Blockchain 101
Department of Management Information Systems, National Chengchi University
FinTech/Blockchain is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it. In this talk, we are going to review the history of FinTech and blockchain and introduce how it works in the modern computing environment. The talk covers how Bitcoin (digital currency) and Etherereum (smart contract) which are the two of the most important blockchain-based applications are designed and implemented; and what are the pros and cons of such blockchain-based applications. Digital currency allows for instantaneous transactions and borderless transfer-of-ownership. Smart contracts are computer protocols intended to facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. They both seem quite nice and convenient for us in the digital world, but we should pay attention that Bitcoin and Etherereum have certain limitations that we might neglect before and should point out. Further, not all the FinTech problems can be solved by the blockchain; if we understand the limitation of such new technologies, we could find a better way to utilize them.