Neha Narula

Neha Narula, MIT computer scientist leading the Digital Currency Initiative; Anders Brownworth, veteran crypto engineer who helped launch USDC; Daniel Aronoff, economist studying stablecoins and treasury markets. They unpack how stablecoins are minted, redeemed, and backed. They probe hidden plumbing, technical and operational risks, interoperability across chains, and implications for treasury markets and policy.

For something of such obvious importance, money is kind of mysterious. It can, as Homer Simpson once memorably noted, be exchanged for goods and services. But who decides exactly how many goods/services a given unit of money can buy? And what maintains the social contract that we all agree to go along with it? Technology is changing what money is and how we use it, and Neha Narula is a leader in thinking about where money is going. One much-hyped aspect is the advent of blockchain technology, which has led to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. We talk about what the blockchain really is, how it enables new kinds of currency, and from a wider perspective whether it can help restore a more individualistic, decentralized Web. Neha Narula is the Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT. She obtained her Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, and worked at Google and Digg before joining the faculty there. She is an expert on scalable databases, secure software, cryptocurrencies, and online privacy.

Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University known for his pioneering work in crypto, and Neha Narula, director of MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative with expertise in the history of money, dive into the transformative journey of cryptocurrency. They discuss its promise for financial inclusion, explore the inefficiencies in traditional banking, and highlight how trust has shaped the evolution of money. The conversation also tackles the balance between centralization and decentralization in finance, showcasing the innovative potential of digital assets.