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SUMMARY:Blockchains and distributed ledgers in retrospective and perspecti
 ve
DTSTART:20161212T161500
DTEND:20161212T173000
DTSTAMP:20260407T095805Z
UID:23ffe13822d71894dd6bb5ddf5104a21e809708a3494d21f5aa0fba0
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Alexander LIPTON (MIT Connection Science and NYU Courant Insti
 tute)\nA few historical examples of blockchains and distributed ledgers ar
 e given and it is shown what can go wrong with them. A modern version of m
 onetary circuit theory is presented and it is explained why the circuit ne
 eds a (block)chain! Money creation by the banking system as a whole and by
  individual banks is analyzed and the role of central banks as the glue wh
 ich keeps Financial system together is emphasized. Various types of blockc
 hains are described and it is explained which blockchains are needed to sa
 tisfy different needs and requirements. A few fun facts about Bitcoin are 
 presented. Bank money\, Bitcoin and P2P money are compared and contrasted.
  X-Road in E-stonia is described. Potential role of distributed ledger tec
 hnology similar to X-Road for E-Banking is outlined. The applicability of 
 smart contracts for solving delivery vs. payment conundrum is studied. Pub
 lic vs. private blockchains are considered and various potential use cases
  for distributed ledgers are summarized: (A) post-trade processing\; (B) g
 lobal payments\; (C) Trade finance\, (D) rehypothecation\; (E) syndicated 
 loans\, real estate transactions\, VAT\, etc. It is shown why governments 
 should issue digital cash and how they can do it. Potential implications o
 f digital cash are outlined\, including coexis-tence of narrow and free ba
 nking. It is argued that Bitcoin cannot play the role of electronic cash. 
 Chaum vs. Nakamoto approaches to digital cash are compared and contrasted.
  Theoretical and practical aspects of distributed ledgers are considered.
LOCATION:EPFL Campus\, room BC 420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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