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The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has demonstrated that the existing banking and payment system, while still working, is outdated and struggling to support the continually changing requirements of the modern world. It would be an understatement to say that the GFC turned into a wasted opportunity to reorganize the world financial ecosystem. In their new book, Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers: Mathematics, Technology, and Economics, Alexander Lipton (co-founder and CIO of Sila) and Adrien Trecanni (founder and CEO of Metaco) argue that the seemingly squandered opportunities to reshape the financial system are not all lost. More specifically, they show that, if used deliberately, new technologies, including blockchains and distributed ledgers, can create new business models. New technologies will put pressure on the incumbents. More importantly, they will allow newly formed fintech companies to enter the market in earnest, thus providing considerable benefits to the general public.
This book concentrates on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and its potential impact on society. This technology, which became extremely popular over the last decade, allows us to solve many complicated problems arising in economics, banking, and finance, industry, trade, and many other fields. DLT develops new mechanisms for distributed consensus, using advanced tools from cryptography, game theory, economics, finance, scientific computing, etc. It offers an optimal and elegant solution in many situations, provided that it can overcome some of its inherent limitations and is used appropriately.
While strong mathematical skills are not required, readers should learn the necessary background materials from the book itself. The book clearly and accessibly explains and articulates rather sophisticated ideas underpinning DLT, so that it is accessible to anyone with a modicum of understanding of computer science, mathematics, and economics.
Throughout the book, the authors use their considerable practical experience to skilfully guide the reader through complexities, nuances, achievements, and promises of blockchains and distributed ledgers. The book is self-contained and provides all the necessary theoretical background for the reader to understand how DLT operates in both theory and practice and, if the need occurs, build a simple distributed ledger from scratch. It can serve as a primary textbook for a course on DLT and crypto-economics and a supplementary text for courses on economics, finance, cryptography, and others.
Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers: Mathematics, Technology, and Economics retails for US$68 / £60 (paperback) and US$138 / £120 (hardcover) and is also available in electronic formats. To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11857. ###
About the Authors
Alexander Lipton is Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer of Sila, Partner at Numeraire, Visiting Professor and Dean’s Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Connection Science Fellow at MIT. Alex is a board member of Sila and an advisory board member of several fintech companies worldwide. In 2006–2016, Alex was Co- Head of the Global Quantitative Group and Quantitative Solutions Executive at Bank of America. Earlier, he was a senior manager at Citadel, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust. At the same time, Alex held visiting professorships at EPFL, NYU, Oxford University, Imperial College, and the University of Illinois. Before becoming a banker, Alex was a Full Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois and a Consultant at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2000 Alex was awarded the Inaugural Quant of the Year Award and in 2021 the Buy-side Quant of the Year Award by Risk Magazine. Alex authored/edited 10 other books and more than a hundred scientific papers. Alex is an Associate Editor of several journals, including Finance and Stochastics, Journal of FinTech, International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance, and Quantitative Finance. He is a frequent keynote speaker at Quantitative Finance and FinTech conferences and forums worldwide.
Adrian Treccani is founder and CEO of METACO, a leading provider of security infrastructure for digital assets, and a software engineer specialized in high performance computing and financial engineering. He has been an active member of the fintech community since 2012 and advised numerous banks and financial institutions globally on distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance. Adrien lectures at University of Lausanne and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and has published in top peer-reviewed journals including Management Science and the Journal of Financial Econometrics. Adrian holds a Bachelor degree in computer science and a Master degree in financial engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He obtained a PhD in mathematical finance at the Swiss Finance Institute and completed a post doctorate in high performance computing at University of Zürich. He worked in the hedge fund industry as a quantitative analyst before founding METACO in 2015.
About World Scientific Publishing Co.
World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books and over 140 journals in various fields annually. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.
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