An introduction to the theoretical concepts and practical concerns of cybercurrencies. Topics include hashing, cryptographic signatures, peer to peer networks, distributed consensus with proof of work, and the security and privacy of cyber-currencies. Also discussed are Bitcoin’s use and ecosystem, digital currency history, economy and legal aspects.
- Textbooks:
- Class slides, board, discussion
- Other textbook chapters and acadmic papers referred to in class:
- Nancy A. Lynch. Distributed Algorithms. 1996. Chapters 1, 5, 6.
- Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
Online, 2008.
- Juan A. Garay, Aggelos Kiayias, Nikos Leonardos. The bitcoin backbone protocol: Analysis and applications.
EUROCRYPT, 2015.
- Yonatan Sompolinsky, and Aviv Zohar. Secure High-Rate Transaction Processing in Bitcoin.
FC, 2015.
- Yoad Lewenberg, Yonatan Sompolinsky, and Aviv Zohar. Inclusive Block Chain Protocols.
FC, 2015.
- Fan Zhang, Ethan Cecchetti, Kyle Croman, Ari Juels, and Elaine Shi. Town Crier: An Authenticated Data Feed for Smart Contracts.
TR, 2016.
- Ittay Eyal, Emin Gün Sirer. Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable.
FC, 2014.
- Ayelet Sapirshtein, Yonatan Sompolinsky, and Aviv Zohar. Optimal Selfish Mining Strategies in Bitcoin.
FC, 2016.
Bootstrapping. February 8-12.
- Meeting 2. March 21-25.
- Meeting 3. April 18-22.
- Presentation. May 9-11.
- 30% Homework
- n assignments (n ~= 10)
- Average of best (n - 2)
- Much of the grade for submission
- -25% per day late (4 days for free)
- 60% Project, of which:
Project grading factors include:
decomposition to tasks,
work division and time planning,
group effort,
code quality,
result,
report,
individual factoring if necessary.
- 10% Other factors