Blockchain and Cryptoassets for Finance
Autumn Quarter
Instructors: Brian Boonstra, William Cottrell, and Christopher Ellison
Syllabus
Since before the invention of reeding for the edges of coins, technology has been closely involved with money. The rise of cryptotokens and associated cryptocurrencies is the latest manifestation of their entanglement.
This class is aimed at understanding crypto from the point of view of finance professionals. We will study some of the basic concepts in crypto, and then quickly move on to the world of smart contracts and emissions, cryptotokens' analogs to derivatives and interest-bearing securities.
Week 1: Introduction to Bitcoin, Hashing, and Cryptography
Week 2: Intro to Ethereum: Smart Contracts, Voting and Staking.
Week 3: Smart Contracts I: Solidity, Tokens, Stable Coins and Uniswap.
Week 4: Smart Contracts II: L2s: Bridging, Rollups, Side-chains and Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Week 5: Smart Contracts III: Staking, Re-Staking, Lending and Yield Farming
Week 6: MEV + Brief Into to other Chains (SUI, Solana, Monad)
Week 7: DEX Trading w/ Demos
Week 8: Centralized Exchanges
Week 9: Crypto Portfolios.
This course counts towards the Rates and Credit concentration.