Non-fungible token (NFT)

Cryptography

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin

Wallets

Consensus protocols

State Machine Replication (SMR)

Dynamic availability

Nakamoto consensus

Sybil resistance

Finality

Accountable safety

Ethereum

Decentralized Apps

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

Solidity

Stablecoins

Synthetics

Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)

Automated Market Makers (AMM)

Constant Function Market Makers (CFMM)

DeFi Lending Systems

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

Crypto Regulation and Policy

Privacy on the Blockchain

zk-SNARK

Payment Channels

State Channels

Recursive SNARKs

Rollups

Miner Extractable Value (MEV)

Blockchain interoperability (Bridging)

Proof of stake

CS 251 Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies Stanford University Fall 2022 Stanford's course covers a wide spectrum of blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts, focusing on technical aspects and engineering secure software. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the main case studies, and the course delves into numerous applications, including DeFi, NFTs, and privacy on the blockchain. The course covers all aspects of blockchains and cryptocurrencies, including distributed consensus, smart contracts, economics, scalability, and applications. We will focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum as case studies. The potential applications for blockchains and cryptocurrencies are enormous. The course will cover the technical aspects of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies, and distributed consensus. Students will learn how these systems work and how to engineer secure software that interacts with a blockchain system like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This course is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. The course assumes a familiarity with computer programming. CS107 (Computer Organization) or equivalent is required. CS111 (Principles of Computer Systems) or equivalent is strongly recommended. To the extent possible, the projects will be done in Python and Solidity. CS255 (Introduction to Cryptography) is helpful but not required; we will introduce concepts from cryptography as needed during class. We will list external reading sources on the [course syllabus page](https://cs251.stanford.edu/syllabus.html). These readings will often serve to expand on what we will discuss in class. They are not a replacement for the lectures. They are also not necessary to be read before coming to lecture, but pre-reading can help in following the lectures.

CS 251 Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies

Blockchain

Smart Contracts

Attacks

Pricing

Bonding curves

Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)

Oracles

Exchange integrated Oracles

Borrow/Lending protocols

Flash loans

Financial attacks using lending

Wrapped tokens and bridges

Liquid staking

Zero Knowledge Tech

Open Hedge Funds

COS 473: Elements of Decentralized Finance Princeton University Spring 2023 This Princeton University course presents an interdisciplinary approach to understanding DeFi. It introduces various financial instruments enabled by blockchains and provides a hands-on experience interacting with Ethereum's testnet. Topics covered include token transfers, market-making, oracles, and DAOs. Blockchains are digital platforms whose consistency and liveness are maintained by a decentralized set of participants. The popular blockchain platforms are programmable (i.e., support applications defined via a Turing complete programming language) and are permissionless (i.e., transactions on the platform are open to anyone; the bar to participate is very lightweight). The combination of programmability, permissionless access and the financial nature of the underlying token (e.g., ETH in the Ethereum blockchain) has led to tremendous innovation in financial products on the blockchain, broadly covered under the rubric of *decentralized finance* or simply DeFi. The purpose of this course is to introduce the various novel types of financial instruments enabled by blockchains, classified as “elements” of DeFi. The course is interdisciplinary since it covers both finance and computer science topics. Finance terms are introduced on a need-to-know basis and no hard prerequisites in financial engineering are needed. Basic background in computer science (programming) is expected. The course covers a technical discipline that is developing at a fast pace – course material in the form of slides and notes are provided for each lecture, but the students will be encouraged to read a diverse range of reference material (source codes, whitepapers, web forum discussions). Nine elements of DeFi are discussed:

1. Token transfers: native blockchain transactions
1. Market making via smart contracts
1. Oracles: importing external data
1. Borrow/Lending: banking functionality
1. Cross border finance: bridges, wrapped tokens
1. Stable coins: tying tokens to fiat
1. Synthetics and Perpetuals: self-adapting financial instruments
1. NFTs : digital collectibles
1. DAOs : tokenized governance

The pedagogical style is designed to provide a hands-on experience with the material. Each class will be divided into two parts: the first part will be a lecture designed to highlight the conceptual and algorithmic aspects of the material. the second part will be a lab activity designed to provide a hands-on experience and highlight the practical aspects of interacting with a permissionless public blockchain (Ethereum testnet). The basis prerequisites are a maturity with algorithms (COS 226), probability (ORF 245) and computer systems (COS 316). Background in blockchains (ECE/COS 470 and COS 495) and financial mathematics (ORF 335) will be helpful. Supplemental reading: [Decentralized Finance](https://defi-learning.org/f22), an online course on DeFi.

COS 473: Elements of Decentralized Finance