<p>The signatures in Bitcoin (and Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and many other cryptocurrencies) are generated using elliptic curve curve cryptography. I found these videos very helpful in that regard:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLmaBjYrk4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLmaBjYrk4</a></p>

<p>Other than that, you probably want to look into hash functions and asymmetric cryptography in general.</p>

<p>As a general introduction to cryptography, I took the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cryptography course on Coursera</a> which I can really recommend. This goes into the role of the adversary and what he can achieve. The teacher of this course, Dan Boneh, is, I believe, among the ten most renowned and best cryptographers in the world. On top of that, he is a very good teacher. The course does go into both symmetric and asymmetric cryptography but in the asymmetric field, it only teaches you RSA and Diffie-Hellman, not elliptic curves. Use the above videos for that.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-22T21:37:44.933Z
I updated the answer.
Thorkil Værge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-22T21:30:52.190Z
2018-02-22T21:37:29.693Z
2018-02-22T21:37:29.693Z
Thorkil Værge
<p>I often come across papers written in the Bitcoin space involving some math that I am not formally versed in. </p>

<p>Could anyone point out general topics in math that I should have a formal grasp on in order to really understand cryptography? </p>

<bitcoin-core><cryptography><math>
Needed maths for full understanding
jojeyh
# Needed maths for full understanding

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-22)

I often come across papers written in the Bitcoin space involving some math that I am not formally versed in.

Could anyone point out general topics in math that I should have a formal grasp on in order to really understand cryptography?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, cryptography, math


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-02-22. Score: 2

The signatures in Bitcoin (and Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and many other cryptocurrencies) are generated using elliptic curve curve cryptography. I found these videos very helpful in that regard:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLmaBjYrk4>

Other than that, you probably want to look into hash functions and asymmetric cryptography in general.

As a general introduction to cryptography, I took the [cryptography course on Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto) which I can really recommend. This goes into the role of the adversary and what he can achieve. The teacher of this course, Dan Boneh, is, I believe, among the ten most renowned and best cryptographers in the world. On top of that, he is a very good teacher. The course does go into both symmetric and asymmetric cryptography but in the asymmetric field, it only teaches you RSA and Diffie-Hellman, not elliptic curves. Use the above videos for that.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I updated the answer.  

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