The Basics of Blockchain

You have probably heard about Blockchain, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, and Bitcoin in various news articles and business settings, or seen Bettina Warburg's TED Talk on Blockchain, but you may not yet understand the technology or its economic and business implications. Animal Ventures founders Tom Serres and Bettina Warburg are entrepreneurs building enterprise-level blockchain applications for Fortune 100 clients, and are thought leaders in communicating with all audiences about this emerging technology via media tutorials as seen on TED and WIRED Magazine.

Animal Ventures has given talks, workshops, and built enterprise-ready blockchain applications all over the world, and has worked hard helping numerous companies such as Merck & Co., Credit Suisse, VMWare, FedEx, SAP, Abbot Downing, T. Rowe Price, The Advisory Board Group, Baker Tilly International, KPMG, Deloitte, IBM, The Financial Times, AEW, and many others better understand the strategic implications of this technology and worked to bring many of these ideas to life.

Bettina Warburg's TED Talk on Blockchain Technology has been seen by over 4 Million viewers, and growing. It's the #1 TED Talk on Blockchain Technology. Recently, Tom Serres and Bettina Warburg released their flagship white-paper on the future of Supply Chain Technology called Asset Chains: A Blockchain-enable Future of Supply Chain and Transportation Logistics.  It is a culmination of nearly two years of research. You will receive, free with this course, a digital copy of this 70-page white-paper when enrolling in the class. The foreword for Asset Chains is provided by our good friend Don Tapscott, author of The Blockchain Revolution. 

This course is designed to take you through the basics of blockchain technology, and is intended for students who are looking to build a solid foundation in understanding Blockchain. We offer context for blockchain, and unpack the ideas that will open up the most important opportunities around this new technology.   

Specifically, we cover: 

• What is a blockchain? 

• What are the relevant traits of a blockchain? 

• What is the technology stack for a blockchain? 

• What are smart contracts? 

• What are the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum? 

• What are some key principles about blockchain relevant to economics, technology and business? 

• Key use cases to consider: Asset tracking, Machine Learning, Identity and The Internet of Things 

• Where is this technology headed? 

Bonus materials included with the course:

• The Animal Ventures white-paper Asset Chains: A Blockchain-enable Future of Supply Chain and Transportation Logistics 

• A Glossary covering the most important concepts and terms relevant to blockchain so that you can review them at your own pace. 

• A set of infographics that structure the principles covered in the course around economics and technology changes. 

• Expert video interviews with Dominic Williams, one of the first investors in Ethereum and Founder of the Dfinity Network, Vlad Zamfir, Blockchain Researcher and Creator of Casper, and Gavin Wood, one of the founders of the Ethereum Network and founder of Parity Technologies, and others...