Final Event of the Blockchain Challenge. Tuesday | 11 May | 17: 00 – 20: 00 Public event streamed via Zoom Webinar. Foreword by the Jury

The University of has been offering Blockchain courses since 2017. In various courses, students learn the theoretical foundations of this promising technology and get a chance to see beyond the hype. From cryptographic algorithms to mecha- nism design and various protocols, our students tackle a broad range of relevant topics. These foundations are essential to understand the technology and get an understanding of how it can be applied.

In addition to the theoretical classes, we host a very special format: The Blockchain Chal- lenge. It essentially serves as a capstone project, where students get a chance to apply their knowledge and work on real-world cases provided by project partners from various industries. The students get a case with a specific question and employ Blockchain tech- nology to come up with creative solutions.

This novel format has been highly successful, and a large variety of interesting cases have been developed in the past few years. Tokenized train tickets, identity solutions for sup- pliers in the pharma industry, and provably fair submission schemes are just a few of many applications that have been developed in the past — And once again, we have a very promising and highly committed group of students, that have been tirelessly work- ing on their cases for the past three months. We are therefore extremely excited to host the third annual Blockchain Challenge Finale, for the class of 2021.

On May 11, the students will pitch their cases and present their project findings during a public event. They will present their concepts, showcase the applications they have devel- oped, and thereby compete for the title “Blockchain Challenge Champion 2021.”

If you are interested in seeing how this novel technology can be applied in various indus- tries, this is a great opportunity. The event will take place online (via Zoom Webinar) and is free of charge. → Register Now: https://wwz.unibas.ch/en/dltfintech/blockchain-challenge/

Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär Managing Director Center for Innovative Finance, University of Basel Asset Management () Professor for DLT/FinTech, University of Basel

Prof. Dr. Aleksander Berentsen Professor for Economic Theory, University of Basel

Prof. Dr. Walter Dettling Lecturer for Business Information Technology and Mathematics, FHNW Final Event of the Blockchain Challenge. Students present their business cases that they have developed over the semester.

About the Blockchain Challenge 17: 00 – 17: 15 Introduction The Blockchain Challenge is a hackathon-like Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär, course in which eight teams, consisting of Managing Director Center for students from a wide range of disciplines, Innovative Finance and Credit compete against each other. The goal is to Suisse Asset Management (Swit- zerland) Professor for DLT/Fin- develop a blockchain concept based on an Tech, University of Basel actual case that has been provided by one of our project partners. The students tackle 17: 15 – 17: 20 Opening Speech Andri Silberschmidt, technological, legal, and economic aspects Member of the Swiss National of the case, design a visual prototype and Council. develop smart contracts running on a block- chain. 17: 20 – 19: 30 Case-Presentations The Teams present their projects.

The Process 19: 30 – 19: 45 Wrap-Up and Q&A During the semester, the teams present their Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär progress several times and receive input 19: 45 – 20: 00 Award Ceremony from business experts and coaches. This Prof. Dr. Fabian Schär year, students worked on cases from partner companies in the fields of banking, consult- ing, insurance, law, pharmaceuticals, and Event Organizer: telecommunications. Center for Innovative Finance, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel. The Final Event On May 11th, the students present their solu- Project Partners: tions to a public audience, including experts AXA, BearingPoint, Burckhardt, CLER, from the field of blockchain technology. You Credit Suisse Asset Management Switzer- can expect innovative solutions for the many land, Novartis, Blockchain, Top- technological challenges in today’s corporate Pharm. world. Network Partners: Registration Arbeitgeberverband, Kanton Basel-Stadt, You may register via our website. The event Handelskammer beider Basel, Vereinigung is public and can be attended free of Basler Ökonomen, WWZ Forum. charge. → https://wwz.unibas.ch/en/dltfintech/blockchain-challenge/ The Cases of the Blockchain Challenge 2021. Students completed the cases of the following project partners.

Smart Contract Insurance vestment case of physical assets. Our proj- Case provided by AXA ect Opus builds bridges between the block- Laslo Dosa, Albi Tahiri, Thom van Rijn chain and the physical world by tokeniza- Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has grown ex- tion, unlocking novel investment opportu- ponentially over the past year. However, us- nities for institutional and retail investors ers looking for exceptional returns on their alike: A modular tokenization framework investments often underestimate the risks for fine art with extensibility to any type of associated with Smart Contracts, which are mobile physical asset. The Opus tokens are a the fundamental building blocks of DeFi. vehicle for fractional ownership of a specific The main issue arises from not perfectly se- artwork based on the Ethereum ecosystem. curely written Smart Contracts, resulting in The Opus framework reduces the number of bugs and opening up potential attack vec- trusted parties involved in a transaction of tors which can be exploited. Such imperfect physical assets while expediting settlement code coupled with the decentralized nature and improving information flow and price of public blockchains and the resulting im- discovery. mutability of transactions can cause a per- manent loss of crypto assets locked within DeFi protocols. Therefore, the vision of AXA Lending and Borrowing of Crypto Assets is to create an insurance product for DeFi Case provided by Bank CLER Smart Contracts, and the students were chal- Tobias Schaffner, Alain Schaller, Samuel lenged to develop a solution for DeFi users. Welde Bank Cler recently announced their up- coming entry into the crypto asset mar- Physical Assets Tokenization ket. To extend this offer, the students pro- Case provided by Bearing Point posed several add-on solutions that expand Oliver Keller, Dominique Ostermayer, Dario the current concept beyond its initial foot- Thürkauf print. The main focus lies on a bridge solu- Physical assets are highly complex invest- tion, enabling simple, intuitive, and smooth ments due to idiosyncratic valuation mech- transitions to the DeFi ecosystem. Bank Cler anisms, high financial entry thresholds, customers have the option to lend and thus and long processing times. Multiple layers earn interest on their crypto assets with on- of trusted parties are usually involved in a ly a few simple steps through their existing transaction of physical assets due to com- e-banking application. The team prototyped plexity and the concomitant low trading interactive mockups and developed an actual activity, as well as the necessary high lev- bridge, allowing Bank Cler an easy and seam- el of expertise. This results in high transac- less implementation. tion costs, asymmetric information, trust as well as counterparty risks. The transi- tion of physical assets to a blockchain by to- kenization is a holistic solution to the in- The Cases of the Blockchain Challenge 2021. Students completed the cases of the following project partners.

Blockchain Technology and Last Wills one can acquire or offer commercial rental Case provided by Burkhardt AG space; an Ethereum blockchain-based pro- Nico Born, Annika Kristina Hansen, Pirmin cess with an integrated rental auction; and Can Özdemir a Smart contract-based authentication and Storing and safekeeping the last will under contract signing process, deployed on the today’s jurisdiction can be challenging, espe- Ethereum blockchain providing a transpar- cially to ensure the will’s existence, validity, ent and traceable audit trail. and genuineness to the descendants. How do we know that a last will actually exist and whether the version at hand is indeed the Electronic Product Information (ePI) most recent one? How can we ensure that Case provided by Novartis the will-maker was sound of mind when cre- Vanessa Abegg, Manuel Baez, Josep ating his last will and that it has not been Brunet Kunz, Luca Finkler-Haack modified in the meantime? The students PharmaLedger, a leading consortium of 29 were asked to develop a blockchain-based partners, including Novartis, aims to create concept addressing these problems. a Blockchain-based platform for the health- care industry. One of the most advanced use cases is the implementation of Electronic Blockchain-Based Rental Lease Asset Product Information (ePI). The ePI solution Management allows manufacturers to profit by having Case provided by Credit Suisse Asset faster manufacturing adaptability and cost Management Switzerland reduction. In order to upscale such a block- Stefan Alfonz, Brian Kilchenmann, Annika chain ecosystem, it is necessary to prove that Neumann, Felix Novotny it is sustainable at a small scale and can in- tegrate all stakeholders with different goals “Liquispace” connects landlords and rent- and interests. We designed a mock-up that al lease contract owners to a marketplace visualizes the governance structure and where they can liquify unused rental lease shows what incentives are used to create a space or acquiring new rental lease space in developer community to contribute to Phar- an easy and compliant way through a block- maLedger. In addition, we propose creating a chain-based platform, which guarantees that foundation funded by the membership fees all business-critical requirements are ful- of manufacturers in PharmaLedger and oth- filled. The platform aims to improve time ers who wish to join. This governance mod- to market and to gain flexibility on managed el will allow the balanced distribution of real estate portfolios. It offers easy access to power inside the ecosystem regarding deci- an open marketplace for rental lease assets sion-making processes. with various opportunities to acquire or of- fer commercial rental space. Key features of the platform are: Easy access to an open mar- ketplace for rental lease asset, where every- The Cases of the Blockchain Challenge 2021. Students completed the cases of the following project partners.

Sustainable Finance Tokenization ing fraud and cyber-attacks. Additionally, Case provided by Swisscom Blockchain AccountChain facilitates the management Alisha Amrein, Dominic Richner of reciprocal financial liabilities between all Swisscom challenged us to foster sustainabil- branches, allowing customers to spend their ity through the use of blockchain technolo- loyalty points anywhere in your network. gy. This case aims to employ this novel tech- Furthermore, it simplifies VAT accounting nology to provide a higher degree of trans- through its flexible real-time reporting, pro- parency and flexibility, align incentives in viding an overview of key financial figures – the sustainable investment market, and mit- trustworthy and without any delay. Accoun- igate greenwashing in sustainable finance. tChain helps not only in reducing market- Sustainable projects are represented as dig- ing costs but also in developing a profound ital assets, called tokens, on a Blockchain understanding of customer behavior by de- platform. Corporate investors interested in livering end-to-end tracking of transaction environmentally or socially impactful invest- data. Finally, the system leverages sales by ments can then purchase these tokens us- allowing the simple execution of special pro- ing stablecoins and cryptoassets. Whenever motions in individual branches or simulta- investors obtain such a token, they receive neously for the entire network. additional sustainability tokens as a reward. These tokens work as reputable achieve- ments and can be publicly verified. Such a platform can mobilize investors to support more sustainable activities and provide them with valid proof of their involvement, pre- venting greenwashing.

Blockchain Loyalty Network Case provided by TopPharm Wenqi Li, Dominik Merz AccountChain is a decentralized, fully trans- parent, and fraud-protected loyalty platform. It ensures data security and efficiency by au- tomating accounting processes in a trusted technological environment. Moreover, the integrated unambiguous identification ac- cess mechanism allows all branches in your business network to interact with each oth- er transparently. All data is cryptographical- ly validated and stored decentrally, prevent- Event Participation This public event will be conducted online via Zoom Webinar. Participation is free of charge, and you can attend via any computer or smartphone.

Registration is possible via our website: https://wwz.unibas.ch/en/dltfintech/blockchain-challenge/

LONZA HOCHHAUS

TRAMHALTESTELLE 15/E11 GROSSPETERSTRASSE

NAUENSTRASSE NAUENSTRASSE NAUENSTRASSE

POST PETER MERIAN HAUS JACOB BURCKHARDT HAUS PETER MERIAN-WEG 6

BAHNHOF GUNDELIPASSARELLE TRAMHALTESTELLE 10 /11 BASEL POSTPASSAGE PETER MERIAN-WEG PETER MERIAN PETER MERIAN-WEG

SBB – GLEISE SBB – GLEISE GUNDELIPASSARELLE

HOCHSTRASSE HOCHSTRASSE

Educating About the Center for Innovative Finance of the University of Basel Talents The “Center for Innovative Finance” (CIF) since 1460. of the University of Basel is engaged in the fields of Fintech, Digital Banking, and Finance. Our research focuses on the scientific analysis and practical Center for Innovative Finance implementation of Blockchain projects, University of Basel venturing, and innovative financial Faculty of Business and Economics solutions. With this research focus, the Peter Merian-Weg 6 CIF is unique in Switzerland and makes a 4002 Basel decisive contribution to the research and Switzerland application of future-oriented technolo- gies — also in the context of social https://cif.unibas.ch consequences.