Consensus Systems

This is an interdisciplinary pair of courses on "Bitcoin, Blockchains, Consensus Assets, Crypto" and their impacts on various aspects of society. While we will design each course to be self-contained, students will be highly encouraged to take both classes.

It is difficult to ignore “crypto” given the amount of coverage it gets. This class complements “pop crypto” and deep-dives into the foundations and fundamentals behind this new class of assets. Our preferred term is consensus systems. At its heart, these systems enable agreement over (i) how a dollar is spent, (ii) what the weather report says, (iii) who owns an NFT, (iv) when a margin call is performed, (v) who won a bet, etc.

What are these systems? What is new/old about them? How do we build them? We intend to demystify these consensus systems with this sequence of classes where students are guided from first principles.

While key aspects will be discussed in both classes, ECON3382 will focus on the social, economic/finance, and consensus aspects of the subject while highlighting the technological enablers. CSCI 3359 will cover the technical, building blocks of consensus systems.

Students should aspire to explain how consensus systems are built and how they affect various aspects of modern life, all without the use of unqualified “black box words” by the end of the year.