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