This one-hour introductory course provides an accessible overview of the fundamental technological principles of blockchain systems. Participants are introduced to the core building blocks of blockchain technology, including cryptographic hash functions, distributed ledgers, consensus mechanisms, and proof-of-work mining. The course explains how technical properties such as immutability, programmability, and shared data access emerge from these foundations and why blockchain systems are often described as trust machines.
Building on the technical fundamentals, the course connects blockchain infrastructures to concrete application domains, ranging from cryptocurrencies and tokens to decentralized booking systems and non-fungible tokens that have utility. A live blockchain demonstration illustrates the basic technological concepts.
This course lays the foundation to critically examine the broader economic and societal implications of blockchain adoption, highlighting both transformative potential and structural challenges. By the end of the session, participants will possess a clear conceptual understanding of how blockchain works, why it is considered complex even by experts, and how technical design choices shape real-world use cases.
Topics:
Target audience: Students, executives, policymakers, and professionals seeking a structured, non-superficial introduction to blockchain.
Prior knowledge: None.
Goals:
Understand how blockchains technically function
Interpret hashes, blocks, mining, and distributed validation