Business and Policy Leader Events

New York Blockchain Workshop

New York Blockchain Workshop
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The enthusiastic response to this workshop reflects a rapidly growing interest among the NYU Stern student, alumni and faculty community in ‘fintech’ as well as in crowd-based digital innovation.
On April 4 and 5, NYU Stern hosted the sixth edition of the Blockchain Workshops series, which brought together more than 100 scientists, investors and legal experts to understand the upcoming challenges and opportunities provided by blockchain technologies, and their impact on financial services and entrepreneurship, as well as on the broader social, economic and political order. The participants included the co-founders of Ethereum, Backfeed, Consensys, Ethcore and Blockstack.

Professor and co-organizer Arun Sundararajan took part in a discussion on whether the blockchain might transform how economic activity is organized and create new decentralized institutional structures.

"Interdisciplinary conversations about the blockchain that step away from the hype and focus on the true potential of the technology as well as the key regulatory barriers to its emergence are critical at this juncture," said Professor Sundararajan. "The enthusiastic response to this workshop reflects a rapidly growing interest among the NYU Stern student, alumni and faculty community in ‘fintech’ as well as in crowd-based digital innovation."

Professor David Yermack participated in a panel on the legal and regulatory implications of blockchain technologies, with a specific focus on how financial services regulation needs to evolve.

"Fintech is changing the financial services industry very quickly, and Stern, with initiatives and events like these, is keeping up with this new industry," said Professor Yermack. "This event was a great opportunity to have some of the top people in this sector on campus. I took part in one panel that debated fintech regulation, and I asked two of the other panelists to come back next year as guest speakers in my course." Professor Yermack teaches a course on "Digital Currencies, Blockchains, and the Financial Services Industry" with Geoffrey Miller of NYU School of Law, which will be offered again in Spring 2017.

David Yermack
Professor David Yermack (middle)

Arun Sundararajan
Professor Arun Sundararajan (third from right)