Blockchains For Managers - Introduction and Applications

Blockchains, you can’t seem to avoid them. They have been proposed for everything from dating apps to Government records. What are they and how do they do this? This short course will de-mystify the blockchain universe. We introduce blockchain technologies and explain how they work.  We will some use cases and discuss how and where to use blockchains. The course is meant for decision makers who make the first call on the use of blockchains.

• What is Blockchain?
• Blockchain components: Cryptography, Ledgers, Consensus, Smart contracts
• Tokens - Fungible, Non-fungible
• Blockchains: Public, Permissioned
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, Blockchain as a Service
• What problems do blockchains solve?
• When and where to use a Blockchain?
• What are the economics, Return on Investment
• Case Studies: Finance, Tourism, Supply-chain, Education

Civil servants in mid-career positions; heads/operating officers of agencies connected with the hotel industry, tourism; professionals in finance and banking industries; educational administrators; students in mid-part of a typical university program; engineers in any branch of industry;

Background/pre-requisite: This course does not require any prior exposure to Blockchains. General awareness of the Internet and mobile technologies should do.

Desirable: experience in managing and authenticating transactions in any sector; if a student in a university, knowledge of how transactions work in a system, their authentication, storage and access on demand.

What is NOT required: programming knowledge or skills are not required.

Expected time investment: a learner should be prepared to spend about four hours per week when the course is in progress.

Objective: to acquaint learners with essential concepts and practices of Blockchain in finance, tourism, Government and education.

At the end of this course, a learner is able to

• Describe what the Blockchain does
• Give examples of the use of the Blockchains
• Evaluate if blockchains are useful for a particular application

Issued by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and Centre for Continuing Education, IIT Kanpur