Course Overview
Course Description
This course offers a complete, developer-focused dissection of the Ethereum protocol — the world’s leading programmable blockchain. Following the official Mastering Ethereum book chapter-by-chapter, participants progress from basic user interactions to the deepest internals of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), smart contract development in Solidity, token standards, oracles, security patterns, and the evolving scalability roadmap. Designed for programmers and engineers who already understand Bitcoin’s fundamentals, this is the definitive “full-stack” Ethereum education.
Learning Outcomes
- Differentiate Ethereum’s account-based model from Bitcoin’s UTXO model and explain the implications for state and transactions.
- Generate, sign, and broadcast raw Ethereum transactions; fully understand gas mechanics at both transaction and opcode levels.
- Write, compile, test, and deploy secure Solidity smart contracts using modern tooling (Hardhat/Foundry).
- Explain the EVM architecture: stack, memory, storage, opcodes, and gas scheduling.
- Implement and interact with ERC-20 fungible tokens and ERC-721 NFTs.
- Solve the Oracle Problem and integrate off-chain data securely using decentralized oracle networks.
- Identify and mitigate classic smart contract vulnerabilities (re-entrancy, integer overflow, front-running).
- Articulate the Blockchain Trilemma and compare current Layer 2 scaling solutions (Optimistic Rollups vs. ZK-Rollups).
- Build and deploy a complete DApp on a public testnet.
Requirements
- Strong programming experience (JavaScript/TypeScript or Python; Solidity will be taught from scratch).
- Completion of a Bitcoin fundamentals course (e.g., Mastering Bitcoin) or equivalent knowledge of public-key cryptography, hashing, and digital signatures.
- Laptop capable of running Node.js and a local Ethereum node (Ganache/Anvil).
- Willingness to spend small amounts of real ETH on testnets (Sepolia, Holesky) and mainnet for the capstone.
Features
- Eight intensive weeks aligned directly with Mastering Ethereum (free online version provided).
- Weekly hands-on coding labs using Hardhat and Foundry.
- Live coding sessions, transaction decoding exercises, and EVM opcode walkthroughs.
- Real testnet deployments every module.
- Private community Discord with mentors and peer code reviews.
- Final capstone project reviewed by the instructor.
Target audiences
- Developers moving from Web2 or Bitcoin into Ethereum and DApp development.
- Smart contract auditors and security researchers.
- Blockchain engineers building DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, or Layer 2 protocols.
- Technical founders planning Ethereum-based projects.
- Computer science students seeking production-grade blockchain expertise.
Curriculum
- 8 Sections
- 0 Lessons
- 8 Weeks
Expand all sectionsCollapse all sections
- Module 1: Foundations – The World ComputerPrimary Reading: Chapters 1–2 Key Topics: Turing completeness, account vs. UTXO model, EOAs vs. Contract Accounts, gas, world state0
- Module 2: Clients, Keys & WalletsPrimary Reading: Chapters 3–4 Key Topics: Geth & alternative clients, JSON-RPC, ECDSA + Keccak-256 address derivation, MetaMask & hardware wallet integration Lab: Set up development environment, connect to Sepolia testnet0
- Module 3: Transactions & StatePrimary Reading: Chapters 5–6 Key Topics: Raw transaction structure, nonce, gasPrice/gasLimit, transaction lifecycle, introduction to PoS consensus Lab: Create, sign, and broadcast raw transactions with ethers.js0
- Module 4: The Core Innovation – Smart Contracts & SolidityPrimary Reading: Chapter 7 Key Topics: Block structure and headers, Merkle trees, chain linkage, Simplified Payment Verification (SPV), light clients, forks and orphan blocks Practical Labs: Parse blocks with Bitcoin Core, verify Merkle proofs0
- Module 5: The “CPU” – Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)Primary Reading: Chapter 9 Key Topics: Stack-based architecture, memory/storage/calldata, opcode costs, deployment vs. runtime bytecode Lab: Disassemble EVM bytecode, measure gas costs of different operations0
- Module 6: Building Blocks – Tokens & OraclesPrimary Reading: Chapters 10 & 11 + selected BIP documents Key Topics: Hard vs. soft forks, altcoins and sidechains, Layer 2 (Lightning Network overview), Bitcoin security model (CIA triad), operational security best practices, privacy and fungibility challenges Capstone Project Options: Build a custom Bitcoin wallet library or transaction tool in Python. Write a detailed security audit of a real-world Bitcoin wallet implementation. Simulate and analyze a 51% attack scenario on a regtest network.0
- Module 7: Security & The DApp EcosystemPrimary Reading: Chapters 12 & 14 Key Topics: Re-entrancy, integer overflows, access control, Checks-Effects-Interactions, front-running, SWC registry, full DApp stack (frontend + Hardhat + ethers.js) Lab: Audit and fix vulnerable contracts, deploy a secure multi-sig wallet0
- Module 8: The Future – Scalability & EvolutionPrimary Reading: Chapter 13 + latest EIPs Key Topics: The Merge (PoS), Danksharding, Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), Layer 2 landscape: Optimistic vs. ZK-Rollups, state channels, plasma Capstone Project (choose one): Full DApp: Build and deploy a decentralized voting system or crowdfunding platform to Sepolia/Holesky. ERC-20 + staking dashboard with live mainnet interaction. Layer 2 deployment on Arbitrum or Optimism + comparison report.0
Instructor
