CS 4790

Cryptocurrency

Daily Announcements, Spring 2026

 

 

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

 

From twitter

Lecture 16: Thursday, March 12th (p 1/2)

• BTC: $74,451; ETH: $2,348; ETH gas: 0.211 gwei => $0.01 @ 2026-03-16 18:04:12
  • 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 (and about submission system bugs)
  • Due dates are normally now Friday by midnight (not everything has been updated, and may be updated retroactively)
  • HW P5: Gradebook is out and due Friday
    • I added a other dictionary key after the initial release…
• Midterm on Tuesday: how was it?
  • Grades were returned on Tuesday
  • Average was 47/60 (78.3%) with a standard deviation of 9.5 (15.8%).
  • We will go over it today, at which point regrades will open
• 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 Tokens
  • We’ll come back to finish mining later

Lecture 16: Thursday, March 12th (p 2/2)

• Grades:
  • Still left to grade: quiz2, btcscript
  • btcscript will take some time to grade
• 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

From here

Lecture 16: Thursday, March 12th (p 1/2)

• BTC: $69,448; ETH: $2,046; ETH gas: 0.046 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-03-11 23:00:27
  • 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 (and about submission system bugs)
  • Due dates are normally now Friday by midnight (not everything has been updated, and may be updated retroactively)
  • HW P5: Gradebook will be out later today (not yet ready!)
• In-class Debts exercise today!
  • I hope you brought your computer…
• Midterm on Tuesday: how was it?
  • Grades were returned on Tuesday
  • Average was 47/60 (78.3%) with a standard deviation of 9.5 (15.8%).
  • We will go over it today if we have time, else we will on Tuesday is the Tuesday after spring break; past exams in the repo
• 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
• After the Debts in-class activity, and going over the midterm…
  • We’ll finish up the Solidity slide set, then onto Tokens
  • We’ll come back to finish mining later

Lecture 16: Thursday, March 12th (p 2/2)

• Grades:
  • Still left to grade: quiz2, btcscript
  • btcscript will take some time to grade
• 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

Tuesday, March 10th

Today was the midterm, no no announcements.

From here

Lecture 14: Thursday, February 26th (p 1/2)

• BTC: $68,299; ETH: $2,056; ETH gas: 0.051 gwei => $0.00 @ 2026-02-25 23:13:11
  • 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 was due Tuesday – how did it go?
  • HW S5: dApp Intro is ready, and due tomorrow (Friday) by midnight
    • If you started it early: a few things were fixed Monday: 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 14: Thursday, February 26th (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 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 13: Tuesday, February 24th (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
  • HW P3: Bitcoin parser is due today
  • HW P4: BTC Scripting is almost ready
    • We’ll talk about it today, and what work I still need to do on it
    • I’ll post on Piazza when it’s ready
• 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
  • HW P2: ECDSA was due last Thursday – how was it?
  • HW P3: Bitcoin parser is ready and is due Thursday
  • HW P4 (BTC Scripting) should be out Thursday
• 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
  • HW P1: Cryptocurrency Introductory – how did it go?
  • HW P2: ECDSA is out and due this Thu, Feb 5 by midnight
    • Gradescope submission opens up 3 days before it is due
  • HW P3: Bitcoin parser will be due next week; we’ll go over it today
• 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
  • HW S1: course introduction survey was due last Thursday; summary on next slide
  • HW P1: Cryptocurrency Introductory is now due tomorrow (Fri, Jan 30) by midnight
  • HW P2: ECDSA is out and due Thu, Feb 5 by midnight
    • Gradescope submission opens up 3 days before it is due
  • HW S2 is a reading (the Bitcoin whitepaper), due this past Tuesday
    • A PDF of it is also in Canvas’ Files (named bitcoin-whitepaper.pdf)
• 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
    • The link is on the Canvas landing page
    • I’ll bring a summary next class
  • 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
  • HW S1: course introduction survey is due this Thursday (Jan 22nd) by midnight
    • The link is on the Canvas landing page
  • 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 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)
• 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
  • HW S1: course introduction survey is due next Thursday (Jan 22nd) by midnight
    • The link is on the Canvas landing page
  • HW P1: Cryptocurrency Introductory is due the following Thursday (Jan 29th) by midnight
    • It’s all ready to go, but you should wait until we finish the overview slide set
    • Gradescope submission opens up 3 days before it is due
  • HW S2 will be a reading (the Bitcoin whitepaper), due no earlier than Tue, Jan 27th
    • A PDF of it is also in Canvas’ Files (named bitcoin-whitepaper.pdf)
• 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