CSED702Q: Topics in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (Spring 2020)
Introduction
Blockchain has been recently introduced as a key enabling infrastructure technology for the next generation Internet.
It has been used in various industry domains to increase efficiency, to prevent frauds, and to collaborate securely
among the untrusted parties without a central authority. Cryptocurrency has also been introduced as a key application of
blockchain and enabling token economy. It has been disrupting the traditional monetary system and financial industry.
This course will examine advanced topics and identify research topics in blockchain and cryptocurrency.
This course is designed for graduate students who have taken an introductory course on blockchain and cryptocurrency,
and is designed for those who wish to do research on blockchain and/or cryptocurrency.
We will also have some invited lectures given by industry leaders in this area.
Instructor:
Lectures:
- Some on-line lectures/videos of this course will be provided using flipped learning this term and they can be found on the
POSTECHx MOOC platform .
- We will meet Mon. & Wed. 11:00-12:15 (E2-109) for off-line lectures, Q&As, discussions and student presentations.
- For the first seven weeks of the course, due to Corona-19 problem,
we will have online classes using
Zoom.
Please make sure you install Zoom software on your PC/laptop/smart phone.
Pre-requisites:
Required Textbook:
There will NOT be a textbook for this course. Lecture slides and various learning materials
(videos, papers, software, presentations, etc.) found from the Internet will be used for the course.
Course Schedule:
Click here to see the course schedule
Recommended Books:
- Recommended Books:
- Mastering Blockchain :Distributed ledger technology, decentralization, and smart contracts explained, 2nd Edition, Packt Publishing, by Imran Bashir, March, 2018.
- Blockchain Revolution :How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Is Changing the World, Portfolio, by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, June, 2018.
- Mastering Bitcoin :Programming the Open Blockchain, 2nd Edition, O'Reilly Media, by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, July 2017.
- Mastering Ethereum :Building Smart Contracts and DApps, 1st Edition, O'Reilly Media, by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood, Dec. 2018.
Credits: 3
Evaluation:
- Evaluation on each student will be done based on the following:
- Assignments - 40%
- Term Project - 45%
- Class Participation - 10%
- Note: the above evaluation scheme may change slightly during the course.
Assignments:
There will be a few assignments (worth 40% of the final mark). You should submit your assignment materials to LMS eClass.
- Assignment 1 (8%) (Out: March 16, 2020, Due: Midnight, March 29, 2020)
- Select a topic from the topics list, do a survey on the topic, prepare a 15-minute presentation including (overview, details on technology used, use cases, possible research topics, summary & references) using a class
presentation template.
- Presentation slides must be prepared in English
- You can select and enter your choice (here). Who gets to present what will be based on FCFS principle.
- Assignment 2 (8%) (Out: March 30, 2020, Due: Midnight, April 12, 2020)
- Do the same as in Assignment 1 using another topic
- You can select and enter your choice
(here)
- Assignment 3 (5%) (Out: April 1, 2020, Due: 10am, April 5, 2020)
- People around the world are currently facing a lot of problems due to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Propose an idea how blockchain/cryptocurrency can be used to solve one or more problems associated COVID-19 pandemic.
- Submit one-page PPT slide summarizing the idea.
- Assignment 4 (8%) (Out: April 13, 2020, Due: Midnight, May 17, 2020)
- Select a paper from accepted full papers of ICBC 2020, read, understand and
prepare a 15-minute class presentation including explanation
& criticism of the paper and possible future work.
- You can select and enter your choice
(here)
- Assignment 5 (8%) (Out: April 27, 2020, Due: Midnight, May 26, 2020)
- Select a paper from
Stanford Blockchain Conference 2020, read, understand and
prepare a 15-minute class presentation including explanation
& criticism of the paper and possible future work.
- You can select and enter your choice
(here)
- Assignment 6 (8%) (Out: May 11, 2020, Due: Midnight, June 7, 2020)
- Select a paper from
Cryptoeconomic Systems 2020, read, understand and
prepare a 15-minute class presentation including explanation
& criticism of the paper and possible future work.
- You can select and enter your choice
(here)
- Note: the above assignment schedule may change slightly during the course.Late assignments may be handed in,
but there will be a penalty of 20% of the mark for assignments turned in less than one day late, and an additional penalty of 10% for each day thereafter.
Term Project:
Students will be asked to choose an advanced topic in either blockchain or cryptocurrency,
do a literature survey on the state of the art on the topic, find a research topic, perform research or
develop a prototype system and then write a paper that can be submitted to an international conference.
The term project be done in groups of two or three students.
Class Participation:
Students are strongly encouraged to attend all classes and
actively participate in Q&As and discussions. 10% of the
final mark is assigned for good and active class
participation. At least one question should be asked by each
student in each class. Record your questions
(here).
Topics Covered:
Blockchain Conferences:
- 2020 International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC 2020), May 3~6, 2020, Toronto, Canada
- Cryptoeconomic Systems '20, March 7-8, 2020, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- The Stanford Blockchain Conference 2020, Feb. 19-21, 2020, Stanford, CA, USA.
- 2019 International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC 2019), May 15~17, 2019, Seoul, Korea
- IEEE Blockchain Summit Korea, May 7-8, 2018, Seoul, Korea
Blockchain Journals:
References:
Dr. James Won-Ki Hong
Professor
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
Pohang, Korea
Tel: +82 54 279 2244
Fax: +82 54 279 5663
Email: jwkhong{@}postech.ac.kr
Last modified: March. 13, 2020
This page is maintained by J. W. Hong. If you have any questions or
suggestions, please send email to jwkhong at postech.ac.kr.