Bitcoin & Money

Computer Science

Double spends, Byzantine generals, and the decentralization lessons of Napster and BitTorrent.

  1. 1 Binary, decimal & hex Interactive The same numbers three ways — with a live counter, and why the length gap matters.
  2. 2 Bits & bytes From a single switch to the numbers behind Bitcoin.
  3. 3 The double-spend problem Why digital money is trivial to copy — and counterfeit.
  4. 4 The Byzantine Generals Problem Reaching agreement when you can’t trust the messengers.
  5. 5 Digital money precursors DigiCash and e-gold — brilliant, and fatally centralized.
  6. 6 Napster The Achilles heel of a central server.
  7. 7 BitTorrent Routing around Napster’s single point of failure.