Overview: Money and Ledgers; Satoshi Nakamoto’s Innovation; Economics of Blockchain Technology; Financial Sector Opportunities; Crypto Finance; Public Policy Frameworks; Conclusions & Pay It Forward. What is the Role of Money? Biblio: Gary Gensler. 15.S12 Blockchain and Money. Fall 2018. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. Video Link: Session 24: Conclusion. Slides Link: Session 24: Conclusion, Slides.

Session 23: Digital ID Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Identity; Identity and Access Management; State Projects; Identity & Blockchain Technology; Your MIT Blockchain Diploma; Conclusions. Session 23: Study Questions What are the trade-offs of using blockchain technology for identity and access management (IAM)? What is self-sovereign identity? How might blockchain self-sovereign or digital identity applications be applicable within the financial sector? Will you ask for your MIT diploma digitally or on paper? Session 23: Readings ‘Self-sovereign identity:Why blockchain?’, IBM. ‘Blockchain and Digital Identity–A Good Fit?’, Internet Society. ‘Can blockchain ease banks’ digital-identity concerns?’, -American Banker. ‘Blockchains and Digital Identity’, Toward Data Science. ‘Singapore Regulator, Banks Complete KYC Blockchain Prototype’, CCN.…

Session 22: Trade Finance & Supply Chain Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Trade Finance; Trade Finance Blockchain Technology Efforts; Shipping and Supply Chain Blockchain Projects; Final Projects; Spring Courses; Conclusions. Session 22: Study Questions What attributes of trade finance and supply chain management might make this a ripe set of use cases for blockchain applications? What lessons might be drawn from the ongoing projects? Session 22: Readings ‘Trade Tech–A New Age for Trade and Supply Chain Finance’, World Economic Forum/Bain. ‘How Banks Are Teaming Up To Bring Blockchain To Trade Finance’, CB Insights. ‘Hong Kong, Singapore to link up trade finance blockchain platforms’, Reuters. ‘Business Interest in Blockchain Picks Up…

Session 21: Post Trade Clearing, Settlement, and Processing Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Clearing and Settlement Services; Blockchain Technology Applicability; Blockchain Technology Projects; Derivatives Common Domain Model; Conclusions. Session 21: Study Questions What are the opportunities of blockchain technology to lower costs and counter-party risks in the clearing, settlement and processing of financial transactions? Why have the applications proposed to date almost exclusively been focused on permissioned or private distributed ledger technology? What lessons might be drawn from the ongoing projects–ASX for equities, ISDA for swaps, others? Session 21: Readings ‘Blockchain could save investment banks up to $12 billion a year: Accenture’, Reuters. ‘ISDA Publishes Digital Iteration of the Common…

Session 20: Primary Markets, ICOs, and Venture Capital, Part 2 Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Investor Protection and Howey Test; Initial Coin Offerings–Some Realities; SEC Enforcement Actions; SEC Exempt Offerings; ICOs–Pat Forward; Conclusions. Session 20: Study Questions How ICOs mix economic attributes of both consumption and investment. How ICO tokens’ design features–their risks, expectation of profits, manner of marketing, exchange trading, limited supply and capital formation–are similar to investments schemes. Why is the ICO market rife with scams and fraud? What is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s current approach to ICOs? What are the options for completing a compliant ICO? Session 20: Readings ‘Digital Asset Transactions: When Howey Met…

Session 19: Primary Markets, ICOs, and Venture Capital, Part 1 Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Review of Bakkt Discussion; Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Characteristics; Evaluating ICOs; ICO Statistics; Conclusions. Session 19: Study Questions What is the new crowdfunding mechanism of blockchain technology–initial coin offerings (ICOs)? What attributes help distinguish successful ICOs? Why have so many ICOs failed? What has the wave of ICOs meant for the venture capital field? Session 19: Readings ‘All-Time Cumulative ICO Funding’, CoinDesk. ‘Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens’, Catalini and Gans. ’10 keys for evaluating Initial Coin Offering (ICO investments)’, Crypto Potato. ‘Nearly Half of 2017 Cryptocurrency “ICO” Projects Have Already Died’,…

Session 17: Secondary Markets and Crypto-Exchanges Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Crypto Exchanges Review; Public Policy Challenges; The Path Forward; Conclusions. Session 17: Study Questions How have crypto-exchanges become a critical gateway for the vast majority of crypto secondary market trading? How does the business model of crypto-exchanges compare to traditional securities and derivatives exchanges? How do centralized crypto-exchanges compare to decentralized crypto-exchanges? What do all the hacks, reports of manipulation and failures tell us about the current state of security and investor protection of crypto-exchanges? Session 17: Readings ‘Move deliberately, fix things: How Coinbase is building a cryptocurrency empire’, Washington Post. ‘Robinhood rolls out zero-fee crypto trading as it…

Session 16: Central Banks & Commercial Banking, Part 2 Overview: Readings and Study Questions; Review of Central Banking & Approaches to Blockchain Technology; Private Banknotes and Stable Value Tokens; Central Bank Digital Currency; Conclusions. Session 16: Study Questions What lessons, if any, can be drawn from related experimentation–Ecuador, Senegal, Philippines–to date? Might stable value coins spur central banks into adopting CBDCs? What might Mastercard be considering with their patent for ‘blockchain currency’ fractional reserves? What recommendations would you have for Sweden’s Riksbank (dating from 1668, the world’s first central bank) for possible adoption of e-krona? Session 16: Readings ‘The Riksbank e-krona project Action plan for 2018’, Sveriges Riksbank. ‘The World’s…