Blockchain Technologies (Winter 2023/24)

In this course, we provide a comprehensive overview of blockchain technologies and its building blocks. We start by discussing protocols and algorithms for fault-tolerant operation. From there we continue to explore the design space by unrolling the conceptual foundations of blockchains. We will see that many of these building blocks already existed before the introduction of Bitcoin, but at the same time that blockchains offer new system properties. Lastly, we will analyze and discuss the weaknesses and limitations of blockchain systems.