Apr 28, 2020 - This hour-long webinar is part four in a four-part series on blockchain and pandemics. Don Tapscott opens a discussion with Alex Tapscott and Chris Giancarlo, former Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, about the potential to turn away from cash and towards a state-backed digital currency. On 28 April 2020, the BRI hosted a webinar featuring Chris Giancarlo, former chairman of the former chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and co-director of the Digital Dollar Project. This is an edited transcript of the proceedings. It distinguishes among three types of cryptocurrencies—distributed (Bitcoin), corporate (L...

Aug 30, 2019 - This is the first half of Trust(less): How Blockchain Will Help Us Navigate the Post-Trust World. It establishes the context for distrust in technology. We might assume that our current challenges with blockchain innovations are unique. But every generation of inventive entrepreneurs has faced push-back from a species that doesn’t easily embrace change. After reviewing the history of initially terrifying inventions—from electricity and elevators to artificial intelligence and Airbnb—the author distills the lessons relevant to the building consumer trust needed for broad consumer adoption of blockchain technologies.

Sep 02, 2020 - Within each industry, distributed ledger technology is influencing the value chain and the role of a CFO. This project outlines why the CFO, as the CEO’s business partner, should understand blockchain’s impact on enterprise strategy, not just on corporate finance, capital investment, and operations. It shows how blockchain could catalyze change in the near term, with finance use cases in taxation, accounting and audit processes and in digital asset payments for consumer goods, employee payroll, and cross-border transactions. In the longer term, CFOs will help make the business case for blockchain applications in trade finance, supply chai...

Sep 30, 2019 - This research explores the disruptive effects of blockchain technologies on central banking and the financial services industry. Its author discusses Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra, and how the other FAANG companies—that is, Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix, and Google—might respond with their own digital tokens. He introduces five transformations—cryptoassets, the tokenization of everything, blockchains as state machines, a new model for identity, and the nine forms of decentralized finance. He examines the challenges that incumbents and innovators face during this transition; and he previews the world of financial services in th...

Apr 22, 2019 - Updated in collaboration with the IBM Institute for Business Value, this project explores how blockchain is transforming education with an emphasis on lifelong learning and the reskilling of the workforce. It covers not just traditional educational institutions but also corporate training and development, where innovators are using blockchain to establish student identity, protect privacy, finance coursework, measure progress, and record badges of achievement and skills mastery. The implementation of microcredentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses, plus the co-creation of open educational re...

May 25, 2018 - This project explores how blockchain is transforming education with a focus on higher ed—vocational schools, community colleges, universities, and corporate training and development—from establishing student identity, protecting their privacy, financing their coursework, measuring their progress, and recording their credentials of achievement through open data exchange protocols. The development of microcredentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses, plus the co-creation of open educational resources, are making the meta-university and lifelong learning affordable and accessible for more stu...