CSE 406LEC—Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Finance Systems

This course is intended for students interested in learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized finance systems. The course will cover the essentials of blockchain and cryptocurrency and explore the area of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) systems in detail. The course content is divided into three parts: (i) blockchain essentials, (ii) digital assets, and (iii) DEX protocols and platforms, including applications of web3 and DeFi to modernize business systems. The topics covered in the first part of the course include decentralized identity, wallet technology, peer-to-peer transactions, blocks, chain of blocks, smart contracts, web3, and decentralized applications (DApp). These concepts will be illustrated using the Ethereum blockchain. The second part of the course covers digital assets and includes a discussion of cryptocurrencies, tokens, tokenization, fungible, non-fungible, and multi-token, as well as their applications. The concepts will be reinforced using Ethereum’s ERC tokens and real-world assets (RWA) tokens. The course’s third part deals with decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols and platforms, newer models for liquidity, market and market making, and perpetual derivatives. The course will also discuss approaches for introducing web3 and DeFi concepts into existing businesses and systems. Students will work on hands-on projects on Ethereum testnets and simulated environments to reinforce the concepts discussed. On completion of the course, a student will be able to analyze a problem and develop and implement an end-to-end DeFi system to solve a real-world problem.