Crypto Curriculum

I'm hoping this turns out to be a more ongoing dump of links that may help you learn about Crypto/Blockchains/Web3.

**Additionally, if you are interested in adding to this, please send over a categorized list or link with a brief description to help me grow this. If this gains enough traction, I will likely turn this into a Github Repo where others can contribute freely and openly.**

None of this is financial advise.

If you want to start anywhere, start here. It covers the basics, and builds very well on to each subject: https://nakamoto.com/introduction-to-cryptocurrency/

More in depth learning below... this is not in exact order. If something seems to go over your head, go to a different link and revisit later. I am fairly technical and have designed this with a specific bias for other builders.

Start with Cryptography

It's crucial to understand what Cryptography is in order to understand why ANY of the things after this work. 

  • - Crash Course is a gem, if you aren't already an avid watcher. This CS course changed my life. The most important part begins at 8:26, pay attention to asymmetric encryption. It's at the root of all Crypto 
  • - An explanation on RSA. "RSA creates the ability to generate unforgeable signatures" which allows crypto users to be the ONLY ones that can send THEIR cryptocurrencies or tokens that they own and no one else.
  • - Eddie Woo with the best mathematical explanation of RSA, for you geeks who care.
  • - Hash functions. These are at the core of what a Blockchain does, it uses a mathematical property of uniqueness to allow collaborators (miners) to cryptographically agree on the contents of the "block"
  • - Khan Academy talking about "HashCash" the main Proof of Work Algorithm that makes Bitcoin tick. It puts all of the previous lessons into work. It will make more sense if you read the Bitcoin Whitepaper below

Distributed System and P2P Networking

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajjOEltiZm4 - Distributed Systems 101
  • - P2P Networking. Remember Napsters, Kazaa, LimeWire, BitTorrent... they all worked on the principles of P2P networking. No Centralized database, just a bunch of people sharing between one another directly.
  • Advanced note: P2P networking is WAY slower than centralized systems as messages only need to go to a single point in centralized systems, and coordination is a lot easier. In P2P networking messages have to go to the vast majority of the network and therefore a single "event" will take much longer to propagate through the system. Solana (https://solana.com) claims there is a way to reach the theoretical limit of centralized system (710K transactions per second) in Blockchain systems through a consensus mechanism known as Proof of History.

Blockchain Technology

Ethereum and other "chains"

  • https://ethereum.org/en/what-is-ethereum/ - Bitcoin started everything, but Ethereum likely took Crypto much further towards main adoption by turning the Blockchain into a World Computer. A publicly accessible machine that everyone could verify.
  • https://solana.com/ - Ask anyone the biggest challenge with Cryptocurrencies and they will like say "real-world use cases" and "high gas fees". Solana wants to tackle this second one to allow developers to solve the first one. Solana claims to be a highly efficient, very fast blockchain. 
  • https://cosmos.network/ - Another strong but underrated player that has been used in a lot of interesting real world use cases.
  • https://thedapplist.com/learn/what-is-the-blockchain-scalability-trilemma/ - As you learn about more blockchains, you'll be like OH well if this one is faster AND cheaper why would I use anything else? Well... there is no free lunch! Speed, and cheapness come at a cost of security.
  • https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/layer-2-rollups/ - As important as it is to try and understand blockchains, it is critically important to understand other scaling solutions that are built on top of existing blockchains. These are known as Layer 2 Solutions and is definitely going to be a technical read if you are so inclined.

I could keep posting here but further Blockchains to Google are Avalanche, Polygon (Matic), Polkadot, NEAR, Terra, Algorand. And a special mention to Layer 2 technologies such as Optimism, Arbitrum, Starkware, zkSync, LoopRing, and Polygon Hermez.

Smart Contracts

dApps

In this section I want to avoid "shilling" any specific token or project, so I will stay higher level. PLEASE do your own research go WAY deeper than I am mentioning here because I am only giving you the tip of the iceberg and believe it is best if you dig into specific projects yourself.

  • - This is the only specific project I will share because it is one of the best examples of how to understand what a decentralized protocol is, why it is important, and how is it "decentralized"
  • - Protocols vs Products. This took me a while to understand myself. Protocols are open source systems that anyone can access and are unbiased and unopinionated about certain specifcs. While Products are usually opinionated (in a good way) where they believe there are best ways to interact with the underlying protocol. Like different browsers were for HTTP/TCP protocols.
  • - Blockchains are worthless unless we build useful things on top of them. What are those new useful things?
  • https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi-574c68ff43c4 - A key use case of blockchains is Decentralized Finance. Can you get the same benefits of a bank, without the bank? Crypto enthusiasts believe yes and more!
  • https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DeFi-Beyond-the-Hype.pdf - Defi from a more traditional source.
  • https://future.a16z.com/nft-canon/ - Everything NFT.

Security

It wouldn't be write to be in Crypto if you weren't understanding the security implications. Having all of the power of blockchains creates an incredible responsibility to manage your crypto safely. 


There is so much more to go into, but I'll keep this a V1 and optimize for getting it started.