Bitcoin, Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Assignment 2 for the DLT Talents Program Cohort 6
@ Frankfurt School Blockchain Center

"Bitcoin, Ethereum and Smart Contracts"

Frankfurt School Blockchain Center:
https://www.frankfurt-school.de/en/home/research/centres/blockchain

DLT Talents Program:
https://web3-talents.io/dlt-talents
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PDF file by Miyoko Shimura
Digital Strategist

DLT Talent (Distributed Ledger Technology)
at Frankfurt School Blockchain Center

University of the People, US
Computer Science

志村 美代子　@miyoko_shimura

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/miyoko-shimura/

#TechTrends #Creativity #Blockchain #DLT #TechMom #Ethereum #Bitcoin #SmartContracts #Cryptocurrency

Transcript

1. Slide 1 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents Partners Supported by Organized by With donations from DLT Talents Session 2 April 17/18, 2023 Miyoko Shimura
2. Slide 2 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / Interesting facts about Bitcoin -1 As the Bitcoin users increasing, Bitcoin ATMs have been gaining popularity in recent years and growing rapidly worldwide. Bitcoin ATMs are physical machines that allow users to buy or sell bitcoins using cash or debit/credit cards. Bitcoin ATMs worldwide from 2015 to 2022 Nov 2022 38,796 Nov 2020 11,497 Pros: ・Easy and convenient ・Without the need for a bank account or access to online exchanges Cons: ・Usually charge higher transaction fees compared to online exchanges ・Caution against 　 vulnerability to hacking or fraud Nov 2020 3,897 Source: Statista
3. Slide 3 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / Interesting facts about Bitcoin -2 This map shows the number of Bitcoin ATMs by region: ・24,669 Bitcoin ATMs are in the North American continent ・1,263 Bitcoin ATMs are in Europe ・239 are in Asia 93% of Bitcoin ATMs are located in the North America In the UK, however, the Financial Conduct Authority has announced that all cryptocurrency ATMs are operating illegally and must be shut down (BBC, March 2022). Source: Statista
4. Slide 4 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / One of the historical event for cryptocurrency is the “Merge” Completed in September 2022. The Merge was planned for 8 years! The second biggest cryptocurrency Ethereum switched over to PoS (Proof of Stake) that uses 99.9% less energy compared to PoW (Proof of Work). Interesting facts about Ethereum Ethereum became more environmentally friendly and a big green choice for investors. Energy consumption in the cryptocurrency industry is still a serious topic of debate and research. Source: BBC, Digiconomist
5. Slide 5 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / Interesting facts about DeFi The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is financial services running on the blockchain. . De-fi use case Description Insurance Users can purchase insurance policies using cryptocurrency, and claims are automatically processed using smart contracts. Stablecoins Stablecoins are crypto pegged to assets like the US dollar. DeFi allows trading and holding stablecoins with lower volatility. Trading Traders can use decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that are open 24/7 and allow for instant trading without intermediaries. Lending and borrowing Users can earn interest on their holdings or borrow funds at lower rates than traditional loans. ・India received the highest value in DeFi between July 2021 and June 2022. ・Europe’s most prominent DeFi player is the UK. 　　(20% of the web traffic for NFT and DeFi lending sites comes from the UK) Source: Banklesstimes.com
6. Slide 6 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / Some fact about technical fundamentals, e.g. hashes, blocks, smart contracts Solidity is the most used smart contract language. Solidity is influenced by C++, Python and JavaScript and designed to target the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Solidity can create smart contracts such as: ・ Creating contracts used for voting ・ Crowdfunding ・ Blind auctions ・ Multi-signature wallets etc. The concept of smart constact was first introduced by Nick Szabo in 1994 Ethereum is still the most used smart contract platform
7. Slide 7 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / What I can recommend to read and learn Nick Szabo’s The God Protocols He is hungarian originated American inventor of smart contracts and Bit Gold, leading to the foundation for the creation of Bitcoin. Szabo defined smart contracts 14 years before appearance of Bitcoin! (Rumored that nick would be Satoshi Nakamoto…) Source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute
8. Slide 8 | www.web3-talents.io/dlt-talents / “Imagine the ideal protocol. It would have the most trustworthy third party imaginable – a diety who is on everybody's side. All the parties would send their inputs to God. God would reliably determine the results and return the outputs. God being the ultimate in confessional discretion, no party would learn anything more about the other parties' inputs than they could learn from their own inputs and the output. Alas, in the our temporal world we deal with humans rather than deities. Yet, too often we are forced to treat people in a nearly theological manner, because our infrastructure lacks the security needed to protect ourselves (Szabo, 1997).” Source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute The God Protocols