Hello,
I have been looking at cryptocurrencies (and mining) for a while, and have written a pretty long (18 pages) document which details how cryptocurrencies (and bitcoin) work under the hood and over the hood. Because I initially had lots of trouble understanding that myself as information online, with a few exceptions, seemed to be very advanced, I have tried to make it as clear as possible, from the transactions to the blocks to the block chains to the chain forks to actually mining, using a client, getting the private key, choosing coins to mine based on ROI and/or type of mining (CPU,GPU,FPGA,ASIC) etc. And a short explanation of the proof-of-works that seems to be used: SHA256, Scrypt, Cunningham Prime number chains whose origin is linked to the block hash (haven't gotten around to Quark that much)
I intend it as a very broad yet in-depth view as to how those currencies work, and something any beginner should read. I certainly wish I had had such a document when I started.
At any rate, here it is!
https://sites.google.com/site/cryptojp/Thank you very much!
