NCCS Course

BlockChain (Smart Contracts)

Course Outline BlockChain (Smart Contracts)

Month 1: Foundations of Blockchain & Cryptography

Goal: Build deep conceptual clarity (how & why blockchain works)

Week 1: Introduction & Core Concepts

Lecture 1: What is Blockchain? - History of money & trust systems - Problems with centralized systems - Blockchain definition & characteristics - Real-world use cases (finance, supply chain, identity)

Lecture 2: Blockchain Architecture - Blocks, transactions, hashes - Merkle Trees - Immutability & transparency - Public vs private blockchains

Lecture 3: Distributed Systems Basics - Peer-to-peer networks - Nodes & network topology - Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) - CAP theorem (high-level)

Week 2: Cryptography Fundamentals

Lecture 4: Cryptography for Blockchain - Symmetric vs asymmetric encryption - Hash functions (SHA-256, Keccak) - Digital signatures

Lecture 5: Public/Private Keys & Wallets - Key generation - Wallet types (hot, cold, hardware) - Address generation - Seed phrases & security

Lecture 6: Transactions & Validation - Transaction lifecycle - Inputs & outputs - Transaction fees - UTXO vs Account-based model

Week 3: Consensus Mechanisms

Lecture 7: Proof of Work (PoW) - Mining process - Difficulty & nonce - Security trade-offs - Energy concerns

Lecture 8: Proof of Stake (PoS) - Validators & staking - Slashing - PoS vs PoW comparison

Lecture 9: Other Consensus Models - DPoS, PBFT, PoA - Hybrid consensus - Use-case driven selection

Week 4: Bitcoin & Ethereum Overview

Lecture 10: Bitcoin Deep Dive - Bitcoin architecture - Blocks & halving - Lightning Network (intro)

Lecture 11: Ethereum Architecture - Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) - Accounts & gas - Ethereum roadmap (PoS, rollups)

Lecture 12: Blockchain Explorers & Tools - Etherscan / Block explorers - Reading transactions & blocks - Intro to MetaMask

Month 2: Smart Contracts & Ethereum Development

Goal: Learn to build, deploy & test smart contracts

Week 5: Smart Contract Fundamentals

Lecture 13: What are Smart Contracts? - Deterministic programs - Use cases & limitations - Smart contract lifecycle

Lecture 14: Solidity Basics - Data types - Functions & visibility - Control structures

Lecture 15: Solidity Intermediate - Structs & mappings - Modifiers - Events & error handling

Week 6: Ethereum Development Environment

Lecture 16: Development Setup - Remix IDE - Hardhat / Foundry (overview) - Writing first contract

Lecture 17: Contract Deployment - Compiling contracts - Deploying on testnets - Gas estimation

Lecture 18: Interacting with Contracts - Web3.js / Ethers.js (intro) - Reading & writing data - MetaMask integration

Week 7: Advanced Solidity

Lecture 19: Storage & Gas Optimization - Storage slots - Memory vs storage - Gas-saving patterns

Lecture 20: Security Basics - Reentrancy - Integer overflow/underflow - Access control issues

Lecture 21: Smart Contract Design Patterns - Ownable pattern - Factory pattern - Upgradeability (intro)

Week 8: Testing & Auditing

Lecture 22: Smart Contract Testing - Unit testing concepts - Writing tests in Hardhat - Coverage

Lecture 23: Auditing Fundamentals - Common vulnerabilities - Audit checklist - Reading real audit reports

Lecture 24: Mini Project - ERC20 or simple DApp contract - Code review & improvements

Month 3: Advanced Blockchain & Real-World Applications

Goal: Production knowledge + ecosystem understanding

Week 9: Tokens & Standards

Lecture 25: Token Standards - ERC20 - ERC721 (NFTs) - ERC1155

Lecture 26: Tokenomics - Supply models - Vesting & inflation - Real-world token examples

Lecture 27: NFTs Deep Dive - Metadata - IPFS & storage - NFT marketplaces

Week 10: DeFi & Web3

Lecture 28: Decentralized Finance (DeFi) - AMMs (Uniswap) - Liquidity pools - Yield farming

Lecture 29: Oracles & External Data - Chainlink - Oracle problems - Use cases

Lecture 30: Web3 Architecture - Frontend ↔ blockchain flow - Wallet connections - DApp architecture

Week 11: Scaling, Layer 2 & Interoperability

Lecture 31: Scalability Challenges - Throughput limits - Gas problems

Lecture 32: Layer 2 Solutions - Rollups (Optimistic, ZK) - Sidechains - State channels

Lecture 33: Cross-Chain & Bridges - Interoperability challenges - Bridge security issues

Week 12: Enterprise, Security & Capstone

Lecture 34: Enterprise Blockchains - Hyperledger Fabric - Private vs consortium chains

Lecture 35: Legal, Security & Ethics - Regulation overview - Smart contract risks - Compliance basics

Lecture 36: Final Project & Roadmap - Capstone DApp discussion - Career paths (Web3 dev, auditor, architect) - Learning roadmap ahead

One Month Guided Project with Trainer’s Support (02 days per week):

Trainer will check the progress of assigned individual Project and guide about further work.

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