Introduction
Cryptography is the art and science of encoding and decoding information in order to send it securely. The word “crypto” means hidden, so cryptography is the practice of hiding information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it. Cryptography has been around for thousands of years; some historians believe that Julius Caesar used a simple encryption scheme to communicate with his generals during battles against the Gauls. In modern times, cryptography is used among computer scientists, mathematicians and other researchers who want to protect their data from being read by third parties or malicious attackers trying to intercept messages.
Cryptography is the study of secure communication in the presence of third parties.
Cryptography is the science of secure communication in the presence of third parties. It’s also called secret writing, but don’t let that confuse you: cryptography isn’t just about hiding your text from prying eyes. In fact, it’s not always used to keep things hidden at all!
Cryptography is often used to verify that information has not been tampered with (for example, if someone sends a message over email and signs it with their private key so that anyone can check whether or not they sent it). Cryptography can also be used by websites like Gmail and Facebook to encrypt your password as soon as you enter it into their site–this means nobody else will be able to see what your password really is when they access these sites from another computer or device later on down the line; only Google knows what this encrypted version actually means because only Google knows how its own encryption algorithm works!
So why does this matter? Because when we talk about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin being “encrypted,” we’re talking about something similar: each coin contains information about itself which makes up its identity; anyone who knows how these identities work can verify whether or not coins are real (like how I know my friend didn’t lie about his birthday by checking against birth certificates online) but no one else would be able to do so unless they had access first!
Cryptography has been around for thousands of years.
Cryptography is the study of secure communication in the presence of third parties. It’s often used to protect information from being read by unauthorized people. In other words, cryptography is a form of coding that hides information so no one can understand it except those who have been given access to do so.
Cryptography has been around for thousands of years: Caesar used it when he sent messages back to Rome; Julius Caesar was known as “Ceasar” because he used this technique; Caesar was killed by Brutus and others who were angry at him for using cryptography on them!
Bitcoin was built on top of a cryptographic protocol called blockchain technology.
Blockchain is a distributed database that stores data in blocks. The blockchain is shared among all users on the network and updates itself with new information after every transaction that occurs. This makes it possible for anyone with access to the internet to verify transactions and ensure there has been no tampering with any of them.
Blockchain technology was first used for digital currencies like Bitcoin, but now it’s being applied in other ways as well. It’s being used by banks as part of their financial services offerings and even by NASA to track supply chains from space!
The blockchain is a public ledger that contains every transaction that ever occurred on the Bitcoin network, stored in blocks (which are made up of transactions, and then have hash pointers to previous blocks).
The blockchain is a public ledger that contains every transaction that ever occurred on the Bitcoin network, stored in blocks (which are made up of transactions, and then have hash pointers to previous blocks).
Hash pointers are a hash of the previous block’s header.
In order to add new data to the blockchain, you need to solve a difficult math problem that will only work if your data is correct. This process is called “mining.”
Mining is the process of adding new blocks to the blockchain. It requires a lot of computer power and time, but it’s also how new bitcoins are created. Every 10 minutes, on average, one miner solves a math problem that allows them to add a block of data onto the blockchain. They’re rewarded with 12.5 BTC as well as all transaction fees from every transaction included in their block (more on this later).
If you want to learn more about cryptography, but not about crypto (e.g., if you want to understand what blockchain technology does), then this post might be for you!
If you want to learn more about cryptography, but not about crypto (e.g., if you want to understand what blockchain technology does), then this post might be for you! Cryptography is the study of secure communication in the presence of third parties. It has been around for thousands of years and is used by everyone from banks and governments to everyday people who use apps like Signal and WhatsApp to communicate privately with others over insecure networks.
Cryptography is behind many things we take for granted every day: e-commerce websites that keep your credit card information safe; online banking services that prevent fraudsters from stealing your money; secure messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp which allow users to communicate privately without exposing their messages or locations–all these technologies rely on some form of cryptography.
Conclusion
Hopefully this post has helped you understand the basics of cryptography and why it’s important. If you want to learn more about blockchain technology (without getting bogged down by all the hype), then check out my other blog posts here on Medium!
