UW-Blockchain-Class-01

Class at UW (University of Wyoming) for blockchain. Class time: 12:00 (noon) till 12:50 PM, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Overview

Lecture 00 - Aug 29 - Wednesday

1. A little bit of background on the instructor

   1. pschlump@uwyo.edu
   2. (for emergencies between 7:00AM and 9:00PM) 720-209-7888 (cell)
   3. This is a "practical" class.
   4. Class Goal - have every student in this class be able to work effectively in the Blockchain/Ethereum world. There are students in this class that are from other departments. The class has been structured to take this into account.

2. Class policy - UW requires that I talk about cheating. stackoverflow.com and Google are your fiends - give credit where credit is due. warning: stackoverflow.com on ethereum/solidity is badly out of date becuse the technology is changing really fast. If you copy from the web - I expect a comment and a link (URL) to the source of where you got your copy.

3. Late Policy and (3) Late Coupons I have a grader - most of the grading will be automated. You get 3 late coupons - I will send them to you in email. You can use them for handing in homework 1 week after the due date. Late coupons will be tracked on a semi-private Ethereum Blockchian with a Smart Contract.

4. 70% from homework, 40% from tests. Midterm and Final. There will be 2 projects for the class. You will have to give a live, in person, demo of both of your projects and you must get them to work. They are required to pass the class.

5. Class Points Total

   Points available:

   Points	Class Item
   1400	Homework total
   800	2 tests

   To get a letter grade in the class:

   Points	Semester Grade
   1900 or above	A+
   1800 ... 1899	A
   1600 ... 1799	B
   1400 ... 1599	C
   1200 ... 1399	D

   You must demonstrate working projects to the instructor to pass the class (no matter how many points you get). The 2 projects in the class will be directly from the homework. Project one is Homework Assignments 02 to 06. Project 2 is Homework Assignments 08 to 11. Homework will be 100 or 200 points each. Midterm will be 400 points. Final will be 400 points and cumulative. You can expect programming and writen assignments in this class.

   For anybody that just wants to take on a hard project for extra credit see the instructor. It is hard. So think a letter grade for completion of an extra credit project. Code for extra credit projects will be open source under a MIT license. Also note that there are 2200 points available on a letter grading scale of 2000 points. You have a built-in 200 point extra credit in the homework and tests.

6. textbook: An Introduction to Programming in Go, pdf for free There are no good books on Ethereum/Soliddity. Solidity has moved from version 4.12 to 4.27 this year. All of the books are out of date. So.... I will include links in assignments that you are expected to read.

7. Class Overview

   1. What is Blockchain - what is Bitcoin / Ethereum / Other token systems
   2. Economics - Coin, ICO, Stocks Bonds, Tokens, Utility Tokens
   3. Legal Ramifications. ICOs 506(d), Subpart (s)
   4. Programming - 1/2 in go, 1/2 in Solidity (Etherem) and Web front end (JavaScript/HTML/CSS).
   5. Some Homework
   6. Write a Paper
   7. 2 tests (Midterm and Final)
   8. Why Go
   9. Enough Go to make it through this class (and be able to convincingly tell an employer that you have programmed in Go)
   10. Why Ethereum? Solidity?
   11. dApp - what is that? What is web3?
   12. A detailed understanding of the security model behind Blockchain
   13. Some advanced stuff on security - distributed computation and public/private keys, distributed key generation.

Lecture 01 - Aug 31 - Friday

1. Economics of Blockchain and Computer Technology - why this is important
2. Overview of blockchain, bitcoin, EOS, ripple, lightning and Ethereum

Lecture 02 - Sep 3 - Monday

1. What is a Wallet
2. What is a Smart Contact
3. Into the Grunge - how to implement a blockchain

Lecture 03 - Sep 5 - Wednesday

1. Go

Lecture 04 - Sep 7 - Friday

1. More on Go
2. Overview of Blocks / Transactions / Storage for our blockchain
3. What is a blockchain?

Lecture 05 - Sep 10

1. Stocks, Bonds, Futures, Forward Sales, Contracts
2. ICO's and raising capital.
   1. Reg D
   2. Reg S
3. Why ICO
4. ERC 20 Contract
5. How much money is out there?

Lecture 06 - Sep 12 - Wednesday - Assignment 1 due.

Lecture 07 - Sep 14

Lecture 08 - Sep 17

Lecture 09 - Sep 19 - Wednesday - Assignment 2 due.

Lecture 10 - Sep 21

Assignments and Due Dates

This is a tentative schedule:

Assignment	Due Date	Points
AS-01 Learn Go	Sep 12	100
AS-02 Genisis Block	Sep 19	100
AS-03 Merkle Trees	Sep 26	200
AS-04 Transactions	Oct 10	100
AS-05 Hasing	Oct 17	100
AS-06 Mining	Oct 24	100
Paper Due	Oct 26	100
Midterm and Demo Proj 1.	Week of Oct 29	400
AS-07 Solidity & Truffle	Nov 7	100
AS-08	Nov 14	100
AS-09	Nov 20	100
AS-10	Nov 28	100
AS-11	Dec 7	200
Demo Proj 2 start Dec 5
ends Dec 14
Final		400

Textbook

An Introduction to Programming in Go, pdf for free