Course 2020-2021 a.y.

Introduction to digital money

• Brief history of money: from shells to digital currencies
• The three functions of money
• Centralized vs. decentralized monetary paradigms
• The case of Rai Stones
• Failed attempts

Bitcoin in 5W (+1): Why, Where, Who, What, When and How

• Why: why was Bitcoin created?
• Where: where are data stored in Bitcoin?
• Who: who owns Bitcoin?
• What: what is the underlying asset of Bitcoin?
• When: when are transactions confirmed?
• How: how is bitcoin structured?

Anonymity and Privacy in Bitcoin

• Introduction to the Darkweb
• Financial anonymity and privacy
• The myths about Bitcoin anonymity
• Privacy gaps and past leaks
• Possible solutions to enhance anonymity and privacy

A blockchain platform: Ethereum

• Prologue: the expressiveness limits of Bitcoin script (statelessness, lack of Turing completeness)
• Inception, design and deploy of Ethereum ("the world computer")
• Differences with Bitcoin: scripting language, code execution and account model, governance
• EVM and high level smart contract languages (Solidity)
• Applications
• Evolution and perspectives: sharding and proof of stake

Permissioned Blockchains

• Motivations: performance and regulatory compliance issues of permissionless blockchains
• Decentralization trade-offs: permissioned consensus protocols
• Main permissioned platforms (e.g. EBSI, LIbra, Sovrin), perspectives and applications

The blockchain application landscape

• How to catalog a DApp
• Certification
• Digital Identity
• Financial Services
• The Cryptoasset landscape
• Gaming
• P2P Energy Trading
• P2P Content Distribution
• Tracking and Supply Chain Management
• Prediction markets
• ICO: what are they, and what for?

Blockchain business considerations

• Why blockchain can be considered a multi-layer infrastructure.
• What are the blockchain architectural options.
• When the blockchain makes sense in the enterprise and how to implement it.
• What are the so called off-chain services and how do they work.

Introduction to Regulations and institutional initiatives

• Italian and European initiatives
• The role and position of Central Banks on cryptoassets
• The blockchain regulatory framework

At the end of the course student will be able to:

• Understand the idea of digital money and especially the functioning of Bitcoin.
• Understand the technical elements of a blockchain architecture.
• Comprehend the logic behind the development of an enterprise project based on blockchain.
• Understand the concept of Decentralized Applications identifying benefits and weaknesses.

At the end of the course student will be able to:

• Design and code blockchain-based smart-contracts.
• Derive, from the key blockchain framework, the best approach to implement a blockchain solution.
• Use some of the most common software tools (i.e. wallet and blockchain explorers) needed to manage and exchange a cryptocurrency protocol.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)

Students will have the chance to interact with experienced managers, executives and developers dealing with Bitcoin and Blockchain in order to discuss the main issues and trends in the field

Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

Discussions around relevant case studies will build a common understanding of the topics introduced by the instructor

Group assignments

A final group assignment will give students the opportunity to discuss among peers and collaborate in the development of a Blockchain application for a company

Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

Polls may be used to monitor the progress of the class understanding on the different topics and drive discussions

With the purpose of measuring the Course expected learning outcomes, the assessment for attending students, the exam will consist of a partial exam (50% of the final mark) + group assignment and presentation (40% of the final mark) + class participation and activities (10% of the final mark).

1. Partial exam: a multiple-choice questionnaire on the first part of the course, aimed at testing:
   1. their understanding of the key technical, economic and business aspects of blockchain-based cryptoassets;
   2. their knowledge about Bitcoin, Ethereum and Permissioned Blockchains;
   3. their understanding of the most relevant blockchain-based applications, their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Group assignment: it focuses on the second part of the course, specifically designed to measure the students’ ability to design a blockchain application tailored to a specific business context. Each project will be evaluated both from a technical and business perspective.   
3. Class participation: it will be crucial to acquire the ability to interact with executive and managers about the emerging trends and issues of blockchain in order to build an open and collaborative approach to the course’s topics.

The assessment for not attending students is based on a final written exam (100% of the grade). This exam will consist in:

1. a multiple-choice questionnaire on the course, aimed at testing
   1. their understanding of the key technical, economic and business aspects of blockchain-based cryptoassets;
   2. their knowledge about Bitcoin, Ethereum and Permissioned Blockchain;
   3. their understanding of the most relevant blockchain-based applications, their strengths and weaknesses.

2. Open questions aimed at testing their ability to analyze a blockchain-based solution from technical and business perspectives.

A collection of course readings will be made available in the course website through the University's elearning platform (Blackboard).