Blockchain & Bitcoin MasterClass

About Blockchain & Bitcoin MasterClass

Section 1: Introduction, Ecosystem & Hash

Basic understanding of money, fiat currency, ledgers and transactions

Detailed understanding of hash functions, their applications and benefits

Exposure to blockchain operation and terminology with a focus on Bitcoin

Introduction to popular terms involved with blockchain and cryptocurrency applications

Brief history of the internet’s technology evolutions, and why blockchain is advancing today

Learning the numerous potential applications for blockchain along with risks & benefits

Section 2: Blockchain, Proof of Work & Mining

Detailed understanding Bitcoin’s block data structure and purpose (can be expanded to most blockchains)

Learning why the blockchain is immutable and tamper-proof via block hashes

Understanding the purpose and function of Merkle roots and how they are used in the blockchain

Exposure to technical blockchain terminology with a focus on Bitcoin

Solutions to the trust-less consensus and double-spend problems using Nakamoto Consensus

The validation rules used by Bitcoin to ensure a stable and secure network

Consensus forks and how Bitcoin deals with network conflicts globally

Mining algorithms and how mining pools and rigs operate on the inside, and how they earn money

Trade-offs between various types of mining hardware

Section 3: Transactions & Digital Signatures

Different types of financial ledger systems

Bitcoin transaction format & operation

Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) purpose & function

How wallets create transactions when making payments

Coinbase transaction purpose, format and function

Digital signature purpose & detailed mathematical operation

Detailed understanding of Bitcoin’s Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) format

Section 4: Wallets, Exchanges, Fees & Block Rewards

Purpose and function of a cryptocurrency wallet

Different types of wallets, including hot, cold and SPV

The most common standards that dictate all the modern wallets used today

Private and public key generation

Purpose and function of a cryptocurrency centralized exchange

Merkle proofs and their benefits

Bloom filters and how they add some security to the wallet operation

Block rewards & fees

Mempool creation and management

Fee volatility and network risks

Techniques that could exploit a fee-dominant network, such as undercutting, selfish mining and petty compliance

Section 5: Bitcoin Core, Blockchain Explorer & Forks

Bitcoin core software functionality and operation

Operation of the major transaction types (P2PKH, P2MS, P2SH)

Navigating cryptocurrency blockchain explorers

Hard and soft fork, their causes and impacts

Section 6: Bitcoin Advancements

Transaction malleability – what does it mean, why it’s bad, and how to fix it

Segregated Witness – what does it mean and how was this innovative technique implemented in Bitcoin

Bech32 Bitcoin addresses – how they are calculated and why they are important

The concept of layer 2 solutions built on-top of layer 1 blockchains, the meaning of “on-chain” vs “off-chain”, along with the reasons and benefits for implementing a layer 2

Payment channel fundamentals including funding, commitment, revocation, punishment and settlement transactions

Lightning Network protocols including Onion Routing and Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLCs)

How Bitcoin’s Pay-to-Script-Hash transaction types enable the layer 2 and Lightning, via smart contract code