Crypto101 June 18, 2018 Daily Hodl Staff

Deadline: IBM and Berkeley Offer New Online Blockchain Courses for the Summer

IBM is collaborating with the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) in India to offer a 12-week online course in the fundamentals of blockchain architecture, design and use cases.

The syllabus provides an extensive framework for any student who wants to explore blockchain and sharpen relevant skills to become a developer. The course framework also shows how rapidly blockchain is growing as it becomes so much more than just the core tech of Bitcoin. It’s the foundation of a new and improved, decentralized internet. It’s also the driving tech behind revolutionary enterprise solutions to power efficiency, generate transparency and reduce costs. Course concepts and applications include business process management, smart contracts and IoT.

Registrants who perform well in the class may also qualify to receive a certificate from NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur.

If you can’t take the online class, take a look at their recommended reading list and some of the highlights from the course framework.

Reading List

Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies by Andreas Antonopoulos
Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy by Melanie Swan
Hyperledger Fabric
Zero to Blockchain – An IBM Redbooks course by Bob Dill, David Smits

Highlights from the Course Framework

Cryptographic Hash Function
Creation of coins
Consensus in a Bitcoin network
The life of a Bitcoin miner
Permissioned blockchains
Blockchain for enterprise solutions
Hyperledger Fabric
Cross border payments
Supply chain logistics
Blockchain in energy, healthcare, media
e-Estonia: A Case Study
Digital identity
Blockchain for tax payments
Blockchain security
Blockchain for science

The course starts in July. For a basic primer on blockchain, check out this visual guide from Reuters.

UC Berkeley is offering a new online course on edX that goes live on July 8. The course is a reboot of “Blockchain Fundamentals”, a popular Berkeley class designed and led by students. “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies” will run for six weeks, available online for free. The course is intended to make sense of the many concepts surrounding blockchain and its growing lexicon. It’s for students who have no computer science background.

The course covers Bitcoin’s cryptographic hash functions, Bitcoin Script, privacy and hash commitment schemes, and its roots in the Cypherpunk movement and Libertarian ideals. It also covers how to destroy Bitcoin, including various network attacks, and the properties behind the second largest blockchain platform, Ethereum.

Taught by a team of students and lecturers, the students break it down and make it easy enough for your grandma to grasp.

Berkeley will launch a second online blockchain course in September. Both courses will offer a professional certificate to graduates for a fee of $180.