IERG5590/IEMS5709 Advanced Topics in Blockchain -- Emerging Topics in IE (Spring 2020)

Instructor: Sherman Chow
Teaching Assistant: Lucien Ng (SHB725, nkl018@ie)
Time:
- Thur 12:30pm - 1:15pm
- Fri 3:30pm - 5:15pm
~~Venue: Ho Sin Hang Engineering Building (SHB) 801~~
e-Venue: Meeting 904886786@cuhk.zoom.us
Access via the last 6 digits of the product of the two course codes above.
(It starts with a number presents in both course codes, and ends with a number presents in both course codes.)
Tutorial: same e-venue
1. 28/2 (Fri 2:30pm - 3:15pm)
2. 19/3 (Thur, 11:30am - 12:15pm)
3. 26/3 (Thur, 11:30am - 12:15pm)

This is a shared-code special-topic course.
(Note that IEMS5709 has different topics for different years.)
The course code starts with 5, (i.e., a graduate-level class), yet undergraduates are also welcomed.
The course code starts with IERG/IEMS, yet students from other programs are also welcomed.
As a matter of fact, this course was offered as CSCI5590 last year,
with exchange, BSc(CS), and MSc(CS) students.
(The course code changes between CSCI and IERG each year).

Current Student Composition: BEng(IE), MSc(IE), MPhil(IE), PhD(IE)

Schedule
(Slides will appear on Blackboard after the add/drop period)
(Some papers also require CUHK network to download, or you can get them from Blackboard later after we uploaded them.)

09/1: Overview, Administrivia (slightly updated)
10/1: Sampling, Introduction of Bitcoin/Blockchain
16/1: Overview of Bitcoin Attacks
Reading: Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable
17/1: Introduction of Smart Contract
23/1: Smart Contract (cont.)
Wram-up Programming Assignment (due: 31/1 3:30pm)
24/1, 30/1: [Lunar New Year Holiday]
31/1, 6,7/2, 13,14/2: [Extended Holiday due to "Emergency" Response Level]
20/2: [First Zoom Class] Smart Contract (fin.)
21/2: Solidity and Issues in Writing Smart Contracts
27, 28/2: Cryptography Toolbox
5/3: Public-Key Cryptography (Diffie-Hellman Protocol, Basic Group Arithetmic)
6/3: Public-Key Cryptography (Schnorr, DSA, ECDSA)
Reading: Mathematics for Cryptography
12/3: Cryptography Toolbox (Secret Sharing), Public-Key Cryptography (BLS Signature)
13/3: Public-Key Cryptography (Threshold Signature, Multi Signature, and Aggregate Signature)
19/3 Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (Overview)
20/3: Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (Blind signatures, Ring signatures, and Zero-knowledge proof)
26/3: Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (A quick review, Monero)
27/3: Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (fin.)
(1/4: Deadline for Group Formation and Project Declaration)
2, 3/4: [Reading Week]
9/4: Smart Contracts: Critical Viewpoints
10/4: [Easter Holiday]
(Take-Home Mid-Term Examination was released in this week.)
16, 17/4: Sharding
23, 24/4: Payment-channel Network [Make-up Week 1 due to extended holiday]
30/4, 1/5 : [Make-up Week 2, holiday, no online class, replaced by "offline" student presentations]

Online Synchronous Teaching Platform: Zoom
Online Quiz Platform: UReply

Links:

Standard stuff: