Saturday, February 11, 2023
The Wharton Club of Hong Kong and Insead Alumni Association of Hong Kong are delighted to host a full day workshop on Intro to Blockchain and Web 3.0 Digital Assets amid a Crypto Winter, on February 11th 2023 (Full Day from 9:15 AM to 5:00 PM including Lunch) by fellow Wharton alumni Kevin Pereira W'06, who also teaches undergraduate and MBA courses on Web 3.0 related topics at the HKUST and HKU business schools. He will be joined by a second instructor, Raj Shroff, Director of Applied AI Research at Blu AI, who co-teaches some of the aforementioned courses with Kevin.
The Wharton Workshop series aims at providing deep subject matter expertise to Wharton Alumni and is focused towards serious learning, targeting a standard comparable to what one would expect at a Wharton class in Philadelphia.
Workshop Summary
Blockchain is a key enabler of Web 3.0, but what exactly is it? How does it work? And what are the high-value business applications? This workshop will provide participants with an overview of the fundamentals of blockchain and will deep dive into some of the main business applications we are seeing today. We will also look at both the positive and negative effects of the applications of blockchain. One such example that will be covered in the workshop will be cryptocurrencies and how recent events including the saga surrounding FTX, will affect that industry going forward.
However, blockchain is more than just crypto and as such the workshop will also aim to provide participants with knowledge of other blockchain examples both within Finance and also other sectors such as retail, supply chains, real estate and fine art. The last part of the workshop will then focus on blockchain applications that will become popular with other areas of Web 3.0 and will seek to inspire participants to think about possible blockchain applications in their respective industries and fields of work.
This workshop does not require any prior knowledge about blockchain technology. Although we will discuss how the technology works, we will NOT focus on coding/programming and no technical or coding knowledge is required. Rather, we will examine these topics from the perspective of business practitioners and leaders.
Venue: 1501-02, Hong Kong Club Building, 3A Chater Road, Central, Hong Kong
Price: HKD 1,500 including Yumcha Lunch @ Centricity
Guests: Guests of Alumni are welcome, but preference will be given to Alumni
Dress Code: Business Casual/Informal
Agenda (Full Day 9:15 AM - 5:00 PM):
Registration / Housekeeping (9:15 AM - 9:30 AM)
Session 1 (9:30 AM - 11:00 AM) Introduction to Blockchain
- How blockchains work - A Bitcoin case study
- The Blockchain Trilemma
- Centralization vs Decentralization - What is the best choice for your business?
- Introduction to Consensus Protocols
- Use case: Algorand
Break (11:00 AM - 11:15 AM)
Session 2 (11:15 AM - 12:30 AM) Digital Assets
- Why use blockchain for Digital Assets?
- Digital Assets on the blockchain
- Cryptocurrencies – BTC, ETH, Exchanges, Volatility
- Stablecoins, alt coins, tokenization
- Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
- Decentralized exchanges (DEX) versus centralized exchanges
- Digital currencies vs. today’s electronic money
- Layer 2 scaling solutions - Competing with Visa & Mastercard
- Case Study: The rise and collapse of FTX
Lunch break (12:30 PM - 1:45 PM): Lunch at Centricity
Session 3 (1:45 PM - 3:00 PM) Blockchain business models
- Smart contracts for automated business decisions
- Business cases in Banking, Insurance, and Real Estate
- Traceability & transparency in Retail, Fine Art and Supply Chains
- Catalysts for adoption – What drives companies and users to use blockchains?
Break (3:00 PM - 3:15 PM)
Session 4 (3:15 PM - 5:00 PM) Future Blockchain applications
- Reality check - What could go wrong with blockchain?
- Hong Kong crypto regulation outlook
- Blockchain predictions for 2023 and beyond
- What is Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?
- Blockchain applications in Web 3.0 - NFTs, Metaverse, creator economies
Faculty Bios
Kevin Pereira
Kevin W'06, is currently a Managing Director at Blu Artificial Intelligence, a consulting firm that specializes in Artificial Intelligence. After growing up in Hong Kong, he started his career in Private Banking with Citi in New York. He then moved back to Hong Kong and joined Bank of New York Mellon’s Asset Management business, where he helped to start a new group that specialized in products tailored to High Net Worth Individuals. After obtaining his MBA, Kevin worked at a technology startup in Myanmar that was building internet infrastructure which included fiber optic, cell towers and data centers. Kevin is also a Part-time lecturer at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), where he teaches an MBA course titled, “Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders”. At the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), he teaches “Big Data in Finance” and “AI in Marketing” to MBAs and other Masters’ students. Kevin graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics with concentrations in Finance, Management and Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has an MBA from INSEAD.
Raj Shroff
Raj is a Director at Blu Limited, a consulting firm specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, projects, and education. Raj focuses on how companies can integrate AI into their strategy and identifies AI solutions to meet business needs. He also teaches university courses covering the business applications of AI, emerging technology, and digital marketing at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU). Raj previously worked at AXA, an insurance multinational, across project management and finance functions in Hong Kong. He holds a BSc in Management from the London School of Economics and an MBA from The University of Hong Kong.
