Fintech and Regulation

About

During this summer school you will get a crash course into the blockchain basics - both from a technological perspective as a regulatory perspective.

After more than a decade since Nakomoto’s Whitepaper on Bitcoin has been published, more and more financial institutions are looking into new ways to offer financial services based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Most DLTs are generally known as blockchains. Being the proud winner of the 2022 Dutch Blockchain Awards 2022 “Meaningful Education Award”, we offer the best blockchain education of the Netherlands. During this summer school you will get a crash course into the blockchain basics - both from a technological perspective as a regulatory perspective.

The course consists of two parts. In the first part, students learn how to strategically deploy tokens within an ecosystem, such as loyalty points, cryptocurrencies, or digital assets. These digital tokens represent ownership, access rights, certification, and incentives. This is a hands-on course where you will create your own ecosystem. In the second part, students learn how this new ecosystem affects existing financial institutions and what regulatory requirements they should be aware of while applying DLT to products and services in the financial industry.

Course leader

Vera Lubbersen

Target group

This course is designed with master-level economics, finance, and/or business students and professionals who are interested in how new technologies such as DLT are affecting the financial system. Assessment is on master's level, but PhDs are also welcome and final-year bachelor's students with the right motivation.

Course aim

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

- Understand and Apply Systems Thinking to Blockchain Ecosystems: Participants will to design and optimize blockchain-based ecosystems for greater efficiency and sustainability
- Design and Evaluate Blockchain Solutions for Real-World Challenges: Participants will gain practical skills to create and assess blockchain-driven solutions within multi-stakeholder environments
- Work in cross-cultural teams, write a lean plan and present a innovation and funding request in a Dragons’ Den setting
- Understand the role of the regulator to balance risks and opportunities of new technologies used by financial institutions
- Assess the impact of new technologies on the roles of different financial institutions in the financial system
- Assess which financial activities are regulated under which regulatory regime and understand the main differences between these regimes
- Grasp some of the difficulties and challenges in applying ‘old’ regulation to ‘new’ technologies.

Fee info

Students, PhD candidates and employees of VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC or an Aurora Network Partner €765 Students and PhD candidates at partner universities of VU Amsterdam €1035 Students and PhD candidates at non-partner universities of VU Amsterdam €1140 Professionals €1360