Introduction to Blockchain and Tokens by Dr. Dion Bongaerts, Associate Professor of Finance at RSM Erasmus University and Academic Director Fintech at the Erasmus Center for Data Analytics.

Following the global financial crisis, Bitcoin saw the light of day, giving rise to a revolutionary payment system based on trust in technology rather than trust in institutional parties like banks. While there are ample features of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that make them less suitable for an everyday means of payment, the technology behind them, blockchain, offers ample opportunities for new business models and market infrastructures. One can think about handling securities transactions, but also about creating digital twins of digital and real world objects. This talk starts with a short outline of what a blockchain is and why it works. We will also shortly introduce tokens. In the second half of the talk, several initiatives regarding research, teaching, and public private partnerships regarding blockchains are highlighted.