Reddit mentions of An Introduction to Mathematical Cryptography (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

Being a "techy" isn't really useful with learning and understanding crypto. There's many cryptographers that are mathematicians who barely use computers. Cryptography is a multi-faceted discipline but the typical divide is between mathematicians and computer scientists.

So having a foundation in math & computer science is very useful.

In any case, Simon Singh's book is a good introduction. It is a pleasant read but a bit fluffy.

Although not specifically crypto, I would start with Network Security by Kaufman et al. It primarily discusses network security but gently introduces some cryptography primitives.

Another book from a mathematician perspective is this book.

Then there's joy of cryptography which is a formal treatment using a notion of provable security (a bit of a different take to Katz & Lindell Modern Cryptography), which computer scientists tend to have a boner for.

Doctor J. H. Silverman has written extensively on the topic, having been infected with the elliptic curve bug himself. I recommend his book "An Introduction to Mathematical Pathography", which contains a great introductory account of the fascinating consequences of the elliptic-curve-itis.

Here is a very good book that is meant for math majors. It includes the needed algebra and number theory background. I am using it for an independent study on cryptography, and absolutely everything is referenced if you want to delve deeper into a certain topic.

First you need some cryptography background. Especially asymmetric encryption, digital signatures and hashing. Then read the original Bitcoin whitepaper.

I haven't read it myself but An introduction to Mathematical Cryptography seems to be good but it's maybe a bit more in depth than what you are looking for.

I don't think it should've been nominated and I was about 3 or 4 generations. your name on his arm. Fionn only writes about NA Kelsey is the one a lot of the book I used http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Cryptography-Undergraduate-Mathematics/dp/1441926747.

If you've taken Linear Algebra already, I might recommend this book for the up and coming mathematician who wants to mess around with cryptography but hasn't taken abstract algebra yet.