Assessment pattern
· Online Mid-term test: 30% of total marks
Structure: MCQ style with mix of theoretical and numerical/quantitative questions.
· Assignment I: 35% of total marks (Group assignment)
Structure: a mix of tasks related to crypto transactions. Mine coins, send coins & generate payment requests using desk wallets. Students will be required to generate outputs as well as describe in detail the workings behind each transaction.
· Assignment II: 35% of total marks (Individual assignment)
Structure: Students will be asked to understand the risk-return relationship in a particular cryptocurrency from the time of ICO to the present. A set of global risk crypto-specific and non-crypto specific risk factors, which has been established in the literature on cryptocurrencies, will be provided.
Core Textbooks:
The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains : An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology that Powers Them, Lewis, Antony
Bitcoin For Dummies, Prypto, John Wiley & Sons, 2016
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies - A Comprehensive Introduction, Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, et al., Princeton University press
Suggested reading
Part I – Features of Blockchain technology
Lecture 1: A Quick Intro to Cryptocurrencies via Bitcoin
Bitcoin for dummies – Ch1 – Wiley
The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains – Part 3 – Mango Publishing
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page
https://bitcoin.org/en/gettingstarted
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/
Lecture 2: The blockchain
Bitcoin for dummies – Ch 6 and Ch 7 – Wiley
The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains – Part 4 and Part 6 – Mango Publishing
Lecture 3: Mining process
Bitcoin for dummies – Ch 4 and Ch 11 – Wiley
The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains – Part 4 – Mango Publishing
https://www.investopedia.com/tech/how-doesbitcoin-mining-work/
https://www.euromoney.com/learning/blockchain-explained/how-transactions-get-into-the-blockchain
https://blog.goodaudience.com/blockchain-forbeginners-what-is-blockchain-519db8c6677a
Lecture 4: Crypto Wallets
Bitcoin for dummies – Ch 5 – Wiley
The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains – Part 3 and Part 4 – Mango Publishing
https://coinguides.org/adding-wallet-nodes/
Part II – Cryptocurrencies
Lecture 5: Bitcoin and beyond Cryptocurrencies as a new asset class
Bitcoin for dummies – Ch 13 – Wiley
Overview of Digital Assets and Blockchain by Goldman Sachs, November 2021
Categories and Functions of Crypto-Tokens by Lin William Cong, Yizhou Xiao, pp 267-284, The Palgrave Handbook of FinTech and Blockchain, (2021).
https://triple-a.io/crypto-ownership-data/
Lecture 6: Arbitrage Pricing Theory of Cryptocurrencies I
Asset Pricing by John H Cochrane (2005) – Ch 20 – Princeton University Press
Yukun Liu and Aleh Tsyvinski. “Risks and returns of cryptocurrency.” The Review of Financial Studies, 34(6):2689-2727, (2021)
Lecture 7: Arbitrage Pricing Theory of Cryptocurrencies II
Yukun Liu, Aleh Tsyvinski, and Xi Wu, “Common risk factors in cryptocurrency.” The Journal of Finance, 77(2):1133-1177, (2022).
Nicola Borri and Kirill Shakhnov, “The cross-section of cryptocurrency returns.” The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 12(3):667-705, (2022).
Lecture 8: Cryptocurrency Trading
Nicola Borri and Kirill Shakhnov, “Cryptomarket Discounts.” SSRN, (2022).
Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar, “Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets.” Journal of Financial Economics, 135(2):293-319, (2020)
Nicola Borri and Kirill Shakhnov, “Regulation spillovers across cryptocurrency markets.”, Finance Research Letters (2020)
Lecture 9: Blockchain Analysis
Sean Foley, Jonathan R Karlsen, Tālis J Putniņš. “Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?” The Review of Financial Studies, Volume 32, Issue 5, May (2019), Pages 1798–1853,
Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar. “Blockchain Analysis of the Bitcoin Market.” NBER (2022)
Lecture 10: Beyond "Traditional" Cryptocurrencies: ICOs and NFTs
Evgeny Lyandres, Dino Palazzo and Daniel Rabetti “ICO Success and Post-ICO Performance.” Management Science, (2023)
Nicola Borri, Yukun Liu, and Aleh Tsyvinski “The Economics of Non-Fungible Tokens.” SSRN (2022)
Kirill Shakhnov and Luana Zaccaria “(R)evolution in Entrepreneurial Finance? Utility Tokens and Pricing Power.” Management Science, (2023)