This 8-hour course seeks to equip private bankers with a solid understanding of blockchain and smart contracts, as well as the revolutionary movement of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and the potential impacts they could have on the financial industry.
Target Audience
- Assistant Relationship Managers, Relationship Managers, and Team Leads in Private Banks & Wealth Management
- Covered Persons under the Private Banking Code of Conduct
Course Objectives
- Understand blockchain technology and consensus mechanisms
- Identify key blockchain platforms and use cases
- Define Smart Contracts and their structure
- Understand contract execution and lifecycle
- Classify Smart Contract types and technologies
- Analyse real-world implementations of blockchain and Smart Contracts
- Identify Smart Contract’s risks and vulnerabilities
- Apply security best practices to deal with the risks
- Understand DeFi evolution and foundational principles
- Explain DeFi technical architecture
- Classify DeFi platform categories
- Understand operational mechanics of DeFi
- Assess Smart Contract and DeFi risks
- Identify business opportunities of Defi and Smart Contracts
- Apply concepts to specific financial workplace contexts
- Develop implementation strategies
Course Outline
Part 1: Blockchain & Smart Contract Fundamentals
Blockchain Basics
- Blockchain definition and distributed ledger principles
- Cryptographic foundations (hashing, digital signatures)
- Consensus mechanisms overview (PoW, PoS)
- Major platforms: Bitcoin, Ethereum, enterprise blockchains
Smart Contract Introduction
- Smart Contract definition and characteristics
- Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) basics
- Contract components: code, data, execution
- Gas fees and transaction mechanics
Live Smart Contract code walkthrough using Remix IDE
Part 2: Smart Contract Applications & Security
Smart Contract Types & Use Cases
- Contract types: payment, escrow, multi-signature
- Industry applications such as:
- Tokenisation (Bonds, financial instruments)
- Insurance (parametric insurance automation)
- Real estate (property transfer automation)
- Oracle integration and external data feeds
Security & Best Practices
- Common vulnerabilities: re-entrancy attacks, integer overflow
- Security audit processes and tools
- Best practices: code reviews, testing, formal verification
- Compliance frameworks and industry standards
- Vulnerability identification exercise using real exploit examples
Part 3: Building Blocks of DeFi
Stablecoins
- Types of stablecoins and collaterals
- Failure of UST
- Stablecoin frameworks
- Governance tokens and DAOs
Central Bank Digital Currencies
- Purpose Bound Money
- Tokenisation: Real-world asset tokenisation
- Wholesale CBDC, Retail CBDC
Part 4: Decentralised Finance (DeFi) Deep Dive
DeFi Origins & Infrastructure
- Traditional finance limitations and DeFi solutions
- DeFi timeline: 2017–2024 key milestones
- Technical infrastructure: Smart Contracts, AMMs, liquidity pools
- Governance tokens and DAOs
DeFi vs Traditional Finance comparison chart creation
DeFi Platforms & Functions
- Lending/Borrowing: Compound, Aave protocols
- Exchanges: Uniswap AMM mechanics
- Derivatives: Synthetix synthetic assets
- Tokenization: Real-world asset tokenization
- Hybrid models and traditional finance integration