Schedule

The course plans to cover basic cryptography, consensus mechanisms, scaling proposals, and privacy-oriented protocols.

Weeks 1-2) Cryptography

Meeting Time: Friday, 1-1:50PM

Location: Thornton Hall D115

Topics

• Cryptographic primitives:

  • hash functions

  • digital signatures

  • merkle trees

• Byzantine General's Problem and Byzantine Fault Tolerance

• Permissioned vs. Permissionless

• UTXO vs. Account Model

3-4) Consensus Mechanisms

Meeting Time: Friday, 1-1:50PM

Location: Thornton Hall D115

Topics

• Proof of Work

  • client-side validation

  • synchrony assumptions

  • Math (Bitcoin Whitepaper Walkthrough!)

• Proof of Stake

  • Nothing at Stake

  • Casper

  • Tendermint

• Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake Debate

• Alternative Protocols

  • Proof of Authority (identity renting)

  • Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET, used in Hyperledger)

  • Proof of Activity (PoA)

  • Proof of Space (IPFS, Filecoin)

• Proofs in General

  • Proof by Induction

  • Desirable properties

5) Payment Channels

Meeting Time: Friday, 1-1:50PM

Location: Thornton Hall D115

Topics

• Lightning

  • Lightning paper vs implementation

  • Setting up a routing node

  • HTLC

  • Security

• Hub-Spoke Micropayment Networks

6) State Channels

Meeting Time: Friday, 1-1:50PM

Location: Thornton Hall D115

Topics

• Sprites

  • Paper

  • Using state channels for payment routing

• Generalized State Channels (by L4)

  • Paper

  • Counterfactual Instantiation

• Related privacy topics: multi-hop locks paper

7) Plasma

Meeting Time: Friday, 1-1:50PM

Location: Thornton Hall D115

Topics

• Implementation Challenges

  • Data Availability Problem

  • Censorship Resistance

• Plasma Cash

  • Merkle Tree

  • Google Certificate Management Example

  • Current Implementations: loom

• Other Educational Resources

  • http://www.learnplasma.org

8-12) TBD

The last few topics will be decided using student voting.

Possible Topics

• Privacy

  • Zero Knowledge Proofs

    • zkSNARKs and zkSTARKs

  • Signature Aggregation

  • Ring Signatures

• Token Economics

  • Auctions

  • Voting

  • Token Curated Registries

  • Token Bonding Curves

• Decentralized Governance

  • Resource allocation assumptions behind modern blockchains

  • Airdrops

  • ICOs

• DApp

  • Web3 UX

  • Frameworks/Tools

  • Architecture

• Your Ideas!