Lecture 12: Flipped — CBDCs & the Future of Money
Final session · group presentations · token allocation · course wrap-up
12.1 Course objectives
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
Welcome to Emerging Technology & Finance
- This is a flipped-classroom Bachelor course: every regular lecture (odd weeks) is followed by a flipped session (even weeks) where all groups present on the same topic. There is no exam to register for — sign up on the course Moodle page by 15 October 2026 so you receive announcements and the token-allocation quiz links.
- Form a group of 4 by the end of Week 1 (Moodle sign-up sheet). Stragglers will be allocated by the lecturers.
- Grading is 100% cumulative across the 6 flipped sessions: each session = 50% peer-allocated tokens + 50% lecturer evaluation. Each group gets 20 fresh tokens every flipped week to allocate to other groups via a Moodle quiz within 5 minutes of the session ending.
- Submission per session: upload your slide PDF to Moodle before each flipped session starts. Ask questions during or right after each session — that is the preferred channel.
- Admin / studies / exam-eligibility questions go to the registrar’s office (Studiensekretariat) at studiensekretariat@uni-ulm.de.
- Course-content questions outside class: email oliver.padmaperuma@uni-ulm.de, CC andre.guettler@uni-ulm.de.
- We also recommend the student advisory service.
Course Objective
Scope
We will:
- Survey six emerging-technology modules at the cutting edge of finance: agentic AI · blockchain & DeFi · fintech business models · RegTech & cybersecurity · CBDCs
- Pair every regular lecture with a flipped session in which every group presents their angle on the topic
- Train critical evaluation, presentation, and peer-judgment skills via a transparent token-based peer-grading mechanic
- Place the technologies in a real-world business and regulatory context (PSD2/3, MiCA, EU AI Act, post-quantum standards)
We will NOT:
- Build production-grade fintech systems or trade live capital
- Cover deep technical implementations (we treat code as supplement, not core)
- Run a separate written exam or final-pitch competition — the cumulative flipped-session grade is the entire grade
Approach
Flipped-classroom alternation (12 weeks)
- Odd weeks (W1, W3, W5, W7, W9, W11): regular lecture introducing the topic
- Even weeks (W2, W4, W6, W8, W10, W12): flipped session — all groups present and allocate tokens
- Groups of 4, formed by end of Week 1
Token mechanic (the grading vehicle)
- 20 tokens per group per flipped session
- Each group allocates them to other groups, weighing insight · originality · clarity · critical depth
- Cumulative across 6 sessions = 50% of final grade · lecturer evaluation = 50%
Course at a glance (1/3)
Foundations of Digital Disruption in Financial Services
What is ‘emerging tech in finance’, how did we get here, where is it going
- Three waves of digital disruption in finance
- Today’s actors: incumbents, challengers, Big Tech, infrastructure
- Regulatory backdrop: PSD2, MiCA, EU AI Act
- Why now: structural drivers
- What this course will cover
Flipped — Digital Disruption in Financial Services
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the foundations lecture
- Group presentations on digital disruption
- Token allocation & next steps
Agentic AI & LLMs in Finance
From LLMs to agents · applications · failure modes · EU AI Act
- LLMs in finance: architecture, training, capabilities
- Agentic AI: from answers to actions
- Applications: RAG, robo-advisors, AML, trading agents
- Failure modes: hallucination, drift, prompt injection
- Governance: EU AI Act and high-risk obligations
Flipped — Agentic AI & LLMs in Finance
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the agentic AI lecture
- Group presentations on real LLM and agent deployments
- Token allocation & next steps
Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi & Tokenisation
From distributed ledgers to MiCA-regulated markets
- Blockchain primer: ledgers, consensus, smart contracts
- Crypto markets: BTC, ETH, stablecoins
- DeFi primitives: AMMs, lending, derivatives
- Tokenisation of real-world assets
- MiCA framework and EU enforcement
Course at a glance (2/3)
Flipped — Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi & Tokenisation
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the blockchain & DeFi lecture
- Group presentations on real protocols and deployments
- Token allocation & next steps
Fintech Business Models
Neobanks, embedded finance, BNPL, Open Banking, Big Tech in finance
- Neobanks: N26, Revolut, Monzo, Chime
- Embedded finance & BaaS
- BNPL: Klarna, Affirm, regulatory pushback
- Open Banking & PSD2 outcomes
- Big Tech in finance
Flipped — Fintech Business Models
Neobanks, embedded finance, BNPL · group presentations · token allocation
- Recap of the fintech business-models lecture
- Group presentations on real companies and unit economics
- Token allocation & next steps
RegTech, Cybersecurity & Privacy-Preserving Compute
Industrialising compliance · cyber-threat landscape · ZKPs, MPC, federated learning · post-quantum
- RegTech overview: industrialising compliance
- KYC/AML automation in production
- Cybersecurity threats in finance
- Privacy-preserving compute: ZKPs, MPC, federated learning
- Post-quantum cryptography & the migration
Flipped — RegTech, Cybersecurity & Privacy-Preserving Compute
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the RegTech & security lecture
- Group presentations on vendors, incidents, and emerging tech
- Token allocation & next steps
Course at a glance (3/3)
CBDCs & the Future of Money
Wholesale vs retail design · Digital Euro · e-CNY · programmable money
- What’s a CBDC: wholesale vs retail
- The Digital Euro state of play
- China’s e-CNY and small-country implementations
- Programmable money: feature, threat, or both
- Stablecoins as private money: tension with CBDCs
Flipped — CBDCs & the Future of Money
Final session · group presentations · token allocation · course wrap-up
- Recap of the CBDCs lecture
- Group presentations on real CBDC projects
- Token allocation, final standings, and course retrospective
Assignments / Exams
Flipped-Classroom Presentation Series 100% of your grade
Six in-class group presentations across six emerging-tech topics, graded cumulatively. Each session: 50% peer-allocated tokens + 50% lecturer evaluation.
Group of up to 4.
Submit by emailing oliver.padmaperuma@uni-ulm.de, CC andre.guettler@uni-ulm.de. Subject pattern: Emerging Technology & Finance_assignment-1-flipped-classroom-presentations_surname1_surname2_…
21 January 2027
12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
What we covered last week
- Wholesale vs retail CBDC — different problems, different designs, different politics (Auer and Böhme 2020).
- The Digital Euro — ECB’s investigation phase concluded; preparation phase ongoing; design choices on privacy, intermediation, and tiered holdings (European Central Bank 2023).
- China’s e-CNY — large-scale pilot, ~$250B cumulative transaction volume, narrow user adoption beyond mandated use cases.
- Sweden’s e-krona, Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria eNaira — small-country pilots, small-country lessons.
- Programmable money — what it enables (conditional transfers, expiring stimulus, automated tax), what it threatens (privacy, monetary sovereignty) (Brunnermeier, James, and Landau 2019).
- Stablecoin vs CBDC competition — private money meets public money; the EU’s MiCA-CBDC interplay.
- M-Pesa lessons — what 20 years of mobile-money in Kenya tells us about retail digital money (Jack and Suri 2014; Bank for International Settlements 2023).
Notes
The takeaway from Lecture 11 was that CBDC design is less a technology decision and more a constitutional choice — what is money, who can hold it, how anonymous can it be, what conditions can be attached? Different jurisdictions are answering these questions differently, and the differences will shape global financial flows for decades. Tonight you bring one specific case study and reason about which design choices it embodies.
Open questions to dig into today
- Will the Digital Euro be widely adopted by retail users, or remain a payment rail used mostly by banks?
- Is China’s e-CNY primarily a payment innovation or a surveillance instrument? Can it be both?
- Programmable money: a feature (efficient policy delivery) or a threat (loss of monetary anonymity)?
- After 20 years of M-Pesa, why hasn’t European mobile-money development followed the same path?
Notes
This is the most politically loaded topic in the course. Bring evidence, but also be willing to take a position — token allocators tend to reward groups that argue an honest thesis rather than hedge.
12.3 Session agenda
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
Today’s flow
- 14:00 — Welcome & recap (5 min)
- 14:05 — Group presentations (6 min + 2 min Q&A each)
- 15:00 — Lecturer reflection + course retrospective (10 min)
- 15:10 — Final token allocation (5 min on Moodle)
- 15:15 — Final standings, feedback, & farewell (5 min)
Notes
This is the last session of the term. The lecturer reflection slot doubles as a course retrospective; the final token-allocation closes the cumulative grade; the wrap-up covers feedback channels and any follow-ups.
Group presentation order
- Angle: ECB Digital Euro — current design choices & political reception
- Slot: 14:05–14:13
- Angle: China’s e-CNY — uptake numbers, real use cases, surveillance concerns
- Slot: 14:13–14:21
- Angle: A small-country CBDC (Sand Dollar · eNaira · e-krona · DCash)
- Slot: 14:21–14:29
- Angle: Stablecoin vs CBDC competition — the regulatory outcome
- Slot: 14:29–14:37
- Angle: M-Pesa revisited — what emerging markets teach the West about retail digital money
- Slot: 14:37–14:45
- Angle: Programmable-money risk scenarios — expiring dollars, conditional welfare, sanctioned blocks
- Slot: 14:45–14:53
What groups present today
6 min + 2 min Q&A. Each presentation must include:
- One specific CBDC / stablecoin / mobile-money case.
- Concrete numbers — uptake, transaction volume, geographic scope.
- The design / political trade-off the case embodies — privacy, intermediation, programmability.
- A position you defend, not just a survey.
- 1–2 discussion prompts.
12.4 Group presentations
Group 1 — ECB Digital Euro
- Bring: holding-limits proposal, intermediated distribution model, the privacy commitments and their limits, the timeline (preparation phase → decision).
- The strongest version answers: “if launched in 2027, what is the realistic share of European retail payments by 2030?”
Notes
Live-fill slide.
Group 2 — China’s e-CNY
- Bring: cumulative transaction figures, geographic spread of pilots, on-/off-line architecture, surveillance trade-offs.
- The strongest version uses on-ground evidence (user behaviour, merchant uptake) rather than PBoC press releases.
Notes
Live-fill slide.
Group 3 — Small-country CBDC
- Pick one. Bring: launch year, uptake, design specifics, and the honest lessons (often: deployment without merchant uptake fails).
- The strongest version generalises one transferable lesson.
Notes
Live-fill slide.
Group 4 — Stablecoin vs CBDC competition
- Bring: the regulatory environment (MiCA stablecoin caps, US stablecoin draft bills), the volume comparison (USDC + USDT vs CBDC pilots), and the realistic 5-year outcome.
- The strongest version argues which form of digital money wins which use cases.
Notes
Live-fill slide.
Group 5 — M-Pesa revisited
- Bring: penetration in Kenya / East Africa, the regulatory permissiveness that enabled it, and what Europe’s regulatory / cultural environment would need to change.
- The strongest version is brutally honest about why Europe will not copy M-Pesa.
Notes
Live-fill slide.
Group 6 — Programmable money risk scenarios
- Pick 1–2 scenarios. Bring: the technical mechanism that enables them, the policy benefit being claimed, and the civil-liberty / monetary-sovereignty risk.
- The strongest version proposes a concrete design guardrail.
Notes
Live-fill slide.
12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
How tokens work (last time)
- Final 20 tokens per group — this is the last allocation that contributes to your grade.
- Other groups only — no self-allocation. Total = 20.
- Moodle quiz opens for 5 minutes after the last presentation.
Notes
After this submission, the peer half of every group’s grade is locked. The lecturer half will be finalised next week and published on Moodle.
Allocation rubric
- Insight — taught you something new?
- Originality — fresh angle?
- Clarity — followable?
- Critical depth — honest appraisal?
Notes
Tonight reward groups that took a defended position rather than a balanced survey. The course’s hardest skill — appraising openly when the answer is uncertain — is the one to celebrate in this final allocation.
Cumulative leaderboard
| Group | Cumulative tokens | Lecturer score (avg) | Final grade (interim) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | — | — | — |
| Group 2 | — | — | — |
| Group 3 | — | — | — |
| Group 4 | — | — | — |
| Group 5 | — | — | — |
| Group 6 | — | — | — |
- The interim grade shown is normalised peer tokens × 0.5 + lecturer score × 0.5, averaged across the 6 sessions.
- Mapping to the German scale (1.0 best, 5.0 fail; 4.0 passing) is published on Moodle within 2 weeks.
- The end-of-term audit on coordinated allocations runs before grade publication.
12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
What worked across the term
- (live-fill) — the three flipped sessions where peer evaluation aligned most sharply with the lecturer’s — these are the moments where the room demonstrated genuine collective judgment.
- (live-fill) — the topics where groups consistently exceeded the lecturer’s expectations on critical depth.
Notes
This slide is where I’m honest about how the term went — what the cohort did well, where the format itself helped vs. got in the way, and what specific groups did exceptionally.
What we would change
- (live-fill) — gaps the lecturers want to address in next year’s iteration.
- Your feedback — Moodle survey opens after this session; please be specific and direct.
Notes
Genuine feedback shapes how this course runs next year. The course is novel (flipped + token mechanic + bachelor level on emerging tech), so iteration matters more than in established formats.
Where to go from here
- Master programs at SMF / Ulm — Research in Finance, Finance Project — Asset Management, and supervised theses on crypto / DeFi / agentic AI in finance.
- Continuing to read — the references list on the course site is curated; the lecturers can suggest more on any specific topic.
- Stay in touch — questions, paper recommendations, internship referrals are welcome at the lecturer emails any time.
Notes
A surprising number of students from courses like this one go on to write theses with the institute or join fintech firms — feel free to follow up.
12.7 Farewell
- 12.1 Course objectives
- 12.2 Recap: CBDCs & the Future of Money
- 12.3 Session agenda
- 12.5 Final token allocation
- 12.6 Lecturer reflection & course retrospective
- 12.7 Farewell
Course at a glance (1/3)
Foundations of Digital Disruption in Financial Services
What is ‘emerging tech in finance’, how did we get here, where is it going
- Three waves of digital disruption in finance
- Today’s actors: incumbents, challengers, Big Tech, infrastructure
- Regulatory backdrop: PSD2, MiCA, EU AI Act
- Why now: structural drivers
- What this course will cover
Flipped — Digital Disruption in Financial Services
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the foundations lecture
- Group presentations on digital disruption
- Token allocation & next steps
Agentic AI & LLMs in Finance
From LLMs to agents · applications · failure modes · EU AI Act
- LLMs in finance: architecture, training, capabilities
- Agentic AI: from answers to actions
- Applications: RAG, robo-advisors, AML, trading agents
- Failure modes: hallucination, drift, prompt injection
- Governance: EU AI Act and high-risk obligations
Flipped — Agentic AI & LLMs in Finance
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the agentic AI lecture
- Group presentations on real LLM and agent deployments
- Token allocation & next steps
Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi & Tokenisation
From distributed ledgers to MiCA-regulated markets
- Blockchain primer: ledgers, consensus, smart contracts
- Crypto markets: BTC, ETH, stablecoins
- DeFi primitives: AMMs, lending, derivatives
- Tokenisation of real-world assets
- MiCA framework and EU enforcement
Course at a glance (2/3)
Flipped — Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi & Tokenisation
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the blockchain & DeFi lecture
- Group presentations on real protocols and deployments
- Token allocation & next steps
Fintech Business Models
Neobanks, embedded finance, BNPL, Open Banking, Big Tech in finance
- Neobanks: N26, Revolut, Monzo, Chime
- Embedded finance & BaaS
- BNPL: Klarna, Affirm, regulatory pushback
- Open Banking & PSD2 outcomes
- Big Tech in finance
Flipped — Fintech Business Models
Neobanks, embedded finance, BNPL · group presentations · token allocation
- Recap of the fintech business-models lecture
- Group presentations on real companies and unit economics
- Token allocation & next steps
RegTech, Cybersecurity & Privacy-Preserving Compute
Industrialising compliance · cyber-threat landscape · ZKPs, MPC, federated learning · post-quantum
- RegTech overview: industrialising compliance
- KYC/AML automation in production
- Cybersecurity threats in finance
- Privacy-preserving compute: ZKPs, MPC, federated learning
- Post-quantum cryptography & the migration
Flipped — RegTech, Cybersecurity & Privacy-Preserving Compute
Group presentations · token allocation · discussion
- Recap of the RegTech & security lecture
- Group presentations on vendors, incidents, and emerging tech
- Token allocation & next steps
Course at a glance (3/3)
CBDCs & the Future of Money
Wholesale vs retail design · Digital Euro · e-CNY · programmable money
- What’s a CBDC: wholesale vs retail
- The Digital Euro state of play
- China’s e-CNY and small-country implementations
- Programmable money: feature, threat, or both
- Stablecoins as private money: tension with CBDCs
Flipped — CBDCs & the Future of Money
Final session · group presentations · token allocation · course wrap-up
- Recap of the CBDCs lecture
- Group presentations on real CBDC projects
- Token allocation, final standings, and course retrospective
Thank you
- Token allocation: Moodle quiz is open now — final 5 minutes.
- Final-grade publication — within 2 weeks on Moodle, after the end-of-term audit.
- Course feedback — Moodle survey opens after the session; please complete it honestly.
- Thank you for taking this course. It is genuinely novel format, and your engagement is what made it work.