Cryptocourse

Complex full-fledged University-grade course for Computer Science classes focused on in-depth understanding of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology lectured at Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies at Slovak University of Technology by David Stancel, MSc. of CoinStory and Kristian Kostal,Phd.

The creation of this course has been supported by Ernst&Young - Thank you!

Feel free to use anything for whatever purpose as long as you attribute credits appopriately. Everyone is also welcomed to send comments, inquires and proposals of topics, and resources to include into the course at david@coinstory.tech.

Updated slides will be linked here throughout 2021.

Inspired by Courses:

1.Introduction to Digital Currencies at University of Nicosia as well as the whole MSc. Program

2.Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies at Princeton University

Based on Books:

1. A. Antonopoulos - Mastering Bitcoin available for free on Github or at Amazon

2. A. Antonopoulos - Mastering Ethereum (available for free on Github), or at Amazon

3. A. Narayanan, J. Bonneau, E. Felten, A. Miller, S. Goldfeder - Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies (available for free) or at Amazon

4. P. Kravchenko - Blockchain and Decentralized Systems

5. SerHack & Monero Community - Mastering Monero (available for free) or at Amazon

6. Darren Lau, Daryl Lau, T. Sze Jin, K. Kho, E. Azmi, TM Lee, B. Ong -- How to DeFi (available for free)

7. Kurt M. Alonso, Sarang Noether, Koe - Zero to Monero (available for free)

Further Recommedned Reading:

8. A. Antonopoulos, O. Osuntokun, R- Pickhardt - Mastering Lightning Network (available for free on Github)

9. J. Song - Programming Bitcoin (avaialble fore free on Github) or at Amazon

10. D. Boneh, V.Shoup - Applied Cryptography (available for free)

1. Introduction to Digital Currencies and Blockchain

• History and emergence of digital currencies - Digicash, Bitgold, B-money,Hashcash, RPOW, E-gold ..
• Fundamental technology stack
• Emergence of Bitcoin
• Main principles and definitions

Reading & Resources:

A. Back - Hashcash

N. Szabo - Bitgold

W. Dai - B-money

S. Nakamoto - Bitcoin Whitepaper

H. Finney - RPOW

Lamport, Shostak, Peace - The Byzantine General Problem

Optional:

Diffie, Hellman - New Directions in Cryptogprahy

D. Chaum - Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payment

S. Haber, S. Stornetta - How to Timestamp a Digital Document

D. Chaum - Dinning Cryptographers Problem

Live Examples: - http://www.datnos.com/bc-demos/public-private-keys/keys.html - https://gugger.guru/blockchain-demo/#!/blockchain - https://blockchaindemo.io

Slides

2. Bitcoin Protocol

• Bitcoin protocol specifications
• Transactions - UTXO model, data structures
• Proof-of-Work Consensus Mechanism
• Bitcoin Script

Reading & Resources:

Mastering Bitcoin - Chapters 2 and 6

Script on Bitcoin Wiki

Learning Bitcoin tools

Script Playground

Bitcoin Script Guide by Blockgeeks

Bitcoin Script for Dummies

Installing Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Developer Guide

Miniscript Playground

Bitcoin Resources by Jameson Lopp

3D Blockchain Explorer Symphony by IOHK

Slides

3. Consensus Algorithms

• Mining & Consensus Mechanisms,
• Bitcoin Core
• Nodes

Reading & Resources:

Mastering Bitcoin - Chapters 3 and 10

Slides

4. Ethereum Protocol and Smart Contracts

• Ethereum protocol specifications
• Smart contracts (ERC standards)
• Alternative smart contract platforms
• UTXO vs Account Based Model

Reading & Resources:

Mastering Ethereum - Chapters 5,6,7 and 12

Optional:

Resources on Etheruem.org

Ethereum 2.0. Overview by ChainSafe

Polkadot WP

Learning ETH resources

All writings of Vitalik Buterin at one place

Slides

5. Coding Solidity

• Syntax, Tools
• Programming decentralized applicatins

Reading & Resources:

Building Ethereum Dapps - Roberto Infante - Chapters 4,5,6, and 8

Solidity Documentation

Comparison ERC20 vs ERC223 vs ERC777

Solidity and Vyper Cheatsheet

CryptoZombies - learning Solidity

Slides: TBD

6. Alternative Cryptocurrencies

• Introduction to Altcoins
• Basic Differences
• Comparison of selected altcoins in terms of technology - Monero, Zcash, Decred, Pivx ...
• Smart Contract Platforms: Cardano, Cosmos, Avalanche, Polkadot, Near
• Tokenisation as a phenomenom

Reading & Resources:

Mastering Blockchain - Imran Bashir - Chapter 15

Optional:

Mastering Monero - Chapter 3

Zero to Monero

Decred Documentation

Zcash WP

Slides

7. Blockchain Scaling and layer two technologies

• Bitcoin and Ethereum scaling techniques
• Lightning Network - main principles, and overview of implementations
• Plasma, State Channels - main principles, and overview of implementations

Reading & Resources:

Beginners Guide to Lightning Network: https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-lightning-network

Mastering Lightning Network

History of Lightning Network by Bitcoin Magazine

Lightning Network Web

Making Sense of Ethereum Layer 2 (Medium)

The State of Optimistic Rollups (Medium)

Learning Plasma Web

FYI

Running LN on Raspberry Pi - Guide

Slides: TBD

8. Security & Privacy Considerations of Cryptocurrencies

• Types of Wallets, Seeds and archiving
• Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Tools
• Attack vectors - 51% attack, Selfish Mining, Time Jacking, Eclipse attack, Flood attack, Sybil attacks ...
• Anonymity and privacy techniques

Reading & Resources:

Hypotehtical Cryptocurrency Attacks

Application of Zeroknowledge proofs in Blockchain (Medium)

Staying Anonymous on Ethereum - Tornado Cash)

Breaking MimbleWimble Privacy Model

Zeroknowledge-proofs - Intro, comparisons

Zeroknowledge Starter Pack by Eth Research

How to Run BTC node over TOR - Guide

How to Create BTC adress

Base58 encoding

Seed

Deterministic Wallet

BIP 0032

Bitcoin Trezor Wiki

Slides

9. Blockchain in Enterprise

• Blockchain Consortia - overview adn technologies
• Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, Hyperledger, Qorum
• EY - Nightfall, Baseline

Reading & Resources:

Enterprise Blockchain Protocols Overview

Enterprise Blockchain Resources by ConsenSys

EY's Nightfall Protocol

Baseline Protocol by EY, Microsoft & ConsenSys

IBM Blockchain Platform

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

Hyperledger General Resources

Hyperledger Presentations

Slides

10. Alternative sue-cases for Blockchain

• Overview of different blockchain usecases and applicaitons
• Public sector usecases, Supply Chain, Finance, Timestamping
• NOnf-ungible tokens
• DeFi - MakerDAO & DAI, Decentralized Exchanges, Lending, Derivatives, Insurance, Aggregators

Reading & Resources:

How to DeFi Book chapters 6 and 7

The NFT Bible

Slides

11. Interoperability in Blockchain

• Cosmos, Polkadot
• Homogenous vs. heterogenous
• different categorization of blockchain interoperability

Reading & Resources:

Blockchian Interoperability: Past, Present, and Future Trends

Slides: TBD

12. Economic and Legal Considerations of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology

• Legal Challenges of Smart Contracts & Dapps & DAOs
• Legal and Economic Aspects of Cryptocurrencies - KYC, AML, MiCA
• ICOs, STOs, IEOs, Airdrops, CBDCs

Reading & Resources:

University of Cambridge - 2nd Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study

NFTs from Legal Perspective

Slides

13. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) - BONUS

• Introduciton to DeFi
• MakerDAO & DAI
• Decentralized Exchanges, Lending, Derivatives, Insurance, Fund Management, Lottery
• Uniswap, Compound, Synthetix, Opyn, TokenSets, PoolTogether

Reading & Resources:

How to DeFi Book

Flash Loan Attacks on bZx Explained

DAI Derivatives - github Amazing Primer on Virtual Economy

Slides: TBD