The past few month have been all abuzz with excitement about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. The price of Bitcoin took a rocket ride toward the stars, and stories were coming fast and furious about how the blockchain was going to tranform and revolutionize just about everything.

 Jonathan Katz is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland and director of the Maryland cybersecurity center. As we’ll hear in this CyberWire special edition, he’s been following blockchain technology and cryptocurrency from its humble beginnings, and he’s our guide to understanding how it all works.