Fundamentals of Blockchain Technology

The course covers many key topics in the blockchain Technology space. First, we take a look at distributed systems and alternative consensus mechanisms, as well as cryptoeconomic and proof-of-stake. We then move on to the fundamental applications of bitcoin and blockchain technology, including exploring enterprise blockchain implementations (JP Morgan’s Quorum, Ripple, Tendermint, and Hyperledger), the challenges and solutions around scaling blockchain adoption, and the measures that the government is taking to regulate and control blockchain technology.

On successful Completion of this course you will be able to:

• Blockchain and distributed ledger systems in a business environment
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Blockchains
• Understand Blockchain and Smart Contract Basics
• Understanding types of Blockchains
• Describe Blockchain Platforms
• Understand the formal definition of distributed consensus
• Understand foundational topics such as the CAP Theorem and the Byzantine Generals Problem
• Understand alternative consensus mechanisms to Bitcoin’s Proof-of-work
• Understand alternative consensus mechanisms such as Proof-of-Stake, voting-based consensus algorithms, and federated consensus
• Understand the meaning and properties of cryptoeconomics
• Describe the various enterprise-level blockchain implementations, such as JP Morgan’s Quorum, Ripple, Tendermint, and HyperLedger
• Understand and describe industry use cases for blockchain, ICOs
• Understand and describe regulations surrounding blockchain
• Understand and describe the challenges with scaling and obstacles to widespread blockchain adoption
• Understand government regulation and control of blockchain technology e.g. Anti-Money Laundering (AML); Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations