CS 4501

Super interesting course, probably one of my favorite cs electives I've taken. It's not super hard, but it's definitely a decent workload and the grading can be harsh. That being said, even as someone who didn't know anything about cryptocurrency, I was able to keep up and the homeworks were very well structured to slowly ease you into understanding blockchain concepts and solidity. You get into some really cool stuff, bitcoin scripting, interacting with the "fake eth" course blockchain to mint NFTs, simulating arbitrage trading, and I definitely get the hype now.

Attendance is mandatory (graded) but it's not too annoying for this class since lectures are actually pretty interesting and you can tell bloomfield really cares about the topic. Also seems like the course is constantly improving, based on what I've heard from past semesters he made certain homeworks easier or altered material that was too math-heavy/confusing so hopefully he continues to do that.
#tCFS24

(this review is about Cryptocurrency)
By far the best class I've taken at UVA, bar none. Super interesting topic, and the course really explains in depth how modern cryptocurrencies work at a technical level and what we can do with them. It starts with introducing basic blockchain concepts and builds up at a rapid but manageable pace, to the point where at the end of the semester you'll be creating a web interface that interacts with a dApp hosted on a private Ethereum blockchain running on UVA servers. The course reminds me a lot of Bloomfield's 2150 in a good way — interesting lectures and rigorous but meaningful weekly assignments. Some of the lectures are a bit more theoretical and math-y for my tastes (some topics like the math behind ECDSA and zk-SNARKs mostly went over my head), but most of the homework assignments are very practical and shockingly well-designed for a course that has never been offered before.
There were some growing pains from this being a new course, including waits for assignment grading and regrade requests, but Bloomfield is very receptive to feedback and eventually did get everything handled. Also he made the final optional, which is nice. I'm sure that this course will only get better in the future, and hope it becomes permanently offered. Only unfortunate thing is that due to insanely high demand, probably very few non-4th years will get to take it for the foreseeable future.

This is for the Cryptocurrency class!
I really liked taking this course! It’s not class about trading NFTs or buying Bitcoin, but goes into the technical side of how blockchains work and just the concepts and things that allow cryptocurrency to exist. It covers some cybersecurity stuff like encryption, Bitcoin and Ethereum concepts, and just some more crypto topics like zero-knowledge proofs and stuff. You’ll have to learn another programming language for several assignments (Solidity), but it’s not that different from languages you probably already know. Bloomfield is in general a pretty great lecturer and helpful professor. Attendance is required for this class and we had 2 reading quizzes during the semester (on Bitcoin and Ethereum whitepapers), but if you fill out an excused absence form beforehand, he’s pretty lenient. Assignments are on a weekly basis, and I could usually get them done the day they were due. The structure of the class is pretty similar to how he teaches 2150, and it’s definitely one of the more organized special topics classes (no project). Overall great class and definitely would recommend taking.

This review is referring to the Cryptocurrency course (in case Bloomfield ends up teaching another Special Topics class):

This class was fascinating and I learned so much. Professor Bloomfield's lectures are always engaging. Some of the material didn't feel super helpful but it was all quite interesting and I feel like I understand cryptocurrency so much more now. This was the first time he taught the class so some parts were a little rough (some homeworks didn't work properly, etc.), but it all worked out all right. Workload is not easy but not terrible either. Highly recommend if you're looking for a fun and engaging CS elective.