AØKK08412U Seminar: Blockchain Economics (F)

Volume 2020/2021
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The course is a part of the financial line, signified by (F)

 

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics.

Content

The purpose of the seminar is to offer the students an overview of the current state of Blockchain technologies and their implications in finance in general. We will study the new FinTech area of digital currency and blockchains, which has become one of the fastest growing research areas in Finance.
The focus will be on having a good intuition for the basic concepts and economic implications of Blockchain technologies for financial markets.

The seminar paper can be based on many themes that focus on the adoption of Blockchain technologies in financial markets. For example:
• Research into the architecture of financial markets based on distributed ledgers/decentralized consensus protocols
• Smart contracts in finance, as well as the governance issues connected to them
• Uses of Blockchain technology in capital market clearing and settlement
• Asset pricing implications for (stable) coins

Learning Outcome

After completing the seminar the student is expected to be able to fulfill the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum and to be able to:


- Have a basic overview of the main mechanisms behind blockchain technologies
- Have an understanding of the current state of the technology in practice

 

BSc in Economics or similar
It is highly recommended that the students have a basic understanding of topics related to financial economics, for instance through the course "Corporate Finance and Incentives" at the Study of Economics, University of Copenhagen.

An interest in financial technology is expected, also the wish to explore further into the world of decentralized consensus protocols.
At the seminar the student is trained independently to
- identify and clarify a problem,
- seek and select relevant literatur,
- write a academic paper,
- present and discuss own paper with the other students at the seminar.

Mandatory activities in the seminar:
- Kick-off meeting
- Finding literatur and defining the project
- Writing process of the seminar paper
- Presentation of own project and paper
- Giving constructive feedback to another student´s paper
- Actively participating in discussions at the presentations and other meetings.

The aim of the presentations is, that you use the presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to receive feedback at the paper. The presentations are not a part of the exam and will not be assessed.

The seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon before the presentations, as the opponents and the other seminar participants have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you upload a paper that is so finalized as possible due to the fact that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is strongly associated with the skill level of the seminar paper.
The teacher defines what materials may be used for the presentations.

After the presentations, you can with a few corrections improve the seminar paper by including the feedback and comments emerged during the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the writing of the seminar paper after the presentation has taken place.

Pandemic:
In case of a pandemic like Corona the teaching in this course may be changed to be taught either fully or partly online. For further information, see the course room on Absalon.
Schedule and process of the seminar:

Spring 2021:

• Kick-off meeting: February 8th, at 10.15 – 13.00
• Workshops/ Presentations meetings: May 3rd and 4th (2 days only if required)

General information:
It is strongly recommended that you think about and search for a topic before the semester begins, as there is only a few weeks from the kick-off meeting to the submission of the project description/agreement paper.

There is no weekly teaching/lecturing and the student cannot expect guidance from the teacher. If the teacher gives a few introduction lectures or gives the opportunity for guidance, this as well as other expectations are clarified at the kickoff meeting.

All information regarding the seminar is communicated through Absalon including venue. So it is very important that you by yourself logon to Absalon and read the information already when you are registered at the seminar.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Individual
Collective
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

Each student receives individual oral and written feedback on the paper at the presentation from peers.

Each student receives individual oral feedback on the paper at the presentation from the supervisor.

The supervisor gives the students collective oral feedback and individual guidance.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
A seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements for written papers stated in the curriculum of the Master programme and at KUNet for seminars.
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Exam registration requirements

Attendance in all  activities at the seminar as stated in the formal requrements in the Master curriculum and at the KUnet for  Seminars (UK)  and Seminars (DK) is required to participate in the exam.

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Aid
All aids allowed

for the project paper.

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Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
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Exam period

Exam information:

 

Spring 2021:

 

Deadline for submitting the final seminar paper: June 1, 2021 before 10 AM

 

General information:

The seminar paper must be uploaded to the Digital Exam portal. More information will be available from the middle of the semester.

 

Information about examination, rules, aids etc. is available at Master (UK) and Master (DK).

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Re-exam

Reexam information:

The reexam is a written seminar paper as stated in the Curriculum.

 

Deadline and more information is available at Seminars(UK) and Seminars(DK).

 

Information about reexam etc is available at Master(UK) and Master(DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material.