Complimentary Masterclass on Blockchain, Digital Assets, Tokenisation & DeFi by Rhian Lewis

Agenda for the Masterclass

DLT and Blockchain

Interactive quiz to ascertain current knowledge (probably use Menti so they can interact and vote on mobile phone)

What is blockchain and what is DLT? Explain the overlap between the two terms

Brief history of blockchain, starting with Bitcoin

Identify the four pillars of blockchain: cryptography, consensus mechanisms, immutability and decentralisation

What is the relationship between cryptocurrency and blockchain?

Interactive quiz: other than cryptocurrencies, what use cases can you think of for DLT and blockchain?

Retail adoption vs institutional adoption

Real world examples – using named technologies and named firms that are using these

Digital Assets

Interactive quiz to ascertain current knowledge and understanding of digital assets

What is a digital asset?

The difference between native digital assets (crypto tokens) and real world assets that are recorded and transferred on a blockchain

What gives cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin its value?

How do crypto markets work and how are they regulated

Current regulation compared in different regions

What is a Bitcoin ETF and why is it such a big deal?

Different types of crypto wallet and how to use

Interactive exercise: set up and use a testnet wallet

Tokenization

Interactive quiz to ascertain current knowledge and understanding of smart contracts and tokenization

Explain the token standard on Ethereum

What other types of blockchain support smart contracts and token standards?

Walk through an example of how to create your own ERC token

How can assets be tokenized? Explain difference between ERC20 (fungible) and ERC-721 (non-fungible)

What is an NFT?

How tokens can represent real world assets

Identify and explain the implementation challenges associated with blockchain technology, also discussing its potential applications with detailed use cases in Capital Markets, Trading, and Wholesale services

Interactive exercise: Ask attendees to think of different items that could be tokenized. What are the potential challenges with the items they have suggested?

Stablecoins and CBDCs – what are they and what are the best known projects?

Real world example: Project Guardian, administered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore: https://www.mas.gov.sg/publications/monographs-or-information-paper/2023/project-guardian-open-interoperable-networks

DeFi

Interactive quiz to ascertain current knowledge and understanding of centralized and decentralized exchanges

What is the difference between CeFi and DeFi?

How can a smart contract replace human-administered infrastructure?

Main players in the DeFi market and their market cap/TVL

Demo: How to use Uniswap

The regulatory view

How can DeFi integrate with existing financial markets?

Brief explanation of more sophisticated DeFi instruments and investment strategies

Final interactive quiz: How much have they understood?