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Inaugural Academic Conference

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Warwick Business School Gillmore Centre Conference

DeFi & Digital Currencies - The Shard 2 September 2022

The conference brought together an international group of leading scholars conducting innovative theoretical and empirical research on DeFi and digital currencies. Topics include fragility in decentralised exchanges and DeFi lending; blockchain DLT consensus; competition among cryptos, fiat and CBDC; and valuing cryptos and utility tokens. The conference will continue to build on the growing Gillmore Centre research community and will stimulate debate and future research on emerging financial technologies, practices, and their regulation.

Agenda
8:30 am – 8:50 am	Registration, breakfast refreshments
8:50 am – 9:00 am	Welcome and opening remarks
Session 1	DeFi Lending
9:00 am – 9:45 am	“Systemic Fragility in Decentralized Markets” PaperLink opens in a new window Alfred Lehar (University of Calgary) with Christine A. Parlour (UC Berkeley) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Kathy Yuan (LSE) PresentationLink opens in a new window
9:45 am – 10:30 am	“On the Inherent Fragility of DeFi Lending” PaperLink opens in a new window Emre Ozdenoren (LBS) with Jonathan Chiu (Bank of Canada), Kathy Yuan (LSE) and Shengxing Zhang (LSE) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Felix Irresberger (Durham University) PresentationLink opens in a new window
10:30 am – 11:00 am	Coffee break
Session 2	Platform Decentralization and Utility Tokens
11:00 am – 12:00 pm	Keynote Address: “FinTech, Decentralization, and Utility Tokens”  Itay Goldstein (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) PresentationLink opens in a new window
12:00 pm – 12:45 pm	“Fundamental Pricing of Utility Tokens” PaperLink opens in a new window Julien Prat (Ecole Polytechnique) with Vincent Danos (ENS Paris), Stefania Marcassa (CY Cergy Paris University) and Mathis Oliva (Veltys) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Engin Iyidogan (SKEMA Business School) PresentationLink opens in a new window
12:45 pm – 2:00 pm	Lunch
Session 3	Digital Currencies and Decentralized Exchanges
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm	Keynote Address: “A Survey of (Crypto) Currency Theories”  Bruno Biais (HEC) PresentationLink opens in a new window
3:00 pm – 3:45 pm	“On the Quality of Cryptocurrency Markets: Centralized Versus Decentralized Exchanges” PaperLink opens in a new window Angelo Ranaldo (University of St. Gallen) with Andrea Barbon (University of St. Gallen) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Peter O'Neill (University of New South Wales) PresentationLink opens in a new window
3:45 pm – 4:00 pm	Coffee break
Session 4	Distributed Consensus and CBDC
4:00 pm – 4:45 pm	“An Economic Model of Consensus on Distributed Ledgers” PaperLink opens in a new window Zhiguo He (University of Chicago) with Jiasun Li (George Mason University) and Hanna Halaburda (New York University) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Yackolley Amoussou-Guenou (Paris-Panthéon-Assas University) PresentationLink opens in a new window
4:45 pm – 5:30 pm	“The Coming Battle of Digital Currencies” PaperLink opens in a new window Simon Mayer (HEC) with Lin William Cong (Cornell University) PresentationLink opens in a new window Discussant: Joseph Abadi (Philadelphia Federal Reserve) PresentationLink opens in a new window
5:30 pm – 5:35 pm	Closing remarks

 

The Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology is based in Warwick Business School but draws membership from across the University of Warwick and beyond. The Gillmore Centre conducts world-class, cutting-edge research at the intersection of finance and technology. It aims to reinforce the already formidable interdisciplinary environment at Warwick helping to further tie together existing departmental excellence with the Centre acting as a research hub exploring the transformative impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, mobile payments, cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding platforms. The £3m donation by Clive Gillmore, founder and group chief executive of Mondrian Investment Partners, is enabling Warwick to continue to attract the world’s best academics and postgraduates. The Gillmore Centre builds on Warwick Business School’s global reputation and core disciplines while infusing the aligned fields of computer science, law and mathematics alongside deep tech innovation to drive applied research with industry partners and start-ups.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Bruno Biais, Ram Gopal, Itay Goldstein, Olga Klein, Roman Kozhan, Michael Kumhof, Bazil Sansom, David Skeie, Ruslan Sverchkov, Ganesh Viswanath Natraj, Shu Zhang. 

CONFERENCE ORGANISING COMMITTEE: Ram Gopal, Matt Hanmer, Katherine Higton, Olga Klein, Roman Kozhan, Bazil Sansom, David Skeie, Ruslan Sverchkov, Ganesh Viswanath Natraj, Shu Zhang.

FURTHER INFORMATION: If you have any additional comments or questions, send us a message at gillmorecentre@wbs.ac.uk.

WBS Gillmore webpageLink opens in a new window

Press releaseLink opens in a new window

Interview with Itay

Interview with Bruno