich attack, frontrunning, tolerance40 m
BalancerBalancer10 m
Curve Finance

1. What is Curve Finance
2. How the math behind Curve Finance Works
Curve Finance25 m
Bancor

1. What is Bancor and BNT
2. How does the Impermanent Loss Insurance Work (Bancor v2.1)
3. More on Impermanent Loss Insurance and Single Sided Liquidity
Bancor, BNT token, liquidity protection, impermanent loss insurance, single side liquidity, Bancor Vortex, product demo35 m
Token Bonding Curves  

1. Token Bonding Curves and Token Valuation
2. Token Bonding Curve Algorithms for Autonomous Market Makers (DEX)

(Skip the math portion if you don’t understand it, the important part is the concept)
Token Bonding Curves, buy curve, sell curve, properties of token bonding curves, valuation, risk mitigation, bonding curve functions, linear functions, power functions, logarithmic functions, sigmoid functions, calculating price2 h
dYdX  

1. What is dYdX
2. How dYdX works and product demo
dYdX, DYDX token, perpetuals, layer 2 vs layer 1, starkware, stark rollups, zero knowledge proof, optimistic rollup, dYdX product demo40 m
LoopringLoopring, zk rollups, merkle trees, how Loopring works, LRC token, LRC tokenomics, slashing, trading fees, loopring DAO, LRC ICO, LEAF25 m

Dex Aggregators

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is a DEX AggregatorDEX Aggregators5 m
1inch  

1. What is 1inch and how it works
2. How to use 1inch
1inch, 1inch v2, 1inch Token, price impact fee, product demo20 m

Decentralized Lending and Borrowing

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries  

1. Money market
2. Peer to Peer Lending
3. Annual Percentage Rate (APR)
4. Total value Locked (TVL)
money market, treasury bills, certificate of deposit (CDs), commercial paper (CP), discount to par, P2P lending, annual percentage rate (APR), effective APR, daily periodic rate, total value locked (TVL)15 m
Introduction to decentralized lending and borrowingDeFi lending, Compound, Aave15 m
Compound Finance  

1. What is Compound and what are cTokens
2. How to use Compound Finance
3. Compound Protocol Math (optional)
4. Governance and vision (starts at 22:30)
supplying assets, borrowing, collateral factor, cTokens, types of cTokens, mint functions, compound v2, cETH, cDai, cUSDC, exchange rate, product demo, overcollateralization, forced liquidation, exchange rate math, governance2.5 h
 Homework: Deposit some test ether into compound, and go to etherscan for your address and check whether you received your cETH. In general, you want to play around with all the protocols in this module, using either mainnet ether or test ether. 
Aave

1. What is Aave
2. Aave concepts and how to borrow and lend on Aave
3. Aave Tutorials (resource 1, resource 2)
4. Flash Loans (resource 1, resource 2)
5. How to use flash loans with code (optional)
Aave protocol, AAVE token, history, ETHLend, overcollateralization, liquidation threshold, leveraged lending, aTokens, flash loans, total value locked, aavenomics, shortfall event, AAVE v2, aavengers, variable and stable interest rate loans, utilization rate, swapping collateral, aave safety module, risks, repayment with collateral, Aave markets, product demo, flash loans, atomic transactions, flash loan use cases, arbitrage, self-liquidation, PancakeBunny flash loan attack, how to use flash loans (coding tutorial)  

[Notes for the Flash loans videos:

Resource 1: video assumes the loan was in USD stablecoin in the initial example

Resource 2: mention Polygons, those curious can learn more about Polygon here]
1.5 h

Decentralized Derivatives

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Derivatives
2. Hedging
3. Swaps
4. Futures
5. Options – calls and puts
forwards, futures, options, derivatives, swaps, exchange, over the counter (OTC), leverage, counterparty risk, hedging, swaps, fixed and variable rates of interest,  futures, forwards, future curves, options, puts, calls, option strategies1 h
What are decentralized derivatives?decentralized derivatives15 m
Synthetix

1. What is Synthetix and product demo
2. How does Synthetix work?
Synthetix, synthetic assets, risks, SNX, synths, synthetic equities, layer 2 with Optimism, debt pool1.5 h
Introduction to DeFi Option Protocolsoptions, european options, american options, Hegic, Opium, Opyn40 m
Opyn

1. What is Opyn and how it works
2. How to use Opyn
Opyn, convexity protocol, oTokens, Opyn v1, Opyn v2, gamma portal, governance mechanisms, incentives, settlement, product demo30 m

Decentralized Asset Management

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Market Index
2. Fund Management or Asset Management (resource 1, resource 2)
3. Mutual Funds
4. Hedge Funds
5. Index Funds
stock market index, dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq fund management, asset management, exchange traded fund (ETF), mutual funds, hedge funds, strategies, compensation, hedge fund structure, index funds50 m
Set Protocol / TokenSets

1. What is Set Protocol
2. More on Set Protocol
3. Even more on Set Protocol
4. How to choose a Set
5. What is the difference between Social Trading and Robo Sets?
6. DeFi Pulse Index
7. How to Buy the DeFi Pulse Index
Set Protocol, TokenSets, user roles, use cases Robo Sets, Social Trader Sets, DeFi Pulse, product demo, streaming fee1.5 h

DeFi Dashboards

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Zapper

1. What is Zapper
2. How to use Zapper
Zapper, risks, product demo30 m
Instadapp

1. What is Instadapp
2. What services does Instadapp provide
3. Need for InstaDApp
4. Instadapp tutorial
Instadapp, DeFi Smart Accounts (DSAs), DeFi Smart Layer (DSL), INST token, product demo30 m

Yield Farming

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Yield
bonds, yield5 m
Concept of Yield Farmingyield farming, liquidity mining20 m
Yearn Finance

1. What is Yearn Finance
2. What are Yearn Vaults
3. How to use Yearn finance
Yearn finance, YFI, liquidity mining, vaults, Yearn vaults, vault strategies, YETH vault, risks, product demo30 m
Yield Farming (Video has an error at 8:30, should be “inflationary in nature”)yield farming strategies, leveraged lending and borrowing, staking, liquidity providers, redistribution fees, safemoon, risks15 m
Degen Yield Farmingdegen yield farming, Rugdoc, VFat15 m

Decentralized Payments

Although decentralized payments can already be done with Bitcoin and Ethereum directly, the aim here is to make them faster, cheaper, and to add additional features like payment streams, conditional transfers, and more.

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Blockchain Bridge
2. Sidechain (plasma section is optional)
3. Block Explorer
4. On and Off Ramps
blockchain bridge, centralized and decentralized bridges, sidechain, issues with sidechains, plasma, block explorer, On and Off Ramps50 m
xDaixDai, STAKE25 m
Sablier

1. What is Sablier
2. Use cases and tutorial
Sablier, payment streams, streaming money25 m

Algorithmic Stablecoins

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. PID Controller
PID Controller5 m
What are Algorithmic StablecoinsAlgorithmic Stablecoins, rebase contract, stabilizer contract, ampeforth, death loop, risks, RAI, FEI, FRAX10 m
Stablecoin AlgorithmsRebase, debase, supply volatility, Seigniorage supply, Empty Set Dollar Coin (ESD), Basis Cash, Titan, Iron Finance10 m
Iron Finance (and it’s collapse)The collapse of Iron Finance, IRON, TITAN, STEEL, Target Collateral Ratio (TCR), Effective Collateral Ratio (ECR)15 m
Frax

1. What is Frax
2. The economics of Frax
FRAX, FXS, veFXS, staking, dual token mechanism, FRAX v2, collateral ratio, minting FRAX, C-ratio update, PID controller35 m
OlympusOlympusDAO, OHM, (3,3), Reserve Control Protocol, Treasury, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Floor Price, risks15 m
Magic Internet MoneyMagic Internet Money (MIM), Abracadabra Money, SPELL, sSPELL, yDai, Popsicle Finance, ICE, nICE, Anyswap, Wonderland Money, TIME25 m

Decentralized Prediction Markets

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. Prediction Markets
Prediction Markets, price signals and forecasting, Iowa Electronic Market, The Hollywood Stock Exchange10 m
What are Decentralized Prediction MarketsDecentralized Prediction Markets, bitcoin hivemind, augur, omen, delphy, polymarket, ftx exchange15 m
Why we need Decentralized Prediction MarketsLimitations of centralized prediction markets5 m
Augur

1. What is Augur
2. Overview and how to use Augur (first half only) [bad audio, email us if you find something better]
Augur, REP, market creation, resolution rource, Augur v2, invalid market, product demo25 m
Omen

1. What is Omen
2. More on Omen
3. How to use Omen
Omen, Realitio, arbitration, dxDAO, product demo, xDai, Scalar market30 m

Decentralized Lotteries

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries  

1. How lotteries work
lotteries, how lotteries work10 m
PoolTogether

1. Overview of PoolTogether
2. What is PoolTogether
3. How to use PoolTogether
PoolTogether, Pools, POOL token, no loss lotteries, withdraw penalty, product demo20 m

Decentralized Governance (DeGov)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
What is Decentralized Governancegovernance in traditional public companies, chain governance, Bitcoin governance, forks, tezos governance, governance representatives25 m
Understanding Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), The DAO hack, The DAO bailout, ETH Classic, MakerDAO, potential of DAOs25 m
Real world potential of DAOspotential of DAOs, DAO structures20 m
DAO Treasury and Token ManagementDAO treasury management, UMA range token, DAO security20 m
What gives governance tokens valuegovernance tokens, crypto governance model vs board of directors model, governance as a model20 m
Aragon

1. What is Aragon
2. How to build a DAO with Aragon
Aragon, ANT, Aragon Agent, product demo15 m
Snapshot

1. What is Snapshot
2. How to use Snapshot
Snapshot, use cases, how to vote using snapshot10 m
Flaws in coin governance and potential solutionsneed for DeGov, DeGov issues and dangers, plutocracy, vote delegation, vote buying, bribes, tragedy of the commons, unbundling profit sharing from governance, protections and workarounds, potential solutions, limited governance, un-governance, time delay mechanisms, fork friendliness, non-coin-driven governance, proof of personhood, proof of participation, futarchy60 m

Decentralized Insurance (with Nexus Mutual)

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Preliminaries

1. What is Insurance?
2. How do insurance companies make money
3. Smart contract risk
Insurance, aims of insurance, types of Insurance, smart contract risk, smart contract audits20 m
What is Decentralized Insurancedecentralized insurance20 m
Economics of the Insurance Industry and introduction to Nexus MutualEconomics of Insurance Industry, inefficiencies, information asymmetry, warren buffet halo, signalling, economics of moral hazards, copayment, PA relationship, law of large numbers, tail risks, risks in DeFi, DAO hack, Pokadot parity multi-sig freeze, YAM finance governance token rebase contract, liquidation in Maker’s vaults, bZx smart contract exploit, internal and external techinical risks, economic incentive risks, quantifying risks, Nexus Mutual, insurance cover buyers, risk assessors, claim assessors, NXM, staking NXM, WNXM, Etherisc, reinsurance1.5 h
The Economics of Nexus MutualHow Nexus Mutual works, functions of NXM tokens, yinsure, governance decision making, governance resolution, advisory board powers, emergency pauses, 12h cool off period, NXM bonding curve, Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR), capital pool, dynamic capital flow, MCR Ratio, NXM supply, gearing factor1.5 h
How to buy Insurance with Nexus MutualNXM tokenomics, buying cover, KYC, Nexus Mutual legal structure, WNXM, product demo, risks1 h

Multi-Chain Protocols and Bridges

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Ren Project

1. What is the Ren Protocol and renBTC
2. How to swap BTC for renBTC
Ren Protocol, RenVM, RenBTC, dark nodes, Sharmir’s Secret Sharing Algorithm, WBTC, BitGo15 m
ThorChain

1. How does ThorChain work
2. How to use ThorSwap
native assets, thorchain, Tendermint, Cosmos SDK, Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS), instaswap, bepswap, single-chain chaos network (SCCM), multi-chain chaos network (MCCM), Tendermint BFT, THORnode, BIfrost, witness transactions, inbound vaults, outbound vaults, RUNE token, bonding, churning, sharded vaults, incentive pendulum, dynamic slip based fee, thorswap, impermanent loss protection, product demo30 m
Binance BridgeBinance smart chian, binance bridge, binance chain wallet5 m
AnyswapAnySwap, ANY, product demo10 m
Terra

1. What is Terra, UST, and LUNA
2. Terra Station Tutorial (how to buy and stake Terra and Luna)
Terra, UST, LUNA, Terra Blockchain, Andhor protocol, Mirror protocol, mAssets, Chai, Terra Station, delegated proof of stake25 m

Decentralized Capital Raising

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)Initial Coin Offering (ICO), risks10 m
Security Token Offering (STO)Security Token Offering (STO), utility tokens, security tokens, regulation15 m
Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)10 m
Initial DEX offering (IDO)Initial DEX offering (IDO)5 m
Bonding Curve Offering (BCO) [skip the parts about Onomy]Bonding Curve Offerings (BCO)5 m
Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (IBP)Balancer, liquidity bootstrapping pools (LBP), IDO vs IEO, uniswap IDOs, Mesa IDOs, Hegic IBCO, how LBPs work, LBP examples40 m
Initial Farm Offering (IFO)Initial Farm Offering (IFO)5 m

Miscellaneous topics

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Total Value Locked (TVL)  

1. TVL meaning in different DeFi Product Categories
2. Double counting problem with TVL
total value locked, double counting20 m
Airdropsairdrop5 m
Tokenomicstokenomics, pre-mining, fair launch, circulating supply, total token supply, max supply, inflationary token model, deflationary token model20 m
Miner Extractable Value (MEV)  

1. Understanding Mempool & Miner Extractable Value
2. Frontrunning, MEV, consensus Instability
3. Miner Extractable Value (MEV)
Miner Extracted Value, time bandit attack, mempool2 h
Risks of DeFismart contract bugs, phishing, oracle failure, admin key risk, liquidity crisis, governance failure, de-pegging risk10 m

The past and the future

ResourceTopics coveredEffort
Brief history of DeFihistory of DeFi with timeline20 m
The Future of DeFifuture of DeFi10 m

Module 5: Privacy Coins

Privacy on the Bitcoin Network

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Why we need Privacy

1. Why financial privacy matters
2. Bitcoin’s biggest weakness
Privacy, drawbacks of Bitcoin, CoinJoin, Taproot, Schnorr signatures15 m
How to Get More Privacy on Bitcoin Transactions

1. Increasing privacy on Bitcoin Transactions
2. Things to keep in mind
Bitcoin Privacy10 m
CoinJoin

1. What is CoinJoin
2. Drawbacks of CoinJoin
CoinJoin, fungibility, traceability, anonymity sets, centralized mixing services, zero link protocol, cash shuffle algorithm, Mimblewimble, CoinJoin drawbacks, financial privacy20 m
Blacklisted/tainted coins

1. Blacklisted Vs Whitelisted Crypto
2. Blacklists, Taint, and Wallet Fingerprinting
Pseudonymity, Chainalysis, blacklisted or tainted coins, whitelisted coins, Blacklists, Taint, and Wallet Fingerprinting, Dandelion routing  

Note: Just because a chainanalysis company claims something, does not mean they have that ability.
30 m
Bitcoin censorship and blacklists in practice

1. Bitcoin’s Fungibility Graveyard
2. CoinJoin Flagging
Examples of censorship due to lack of privacy and fungibility, Examples of censorship of people who want more privacy20 m
Bitcoin censorship potential and miners centralization

1. CPU, GPU, and ASIC mining (Ignore the second half that talks about Pahla)
2. Bitcoin’s ASIC problem
3. How could regulators successfully introduce Bitcoin censorship and other dystopias
CPU mining, GPU mining, ASIC mining, Bitcoin ASIC problem, miner centralization, Blockseer, censorship potential, Monero45 m
Workaround solutions (for reference)Roundabout ways to get more privacy on a public ledger10 m

Monero

Basic Monero

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
What is Monero

1. What is Monero (XMR)
2. Monero Explained
Monero, obfuscated public ledger, fungibility, ring signatures, public view key, private view key, public spend key, private spend key, stealth address, key image, RingCT15 m
How Monero Works (Monero Privacy Technologies)

1. Stealth Addresses
2. Ring Signatures
3. Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT)
Stealth addresses, ring signatures, key images, Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT)  

Note: Kovri is abandoned. It is partially replaced by i2p-zero, and by Dandelion which is discussed in later resources.
10 m
Monero Addresses  

1. Standard or Primary Addresses
2. Subaddresses
3. Integrated Addresses (Ignore the sections on math, data structures, and how to generate the addresses)
Standard or Primary Address (starts with a 4), Subaddresses (starts with an 8), Integrated Addresses, use cases, Payment ID/Memo15 m
Monero Key TypesPrivate View Key, Private Spend Key, Transaction Key5 m

Stealth Addresses (Receiver’s Privacy)

The addresses mentioned above are converted into one-time stealth addresses by the sender’s wallet to protect the receiver’s privacy on the blockchain. This is a consensus rule, and transactions that do not use one-time stealth addresses are rejected by the network.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
One-Time Stealth Addresses (Receiver Privacy)Stealth address, burning address5 m

Ring Signatures (Sender’s Privacy)

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Basic Overview Ring SignaturesRing Signatures5 m
Ring Signatures in Monero (Transcript)Ring Signatures, key images, double spend protection, linkability, traceability, history of ring signatures, zero mixin (ring size 1), consensus enforcement, mandatory privacy, ringsize history, distinguishability, heuristics, privacy trade-offs, Zcash50 m

Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) (Transaction Amount Privacy)

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP)Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP), interactive and non-interactive proofs, zk-SNARKS10 m
Pedersen commitmentCryptographic Commitments, Pedersen commitment, homomorphic property10 m
Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT)  

1. What is RingCT
2. More on RingCT
3. How does RingCT work
RingCT, key image, Pedersen commitment, range proofs, transparent coinbase20 m
Bulletproofs  

1. What are Bulletproofs
2. Range proofs and Bulletproofs
3. Bulletproofs in Monero
4. Bulletproofs+ in Monero
Range Proofs, Bulletproofs, Bulletproofs+30 m

Network Level Privacy (Optional) 

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Dandelion++

1. Dandelion++
2. Dandelion protocol and onion routing
3. Dandelion and Dandelion++
Dandelion, Dandelion++, Spy Attacks, pros and cons, flooding, basic flooding, randomized flooding (diffusion), diffusion by proxy, stem phase, fluff phase, epochs, fail-safe mechanism, black-hole attacks  

Note: Dandelion++ is live.
45 m

Monero Coinomics

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Monero as money (Ignore the math)Money printing, pandemic economy, inflation, digital scarcity, elliptic curve cryptography, network security, fungibility1 h
Tail EmissionNetwork security, Tail Emission5 m
The infinite supply questionInfinite supply and inflation10 m

Dynamic Block Size and Transaction Fees

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Dynamic block sizesScaling, dynamic block size, spam attacks, fee markets5 m
Transaction Feestransaction fee, dynamic fee algorithm, base reward, penalty10 m

Supply Verification

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
How to fully audit the entirety of Monero’s supply and reliance on sound cryptographyHow to fully audit the entirety of Monero’s supply, reliance on the soundness of the cryptography used5 m
Problems with supply auditability in Privacy Enhancing Cryptocurrencies (Article, Video)Supply Auditability, problems with supply auditability on privacy enhancing cryptocurrencies, ElGamal commitments vs Pedersen Commitments40 m

ASIC Resistance and Miner Decentralization

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
CryptoNight mining algorithm (Ignore the math)CryptoNight, failure to resist ASICs5 m
RandomX mining algorithm (Ignore the math)RandomX, CPU-only mining5 m
ASIC-Resistant Proof of Work and road to RandomX in Monero (Transcript)  

(Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything.)
ASIC-Resistant Proof of Work, RandomJS, CryptoNight/R, RandomX, why GPU resistance  

Note: RandomX is live.
40 m

Vulnerabilities and Potential Attacks

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
0 decoy (Transcript)0-Decoy Attack/Analysis, Chain Reactions20 m
Key image reuse attack (Chain Splits)

1. How Monero protects against double spend attacks
2. Chain Splits (Key Image Reuse Attack (Transcript)
Key Images, Double spend prevention with key images, chain splits, tag, fork30 m
Input Selection Algorithm (Transcript)Input Selection Algorithm, problems with true randomness15 m
Unusual Ringsizes (Transcript)Unusual Ringsizes15 m
Remote Nodes (Transcript)Attacks from Remote Node25 m
Timing Attacks (Transcript)Timing Attacks, 10 confirmation requirement20 m
Poisoned Outputs (EAE Attack) (Transcript)Poisoned Outputs (Eve Alice Eve Attack), marked money, probabilistic models, future of ring signatures for privacy on Monero30 m
Public Mining Pools  

1. What is Churning
2. Public Mining Pools data leaks (Transcript)
Churning, Public Mining Pools, Payout transactions20 m
Miscellaneous (Transcript) (Optional)interesting Q&A50 m
Input/Output Metadata (Transcript)Input/Output Metadata, metadata analysis20 m
Blockchain Explorer OpSec (Transcript)Blockchain Explorer OpSec10 m
Subaddress Association (Janus Attack)  

1. Advisory note for users making use of subaddresses
2. Subaddress Association (Janus Attack) (Transcript)
Subaddress Association, Janus Attack25 m

History and Culture

ResourceEffort
The Strange Birth & History of Monero, Part I: WTF is Bytecoin?15 m
The Strange Birth & History of Monero, Part II: BitMonero15 m
The Strange Birth & History of Monero, Part III: Decentralized team15 m
The Strange Birth & History of Monero, Part IV: Monero “as it is now”15 m
Satoshi’s Vision5 m

Miscellaneous

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Monero vs BTC

1. Monero vs BTC
2. Growing Adoption 
A lighthearted podcast with your author, adoption and growth compared1.5 h
Why fungibility mattersWhy Fungibility Matters15 m
Dispelling Monero FUDAddressing common concerns regarding Monero10 m

Zcash

Introduction to Zcash 

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Intro to Zcash and Comparison to BitcoinZcash, ZEC, zerocoin, Electric Coin Company, Zcash Foundation, 21 million total supply, Equihash, Zcash transaction, shielded and transparent addresses15 m
Zcash 101 (from the Electric Coin Company)what is Zcash, resources to use Zcash, origin of Zcash, transparent and shielded addresses, viewing keys, multi-party computation, sprout, sapling, halo, trusted setup, zero knowledge proofs, halvening, regulation and compliance, history and roadmap (Nov 2020), Zcash foundation, project funding, founder’s reward, devfund, importance of financial privacy, interesting QA1 h
Zcash profileHistory, roadmap, contributors, advisors, tokenomics, technology, governance, regulation25 m

How Zcash Works

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Anatomy of A Zcash TransactionZero knowledge proofs, t-address, z-address, Transparent Value Pool (TVP), transferring funds between different types of addresses5 m
What are zk-SNARKs?Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge Proofs (zkSNARKs), Rank 1 Constraint System (R1CS), Quadratic Arithmetic Program (QAP)15 m
How Transactions Between Shielded Addresses WorkNotes, nullifier set, zero-knowledge proofs  

Note: The idea behind the nullifier set is similar to the idea of key images that you have learned about in the Monero section: it is a way of marking the notes as used  to prevent double spending (once used, they become null).
7 m
The Encrypted Memo Fieldencrypted memo field, use cases7 m
Viewing Keysviewing keys, payment disclosure, splitting viewing authority and spending authority3 m

Zcash Founders’ Reward and DevFund

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Funding, Incentives, and GovernanceZcash supply, 21 million coins, 10% of total supply to founders, 20% tax in miner’s reward for the first 4 years, Zcash company, Zcash foundation5 m
A Look at the Zcash Dev Fund Process – Josh Cincinnati (Executive Director of the Zcash Foundation)History of Zcash dev fund process, Zcash Company, Zcash Foundation, Electric Coin Company, Y cash (z cash first fork), Zcash trademark ownership, involvement of Zcash community20 m
Zcash Development FundingFrom November 2020, Zcash dev fund: Electric Coin Company, Zcash Foundation and Major Grants Review Committee (MGRC)1 m
Reaching consensusNew Zcash development fund10 m

Equihash

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Migrating to EquihashWhy Equihash, what changes, how to mine Zcash3 m
Understanding the Generalized Birthday ProblemBirthday paradox, 23 people in a room 50% probability of at least 2 of them having the same birthday, combinations, permutations, exponentials5 m
How does Equihash work?Origin of the Equihash algorithm, Equihash’s goal, how does Equihash work?, the resolution algorithm, the end of equihash ASIC resistance, algorithm characteristics, cryptocurrencies using the Equihash algorithm10 m
Zcash Company Statement on ASICsASIC mining equipment, ASIC-resistance research, Overwinter, Sapling3 m

Zcash Trusted Setup

The zk-proofs you have just seen require a one-time operation to initialize the algorithm, known as the trusted setup. This is an extremely important process, because if someone manages to get access to the secret generated during this setup, they could cheat the network: emit malicious transactions that would be accepted by the miners.

This process took place twice for Zcash, giving birth to two versions known as Sprout and Sapling. Zcash is currently working on Halo, based on a different approach that does not require an initial setup.

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Zcash ceremonyInitial Zcash trusted ceremony5 m
Trusted setupTrusted setup and why it’s needed5 m
What is Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC)?Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC), Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)8 m

Double Spend Protection (Zero-Knowledge Proofs, zk-SNARKs, and Turnstiles)

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
Zero Knowledge Proofs, Zcash, Sprout, Sapling & zkSnarks

(Note: Video starts at the 11 minute mark. Watch until 48:00.)
Zk-proofs, Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge Proofs (zkSNARKs), commitment schemes, commitment trapdoor, Zcash Sprout, Transparent value pool, Shielded value pool, transaction validation, double spending protection, payment address, incoming viewing key, full viewing key, proof authorizing key, expanded spend key40 m
Turnstileturnstiles, transparent value pool, Sprout value pool, Sapling value pool, consensus rules in case pool becomes negative due to counterfeiting5 m
Zcash Sprout Shielded Pool Counterfeiting Vulnerability

1. Disclosure by Zcash team
2. Analysis by Monero devs
Discussion around the counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash (generation of false proofs), BCTV14 vulnerability, Parno15, Fuchsbauer17, BBFR14, ADSNARK, PGHR13, BGG17, Groth16, Zcash turnstile, problems with turnstiles50 m

If you want to learn more about zk-SNARKs and the math behind them, check out this 8 part series by the ECC. (This is optional).

History and Culture

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
History and future of ZcashZooko Wilcox, history of Zcash, privacy, future of web3, what is Zcash, Electric Coin Company, the trusted setup process, the setup ceremony, Zcash technical challenges, Zcash counterfeit vulnerability, why having dev funds, history of privacy on the internet, crypto protecting users like HTTPs, what’s more important than privacy, continuous improvements vs stability, Zcash shielded assets, crypto memos, Zcash in the future, halo, solving the blockchain scalability problem1 h
History of zk-SNARKs in Zcash (Ignore the math)Sprout, trusted setup, BCTV14, BCTV14 flaw, structured reference string, Slow prover, Groth16, Sapling, recursive proof composition without a trusted setup, polynomial IOP (interactive oracle proof), Halo, Halo 2, Sinsemilla25 m

Miscellaneous Resources

ResourceTopics CoveredEffort
User Defined Assets (UDAs)User Defined Asset (UDA), why privacy is important, effect of privacy on fungibility, front running, bridge smart contract blockchains with Zcash, stablecoins35 m

Feedback

We would love to hear your feedback and any product improvement suggestions you have for us. Please send us an email at support@teachyourselfcrypto.com

Who Made This

This project was collaborated on by Harsh Strongman and Sergio.

Harsh Strongman is a Chartered Accountant and entrepreneur. He has a self-taught education in Computer Science. He is the owner of Life Math Money, the #1 self-improvement website for men. He can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram. Sign up for his free weekly newsletter here.

Sergio is an aerospace engineer by education, and has worked at Amazon (developing Alexa) as a software engineer. Currently, he works at eBay. He is also a Certified Professional Cloud Architect (Google Cloud), and is the owner of Your Coding Teacher, a website aimed at helping you supercharge your career. He can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram. His newsletter signup is available on the sidebar of his website.

Special thanks to Ash for being our alpha-test student and providing us with valuable feedback along the way.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this course comes from the Computer Science OSSU and Teach Yourself Computer Science.