I would take this, if i were in school.

This project assignment is good: "Build an ambitious multi-user decentralized application on top of some existing infrastructure, or on your own new infrastructure."

If decentralization is going to have a chance, it either needs to integrate with existing services or offer some niche where it provides x10 the value.

I’d enroll in this class in an instant if I could.

Fun fact: the instructor, Robert Morris, co-founded YC and was one of the first people to be indicted for a computer crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris

Really good historical background on one of the most interesting topics in CS right now. The mission statement up front seems to imply that decentralization of data is a direct check against the concentration of power.

A few more subjects I'd like to see covered: rare digital art, fintech exchanges such as Stox, aggregating data science on platforms like Numerai, fractional ownership of real estate, voting systems, and peer-to-peer lending.

Will they make video lectures available as open courseware?

> Pre-requisites

>You'll need a 6.033-level understanding of the web, SSL, security, public key cryptography, and _Bitcoin_

Interesting.

Are there no-cost courses that cover the same material and have already completed?

Must read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption

I think the future is a community overlay platform like i2p or similar where people can donate with micropayments or electricity/computing power to access/offer storage, computing, networking and other higher-level resources anonymously and privately.