IFB452 Blockchain Technology
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | IFB452 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite(s): | ((IFB103 or ITD103) and (IFB104 or ITD104) and (IFB240 or ITD240)) OR (((IFN581 or (IFN555 or IFQ555) and (IFN556 or IFQ556))) and (IFN583 or ((IFN551 or IFQ551) and (IFN553 or IFQ553))) and (IFN585 or ((IFN552 or IFQ552) and (IFN558 or IFQ558)))) |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $1,164 |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $4,356 |
| International unit fee | $5,172 |
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2025, Gardens Point, Internal
| Unit code: | IFB452 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | ((IFB103 or ITD103) and (IFB104 or ITD104) and (IFB240 or ITD240)) or (( IFN581 or ((IFN555 or IFQ555) and (IFN556 or IFQ556))) and (IFN583 or ((IFN551 or IFQ551) and (IFN553 or IFQ553))) and (IFN585 or ((IFN552 or IFQ552) and (IFN558 or IFQ558)))) or ((EGB103 or EGD103) and (IFB240 or ITD240)) |
| Assumed Knowledge: | Computer Programming Networks Systems Design |
| Coordinators: | Connor McLaughlin | c.mclaughlin@qut.edu.au Alistair Barros | alistair.barros@qut.edu.au |
Overview
The unit introduces students to blockchain technology, an emerging technology that underpins major cryptocurrencies and has applications in many industry sectors. It will provide you with a background of the different aspects of applications that can benefit from blockchain, such as supply chains, energy trading, and connected vehicles, and prominent blockchain platforms in use, including bitcoin, Ethereum and Hypeledger Fabric. Based on this background, you will learn how to critically assess applications for blockchain technologies, design blockchain applications, and effectively utilise advanced features of blockchain technology.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Explain the key principles and capabilities of blockchain technologies
- Evaluate blockchain platforms and make and justify recommendations to meet business needs
- Design distributed apps using blockchain principles and platforms
- Implement proof of concept blockchain applications to support business requirements
- Collaborate in a team environment to deliver an outcome for a client
Content
This unit exposes you to blockchain technology. The unit is designed around three core topics: blockchain applications; blockchain fundamentals; and blockchain platforms.
The first topic covers blockchain applications, providing an overview of the types of applications that have been used or that can benefit from the use of blockchain technology for decentralised operations. You will learn how to design applications involving advanced concepts such as multi-party collaborations, model business processes suitable for Blockchain integration, and segment process to scope which parts fall inside and outside the control of Blockchain coordination. Key aspects of this include modelling business processes and programming smart contracts.
The second topic covers blockchain fundamentals, including cryptographic basics that underpin blockchain technology, such as hash functions and digital signatures, and consensus mechanisms and algorithms in blockchain.
The third topic covers widely used blockchain platforms, such as bitcoin and ethereum, as well as smart contracts and decentralised Apps (dApps). You will learn how to analyse complex requirements of multi-stakeholder application and tailor blockchain designs for these applications.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. Learning in this unit includes weekly pre-recorded lectures, online activities, tutorials and a unit communications channel, designed to facilitate communication with your peers and teaching staff outside of scheduled classes. You can expect to spend 10 - 15 hours per week involving listening to lectures, attending all scheduled tutorials, completing assessment tasks, and undertaking study to consolidate your learning.
The pre-recorded lectures and online activities will provide you with the knowledge and skills for understanding blockchain technology, its application, its fundamental technologies, and its popular platforms and how they can be used to build real-world decentralised applications. Students will be guided through each of these phases involving exposition, analysis, design and hands-on activity.
Pre-recorded lectures will be provided through video recordings available for access one week before they are required for viewing.
Tutorials will be conducted in face-to-face collaborative learning spaces on-campus. They will be activity-based involving hands-on computer lab work to put into practice what you learn in the lectures, proposal design and development of a blockchain project which use the fundamental building blocks to build a decentralised applications. The tutorials build directly on the material presented in the pre-recorded lectures and will involve detailed instruction sheets for undertaking the required tasks. They are designed to support class instruction, group work, and class reflection.
In addition, students will practise the principles and techniques required to develop planning, communication, reflection and teamwork skills. This learning is facilitated by communicating the different levels of an enterprise system under consideration and keeping an online project tracking logbook. This will be used as part of the progressive assessment throughout the unit offering students multiple opportunities to demonstrate progress and receive feedback on learning.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive feedback on your learning throughout the semester using the following mechanisms:
- Class and group based feedback on tutorial exercises
- Written feedback on the formative phase of assessment tasks
- Written feedback on summative phases of assessment tasks including a rubric
- General verbal feedback will be provided to the entire class on assessment tasks
- Written whole-of-class feedback will be available in the unit site
- You will receive feedback and results on each assessment task prior to the submission of the next assessment task
Assessment
Overview
The assessment requires the proposal and assessment of a Blockchain solution which considers requirements for collaborations across partners, trust, data exchange and transactions. Students are required to work in groups to define proposals, design solutions, describe the architecture and business processes, and develop smart contract code. The assessment involves documentation, code output and presentations.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Design proposal
Students will develop a proposal for the design of a blockchain project, building on the tutorial content.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Practical demonstration
Students will demonstrate basic functionality of a blockchain network building on the tutorial content.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions
Assessment: Blockchain project
The students will demonstrate the full functionality of their blockchain application project.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
This unit will rely on open source blockchain platforms for hands on practicals and project.
Resource Materials
Software
Open source blockchain platform
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineer
1: Knowledge and Skill Base
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
2: Engineering Application Ability
Relates to: Design proposal , Blockchain project
3: Professional and Personal Attributes
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
Relates to: Practical demonstration
Relates to: Blockchain project
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.EN01 Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
- Display leadership, creativity, and initiative in both self-directed and collaborative contexts of professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Design proposal - Manage projects to solve complex engineering problems, using appropriate information, engineering methods, and technologies.
Relates to: Design proposal , Blockchain project - Deploy appropriate approaches to engineering design and quality.
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration, Blockchain project - Demonstrate coherent knowledge and skills of physical, mathematical, statistical, computer, and information sciences that are fundamental to professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project - Demonstrate a thorough understanding of one engineering discipline, its research directions, and its application in contemporary professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
IN01 Bachelor of Information Technology
- Demonstrate well-developed IT discipline knowledge
Relates to: ULO1, Design proposal , Practical demonstration - Employ appropriate IT Methods
Relates to: ULO2, Design proposal , Practical demonstration - Critically apply design and problem solving skills
Relates to: ULO3, Design proposal , Blockchain project - Work independently and within effective teams
Relates to: ULO5, Blockchain project - Create considered and relevant IT solutions
Relates to: ULO4, Blockchain project
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2025, Gardens Point, Online
| Unit code: | IFB452 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | ((IFB103 or ITD103) and (IFB104 or ITD104) and (IFB240 or ITD240)) or (( IFN581 or ((IFN555 or IFQ555) and (IFN556 or IFQ556))) and (IFN583 or ((IFN551 or IFQ551) and (IFN553 or IFQ553))) and (IFN585 or ((IFN552 or IFQ552) and (IFN558 or IFQ558)))) or ((EGB103 or EGD103) and (IFB240 or ITD240)) |
| Assumed Knowledge: | Computer Programming Networks Systems Design |
| Coordinators: | Connor McLaughlin | c.mclaughlin@qut.edu.au Alistair Barros | alistair.barros@qut.edu.au |
Overview
The unit introduces students to blockchain technology, an emerging technology that underpins major cryptocurrencies and has applications in many industry sectors. It will provide you with a background of the different aspects of applications that can benefit from blockchain, such as supply chains, energy trading, and connected vehicles, and prominent blockchain platforms in use, including bitcoin, Ethereum and Hypeledger Fabric. Based on this background, you will learn how to critically assess applications for blockchain technologies, design blockchain applications, and effectively utilise advanced features of blockchain technology.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Explain the key principles and capabilities of blockchain technologies
- Evaluate blockchain platforms and make and justify recommendations to meet business needs
- Design distributed apps using blockchain principles and platforms
- Implement proof of concept blockchain applications to support business requirements
- Collaborate in a team environment to deliver an outcome for a client
Content
This unit exposes you to blockchain technology. The unit is designed around three core topics: blockchain applications; blockchain fundamentals; and blockchain platforms.
The first topic covers blockchain applications, providing an overview of the types of applications that have been used or that can benefit from the use of blockchain technology for decentralised operations. You will learn how to design applications involving advanced concepts such as multi-party collaborations, model business processes suitable for Blockchain integration, and segment process to scope which parts fall inside and outside the control of Blockchain coordination. Key aspects of this include modelling business processes and programming smart contracts.
The second topic covers blockchain fundamentals, including cryptographic basics that underpin blockchain technology, such as hash functions and digital signatures, and consensus mechanisms and algorithms in blockchain.
The third topic covers widely used blockchain platforms, such as bitcoin and ethereum, as well as smart contracts and decentralised Apps (dApps). You will learn how to analyse complex requirements of multi-stakeholder application and tailor blockchain designs for these applications.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. Learning in this unit includes weekly pre-recorded lectures, online activities, tutorials and a unit communications channel, designed to facilitate communication with your peers and teaching staff outside of scheduled classes. You can expect to spend 10 - 15 hours per week involving listening to lectures, attending all scheduled tutorials, completing assessment tasks, and undertaking study to consolidate your learning.
The pre-recorded lectures and online activities will provide you with the knowledge and skills for understanding blockchain technology, its application, its fundamental technologies, and its popular platforms and how they can be used to build real-world decentralised applications. Students will be guided through each of these phases involving exposition, analysis, design and hands-on activity.
Pre-recorded lectures will be provided through video recordings available for access one week before they are required for viewing.
Tutorials will be conducted in face-to-face collaborative learning spaces on-campus. They will be activity-based involving hands-on computer lab work to put into practice what you learn in the lectures, proposal design and development of a blockchain project which use the fundamental building blocks to build a decentralised applications. The tutorials build directly on the material presented in the pre-recorded lectures and will involve detailed instruction sheets for undertaking the required tasks. They are designed to support class instruction, group work, and class reflection.
In addition, students will practise the principles and techniques required to develop planning, communication, reflection and teamwork skills. This learning is facilitated by communicating the different levels of an enterprise system under consideration and keeping an online project tracking logbook. This will be used as part of the progressive assessment throughout the unit offering students multiple opportunities to demonstrate progress and receive feedback on learning.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive feedback on your learning throughout the semester using the following mechanisms:
- Class and group based feedback on tutorial exercises
- Written feedback on the formative phase of assessment tasks
- Written feedback on summative phases of assessment tasks including a rubric
- General verbal feedback will be provided to the entire class on assessment tasks
- Written whole-of-class feedback will be available in the unit site
- You will receive feedback and results on each assessment task prior to the submission of the next assessment task
Assessment
Overview
The assessment requires the proposal and assessment of a Blockchain solution which considers requirements for collaborations across partners, trust, data exchange and transactions. Students are required to work in groups to define proposals, design solutions, describe the architecture and business processes, and develop smart contract code. The assessment involves documentation, code output and presentations.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Design proposal
Students will develop a proposal for the design of a blockchain project, building on the tutorial content.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Practical demonstration
Students will demonstrate basic functionality of a blockchain network building on the tutorial content.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions
Assessment: Blockchain project
The students will demonstrate the full functionality of their blockchain application project.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
This unit will rely on open source blockchain platforms for hands on practicals and project.
Resource Materials
Software
Open source blockchain platform
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineer
1: Knowledge and Skill Base
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
2: Engineering Application Ability
Relates to: Design proposal , Blockchain project
3: Professional and Personal Attributes
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
Relates to: Practical demonstration
Relates to: Blockchain project
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.EN01 Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
- Display leadership, creativity, and initiative in both self-directed and collaborative contexts of professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Design proposal - Manage projects to solve complex engineering problems, using appropriate information, engineering methods, and technologies.
Relates to: Design proposal , Blockchain project - Deploy appropriate approaches to engineering design and quality.
Relates to: Design proposal , Practical demonstration, Blockchain project - Demonstrate coherent knowledge and skills of physical, mathematical, statistical, computer, and information sciences that are fundamental to professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project - Demonstrate a thorough understanding of one engineering discipline, its research directions, and its application in contemporary professional engineering practice.
Relates to: Practical demonstration, Blockchain project
IN01 Bachelor of Information Technology
- Demonstrate well-developed IT discipline knowledge
Relates to: ULO1, Design proposal , Practical demonstration - Employ appropriate IT Methods
Relates to: ULO2, Design proposal , Practical demonstration - Critically apply design and problem solving skills
Relates to: ULO3, Design proposal , Blockchain project - Work independently and within effective teams
Relates to: ULO5, Blockchain project - Create considered and relevant IT solutions
Relates to: ULO4, Blockchain project