Continuing the #Gratitude Series. An ode to all the books, papers, courses and people behind them who helped us get to #TheInternetOfValue.

After the question raised by bitcoin whitepaper and understanding the gravity of that question by delving into TheInterneOfMoney, I had to understand each word of the bitcoin whitepaper and obviously, the proof of work / hashing algorithm was the key technical concept. Though there were many YouTube videos I tried the academic route and stumbled upon this course on Coursera by Asst. Prof Arvind Narayanan from Princeton. Check it out here:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency

Professor Arvind and his band of merry scholars break down topics like hashing, mining, and the Byzantine Generals' Problem (which sounds like a bad history-themed rock band but is super important) into understandable pieces. Remember cold nights in Koramangala sipping mallu master’s chaaya along with Gaurav at Pepper and Peko and going through this coursework in mid-2017. It felt like putting the puzzle pieces together. Eternally grateful to Prof. Arvind and his fellow teachers for this beautiful course.