Fundamentals of Digital Assets

Blockchain-based assets have gained maturity over the last few years and are integrating into mainstream finance. The potential of digital assets and their use within smart-contract ecosystems have been understood by major market players. While blockchain-based assets remain an innovative niche, the secret is out and the world is preparing for a shift to digitize existing real world assets. The digitalization of assets will provoke disruptive change and bring a new paradigm for innovation, regulation and trade. This course navigates between the disruptive and complementary nature of digital assets and how they will affect the “real” economy. Participants will gain an understanding of the dynamics of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and its applications for both government and private organizations. At the end of the course, participants will be able to lead conversations and guide choices needed to ensure their organization is ready to embrace digital assets.

This course is suitable for anyone working with assets that can be digitalized. While this course welcomes participants of all industries, this course is particularly interesting to financial institutions, central banks, and regulatory institutions. The course is also relevant for managers, directors or CFOs who are forward thinking, regardless of the industry they are working in.

Day 1 . Introduction • Historical evolution of money and assets • Transition towards digital assets and their role in modern finance Day 2 . Foundations of Blockchain and Digital Assets • Core blockchain concepts: smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, and decentralized ledgers • Blockchain transactions: storage, transaction fees, and validation processes • Governance models within blockchain ecosystems Day 3 . Infrastructure and Ecosystem • Layer 1 vs. Layer 2 solutions and scalability approaches • Digital assets and tokens: classifications and use cases • Custody and security of digital assets Day 4 . Token Economics • Native tokens: economics of Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake systems • Non-native tokens: structures and valuation approaches • Stablecoins: types, mechanisms, and regulatory perspectives • Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and their applications • Methods of token valuation and assessment Day 5 . Decentralized Finance (DeFi) • Overview and key components of DeFi • Decentralized exchanges (CEX, DEX, CeDeFi) • Liquidity mining and its implications • Borrowing, lending, and leverage mechanisms in DeFi • Automated Market Making (AMM) models • Yield farming strategies and risk considerations