Blockchain & Bitcoin Workshop

With the fast-paced development and growth in both the Blockchain and Bitcoin, public interest is exploding. We’ve seen it firsthand with the overwhelming interest in our past events covering Blockchain. These programs highlighted the diverse applications of this groundbreaking technology — from digital currencies to supply chain to digital rights management in music.

We believe that Blockchain will have a major impact across many industries. But, for entrepreneurs looking to identify new opportunities, or professionals trying to vet new partners for outsourcing, find efficiencies in internal processes, or track existential threats, there’s a definite need to build a solid understanding of how Blockchain technology actually works.

This series of workshops offers entrepreneurs, senior managers & executives and the Blockchain-curious--in finance and non-finance--an opportunity to ramp up their foundational knowledge of Blockchain technology and to dive into the various use-cases/applications.

Specifically, you’ll learn:

• How Blockchain technology works
• What types of solutions Blockchain & related technologies offer
• How to identify partners and/or competitors in the space

Instructor
Extra von NotHaus, MBA, MSF, Co-developer and Co-teacher of the “Fintech: Disrupting the Finance & Insurance Services Industries,” the first graduate-level course on Fintech and Blockchains for the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.

This workshop has also been developed with Hugo Benedetti, a Ph.D candidate focusing on cryptocurrencies at Boston College and Dr. Steven R. Kursh, Ph.D, CSDP, CLP, Executive Professor of Finance at D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, who co-taught the Fintech course with Mr. von NotHaus.

Session 1: Blockchain Basics 1 – Tuesday, March 6 

• Blockchain & distributed/peer-to-peer network architecture & Node types/functions

• Blockchain block structure, genesis block & linking blocks into the blockchain

• Block headers & identifiers (header hash & block height)

• Hashing functions

• Blockchains, mining/consensus & POW

• Basic transaction types & Blockchain explorers

Session 2: Blockchain Basics 2 – Tuesday, March 20, MIT Tang Center, E51-372, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge (rescheduled from March 13 due to the snow storm)

• Proof-of-stake & validating a new block
• Blockchain forks and other internal risks
• Decentralized consensus & consensus-related threats - Versioning, hard forks, & multiple chains
• Blockchain applications within Financial Services
• Blockchain applications outside Financial Services

Location is MIT Tang Center, E51-372, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Session 3: Blockchain Platforms & Use cases – Tuesday, March 27, MIT Tang Center, E51-145, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

• Ethereum: Smart Contract & beyond Introduction to Bitcoin & Blockchain - Hyperledger: Fabric & other tools
• Walmart, Unilever, & other real-life use cases/pilot programs - Alternative blockchains & cryptocurrencies
• Alternative chains, meta-coin platforms & colored coins - Alt coins, types, uses & development lifecycle
• Anonymous-centered Alt coins
• Non-currency alt coins & blockchains

Location: MIT Tang Center, E51-145, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

Session 4: Bitcoin – Tuesday, April 3, MIT Tang Center, E51-149, 70 Memorial Drive Cambridge

• Economics of Bitcoin currency & creating new currency supply
• Mining blocks, proof-of-work algorithm & rewards
• Hashing difficulty, hashing rates & changing rates over time
• Security of mining hash-rate & 51% attack potential
• Funding/Venture Capital landscape for Bitcoin & Blockchain companies
• Future technical issues/limitations/challenges for Bitcoin & Blockchain
• Strategic alliances, partnerships & consortiums focused on Bitcoin & Blockchain

Location is MIT Tang Center, E51-149, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge