| CODE | ICT3009 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Blockchain and Smart Contracts | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Faculty of Information and Communication Technology | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Students will be exposed to issues of distributed ledger technologies and their applications in real life. This study-unit will cover smart contract programming and an introduction to blockchain including limited to public and permissioned DLTs, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other DLTs. The study-unit is split into: - Introduction to distributed ledger technologies and opportunities brought about with this technology. We will cover the distinction between public and private ledgers and the implications of using the two including privacy issues; - A study of the underlying algorithms required for distributed ledger technologies with a particular emphasis on blockchain. In this component we will be looking at: distributed consensus algorithms (include mining/proof of work and others); smart contracts; oracles; and decentralised applications (dApps). This part will include an analysis and study of an end-to-end blockchain implementation. Study-Unit Aims: The aim of this study-unit is to provide students with a detailed understanding of distributed ledger technologies with particular emphasis on blockchain and the programming of smart contracts. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Given a distributed ledger architecture,develop systems over such an architecture in a secure and dependeable manner; - Choose between different solutions for public and private ledger technologies ideal for a particular use case; - Define smart contracts and analyse them to ensure the correctness and appropriateness for the problem domain. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Discuss and critically analyse different distributed ledger techniques and the trade-offs inherent in them; - Identify scenarios where the different types of techniques are best suited; - Set up own blockchain application. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Supplementary Readings: - Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy ISBN-13: 978-1491920497. - The End of Money: The story of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain revolution ISBN-13: 978-1473629530. - Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps. ISBN-13: 978-1491971949 |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Independent Study, Project and Tutorial | ||||||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Joshua Ellul |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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