Introduction to Blockchain for Global Commerce

About this course

This course discusses the limitations of the Internet for business and economic activity and explains how blockchain technology represents the way forward. After completing this course, you will be able to explain what blockchain is, how it works, and why it is revolutionary. You will learn key concepts such as mining, hashing, proof-of-work, public key cryptography, and the double-spend problem. You’ll be able to describe seven design principles for blockchain technology, and the challenges facing the people developing it. By the end of this course, you’ll learn how and why transacting on the blockchain can help us bring about a future that is faster, fairer, and more distributed than the world we inhabit today.

What you will learn

• How blockchain works, and how trust is established in a pre- and post-blockchain world
• Nine types of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, protocol tokens, NFTs, stablecoins, securities tokens, governance tokens, and CBDCs
• What smart contracts are, the phases of a smart contract deal cycle, and various examples and applications of smart contracts
• Blockchain design principles, and challenge areas associated with implementing blockchain technology