Learn the revolutionary technology that drives Bitcoin

For the spring/summer 2019 semester, the Mike Ilitch School of Business is offering a course, open to all Wayne State students, to learn about the revolutionary technology that drives Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The blockchain course, cross-listed as ACC 5210 and ISM 5210, is offered entirely online during the 13 weeks of spring/summer term. It will allow students to complete exercises using the technologies built into blockchain. Blockchain is a public, transparent, secure, immutable and distributed ledger that provides the technological foundation behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Many uses for blockchain technology have been proposed in business and society.

According to the course instructor Prof. Myles Stern, blockchains can be used to record and transfer any digital asset, not just currency. Stern says students in the course will learn a number of different aspects of blockchain, including:

  • How blockchains work
  • How Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies use blockchain
  • Why people value a digital currency
  • How blockchain is completely decentralized yet able to provide transparency, privacy, anonymity, security, immutability and history
  • How blockchain can make business transactions and many other daily activities more effective, economical and secure
  • How “smart contracts” work
  • How blockchains in Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric differ from Bitcoin’s blockchain
  • How to evaluate use cases for business applications of blockchain
  • And . . . Where is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Numerous applications have been developed or proposed for blockchain in accounting, auditing, finance, other areas of business and society at large. Many authorities have suggested that blockchain will revolutionize how business is conducted. Other possible applications of blockchain include birth/marriage/death certificates, deeds and titles of ownership, votes in public elections and the provenance of food.

Undergraduate students in the Mike Ilitch School of Business must have completed ACC 3010 and 3020, or equivalent courses taken elsewhere. Students in other academic programs across the university may enroll with the instructor’s permission. Students do not need any prior background in the technologies blockchain employs.

Learn about this leading-edge technology now! For more information about the course, contact Dr. Myles Stern at m.stern@wayne.edu or 313-577-4489.

 

View all news stories