TECH-UB 75 - 001

Bitcoin has entered the mainstream media in 2011, with the WikiLeaks affair. Since then the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies and blockchains went beyond libertarians and has also captured the markets and also corporate world. Unfortunately, while the hopes for the technology is high, the technology itself is poorly understood. With that, it is difficult to devise a successful business strategy that leverages the technology possibilities. And so we see a large number of failing start-ups in the space, together with under performing corporate projects. In this course, we to go beyond the headlines and equip future managers with sufficient technical background so that they would be able to assess what type of blockchain or related technologies will be useful for their business application. We will study how the technology can be designed to meet the strategic needs, and how the strategy can be adjusted to take advantage of the unique features provided by the technology. We will learn that often the real features are different than the ones touted in the media headlines.