Digital Money and Decentralised Finance

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• Professor Frank Stajano and Dr Ferdinando Samaria - Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge.
• Wednesday 26 February 2025, 15:05-15:55
• Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ben Karniely.

Abstract:

Our society is evolving towards digital payments and the elimination of physical cash. Digital alternatives to cash require trade-offs between various properties including unforgeability, traceability, divisibility, transferability without intermediaries, privacy, redeemability, control over the money supply and many more, some in conflict with each other. Since the 1980s, cryptographers have proposed a variety of clever technical solutions addressing some of these issues, but it is only with the appearance of Bitcoin, blockchain and a plethora of copycat cryptocurrencies that a new asset class has emerged, now worth in excess of three trillion dollars. This is part of an articulated decentralised finance ecosystem, where new trading platforms and innovative products are starting to impact the way financial transactions take place. Meanwhile, most major countries have been planning the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies in an attempt to retain control.

From our respective backgrounds in cybersecurity and financial markets, we designed a new interactive ACS M Phil module on these topics, R160 (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/2425/R160/), in order to encourage the students to make sense of the technical, social and economic problems and opportunities in this exciting field. We are at a historical turning point where an enterprising candidate might disrupt the status quo and truly make a difference. We particularly encourage ambitious Part II students to attend this seminar as a taster for the Part III module they could sign up to in October.

Bios:

Frank Stajano is Professor of Security and Privacy in this department, where he got his PhD, and a 5th dan martial artist in kendo, the way of the sword.

Dr. Ferdinando Samaria is a computer scientist and investment banker. He has a BA and a PhD from the Department of Engineering in Cambridge and is the author of a widely cited paper in the area of computer face recognition. After working on image processing and multimedia applications at the Olivetti Research Laboratory in the mid-90s, he moved to the City to work for Credit Suisse Financial Products. He was later hired by UniCredit as one of the founders of the Italian bank’s investment banking arm where he covered senior roles in trading and risk management. Ferdi’s current areas of interest include decentralised finance, machine learning and smart software applications for the financial industry.

Link to join virtually: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81322468305

This talk is being recorded. If you do not wish to be seen in the recording, please avoid sitting in the front three rows of seats in the lecture theatre. Any questions asked will also be included in the recording. The recording will be made available on the Department’s webpage

This talk is part of the Wednesday Seminars - Department of Computer Science and Technology series.

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