YoVDO

Cryptocurrency: Burn It With Fire - Nicholas Weaver - USENIX Enigma Conference - 2019

Offered By: USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube

Tags

USENIX Enigma Conference Courses Cryptocurrency Courses Smart Contracts Courses

Course Description

Overview

Explore a critical analysis of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in this 22-minute conference talk from USENIX Enigma 2019. Delve into the fundamental issues surrounding these technologies, including their incompatibility with modern finance, lack of practical use cases, and potential vulnerabilities. Examine the speaker's arguments on why cryptocurrencies may only be suitable for censorship-resistant transactions and how they might be susceptible to technical, legal, and social attacks. Learn about the concept of "smart contracts" and their potential pitfalls, as well as the speaker's perspective on how cryptocurrencies may be replicating historical economic failures. Gain insights into proposed actions for addressing the challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, including legal enforcement and technical countermeasures.

Syllabus

Intro
What Is A "Cryptocurrency"?
What Is A "Blockchain (well, "Public" or "Permissionless' Blockchains)
What About Private/Permissioned Blockchains?
Why They Don't Work As Currency
So What's The Purpose: Censorship-Resistance For Crime
Why Public Blockchains Don't Work At All: Inefficient or insecure
And Decentralization
Only One Financial Innovation : Smart Contracts
The Reality: Buggy Finance Bots With Million Dollar Bug Bounties
Everything Else: Speedrunning 500 years of Economic Failures
So What To Do... Beyond Pointing and Laughing
And Enforce The Laws!
And Technical Attacks
Conclusions...


Taught by

USENIX Enigma Conference

Related Courses

Adventures in Authentication and Authorization
USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube
Navigating the Sandbox Buffet
USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube
Meaningful Hardware Privacy for a Smart and Augmented Future
USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube
Working on the Frontlines - Privacy and Security with Vulnerable Populations
USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube
Myths and Lies in InfoSec
USENIX Enigma Conference via YouTube