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Developing Blockchain Use Case

95-788

Units: 6

Description

Blockchains, or distributed ledger and consensus technologies, hold tremendous promise for improving markets and organically handling private, secure data. As CMU develops its own blockchain and token---CMU Coin---a central concern is to determine the set of applications that such technology would be most useful for. This course is designed for students to propose and, potentially, develop applications or use cases for a campus blockchain. http://tinyurl.com/cmucoincourse The course begins with a brief introduction to blockchain using Bitcoin as an example of a blockchain protocol. We will examine the market failure Bitcoin was intended to resolve as well as the role of cryptography and distributed systems in enabling this new technology to create societal value. The course will go on to discuss the boundaries of the role of cryptography in blockchain. Next, we will use these tools to evaluate existing, real-world blockchain use cases with an eye towards developing our own applications of these emerging technologies. Along the way, we will learn practical development skills in distributed ledger technologies to understand blockchain programming and application development. Finally, students will propose their own blockchain use cases for CMU's own proprietary blockchain. No formal prerequisites, but familiarity with programming is highly recommended.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to: Describe the intrinsic value of leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum; Explain the role cryptography plays in securing blockchain-based cryptocurrencies; Understand and program a smart contract on the Ethereum test network; Build a Decentralized Application running on a decentralized peer-to-peer network; Understand risks to the usefulness of different blockchains; and propose and evaluate use cases for a new blockchain and/or cryptocurrency

Prerequisites Description

No formal prerequisites, but familiarity with programming is highly recommended.