Blockchain technology is reshaping the foundations of how financial systems operate, how digital property is owned and exchanged, and how trust is built in increasingly data-driven economies. The Interim Chair in Blockchain Technology as the Foundation for Digital Property Rights and Data Markets is dedicated to building deep expertise in this rapidly evolving field, with a particular focus on blockchain-enabled financial systems, cybersecurity and privacy-preserving digital infrastructures. Based in the School of Economics, the Chair is part of a bilateral collaboration between South Africa and Switzerland and contributes to UCT’s growing leadership in financial technology (fintech), digital finance and blockchain research.

The Chair’s work spans both theoretical innovation and practical application. Notable methodological contributions include the measurement of regulatory complexity through software metrics that opens new ways to study how rules constrain or enable financial behaviour, and the development of decentralised, privacy-preserving methods for assessing systemic risk in interbank networks. The Chair has also introduced innovative frameworks for the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), contributing to global policy discussions on the future of money. Alongside this scholarship, the Chair has placed strong emphasis on translating research into practice, including the development of minimal viable products aligned with research outputs and entrepreneurial initiatives that bring academic insights into real-world application.