OAFP 5830 - Blockchain for Public Good: tech governance and social innovation

In just a few years, blockchain technologies went from being only known by a niche of Bitcoin enthusiasts to being advertised as the foundation of Web3, promising the disruption of Big Tech platforms and State institutions alike.

Emerging trends which are still poorly understood by public decision-makers and private actors (Cryptoassets, NFTs, Decentralized Finance, metaverses, DAOs…) are claimed to be the next big technological revolution and a game-changer for both developing countries and wealthy economies.

In this class, we will move beyond the hype to take a deep dive into blockchain technologies and their actual use cases. We will build a transverse technical understanding that will empower you to critically assess their social, environmental, and economic potential and understand how we can harness them to maximize their positive impact, using innovation, governance and regulation.

You will learn to evaluate blockchain tech’s value propositions across industries, analyse major projects and review regulations, and you will discover how they question core concepts such as trust, money, and sovereignty in digital societies. Finally, you will apply this knowledge to collaboratively design your own blockchain-based social innovation project.

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This course is meant to prepare you to take a concrete role in innovation governance or regulation as well as in the creation of social innovation ventures, in the public sphere or the private sector.

We will welcome several guest speakers from tech companies, public authorities and research teams.

The final project is a group assignment.

Your curiosity will be very appreciated.

• An individual executive summary on a blockchain protocol or project 25%
• A 2-page document presenting a high-level assessment of a problem and your suggestion of a blockchain-based solution (25%)
• A detailed presentation of a blockchain-based group project, its expected impact and roadmap (40%)
• In-class participation 10%

This course focuses on in-class interaction. Every individual and groupwork will be shared with the entire class to alleviate preparation work for every class.

Students are expected to consistently search, read and watch content in relation with the class and with their final project.