Cryptocurrencies, Digital Currencies for the Future? (3 op)

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In order to receive the credits for this course, students need to demonstrate three things:
1. Ability to use and mine crypto coins it. This is done by sending a few different coins to addresses given by the teacher. The coins need to be freshly mined, not bought on an exchange. The basic infrastructure for this assignment is set up during the first two days and finalized on day 3.
For this purpose, a few coins easily mined and worth very little are selected.
2. Understanding of the technique and features implemented in current crypto coins and
3. Insight into the economic principles influencing crypto currencies.
Items 2 and 3 are demonstrated by writing a paper. This paper needs to have the following elements:
1. Introduction (200 – 500 words)
2. General principles of blockchain (300 – 1000 words)
a. Merkle Patricia Tree
b. Encryption
c. Blocks and the Block Chain
3. Features of several crypto coins (1500 + words)
a. Original idea of Bitcoin
b. Limitations in bitcoin
c. Added functionality in altcoins (example: smart contracts)
d. Attempts to solve the limitations (example: witnesses)
4. Economic principles governing crypto (300 – 600 words)
a. Econometrics
b. Marketing / sociology
5. The ideal crypto currency (500 – 2500 words)
6. The Future (200 – 500 words)
a. Where will this go?
7. References to relevant literature used
Sending the coins is marked Pass/ Fail. The paper is graded Fail/ Pass/ Excellent, where the deciding criteria for getting an Excellent are bullet points 5 and 6. The amount of words given is indicative, not prescriptive; the paper is expected to be between about 6 and 18 pages excluding pictures.
Both assignment need to be at least Pass in order to receive the credits. When passing both, the final grade is equal to the grade for the paper.

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