In the fall semester 2024, a seminar in the Joint Master in Computer Science at the University of Bern was offered by the CRYPTO group and focused on blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

The topics of the seminar were (many of) the most prominent Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks in the cryptocurrency domain. Every student participant or a team of two selected one cryptocurrency or blockchain and then presented its consensus protocol, the programming model, and other important aspects of the network. Every team also developed a sample application, like a smart contract, on the chosen platform and described it as part of a presentation.

The networks encompass cryptocurrencies, of which each is powered by a dedicated distributed ledger, and several acceleration protocols and support systems in the space. The latter typically achieve higher transaction throughput, supply critical information to cryptocurrency networks, or offer support for privacy. These networks are called “Layer 2” because their security usually relies on a “main” blockchain network at “Layer 1”.

The seminar was led by Jayamine Alupotha and Christian Cachin and the results of the seminar, with presentations and sample projects, are available online from our gitlab.