E6998 Engineering Blockchain and Web3 Apps

We put a tentative syllabus here to give you an idea what future may bring. This syllabus is subject to change as the course progresses.

In the listings below we use NBFMG to refer to the course textbook Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction.

#	Day	Date	Topic	Assignment	Speakers
1	Tue	Sep 5	Introduction	Form project team. Read NBFMG Chapter 1 Homework 1 out	Junfeng Yang
2	Tue	Sep 12	Bitcoin Mechanics	Read Bitcoin nuts and bolts NBFMG Chapter 3 Bitcoin Developer Guide sections: Block Chain, Transactions, P2P Network, and Bitcoin Whitepaper Read Wallets: managing and protecting crypto assets NBFMG Chapter 4 Bitcoin Developer Guide section: Wallets Homework 1 due the night before. Homework 2 out	Junfeng Yang
3	Tue	Sep 19	Consensus	Read Consensus: network models, corruption tolerance, sybil resistance Foundation of Concensus Chapters 3, 6, and 7 Rethinking Large Scale consensus Read Nakamoto Consensus: security, attacks and incentives Analysis of Nakamoto Consensus (6-page paper) Everything is a Race and Nakamoto Always Wins Foundation of Concensus Chapters 14, 15, and 17 Read Large Scale Consensus: Availability/Finality, Randomness Beacons, VDFs Availability Finality Dilemma VDF basics VDF constructions Byzantine Agreement, Made Trivial Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies Homework 2 due the night before. Homework 3 and Homework 4 out	Junfeng Yang
4	Tue	Sep 26	Etherum Mechanics	Read Decentralized Apps, EVM, and the Ethereum blockchain Ethereum white paper Ethereum yellow paper(more in-depth) EVM opcodes and gas costs Homework 3 and Homework 4 due the night before. Homework 5 out	Junfeng Yang
5	Tue	Oct 3	Programming in Solidity	Read Solidity documentation Remix documentation Solidity patterns Homework 5 due the night before. Homework 6 out	Junfeng Yang
6	Tue	Oct 10	Web3 Development Practies	Read The Architecture of a Web 3.0 App ethers.js API EIP-1822: Universal Upgradeable Proxy Standard (UUPS) Proxy to enable upgradable contracts Hardhat Chai Matchers Homework 6 due the night before. Homework 7 out	Junfeng Yang
7	Tue	Oct 17	Decentralized Finance 1	Read stablecoins Maker whitepaper https://arxiv.org/pdf/1906.06037.pdf A survey of stablecoins (2021) Read oracles Price feed oracles, Maker SchellingCoin: A Minimal-Trust Universal Data Feed, Vitalik Buterin, 2014 Read decentralized exchanges Uniswap Building a Decentralized Exchange in Ethereum, Alan Lu Uniswap V3 explained Homework 7 due the night before. Homework 8 out	Junfeng Yang
8	Tue	Oct 24	Decentralized Finance 2	Read lending systems The Compound protocol Attacking the DeFi Ecosystem with Flash Loans for Fun and Profit Read tokens and NFTs OpenZeppelin Tokens	Junfeng Yang
9	Tue	Oct 31	Privacy	Read de-anonymizing the blockchain and mixing A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names ZeroLink: The Bitcoin Fungibility Framework NBFMG Chapter 6 sections 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 Read zk-SNARKs The Zcash paper, section 1 Confidential Transactions How to build a private DAO Homework 8 due the night before. Homework 9 out	Junfeng Yang
10	Tue	Nov 7	No class (Election Day)
11	Tue	Nov 14	Security	Read Mastering Ethereum section: Smart Contract Security Smart Contract Weakness Classification and Test Cases Ethereum Smart Contract Security Best Practices Homework 9 due the night before. Homework 10 out	Junfeng Yang
12	Tue	Nov 21	Scaling the Blockchain	Read payment channels and state channels Deployable Lightning Read Optimistic Rollup Arbitrum A summary of Rollups and Validium Read recursive SNARKs zkzkRollup: private proof-based Rollup using one level of recursion Mina, compressing the blockchain using many levels of recursion Homework 11 out	Junfeng Yang
13	Tue	Nov 28	Final Topics	Read blockchain interopratibility The Celo Optics interchain bridge The IBC protocol Read maximal extractable value (MEV) Quantifying Blockchain Extractable Value Read Web2 and Web3 integration Shopify and NFTs Expanding global payouts with crypto, Stripe and Twitter Community Points, Reddit Homework 10 due the night before	Junfeng Yang
14	Tue	Dec 5	Demo Day	Present and demo your final project. Homework 11 due the night before. Homework 12 out and will be due during the final week	Teams will present. Teaching staff will provide feedback