CS 5594: Blockchain Technologies (Spring 2023)

|Syllabus|

Time and Location: T & R (11:00 AM - 12:15 PM) @ TORG 1050 & online

Instructor: Dr. Thang Hoang (@thanghoang)

  • Office Hours: Tues @ 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location: Zoom (link announced on Canvas)

Teaching Assistant: Sahil Hamal (@sahilhamal)

Office Hours Weds @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Weds @ 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Modality Zoom only In-person & Zoom
Physical Location N/A McBryde 122
Zoom link (announced on Canvas)

Announcement

Apr 11
Homework 4 released (Due May 02 @ 11:59 PM)
Mar 30
Homework 3 released (Due Apr 20 @ 11:59 PM)
Mar 13
Homework 2 released (Due Mar 23 @ 11:59 PM)
Feb 09
Homework 1 released (Due Feb 23 @ 11:59 PM)
Feb 06
Group information is available (click here).
Jan 19
Course overview slide updated and DoD blockchain project description uploaded.
Jan 04
Course website is up!

Assignment

  • Homework 4 (PDF | Code) - Due May 02 (Tue) @ 11:59 PM
  • Homework 3 (PDF | TeX) - Due Apr 20 (Thu) @ 11:59 PM
  • Homework 2 (PDF | Code | P1 Test Script) - Due Mar 27 (Mon) @ 11:59 PM (expired)
  • Homework 1 (PDF | TeX) - Due Feb 23 (Thu) @ 11:59 PM (expired)
  • DoD Blockchain Project

    Description

    Course Schedule

    The schedule may be subject to change as the course proceeds.
    # Date Topic Notes
    1 Jan 17 (T) Getting Started
    Jan 19 (R) Blockchain Overview (1-20)
    2 Jan 24 (T) Blockchain Overview (cont.) (21-37)
    Jan 26 (R) Distributed System (1-34)
    3 Jan 31 (T) Distributed System (cont.) (35-end)
    Cryptographic Primitives (1-10)
    Feb 02 (R) Cryptographic Primitives (cont.) (11-28)
    4 Feb 07 (T) Cryptographic Primitives (cont.) (29-45)
    Feb 09 (R) Cryptographic Primitives (cont.) (46-67)
    5 Feb 14 (T) Cryptographic Primitives (cont.) (68-end)
    Bitcoin (1-17)
    Feb 16 (R) Bitcoin (cont.) (18-39)
    6 Feb 21 (T) Bitcoin (cont.) (40-62)
    Feb 23 (R) Bitcoin (cont.) (63-77) Homework 1 due!
    7 Feb 28 (T) Professor traveling (no class)
    Mar 02 (R) Professor traveling (no class)
    8 Mar 07 (T) Spring break (no class)
    Mar 09 (R) Spring break (no class)
    9 Mar 14 (T) Bitcoin (cont.) (78-96)
    Mar 16 (R) Bitcoin (cont.) (97-end)
    Virtual Mining (1-15)
    10 Mar 21 (T) Virtual Mining (cont.) (16-end)
    Mar 23 (R) Ethereum (1-21) Homework 2 due extended to Mar 27!
    11 Mar 28 (T) Ethereum (cont.) (22-51)
    Mar 30 (R) Ethereum (cont.) and DApp (52-end) Presentation Guideline
    Final Report Guideline
    12 Apr 04 (T) Privacy-Preserving Blockchain (1-22)
    Apr 06 (R) Privacy-Preserving Blockchain (cont.) (23-48)
    13 Apr 11 (T) Privacy-Preserving Blockchain (cont.) (49-62)
    Apr 13 (R) Privacy-Preserving Blockchain (cont.) (63-end)
    Verifiable Computation
    14 Apr 18 (T) G9: BlockChain-as-a-Service(BaaS): Applications, Platforms & Challenges
    G2: Blockchain-based Access Control Systems
    Apr 20 (R) G16: Survey on Convergence of Blockchain with IoT
    G7: Blockchain Based Smart Contract Secure Charity System
    Homework 3 due!
    15 Apr 25 (T) G5: Smart Contract Vulnerabilities
    G1: Blockchain-Assisted Federated Learning
    G12: Survey of Blockchain in Video Streaming
    Apr 27 (R) G6: An Investigative Study of Cryptocurrency Abuses in the Dark Web
    G18: Identity and SSO on Blockchain
    G4: Smart Contract Vulnerabilities
    16 May 02 (T) G17: Blockchain and Supply Chain in Industry
    G10: Data Consistency, Transparency and Privacy in Blockchain
    G8: Blockchain in Supply Chain Management
    Homework 4 due!
    May 04 (R) G3: Blockchain for Autonomous Construction Safety
    G13: Comparing Various Zero-Knowledge Proofs
    G15: Decentralized Identity Management using Blockchain

    Resources

    The best source for this course is research articles that can be found on Google or public repositories such as iacr or arxiv. Some preferred books for cryptography and blockchain are as follows.

    Blockchain Textbook Crypto Textbook LaTeX Resources

    Grading Policy

    Homework Assignments 50%
    Group Presentation 20%
    Final Project 30%
    Total 100%

    Grading Scale

    A(93+)   A-(90-92)   B+(87-89)   B(83-86)   B-(80-82)   C+(77-79)   C(73-76)   C-(70-72)   D+(67-69)   D(63-66)   D-(60-62)   F(59-)

    Grading will not be curved!
    Late submission is NOT allowed unless emergency situation (require doctor's note or police report).

    Code of Conduct

    This course strictly follows the VT code of conduct.