This course is about the technologies, the history and the applications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The course will start with 2 lectures per week for the first 7 weeks. During the second half of the semester each group will work on an implementation project. The course will be in English and in presence.

 

In dieser Lehrveranstaltung werden wir uns mit den Technologien, der Geschichte und den Anwendungen von Kryptowährungen und Blockchain beschäftigen.

 

Literature

 

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction, by Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller, Steven Goldfeder

Commonly used links:

- https://www.blockchain.com/

- http://ethviewer.live
- https://etherscan.io
- https://developer.bitcoin.org/index.html
- tbc

 

Syllabus:

19./21.10.2021: Introduction, history, ledger, Satoshi Nakamoto

26./28.10.2021: Cryptographic basics: cryptographic hashing

02./04.11.2021: Cryptographic basics: digital signatures

                    Simple cryptocurrency coins: GoofyCoin and ScroogeCoin

                   Ledger vs. Blockchain (Chap. 3.1), Bitcoin and Ethereum P2P network, distributed consensus

09./11.11.2021 Consensus, operation of mining, probabilistics of mining, difficulty (Chap. 2),

                  numbers in today's systems, mining pools (5.4)

16./18.11.2021 Bitcoin mechanics, types of transactions (Chap. 3)

23./25.12.2021 Bitcoin mining, mining pools (Chap. 5)

30.11./02.12.2021 Bitcoin anonymity, mixing services, zero coin, zero cash (Chap. 6)

07./09.12.2021 Bitcoin community, legal aspects (Chap. 7)

14./16.12.2021 Alternative mining, Altcoins (Chap. 8, 9)

 

04.01.2022 - 07.02.2022 Implementation of a smart contract on the Ethereum test network.