An Introduction to Cryptography: Unlocking the Future of Money

Summary This chapter provides an accessible introduction to cryptography, emphasizing its critical role in the future of digital and crypto money. It avoids technical complexities, focusing instead on fundamental concepts of information security, encapsulated in the CIA triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The chapter covers digital signatures, key pairs, and encryption methods, explaining their importance in securing digital transactions. It introduces various forms of digital signatures like blind and multi-signatures and explains basic encryption using examples like the Caesar cipher. The chapter also touches on zero-knowledge proofs, hash functions, and symmetric and asymmetric key cryptography, highlighting their applications in digital payment solutions. Understanding these concepts is essential for navigating the digital/crypto money landscape confidently. The chapter concludes with a reminder of the distinct roles of public and private keys in asymmetric cryptography, ensuring message confidentiality and authenticity.