Originally, the term FinTech (Financial Technologies) was used to describe the technologies used in the back-end of established consumer and trade financial institutions. In the last decade, however, the term has expanded to include any technological innovation in the financial sector. The most discussed among these innovations is the concept of blockchain: a digitized, anonymous, decentralized public ledger for recording transactions. Originally developed as the accounting method for cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, the applications of distributed ledger technologies has expanded to include smart contracts and notarization.
The goal of these lectures is to introduce students to the broad area of FinTech, from both technical and business side.It will start from mobile payments (born in a country you won’t expect) and home banking (where the secure technology is displaced by the insecure one). Two technical lectures will explain what does it mean authentication and blockchain, and two lectures will discuss the ecosystem.