CS 592-STB: Special Topics in Blockchains

Instructor: Mahimna Kelkar

Class Time: T/Th 12:00pm–1:15pm

Location: LWSN 1106

Office Hours: T 2:30pm-3:30pm in LWSN 1209 or by appointment

Course Description

This course will explore both foundational and emerging research topics in blockchains and decentralized systems. Classes will be structured as a combination of instructor lectures, discussions, and student presentations of recent research papers.

A tentative list of topics includes consensus, execution, scaling, privacy, decentralized finance, and other advanced topics like governance, cryptoeconomic incentives, and AI x crypto.

Grading Criteria

Discussion and Participation: 15% Lead 2–3 paper discussions during class.
Paper Presentations: 25% ~2 conference-style 20–25 minute presentations on recent research papers.
Take-home Midterm: 25%
Project: 35% Either original research or a survey. Deliverable: Final presentation and ~5 page writeup

Course Schedule

Schedule subject to change. Topics and readings will be added at least 1 week before class.

Week	Tuesday	Thursday
1	Aug. 25 Course Introduction Recommended readings: Do You Need a Blockchain? The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work	Aug. 27 Lecture Preliminaries and Basic Primitives
2	Sept. 1 Lecture Consensus: Byzantine Agreement and State Machine Replication Recommended reading: The Byzantine Generals Problem Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance HotStuff: BFT Consensus with Linearity and Responsiveness	Sept. 3 Lecture Consensus: Bitcoin and Proof of Work Required readings: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Everything Is a Race and Nakamoto Always Wins Optional reading: Analysis of the Blockchain Protocol in Asynchronous Networks
3	Sept. 8 Lecture Discussion Consensus: Selfish Mining and Eclipse Attacks Required discussion readings: Majority Is Not Enough: Bitcoin Mining Is Vulnerable Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin's Peer-to-Peer Network Optional reading: FruitChains: A Fair Blockchain	Sept. 10 Lecture Discussion Consensus: Proof of Stake Required discussion readings: Snow White: Robustly Reconfigurable Consensus and Applications to Provably Secure Proof of Stake Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies
4	Sept. 15 Student Talks Consensus: Modern Designs	Sept. 17 Execution
5	Sept. 22 Execution	Sept. 24 Execution
6	Sept. 29 Scaling	Oct. 1 Scaling
7	Oct. 6 Privacy	Oct. 8 Privacy
8	Oct. 13 No class — October Break	Oct. 15 Project Proposals
9	Oct. 20 DeFi	Oct. 22 DeFi
10	Oct. 27 DeFi	Oct. 29 DeFi
11	Nov. 3 DeFi	Nov. 5 Advanced Topics
12	Nov. 10 Advanced Topics	Nov. 12 Advanced Topics
13	Nov. 17 Advanced Topics	Nov. 19 Advanced Topics
14	Nov. 24 Optional Class - Thanksgiving Break (optional project feedback)	Nov. 26 No class — Thanksgiving Break
15	Dec. 1 Final Project Presentations	Dec. 3 Final Project Presentations
16	Dec. 8 Final Project Presentations	Dec. 10 No class