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International students learn about the Internet Computer at Europe’s no.1 university for blockchain education
Around 70 students from around the globe traveled to Switzerland to learn about the Internet Computer as part of the Deep Dive into Blockchain 2023 Summer School Program at the top-ranking University of Zurich Blockchain Center.
2023 marks the 4th consecutive year of the International Summer School program at the University of Zurich (UZH) Blockchain Center. It was also the very first time that the program took place onsite in Zurich, Switzerland as well as the first time the Internet Computer was part of the curriculum. Around 70 students flew in from all corners of the world to join the 3-week program in person, while a good 30 students participated online. Coming from various disciplines, including law, mathematics, and economics, they all showed up to take a deep dive into blockchain.
The curriculum covered blockchain-based systems, looking at the technology’s implications and potential for practical applications. The focus was on three key pillars: technology, economics and legislation. Each of the pillars were taught by various professors and lecturers from UZH or other world-leading universities, as well as field experts. One of those field experts was Senior Research Scientist, Björn Assmann, of the DFINITY Foundation. Assmann had the pleasure of introducing the students to the Internet Computer and its ecosystem in a one-day lecture at the UZH campus. The student then came to the DFINITY headquarters for a workshop on DAOs, followed by pizza and drinks.
The Internet Computer basics
Lesson 1 on the Internet Computer protocol was all about where it falls on the evolution spectrum of blockchains. The Bitcoin network was a peer-to-peer software and cryptographic infrastructure designed to put decentralization and security back into payment systems by offering a publicly verifiable and immutable ledger of transactions free of control from any organization or government — Blockchain 1.0. Ethereum takes programmability a step further as it allows the creation and deployment of smart contract software, which can be used to build the backend of decentralized applications (dapps) — Blockchain 2.0.
The Internet Computer is being developed as a World Computer on which anything can be built at scale, including both the frontend and backend of applications. Its smart contracts, called canisters, are web-serving, meaning they can interact directly with Web2 and other blockchain platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum without relying on centralized cloud services that compromise decentralization or having to buy tokens or set up a wallet to engage with dapps. This is an important step away from the current situation where end users of applications are vulnerable to hackers, censorship and vested interests.
The lesson continued with an overview of the Internet Computer’s architecture, which connects nodes, then nodes into subnets, then subnets that run canister smart contracts to form a virtual computer that’s fully decentralized. The Internet Computer is controlled by an decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that lives in a special subnet and allows users to stake tokens in entities called ‘neurons’ to participate in governance. Voters and node providers (owners of the machines running the blockchain) receive rewards for their services. The core of the Internet Computer protocol makes use of threshold cryptography in its consensus, and uses chain-key cryptography as its core innovation — a novel set of cryptographic protocols that allows the Internet Computer to have a single public key. This is what enables different subnets to communicate with each other without the need for a central hub. Essentially, they can verify all messages against this one public key. And with chain-key signatures, which involve a public and secret key sharing to validate messages, canister smart contracts can interact with other blockchains using threshold cryptography. As each canister smart contract has its own public key and can directly process HTTP requests, they are accessible by users from any browser, own cryptocurrencies and interact with Web2 — how cool is that?
Of course, the lesson would not be complete without covering consensus. Every blockchain needs a consensus mechanism that allows the node machines to agree on the same output, having processed the same input. If you think of subnets as mini independent blockchains that talk to each other, the consensus protocol makes sure to output the same block of ordered messages on each node of a given subnet so that these nodes can create the same state transition when deterministically executing those messages.
DAO’s and Pizza
After a day of classroom lectures on the Internet Computer, co-founder and Chairman of the UZH Blockchain Center, Prof. Dr. Claudio J. Tessone, brought the students to the DFINITY headquarters for a workshop on DAO’s. Björn Assmann kicked off the fun with a warm welcome and a short introduction of the DFINITY team. Lara Schmid, Team Lead, Governance & Formal Methods, explained the DAO framework and how governance on the Internet Computer. Proposals are submitted, ICP token holders vote, and if the proposal is accepted the changes suggested in the proposal are automatically executed. The Internet Computer also has a built-in DAO solution called the Service Nervous System (SNS) that tokenizes and decentralizes dapps. In the process of creating an SNS, new tokens are minted and sold in a community-based fundraising. The dapp’s control is handed over to the SNS whereby everyone who has SNS tokens is a co-owner and can contribute to the decision-making process of how the dapp evolves.
Lara Schmid, Team Lead, Governance & Formal Methods at DFINITY talking about ICP DAOs.
Schmid’s presentation was followed by a real-world SNS use case. The Hot or Not team presented their Web3 version of TikTok, explaining how the dapp was turned into an SNS that gave its community full control. The main goals of this project is to reimagine current social media functions and features by monetizing time on social media, enabling fast monetization for content creators, and allowing community-driven decentralized governance and content moderation. This use case stirred up a lot of excitement and brought up a lot of questions: Where do the reward tokens come from? How do you avoid inflation? How do you prevent users from dominating votes in one direction? How do you manage minor regulations in different countries? Can you consume content or engage with the platform without voting or being a DAO member? What happens if most of the tokens are owned by one person — isn’t that a form of centralization?
The students were highly engaged, many of them asking questions relevant to their fields. Luckily, the Hot or Not team was able to answer these tough questions. It was also exciting for DFINITY experts to see how the students reacted to the concept of DAOs and decentralization in general. There was definitely something to learn from their insights.
In closing, David Dal Busco, Senior Frontend Software Engineer at DFINITY, walked the students through a demo of the NNS dapp, showing the crowd how to vote and stake on the Internet Computer’s DAO before the pizzas arrived. Afterwards, many of the students asked further questions and started deeper discussions with DFINITY experts over drinks and a slice of pizza. They were already thinking about the papers they had to write, collecting all the information they could. No summer break for students enthusiastic about blockchain!
Björn Assmann, Senior Research Scientist at DFINITY discussing the Internet Computer over pizza and drinks.
Switzerland — the perfect hub for blockchain education
Since 2019, students from around the world have been participating in UZH Blockchain. While the competence center and its summer program are still fairly new, UZH now ranks in the top 3 of best universities for blockchain education, and no.1 in Europe. The UZH Blockchain Center is unique in that it takes a interdisciplinary approach, bringing faculty members from Business, Economics and Informatics, Law, Science and Social Science. It also hosts top international scholars researching in areas including Cryptography, Law & Regulation, Economics, Business, Computer Science and Digital Art.
It’s no surprise that Switzerland is also making a name for itself as an academic hub for blockchain education. Afterall, it is the home of the Ethereum Foundation and early innovators such as Bitcoin Suisse, the cryptocurrency exchange that introduced Bitcoin ATMs in a number of Swiss cities. The Swiss government is also open and supportive of blockchain technology, having taken a generally liberal approach to regulating cryptocurrencies. In fact, Bitcoin can now be used to buy train tickets at Swiss national railway stations. Local governments are on board as well. Some have implemented blockchain-based ID systems for residents, and notably, the government of canton Zug was the first in the world to accept Bitcoin as a payment for government services.
All of this has paved the way for a healthy growing blockchain ecosystem that now includes academia, another one of Switzerland’s top strengths.
DFINITY and UZH
The students had high praise for their experience at DFINITY, remarking on the team’s professionalism and the profound impression it left on them. Both DFINITY and UZH are eagerly looking forward to continuing their partnership, with potential future collaborations on the horizon in areas such as research in governance or tokenomics.
Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: Gen-z is totally hyped about blockchain!
Written by Angela Harp
Learn more about the Internet Computer: internetcomputer.org
Follow the Internet Computer Story on Twitter: @dfinity
International students learn about the Internet Computer at Europe’s no.1 university for blockchain was originally published in The Internet Computer Review on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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