Professor David Yermack, the Albert Fingerhut Professor of Finance and Business Transformation at New York University Stern School of Business, will present his thoughts on the potential implications of blockchain technologies.

The blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, has generated an immense amount of interest within the financial and tech industries in recent years. With billions invested in Bitcoin and blockchain startups so far, a growing number of economists and technologists argue that the blockchain (especially when implemented in the form of a distributed ledger) has the potential to reshape the financial system.

While the first and by far largest application of blockchain technologies remains Bitcoin, numerous studies, papers, and reports in recent years have pointed to the wide-ranging implications that the adoption of blockchains could have for banking, and for areas like supply chain and digital identity management.