Assessment for Financial Technology (FinTech) Blockchain Use Case Report

Part I - Individual Report (70%)

Assessment for the module consists of a single submission (100% of the mark). This comprises 2 components as below:
1. An individual Report (approx. 2.5-3 thousand words) that will count for 70% of your final mark.
2. Your Lab Portfolio (consists of your code implementation), comprising working versions of specific exercises you will execute during the term in the lab sessions. That component will count for 30% of your final mark. You will have to demonstrate working implementation of your code in your submission.

 

Details of the two components (PART I and PART II) are provided below.

Financial Technology (FinTech) solution providers presently make rather limited use of blockchain implementations. While blockchain-based models may not always support optimised operations, there is an exceeding number of use cases that recommend decentralised approaches to solve challenges in the FinTech space in ways that may be much more economical, efficient or secure that the present state-of-the-art.

 

Select a FinTech use case for blockchain (this may be any type of solution in the FinTech space) where you believe blockchain principles can deliver improvements to existing practice.

 

Examples include, but are not limited to Client Onboarding; Identity Verification; Anti-Money Laundering Compliance; Fraud Detection; Credit Reports; Microlending; Crowdfunding; P2P payments; Transaction Auditing and others.

You are asked to provide:
1. An overview of existing established practice in the area you chose– this may either be provided in reference to broad industry practice, or with reference to a specific organisation or organisations.
2. An outline proposition on how a blockchain-based solution can accommodate the above existing practice, discussing how and where the solution can offer improvements; this should also include a comprehensive review of the blockchain technology to be involved, drawing on the literature (academic and trade).
3. An analysis of these improvements providing both qualitative and quantitative measures, where possible, based on both publicly available information and the conceptual / theoretical principles that you are proposing to apply (as found in  academic and trade literature). For your solution, you need to explain what informs
the design decisions behind it.
4. A critical evaluation of your proposed approach or solution and a set of conclusions
5. A table of references (with in-text citation)

 

This in an individual piece of work, and should be written in report-style, use academic language, in-text citations and references to the literature (academic or trade). The report will need to deliver a coherent account where:
(i) there is clear problem identification;
(ii) the motivation for blockchain-driven solutions should be articulated and supported with evidence;
(iii) there is a clear proposition and indicative high-level architecture for your proposed solution;
(iv) there is a clear set of design decisions supported by relevant literature / industry evidence (e.g. type of blockchain used; choice of consensus protocols; suggested platforms and so on);
(v) the recommended solution is critically analysed and its strengths and challenges are outlined
(vi) there is a clear set of conclusions

 

The report should be approximately 2500 words ± 10%
Please note that no technical development or programming is required for the Individual Report.

This is an individual submission that will comprise of three (3) Lab Exercises from among the Lab Sessions that will be covered in the term. Please note:
1. Each Lab Exercise will be provided in the course of the Term, with tasks clearly defined and marks attribution clearly signposted.
2. You will be notified which exercises precisely you will have to submit as a Portfolio by week 10 of teaching. You are strongly advised to complete all Lab Exercises as they are covered throughout the term
3. You will have to include evidence of functioning implementation of your work in your Lab Portfolio submission (e.g. via screenshots or other supporting evidence) Both PART I and PART II should form one single submission (PDF, docx, odt or other accepted format), while the Code part of the implementation will be submitted as a supplement on the same date.