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SUMMARY:Digital Money and Decentralised Finance - Professor Frank Stajano 
 and Dr Ferdinando Samaria - Department of Computer Science and Technology\
 , University of Cambridge.
DTSTART:20250226T150500Z
DTEND:20250226T155500Z
UID:TALK226492@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ben Karniely
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\n\nOur society is evolving towards digital payments 
 and the elimination of physical cash. Digital alternatives to cash require
  trade-offs between various properties including unforgeability\, traceabi
 lity\, divisibility\, transferability without intermediaries\, privacy\, r
 edeemability\, control over the money supply and many more\, some in confl
 ict with each other. Since the 1980s\, cryptographers have proposed a vari
 ety of clever technical solutions addressing some of these issues\, but it
  is only with the appearance of Bitcoin\, blockchain and a plethora of cop
 ycat cryptocurrencies that a new asset class has emerged\, now worth in ex
 cess of three trillion dollars. This is part of an articulated decentralis
 ed finance ecosystem\, where new trading platforms and innovative products
  are starting to impact the way financial transactions take place. Meanwhi
 le\, most major countries have been planning the introduction of Central B
 ank Digital Currencies in an attempt to retain control.\n\nFrom our respec
 tive backgrounds in cybersecurity and financial markets\, we designed a ne
 w interactive ACS MPhil module on these topics\, R160 (https://www.cl.cam.
 ac.uk/teaching/2425/R160/)\, in order to encourage the students to make se
 nse of the technical\, social and economic problems and opportunities in t
 his exciting field. We are at a historical turning point where an enterpri
 sing candidate might disrupt the status quo and truly make a difference. W
 e particularly encourage ambitious Part II students to attend this seminar
  as a taster for the Part III module they could sign up to in October.\n\n
 Bios:\n\nFrank Stajano is Professor of Security and Privacy in this depart
 ment\, where he got his PhD\, and a 5th dan martial artist in kendo\, the 
 way of the sword.\n\nDr. Ferdinando Samaria is a computer scientist and in
 vestment banker. He has a BA and a PhD from the Department of Engineering 
 in Cambridge and is the author of a widely cited paper in the area of comp
 uter face recognition. After working on image processing and multimedia ap
 plications at the Olivetti Research Laboratory in the mid-90s\, he moved t
 o the City to work for Credit Suisse Financial Products. He was later hire
 d by UniCredit as one of the founders of the Italian bank's investment ban
 king arm where he covered senior roles in trading and risk management. Fer
 di's current areas of interest include decentralised finance\, machine lea
 rning and smart software applications for the financial industry.\n\nLink 
 to join virtually: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/87421957265\n\nA recording 
 of this talk is available at the following link: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/
 seminars/wednesday/video/\n\nThis talk is being recorded. If you do not wi
 sh to be seen in the recording\, please avoid sitting in the front three r
 ows of seats in the lecture theatre. Any questions asked will also be incl
 uded in the recording. The recording will be made available on the Departm
 ent’s webpage
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Building
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