Objectives

This course provides an introduction to distributed ledger technology, blockchains and cryptocurrencies. It focuses on the applications of these technologies in finance and banking.

Contents

The course is organized around the following major parts:

1. Introduction to DLT and cryptoeconomics.

2. Distributed Ledger Technology foundations

• Basics of cryptography and it's application to cryptocurrencies.
• Consensus algorithms.
• Smart contracts.
• Advancements in blockchain implementation.
• Bridges

3. DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and tokenization.

• ICOs, ITOs, Airdrops, IDO,...
• Risks of DeFi.
• Pump & Dump.
• Crypto exchanges.
• CBDC.
• Eco-credits
• NFTs
• Meme coins

4. Governance

• DAOs
• DIDs
• Prediction Markets.

This will be an interactive course. All students will be encouraged to formulate opinions and discuss the implications of aforementioned technology in real-world contexts.

We touch subjects as diverse as economics, philosphy, crythography, computer science, the history of the 20th century and mathematics. We will look at various bugs, rug pulls, scams and issues.

References

Narayanan, A., Bonneau, J., Felten, E., Miller, A. and Goldfeder, S., 2016, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, Princeton University Press.

Antonopoulos, A., 2017, Mastering Bitcoin (2nd Edition) , O'Reilly

Bitcoin whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Ethereum whitepaper: https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/

Cosmos Cash: Investigation into EU regulations affecting E-Money tokens

Pre-requisites

Mathematics, game theory.

Nice to have: basic programming (ideally JavaScript).

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Written 1h15 hours

Documentation:

Not allowed

Calculator:

Not allowed

Evaluation:

Students will score points from their homework submission, final project and an exam. The final score will be a sum of that points, such that:

• homeworks will have 65% power
• exam will have 35% power

Minimum 55% is required to pass the course.

Homeworks
After each lecture (same day, evening) we will publish few homeworks. Each homework will have a form of a question (eg: explain proof of work), hidden question (eg: read and understand Bitcoin whitepaper) or a task (eg: student will have to do interact with a smart-contract). Students will have to submit their work (for questions: readiness of presenting the answer during the next class) or proof of their work (eg transaction ID) before the next class. Homeworks will be evaluated during the class. If student is absent he will loose his submission.

Students will have an opportunity to open their creativness and deisng a solution for real world problems using blockchain.

Exam
Both test (multi choice questions) and open questions.

Retake

Exam:

Written 1h00 hours

Documentation:

Not allowed

Calculator:

Not allowed

Evaluation:

Both test (multi choice questions) and open questions.