Welcome to the course home page for the winter 2024 OLLI course “Decrypting Crypto”. The course will meet in Magrath Library Room 8 for five Thursdays 12:30 - 2:00 starting January 18. Feel free to contact Tom (mailto:thomas.naps@gmail.com) or Brad (mailto:brad@saffroncapital.com) anytime you have questions or concerns about the course.
Course description from OLLI catalog: Initially the course will describe technical aspects of cryptocurrencies and, to a lesser extent, NFTs. This will include the historical motivation behind crypto and the roles played by public-key cryptography, blockchains, consensus mechanisms, and mining methods in making crypto secure. The course will also survey cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology stocks available for investing, as well as their impact on portfolio risk and return. Jeffrey Yost, Director of the Charles Babbage Institute at UMN and author of the Blockchain and Society blog, will give a concluding presentation.