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| Semester | spring semester 2023 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | David Yermack (david.yermack@unibas.ch) |
| Content | We will begin with a study of the nature of money and legacy payment and banking systems. We will then study the emergence of stateless, cloud-based digital currency systems since 2009. Further lectures will explore threats that blockchain technology poses to incumbent firms and their resulting attempts to co-opt the technology into existing business models, and the rapid growth of digital finance firms such as Coinbase, Binance, and numerous others. We survey related topics including ransomware, “smart contracts,” initial coin offerings, forks, governance, decentralized finance (De-Fi), stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and emerging regulation. |
| Learning objectives | This course covers digital currencies, blockchains, and related topics in the FinTech area, perhaps the most significant innovation in the financial world since the advent of double-entry bookkeeping centuries ago. The technology appears to represent an existential challenge for major parts of the finance industry. It is now commonly suggested by experts such as McKinsey that commercial banks and stock exchanges may no longer exist, or may become much smaller, within the next 10 to 20 years, with increasing volumes of payments and exchange taking place on a peer to peer basis. |
| Bibliography | The course readings, to be posted on Google drive, are indicated in the syllabus. For optional additional reading, the textbook for the Princeton University COURSERA course on cryptocurrency is a more advanced technical resource: Narayanan et al., Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. Students are encouraged to stay current on the topic by following recent developments. For daily breaking FinTech news, the authoritative source is the website www.coindesk.com A concise, non-technical and highly readable introduction to the field is Malekan, The Story of the Blockchain (2018). Another succint book, written at the intermediate-level book and more focused on Ethereum and decentralized finance is Harvey, Ramachandran and Santoro, DeFi and the Future of Finance (2021). |
| Comments | This course is part of the Summer School in Law, Business and Economic Policy. |
| Weblink | Weblink to the Summer School |
| Admission requirements | Solid understanding of business and economics on the BA level.Courses on Bitcoin, Banking Regulations and Monetary Policy on the BA level are helpful. |
| Course application | There will be an orientation for all Summer School courses an 22 February 2023, 18:15 - 18:45 (Zoom-Livestream). All applications have to be processed through the Summer School office. The enrollment for the course is at the same time the final registration for the exam! The online application is open from 22 February until 20 March 2023. Applications that are submitted by March 5 (23:55) will be handled on a priority basis. Please fill in the application form, which can be found on the weblink: https://wwz.unibas.ch/de/studium/summer-school/ If there are still vacancies, we will accept late applications until 31 May 2023. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | See individual dates | ||
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 17.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Tuesday 18.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Wednesday 19.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Thursday 20.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Monday 24.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Tuesday 25.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Wednesday 26.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Thursday 27.07.2023 | 09.30-12.00 | Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Seminarraum S13 HG.35 |
| Modules |
Core Module: Core Areas in Monetary Economics (Master's Studies: International and Monetary Economics) Module: Electives (Master's Studies: Business and Economics (Start of studies before 01.08.2021)) Module: Field Electives in Finance and Money (Master's Studies: Finance and Money) Module: Interdisciplinary and Transfer of Knowledge (Master's Studies: Actuarial Science) Module: Specific Electives in Business and Economics (Master's Studies: Business and Economics) Module: Specific Electives in Monetary Economics and Financial Markets (Master's Studies: Business and Economics) Module: Technology Field (Master's Studies: Business and Technology) |
| Assessment format | record of achievement |
| Assessment details | You are expected to attend every class. Evaluation will be based 50% on a “proof of work” exercise that will be distributed at the end of the first week, and 50% on an essay assignment that will be distributed at the end of the second week, with everything to be submitted by: Date tbd |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Registration/deregistration: faculty |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | 1-6 0,1 |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Business and Economics , studiendekanat-wwz@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Faculty of Business and Economics |