Feedback from the Blockchain Fundamentals Course ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Introductory lectures (sections 1 to 3).

I’m seeing more and more reports about how decentralised systems represent the way out of the autocratic and technocratic¹ mess the global society now finds itself in. Inevitably, this gives me confidence that the time is right to share my knowledge on such systems, but in such a way that it is accessible to all levels of experience and capability.

Here is a selection of feedback so far from the Blockchain Fundamentals Course. It’s all good so far and we haven’t really gotten started yet! Thank you to everyone who put the effort into make it really constructive. I have incorporated all of it already.

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The pace and level of detail are exactly what I expected and desired. The 45-minute duration must have been just right because I was left wanting to hear more yet also was ready to pause and process. Your presentation style is very good. You indicated you are not trained or practiced as an educator so a kudos to you. The broad concept of Blockchain as an Operating System is intriguing.

Jim

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All I can say is that something in this has excited me and I am itching to learn more!

Ann

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I think the presentation technology worked well actually – the poll feature was quick and not intrusive as allowed the presentation to remain at the side of the screen. Also, it was very easy to mute and unmute. Was interesting to have attended both sessions, the second resounded more with me given that you had longer to explain things. My eleven-year old son held in there, but found it a little difficult to follow at times. He said that, whilst digesting one sentence and making sense of it, he then would not properly hear the next and so on. He came up with another analogy which I thought was helpful. He said the summary of blockchain was a bit like someone describing a fox to someone who has never heard of a fox and has no idea what they do or look like - using words that are new concepts themselves (because it is necessarily only a summary). It is then very difficult to form a concept of a fox. However, he assumes that if the description of each body part was explained at greater length and – due to that length – accordingly with words that are more familiar – it might be possible to get to that full concept of the fox eventually. For that reason he is keen to keep going if possible because he thinks it will all become clearer once the course gets properly into each section. I agree btw that it was better to see more of you than just the slides. Albeit it can be helpful sometimes to leave them up too. I thought you hit a good balance last night.

Tamsyn

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I like your approach. The operating system analogy helps. "Blockchain Is..." slide - This one page synopsis is excellent! I also appreciated your separating the concept "decentralized" into its own bullet rather than simply saying "decentralized network" in the 2nd bullet. I think that helps audiences understand how reliability/audit-ability comes about, as you highlighted in your comments. In your comments, you helpfully repeated the concept of disintermediation of gatekeepers. I also like that you brought up "peer-to-peer". This concept is more easily understood by audiences thanks to P2P audio file sharing sites, etc. Your syllabus looks great.

MB

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I looked at the Operating System graphics you emailed while I was traveling. I could not appreciate how truly interesting they were until I watched the replay of Session 2 just now. Wow! That was an excellent, eye-opening lecture and helped me to resolve any Qs I may have had about why I’m spending time learning about blockchain. Powerful and interesting.

Jim

1. both antithetic to proper democracy