Berkeley Bitcoin Meetup

Blockchain at Berkeley invites you to join our Fall 2018 Blockchain Fundamentals series, the first university-accredited student-taught blockchain course. Our Blockchain Fundamentals Decal is a course offered to UC Berkeley students and the perfect way for beginners to get started in the blockchain space. The class is a comprehensive survey of relevant topics in cryptocurrency and the wider blockchain space. From a technological standpoint, we start with the basics of cryptography and economics, establish a solid fundamental understanding of Bitcoin by building it from the bottom up, then explore the myriad of ideas and technologies relating to blockchain technology. On the non-technical side, we start with the history of digital currency, then look at the laws, organizations, trends, and communities behind it to build a complete picture of the ecosystem surrounding blockchain technology. Lectures are about an hour long, then we move into discussion. Our scheduled lecture topics are as follows: 9/5 Bitcoin Protocol and Consensus: A High Level Overview 9/12 Bitcoin and Blockchain History: From the Cypherpunk Movement to JPMorgan Chase 9/19 Bitcoin Mechanics and Optimizations: A Technical Overview 9/26 Bitcoin IRL: Wallets, Mining, and More 10/3 Ethereum & Smart Contracts: Enabling a Decentralized Future 10/10 Game Theory and Network Attacks: How to Destroy Bitcoin 10/17 Cryptoeconomics and Proof-of-Stake 10/24 Distributed Systems and Alternative Consensus 10/31 Scaling Blockchain: Cryptocurrencies for the Masses 11/7 Enterprise Blockchain: Real-World Applications 11/14 Anonymity: Mixing and Altcoins 11/28 Conclusion: Cool Ideas, Blockchain Hype, and the Future Our lectures will also be webcasted and available on our website: blockchain.berkeley.edu/decal