Blockchain Development, Security, and Governance

This unit guides students from blockchain fundamentals to applied development, secure operations, and governance by exploring smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, node management, and real-world use cases (finance, insurance, gaming, and identity). Students will configure clients and starter networks, build simple contracts and DAOs, and evaluate protocols and security practices to prepare for advanced integration and capstone work in the final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze real-world blockchain use cases (finance, insurance, gaming, identity, and border security) and distinguish appropriate public, private, and consortium architectures across the blockchain life cycle
• Apply development tools and platforms (Ethereum, Marlowe, Chain on Azure, Polkadot, and DAO frameworks) to design, implement, and deploy basic smart contracts and a simple decentralized application or DAO on a test network
• Demonstrate secure node and wallet operations by installing and configuring clients (e.g., Bitcoin Core, Ethereum clients), creating and restoring wallets, and performing private key backup and recovery procedures
• Evaluate consensus algorithms, oracle integration, mining practices, and governance models (PoW, PoS, Polkadot governance, DAOs) to recommend protocols and security controls that mitigate fraud and meet application requirements