Introduction to Blockchain Applications in Finance - Training Week
I. Introduction to Blockchain applications in finance (ASE) II. Scientific Writing (BFH)
Time & Location
03 Nov 2025, 09:00 – 07 Nov 2025, 17:00
Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Piața Romană 6, Room Robert Schuman, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
About the event
The training week provides a comprehensive introduction to Blockchain Applications in Finance, covering both the fundamentals of blockchain technology and its practical applications in financial markets.
Participants will explore a broad set of topics, including cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization of assets, NFTs, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Risk assessment methods such as spectral risk measures, stochastic dominance, regime-switching models, and Financial Risk Meter (FRM) will also be presented, alongside advanced lectures on AI and blockchain integration.
The program combines academic lectures, industry case studies, panel discussions, and hands-on project sessions. By the end of the week, participants will:
Understand blockchain fundamentals and financial applications.
Analyze risks and systemic implications of blockchain-based assets.
Explore opportunities and limitations of DeFi, NFTs, and digital assets.
Engage with reproducible research through Quantlet and Quantinar.
Begin developing doctoral projects to be presented at final sessions.
Modules and Credits
This training week is part of the MSCA Digital Finance Doctoral Program:
3–6 November: Foundation modules on blockchain, digital assets, and risk modeling (4 ECTS)
7 November: Research writing and publishing tutorials (1 ECTS)
30 January 2026: Final online group presentations
Prior Knowledge
Participants should have:
Basic understanding of finance, asset pricing, and risk measures
Programming experience in Python or R (data analysis, visualization, econometrics)
Knowledge of statistics, linear algebra, and time-series analysis
Time Schedule
Monday (03/11)
08:50 - 09:20 → Registration
09:20 – 09:30 → Welcome – Constantin Marius Profiroiu (Vice-Rector for International Relations), Dorel Paraschiv (Vice-rector for Liaison with the Social and Business Environment, Student Cooperation)
09:30 – 09:40 → Introduction to MSCA Digital Finance Training Week – Daniel Traian Pele, Joerg Osterrieder
09:40 – 10:40 → Blockchain Technology – Wolfgang Karl Härdle
11:00 – 12:00 → Blockchain for Social Good: The Case of Sarafu Network Community Asset Vouchers in Kenya – Patricia Marcella Evite & Will Ruddick
13:00 – 15:00 → Blockchain Business Models – Frederik Bernard
15:20 – 17:00 → Project: description and coding – All
Tuesday (04/11)
09:40 – 10:40 → Do Investors Buy Innovation: Market Responses to Ethereum Development Milestones – Daniel Traian Pele
11:00 – 12:00 → Stochastic Dominance in the Crypto Market – Radu Lupu
13:00 – 14:00 → Transformer CoVaR – Weining Wang
14:00 – 15:00 → No shortfall of ES estimators: Insights from cryptocurrency portfolios – Matúš Horváth
15:20 – 16:10 → Bayesian Estimation of Regime-Switching Bubbles with Time-Varying Probabilities – Petre Caraiani
16:10 – 17:00 → Project: description and coding – All
Wednesday (05/11)
09:40 – 10:40 → Blockchain Mechanism and Distributional Characteristics of Cryptos – Wolfgang Karl Härdle
11:00 – 12:00 → NFT and other Digital Assets – Wolfgang Karl Härdle
13:00 – 14:00 → Rough Volatility and Correlated Jumps – Xiaorui Zuo
14:10 – 15:10 → Pricing Kernels and Risk Premia – Julian Winkel
Thursday (06/11)
09:00 – 09:45 → Stable Coin Risks – Daniel Traian Pele
09:45 – 10:30 → Blockchain Characteristics and Systematic Risk: A Neural Network Based Factor Model for Cryptocurrencies – Alla Petukhina
10:45 – 11:30 → Bubbles all the way down? Detecting and date-stamping bubble behaviours in NFT and DeFi markets – Lennart John Baals
11:45 – 12:30 → Project Progress Presentations & Discussions – All
13:30 – 13:45 → Review and Coordination of MSCA Digital Finance – Joerg Osterrieder
13:45 – 14:35 → Blockchain in Finance: Research, Tools, and Visualisation Techniques – Liana Stanca
14:50 – 15:40 → Financial Risk Measures with Applications to the Cryptocurrency Market – Rui Ren
15:55 – 16:45 → Transmission Dynamics in Crypto Markets: Comparing Volatility and Liquidity Spillover Networks – Barbara Bedowska Sojka
Friday (07/11)
08:30 – 10:30 → What Makes a Good Paper – Christina Sichtmann
11:00 – 12:30 → The Review Process – Christina Sichtmann
14:00 – 15:30 → Tutorial: Find Ideas and Develop a Vision – Christina Sichtmann
16:00 – 18:00 → Tutorial: Establish a Writing Habit – Christina Sichtmann
Final Presentations (30/01/2026)
13:00 - 16:00 → Final Group Presentations (Online)
Speakers
Alla Petukhina Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW Berlin), Germany
Barbara Bedowska Sojka University of Poznan, Poland
Christina Sichtmann Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Daniel Traian Pele IDA Institute Digital Assets, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Institute for Economic Forecasting, Romanian Academy, Romania;
Frederik Bernard University of Twente, Netherlands
Joerg Osterrieder Coordinator MSCA Digital Finance
Julian Winkel Royalton Partners, Luxembourg
Lennart John Baals University of Twente, Netherlands
Liana Stanca Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Matúš Horváth Masaryk University Brno, Czech
Patricia Marcella Evite University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Petre Caraiani Institute for Economic Forecasting, Romanian Academy; Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Radu Lupu IDA Institute Digital Assets, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Institute for Economic Forecasting, Romanian Academy, Romania;
Rui Ren University of Augsburg, Germany
Weining Wang School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK; IDA Institute Digital Assets, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Will Ruddick Grassroots Economics Foundation, Kenya
Wolfgang Karl Härdle IDA Institute Digital Assets, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Xiaorui Zuo Technische Universität Berlin, Germany