Another book recommendation on top of Paar/Pelzl - is “Elementary Number Theory” by Rosen.
This is what nostr:npub12eml5kmtrjmdt0h8shgg32gye5yqsf2jha6a70jrqt82q9d960sspky99g read immediately after Understanding Cryptography to begin his descent into the rabbit hole.
There’s a section on ZKPs at around Chaoter 10 or 11 to entice one to work their way through it.
Thanks for the rec. just to be sure, you mean this book?
Looks a tad basic. The majority seems to cover a lot of the same stuff I’ve seen covered several times, but I’ll take a closer look at the table of contents when on desktop (impossible to zoom on phone for some reason). Thanks again! Feel free to talk crypto anytime, I’m game 
Yes. It’s what I’d recommend to someone who’s never studied number theory before. There’s a solutions manual which is also quite helpful and makes the book more useful. Also love the biographies interspersed in the textbook.
Had I had that exposure, I’d have gone straight to Abstract Algebra and then full in some of the less intuitive aspects of Number theory like primitive roots and quadratic residues
Nice. I’ve seen a lot of the basic number theory several times, so may be a bit too much review, though I’m sure there’s plenty I could learn. Will put virtual bookmark on it.
By the way, since it seems we share an interest, do you have any forums or whatnot you’ve found for discussion about cryptography? I haven’t really looked around yet, as I suspect any I’d find are likely so advanced they’re useless, but maybe I’m mistaken. Would be cool if nostr had a lil corner of that
This is exactly why nostr:npub160t5zfxalddaccdc7xx30sentwa5lrr3rq4rtm38x99ynf8t0vwsvzyjc9 and I started the “Motivating the Math” podcast
https://fountain.fm/episode/svigMJ9xoyu5hbeIzLsD
I want there to be a place for us to work and learn together. It’s so important.
Oh yeah! I stumbled across this earlier in a morning haze and then forgot about it. Thank you. I will definitely check it out
