As I continue to dig deeper into the cryptocurrency world, I have been looking for quality materials to help me learn more. There's a lot of really technical information out there, of course, and there's some beginner materials, but there isn't a lot to bridge the gap – even though that's exactly what I need. I'm not exactly a newbie, and I understand some of the basic concepts of cryptocurrencies, and even have done a bit of trading. But I need something that will seep between the spaces in my knowledge.
With that in mind, I've put together a list of free or freeish courses from colleges and other reputable institutions that provide insight into the cryptocurrency world. (By "freeish" I mean that course readings, assignments, and other materials are available for free online, but video of the lectures might not be available.)
Please note that I'm not endorsing any of these, and I haven't even gone through them all yet, so I can't comment on quality. But I figured others might be interested in such a list, so I wanted to share what I found. Please upvote and/or reshare if you plan on looking into any of these!
1. Draper University & Zapchain
So, I'm starting with the most basic. To be honest, I was a little hesitant to include this one because it was developed in part by the now-defunct Zapchain, but it's free and also backed by Draper University, which seems to have a fairly decent reputation in general. The Bitcoin Course is offered through Udemy, which has mostly pay-for courses, but this one has no cost. It's more introductory than what I'm looking for myself – more like something that I would send to my step-dad, who is a retired finance guy and doesn't really know much about cryptocurrencies, than I would actually use myself. It's a 7-part course with instructional videos with some basic checkpoint quizzes and such. Good for an overview of what Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are in general, but perhaps not something you need if you already know the basics.
2. Princeton / Coursera
The Coursera class on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies was created by Princeton University professor Arvind Narayanan. He also co-wrote a textbook titled Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, which is available freely online. As a Coursera course, this class is open to anyone, and according to the syllabus, this 11-week class seems to focus primarily on Bitcoin, although there is a week dedicated to altcoins as well. The comments indicate that there isn't much mathematical involvement, so my guess is that it focuses primarily on the theory and history of cryptocurrencies rather than any hard technical details. Also, some of the comments indicate that the material is a little dated, but no doubt it still offers some interesting historical insights. You can also access this course through Princeton Online or directly from YouTube.
3. Stanford
For the last couple years, Standford has offered a computer science course on cryptocurrencies in the fall known as CS 251: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies. According to the course description, the class covers "all aspects of cryptocurrencies, including distributed consensus, blockchains, smart contracts and applications." It's no surprise that the most recent iteration of the course covers the two major players – Bitcoin and Ethereum – but it also has a section on altcoins, so a lot more is covered. Although you can't access the course directly (it is not currently being offered), the syllabus has links to a ton of readings available for download. This will undoubtedly give anyone who wants to dig into the material hours upon hours of reading. Also, it uses the same textbook as the Coursera course listed above.
4. UC Berkeley
The Blockchain at Berkeley group offers a survey of cryptocurrency topics called Decal. The page is rife with materials, including links to lecture presentations, readings, and homework assignments. They also use two open textbooks, including Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies used by Princeton and Stanford (linked above) and Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos. While videos of the lectures do not appear to be freely available, this seems like a fairly complete course and freely accessible to all.
5. MIT
Like the Stanford course, MIT's 6.892 Shared public ledgers, cryptocurrencies (and Other Marvels) isn't completely open. However, the course materials appear to be available on GitHub, which includes readings, lecture notes, and homework assignments. The topics covered by the class suggest that it is both broader and deeper than some of the other courses available, and even reading the materials that are available are likely to give you a better grasp of things than the mere basics.
Honorable Mention: NYU Law School
So, this is obviously not one of the free courses listed above, primarily because it is not freely available online. However, Digital Currency, Blockchains and the Future of Financial Services looks like a very interesting class. Given it was taught earlier this year (vs. the other courses, which are all at least a year old), it is a little more up to date than the others. The syllabus lists the texts used for the course, some of which have URLs for easy online access. The other texts can probably be accessed easily enough if you can find your way into a halfway decent library. The thing I find fascinating about this class is its coverage of contract law, which is obviously much more important with the development of smart contracts.
Any Others?
What have I missed out there? Have you taken any of these? What did you think about them?
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