I would take this, if i were in school.<p>This project assignment is good:
"Build an ambitious multi-user decentralized application on top of some existing infrastructure, or on your own new infrastructure."<p>If decentralization is going to have a chance, it either needs to integrate with existing services or offer some niche where it provides x10 the value.
I’d enroll in this class in an instant if I could.<p>Fun fact: the instructor, Robert Morris, co-founded YC and was one of the first people to be indicted for a computer crime.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris</a>
Really good historical background on one of the most interesting topics in CS right now. The mission statement up front seems to imply that decentralization of data is a direct check against the concentration of power.<p>A few more subjects I'd like to see covered: rare digital art, fintech exchanges such as Stox, aggregating data science on platforms like Numerai, fractional ownership of real estate, voting systems, and peer-to-peer lending.
> Pre-requisites<p>>You'll need a 6.033-level understanding of the web, SSL, security, public key cryptography, and _Bitcoin_<p>Interesting.
Must read:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption</a><p>I think the future is a community overlay platform like i2p or similar where people can donate with micropayments or electricity/computing power to access/offer storage, computing, networking and other higher-level resources anonymously and privately.