CS 4790

Cryptocurrency

Daily Announcements, Spring 2026

 

 

Aaron Bloomfield (aaron@virginia.edu)
@github | ↑ |

 

From here

Lecture 7: Tuesday, February 3rd

  • BTC: $77,827; ETH: $2,289; ETH gas: 0.117 gwei => $0.01 @ 2026-02-02 22:19:36
  • Office hours:
    • Mine: Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TAs: Mon 1-3 (Harrison), Tue 11-12 (Fiona), Tue 6-8 (Grant), Wed 12-2 (Arathi), and Thu 11-12 (Fiona), all in Rice 442
    • This all will be on the Canvas landing page
  • Homeworks
  • If you are going to miss class, you have to fill out the missing class form BEFORE class (unless it’s an emergency, of course); link on the Canvas landing page
  • Upcoming HWs (not yet ready!)
    • HW P3 (due Tue, Feb 12th) will be on Bitcoin’s blockchain
    • HW P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Today we will continue with bitcoin
From here

Lecture 6: Thursday, January 22nd

  • BTC: $87,883; ETH: $2,961; ETH gas: 0.069 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-01-28 23:09:25
  • Office hours:
    • Mine: Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TAs: Mon 1-3 (Harrison), Tue 11-12 (Fiona), Tue 6-8 (Grant), Wed 12-2 (Arathi), and Thu 11-12 (Fiona), all in Rice 442
    • This all will be on the Canvas landing page
  • Homeworks
  • If you are going to miss class, you have to fill out the missing class form BEFORE class (unless it’s an emergency, of course); link on the Canvas landing page
  • Upcoming HWs (not yet ready!)
    • HW P3 (due Tue, Feb 12th) will be on Bitcoin’s blockchain
    • HW P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Where do you prefer to see the listing of homeworks that are due?
  • Today we will continue with encryption

HW S1 (survey) summary

  • 55 responses
  • Knowledge levels (all 1-5 scale):
    • RSA: 2.9
    • Hashing: 3.2
    • Cryptocurrency: 2.2 or 2.1
    • Tor: 1.9
  • Invest in: Cryptocurrency: 3.0, NFTs: 1.4
  • CCs interested in: Chainlink, CryptoZoo, Filecoin, Monero, Save the Kids Coin, Solana x 4, USDT x 2, XRP x 3
  • Other interests:
    • BTC: why is it dropping?
    • How to list a CC on an exchange
    • Prediction markets
    • Real asset backed coins
    • Stablecoins (USDT)
    • Tumblers / mixers
    • Virality
    • What makes CC worth anything?
    • Why CC did not replace fiat currency

Lecture 5: Tuesday, January 27th

This lecture was missed due to a snow day

From reddit

Lecture 4: Thursday, January 22nd

  • BTC: $89,735; ETH: $2,964; ETH gas: 0.239 gwei => $0.01 @ 2026-01-22 08:48:11
  • Homeworks
    • HW S1: course introduction survey is due today (Thu, Jan 22nd) by midnight
    • HW P1: Cryptocurrency Introductory is due next Thursday (Jan 29th) by midnight
      • Gradescope submission opens up 3 days before it is due
    • HW S2 is a reading (the Bitcoin whitepaper), due next Tue, Jan 27th at the START of lecture (9am)
      • A PDF of it is also in Canvas’ Files (named bitcoin-whitepaper.pdf)
      • It’s due by the START of lecture (9am); expect a reading quiz
  • If you are going to miss class, you have to fill out the missing class form BEFORE class (unless it’s an emergency, of course); link on the Canvas landing page
  • Upcoming HWs (not yet ready!)
    • HW P2 (due Tue, Feb 5th) will be on ECDSA
    • HW P3 (due Tue, Feb 12th) will be on Bitcoin’s blockchain
    • HW P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Office hours start this week (week of Mon, Jan 19)
    • Professor Bloomfield’s office hours are Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TA office hours are TBA, and will be in Rice 442
    • This all will be on the Canvas landing page
  • Today we will continue with encryption

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2026

  • If we get snowed out on Tuesday…
    • There will NOT be a recorded lecture
      • We have an extra class day this semester, and this is not a topic that can be learned easily from a video
    • The BTC reading will be due Thursday
    • You don’t have to fill out a missing-class form
    • Office hours status will be posted on Piazza
  • Everything else will continue as normal (assignment due dates, etc.)
  • If there is class, but the roads are dicey:
    • Many people may be unable to make it in to class
    • You won’t have to fill out a missing-class form
    • The BTC whitepaper will be due on Thursday
    • If this is the case, I’ll post so on Piazza
From twitter

Lecture 3: Tuesday, January 20th

  • BTC: $92,137; ETH: $3,166; ETH gas: 0.03 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-01-19 22:16:16
  • Homeworks
  • If you are going to miss class, you have to fill out the missing class form BEFORE class (unless it’s an emergency, of course)
    • Link on the Canvas landing page
  • Upcoming HWs (not yet ready!)
    • HW P2 (due Tue, Feb 5th) will be on ECDSA
    • HW P3 (due Tue, Feb 12th) will be on Bitcoin’s blockchain
    • HW P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Office hours start this week (week of Mon, Jan 19)
    • Professor Bloomfield’s office hours are Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TA office hours are TBA, and will be in Rice 442
    • This all will be on the Canvas landing page
  • Today we will continue with encryption

Blockchain

xkcd # 2267

Lecture 2: Thursday, January 15th

  • BTC: $94,583; ETH: $3,280; ETH gas: 0.09 gwei => $0.01 @ 2026-01-14 21:25:46
  • Homeworks
  • Upcoming HWs (not yet ready!)
    • HW P2 (due Tue, Feb 5th) will be on ECDSA
    • HW P3 (due Tue, Feb 12th) will be on Bitcoin’s blockchain
    • HW P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Office hours start next week
    • All are currently TBA, and will be in Rice 442; the times will be posted this weekend
    • This all will be on the Canvas landing page
  • Today we will continue with the cryptocurrency overview slide set, and then start encryption

https://github.com/aaronbloomfield/ccc