Best in Free Blockchain Courses

BLOCKCHAIN SPECIALIZATION

Coursera, University of Buffalo

Offered by the University of Buffalo, this is a series of four courses:

• Blockchain Basics

• Smart Contracts

• Decentralized Applications

• Blockchain Platforms.

Development tools used during the course include Truffle IDE, smart contracts, MetaMask, Solidity, and Remix IDE. The course is taught by Bina Ramamurthy, a professor at University of Buffalo’s Computer Science and Engineering department.

As this is a technical course, the recommended prerequisite is knowledge of at least one modern, high-level programming language.

BLOCKCHAIN: FOUNDATIONS AND USE CASES

Coursera, consensys academy

The course is described as “the definitive introduction to blockchain for both the developer and non-developer audience,” and is a comprehensive introduction to blockchain. It is split into four modules:

• Blockchain Foundations

• The Technical Side

• Blockchain in Use

• Further Topics

It does not, however, dive deeply into blockchain development. This is rather a solid option for an introductory course before diving into more technical development courses.

The course is taught by ConsenSys, a leading blockchain software development company.

BLOCKCHAIN FOUNDATIONS FOR DEVELOPERS

Coursera, ibm

This course introduces the basic concepts of blockchain and how to leverage the benefits of blockchain in business, as well as technical skills of how to build blockchain solutions.

The course teaches Hyperledger Composer. It includes a lab that teaches students to build a JavaScript application to query and update a pre-populated blockchain network ledger. The course is generally focused on building blockchain business networks.

To complete labs in the course, an understanding of object-oriented programming is required. The course is taught by IBM employees.

BLOCKCHAIN ESSENTIALS

COGNITIVE CLASS

This is an introductory course that provides a solid foundation in understanding of the technology behind blockchain. It is split into three modules:

• Discover Blockchain

• Leverage Blockchain Benefits

• Transform Your Business With Blockchain

This course is not entirely business-based, however; the lab assignment and demo teaches students to set up the Hyperledger Composer Playground and transfer assets in a blockchain network. This is a good option for a quick overview of blockchain technology, as it only takes 3 hours to complete.

The course is taught by IBM employees. No background is necessary. The course is an abbreviated version of the course above (“Blockchain Foundations for Developers”).

BLOCKCHAIN FUNDAMENTALS

edX, University of california, berkeley

This is an introductory program split into two courses:

• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

• Blockchain Technology

It covers both technical and less-technical aspects of blockchain, but it does not dive deeply into development on the blockchain. The course was developed by Blockchain at Berkeley, and it is taught by instructors who are undergraduates at Berkeley.

BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY TECHNOLOGIES

Coursera, princeton university

This course focuses specifically on cryptocurrency and bitcoin, but it provides an in-depth exploration of the subject—including general blockchain concepts, such as decentralization. Topics covered include:

• How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization

• Mechanics of Bitcoin

• Bitcoin Mining

• Bitcoin and Anonymity

• Community, Politics, and Regulation

The course was developed by Arvind Narayanan, associate professor of Computer Science at Princeton. It has not been updated for a couple years. The course (and textbook) is alternatively available on Princeton’s website here.