DFIN511
Contents
Subject of this review: MOOC7-DFIN511 University of Nicosia
Introduction
George Papageorgiou (@MScDigital) of Nicosia University wrote May 11 2017:
'I don't have too much of a bouncing board'
and Henk van Cann replied:
"I read that as an invitation to be one."
Why are we doing this
Below are the results of the mission to REVIEW MOOC7 to improve actuality
So that's why.
General
Credits
We recognize the enormous amount of work that went into MOOC. And will go into it every month. The review below is maybe a long list at a first glance, but it's nothing compared to the extensive, correct, taunting, well-prepared etc that the course material of the MOOC consists of. Well done George & team!
Functionality of the Moodle platform
General tips concerning e-learning (Moodle) functionality for user experience improvement:
- 1. the back button in the browser set the file pointer of the pdf back the first page, that is annoying. It should back to where you were reading the pdf.
- 2. Install a favicon in Moodle that clearly denotes the tab in the browser als from the Un. o. Nicosia.
Future subject / topics to be addressed or mentioned
Subjects in the mainstream of 2017 might be:
- DAGs
- Crypto based databases like BigchainDB
- Modern Crypto techniques in Identity Management (Federated Identity Management, Homomorphic Pseudonymity)
- More on governance of bitcoin / ethereum, the prisoners dilemma / Nash Equilibrium and how it works out on Bitcoin
- ... and the effect on the adoption of Segwit (not)
- Practical key management
- Inheritance and legacy
Weekly courses
MOOC is the abbreviation of Massive Open Online Course. It is a great offer from the University of Nicosia, whose teachers are in my opinion definitely worldwide knowledge leaders in Digital Currencies and Blockchain. MOOC7 means that this program has been performed for the 7th time since 2014. It is a preparatory course for the MSc in Digital Currency but stands on its own feet as well:
MOOC Digital Currencies is a full blown distant e-learning course with lessons, Q&A's, Live sessions, Quizzes and and Final 50 questions 2 hrs Exam.
MOOC7-1
Remarks
History of Money - Link Directly and explicitly to a function / added value of Crypto Currency. For example: page 10 barter could go, however the Rai ledger has a relation to CC -> page 39.
“• As we will see later in the course, there are some abstract similarities between the Rai ledger and how the Bitcoin ledger accounts for transactions” Why postpone?
Page 18 shaving/clipping - bad money drives out good money. What is the relation with CC that the reader could use or needs to know? If it is the unit of account aspect then how exactly does this relate to CC?
There are a lot of pages, 20-34, that are interesting historical narratives, but the direct relationship to what bitcoin solved as a problem or reintroduced as a good feature of ancient forms of money is unclear. I would link explicitly and directly.
Example - Bank NL, Bank EN -> centralised regulation -> bitcoin: decentralised regulation in code upfront / governance now
Legal Tender pg 27 is very relevant and at stake for CC’s!
“For discussion: Is Bitcoin a fiat currency (used only by convention) or a commodity-backed currency (where the commodity is the usage of the applications that the Bitcoin network enables)?” -> this is spot on, and what I mean with “direct relation”
“2014” - stuff
References | Further readings “with a beard”?! — Why Bitcoin Matters, Marc Andreessen \ also page 8 MOOC7-2 https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters (article explaining the basic Bitcoin characteristics, by a Bitcoin evangelist)
Replace ‘m by more recent stuff that address the same philosophy?!
MOOC7-2
Remarks
1. Example: BGP, the essence for CC is: The traitor prevents the group from reaching consensus, and that is what Satoshi solved. Full stop?!
2. Address: a location that bitcoins have been sent to and reside at. Alternatively, can be thought of as an account of sorts that has a balance of bitcoins
Imo ‘Address’ is more and more seen as a virtual identity or a ‘wallet’ in 2017, assuming the inclusion of the private key that controls it.
3. Blockchain: The complete transaction ledger of the Bitcoin network, showing how bitcoins have been transferred from one address to another over time. The blockchain is a public record of all bitcoin transactions in chronological order
Page 16-17 Imo this the place to draw blockchain much broader: blockchain is more than Bitcoin alone in 2017, use ‘Ledger’ here? Transaction: The movement of bitcoins …. -> 2017 Transaction: The movement of value (currency, contracts, identity,…)
Page 27 Random Work (Guessing of the Nonce) To Produce A Chain -> Produce A Block
“2014” - stuff
In 2017 we might choose to introduce the notion of ‘Decentralised consensus theory’ first. It would make the discussion around PoW easier to address? Because if we were to discuss puzzle friendliness and true randomness in the way an algorithm appoints the entity (the chosen one) that can propose the next block and the way adversaries are kept out of the game in general first, we might have a more contemporary approach to the emerging field of decentralised consensus algorithms / governance systems -> it introduces PoS, DPoS, POI, etc in a more balanced way next to PoW, and will silence people bad mouthing PoW upfront?
Page 29 Fun fact:… In 2017 I would not call that a “fun fact” anymore. It has become serious business, so serious responsibility that public blockchain ooze a solid governance model, where people with value at stake are in the hands of people with a good will to be good. Just as we kicked out trust, we have to rule out behaviour too.
Central record-keepers have weaknesses in the areas of:
- Corruption
- Inclusion
- Technical failures
censorship, cover-ups, power abuse, what have we :-)
Quiz-question 15: Which of the following statements can be applied to the Bitcoin network? Select all that apply
Select one or more:
a. It has been duplicated by similar “altcoins” Incorrect
b. It was first discovered in 1982
c. It is used to track the ownership of bitcoins
d. It can be used to represent and transfer a wide range of digital assets Correct
c. I would rephrase this answer if it is correct. It can’t be used to track the ownership i.m.o. you never know who owns the priv key.
MOOC 7-3
Remarks
page 30 outpus, -> outputs
That’s all; perfect.
MOOC 7-4
Remarks
“2014” - stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeA_SX5d_v0&feature=youtu.be the film on page 16 - vintage, replace it for newer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSLrPdqBf1U&feature=youtu.be the film on page 14 - vintage, replace it for newer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh43-cC42-o&feature=youtu.be the film on page 20 - vintage, replace it for newer? https://www.landofbitcoin.com/ page 18 does not exist
On a bearer item, such as a physical bitcoin, page 24. These “gifts” are only a sensible gift when associated with a training to transfer the coins immediately. Same holds for paper wallet gift. Maybe add a disclaimer like this to the text, because any sort of physical backup with private key visibly on it, is a stupid present, don’t you think?
https://www.hardwarewallet.com/faq.html HW.1 2014 gear and info, I think that key management topic deserves examples that are native ETH/ETC aware nowadays
MOOC 7-5
Remarks
Even with some background knowledge I get confused on page 6 by the info (not) supplied there about the difference between Unlimited and Core. It would help if there were a bullet list of similarities and differences in their mutual opinions.
“2014” - stuff
1. The screens on page 10 - 12 2. The “blocks” folder which stores a full copy of the Bitcoin blockchain, whose current size is about 44GB -> we are over 100 Gigs now. An idea : label with date or show this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0e3i94fmbcrj6y/Screenshot%202017-05-13%2014.39.08.png?dl=0 3. Page 13 refers to the Original API call list, why not the new one?: https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-reference#bitcoin-core-apis
On page 16 it might not be clear to the average user that MOOC is demonstrating a gadget here: vanitygen. Disclaimer?
The sound with a lot of vids in this chapter have no added value (maybe reupload without sound?)
Page 45 has to be updated, as itself explains
MOOC 7-6
Remarks
Is Anoncoin on page 8 a recommendation to look into? https://wiki.anoncoin.net/Exchanges
‘Zcash is planning to launch in the next months.’ on page 12 -> does that text still hold?
“2014” - stuff
1. https://blog.omni.foundation/2017/ instead of the link present on page 17
2. Page 20 ‘Developers XCP moved on’ -> Do we have a more recent update on where went to replace this link https://counterparty.io/news/counterparty-recreates-ethereums-smart-contract-platform-on-bitcoin/ ?
3. The most common example of a digital certificate are SSL certificates which are used for secure web browsing (e.g. on Bank websites, etc.). I would extend a bit on the examples in 2017, because we do not want to give the idea as if only banks are securing their stuff. SSL is everywhere and it has been the Bitcoin Core member Peter Wuille that found a bug in SSL (during Segwit research). -> Not only criminals and punks in Bitcoins :-)
4. On page 23 I would briefly mention the positive influence and i.m.o. leading position of the global Identity and Access Management community as far as Federated solutions are concerned (I am biased though, ‘Identity’ is my second “love” next to Blockchain) -> Homomorphic Pseudonymity.
MOOC 7-7
Quiz q7 option a. With merged mining, no intersection of data is taking place, hashes created though the mining process are just submitted to more than one networks.
though -> through
No other comments regarding actuality, perfect summary imo. You could go all the way down coinmarketcap.com, and trace the innovative unique abilities of a coin/token but that is a lot of work.
MOOC 7-8
“2014” - stuff
http://www.bis.org/publ/othp04.htm page 7 report BIS, do we have a more recently updated version? I would be interested how this post-near-collapse document has evolved ever since.
Advantage or feature: One could argue on page 12 that the first two “advantages” combined could be a burden too: what about disagreement, heavily financed and politically / greed driven forks? E.g. a BTU fork* in Bitcoin would produce 16M-3M (lost) = 13M BTU that will have market cap in Fiat currency right away.
- Don’t want to say BTU is politically etc driven, but the freedom of groups op people (call it collective Seigniorage :-) ) has an effect on inflation of global Crypto value as a whole? Same ETH/ETC. Luckily it is hard too maintain a viable fork, but just wanted to post the idea.
Page 12 “Austrian” economics philosophy one creates money solely to finance the increase of production capacity, right? So I am afraid that in crypto we do not meet that requirement either. But I am not an economist, I could be making a mistake here (like everywhere else in this review).
Page 13 CC view first bullet -> nicely said, but I would like to see this statement positioned next to the list of dead crypto coins that had a significant market cap in the past; pump&dumpers, ponzis, etc.
Page 24 I see the need for a neutral position (being a university). However 3 out of 4 points of the ECB in 2012 proved to be bullshit (is that ok to say in 2017?) for various reasons that you could list without a harsh judgement and mildly conclude that the horse riders might not have been the best automobile auditors.
Page 25 New study 2015 “it is no money, it is illegal, it should be controlled, however it is no risk” -> hahaha, the ECB report reads like a burlesque.
Page 27 EBA’s report in July 2014 - FATFs report in June 2014 … must be younger versions available, and if not: describe the unique character / timing (like white paper Satoshi)
MOOC 7-9
Remarks
“The financial sector in the US, Europe since 2008 has required massive taxpayer support to avoid collapse” on page 7 -> to just be US citizen is enough to get a share of the debt made by the government, even if you do not pay taxes, they present “the bill” when you want to change your nationality.
“2014” - stuff
Picture on page 15 “YE 2015”
Logos on page 16, maybe use some list like this? https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/volume/24-hour/ It lets you off keeping the page up to date?
Coinffeinne on page 20 -> old news, little progression, no traction?
Wallets from page 21, let yourself off the ‘Representative firms’ hook? Let these “analysts” do the tricky part and take the full load of critizism? :
MOOC 7-10
Remarks
Page 38 I came up with another potentially big issue in the future (and Antonis confirmed this question remains open to date in the live session): how can one prove that he/she does not control the private key anymore (lost them)? In case of usual reversal of proof (Tax authorities) that is a real problem. For transaction analysis / KYC data might lead to the ‘conclusion’ that you still control cryptos now worth a lot of money… As long as the “coins don’t move” there is a surplace: you might be right that you lost the keys. And if the coins move, how can I prove it wasn’t me? The guy who threw his harddrive in the garbage bin and says it is in a landfill site, will his coins ever move? Can we trust him for the story, can we trust is relatives for not having a copy? And if I am not able to pay the huge amount of tax money, how and what is who going to take in custody? What if I pay every year 30.000 euros on tax (to stay out of jail and in my house) and after 5 years the whole crypto estate that I own collapses to zero. Does any one or any authority pay me back those 150.000 euros?
Anyways I might have missed a major legal point, and if not I would at least mention this major flaw in current habits of authorities that do not match the nature of crypto currencies. And point to the MSc as a cliff hanger :)
“2014” - stuff
The text on page 39 says “in september” -> the linked info dates back from 2014
Same in Commissioners' relevant statements in the recent Bitcoin conference, “recent” -> 2014
MOOC 7-11
“2014” - stuff
Page 10 … to make it more diverse (Omni, Counterparty, Ethereum, etc.), more secure (HD wallets, multi-signature transactions, BIPs,etc.), and more easy to use (Coinbase, BitPay, Circle, Xapo, Purse, etc.). -> Maybe add a few contemporary example products too, because you are capitalising on ‘new’ in that paragraph.
Remarks
Disruptive innovation page 20 I think Bitcoin has a lot of features of a foundational innovation too, as discussed with Antonis through Q&A for live session.
Cypherpunks -> Cyberpunks? page 26
page 28 Anti-fragility -> maybe illustrated with the sewer rat analogy of Andreas?
page 28 There is one ‘but’ to the succes story of the self correction of the : The rest of the network should not be dependent of a good act from some participating party. See the same thing happening around the ASIC-boost “solution”. It is a ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over our heads. So no three hurrays for self correction, one is enough? :-)
MOOC 7-12
“2014” - stuff
Source: The Emerging Global Web on page 27, a bit old link, maybe there’s newer stuff?
- page 28 quotes from 2014 + dito link
Quiz, q4: How much are remittances to developing countries expected to be in 2015?
Q11 Which country’s business has taken dominance of mobile transactions in the last year ? Which ‘last year’ is concerned?
