Hey Everybody! Apologies for the long delay since my last post. After leaving Ethereum in June, I took a bit of a break from the Bitcoin space, but I've returned to give everyone an update on BEP's Udemy course and the state of education in the Bitcoin space.
Summary of ProjectsSince we launched the Bitcoin Education Project last year in May/June, there has been a massive amount of progress in releasing great peer-reviewed free or low cost content. I'll try to summarize what I know about and if I miss anything let me know:
- The World Bitcoin Network (Youtube Channel)
- Draper University's Bitcoin Course (MOOC)
- The University of Nicosia Masters Program (Formal Degree Program with Free MOOC)
- The Lynda.com Bitcoin Course (Paid Subscription Content)
- The Khan Academy Bitcoin Course (Free series of Youtube Videos)
- The Upcoming Blockchain University Training Courses (In person course {think big nerd ranch}
- Mastering Bitcoin from Andreas (Book)
- Understanding Bitcoin (Book from Pedro Franco)
- Decoding Bitcoin (Book from Rich Apodaca)
- The C4 (Certification Group {technology focused})
- The DCC (Certification Group {regulatory, legal and accounting focused})
- The Nakamoto Institute
The World Bitcoin Network [
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgo7FCCPuylVk4luP3JAgVw]
A ton of excellent videos by James D`Angelo on everything bitcoin and beyond. I highly recommend his work.
Draper University's Bitcoin Course [
http://www.bitcoincourse.co/]
A course starting October 22nd. I'm signed up and will review it after I have finished the content. It's free.
The University of Nicosia Masters Program [
http://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/about-the-program]
A new program one of our senior fellows consulted on while they were developing the curriculum. They cover a wide range of topics from how banks and money work to cryptography. The real value to the community is the free MOOC they offer. I'm currently enrolled and the content is well structured and presented. Highly recommend.
The Lynda.com Bitcoin Course [
http://www.lynda.com/Business-Finance-tutorials/Up-Running-Bitcoin/167065-2.html]
I haven't taken this class yet so I'm uncertain about the quality. That said, I do use Lynda.com and generally everything they produce is high quality. I'll get around to watching the lectures and report back. You have to pay a subscription to access this content so I wouldn't recommend unless there are other courses in their catalog you are interested in.
The Khan Academy Bitcoin Course [
https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/money-and-banking/bitcoin/v/bitcoin-what-is-it]
This content has been around about as long as ours. It's a great brief introduction into the nuts and bolts of bitcoin. I'd also recommend the youtube video how bitcoin works under the hood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx9zgZCMqXE . Both are free and fairly short.
The Upcoming Blockchain University Training Courses [Will Post URL]
Some silicon valley kids are really interested in developing a training course for entrepreneurs and developers on how to build DAPPs using platforms like counterparty, ethereum and also the new APIs hitting the market. I've been consulting a bit on this project and will report back once something is ready for release. There really isn't any content on the market for developers to build applications and it would be nice to see an eventual MOOC on it.
Mastering Bitcoin [
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do]
I recall chatting with Andreas late last year over skype when he was eating cereal about writing a Bitcoin book. This is the result of his labours and its an excellent resource. The crypto section could use a bit of polishing; however, overall the book is basically our community's version of Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography. It covers everything from transaction scripts to mining. If you really want to understand how bitcoin works, then you need to read this book- probably more than once. Highly recommend.
Understanding Bitcoin[
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119019168.html]
I haven't had a chance to get my hands on this book yet (the publisher wouldn't send me an early release); however, Pedro is a very experienced technical writer and also this book was reviewed by Christof Paar from Understanding Cryptography (it's one of the best intros to crypto on the market). I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing. Will post more later.
Decoding Bitcoin[
http://bitzuma.com/bitcoin-book/]
I'm a technical reviewer for Rich's book and it should hit the shelves sometime in late December to January. It's very complimentary to Andreas's book in that Mastering Bitcoin discusses the how and Rich covers the why. Here's a sample of Rich's writing style:
http://bitzuma.com/posts/op-return-and-the-future-of-bitcoin/ . I really enjoy it and I'll keep you guys posted.
The C4 [
https://cryptoconsortium.org/]
The C4 is a not for profit, Canada based credential body responsible for the CBP and CBX certifications. It's the brainchild of Michael Perklin and I'm one of the advisors alongside others like Peter Todd and Vitalik. All credentials will eventually be embedded on the bitcoin blockchain and I believe they are also using Mozilla Open Badges. The CBP is an online general knowledge exam whereas the CBX is a proctored detailed examination of one's knowledge of the technical side of the bitcoin protocol. There will eventually be a large family of certifications.
The DCC [
http://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/]
The Digital Currency Council is another credential body, but it focused on KYC, AML, accounting standards, legal knowledge and other similar content. We are currently in talks to include some DCC content in the second edition of our Udemy course specifically covering some legal aspects of the bitcoin ecosystem. As that materializes, I'll keep you guys posted.
The Nakamoto Institute[
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/literature/]
A wonderful resource for anyone curious about where Satoshi got the idea for bitcoin. They have a massive archive of papers that influenced the development of bitcoin as well as every forum post and many of Satoshi's emails. If you can read academic papers, then this is probably your best resource period.
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So you can get degrees, certifications, read professionally written books and watch more youtube videos than you have time. It's been a pretty amazing year for the state of education and I'm really proud of the excellent work that has been done. I do have some concerns, which is why we are releasing a second edition of the udemy course.
First, a lot of this new content- while relatively cheap- isn't free nor is released under a license that allows for viral propagation. Second, the content is still heavily localized to English speakers in the western world. Third, there hasn't been detailed, accessible, and objective coverage of technology beyond the monetary uses of cryptocurrency. Finally, there isn't much content on how to build applications in the bitcoin space.
Bitcoin: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love CryptoGiven the content above and my concerns, I spoke with several of the senior fellows at BEP about what we should do with the Udemy course I created last year. It was decided that we should vastly update, partner and localize the content and release it under a creative commons license for everyone to use. I've been tasked with reviewing all the content on the market. Brian will be expanding on the history of digital currencies and Nikos will be helping with curriculum review. As it stands right now, the second edition shall have the following sections:
- Introduction to Money, Credit and Forex
- What is Bitcoin
- A Technical Analysis of Bitcoin
- Products, Services and Communities in the Bitcoin Space
- Beyond Bitcoin
- (Proposed Content) DCC Presenting KYC, AML and other Legal Considerations for Bitcoiners
Introduction to Money, Credit and ForexOur goal here is to introduce the formal definition of money and explain its history, relationship to credit as well as how money is created and priced. We'll cover topics like the forex markets and the federal reserve alongside curious footnotes like Rai Stones and the Bank of Amsterdam.
What is BitcoinThe goal is to introduce the history of digital currency and then build up to the concepts behind bitcoin's creation. By the end of this section, students should understand the basic terminology in the space, how to download and install a wallet, conduct a transaction, concepts like mining and the Byzantine general's problem, how to acquire bitcoins and other topics like BIPs.
A Technical Analysis of BitcoinOur current goal is to examine the Bitcoin protocol under the hood. So we'd like to cover things like bitcoin's scripting language, BIPs 32, 38, 70, the crypto behind bitcoin, how P2P networks work, a detailed examination of the mining process, etc. We are waiting to finish both Andreas and Pedro's books as well as get a clearer sense of what will be on the CBX prior to finishing the content in this section. This section is optional and its target audience is primarily developers.
Products, Services and Communities in the Bitcoin SpaceThis section is one of the hardest for us to create. On one hand, it's incredibly important to elaborate on the products of companies like BitPay, Coinbase, Blockchain.info and others because they add to the richness of our ecosystem. On the other hand, this has to be fair and objective or else it diminishes the credibility of our content. Furthermore what if we cover a company that ends up defrauding the community? So we are going to develop a test for inclusion and include a preliminary lecture on it prior to covering any company. Also note that BEP will not endorse a venture, but merely cover its existence and features.
Once we are further along, if you have a company that you'd like to be included, then send me a PM or email at charles.hoskinson@gmail and we can walk through the inclusion test. If you pass, then we'll do a lecture on your product, service or community.
Beyond BitcoinBlockchains and more advanced scripting capabilities can enable a completely new internet and also disintermediate practically any web application from the standard client server model to a native P2P model. Topics like decentralized computation, storage and hosting will be covered as well as the projects that enable them like Maidsafe, Ethereum and Storj. We'll also cover overlay protocols like Counterparty and Colored Coins alongside applications that have been built. Our goal is to show what the future could have in store for this technology.
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A few final notes. One should be able to pass the CBP after taking the course. It's also worth mentioning again that all the content will be released under a creative commons license, translated into multiple languages and released on both Udemy and youtube. Finally, we rely upon peer review to increase our quality. The first edition has had now 44,000 students and I personally received well over 5,000 emails from it containing comments, questions and suggestions. It's been a really fun ride and I look forward to continuing it.
Cheers,
Charles
