Topics in FinTech Summer School
Aims
To acquaint students with the fundamentals of blockchains, digital currency, smart contracts, and other important FinTech topics, while providing an overview of the new academic literature in this area. The importance of ideas such as crowdfunding, decentralized governance, and disintermediation will receive special attention.
Information
This course will survey academic research in the emerging area of FinTech, an interdisciplinary field which studies the application of Information Technology to the Finance area. The FinTech movement began a decade ago with the publication of Nakamoto’s (2008) proposal for the first successful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. However, it is now recognized that FinTech builds upon important antecedents such as Haber and Stornetta’s (1991) introduction of blockchains and distributed ledgers and Szabo’s (1997) ideas for smart contracts. We will survey the foundational literature of cryptocurrency, blockchains, smart contracts, consensus protocols, and related regulatory issues. Applications of FinTech in areas such as corporate finance, central banking, investment management, real estate, supply chain management, and personal finance will be studied. We will draw upon the academic literature currently being featured in numerous research conferences and special issues of some of the leading peer reviewed journals. We will conduct some hands-on data exercises using live FinTech data from public blockchains.
Please note that the Netherlands is a particularly active contributor to FinTech with important applications being introduced in locations such as the Port of Rotterdam: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/europes-largest-shipping-port-launches-blockchain-field-lab/
Assessment
This will be a pass/fail course requiring active preparation and participation by students.
Materials
The main text will be Burniske and Tatar, “Cryptoassets,” McGraw Hill (2018). A reading list of academic articles will be posted on the course website in .pdf form.
Additional info
For the timetable of this course, please click here.
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ERIM participants can register through SIN Online Registrations.
External (non-ERIM) participants are welcome to this course. To register, please fill in the registration form and e-mail it to summerschool@erim.eur.nl by 4 weeks prior to the start of the course. Please note that the number of places for this course is limited.
This course is free of charge for ERIM members (faculty members, PhD candidates and Research Master students). For external participants, the course fee is 250 euro per ECTS credit.
