"Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized, peer-to-peer, digital currency and payment system. At its heart is an open source value-transfer protocol that facilitates currency transfers among users without relying on a trusted third party. The protocol employs provable-cryptography to prevent counterfeiting, censorship, double-spending, and account seizures.

We'll learn how the bitcoin protocol works, discuss some of its strengths and weaknesses, and dispel some common misperceptions. No prior knowledge of cryptography is required, but a basic understanding of mathematical functions (ie: surjectivity, injectivity, domains, images, preimages, etc) will be assumed."