Interdisciplinary Part 2: ECN 394

During my junior year, I participated in the ECN 394: The Digital Economy course. Being an economics minor, I was interested in identifying courses that would provide insights into improving financial security and fostering economic growth, which led me to this class. The Digital Economy course centered around studying the expansion of the traditional economy into digital goods and services, analyzing commonplace methods that companies and governments have employed. While the transition of in-person exchange into online transactions enabled access to a  much larger audience and consumer base, it also provided room for cybersecurity threats, with hackers and scammers working day and night to gain access to bank accounts and intercepting wire transfers. Therefore, this class was largely structured around the secure methods in which online financial transactions occur, providing a roadmap for future concerns.

Throughout this course, we followed along a textbook as well as some articles provided by the professor, which included topics ranging from digital tokens to the blockchain that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. As a class, we studied through 5 modules, starting with understanding what the digital economy is, some of its fundamentals, the transition to e-commerce, the blockchain, and finally the metaverse and the future of the digital economy. We look at how the digital economy came to fruition, as well as where it is headed, including topics such as tokenization of assets. The class also included several homework assignments and tests for every module, and also involved three group presentations, which have been attached below. The topics that my group had to present included the basics to digital goods and services, understanding how digital tokens are used, and finally answering what the blockchain is and what it offers. One presentation that I found to be specifically rewarding was the presentation introducing the topic of blockchain. This topic demonstrated the immense applicability of my background in Computer Science into the digital economy, as blockchain systems are being developed and improved upon globally in order to improve security. By completing this presentation, I was able to understand specifically how a blockchain is set up through as series of nodes that all store information, and the unification of these nodes is what creates an interlinked system of transaction processing. I was also able to receive the business-sided perspective of the blockchain from my group members who were part of the WPC business school at ASU, and learned the vast business applicability of this topic. 

This course directly aligns with the theme of Security, as it discusses the strategies utilized to secure financial systems that host and store sensitive banking and personal information of millions of users. For one, the discussion of the blockchain considers a more widespread usage of a decentralized economic system, where data and information isn't stored by a central government or corporate bodies, but rather stored through a series of unowned node connections. This, along with the immense quantity of nodes and the usage of public and private keys, allow for much more secure systems than traditional banks. Thus, by considering alternative methods to sustain financial protection, this course furthered my understanding with theme of Security.

From this course, I was also able to begin understanding how the next generation of financial systems is being developed, which gave me insights into a potential career of working with financial technology, or fintech. Working with the development and improvement of blockchain systems provides a lucrative professional opportunity, and this class opened my door to it as a Computer Science major with limited industry direction. By understanding the potential application of my expertise from my major, I can truly consider fintech as a possible career choice.