Our course provides an introduction to monetary and technical issues related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. In the first part of the course, we will look at fundamental monetary questions such as:  What is money? Why do people accept money? Should the government play a role in money? What is the rationale for central banks? Would a competitive supply of money be efficient? In the second part, we will give an introduction to some technical aspects such as public key cryptography, hash functions and blockchain technology. We will also look at applications such as bitcoin, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, and conclude with an outlook on decentralized finance (DeFi).

Read our report on Preparing for a quantum-safe tomorrow (2024).