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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Blockchain Basics by University at Buffalo

4.6
stars
7,501 ratings

About the Course

This first course of the Blockchain specialization provides a broad overview of the essential concepts of blockchain technology – by initially exploring the Bitcoin protocol followed by the Ethereum protocol – to lay the foundation necessary for developing applications and programming. You will be equipped with the knowledge needed to create nodes on your personal Ethereum blockchain, create accounts, unlock accounts, mine, transact, transfer Ethers, and check balances. You will learn about the decentralized peer-to-peer network, an immutable distributed ledger and the trust model that defines a blockchain. This course enables you to explain basic components of a blockchain (transaction, block, block header, and the chain) its operations (verification, validation, and consensus model) underlying algorithms, and essentials of trust (hard fork and soft fork). Content includes the hashing and cryptography foundations indispensable to blockchain programming, which is the focus of two subsequent specialization courses, Smart Contracts and Decentralized Applications (Dapps). You will work on a virtual machine image, specifically created for this course, to build an Ethereum test chain and operate on the chain. This hands-on activity will help you understand the workings of a blockchain, its transactions, blocks and mining. Main concepts are delivered through videos, demos and hands-on exercises....

Top reviews

TT

Nov 18, 2018

This is an introductory course to Blockchain. The supplemented material (in other words self-study) is excellent and in my opinion is the only way to master the concepts and details of this discipline

U

Dec 31, 2019

One of the Best course for Absolutely Beginners :-) Discussed Core Fundamental Factors of Blockchain of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Amazing Resources & Really Helpful Content. Thanks Bina Ramamurthy Ma'am.

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76 - 100 of 1,877 Reviews for Blockchain Basics

By Shankaranand L

•

Sep 15, 2020

A well thought and crafted introduction to Blockchain technology course. What I liked the most was the strong fundamentals that the course offers, which helps the learner to gain solid ground in understanding the technology.

I recommend everyone who is taking this course to mandatorily go through the optional reading after the video clip and before the quiz section in the course. This helps a lot in learning and having a strong understanding of the fundamental knowledge,

By Muhammad Z M

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Jun 5, 2020

The content was very basic and demanding but i was disappointed by the last project. It was enhancing course concepts but even though I already had Ubuntu installed, still I had to install virtual box on a windows laptop, then download ethereum ubuntu ova which you provided and then install ubuntu (again) to get project instructions. I know those 2GB are not much, but I am from a small city and reliable internet is not so cheap here.

Thank you for the curse by the way :)

By Sumit K J

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Aug 24, 2023

Blockchain Basics course by University of Buffalo is a perfect course for any beginner who has no prior knowledge about blockchain to know about blockchain, bitcoin, Ethereum, EVM, public-key cryptography. The last assignment by working on a copy of an actual blockchain on your local system and there creating two node and doing transaction between them gives the learner a wholesome experience about how transaction is being done and how miners plays a vital role.

By Matthew S

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Aug 15, 2022

This course helped me tremendously in understanding the basics of blockchain. I understand the fundamentals of how the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains work and function. It also opens up your eyes to the possibilities that Blockchain has to change our world in so many different ways. There is a nice blend of videos and relevant articles to keep you engaged. I'd highly recommend to anyone who wants to begin his or her Blockchain knowledge journey.

By Samrat T

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Jul 11, 2022

Good course for basics. You wll get more out of it if you read the optional papers in each section. Dont just do the bare minimum. Also, I had issues installing ethereum.ovf file for the final assignment. After spending 3 hrs on the web trying to find the solution, I finallay managed to install. Make sure to install the virtual box first from virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads, and only then unzip the .ovf file. Looking forward to courses 2,3,and 4.

By Hannan S

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Apr 12, 2020

Before starting this course , I knew some few things about Blockchain, but they were not arranged rather randomly perceived. Now I understand the basics. This course have helped me with short but effective videos, good web materials and an awesome tool. Although I am from CS background but I recommend it for everyone who are interested in Blockchain because the course is designed in such way so that everyone can take it.

By Alejandro A O

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Apr 7, 2021

Very good basic course to get to know the fundamentals of blockchain. The suggested readings are very informative, but some of the are not online anymore, I think someone should update those links. Only the last exercise requires a bit of computer knowledge, but I think is appropriate since it is a basic approach to the blockchain and I guess the next courses of the specialization could be more difficult in this regard.

By Muhammad U S

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Sep 17, 2019

Comprehensive course with informative content and practice exercises that gets you acquainted with the blockchain technology. Just one suggestion, I would have preferred a basic programming assignment as well that might enable the learners to imitate a general blockchain. Apart from that, the approach adopted by this course, to use visualizing tools for better understanding of the concepts serves the desired purpose.

By Regina T

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Aug 5, 2018

The instructor was extremely organized and well presented. Although completely new to this topic, I was able to follow, learn, and do well. I wish all courses were presented this clearly!

The voice-to-text translation of the script was not always accurate; listening to the instructor was better. The diagrams and slides were extremely useful in clarifying concepts. You also learn from tests and labs!

By Leung W T

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Nov 2, 2019

Very good ! After having this course, you could have a basic understanding of how the bitcoins, how the blockchain works technically. You can try to make a transaction of ethreum in the model provided by the university. It was really interesting and practical as in real life, we gotta spend some money in order to have such an experience. But , in this course, you can have a try with the simulator.

By Deavyansh G

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Apr 27, 2019

Here on Coursera, I would love to say that this has been the best ever knowledge gaining experience of mine. Whether it's the content or the quality or the representation, everything seemed just perfect. The instructor explained each and every concept in a very comfortable manner. You need not to think twice for any of the topics covered. Really honored to be a part of this platform.

By VEDANT A D

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Nov 30, 2020

Basics are so clearly explained, all the process oriented examples and the mechanism behind the working blockchain of Bitcoin and Ethereum, explained so well.

All the optional resources helped to understand each topic in depth and gave an nice idea about all the basics. Plus Self check exercises time to time helped to revise the old topics.

Knowledgeable and amazing Course Instructor.

By Abhijeet P

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Apr 22, 2020

I have learned about the basic of Blockchain ,how actually the accounts has been created and then check the peer details .After that account has been created and then check the Balalance and as soon as mining starts,the account balance (Ethers) has been changed,then transaction has to be done between the two account address .So i have learned many things about blockchain.

By Greg P

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May 22, 2022

Excellent course for providing a general overview of blockchain technology and the specific core elements of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The currated reading and video supplementary materials were very helpful. The hands on activities (viewing specific blocks, running hashes and running a virtual Ethereum network) helped build confidence in understanding of the technology.

By abhishek k s

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Apr 25, 2020

The content was good but I believe as it is a online platform there should be interacting video for the learning.Also, along with this there is one suggestion from my side to make a group who are currently enrolled in course.This will help students in making a healthy discussion as well as it will create a great network among them.

Thanks and Regards

Abhishek Singh

By Efrain V C

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Apr 20, 2020

El curso me pareció muy bueno, me aclaró mucho el concepto de la Blockchain, fué un comienzo muy interesante y el curso estuvo super bien estructurado, las lecturas adicionales son tambien muy interesantes, aunque algunas veces me desenfocaron del tema. Les agradezco mucho y espero poder hacer todos los otros que me faltan para poder conocer bien la Blockchain.

By Dipayan M

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Nov 6, 2019

Completing this course, I am quite aware now of how the blockchain actually works, how it is created, how it is secured and how a trustless decentralized network is working and the assumptions and limitations of this structure. This course now allows me to explore areas of application of blockchain for real world applications beyond cryptocurrency.

By Tian L

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Nov 11, 2018

a well balanced overview and introduction to such topic. I especially like the idea of having curated optional reading materials, which help beginners/novices in this topic get the gist of blockchain ,while in the meantime avoid being overwhelmed and inundated by sheer amount of blog posts, news, discussion on various Tech forums on such topic.

By Deleted A

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Sep 25, 2021

A beautiful, well-presented course, fairly easy to digest and interpret. Furthermore, Blockchain subjects are carefully addressed and fleshed out. Overall, I'm quite astonished that this course is available for free for those who are willing to bolster their understanding of this amazing nascent technology. Thank you Coursera, and Professor Bina.

By Victor O

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Jan 26, 2019

Nice overview of the technology. Resource links were quite helpful (although some of the readings tended to repeat each other). I did enjoy reading through the original Bitcoin and Ethereum whitepapers with the context provided by the course. The programming assignment was simple but neat. I look forward to future modules in this series.

By bilal j

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Jul 17, 2022

Amazing course! A detailed review of the skill and incredibly simple I liked this course and I enjoyed the learnings. Thank You Coursera and all faculty members of University at Buffalo for providing great online courses. The course was very comprehensive and easy to understand. Again Thank you so much Coursera for this great course.

By Ahmed K

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Dec 10, 2021

Yeah good experience as I am expecting the basic course and it provides all the basic to get started in the career. The main important material which helps me understand the concepts are the extra optional material after the video. I am suggesting everyone to must read and understand that optional links related to video. Thanks coursera

By AL-FAHAMI T

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Jan 10, 2021

Blockchain is one of the complex and tricky topic to grasp. Dr Bina Ramamurthy wa good at making it more concise and easier to learn. She seems to be a master of the subject and explain with a lot of ease. I learn a lot of notions and information during the course, will get back to it for sure for grasping more more. Thanks for all.

By Alex S

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Sep 13, 2022

For the sake of interest and testing my knowledge, I took the course of the #SUNYOpens in a new tab State University of New York at Buffalo "#BlockchainOpens in a new tab Basics". Really good theoretical material for beginner #SmartContractOpens in a new tab developers. The creators of the course will have to change a lot of videos and presentations when #EtheriumOpens in a new tab goes to #POSOpens in a new tab.

By Medhun

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May 13, 2021

Blockchain can be defined as a chain of blocks that contains information. ... The blockchain is used for the secure transfer of items like money, property, contracts, etc. without requiring a third-party intermediary like bank or government. Once a data is recorded inside a blockchain, it is very difficult to change it.