Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance unveils new digital asset research program

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has launched a research program centered around digital assets in partnership with big names like ​​Goldman Sachs, EY, Visa and Accenture.

Titled the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP), the new initiative is bringing together 16 banks, public sector agencies and private organizations as collaborators, CCAF announced on Tuesday in a statement.

Other organizations involved in the initiative are Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, British International Investment, Dubai International Financial Centre, Fidelity, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, Invesco, London Stock Exchange Group, Mastercard, MSCI and World Bank.

“As the digital assets ecosystem grows, so too does the need for data and insights that inform thoughtful dialogue about the associated opportunities and risks,” said Chris Tyrer, head of Fidelity Digital Assets in Europe.

Ultimately, those involved hope the project will help inform regulation and policy discussion around a number of fast-growing digital asset ecosystems.

 “We believe that this programme will provide decision-makers with the objective analysis and empirical evidence that they need to navigate the digital assets maze,” said Michel Rauchs, CCAF’s digital assets lead, in a statement. 

The research will look into three specific areas: environmental implications, processes and configurations of distributed financial market infrastructure and emergent money systems. This includes crypto-assets, stable-coins, central bank digital currencies and enterprise and consumer tokens.

CDAP will build upon the university’s existing digital assets tools, such as the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), which provides estimates on Bitcoin’s total energy consumption with a geographical breakdown.

The CCAF has also published a series of reports on alternative finance, such as the Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study and Global COVID-19 FinTech Market Rapid Assessment Study.