Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Money
NYU Shanghai: Economics
In this course, we will learn all about Blockchain and money. (1) We will first investigate questions about how to make money and how money used to be made; who can and who can’t make money in the modern economy; what money is and how money moves; how to measure money and how to control money. (2) Second, you will learn why, until the arrival of Blockchain, it has been so difficult to make new digital money; what Blockchains really are; how Blockchains work and when Blockchains don't work; how to raise money and how to make new digital money with Blockchains. You will thereby gain a solid and detailed technical understanding of Blockchain and the Blockchain-enabled financial technology. (3) Third, you will also learn about the most important current and future non-blockchain financial technologies in China, including the People’s Bank of China’s digital yuan (e-CNY) project. Topics to be covered include: definition of money, functions of money, the evolution of money and digital money, money creation, payment systems, Alipay, WeChat Pay, financial technology (FinTech), distributed ledgers, Blockchain technology, digital signatures, basic cryptography, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin, Bitcoin security and quantum computing, consensus, Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), the economic limits of consensus protocols, initial coin offerings (ICO), online peer-to-peer lending (P2P), China’s digital currency and electronic payment system (DC/EP), digital yuan, e-CNY, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Prerequisite: ICP, or ICS, or Creative Coding Lab Fulfillment: CORE STS; Economics Elective.
Enjoyment
N/A
Difficulty
N/A
Workload
N/A
Value
N/A

ECON-SHU 232