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HU Credits:
1
Degree/Cycle:
2nd degree (Master)
Responsible Department:
Business Administration
Semester:
2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Lipton Alexander
Coordinator Office Hours:
Teaching Staff:
Prof Alexander Lipton
Course/Module description:
Summary
This course provides an introduction to distributed ledger technology, blockchains and cryptocurrencies, and their potential applications in finance and banking.
Content
The course covers the basics of cryptography and its applications to cryptocurrencies; historical examples to centralized cryptocurrencies; foundations of modern decentralized cryptocurrencies; Byzantine fault tolerant consensus; mechanics of Bitcoin platform including storage, mining, wallets, etc.; alternative platforms, including Ethereum; smart contracts; potential applications of decentralized ledgers in finance and their pros and cons.
Keywords
Electronic Money, Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledger Technology, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Smart Contracts
Learning Prerequisites
Recommended courses
Introduction to Finance
Important concepts to start the course
Cryptography, Databases, Payment Systems
Course/Module aims:
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Use basic cryptographic concepts including private/public keys, signatures, hash functions, Merkle trees
Distinguish pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized databases
Demonstrate several historical examples of electronic money
Quantify alternative approaches to Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus including proof of work, proof of stake, etc.
Characterize the basic setup of Bitcoin, including storage, mining, and payments
Implement the best practices in key management, including multi-signature schemes and multi-layer wallets
Argue the limits of privacy with distributed ledgers and possible solutions, such as channeling, coin-joining, confidential transactions and zero-knowledge proofs
Analyze some of the potential applications of distributed ledger technology to finance and banking
Elaborate inherent scalability limits of distributed ledgers and potential solutions with channeling, horizontal scaling and second-layer, off-chain transactions
Implement some basic operations with Bitcoin
Assess / Evaluate differences and commonalities between Bitcoin and Ethereum
Implement basic smart contracts
Attendance requirements(%):
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Lectures, exercises, homework
Course/Module Content:
1. Course Introduction
2. History
3. Overview of blockchain technology
4. Hashes
5. Transactions
6. Blocks and blockchain
7. Consensus building
8. Mining and incentivizing blockchain
9. Security and safeguards
10. Bitcoin
11. Blockchain applications
12. Blockchain applications (cont.)
13. Final Project
Required Reading:
Narayanan, A., Bonneau, J., Felten, E., Miller, A. and Goldfeder, S., 2016, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency
Technologies, Princeton University Press.
2018-2019 COURSE BOOKLET
Additional Reading Material:
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 40 %
Assignments 30 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 30 %
Coding exercises
Additional information:
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