NDAK19000U Blockchain Business Development

Volume 2019/2020
Content

The term blockchain encompasses decentralized peer-to-peer systems maintaining a digital ledger without central control. The technology is not limited to cryptocurrencies and is applied to various fields, e.g., registries and supply chains. Similar to the impact of the internet, blockchain has the potential to truly disrupt multiple industries by making transactions and processes more democratic, secure, transparent, and efficient. Building on this vision, students will explore how the capabilities and the underlying mechanism of blockchain can be applied to generate economic and social value.

This course highlights the central topics of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. It provides insight into current research and state-of-the-art. It is designed to familiarize students with the theoretical and practical foundations of blockchain technology, e.g. cryptography and distributed sytems, and its key application areas. In addition, the course seeks to provide hands-on experience in applying blockchain technology to developing novel insights and turning them into prototypes.

The course is expected to run as a collaboration between University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge of

  • Identify and explain the theories and technologies that were presented in the course, including their key terminology, underlying assumptions, and how they relate to one another.
  • A distributed ledger (= blockchain) platform supporting executing programs ("smart contracts") such as Hyperledger fabric or Ethereum
  • Foundations of blockchain in cryptography and distributed systems
  • Important characteristics of and corresponding techniques for implementing distributed ledgers
  • Potential of distributed ledger technology for solving real-world problems


Skills to 

  • Demonstrate how the theories and technologies that were presented in the course were applied in the process of developing the prescribed blockchain project.
  • Design, analyze, implement and test smart contract code on a state-of-the-art distributed ledger platform  
  • Set up and deploy prototype smart contract code on a distributed ledger test system  
  • Analyze suitability of applications for implementation on a particular distributed ledger system

 

Competences to

  • Evaluate the blockchain innovation project through theory-based critical assessment and discuss the results including how to mitigate the prevailing challenges as well as how to move ahead with the development of the underlying project.
  • Design basic distributed ledger based solutions to real-world problems
  • Produce rapid prototypes of distributed ledger applications
  • Report and present findings of a group project
Literature

A reading list of relevant up-to-date articles that will be distributed to the participants at the start of the course.

Information about a few of the generalised ledgers:

  • Androulaki E, Barger A, Bortnikov V, Cachin C, Christidis K, De Caro A, Enyeart D, Ferris C, Laventman G, Manevich Y, Muralidharan S. Hyperledger fabric: a distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains. InProceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference 2018 Apr 23 (p. 30). ACM.

  • Li, W., Sforzin, A., Fedorov, S., and Karame, G. O. Towards scalable and private industrial blockchains. In Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (2017), ACM, pp. 9-14.

  • Wood, G. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Homestead Draft (Yellow Paper), 2014.

Programming experience in e.g. Java, Go, or Python.

Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is recommended.
Teaching will be based on project-centric thematic lectures, in-class exercises, studio work, field research, and student presentations. The class meetings are interactive and require attendance and ongoing engagement of the students.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Exam Preparation
  • 29
  • Lectures
  • 30
  • Preparation
  • 60
  • Project work
  • 86
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Oral examination, 20 mins
Group report based on the group project. Individual oral defence of a group report and group project. The written and oral examinations are not weighted, an overall assessment is provided for the two parts of the exam.
Exam registration requirements

Submission of weekly status updates. Specific guidelines will be given during the course.

Aid
Only certain aids allowed

A laptop can be used for the presentation on the group project.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Several internal examiners
Exam period

Exam period of block 1

Re-exam

Same as original exam format.

The written report can be improved and resubmitted.

If the exam registration requirements have not been met the student must prepare a full project on their own and submit a report. 
The exam registration requirements must be met no later than three weeks prior to re-exam.

Criteria for exam assesment

See Learning Outcome