NGEN 560 - Internet of Money and Future of Blockchains

(3 semester hours)
Prerequisites: NGEN 520 and NGEN 525
Description: Blockchain is a fundamental disruption in the history of ledger technology, and it will deeply impact the future of all ledger-centric institutions such as central banks, commercial banks, companies and exchanges, as well as the currencies and assets that are transacted and traded inside them. Since peer-to-peer settlement would always be efficient, cost-effective and risk-free as compared to third-party settlement, the future of money and value will be different from what it is now. This course explores how the new consensus mechanisms will emerge for exchanging value across borders, assets, and economic sectors, as well as the new avenues offered by AI and how blockchain can magnify its impact. This course is a bridge between what is present and what could be the future trends. It offers not only a meta-narrative of this potential change, but also elaborates on the new change agents and their strategies. Topics include design of the business models for decentralization and scale, convergence of AI and blockchain, and design of projections-centric studies for blockchain systems.