Word Today（2018.04.04）

单词	含义	例句
complement	补充	We encourage you to use the textbook, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, as a complement to this course.
polished	精美、优雅	A free draft is available also, but the published version is more polished, professionally edited, and peer reviewed.
cryptographic primitives	密码原语	First we'll introduce some cryptographic primitives that turn out to be necessary for talking about cryptocurrencies.
illustrate	说明	And then at the end of the lecture, we'll start talking about cryptocurrencies, and I'll give some examples of simple cryptocurrencies that illustrate some of the design challenges that we need to deal with.
lay groundwork	奠定基础	Unfortunately, we have to eat some of our vegetables a little bit in order to lay groundwork for the cryptocurrency stuff.
mandatory	强制性	The coursesite treats assignments as mandatory, but you should consider them as optional.
Either way	无论哪种方式	Either way, the course doesn’t offer a certificate for passing, per Princeton University policy.
per	由、根据、每	Either way, the course doesn’t offer a certificate for passing, per Princeton University policy.

1.0_Welcome

Welcome to the first lecture in our series on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.

I want to start by introducing the four lecturers who are going to be speaking in the series.

The first lecturer is Joseph Bonneau. He's a postdoctoral researcher in computer science at Princeton University.

The second lecturer is me, Ed Felten.

I'm a professor at Princeton in computer science and at the Woodrow Wilson School.

The third lecturer is Arvind Narayanan.

He's a computer science professor at Princeton.

And fourth, our special guest lecturer is Andrew Miller.

He's a PhD student in computer science at the University of Maryland.

There will be 11 lectures in total.

In this lecture, number one, we're going to do two things.

First we'll introduce some cryptographic primitives that turn out to be necessary for talking about cryptocurrencies.

In particular, we'll talk about cryptographic hashes and digital signatures, and we'll talk about some of the ways in which those are used to build cryptocurrencies.

And then at the end of the lecture, we'll start talking about cryptocurrencies, and I'll give some examples of simple cryptocurrencies that illustrate some of the design challenges that we need to deal with.

I want to apologize for covering the cryptographic material at the beginning.

Unfortunately, we have to eat some of our vegetables a little bit in order to lay groundwork for the cryptocurrency stuff.

So if you came for the cryptocurrency stuff, let me assure you, first of all, that we will get to it in this lecture, and that having laid the groundwork in this lecture, there's going to be a lot more specifically cryptocurrency-focused material in later lectures.

All right.

So let's get to it.

Course Information

Welcome to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies! You’re joining over 150,000 other learners currently enrolled in the course. I'm excited to have you in the class and look forward to exploring Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains with you.

This course includes three programming assignments, in addition to lectures and quizzes. Doing these assignments will enhance your understanding of the material, but you can get a lot out of the course even if you don’t have a programming background. The coursesite treats assignments as mandatory, but you should consider them as optional. Either way, the course doesn’t offer a certificate for passing, per Princeton University policy.

We encourage you to use the textbook, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, as a complement to this course. The textbook chapters closely follow the lectures, but feature additional detail and/or alternative explanations of many tricky concepts. A free draft is available also, but the published version is more polished, professionally edited, and peer reviewed.

I recommend taking a few minutes to explore the course site and reviewing the material we’ll cover each week. Click Discussions to see forums where you can discuss the course material with fellow students taking the class. Feel free to introduce yourself to everyone in the Meet and Greet forum.

If you have questions about course content, please post them in the forums to get help from others in the course community. For technical problems with the Coursera platform, visit the Learner Help Center.

If you would like news and information about Princeton Online's other courses, please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and YouTube.

Good luck as you get started, and I hope you enjoy the course!
Arvind Narayanan