🧠 Blockchain meets AI: The Trust Engine¶
📅 KAIST School of Computing – Summer 2025¶
Instructor: Jason Han | Credits: 1 | Language: English | Grading: Pass/Fail
1. Course Summary¶
In the age of AI, the ability to use knowledge is more important than simply knowing it.
This course provides hands-on experience in both blockchain and AI, focusing on how these technologies intersect to solve trust problems.
Rather than mastering technical internals like Solidity syntax, you’ll build practical intuition by exploring real-world services:
Course Objectives¶
- Get a sense of knowledge on when, why, and how to use blockchain
- Gain crypto/blockchain user experience so you can move forward on your own
- Get a sense of knowledge on how AI and blockchain intersect
- Submit a term project to a hackathon or grant program to get it running
- Build your own arsenal of blockchain skills and resume
The final goal: submit your project to a hackathon or grant program — not necessarily to win, but to connect your ideas to the outside world.
2. What This Course Is (and Isn’t)¶
✅ This course will help you: - Understand when, why, and how to use blockchain in AI applications - Gain experience with crypto-native tools and concepts - Explore real-world AI x blockchain use cases - Develop and share your own project
❌ This course does not cover: - Crypto trading or investment strategies - Deep blockchain platform theory - Solidity programming syntax in depth
4. Weekly Schedule¶
| Week | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | June 25 | 🧱 Blockchain & Crypto Basics |
| 2 | July 2 | ⚙️ Blockchain Dev Basics |
| 3 | July 9 | 🔧 Crypto SDK & Chain Support for AI |
| 4 | July 16 | 🧠 Decentralized AI Infrastructure (DePIN) |
| 5 | July 23 | 💸 Stablecoins & Payment Rails for AI Agents |
| 6 | July 30 | 🛂 Identity & Proof of Personhood for AI |
| 7 | August 6 | 🤖 AI Agent Co-ownership & Decentralized AI |
| 8 | August 13 | 🎯 Final Project Presentations |
5. Case Study Assignment¶
Each student (or team) will choose one real-world AI+Blockchain project from a curated list and write a Markdown report instead of slides.
Your report will be used to present in class (around 10-20 minutes), and should:
- Be ~3–4 pages long
- Use the 📄 Report Template
- Focus on core ideas, tech analysis, and your personal hands-on experience
👉 View the full list here: 📂 30+ Curated Case Studies
6. Term Project¶
Your term project should explore a meaningful connection between AI and blockchain.
It can be one of the following:
- A prototype or demo service
- A grant proposal or research idea
- A hackathon submission
You are encouraged to: - Use AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) for assistance - Use reliable blockchains: Solana, Base, or Kaia
You must: - Present your project in Week 8 (in English) - Submit to a hackathon or grant program before the course ends
📌 Resources for Projects¶
7. Grading & Pass Requirements¶
This course is graded Pass/Fail. To pass, you must:
- Attend at least 4 out of 8 classes
- Research and present one AI+Blockchain case study
- Complete a final project
- Submit your final project to a hackathon or grant program
🚫 You may fail the course if you skip core deliverables — this course is lightweight but not optional.
8. Class DAO¶
We try to run the class itself as a DAO, meaning that the governance of the class is created with the students rather than the professor alone. To do this, we minted 100 governance tokens (KGT) for the students, and they can post new suggestions or participate in Snapshot voting. Students and professors are involved in the governance of selecting best practices first.
1) Choosing the bset use case¶
There will be 4 project presentations each week, from which we will select the best case study. The student who does the best research, analysis, and communicates meaningful insights will be exempted from the Hackathon/Grant Program submission requirement. (However, they will still be required to submit and present their term project).
The selection will be made by a blockchain governance vote between the professor and the students in each class. During this process, you will gain experience with blockchain governance.
2) Proposing class policies¶
A professor and students can make new suggestions for policies related to their classes. Anyone with 100 or more governance tokens can raise new proposals. Proposals can be about anything from classes to assessment methods.
9. Recommending main chains¶
When you develop a prototype or MVP for your term project, you can choose one of recommeded chains, Solana, Base, and Kaia. They wrote a guide material on the chain.