What is PBA-X?
Who is it for?
PBA-X is a flexible, part time, 4 week, cohort based, online blockchain course for anyone who wants to understand blockchain technology properly. It is designed to help you to navigate your Web3 career and is taught by the people behind Polkadot, including Dr Gavin Wood himself.
PBA-X is brought to you by the Polkadot Blockchain Academy.
The first cohort of PBA-X starts January 6th, 2025.
Learn from the Builders
Learn directly from the people building Polkadot via a mix of professionally recorded tutorials, live lectures, Q&A sessions, office hours and written materials.
Access the Web3 Community
Meet people both within Polkadot and the wider Web3 community, connect to build your career in blockchain.
Hear from two of our instructors
Shawn Tabrizi
is a core developer and engineer at Parity Technologies, contributing significantly to the development of Polkadot and the Substrate blockchain framework. He is a key figure in the Polkadot ecosystem and has been heavily involved in designing, implementing, and improving the core protocols and runtime of the Polkadot network. Shawn is recognized for his expertise in blockchain architecture, governance mechanisms and the technical intricacies of building scalable, interoperable blockchains on Substrate. He often engages with the community through talks, technical documentation, and open discussions about the network’s future developments.
Kian Paimani
is a core developer and engineer at Parity Technologies, he is known for his contributions to the Polkadot ecosystem, particularly through his role as at Parity Technologies. He has been actively involved in the development and advancement of various core aspects of Polkadot and Substrate, the blockchain framework that underpins Polkadot. Kian's work often focuses on protocol development, improvement of blockchain runtime, and enhancements to the interoperability features of Polkadot. He is considered a significant contributor to Polkadot’s technical evolution and ecosystem growth.
Optional Coding
This course has no programming entry requirements, it focuses on introducing essential concepts, however optional coding exercises are provided.
Quality Content
Learn the key concepts of blockchain technology through a purpose built curriculum, refined over previous waves of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy.
Accessible
PBA-X is open to everyone. All you need to do is sign up and give up a few hours of your time per week in January. Join, learn, connect and accelerate.
What You'll Learn
The PBA-X curriculum starts at the beginnings of Blockchain. It covers evergreen blockchain concepts, along with key Polkadot-specific elements, equipping learners with knowledge and confidence to navigate Polkadot and Web3.
Once complete, continue with knowledge and connections made at PBA-X, or apply for the in-person PBA Campus courses, which delve into more advanced topics and are specifically for software developers.
Below is a deeper dive into the PBA-X modules.
Cryptography
Understand digital signatures, key derivation and entropy. Demonstrate competence in generating random keys and creating secure addresses. Build an awareness of secure communication methods, including hashing with Merkle trees and be able to apply both symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques.
Economics
Learn key concepts such as supply and demand, market structures and the behavior of economic agents, game theory, including Nash equilibrium and incentive structures. Content also covers price-finding mechanisms in decentralized markets, providing a strong foundation for understanding how blockchain platforms manage value and maintain economic balance.
Blockchain
Explore the history and evolution of blockchain technology from Bitcoin to modern decentralised platforms. Gain solid understanding of core blockchain properties and key concepts, such as consensus mechanisms, state machines, forks and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. An introduction to smart contracts, emphasising their role in automating trustless transactions and eliminating intermediaries across blockchain platforms, is also provided.
Governance
Learn about blockchain governance, focusing on how decentralised networks make decisions, implement changes and resolve disputes without central authority. The course will cover the historical evolution of governance models, challenges faced by blockchain communities and will dive into Polkadot's OpenGov system. This enables students to critically analyse governance structures and to actively engage in real-world problem-solving scenarios.
Polkadot SDK
Receive a comprehensive introduction to the Polkadot-SDK, focusing on key components like Substrate, FRAME and XCM for blockchain interoperability. The course will also cover the basics of Substrate’s architecture, the role of WebAssembly (WASM) and the Scale Codec for efficient data storage, equipping students with knowledge necessary to build scalable and interoperable blockchains within the Polkadot ecosystem.
Polkadot
Explore the core components of Polkadot, including the relay chain, parachains, collators, and validators to understand how Polkadot ensures security, consensus, and cross-chain interoperability. This module also covers the tokenomics of the DOT token, its role in governance, staking, bonding and network security. Lastly, it provides a foundation for deeper exploration of advanced topics like asynchronous backing and agile coretime which are taught during the in-person Polkadot Blockchain Academy.
What is your Commitment?
The first cohort of PBA-X will start January 6th, 2025 and will run for 4 weeks.
The program requires a time commitment of approximately 6 hours per week, some self paced and some scheduled live lectures which we encourage participants to join in real time.
Registration is open!
Engaging learning experience & support.
Video Tutorials
Pre-recorded video tutorials; clear, concise and designed for online learning.
Assistants
Teaching assistants will support you during designated office hours.
Assessments
Check your progress with quiz based assessment for each module.
Q&A Sessions
Opportunities to ask Teaching Assistants direct questions in real time.
Live Lectures
Additional live lectures with subject matter experts.
Optional Coding
Optional exercises for students with a software development background.
FAQs
Check our list of frequently asked questions.
