| Course No. | Title | Days & Time | Date (MM/DD) | Location | Office Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FNAN 472 and SYST 448 | FinTech: Blockchain Technologies | T/R 10:30-11:45am | 08/27-12/05 | Zoom | You are always welcomed |
|
As the underlying technology that enables decentralized peer-to-peer currencies such as Bitcoin or smart contract platforms such as Ethereum, blockchain has been touted as a revolutionary innovation to fundamentally change many aspects of business. How does blockchain actually work? How could it be applied to different business scenarios? Is blockchain truly the "next big thing" or just another hyped up buzz word? What are the current challenges in blockchain development? What new Technologies have been accelerated by the rise of blockchain Technologies and ecosystems? In this course, we'll conduct an objective investigation into the current status of blockchain development, and have an open dialog around its future promises.
We'll start from explaining the functioning of Bitcoin in detail to illustrate the core concepts behind blockchain: hash functions, immutable ledger, Merkle tree, distributed consensus, proof-of-work/stake, etc.; We'll introduce concepts such as smart contract, forks, Layer2, DeFi, token, stablecoin, game theoretical analysis, zero-knowledge proofs/arguments, etc. in the context of alternative cryptocurrencies; and importantly, we'll take the system design of blockchain operations as an venue to study various finance/economics concepts/tools in the real world. |
| No formal prerequisites, other than your passion to warmly embrace, critically research, and avidly contribute to a new technology and market. |
|
Lecture slides and extra materials will be posted on the web site from time to time. There is no formal textbook for the class. A highly recommended introductory reference book is freely available here: (Some details in the book is a bit outdated today, but its core remains relevant) A. Narayanan, J. Bonneau, E. Felten, A. Miller, S. Goldfeder. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction , Princeton University Press, 2016. Recommended news letters/podcasts to subscribe to: Unchained Podcast by Laura Shin EpiCenter blockchain podcast |
Grading will be based on a set of exams (expect two, but may add more), class participation, and a final (team) project (including a written report along with presentations).
The final grade will be based on all the points earned for the course. Suggestions on potential final project ideas (to be constantly added): Financial statement analysis of public bitcoin miners; What's the relationship between bitcoin's (or other PoW coin's) mining difficulty and coin price? Any lead-lag effect? Can we explain with miner's holding period or optimal stopping time theory (or other theories)? Hashrate distribution evolution across the globe/regions/pools/addresses; Hashrate distribution evolution and association with electricity prices across grids; Post mortem of a specific Web3 incident; Strategic and financial analysis of a specific Web3 venture capital deal; A new DeFi protocol (lending/flashloans/AMM/stablecoin) launched in the last year and what distinguishes it from the rest; Comparing the pros and cons of different cross-chain bridges; The entries/exits and market share evolutions to characterize crypto exchange competitions; The unique features of different crypto deriviates across different exchanges and their respective success/failures; One specific business application of verifiable compute (with solid justification from industry sources) A literature view of existing empirical research into DAOs; A survey of past and current Web3 or crypto related legislative bills/executive rules, etc. Tips for an informative project: Picking a narrow angle and going deep is better than aiming for too broad coverage but staying superficial. For example, "What Led Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow to Become Founders of Yuga Labs" is like to be a more successful project than "NFT," even though the former will give some background to NFTs. For some sample ideas, see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EBwu7FKsM2b6Q667KWlGvRnEOfc66yZEB61_yUPFc7o/edit?usp=sharing (constantly updating) |