CS 4790

Cryptocurrency

Daily Announcements, Spring 2026

 

 

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

 

From here

Lecture 13: Tuesday, February 24th (p 1/2)

  • BTC: $64,096; ETH: $1,836; ETH gas: 0.041 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-23 22:10:48
    • Let’s follow the hash rate after the price drop
  • Office hours:
    • Mine: Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TAs: Tue 11-12 (Fiona), Tue 6-8 (Grant), Wed 12-2 (Arathi), Thu 11-12 (Fiona), and Thu 6-8 (Harrison), all in Rice 442
  • Homeworks
    • Due dates are normally now Friday by midnight (not everything has been updated, and may be updated retroactively)
    • HWs S4: Private Ethereum Blockchain is ready, due Tuesday (Feb 24th) by midnight
    • HW S5: dApp Intro is ready, and due this Friday by midnight
      • If you started it early: a few things were fixed yesterday: contract addresses on the explorer, the poll viewer page, and clock skew / pending transactions in Remix
    • About upcoming homework submission woes…
  • Midterm is the Tuesday after spring break; past exams in the repo
  • In-class activity coming up, currently targeting the Thursday after spring break
    • You will need a computer that you have completed both HWs S4 & S5 on

Lecture 12: Thursday, February 19th (p 2/2)

  • Grades:
    • Returned: intro, ecdsa, btcparser
      • Auto-grader concerns are best addressed via Piazza or in person
    • Still to grade: quiz1, quiz2
    • Unable to grade until later this week: btcscript
      • This will take some time to grade – likely done at the end of spring break
  • Upcoming schedule
    • Week of Mon, Feb 9 (last last week): BTC parser due
    • Week of Mon, Feb 16 (last week): BTC scripting due; also the Ethereum whitepaper
    • Week of Mon, Feb 23 (this week): HWs S4 & S5 due, likely Tuesday & Friday (both are short)
    • Week of Mon, Mar 2 (next week): spring break
    • Week of Mon, Mar 9: midterm on Tuesday, in-class activity on Thursday
    • Week of Mon, Mar 16: HW P5 (Gradebook) due
    • After that, the next 6 weeks will have HWs P6 through P11 due on Thursday
  • 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
  • Today we will start on Solidity
    • We’ll come back to finish mining later

From here

Lecture 12: Thursday, February 19th (p 1/2)

  • BTC: $66,934; ETH: $1,975; ETH gas: 0.033 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-18 23:28:23
    • Let’s follow the hash rate after the price drop
  • Office hours:
    • Mine: Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TAs: Tue 11-12 (Fiona), Tue 6-8 (Grant), Wed 12-2 (Arathi), Thu 11-12 (Fiona), and Thu 6-8 (Harrison), all in Rice 442
  • Homeworks
    • Due dates are now Friday by midnight (not everything has been updated, and may be updated retroactively)
    • HW P4: BTC Scripting is out and due this week
    • HWs S4: Private Ethereum Blockchain is ready, due Tuesday by midnight
    • HW S5 should be ready by next Tuesday (at the latest), due next Friday by midnight
    • About upcoming homework submission woes…
  • Midterm is the Tuesday after spring break; past exams in the repo
  • In-class activity coming up, currently targeting the Thursday after spring break
    • You will need a computer that you have completed both HWs S4 & S5 on

Lecture 12: Thursday, February 19th (p 2/2)

  • Grades:
    • Returned: intro, ecdsa, btcparser
      • Auto-grader concerns are best addressed via Piazza or in person
    • Still to grade: quiz1, quiz2
    • Unable to grade until next week: btcscript
      • This will take some time to grade – likely done at the end of spring break
  • Upcoming schedule
    • Week of Mon, Feb 9 (last week): BTC parser due
    • Week of Mon, Feb 16 (this week): BTC scripting due; also the Ethereum whitepaper
    • Week of Mon, Feb 23 (next week): HWs S4 & S5 due, likely Tuesday & Friday (both are short)
    • Week of Mon, Mar 2: spring break
    • Week of Mon, Mar 9: midterm on Tuesday, in-class activity on Thursday
    • Week of Mon, Mar 16: HW P5 (Gradebook) due
    • After that, the next 6 weeks will have HWs P6 through P11 due on Thursday
  • 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
  • Today we will finish Ethereum, then onto Solidity
    • We’ll come back to finish mining later

From here

Lecture 11: Tuesday, February 17th (p 1/2)

  • BTC: $67,973; ETH: $1,988; ETH gas: 0.022 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-17 00:36:50
    • Let’s follow the hash rate after the price drop
  • Office hours:
    • Mine: Mon 10:30-noon and Thu 12:30-2 in Rice 402
    • TAs: Tue 11-12 (Fiona), Tue 6-8 (Grant), Wed 12-2 (Arathi), Thu 11-12 (Fiona), and Thu 6-8 (Harrison), all in Rice 442
      • Harrison’s are now Thursday 6-8, starting this week
  • Homeworks
    • HW P3: Bitcoin parser was due last week – how did it go?
    • HW P4: BTC Scripting is out and due this week
    • HWs S4 & S5 are due next week
      • HW S4 should be ready by Thursday (it’s not yready et, so please don’t start it early)
      • HW S5 should be ready by next Tuesday
      • For S4: Does anybody run on a platform that is not one of the following?
        • Mac OS X on Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, or M4)
        • Windows on an Intel or AMD chip (x64)
        • Linux on an Intel or AMD chip (x64)
    • About that Piazza poll…
  • Reading due today: read the Ethereum whitepaper, also available as a PDF in Canvas’ Files
    • See Canvas’ assignments to be sure you (1) do not read the wrong one, and (2) skip the parts you do not need to read

Lecture 11: Tuesday, February 17th (p 2/2)

  • Grades:
    • Returned: intro, ecdsa, btcparser
      • Auto-grader concerns are best addressed via Piazza or in person
    • Still to grade: quiz1
    • Unable to grade until later: btcscript
      • This will take some time to grade – likely done at the end of spring break
  • Upcoming schedule
    • Week of Mon, Feb 9 (last week): BTC parser due
    • Week of Mon, Feb 16 (this week): BTC scripting due; also the Ethereum whitepaper
    • Week of Mon, Feb 23 (next week): HWs S4 & S5 due, likely Tuesday & Friday (both are short)
    • Week of Mon, Mar 2: spring break
    • Week of Mon, Mar 9: midterm on Tuesday
    • Week of Mon, Mar 16: HW P5 (Gradebook) due
    • After that, the next 6 weeks will have HWs P6 through P11 due on Thursday
  • 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
  • Today we will start on Ethereum
    • We’ll come back to finish mining later

Lecture 10: Thursday, February 12th

  • BTC: $67,426; ETH: $1,962; ETH gas: 0.058 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-11 22:59:08
    • Let’s follow the hash rate after the price drop
  • 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
      • Harrison’s will move to Thursday, starting next week
  • Homeworks
  • Reading due Tuesday, February 17th: read the Ethereum whitepaper, also available as a PDF in Canvas’ Files
    • See Canvas’ assignments to be sure you (1) do not read the wrong one, and (2) skip the parts you do not need to read
  • Grade expected back this week for HWs P1 & P2, next week for P3 & quiz 1
  • 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 schedule on the next slide…
  • Today we will talk about mining; next up is Ethereum

Schedule

  • Week of Mon, Feb 9 (this week): BTC parser due
  • Week of Mon, Feb 16 (next week): BTC scripting due; also the Ethereum whitepaper
  • Week of Mon, Feb 23: HWs S4 & S5 due
  • Week of Mon, Mar 2: spring break
  • Week of Mon, Mar 9: midterm on Tuesday
  • Week of Mon, Mar 16: HW P5 (Gradebook) due

After that, the next 6 weeks will have HWs P6 through P11 due on Thursday

Question: do you want to move the midterm to the Tuesday before spring break?

From here

Lecture 9: Tuesday, February 10th

  • BTC: $69,279; ETH: $2,096; ETH gas: 0.087 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-09 22:34:30
    • Let’s follow the hash rate after the price drop
  • 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
    • Should we move the Mon 1-3 OH?
  • Homeworks
  • Readings
    • Due Tuesday, February 17th: read the Ethereum whitepaper, also available as a PDF in Canvas’ Files
      • See Canvas’ assignments to be sure you (1) do not read the wrong one, and (2) skip the parts you do not need to read
  • Grade expected back this week for HWs P1 & P2, next week for P3 & quiz 1
  • 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 P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Today we will continue with bitcoin; next up: mining then Ethereum
From here

Lecture 8: Thursday, February 5th

  • BTC: $69,299; ETH: $2,050; ETH gas: 1.225 gwei => $0.05 @ 2026-02-05 08:52:58
    • It was $94.6k at the start of the semester (27% drop), $126k all-time high in October 2025 (45% drop)
    • A comment about the expected hash rate drop, from this graph
  • 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
    • HW P2: ECDSA is out and due today, Thu, Feb 5 by midnight
      • Gradescope submission opens up 3 days before it is due
    • HW P3: Bitcoin parser is ready and is due next Thursday
  • 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 P4 (due Tue, Feb 19th) will be on Bitcoin scripting
  • Today we will continue with bitcoin

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