Workshop Content Guide
Educational material covers blockchain technology basics and how Cardano fits into it.
The material targets a workshop spanning 4 to 8 days. It covers the basics for those who don’t know what a blockchain is and up to the point where the more tech-minded participants set up a Cardano node and learn how to interact with it and run smart contracts.
The material has two parts:
- The first part runs over the first 2 to 4 days and is for the general public, covering the blockchain basics and how Cardano fits into it.
- The second part runs over the second 2 to 4 days and targets the more hands-on for those who want to learn how to interact with and build on Cardano.
The following is a schedule of an example workshop running over four days.
The material marked with <<Talking Notes>> links to the talking notes for the tutor. We advise reviewing the talking notes well before the workshop and digesting their content to lead a discussion with the students.
The material marked with <<Slides>> links to the slides that can be used during the workshop to position the talking topics in front of the students. The content synced between the slides and the talking notes.
The material marked with <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> contains instructions on for the hands-on sessions where students will be interacting with a computer terminal. This can be shared with the students as a link for them to follow and copy/paste some of the commands.
Workshop Day 1
Introduction to Blockchain Technology
8:30 - Reception and sign-in of participants
9:00 - <<Talking Notes>> Introduction to Blockchains. What is a blockchain, what are blocks, what are transactions, who maintain the blockchain, and how is it different from a centralized infrastructure? <<Slides>>
10:45 - Coffee Break
11:00 - <<Talking Notes>> Use cases for blockchains. What blockchains are currently used for (DeFi, Lending, Identity management, Logistics) and Industries for large-scale adoption? <<Slides>>
12:30 - Lunch
14:00 - <<Talking Notes>> Largest Public Blockchains - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, etc. Similarities and differences. <<Slides>>
15:45 - Coffee Break
16:00 - <<Talking Notes>> DeFi, Lending and Remittances. A deep dive into how they work. <<Slides>>
17:30 - Q&A, Refreshments, and Socializing
Workshop Day 2
Cardano Ecosystem
8:30 - Reception and sign-in of participants
9:00 - <<Talking Notes>> What is Cardano, and how is it different from the other blockchains? The roadmap and the key deliverables at each of the phases. <<Slides>>
10:00 - <<Talking Notes>> The trilemma of Decentralization, Scalability, and Security - where does Cardano fit in? <<Slides>>
10:45 - Coffee Break
11:00 - <<Talking Notes>> Building blocks of Cardano - node, stake pools, wallets, UTXOs, smart contracts, on-chain vs off-chain. <<Slides>>
12:30 - Lunch
14:00 - <<Talking Notes>> Projects Building on Cardano, Djed, and Catalyst. Explore what some do with students to understand what is being built on Cardano and how to get involved. <<Slides>>
15:30 - Coffee
16:00 - Summary of the two days followed by the speech from organizers
17:30 - Q&A, Refreshments and socializing
Workshop Day 3
The third day targets the more technical participants who want to understand how the Cardano ecosystem works. After this day, the intention is that the users will be armed with the necessary knowledge to start exploring the Cardano ecosystem by themselves. For this, the participants will require a computer lab.
Participants will need to preregister to participate on the third day and demonstrate basic knowledge of how computers work and experience working with a terminal. Those struggling with a terminal but still want to participate can work through a series of tutorials before registering.
8:30 - Reception and sign-in of participants
9:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Discuss the plan for the next two days and what we aim to achieve.
9:30 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Launching the virtual machine and making sure the packages are installed
10:30 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Launch a Cardano node, configure and set topology information to connect it to the rest of the network (Preview Testnet).
12:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Create an address and fund it with tADA. Discuss what the different keys are and how they are generated
13:30 - Lunch
15:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Discuss the differences between different wallets. Advantages and disadvantages of each. Install a web wallet and send transactions to and from the address created in the morning
15:45 - Coffee Break
16:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Native assets and NFTs. Mint tokens and mint an NFT with the favourite picture from each participant
17:30 - Q&A, Refreshments and socializing
Workshop Day 4
Cardano Hands-On continued
8:30 - Reception and sign-in of participants
9:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> What is a Smart Contract? Build and run an “always succeeds” contract, send some ADA and then redeem. Explain what UTXO, Datum, Redeemer, and Context are.
10:45 - Coffee Break
11:00 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Continue with the Smart Contracts topic and review the available resources for participants to start exploring themselves. Cardano Forum, Stackexchage, Discord, Telegram channels, Explorer, Plutus Pioneer program
12:30 - Lunch
14:00 - Assignment and time to explore and ask technical questions. The assignment is to create an address, fund it with tADA, build an AlwaysSucceed script, send ada, and then redeem it from a web wallet. The adventurous student might want to try to do this using the Aiken, or one of the other languages of Cardano
17:30 - <<MATERIAL PREPARED>> Hading out of certificates of participation and Closing remarks
License
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) The license allows you to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you give appropriate credit to the creator.