{"id":759,"date":"2017-02-13T00:46:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T00:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/?p=759"},"modified":"2017-02-13T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T21:02:10","slug":"microsoft-virtual-academy-blockchain-as-a-service-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/13\/microsoft-virtual-academy-blockchain-as-a-service-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Virtual Academy Blockchain As A Service Course"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) has recently published a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) training course which is worth a look. It talks about Ethereum, solidity, smart contracts and the devops process for blockchain development. It naturally has a Microsoft Azure bias which is helpful in understanding what Microsoft offers<\/p>\n<p>The presentation format and MVA portal is very similar to that of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/very-high-quality-bitcoin-blockchain-online-course-sean-au\" target=\"_blank\">Princeton University<\/a> course with transcripts, forums, a progress bar and course information and covers 5 modules.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Distributed Ledgers 101 &#8211; 48 mins (3 videos)<\/li>\n<li>Smart Contracts Explained &#8211;\u00a040 mins (3 videos)<\/li>\n<li>Decentralized Applications and Architecture &#8211; 35 mins (3 videos)<\/li>\n<li>DevOps for Blockchains on Azure 5 &#8211; 46 mins (3 videos)<\/li>\n<li>Development of Decentralized Applications &#8211; 44 mins (4 videos)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">The presenters were Cale Teeter and Derek Martin. Links to the course:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"postList\">\n<li class=\"graf graf--li\"><a class=\"markup--anchor markup--li-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/en-US\/training-courses\/microsoft-blockchain-as-a-service-17104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-href=\"https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/en-US\/training-courses\/microsoft-blockchain-as-a-service-17104\">https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/en-US\/training-courses\/microsoft-blockchain-as-a-service-17104<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"graf graf--li\"><a class=\"markup--anchor markup--li-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-href=\"https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/\">https:\/\/mva.microsoft.com\/<\/a> (keyword search: Blockchain)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What was good about the course?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The course was well organised and structured.<\/li>\n<li>The demo at the end of each course was helpful in terms of seeing what could be done in Microsoft Azure.<\/li>\n<li>Module 4 on devops was good providing insight into some of the considerations required.<\/li>\n<li>Module 5 showing the development ecosystem was excellent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-760 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mod-5-vid-1-300x166.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mod-5-vid-1-300x166.png 300w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mod-5-vid-1-768x426.png 768w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mod-5-vid-1-1024x568.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mod-5-vid-1.png 1402w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>My new word of the day. &#8220;Templatize&#8221; in module 4 video 2 at 11:35.<\/li>\n<li>Good to see that technical guys also have humour. Apparently Cale is Goose and Derek is Maverick. Where&#8217;s Kelly?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-761 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-13-at-9.38.20-AM-300x148.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-13-at-9.38.20-AM-300x148.png 300w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-13-at-9.38.20-AM-768x379.png 768w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-13-at-9.38.20-AM-1024x505.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-13-at-9.38.20-AM.png 1184w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>What could be improved?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Was the translation run through a computer and not checked? Ethereum and bitcoin was incorrectly spelt on multiple occasions in multiple places.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-1.56.58-PM-300x61.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"61\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-1.56.58-PM-300x61.png 300w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-1.56.58-PM.png 610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-763\" src=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/vid2-demo-300x69.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"69\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/vid2-demo-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/vid2-demo.png 484w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The reason why the transcript is important is that at 22:19 in module 1 video 1 the word ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Chip) was pronounced very quickly and it sounded like ACE hardware. The captions shows ASCII hardware which would leave the viewer confused.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-764 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-2.11.29-PM-300x68.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"68\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-2.11.29-PM-300x68.png 300w, https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-2.11.29-PM.png 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In module 1 video 1 at 8:37 Derek mentions bitcoin being out since 2011 when in fact it has been out since 2009. At 9:19 Cale states 2009 that bitcoin came out. This would be confusing for a new comer. To improve this, Cale could have jumped in and clarified that it was 2009 and not 2011 at the time it was mentioned.<\/li>\n<li>In module 3 video 2 at 9:30, if there were 2 participants with 3 nodes each the split is 50\/50. If one participant loses a node, the ratio is now 2\/3 so the percentage would be\u00a040\/60. I would say that, instead of saying &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the calculation is there but this guy is going to be less than 50% and that guy is going to be more&#8221;. I think the fancy huge surface that the guys were drawing on distracted their attention somewhat. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>A conclusion video would have wrapped things up nicely to summarise and bring all the concepts together.<\/li>\n<li>A link to how viewers could sign up to have a play with Microsoft Azure would have been beneficial as well. I&#8217;ve since found out that credit card details are required which is annoying and personally puts me off from the get go.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>All in all I would recommend anyone with particular interest in Ethereum, solidity and smart contracts to take a look. The small inaccuracies peppered throughout the course were annoying but are easy enough to fix. The presenters were knowledgeable and did a great job overall. If there was a way to get access with having to provide my credit card details I&#8217;d be keen to give it a spin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) has recently published a Blockchain as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mvablockchain.jpg",400,300,false]},"author_info":{"info":["seandotau"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/category\/blockchain\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Blockchain<\/a>","tag_info":"Blockchain","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}