Tepper Blockchain Initiative Faculty
Ariel Zetlin-Jones
Associate Professor of Economics
Research Interests
Ariel Zetlin-Jones' research interests in cryptocurrency and blockchain include the design of stable-price cryptocurrencies, the microstructure of cryptocurrency exchanges, and the governance of blockchain technologies.
Courses
- Introduction of cryptocurrencies is provided in Financial Crises and Risk
Research Coverage & Consulting
- "Cryptocurrency mining under proposed US policy changes" Expert Take (Cointelegraph, August 2021)
- "The Financialization of Cryptocurrencies" post on Blockchain Pulse: IBM Blockchain Blog (coauthored with Bryan Routledge, May 2021)
- Towards Understanding Cryptocurrency Derivatives: A Case Study of BitMEX published in Proceedings of the Web Conference 2021 (joint with Kyle Soska, Jin-Dong Dong, Alex Khodaverdian, Bryan Routledge, and Nicolas Christin)
- Currency Stability Using Blockchain Technology published in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (joint with Bryan Routledge, May 2021)
Chester Spatt
Pamela R. and Kenneth B. Dunn Professor of Finance
Research Interests
Chester Spatt's current research interest focuses upon the foundations of financial regulation as well as the regulation of financial markets and instruments.
Research Coverage
- Lecture: “FinTech and Financial Regulation” (Santiago, May 2018)
- Lecture: “FinTech and Financial Regulation” (Buenos Aires, May 2018)
- Panelist: “Regulation and Innovation” — National Association of Insurance Commissioners (Boston, August 2018)
- Discussant: “BlockChain and the Future of Optimal Financing Contracts” — European Finance Association (Warsaw, August 2018)
Param Singh
Carnegie Bosch Associate Professor of Business Technologies, Director of the PNC Center for Financial Services Innovation
Research Interests
Param Singh is interested in technical and economic aspects of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and smart contracts. He is co-leading an initiative at CMU to develop a cryptocurrency testbed (CMU Coin) to support research and education in this space.
Courses
- MBA class on FinTech, co-taught with Bryan Routledge.
Research Coverage
Bryan Routledge
Associate Professor of Finance
Research Interests
Bryan Routledge's recent research focuses on smart contracting in finance. One of his latest projects looks at price stability mechanisms for cryptocurrency coins.
Courses
- MBA class on FinTech, co-taught with Param Singh
Research Coverage
- "Machine Learning and Asset Allocation" article in Financial Management (November 2019)
- "What is a corporate blockchain?" post on Blockchain Pulse: IBM Blockchain Blog (coauthored with Ariel Zetlin-Jones, January 2019)
- Alumni webinar
- Keynote address at Vanguard "Innovation Day"
Nikhil Malik
Ph.D. student in Business Technologies
Research Interests
Nikhil Malik's research interest is in comparing public vs. enterprise blockchain platforms, protocols vs. applications, and numerous tokenomic schemes. He also studies tradeoffs for participants in this ecosystem: users, investors, and traditional intermediaries.
Courses
- Undergraduate Business class on FinTech
Tae Wan Kim
Associate Professor of Business Ethics
Research Interests
Tae Wan Kim studies the ethics and governance of cryptocurrencies. He is interested in answering who should be entitled to change aspects of a blockchain protocol.
Research Coverage
- "The Ethics of Contentious Hard Forks in Blockchain Networks With Fixed Features" featured on Frontiers in Blockchain (coauthored with Ariel Zetlin-Jones, August 2019)
Pietro Bonaldi
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Research Interests
Pietro Bonaldi is interested in analyzing the feasibility, welfare implications, and potential for disruption of eventual widespread adoption of blockchain technology, and more generally, cryptography in accounting, specifically in the audit industry.