Motivation
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, DeFi, etc. are terms that are being thrown around a lot these days. You hear about it a lot on social media and on other places on the internet (especially when their prices are rising), but the vast majority of people do not know much about what they are or what they do.
My name is Harsh Strongman and I was one of those people. Naturally, being curious, I wanted to learn more about these technologies. I did what all of us do: a web search. And I found a myriad of resources, most of which were either too basic or too complex and filled with jargon. Moreover, they are entirely unstructured and I felt like I was picking up tiny pieces of information here and there, instead of learning in a structured, “builds on top of previous knowledge” way.
Since I could not find a decent non-technical resource that will allow me to learn about these technologies in a structured way, I decided to create one (in collaboration with Sergio from Your Coding Teacher).
This course will teach you everything you need to know about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, etc. as a non-developer (i.e. you can understand everything without having a technical background).
All the course content is freely available and self-paced i.e. you can watch and read as per your leisure.
You will notice that some concepts are covered in multiple resources or sections. This redundancy is a feature of this course, not a bug. We deliberately looked for resources that demonstrated key concepts from different angles and at different levels of complexity to ensure the best possible learning experience for you.
Course Duration
| Module | Content Duration | Estimated time* |
| 1. Bitcoin | 18 hours | 3 weeks |
| 2. Ethereum and Smart Contracts | 10 hours | 2 weeks |
| 3. DApps, ENS, Tokens, DAOs, and Oracles | 5 hours | 1 week |
| 4. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) | 50 hours | 8 weeks |
| 5. Privacy coins | TBA | TBA |
| 6. Storage coins, web3, scaling, and other technologies | TBA | TBA |
*assumes that you devote 6 hours per week to your studies.
Note: The content must be watched/read in the order presented. Each resource builds upon the information and concepts learnt in the previous resources.
Module 1: Bitcoin
Preliminaries
The best way to learn a thing is to know its history. Before you start exploring the internals of Bitcoin, you have to know the history and context under which it was created and what problem it is trying to solve.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
| The History and Evolution of Money | money, currency, barter, fiat, capitalism, history of money, trust, commodity money, paper money, currency printing, double spending problem, centralization, decentralization, motivation behind Bitcoin | 15 m |
Before we get into the nitty gritty details, we want you to get a broad idea of what Bitcoin is and the technology we’re dealing with.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
| What is Bitcoin and how does it work? | ledger, public key, private key, digital signature, hash functions, proof of work, blockchain, mining, block reward | 30 m |
There are a couple of technical ideas that you need to know to grasp how Bitcoin works. For example, hash functions are the basis for Public Key cryptography and Proof of work, some of the pillars of Bitcoin design. This is what we will cover now.
The content here might feel technical and intimidating, but it’s just there so you don’t find the words alien when they’re used later on. It’s okay if you don’t fully understand the topics at the moment.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
|
Hash Functions |
hash function, digital signature, MD5, SHA-256, collision resistance | 20 m |
|
Public key cryptography concepts |
public key, private key, hashing, fingerprint, encryption, decryption, digital signature | 20 m |
Optional: Chapter 2 of The GNU Privacy Handbook
Basic Bitcoin
This section is mandatory.
After finishing this section, you’ll be able to understand the Bitcoin whitepaper.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
| The basic concepts of bitcoin | history of Bitcoin, getting bitcoin, price discovery, QR code, satoshi unit, transaction fee, mempool bitcoin exchange, Bitcoin ATM, private and public keys, bitcoin address, base58, 21 million total supply, confirmations, blockchain, miner, halving, mining incentives, coinbase transaction | 2 h |
|
Consensus in a decentralized network |
byzantine fault tolerance, consensus, Nakamoto Consensus | 40 m |
|
Nodes |
node, role of nodes in the network, consensus, 51% attack, full node, light/SPV node, pruned full node, archival full node, mining nodes, coinbase transaction, staking nodes, authority nodes, masternodes, lightning nodes, hard fork, soft fork | 30 m |
|
Proof of work (PoW) and Consensus |
proof of work, byzantine general’s problem, byzantine fault tolerance, nakamoto consensus, 51% or majority attack | 20 m |
|
Bitcoin Wallets |
wallet, HD wallets, full nodes, SPV light wallets, hot wallet, web wallet, desktop wallet, mobile wallet, hardware wallet, cold storage wallet, paper wallet, brain wallet, multi-signature | 20 m |
|
The Bitcoin Whitepaper |
whitepaper | 3 h |
Extending Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a living creature. Developers continue working on its codebase, introducing new features, improving the documentation, fixing bugs, etc.
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a design document for introducing new features or information to Bitcoin. Submitting a new BIP follows a rigorous process to ensure the highest level of quality.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
| List of all BIPs with explanation and status, how to add a new BIP | 10 m |
However, Bitcoin can also be extended without altering its source code. Although it was designed as a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”, Bitcoin provides a number of properties that can be leveraged to create applications on top of it, known as Layer 2 solutions.
In this section we will explore some of the most notable examples.
Improving Bitcoin’s scalability
As we have seen in previous sections, a new block is mined every 10 minutes on average. These blocks have a size limit of 1 MB. These two facts limit the number of transactions that the network can handle per unit of time.
Multiple solutions have been proposed to solve this problem. Here we will cover some of them.
The Lightning Network is a protocol that tries to improve Bitcoin’s ability to quickly handle payments via routed payment channels.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
|
Lightning Network |
payment channels, routed payment channels, lightning network, layer 2, multisig, hash time locked contracts (HTLCs), watchtowers | 2 h |
Other solutions have been proposed to solve the scalability problem:
- Although it is not its main purpose, Segwit is an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol that helps improving Bitcoin’s scalability by effectively making transactions smaller and solving the malleability bug which enables the Lightning Network
- Increasing the block size, which resulted in multiple forks giving birth to Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision.
- Schnorr signatures use a faster algorithm to create digital signatures and can combine signatures (from multisig transactions or from transactions with multiple inputs) effectively reducing the transaction size and improving the network capacity.
- Side chains are blockchains (separate from Bitcoins blockchain) that enable Bitcoin’s and other ledger assets to be transferred back and forth between multiple blockchains.
Most of these concepts will be covered in more detail in the upcoming sections.
Tracking assets in the real world (Optional)
Beyond its original use as a digital currency, Bitcoin transactions have been used in clever ways to keep track of assets outside of the blockchain. There are different methods to use transaction metadata to encode the ownership of an asset (a song, a painting, etc.) in the Bitcoin blockchain. These methods are referred to as Colored coins. A notable example is Omni Layer.
Advanced Bitcoin
This section contains advanced and somewhat technical resources for those wishing to go deeper.
Mandatory
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
|
Bitcoin Transactions (pre-Segwit) |
multiple inputs, multiple outputs, locking and unlocking transactions | 40 m |
|
Segwit |
segregated witness, transaction malleability | 25 m |
| The Script language | script programming language, p2pk, p2pkh, p2ms, p2sh | 1 h |
| More Segwit | segregated witness, transaction fee | 20 m |
|
Merkle Trees |
merkle tree, merkle tree leaf, merkle root, merkle proof, nonce | 1.5 h |
Optional
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
|
Bloom Filters |
bloom Filters, privacy | 30 m |
| Elliptic Curve Cryptography | elliptic curve cryptography | 15 m |
Bitcoin Mind Map
You can get the high resolution Bitcoin Mind Map by signing up to our email list.
The Future of Bitcoin
Since Bitcoin is a decentralized project, there is no official roadmap to rely on. However, these topics are part of the community discussion and might become relevant in the future.
| Resource | Topics Covered | Effort |
| Quantum Computing Risks | risks of quantum computing in the future | 10 m |
|
Hot Topics |
privacy, scalability, smart contracts | 15 m |
Bitcoin FAQ
Bitcoin History and Culture
Optional reads to become familiar with the culture and history of Bitcoin
| Resource | Topics Covered |
| Bitcoin Auction: 10,000.00 BTC — Starting Bid 50.00 USD | In March 2010, user “SmokeTooMuch” auctioned 10,000 BTC for $50 (cumulatively), but no buyer was found. |
| The Story of The Bitcoin Pizza | On 22 May 2010,Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world transaction by buying two pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida, for 10,000 BTC |
| History of Bitcoin | A full chronological timeline of Bitcoin |
| The rise and fall of Mt. Gox | Story of the first Bitcoin exchange |
| The Long Road To SegWit: How Bitcoin’s Biggest Protocol Upgrade Became Reality | The history of Segwit |
| What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)? | Bitcoin Cash |
| What is Bitcoin SV (BSV) | Bitcoin Satoshi Vison |
Module 2: Ethereum and Smart Contracts
Starters
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| High level overview | A lighthearted introduction from the founder Vitalik Buterin himself | 2.5 h |
Preliminaries
Ethereum is a distributed, unbounded state machine. This section will give an overview of what a basic state machine looks like.
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| Finite State Machines | finite state machines | 20 m |
Smart Contracts
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is a Smart Contract? (Video) | smart contracts, trust, examples of smart contracts | 30 m |
The Ethereum Protocol
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is Ethereum and how does it work? (Video) | Ethereum network, Externally owned accounts, contract accounts, ETH transactions, transaction structure, state, consensus, wei | 30 m |
| What is Gas and what role does it play? (Video) | gas, gas price, gas cost, gas limit, block gas limit, , block size, infinite loops, turing completeness, EVM, gwei | 30 m |
| Mining Incentives | block rewards, gas fees | 15 m |
| Transactions | account based blockchains, UTXO, EOA, Contract accounts, replay attacks | 20 m |
| Ethereum Virtual Machine (Optional, but recommended) | Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), nonce | 20 m |
Practical Exercises
| Resource | Effort |
| Installing Metamask | 10 m |
| Getting Test Ether | 10 m |
| Simple Smart Contract Example Explained | 10 m |
| How to Compile and Deploy a Smart Contract | 20 m |
| The Problem With Random Number Generation in Ethereum | 10 m |
Ethereum Improvement Proposals
Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards. The full list of EIPs can be found at eips.ethereum.org.
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| EIP 1559 | EIP, first price auction, EIP 1559, feecap, base fee, inclusion fee (miner tip), base fee burning, miner extracted value, EIP 3368 (rejected) | 15 m |
Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum 2.0 is a set of upgrades that aim to make the network more scalable, secure, and sustainable. At the time of this writing, the development is still in progress. These are the main technical ideas you need to know to understanding what the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 represents.
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is Ethereum 2.0, explained with timeline | proof of stake, balidators, staking, beacon chain, sharding, casper protocol, eWASM | 25 m |
| Official docs (Optional) | official docs | |
|
Proof of Stake |
proof of stake, staking, forging blocks, docking | 20 m |
| Sharding (Note: This video is general and not ETH specific, ignore the block size being represented in MB) | sharding, inter shard communication | 10 m |
Layer 2
Layer 2 is a collective term for solutions designed to help scale your application by handling transactions off the Ethereum mainnet (layer 1), while taking advantage of the robust decentralized security model of mainnet.
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is Layer 2 Scaling? | rollups, plasma, channels, sidechains | 15 m |
Ethereum History and Culture
| Resource |
| The Prehistory |
| The History |
|
The DAO Story |
Is it fair to compare Bitcoin and Ethereum?
| Resource |
| The Lion and the Shark: Divergent Evolution in Cryptocurrency (Don’t tell me what to do) |
Module 3: Tokens, DApps, ENS, DAOs, and Oracles
Tokens
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Tokens | token, examples of tokens, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), currency tokens, asset backed tokens, reward tokens, governance tokens, utility tokens, security tokens, equity tokens, token standards, interfaces, difference between token and cryptocurrency, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) | 30 m |
| ERC 20 | ERC 20 Token Standard | 10 m |
| ERC 721 | ERC 721 Token Standard | 10 m |
| Art NFTs and Trading Platforms | Examples of NFTs with platforms where they are traded | 10 m |
Wrapped Tokens
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Wrapped Tokens |
wrapped Tokens, custodian | 15 m |
| How to wrap Ethereum to wETH | wETH | 15 m |
Decentralized Applications (DApps)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| How apps work? | frontend and backend | 5 m |
|
DApps |
Decentralized Application (Dapp), benefits of DApps | 10 m |
|
Exploring a DApp (Cryptokitties) |
Cryptokitties, Fungible and non-fungible assets, ERC-20, ERC-721, Cryptokitties codebase, Events | 30 Min |
| Find and explore more DApps | Practical Exercise |
Ethereum Name Service (ENS)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is Domain Name System (DNS) | domain name system | 10 m |
|
Practical Exercise
|
20 m | |
|
Ethereum Name Service (ENS)
|
ENS, registry, resolvers, namehash | 15 m |
| Register an ENS Domain | Practical Exercise | 15 m |
| ENS FAQ | controller, registrant, ownership, reverse record | 10 m |
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) | 35 m |
Oracles and Chainlink
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Oracles |
oracles, software and hardware oracles, deterministic blockchain, decentralized oracles, chainlink basics, trusted execution environment | 20 m |
|
The Oracle Problem |
blockchain middleware, oracle problem, need for seperate network, centralized oracle risks, need for decentralized oracles | 15 m |
| What is Chainlink and how it works | the chainlink protocol: reputation contract, order matching contract, aggregating contract | 10 m |
Optional: The Chainlink Whitepaper
Module 4: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Note: This module has a bit of the chicken and egg problem. The resources teaching DEXs will sometimes reference the lending protocols (Compound, AAVE) as examples, while the resources teaching lending protocols will occasionally reference the DEXs. In this situation, it’s okay to not understand everything right away – just make sure you mark what you don’t understand and come back when you’re done with the entire module once.
Other than that, this module is a lot of fun as it has a lot of real world applications. You’re going to have a good time!
The Traditional Banking System
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| How the traditional financial system works (watch all videos) | Banks, banking, Fractional reserve banking, M0, M1, M2, bank note, check, reserve ratio, leverage, reserve bank (central bank), treasuries, open market operations, bank rate, fed funds rate, target rate, money supply, gold standard vs fiat, fed funds rate, discount rate, repo and reverse repo transactions, deposit insurance, LIBOR | 6 h |
What is DeFi
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| Introduction to DeFi | Decentralized Finance (DeFi) | 30 m |
Stablecoins
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries
|
volatility, liquidity, collateral, floating rate, fixed rate, pegged currency, floating currency, crawling peg, clean float, Fixed vs Floating Exchange Rates (Arguments For and Against), Currency Peg | 40 m |
| What is a stablecoin and why we need them | Stablecoin, collateral peg, algorithmic peg, examples of stablecoins | 15 m |
| Types of stablecoins and comparison | stablecoin importance, collateralized stablecoins, real world collateral, crypto collateral, algorithmic stablecoins, USDT, USDT risks, USDC, BUSD, GUSD, DAI | 25 m |
| Tether (USDT) | Mastercoin, Realcoin, OMNI Layer Protocol, Tether | 10 m |
|
MakerDao |
stablecoin, DAI, MKR, MakerDAO, collateralization ratio, interest, SAI, multi collateral DAI, black thursday liquidation event, Product demo, vault, collateralized debt position (CDP), liquidation ratio, liquidation fee, liquidation price, Dai Savings rate, stability fee, emergency shutdown | 1 h |
Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
stocks, financial instruments, contract, financial assets, financial liabilities, equity instruments, order books, markets, financial market, exchange, trading, brokers, dealers, broker-dealer, market maker, bid, ask, spread, market index, long trades, short trades, leverage, margin trading, counterparty, counterparty risk, trading slippage | 1.5 h |
| What is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) | DEX, Centralized Exchanges (CEX), Automated Market Makers (AMM), how DEXs work, risks | 10 m |
| How Layer 1 order book DEXs work | order book based DEXs, 0x Protocol, 0x Relayer, Atomic Swap, wrapping | 15 m |
| Atomic Swap | Atomic Swaps | 10 m |
|
Liquidity Pools and Automated Market Makers (AMM) |
automated market maker (AMM), constant product market maker algorithm, order book exchanges, liquidity pools, slippage, liquidity providers, impermanent loss, arbitrages (arbs) | 1 h |
| Impermanent Loss | impermanent loss | 10 m |
| Rug Pulls | rug pulls with examples | 10 m |
|
Uniswap
|
Uniswap, History of Uniswap, UNI token (governance token), Sushi swap, Uniswap v1 vs v2 vs v3 comparison, , concentrated liquidity, concentration multiplier, active liquidity, NFT liquidity token, LP token, licensing | 1 h |
|
Slippage |
slippage, sandwich attack, frontrunning, tolerance | 40 m |
| Balancer | Balancer | 10 m |
|
Curve Finance |
Curve Finance | 25 m |
|
Bancor |
Bancor, BNT token, liquidity protection, impermanent loss insurance, single side liquidity, Bancor Vortex, product demo | 35 m |
| Token Bonding Curves (Skip the math portion if you don’t understand it, the important part is the concept) | Token Bonding Curves, buy curve, sell curve, properties of token bonding curves, valuation, risk mitigation, bonding curve functions, linear functions, power functions, logarithmic functions, sigmoid functions, calculating price | 45 m |
|
dYdX |
dYdX, DYDX token, perpetuals, layer 2 vs layer 1, starkware, stark rollups, zero knowledge proof, optimistic rollup, dYdX product demo | 40 m |
| Loopring | Loopring, zk rollups, merkle trees, how Loopring works, LRC token, LRC tokenomics, slashing, trading fees, loopring DAO, LRC ICO, LEAF | 25 m |
Dex Aggregators
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is a DEX Aggregator | DEX Aggregators | 5 m |
|
1inch |
1inch, 1inch v2, 1inch Token, price impact fee, product demo | 20 m |
Decentralized Lending and Borrowing
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
money market, treasury bills, certificate of deposit (CDs), commercial paper (CP), discount to par, P2P lending, annual percentage rate (APR), effective APR, daily periodic rate, total value locked (TVL) | 15 m |
| Introduction to decentralized lending and borrowing | DeFi lending, Compound, Aave | 15 m |
|
Compound Finance
|
supplying assets, borrowing, collateral factor, cTokens, types of cTokens, mint functions, compound v2, cETH, cDai, cUSDC, exchange rate, product demo, overcollateralization, forced liquidation, exchange rate math, governance | 2.5 h |
| Homework: Deposit some test ether into compound, and go to etherscan for your address and check whether you received your cETH. In general, you want to play around with all the protocols in this module, using either mainnet ether or test ether. | ||
|
Aave
|
Aave protocol, AAVE token, history, ETHLend, overcollateralization, liquidation threshold, leveraged lending, aTokens, flash loans, total value locked, aavenomics, shortfall event, AAVE v2, aavengers, variable and stable interest rate loans, utilization rate, swapping collateral, aave safety module, risks, repayment with collateral, Aave markets, product demo, flash loans, atomic transactions, flash loan use cases, arbitrage, self-liquidation, PancakeBunny flash loan attack, how to use flash loans (coding tutorial) [Notes for the Flash loans videos: Resource 1: video assumes the loan was in USD stablecoin in the initial example Resource 2: mention Polygons, those curious can learn more about Polygon here] |
1.5 h |
Decentralized Derivatives
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
forwards, futures, options, derivatives, swaps, exchange, over the counter (OTC), leverage, counterparty risk, hedging, swaps, fixed and variable rates of interest, futures, forwards, future curves, options, puts, calls, option strategies | 1 h |
| What are decentralized derivatives? | decentralized derivatives | 15 m |
|
Synthetix |
Synthetix, synthetic assets, risks, SNX, synths, synthetic equities, layer 2 with Optimism, debt pool | 1.5 h |
| Introduction to DeFi Option Protocols | options, european options, american options, Hegic, Opium, Opyn | 40 m |
|
Opyn |
Opyn, convexity protocol, oTokens, Opyn v1, Opyn v2, gamma portal, governance mechanisms, incentives, settlement, product demo | 30 m |
Decentralized Asset Management
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries
|
stock market index, dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq fund management, asset management, exchange traded fund (ETF), mutual funds, hedge funds, strategies, compensation, hedge fund structure, index funds | 50 m |
|
Set Protocol / TokenSets |
Set Protocol, TokenSets, user roles, use cases Robo Sets, Social Trader Sets, DeFi Pulse, product demo, streaming fee | 1.5 h |
DeFi Dashboards
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Zapper |
Zapper, risks, product demo | 30 m |
|
Instadapp |
Instadapp, DeFi Smart Accounts (DSAs), DeFi Smart Layer (DSL), INST token, product demo | 30 m |
Yield Farming
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
bonds, yield | 5 m |
| Concept of Yield Farming | yield farming, liquidity mining | 10 m |
|
Yearn Finance |
Yearn finance, YFI, liquidity mining, vaults, Yearn vaults, vault strategies, YETH vault, risks, product demo | 30 m |
| Yield Farming (Video has an error at 8:30, should be “inflationary in nature”) | yield farming strategies, leveraged lending and borrowing, staking, liquidity providers, redistribution fees, safemoon, risks | 15 m |
| Degen Yield Farming | degen yield farming, Rugdoc, VFat | 15 m |
Decentralized Payments
Although decentralized payments can already be done with Bitcoin and Ethereum directly, the aim here is to make them faster, cheaper, and to add additional features like payment streams, conditional transfers, and more.
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries
|
blockchain bridge, centralized and decentralized bridges, sidechain, issues with sidechains, plasma, block explorer | 25 m |
| xDai | xDai, STAKE | 25 m |
| Sablier | Sablier, payment streams | 10 m |
Algorithmic Stablecoins
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
PID Controller | 5 m |
| What are Algorithmic Stablecoins | Algorithmic Stablecoins, rebase contract, stabilizer contract, ampeforth, death loop, risks, RAI, FEI, FRAX | 10 m |
| Stablecoin Algorithms | Rebase, debase, supply volatility, Seigniorage supply, Empty Set Dollar Coin (ESD), Basis Cash, Titan, Iron Finance | 10 m |
| Iron Finance (and it’s collapse) | The collapse of Iron Finance, IRON, TITAN, STEEL, Target Collateral Ratio (TCR), Effective Collateral Ratio (ECR) | 15 m |
|
Frax |
FRAX, FXS, veFXS, staking, dual token mechanism, FRAX v2, collateral ratio, minting FRAX, C-ratio update, PID controller | 35 m |
| Olympus | OlympusDAO, OHM, (3,3), Reserve Control Protocol, Treasury, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Floor Price, risks | 15 m |
| Magic Internet Money | Magic Internet Money (MIM), Abracadabra Money, SPELL, sSPELL, yDai, Popsicle Finance, ICE, nICE, Anyswap, Wonderland Money, TIME | 25 m |
Decentralized Prediction Markets
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
Prediction Markets, price signals and forecasting, Iowa Electronic Market, The Hollywood Stock Exchange | 10 m |
| What are Decentralized Prediction Markets | Decentralized Prediction Markets, bitcoin hivemind, augur, omen, delphy, polymarket, ftx exchange | 15 m |
| Why we need Decentralized Prediction Markets | Limitations of centralized prediction markets | 5 m |
|
Augur
|
Augur, REP, market creation, resolution rource, Augur v2, invalid market, product demo | 25 m |
|
Omen |
Omen, Realitio, arbitration, dxDAO, product demo, xDai, Scalar market | 30 m |
Decentralized Lotteries
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
lotteries, how lotteries work | 10 m |
|
PoolTogether |
PoolTogether, Pools, POOL token, no loss lotteries, withdraw penalty, product demo | 20 m |
Decentralized Governance (DeGov)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| What is Decentralized Governance | governance in traditional public companies, chain governance, Bitcoin governance, forks, tezos governance, governance representatives | 25 m |
| Understanding Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) | Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), The DAO hack, The DAO bailout, ETH Classic, MakerDAO, potential of DAOs | 25 m |
| Real world potential of DAOs | potential of DAOs, DAO structures | 20 m |
| DAO Treasury and Token Management | DAO treasury management, UMA range token, DAO security | 20 m |
| What gives governance tokens value | governance tokens, crypto governance model vs board of directors model, governance as a model | 20 m |
|
Aragon |
Aragon, ANT, Aragon Agent, product demo | 15 m |
|
Snapshot |
Snapshot, use cases, how to vote using snapshot | 10 m |
| Flaws in coin governance and potential solutions | need for DeGov, DeGov issues and dangers, plutocracy, vote delegation, vote buying, bribes, tragedy of the commons, unbundling profit sharing from governance, protections and workarounds, potential solutions, limited governance, un-governance, time delay mechanisms, fork friendliness, non-coin-driven governance, proof of personhood, proof of participation, futarchy | 60 m |
Decentralized Insurance (with Nexus Mutual)
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Preliminaries |
Insurance, aims of insurance, types of Insurance, smart contract risk, smart contract audits | 20 m |
| What is Decentralized Insurance | decentralized insurance | 20 m |
| Economics of the Insurance Industry and introduction to Nexus Mutual | Economics of Insurance Industry, inefficiencies, information asymmetry, warren buffet halo, signalling, economics of moral hazards, copayment, PA relationship, law of large numbers, tail risks, risks in DeFi, DAO hack, Pokadot parity multi-sig freeze, YAM finance governance token rebase contract, liquidation in Maker’s vaults, bZx smart contract exploit, internal and external techinical risks, economic incentive risks, quantifying risks, Nexus Mutual, insurance cover buyers, risk assessors, claim assessors, NXM, staking NXM, WNXM, Etherisc, reinsurance | 1.5 h |
| The Economics of Nexus Mutual | How Nexus Mutual works, functions of NXM tokens, yinsure, governance decision making, governance resolution, advisory board powers, emergency pauses, 12h cool off period, NXM bonding curve, Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR), capital pool, dynamic capital flow, MCR Ratio, NXM supply, gearing factor | 1.5 h |
| How to buy Insurance with Nexus Mutual | NXM tokenomics, buying cover, KYC, Nexus Mutual legal structure, WNXM, product demo, risks | 1 h |
Multi-Chain Protocols and Bridges
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Ren Project |
Ren Protocol, RenVM, RenBTC, dark nodes, Sharmir’s Secret Sharing Algorithm, WBTC, BitGo | 15 m |
|
ThorChain |
native assets, thorchain, Tendermint, Cosmos SDK, Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS), instaswap, bepswap, single-chain chaos network (SCCM), multi-chain chaos network (MCCM), Tendermint BFT, THORnode, BIfrost, witness transactions, inbound vaults, outbound vaults, RUNE token, bonding, churning, sharded vaults, incentive pendulum, dynamic slip based fee, thorswap, impermanent loss protection, product demo | 30 m |
| Binance Bridge | Binance smart chian, binance bridge, binance chain wallet | 5 m |
| Anyswap | AnySwap, ANY, product demo | 10 m |
|
Terra |
Terra, UST, LUNA, Terra Blockchain, Andhor protocol, Mirror protocol, mAssets, Chai, Terra Station, delegated proof of stake | 25 m |
Decentralized Capital Raising
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| Initial Coin Offering (ICO) | Initial Coin Offering (ICO), risks | 10 m |
| Security Token Offering (STO) | Security Token Offering (STO), utility tokens, security tokens, regulation | 15 m |
| Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) | Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) | 10 m |
| Initial DEX offering (IDO) | Initial DEX offering (IDO) | 5 m |
| Bonding Curve Offering (BCO) [skip the parts about Onomy] | Bonding Curve Offerings (BCO) | 5 m |
| Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (IBP) | Balancer, liquidity bootstrapping pools (LBP), IDO vs IEO, uniswap IDOs, Mesa IDOs, Hegic IBCO, how LBPs work, LBP examples | 40 m |
| Initial Farm Offering (IFO) | Initial Farm Offering (IFO) | 5 m |
Miscellaneous topics
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
|
Total Value Locked (TVL) |
total value locked, double counting | 20 m |
| Airdrops | airdrop | 5 m |
| Tokenomics | tokenomics, pre-mining, fair launch, circulating supply, total token supply, max supply, inflationary token model, deflationary token model | 20 m |
|
Miner Extractable Value (MEV) |
Miner Extracted Value, time bandit attack, mempool | 2 h |
| Risks of DeFi | smart contract bugs, phishing, oracle failure, admin key risk, liquidity crisis, governance failure, de-pegging risk | 10 m |
The past and the future
| Resource | Topics covered | Effort |
| Brief history of DeFi | history of DeFi with timeline | 20 m |
| The Future of DeFi | future of DeFi | 10 m |
Feedback
We would love to hear your feedback and any product improvement suggestions you have for us. Please send us an email at admin [at] lifemathmoney.com
Who Made This
This project was collaborated on by Harsh Strongman and Sergio.
Harsh Strongman is a Chartered Accountant and entrepreneur. He has a self-taught education in Computer Science. He is the owner of Life Math Money, the #1 self-improvement website for men. He can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram. Sign up for his free weekly newsletter here.
Sergio is an aerospace engineer by education, and has worked at Amazon (developing Alexa) as a software engineer. Currently, he works at eBay. He is also a Certified Professional Cloud Architect (Google Cloud), and is the owner of Your Coding Teacher, a website aimed at helping you supercharge your career. He can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram. His newsletter signup is available on the sidebar of his website.
Special thanks to Ash for being our alpha-test student and providing us with valuable feedback along the way.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this course comes from the Computer Science OSSU and Teach Yourself Computer Science.