"Blockchain: What’s All The Hype About?" by Adelya
- why is there so much hype with blockchain?
- what/where is it?
- how does it work?
- why are people investing into it?
- who can it benefit?
- are there other blockchains than bitcoin and if so, how are they different?
- who owns/controls the blockchain?
- are blockchains public, private, or both? why?
This class will explain mechanics through a participatory workshop, no coding experience required. It will open with a brief historical introduction and close with considerations of applications and bottlenecks.
Please note:
- This is a rapidly developing, nascent technology. We will be using the Proof of Work consensus mechanism used by Ethereum before their transition to Proof of Stake.
This class is constructed for curious blockchain beginners with none or some experience coding. High school students 14 + .
- In this workshop we will be making human chains to replecate a blockchain. Some students will reprecent the blocks, other the nodes, others the gossip protocol. We will workshop the machanics of a formation of a block, a fork, and a 51% attack.
- Students will walk away with a high level understanding of the mechanics that operates the blockchain as well as it's use cases and bottlenecks.
This class is designed for a 2 hour period.
- 30 min: historical intro
- 60 min: hands on workshop
- 30 min: critical thinking wrap up
- Whiteboard + markers
- Index cards + pens/pencils
Look up 3 blockchain copmanies.
- blockchain: a list of records linked through crytography
- consensus: an agreement between majority (51%) of a group
- immutable: permanent
- open source: code that can be accessed without a paywall (licensing for open sourceware)
- Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto
- Cryptographic Hash Functions
- Proof of Work
- Merkle Patricia Tree