Introduction to Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Smart Contracts (CS765)

• Instructor: Vinay Ribeiro


• Location: Online


• Time: Mon 8:30-9:25, Tue 9:30 - 10:25, Thu 10.30 - 11:25


• Pre-requisite: CS213 Data Structures and Algorithms
  
  
• Course Outline: Motivation for Blockchain Systems. Introduction to Peer-to-Peer systems and Distributed systems - Consensus, Byzantine Fault Tolerance, Impossibility Results. Cryptographic Tools used in Blockchains. Bitcoin: proof-of-work (PoW) consensus, block structure and other details. Attacks on Bitcoin: double spend and selfish mining. Energy saving: proof of stake and comparison with PoW. Algorand -- committee based consensus. Ethereum, GHOST protocol, Solidity. Consensus for permissioned ledgers: RAFT, PBFT, Zyzzyva. Payment channel networks.



• Evaluation (tentative)

  Item	Marks
  Assignments	35
  Quizzes	15
  Proctured Exam(s)	50
  Total	100