BLOCKCHAIN SPECIALIZATION
Coursera, University of Buffalo
Offered by the University of Buffalo, this is a series of four courses:
Blockchain Basics
Smart Contracts
Decentralized Applications
Blockchain Platforms.
Development tools used during the course include Truffle IDE, smart contracts, MetaMask, Solidity, and Remix IDE. The course is taught by Bina Ramamurthy, a professor at University of Buffalo’s Computer Science and Engineering department.
As this is a technical course, the recommended prerequisite is knowledge of at least one modern, high-level programming language.
| INTERMEDIATE | 2 MONTHS, 10 HRS/WK |
BLOCKCHAIN: FOUNDATIONS AND USE CASES
Coursera, consensys academy
The course is described as “the definitive introduction to blockchain for both the developer and non-developer audience,” and is a comprehensive introduction to blockchain. It is split into four modules:
Blockchain Foundations
The Technical Side
Blockchain in Use
Further Topics
It does not, however, dive deeply into blockchain development. This is rather a solid option for an introductory course before diving into more technical development courses.
The course is taught by ConsenSys, a leading blockchain software development company.
| BEGINNER | 16 HOURS |
BLOCKCHAIN FOUNDATIONS FOR DEVELOPERS
Coursera, ibm
This course introduces the basic concepts of blockchain and how to leverage the benefits of blockchain in business, as well as technical skills of how to build blockchain solutions.
The course teaches Hyperledger Composer. It includes a lab that teaches students to build a JavaScript application to query and update a pre-populated blockchain network ledger. The course is generally focused on building blockchain business networks.
To complete labs in the course, an understanding of object-oriented programming is required. The course is taught by IBM employees.
| INTERMEDIATE | 9 HOURS |
BLOCKCHAIN ESSENTIALS
COGNITIVE CLASS
This is an introductory course that provides a solid foundation in understanding of the technology behind blockchain. It is split into three modules:
Discover Blockchain
Leverage Blockchain Benefits
Transform Your Business With Blockchain
This course is not entirely business-based, however; the lab assignment and demo teaches students to set up the Hyperledger Composer Playground and transfer assets in a blockchain network. This is a good option for a quick overview of blockchain technology, as it only takes 3 hours to complete.
The course is taught by IBM employees. No background is necessary. The course is an abbreviated version of the course above (“Blockchain Foundations for Developers”).
| BEGINNER | 3 HOURS |
BLOCKCHAIN FUNDAMENTALS
edX, University of california, berkeley
This is an introductory program split into two courses:
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
Blockchain Technology
It covers both technical and less-technical aspects of blockchain, but it does not dive deeply into development on the blockchain. The course was developed by Blockchain at Berkeley, and it is taught by instructors who are undergraduates at Berkeley.
| BEGINNER | 3 MONTHS, 3-5 HRS/WK |
BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY TECHNOLOGIES
Coursera, princeton university
This course focuses specifically on cryptocurrency and bitcoin, but it provides an in-depth exploration of the subject—including general blockchain concepts, such as decentralization. Topics covered include:
How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization
Mechanics of Bitcoin
Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin and Anonymity
Community, Politics, and Regulation
The course was developed by Arvind Narayanan, associate professor of Computer Science at Princeton. It has not been updated for a couple years. The course (and textbook) is alternatively available on Princeton’s website here.
| BEGINNER | 18 HOURS |
