Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Fundamentals

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Fundamentals

Course Description
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Fundamentals is a course designed to familiarize individuals with the ins and outs of the most popular practical blockchain application – cryptocurrencies. Participants will learn about the fundamentals of the technological infrastructure that powers cryptocurrencies behind the scenes. The focus of this course is to make the blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts accessible to people with little to no knowledge of blockchain technology beforehand.


What will you learn?
After attending this course, students will possess the knowledge and understanding necessary to successfully acquire internationally recognized certification (IRC) – Certified Blockchain Expert™ by Blockchain Council.


Who is this course for?
The course is targeted to students who:
  • Want to learn about the history of Bitcoin and blockchain and how it all started.
  • Want to understand the basic and/or fundamental aspects of Blockchain technology from a technical, business, and regulatory functional view.
  • Wish to know what cryptocurrencies are, why they are used, and how to operate them.
  • Want to learn what the process of mining a cryptocurrency is and why it is necessary.
  • Want to learn about standard and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges and the main differences between those.
  • Want to learn how to securely hold and use cryptocurrencies via different wallets.
  • Need to understand, discuss, and comment on blockchain ideas, concepts, and solutions in a detailed manner.
  • Wish to achieve the knowledge required to get an internationally recognized Blockchain certification, so they can prove their new skills to prospective employers.

Prerequisites:
  • BSc or MSc degree in the field of science, engineering, business, finance, or law.
  • Basic technology proficiency (hardware/software).
Group #: B3.1 – registration is closed.
Class hours: 10:00 – 17:00 UTC+4, Saturday
# of class sessions: 6

  1. Sat, 17.06.2023
  2. Sat, 24.06.2023
  3. Sat, 01.07.2023
  4. Sat, 08.07.2023
  5. Sat, 15.07.2023
  6. Sat, 22.07.2023
Group #: B3.2 – registration is closed.
Class hours: 10:00 – 17:00 UTC+4, Saturday, Friday
# of class sessions: 6

6 July 2023: 26.08.2023 changed to 25.08.2023.
  1. Sat, 12.08.2023
  2. Fri, 25.08.2023
  3. Sat, 02.09.2023
  4. Sat, 09.09.2023
  5. Sat, 16.09.2023
  6. Sat, 23.09.2023
Alexander Panayotov

Alexander Panayotov Blockchain Developer

Alexander is a blockchain developer with more than 5 years of experience in the industry. He has rich experience in teaching on Blockchain architectures and applications. As a trainer he made following activities for his students:
  • Prepare course materials.
  • Deliver lectures & seminars/webinars.
  • Organize practical blockchain workshops.
  • Evaluate blockchain term projects (blockchain applications).
  • Facilitate student discussions.
  • Constantly updating the course to match the fast-developing blockchain space.
He is a mentor of Startup teams, which create Blockchain-based products. His responsibility as a mentor includes:
  • Evaluating blockchain use cases.
  • Identifying blockchain business benefits.
  • Matching blockchain solutions to potential customers' needs and requirements.
  • Architecting blockchain solutions.
  • Delivering practical hands-on blockchain development workshops & evaluating assignments.
  • Developing innovative business models centered on blockchain protocols.
  • Evaluating blockchain architectures, platforms, and protocols against business goals.
He is developing Blockchain applications (dApps – decentralized applications) on self-practice. The steps he goes through to make an app and satisfy customers are:
  • Identifying user and business requirements.
  • Application architecture design.
  • Writing smart contracts.
  • Developing and connecting both client side and blockchain side (front and back end) software.
  • Smart contract testing.
  • Using Ethereum blockchain protocol and Solidity smart contract programming language.

Alexander is a member of Blockchain Training Alliance (BTA). He is Internationally certified as „BTA Certified Blockchain Solution Architect“ (CBSA) as of May 2019 and „BTA Certified Blockchain Developer – Ethereum“ (CBDE) as of August 2021.

Instructor's Certifications:

Course Outline

  1. Course Introduction. Blockchain origins.
  2. Distributed systems and cryptocurrency.
  3. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies – advantages and drawbacks.
  4. Cryptocurrencies mining.
  5. Cryptography; cryptographic hashing.
  6. Crypto wallets and crypto exchanges. Privacy and security of wallets.
  7. Practical Workshop.
  8. Blockchain types. Do all blockchains need cryptocurrency?
  9. Crypto transactions analysis – ledger explorers.
  10. Money and cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin.
  11. Workshop – creating our own wallet & cryptocurrency.
  12. Cryptocurrency regulations. Future of crypto.
  13. Test preparation. Farewell!

Ancillary materials for self-education:

  1. Gupta, M., (2017). Blockchain for Dummies, IBM Limited Edition. Available at: http://gunkelweb.com/coms465/texts/ibm_Blockchain.pdf
  2. Arvind Narayanan (Author), Joseph Bonneau (Author), Edward Felten (Author), & 2 more, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction Hardcover – July 19, 2016, https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Technologies-Comprehensive-Introduction/dp/0691171696
  3. Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller, Steven Goldfeder, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, Princeton University Press in 2016, 308 Available at: https://www.lopp.net/pdf/princeton_bitcoin_book.pdf
  4. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction- Chapter 1, Available at: http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s10908.pdf
  5. Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain, Legal context and implications for financial crime, money laundering and tax evasion Available at:  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/150761/TAX3%20Study%20on%20cryptocurrencies%20and%20Blockchain.pdf
  6. ECB, „Virtual Currency Schemes – a further analysis“, February 2015, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemesen.pdf
  7. EY, „IFRS – Accounting for crypto-assets“, March 2018, http://eyfinancialservicesthoughtgallery.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/EY-IFRS-Accounting-for-crypto-assets.pdf
  8. What is Blockchain https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/
  9. Bitcoin https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Certification Exam

Exam: Certified Blockchain Expert™ by Blockchain Council.

This certification will offer you a major competitive advantage. Becoming certified you:
  • prove your Blockchain skills & understanding;
  • gain an in-depth understanding of Blockchain & its implementation;
  • implement your skills in any Blockchain applications;
  • build your own Blockchain enterprise with acquired knowledge.

What Our Students Say

„I would like to provide feedback on the course ‘Blockchain and Bitcoin Fundamentals' and recommend to the further training programs Mr. Alexander Panayotov, CBSA, New Horizons Bulgaria Blockchain trainer.

As a layman in Blockchain and computer science in general, due to my background I was curious yet dubious about the course, however, mr. Alexander did his best to successfully explain key Blockchain concepts, thus I, a lawyer, was able to grasp many details almost effortlessly. The training sessions that took place online in the evenings were relaxed and interesting. Students were involved in practical exercises and were able to ask various questions and Mr. Alexander always answered them in a professional and qualified manner while effectively managing time as well. He was readily available to help us understand and provide up-to-date information that is of utmost importance in this fast changing field.

This course gave me valuable information as I was able to look at Blockchain in different perspectives and provided me with the essential background in order to apply the gained knowledge to my profession as the interest in Blockchain in the field of law is ever-increasing. Thus, the impact of this course in indeed positive. Moreover, due to the trainings I was able to successfully pass the CBBF test and thus become certified.

To conclude, I believe this and more advanced Blockchain courses will be very enriching for Georgian students as the interest in Blockchain progresses at a fast pace.

Sincerely,“

Tatia Nikvashvili
„Overall, really satisfied with his teaching style, he was quite encouraging and provided us with all the needed information for the certification. He even satisfied our curiosity to teach out of exam topics regarding blockchain as well.“
Lana Zhorzholiani

„Well, first thing to mention is that our trainer Alex is a very good person, we had a very good relationship during the lectures and everything was going great.

The Training sessions were very relaxed and comfortable, I mean it! Taking a course online has never been such a great experience for me and it was very relaxing as already mentioned, thanks to Alex the Great!

From key concepts to more advanced topics we covered many things and everything was very smooth, everything was easily understandable. I'm personally very happy New Horizons gave me the chance to get to know Alex, he's got the skills!

It changed my life, before I was never interested in the Crypto world and because of that I didn't even know about Blockchain, I didn't think it was a special thing.

Then I took this course (more like I got chosen from selected courses) and realised what Blockchain means and what it is capable of.

Finally I'm very happy I got selected in this field, now I have a total understanding of Blockchain Business Foundations, I'm really thankful.

Taking the online course was great, I mean it is very comfortable, you can attend it from any place, if I have to attend this course in some physical location I think I couldn't manage it as many other people. I'm very happy we had such a great trainer as Alex, online lectures were really comfortable. I hope other students will also have such a great experience as we had!

Finally I can say that I'm very happy to be your student, I like New Horizons, your team, all the people involved in your training, the way you planned, managed and got this course for us. Many Thanks!!!

Big thanks to Alex Panayotov, Nikolay Penev and your team, you guys are great!“

Kind regards,
George

Giorgi Gogilashvili
„Alex as a trainer is qualified and very determined to give the most of your knowledge and experience to help students understand the topic. Session were very interactive and that helped a lot. Related to the course itself it is very complex and general understanding of blockchain technology, for the beginner it is very suitable to understand core concept of blockchain and DLT technology. in depth courses may come after that. For me this course was very helpful and I really enjoyed it. I really advise students to take that course with you. Wish you all the best for the upcoming courses.“
Magda Tavkhelidze

„Key concepts were definitely well covered, and as now I view blockchain as a type of distributed system (after studying distributing programming, still in progress).

During lectures there were rarely some technical inconsistencies.

Would like to get course on blockchain development with high prerequisites which will be known ahead of time, primarily for system architects/ software engineers and the course we took on blockchain certification CBBF website got free and people have to watch it before hand), and so that course aims to get me ready for production.

If blockchain development isn't available at that time I will probably get cloud certified.“

Anri Kezeroti
„I want to inform you that I have passed my international exam in BTA Blockchain and Bitcoin Fundamentals with the score 84%. Thank you for very interesting and productive course and new opportunities! Many thanks to Lecturer Aleksandre Panayotov, I appreciate his professionalism! Will be glad to participate in next courses organized by both of you in future.“
Irakli Dolidze
„The course was very interesting.“
Otto Kupradze
  • Deadline: May 30, 2023 – 23:59 (registration is closed)
  • Duration: 40 hours
  • Language: English
  • Price: Free of charge

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The trainings and the certification exams are completely free of charge for the participants.