Cesare Fracassi is an Associate Professor of Finance and the Director of the Blockchain Initiative at the University of Texas - McCombs School of Business. During our conversation Cesare explains the fundamentals and benefits of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Crypto has gained significant momentum, value, and attention in the past few years, and is poised to change our society. Cesare provides a basic overview of where we are and where we might be heading with these technologies.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:10) Get to know Cesare Fracassi

(02:13) How did Cesare get interested in blockchain technology?

(03:54) Cesare explains his background in technology, developing interest in fintech and blockchain, and becoming the Director at a blockchain institute

(07:42) What is meant by fintech?

(09:14) Cesare explains the growing trends in blockchain technology

(12:19) Centralized vs. distributed ledgers

(12:54) Understanding centralized ledgers

(14:02) Understanding decentralized ledgers and their evolution

(16:23) In the case of decentralized ledgers, how does the whole network decide if a transaction is valid or not?

(17:50) How Satoshi Nakamoto discovered a way for every node in a decentralized network to evaluate transactions as legit or not

(18:51) The two challenges in allowing every node in a decentralized network to vote -- 1) No centralized vote-counting system, and 2) Sybil attack

(20:34) The solution to enabling transactions through decentralized networks, according to Satoshi Nakamoto

(23:22) How Bitcoin turned out to become the “digital gold”

(30:54) What according to Cesare, is the best cryptocurrency to buy today?

(34:09) Is it possible to reverse engineer Bitcoin to provide the benefits that Ethereum does?

(36:16) What makes Ethereum smart contracts superior?

(39:11) Where are we, at present, with respect to the development of cryptocurrency? What does the future hold?

(46:58) What's the easiest way for people to enter the crypto world?

(47:32) What is meant by Internet 2.0?

(49:34) What would the future look like if cryptocurrency evolved the way we experts think it might?

(54:26) Does Cesare believe cryptocurrency holds an opportunity for further growth?

(59:04) What is a Private Permission Blockchain?

(01:01:02) What would be the end result of a massive blockchain transformation?

(01:06:33) Does cryptocurrency have the potential to improve our civilization and people's lives?

(01:09:15) Blockchain resource recommendations from Cesare