Fabian Schär is Professor for Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) and Fintech at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Basel. In addition, he is the Managing Director of the University’s Center for Innovative Finance. He has a PhD in Cryptoassets and Blockchain economics, co-authored the bestselling book “Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets”, published by MIT Press and several publications in scientific journals. His research is at the intersection of economics and computer science, with a particular focus on public Blockchains, Cryptoassets and Decentralized Finance protocols. He is the organizer of the “Blockchain Symposium”, the “Blockchain Challenge”, member of the organizing committee of a conference with the Swiss National Bank and co-initiator of a project to secure academic credentials on a Blockchain. In addition, he is a board member of the first FINMA regulated crypto asset manager, a member of the CEPR Research and Policy Network on FinTech and Digital Currencies, an advisor to the Multichain Asset Managers Association and Blockchain for Europe, a member of various World Economic Forum working groups, and an invited expert to hearings by the OECD and IOSCO. He spoke at over 150 conferences, including the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference in Seoul, Korea. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant in various positions at banks and bank-related companies.

Peer-reviewed Articles

Schär F. (2020), Decentralized Finance: On Blockchain- and Smart Contract-Based Financial Markets.
https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18469.65764

Schär F. (2020), Blockchain Forks: A Formal Classification Framework and Persistency Analysis, Working Paper.
https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27038.89928/1

Schär F. (2020), Cryptocurrencies: Miner Heterogeneity, Botnets, and Proof-of-Work Efficiency, Frontiers in Blockchain 3:16, pp.1-7.
https://dx.doi.org/fbloc.2020.00016

Schär F. & Mösli F. (2019), Blockchain Diplomas: Using Smart Contracts to Secure Academic Credentials, Journal of Higher Education Research (Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung), IHF Bayerisches Staatsinstitut für Hochschulforschung und Hochschulplanung, 41(3), pp. 48-58.
https://www.bzh.bayern.de/en/archiv/artikelarchiv/artikeldetail/blockchain-diplomas-using-smart-contracts-to-secure-academic-credentials

Nyffenegger R. & Schär F. (2018), Token Sales: Eine Analyse des Blockchain-basierten Unternehmensfinanzierungsinstruments, Corporate Finance, 05-06 2018, pp. 121-125. 
https://cf-fachportal.owlit.de/document.aspx?docid=CF1267606 

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2018), The Case for Central Bank Electronic Money and the Non-case for Central Bank Cryptocurrencies, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 100(2) pp. 97-106. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.20955/r.2018.97-106

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2018), A Short Introduction to the World of Cryptocurrencies, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 100(1), pp. 1-16.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20955/r.2018.1-16

Books 

Schär F. & Berentsen A. (2020, forthcoming), Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets: A Comprehensive Introduction, MIT Press.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/bitcoin-blockchain-and-cryptoassets

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2017), Bitcoin, Blockchain und Kryptoassets: Eine umfassende Einführung, BoD Norderstedt.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/3738653929/

Invited Chapters

Lipton, A., A. Sardon, F. Schär & C. Schüpbach. (2020, forthcoming). Stablecoins, Digital Currency, and the Future of Money, in A. Pentland, A. Lipton and T. Hardjono (ed.), Building the New Economy, MIT Press. 
https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.12949

Schär F. & Hübner Ph. (forthcoming), Blockchain und Smart Contracts im Kontext der Prozessautomatisierung, in: M. Bruhn und K. Hadwich (ed.), Forum Dienstleistungsmanagement 2020 - Automatisierung und Personalisierung von Dienstleistungen, Springer Gabler.

 Roth J., Schär F. & Schöpfer A. (forthcoming), The Tokenization of Assets: Using Blockchains for Equity Crowdfunding, in Karen Wendt (ed.) Theories of Change, Springer.
https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3443382

Berentsen, A. & F. Schär (2019), Stablecoins: The quest for a low-volatility cryptocurrency, in A. Fatas (ed.), The Economics of Fintech and Digital Currencies, CEPR Press. 
https://voxeu.org/content/economics-fintech-and-digital-currencies

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2016), The Fallacy of a Cashless Society, in: Beer C., Gnan E. & U.W. Birchler (ed.), Cash on Trial, SUERF Conference Proceedings 2016/1, Larcier, pp. 14-19.

Working and White Papers

Nadler M. and Schär F. (2021), Centralized Finance, Decentralized Ownership?An Iterative Mapping Process to Measure Protocol Token Distribution https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.09306

Schär, F. & Schuler, K. & Wagner, T.  (2020),  Blockchain Vending Machine: A Smart Contract-Based Peer-to-Peer Marketplace for Physical Goods. MPRA Paper 101733, University Library of Munich, Germany https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/101733.html

Kugler P. & Schär F. (2018), Decentralized Ownership of Digital Assets: Virtual Property on the Blockchain, Working Paper.

Reichmuth T., Roth. J. & Schär F. (2018), Blockchain: Disrupting the Renewable Energy Landscape. White Paper.
https://cif.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/cif/SUSI_Partners_Whitepaper/Blockchain_-_Disrupting_the_Renewable_Energy_Landscape_EN.pdf

Selected Open Source Contributions

Schär F. (2018), rCoinInterface. R package version 0.1.0.
https://github.com/Chainomics/rCoinInterface

Schär F. (2017), Terraform Second Auction. DSP40 Decentraland.
https://github.com/decentraland/proposals/blob/master/dsp/dsd-chainomics-unclaimedparcels.mediawiki

Invited Contributions in Magazines, Newspapers and Blogs

Schär F. (2021), Wohin geht Bitcoin? Weltwoche Nr. 07.2021  https://wwz.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/wwz/99_WWZ_in_den_Medien/20210218_Wohin_geht_Bitcoin.pdf

Schär F. (2020), Blockchains werden grossen Einfluss auf öffentliche Themen haben, SWICO House View 2020.
https://www.swico.ch/media/filer_public/c6/41/c641b47d-6114-43d1-9333-1f4b336bb341/swico_house_view_2020_d_200109.pdf

Schär F. (2020) Die Notenbanken umarmen und verteufeln Kryptowährungen, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Oct 28, 2020)
https://www.nzz.ch/finanzen/kryptowaehrung-sie-wird-von-notenbanken-umarmet-und-verteufelt-ld.1583739

Schär F. (2020), Understanding the Bitcoin Halving, CFC St. Moritz
https://medium.com/cfc-st-moritz/understanding-the-bitcoin-halving-585aa364b73b

Roth J., Schär F., Schöpfer A. (2019), The Tokenization of Assets, CFC St. Moritz (Dec 22, 2019)
https://medium.com/cfc-st-moritz/the-tokenization-of-assets-68f3b5102f9d

Schär F. (2019) Libra - Spiel mit dem Feuer. Weltwoche 42.19, pp. 40-41.
https://wwz.unibas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/wwz/2019_10_24_Spiel_mit_dem_Feuer.pdf

Schär F. (2019) Blockchain: How They Work and What They are Used For. Building Blocks - Tokenization & Blockchain Evolution, pp. 2-5.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336115376_Blockchains_How_They_Work_and_What_They_Are_Used_For

Schär F. (2019) Wertkomponenten von Kryptoassets. Bank Frick Blog.
https://blog.bankfrick.li/wertkomponenten-von-krypto-assets/

Schär F. (2019) Von öffentlichen und privaten Blockchains. 10x10 Magazine (May 2019), p. 8.
https://www.10x10.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/10x10_Nr4_2019.pdf

Schär F. (forthcoming), The Blockchain Revolution, Scope Magazine.

Schär F. (2019), Distributed Databases and Blockchain Technology in Payments. clearit, SIX, pp. 12-13.
https://www.six-group.com/interbank-clearing/dam/downloads/de/clearit/78/edition.pdf#page=12

Schär F. (2018) Das Bitcoin Experiment. 10x10 Magazine (August 2018), p. 10.
https://www.10x10.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/10x10-August-2018.pdf

Schär F. (2018), Blockchain-Diplome für Uni-Basel-Studierende? Basler Zeitung (May 2nd, 2018), p. 7. 

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2018), Bitcoin und andere Kryptowährungen. Ius Inhouse, Juristische Fakultät der Universität Basel, pp. 8-9.
https://edoc.unibas.ch/68665/

Bolla L. & Schär F. (2018), Die Kryptonation Schweiz im Jahr 2050. Schweizer Monat, pp. 78-79.

Schär F. & Langer D. (2017), Smart Contracts: Eine missverstandene Technologie mit hohem Potenzial. Synpulse Magazine 3/17, pp. 38-41.

Berentsen A. & Schär F. (2016), Unsinnige Forderung nach Bargeld-Verbot. NZZ (January 4th, 2016).
https://www.nzz.ch/unsinnige-forderung-nach-einem-bargeldverbot-1.18671461