# Elements of Decentralized Finance – Home Source: https://web3.princeton.edu/elements-of-defi Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Elements-of-Decentralized-Finance-Home?index=0x66927059aa673093f0d44a934a236f2afcf106db7e87538b40742ac521ab9b95a232ee72 Submitted by gokhan.eth on 2024-07-13 UTC, 2 upvotes, 0 comments ## Summary Elements of Decentralized Finance is a Princeton course taught by Prof. Pramod Viswanath that introduces tokenized finance from computer science, economics, engineering and finance perspectives. Grading is 14% programming assignments, 24% in-class labs, 15% paper-and-pencil homeworks, 17% a closed-book midterm, and 30% a final project. The final project report serves as the course's final exam, and periodic programming assignments have students build smart contracts in Solidity. ## Article Instructor Teaching assistants Office Hours Course Material Course Outline Course Notes Pre-requisites Assignments Final Project Assignments and Grading Instructor Prof. Pramod Viswanath, Princeton, pramodv@princeton.edu Teaching assistants Kaya Alpturer, kalpturer@princeton.edu Niusha Moshrefi, niusha@princeton.edu Office Hours – In person: Tue/Thu 3pm – 4pm, Room B205 Equad – On Zoom: Mon/Thu 7:30pm-8:30pm, Zoom link will be posted on Ed before each session Course Material Course Outline Blockchains are digital platforms whose consistency and liveness are maintained by a decentralized set of participants. The combination of programmability, permissionless access and the financial nature of the underlying token has led to tremendous innovation in financial products on the blockchain. Broadly covered under the rubric of decentralized finance or tokenized finance. These innovations, originally restricted to decentralized finance, known informally as “crypto”, have now matured and absorbed into major arteries of the global financial system. This “tokenized finance” has led to creation of “neo banks” offering new financial instruments. This maturity has led to new legislation associated with some of these tokenized financial products; further, central bank and treasury instruments are been directly involved. The purpose of this course is to introduce these developments classified as “elements” of tokenized finance, from computer science, economics, engineering and finance points of view. Periodic programming assignments provide a hands-on instruction to the technical material. Course Notes Lecture videos, slides, lab instructions, and supplementary reading material will be provided for each lecture. Supplemental reading: Decentralized Finance, an online course on DeFi. Pre-requisites The basis prerequisites are a maturity with algorithms (COS 226), probability (ORF 245) and computer systems (COS 316). Background in blockchains (ECE/COS 470 and COS 495) and financial mathematics (ORF 335) will be helpful. Assignments We will have a 3 part homework, 2 part Crypto Zombies tutorial and a 4 part programming assignment series to build smart contracts in Solidity programming language through which students explore the core elements of DeFi. Final Project In-depth study of one of the elements of DeFi covered in the course. The final project report will serve as the final exam of the course. Assignments and Grading The course is evaluated in four formats: [14% of the grade] Programming Assignments – This includes completing two Crypto Zombies modules (Introduction to Solidity) and four programming assignments in Solidity. Through these tasks, students gain hands-on experience in coding in DeFi. AI policy: Can consult AI, but students need to complete the work by themselves. [24% of the grade] In-class labs –There are 19 lectures (final four classes are reserved for project presentations) and each lecture has a lab, except lecture 2 (where potential projects will be discussed), lecture 12 (Midterm) and lecture 19 (conclusion). Each of the 16 labs counts as 1.5% of the total grade — we will count the top 14 lab grades allowing students to skip up to two of the labs making space for personal, religious or other scenarios. Students need to sign up to help run the lab in the class for at least one session, counting as 3% of the total grade. So total grade for labs = 21% + 3% = 24%. AI policy: Can consult AI, but students need to complete the work by themselves. [15% of the grade] Homeworks – There are three homeworks(paper/pencil type) in the first part of the course. AI policy: No AI usage allowed for homeworks. [17% of the grade] Midterm – This exam is in class, closed notes, closed devices, and will be based off the material covered in the first part of the course. The material in the homeworks will provide a guideline for the format and preparation for the midterm. AI policy: obviously no AI is allowed here, so there is an extra incentive to ensure one works on the homeworks without the assistance of AI. [30% of the grade] Final project – Students will do an in-depth study of one of the elements of DeFi covered in the course. Substantial coding and system building is expected. Potential project topics shall be provided by class staff, with a focus on prediction markets. The final project report will serve as the final exam of the course. AI policy: AI usage is encouraged. The introduction, findings and conclusion section should be composed with no assistance from AI.