Handbook

Cryptocurrency and Distributed Ledger Technologies are a currently emerging area of technology that draws on multiple areas of computer science to implement systems that provide secure infrastructure for important societal functions, including financial transactions and the management of commercial trust relationships.

This course aims to develop an understanding of the requirements for electronic payment systems and how these requirements are realised using distributed ledger technologies. The technical ideas to be understood include the key cryptographic constructs, economic incentive mechanisms and distributed algorithms underpinning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The concept of smart contract will be introduced, and the course aims to develop a basic facility with programming smart contracts on one cryptocurrency platform. The course also aims to introduce students to the broader context of the range of alternate designs for distributed ledger technologies, the range of potential applications for these technologies, and the socio-economic, ethical and legal dimensions of their use.