Blockchain Technology - Fall 2021

Lecture slides and assigned reading (assignments, announcements, etc., can be found on HuskyCT).

Week   Material
Week 15 Term project presentations
Week 14 Slides: rest of Lecture 16
Class Discussion: Interplay of blockchain, privacy, and regulations
Week 13 Thanksgiving recess (no classes)
Week 12 Slides: rest of Lecture 16 and Zero Knowledge Proofs
Week 11 Slides: Lecture 15, Lecture 16, Zero Knowledge Proofs
Assigned reading:
  - Blockchain Privacy: Equal Parts Theory, Practice, a blog post by Ian Miers.
  - Henry et al. Blockchain Access Privacy: Challenges and Directions, in IEEE S&P Magazine, 2018.
  - A high level overview of ZKPs, Zero Knowledge Proofs: An illustrated primer, a blog post by Matthew Green.
Week 10 Slides: rest of Lecture 14
Week 9 Slides: rest of Lecture 12, Lecture 13, Lecture 14
Assigned reading:
  - Almashaqbeh et al. ABC: A Cryptocurrency-Focused Threat Modeling Framework, in CryBlock 2019.
  - Ali et al. The Nuts and Bolts of Micropayments: a Survey.
Week 8 Slides: Lecture 11, Lecture 12
Assigned reading:
  - Chapter 4 in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies book.
  - Almashaqbeh et al. Rethinking Service Systems, in USENIX ;login: Magazine, 2021.
Week 7 Slides: rest of lecture 9, Lecture 10
Week 6 Slides: Lecture 8, Lecture 9
Assigned reading:
  - Chapter 9 from Mastering Ethereum book.
  - Bano et al. SoK: Consensus in the Age of Blockchains, in AFT 2019.
Week 5 Slides: rest of Lecture 6, Lecture 7
Assigned reading:
  - Topics covered in class from Chapters 1 - 6, Mastering Ethereum book.
  - Smart contracts, Chapter 7 from Mastering Ethereum book.
Week 4 Slides: rest of Lecture 5, Lecture 6
Assigned reading:
  - Ethereum Whitepaper.
Week 3 Slides: Lecture 4, Lecture 5
Assigned reading:
  - Sections covering the topics we studied in class from the Mastering Bitcoin book.
  - Bitcoin scripting can be found in Chapter 5 of the Mastering Bitcoin book.
  - List of Bitcoin opcodes.
  - Segwit.
  - A simplified overview of Lightning Networks.
  - Bitcoin security issues, check Bonneau et al. “Sok: Research perspectives and challenges for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies,” in IEEE S&P, 2015.
Week 2 Slides: rest of Lecture 2, Lecture 3
Assigned reading:
  - Sections covering the topics we studied in class from the Mastering Bitcoin book.
Week 1 Slides: Lecture 1, Lecture 2
Assigned reading:
  - Chapter 1 in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies book.
  - Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.