The course covers all aspects of blockchains and cryptocurrencies, including distributed consensus, smart contracts, economics, scalability, security, and applications. We will focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum as case studies.
The workloads include 4 programming assignments plus one final project.
Instructor: Yu Feng (yufeng@UCSBCS)
TA: Junrui Liu (junrui@UCSBCS)
Class: M,Wed, 5:00pm-6:15pm, CHEM 1171
Instructor's office hour: Mon, 9am-10am, HFH-2157
Junrui's office hour: Fri, 11am-1pm, Phelps-1445
Yanju's office hour (for HW inquiries only): Mon, 4pm-5pm, Zoom (link) or by slack/email appointment
| Date | Topic | Slides | Out | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4/1 | Introduction to Blockchain and Cryptocurrency | lec1 | ||
| 4/3 | Bitcoin Mechanics | lec2 | ||
| 4/8 | Bitcoin Scripts and Wallets | lec3 | HW1 | |
| 4/10 | Fundamentals of Consensus | lec4 | ||
| 4/15 | Consensus in the Internet Setting | lec5 | ||
| 4/17 | Incentives and Accountability in Consensus: Proof-of-Stake | lec6 | ||
| 4/22 | Ethereum: Mechanics | lec7 | HW2 | HW1 |
| 4/24 | Solidity | lec8 | ||
| 4/29 | Stablecoins & Lending Protocols | lec9 | ||
| 5/1 | DeFi Security -- Yanju | lec10, code | ||
| 5/6 | Decentralized exchanges | lec11 | ||
| 5/8 | Onchain Gaming -- smsunarto at Argus Labs | lec12 | Project Guide | HW2 |
| 5/13 | Privacy blockchain | lec13 | HW3 | |
| 5/15 | Optimistic Rollups | lec14 | ||
| 5/20 | No class (Out of town) | lec15 | Proposal (2 pages) | |
| 5/22 | ZK Rollups -- Haichen Shen at Scroll | lec16 | ||
| 5/27 | Memorial Day | HW4 | HW3 (Due 5/28) | |
| 5/29 | More ZKP | lec17 | Poster (PDF) | |
| 6/3 | Poster Session I for Final Projects | |||
| 6/5 | Poster Session II for Final Projects | |||
| 6/14 | [Quarter Ends] | Final Report (8 pages), Final Project Artifact, HW4 |
-
Programming assignments: 60%
- 4 programming assignments, 15% each
-
Final project: 40%
- See the final project guide for detailed breakdown.
Below is a grading system (No curving).
| Letter | Percentage |
|---|---|
| A | 95–100% |
| A- | 90–94% |
| B | 85–89% |
| B- | 80–84% |
| C+ | 75%–79% |
| C | 70%–74% |
| C- | 60–69% |
| F | <60% |
Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_grading_in_the_United_States
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