On Cryptocurrency, Facebook’s Libra, and Data Security—Mike Chapple, Notre Dame

Mike Chapple is academic director of Notre Dame’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program and an associate teaching professor of IT, analytics, and operations at the University’s Mendoza College of Business. In addition to business analytics, his areas of expertise include cybersecurity, cloud computing, IT compliance, and data privacy.

Prior to joining the Mendoza faculty, Mike served for six years as senior director for IT service delivery at Notre Dame. He came to the University in 2005 from the Brand Institute, a Miami-based marketing consultancy, where he was executive vice president and chief information officer. A Notre Dame alum, he also spent four years in the information security research group at the National Security Agency and served as an active-duty intelligence officer in the United States Air Force.

He and host Ted Fox got together this summer to talk about cryptocurrency, including one called Libra, which was announced this June by a group led by Facebook. Since we talked with Mike, the proposal for Libra has garnered increased scrutiny from governmental regulators around the world—on top of what was some healthy skepticism to begin with. But in the course of our conversation with him, he noted that while he’s unsure whether Facebook will be successful in developing a mainstream cryptocurrency, he expects some group will be in the not-too-distant future.

For that reason—not to mention the layperson’s guide to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Bitcoin that he shared—this discussion is as topical as ever, as are his thoughts on how to address broader issues related to data security and privacy.

Hint: Social Security Numbers are a problem.