Ask HN: What are the basics of cryptography with regards to cryptocoins?

1 pointlumberjack2 comments

I am a CS grad but I didn't touch cryptography much at all because I thought it was a specialization that I didn't need. I think I might be proven wrong in the near future. I would like to build a solid foundation of understanding mostly in regards to cryptocoins but also covering the basics of the field, math and theory included. Where do I start?

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Finding the prime factors of large numbers is hard. Cryptography is almost exclusively about picking two Large Primes, Multiplying them, and then using that very large, very hard to factor number as a key.

This is overly simple, but it is the very core of every modern crypto. So understanding it is the best place to start.

https://www.coursera.org/course/crypto

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