This practical workshop takes place over 7 weekday evenings (on the following Mondays: Oct 24, 31 Nov 7, 14, 28 Dec 5, 12) and will teach you how blockchain technologies can make existing, and future, financial services simpler, more secure, and lower cost.
Why a workshop over 7 weeks? Since the financial crisis, peoples' jobs have expanded, not contracted; put another way, people are being asked to do more, with less. Few people can afford to be away from their desks for a day, yet alone a whole week. So by spreading the workshop over 7 weeks, each as an evening commitment, it's far easier to justify to both yourself and your boss. It's also the case that the workshop covers a lot of material, and so by doing one module per week you have more time to digest the material, learn, and experiment on your own time.
The blockchain looks set to revolutionize many parts of finance. Indeed, many believe the blockchain is a bigger deal than the Internet. Come and join me on a journey that will radically change finance (and your job) forever!
Some of the benefits of attending the workshop include:
- By the end of the workshop you will have a deep and fundamental understanding of the blockchain.
- A library of lecture materials and handouts that you can refer back to.
- Practical guidance on setting up a blockchain lab for conducting experiments with blockchain technologies.
- Hands-on exercises during class that allow you to experiment with the blockchain.
- Additional homework assignments that will be optional, but encouraged.
- Access to the instructor and the teaching assistant.
Who should attend this workshop? Business line managers and IT managers who want to understand the blockchain and its future impact; IT staff responsible for the development and deployment of enterprise systems; devops, quants, software developers, sysadmins, security and cyber-security, risk and compliance people; middle and back office people who want to understand how the blockchain can streamline business operations and reduce costs; business development and technology strategists who are responsible for planning the future direction of the enterprise; students and academics wanting to broaden their expertise; lawyers and regulators who need to understand the technical details of the blockchain to better do their jobs; in fact, anyone who wants to truly understand the blockchain and its implications.
This workshop is based on the same blockchain module that is taught as part of the Baruch Masters in Financial Engineering (MFE) course (ranked #2 best financial engineering program, https://www.quantnet.com/mfe-programs-rankings/) that prepares graduates for jobs in banking on Wall Street, insurance, and fintech on Silicon Alley in New York.
~~~ WEEK 1: Blockchain Basics ~~~
- What is the blockchain?
- History of the blockchain.
- Why it is important?
- How is it currently being used?
- How will it be used in the future, and its impact on global finance.
- The blockchain job landscape.
~~~ WEEK 2: Blockchain Math and Cryptography ~~~
- Cryptographic hashes.
- Digital signatures.
- Elliptic curve cryptography.
- Merkle trees.
- Proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, the Byzantine Generals’ Problem and reaching consensus in a trustless, distributed network.
~~~ WEEK 3: Distributed Networks ~~~
- Blockchain structure and the distributed ledger.
- Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
- Mining nodes.
- Client nodes.
- Transactions and scalability.
~~~ WEEK 4: Money on the Blockchain ~~~
- A brief history of digital cash.
- Economics of the blockchain.
- Bitcoin.
- Etherium, Ripple and other cryptocurrencies.
- Trading cryptocurrencies.
~~~ WEEK 5: Security, Privacy and Regulation ~~~
- Blockchain security model.
- Public and private blockchains.
- Secure sidechains.
- Anonymity on the blockchain.
- Legal and regulatory issues.
~~~ WEEK 6: Smart Contracts ~~~
- Scripting languages for the blockchain.
- Simple contracts.
- Complex contracts.
- Legal issues and enforceability.
- Use cases:
- Primary and secondary markets for structured finance on the blockchain.
- Record keeping on the blockchain (knowing what we know, with certainty).
- Prediction markets.
- Proof-of-existence.
- Custodial services.
- Cross-border remittances.
- Point-of-sale/payments.
~~~ WEEK 7: Programming the Blockchain (beyond scripting) ~~~
- Deep-dive into coding for blockchains.
- Configuring and building blockchains from source code.
- Blockchain lab: Building and running a private blockchain of your own.
- Decentralized applications.
- Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO).
~~~ Workshop Instructor ~~~
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Your instructor, Andrew Sheppard, is a quant with 25 years experience working in international forex, fixed-income, equity and commodity markets. Starting with Bankers Trust in the late 1980's, Andrew has worked on trading desks at banks and hedge funds all over the world and is currently a consultant on Wall Street working in the areas of the blockchain and crypto-currencies, Big Data and Big Compute. He also teaches these subjects on the highly-ranked MFE (Masters in Financial Engineering) program at Baruch College in New York.
Every attendee will have access to tools, data and teaching materials to get the most out of the workshop.
Andrew recently completed a report (with Vineet Anand, Francois Paul, and John Whelan) for Banco Santander (the 2nd largest bank in Europe) on "Bitcoin's Impact on Banks".
Baruch faculty: http://mfe.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-sheppard/1/132/ba6
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~~~ Feedback from previous Fountainhead events ~~~
"I learned a lot."
Andrei Kirilenko, Chief Economist, Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
"I wanted to reach out and let you know that I thought yesterday's event was excellent. The content was multifaceted that connected on multiple levels and I particularly enjoyed the afternoon panel and Vladimir Vapnik's presentation."
Brian Kanter, Bridgewater Associates
"Excellent mix."
Tom Groenfeldt, Forbes Magazine
"Good presentations."
Chip Yang, NYSE Euronex
"Excellent event."
Tony Cuomo, SGI (Silicon Graphics)
"Very content rich event! Nicely done!"
Jaime Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Analytics
Important note: Agenda and venue are subject to change.
