Bitcoin first came into existence from the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, and in the 10 years since, has grown to be a $__,000,000,000 market. We still do not know who ‘invented’ it, and yet from it has sprung copycats, innovators, secondary markets, and financial instruments.

Much as the internet first allowed zero-marginal-cost-publishing and then network-effect business models, peer-to-peer monetary systems unlock financial relationships heretofore impossible. Our current international financial system was built to service the needs of large corporations and financial intermediaries. Bitcoin, the blockchain, and the new cryptocurrencies have enabled new functions for what we think of as “money.”

The fans of cryptocurrency do not define it; they include libertarians, Jeffersonians, the privacy-minded, gold bugs, and, notoriously, those looking to exchange funds for illicit purposes. “Fandom” however is not driving price appreciation.

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies’ features as money and property are creating new markets, business models and opportunities to study, explore, invent and profit. We study them, the enabling technology, and the commensurate risks for being “better money.”

Here are the weekly topics.

WEEK 1: Introduction

WEEK 2: Competition, Governance and Technology

WEEK 3: Trading, Exchanges and Markets

WEEK 4: ICO’s, STO’s and Regulation

WEEK 5: Crypto-enabled Business Models