Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics (The Wiley Finance Series) - Hardcover

Franco, Pedro

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119019168 ISBN 13: 9781119019169

Publisher: Wiley, 2014

Synopsis

Discover Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has the finance world buzzing

Bitcoin is arguably one of the biggest developments in finance since the advent of fiat currency. With Understanding Bitcoin, expert author Pedro Franco provides finance professionals with a complete technical guide and resource to the cryptography, engineering and economic development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This comprehensive, yet accessible work fully explores the supporting economic realities and technological advances of Bitcoin, and presents positive and negative arguments from various economic schools regarding its continued viability.

This authoritative text provides a step-by-step description of how Bitcoin works, starting with public key cryptography and moving on to explain transaction processing, the blockchain and mining technologies. This vital resource reviews Bitcoin from the broader perspective of digital currencies and explores historical attempts at cryptographic currencies. Bitcoin is, after all, not just a digital currency; it's a modern approach to the secure transfer of value using cryptography. This book is a detailed guide to what it is, how it works, and how it just may jumpstart a change in the way digital value changes hands.

• Understand how Bitcoin works, and the technology behind it
• Delve into the economics of Bitcoin, and its impact on the financial industry
• Discover alt-coins and other available cryptocurrencies
• Explore the ideas behind Bitcoin 2.0 technologies
• Learn transaction protocols, micropayment channels, atomic cross-chain trading, and more

Bitcoin challenges the basic assumption under which the current financial system rests: that currencies are issued by central governments, and their supply is managed by central banks. To fully understand this revolutionary technology, Understanding Bitcoin is a uniquely complete, reader-friendly guide.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Praise for Understanding Bitcoin

"This book is a one stop source for much-needed information about cryptocurrencies. Finally a single resource for everyone who wants to understand Bitcoin, the technologies it is based on and it's whole surrounding ecosystem. No more googling around and going through wikis and forums."
—Pavol "stick" Rusnak, Core developer of TREZOR

"Bitcoin is a large domain encompassing many diverse areas of expertise. Franco's Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics is a welcome endeavour which provides a coherent picture of the framework. His book is a timely reference guide for a hot, quickly evolving, crucially relevant subject."
—Prof. Ferdinando M. Ametrano, QuantLib, Hayek Money, Milan Bicocca University, Banca IMI IntesaSanpaolo

"Anyone interested in electronic payments will treasure this book for its depth and breadth, as it covers a very wide range of topics ranging from cryptography to software engineering to monetary economics. Pedro has created a comprehensive and very accessible introduction to the world of cryptocurrencies, which is very fun to read."
—Jan Pelzl, Author of Understanding Cryptography

"Bitcoin is a challenging subject for most people to wrap their heads around. Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics offers a simple and understandable glimpse into the world of bitcoin that anyone can follow. The book not only explores Bitcoin's potential to transform commerce, but also it's potential to reshape the Internet itself. It's a must read for anyone looking to learn about Bitcoin."
—Stephen Pair, BitPay co-founder and CEO

From the Inside Flap

Bitcoin is a revolutionary digital currency that is arousing great interest within the financial industry. Presenting a modern approach to the secure transfer of value using cryptography, this currency also challenges the basic assumptions on which the current global financial system rests.

Understanding Bitcoin gives financial professionals a comprehensive resource and technical guide to the cryptography, engineering and economic development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.Written by Pedro Franco, this accessible text explores the supporting economic realities and technological advances of the currency, and presents positive and negative arguments from various economic schools regarding its viability.

The author includes a step-by-step description of how Bitcoin works, starting with public key cryptography. He goes on to explain how transactions are processed, exploring the blockchain and reviewing how the wallet and mining technologies are structured. This vital resource reviews Bitcoin from the broader perspective of digital currencies and explores historical attempts at cryptographic currencies, all the way through to innovative applications such as decentralized exchanges or autonomous agents.

Understanding Bitcoin explores the ongoing tension between those who want to break Bitcoin's privacy by using data mining techniques and those dedicated to creating technologies that will increase its effectiveness.

This technical and accessible guide offers a clear understanding of Bitcoin as a monetary phenomenon with dramatic implications for monetary policy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1119019168
• ISBN 13: 9781119019169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288