Blockchain Applications, Networks, and Governance

This unit covers applied development, deployment, and operational aspects of blockchain systems across public and private networks. Students will build and evaluate smart contracts and DAOs, configure starter enterprise networks, understand consensus and mining, and apply security and governance practices to real-world use cases.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze trade-offs among consensus mechanisms (e.g., proof-of-work, proof-of-stake) and mining models and their effects on security, scalability, and energy/resource consumption.
• Apply hands-on development and deployment skills to create, test, and deploy smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations on platforms such as Ethereum and Marlowe, and provision starter private networks on enterprise platforms (Chain on Azure, IBM).
• Demonstrate secure wallet and node operations by configuring Bitcoin Core, performing private key backup and recovery, and implementing best practices to protect keys, nodes, and oracle integrations.
• Evaluate real-world blockchain use cases (finance, insurance, supply chain, gaming, publishing) and governance models (Polkadot, DAOs) and design a blockchain lifecycle plan that addresses fraud mitigation, regulatory considerations, and operational continuity.