Talk available online: https://youtu.be/9IPlG4JiL-k

Abstract: This paper aims to provide an understandable survey of ‘stablecoins’—cryptocurrencies designed to have lower volatility than Bitcoin or Ether. We distil the stability mechanisms into a set of primitives and precisely analyze why they are thought to adjust exchange rates, what assumptions they are based on, and what risks still exist. Stablecoins are interesting to the cryptocurrency community because volatility has hampered spending, increased speculation, and hindered mature lending/credit markets from forming. Our comparison includes pre-Bitcoin digital currencies like Liberty Reserve and e-gold, Ethereum’s gas, and novel visualizations.

Bio: Didem Demirag is a PhD candidate at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering in Montreal, Canada. She is interested in applied cryptography, genomic privacy, blockchain applications and stablecoins. She is currently working on realizing secure function evaluation using blockchain and is an intern at Autorité des Marchés Financiers, Montreal.

Bio: Mahsa Moosavi is a blockchain engineer/ PhD candidate at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering in Montreal, Canada. She previously worked as a research intern at the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, Québec regulator organization who is responsible for financial regulation in the province, where she worked on designing a decentralize cryptocurrency exchange system. Her research is now focuses on understanding the future of financial technologies (FinTech) using blockchains. Mahsa has contributed to the broader blockchain community by participating as a blockchain mentor in Montreal’s several large FinTech competitions, i.e., Montreal 2nd annual Fin-Tech Formathon, organized by FinTech Cadence. She has also given many talks and tutorials on the topic in various conferences and training sessions. You can find more information about her research on Twitter at @msv_mahsa