Blockchain is in the process of changing our service landscape and economy in an unprecedented way. Technology has the potential to radically change our industries as we know them. Understanding blockchains from both the technological and business side is key to determining how the technology can be successfully applied to shape new services.
Today’s lecture, held by Claudio Di Ciccio, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the Sapienza University of Rome, is about the fundamental question of how and under what circumstances blockchain can be used in the practice, aiming to bridge the gap between technology and service design. In particular, the course starts with an exploration of the blockchain basics. Equipped with those notions, the guarantees of blockchains are explained with an eye on the technologies behind them. Then, a session on smart contracts, tokens, and decentralized applications is devoted to the design and implementation of new services. The lecture is designed to combine alternative ways to deliver the topics. On one hand, a classical frontal-lecture style approach is adopted to present the fundamental notions and case studies; on the other hand, students have interactive sessions to present and test themselves with decision strategies and case studies.
This is the first of a set of more theoretical and specialized lectures aimed at giving our students an overview of emerging technologies that already have, and will have more and more impact on future services. After this first appointment, students will get familiar with the basics of blockchain technologies and the interplay of the underlying techniques that lead to the immutability, persistency, security, and eventual consistency of the blockchain platforms. Furthermore, they will get acquainted with smart contracts and how they can support full-stack Decentralised Applications (DApps). Last but not least, the participants will be able to assess and determine the best strategies to design new token-based services.
