Bitcoin & Cryptoassets, September-December 2022
with Ferdinando Ametrano and Andrea Roncoroni
Département of Finance, ESSEC Business School
3 Bernard Hirsch, 95021 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex
The course is for the students of ESSEC Business School only; anyone else, please consider https://dgi.io/workshop.
Learning objectives
The course is an introduction to bitcoin and cryptoassets.
Financial markets, investing, and monetary theory are the focus of the course; anyway, game theory, computer science (distributed systems, distributed consensus), and cryptography elements are examined too, in the attempt to properly convey the interdisciplinarity of the topic and appreciate its relevance.
Prerequisites
There are no strict prerequisites, even if a computer science mindset and some familiarity with algebra and finance might help to appreciate the course. While a rigorous formal approach is almost impossible in a course touching on so many and so different knowledge areas, intellectual curiosity is stimulated about the interplay between finance, maths, cryptography, economic incentives, technology, monetary theory, regulatory issues, and politics.
Teaching method
- Slide based lessons with associated bibliography
- Python 3 programming assignments and technology assignments
- Workshop labs on Bitcoin Core, Electrum, and OpenTimestamps
Teaching language
English.
Exam
blah blah
Lessons’ calendar and material
- 2022-09-27 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Andrea Roncoroni
Foundations- Course Outline and Rules
- Introduction to Cryptocurrencies
- Historical Patterns
- 2022-10-04 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Andrea Roncoroni
Blockchain Technology for Cryptocurrencies- Centralized vs. Distributed Databases
- Addresses and Transactions
- Definition of Blockchain
- Wallets
- What do we Mean by Bitcoin?
- 2022-10-11 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Andrea Roncoroni
Economics- Money as a Medium of Exchange
- Money as a Store of Value (Investment)
- Money as a Numéraire
- Deflation, Inflation, and Monetary Policy
- 2022-10-18 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Andrea Roncoroni
Financial Business Applications- Mining
- Money Transfer
- Exchanges, Futures,
- Web Wallets and Custody Services
- Automatic Teller Machines
- 2022-10-25 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Ferdinando Ametrano
Bitcoin as Digital Gold: Investment Asset and Financial Services- Private Money and the Centralization Dilemma
- The Double Spending Problem
- Bitcoin as Digital Gold
- Bitcoin as Investment Asset
- Financial Services
- 2022-11-08 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Ferdinando Ametrano
The Interplay Between Tech, Game Theory, and Monetary Theory- Distributed Consensus
- Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake
- P2P Network
- Protocol Governance
- Environmental and societal issues
- 2022-11-15 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Ferdinando Ametrano
Beyond Bitcoin I- Altcoins: Ethereum, Ripple, Monero, etc
- Delivery vs Payment using Smart Contracts
- Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
- Non-fungible Tokens (NFT)
- 2022-11-22 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Ferdinando Ametrano
Beyond Bitcoin II- Exchange arbitrages
- Stablecoins
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
- Blockchain Without Tokens
- 2022-11-29 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Ferdinando Ametrano
Monetary Engineering- Cash, eCash, and eMoney
- Central Bank Digital Currencies
- Hayek Money
- Dual Asset Ledger and Proof-of-Payment
- 2022-12-06 Tuesday 13:15-16:15
with Andrea Roncoroni
Final exam
Python library
btclib.org github.com/btclib-org/btclib
Python scripts, Excel spreadsheets, and regtest lab material
Introductory reading
- Ferdinando M. Ametrano,
“Bitcoin: oro digitale, finanza e tulipani”,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gecm0uT43tl8d4WFYNs9H_v3p70PPfPmQITR4GxSWkE
Technology references
- Satoshi Nakamoto,
“Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” (2008),
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf - Andreas M. Antonopoulos,
“Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain” (2nd edition, 2017),
Oreilly & Associates Inc, 978-1491954386,
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook - Jimmy Song,
“Programming Bitcoin: Learn How to Program Bitcoin from Scratch” (2020)
Oreilly & Associates Inc, 978-1492031499,
https://github.com/jimmysong/programmingbitcoin - A. Narayanan, et al.,
“Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction” (2016),
Princeton University Press, 978-0691171692,
https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency, https://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu, https://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu, https://www.lopp.net/pdf/princeton_bitcoin_book.pdf - Pedro Franco,
“Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics” (2014),
Wiley, 978-1119019169 - Ferdinando M. Ametrano,
“Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Distributed Ledgers: Between Hype and Reality” (2017),
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2832249 - Roger Wattenhofer,
“Blockchain Science: Distributed Ledger Technology” (3rd edition, 2020),
Independently published, 978-1793471734
Cryptography references
- Christof Paar, Jan Pelzl,
“Understanding Cryptography”,
Springer, 978-3642041006 https://toc.cryptobook.us//, https://wiki.crypto.rub.de/Buch/en/slides.php, https://youtube.com/channel/UC1usFRN4LCMcfIV7UjHNuQg/videos - Dan Boneh,
“A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography”,
Stanford University
https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto, - Lawrence C. Washington,
“Elliptic Curves: Number Theory And Cryptography” (2008),
Chapman and Hall, 978-1420071467 - Standards for Efficient Cryptography Group
SEC 1: Elliptic Curve Cryptography, March 2009. Version 2.0.
https://www.secg.org/sec1-v2.pdf - Standards for Efficient Cryptography Group
SEC 2: Recommended Elliptic Curve Domain Parameters, March 2009. Version 2.0.
https://www.secg.org/sec2-v2.pdf - Guidelines for Efficient Cryptography
GEC 2: Test Vectors for SEC 1, September 1999. Version 0.3.
http://read.pudn.com/downloads168/doc/772358/TestVectorsforSEC%201-gec2.pdf
Monetary theory references
- Friedrich A. Hayek,
“Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined”,
https://mises.org/library/denationalisation-money-argument-refined - Saifedean Ammous,
“The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking” (2018),
Wiley, 978-1119473862 - Ferdinando M. Ametrano,
“Hayek Money: The Cryptocurrency Price Stability Solution” (2014),
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2425270 - Robert Sams,
“A Note on Cryptocurrency Stabilisation: Seigniorage Shares” (2015),
https://github.com/rmsams/stablecoins/blob/master/paper.pdf - Ferdinando M. Ametrano,
“Bitcoin: oro digitale per nuovi standard monetari (2020),
published in “Dal sesterzio al bitcoin”, Rubettino Editore (edited by Angelo Miglietta, and Alberto Mingardi)
https://bit.ly/2NQg9VJ