Algorand: The Truly Distributed Blockchain
Silvio Micali, MIT
A joint webinar from GSSI and Vísindafélag Íslands November 20 at 15:00: Silvio Micali, a professor at MIT, gives a talk about Algorand: The Truly Distributed Blockchain.
A link to the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83124846054?pwd=Y2xINW9INExIeElPMnF5cGV0d0NNZz09
In its ideal model, a blockchain consists of a digital ledger of unalterable data, readable by everyone, to which everyone can add new data. If adequately implemented, this model stands to revolutionize the way societies and traditional economies operate. By removing costly intermediaries and introducing new paradigms of trust, the model makes traditional transactions (e.g., payments) more efficient, and totally new ways of transacting (e.g., smart contracts) possible.
Unfortunately, as currently implemented, most blockchains cannot achieve their enormous potential. We shall argue, however, that they can be adequately implemented by means of dramatically different approaches.
Silvio Micali has received his Laurea in Mathematics from the University of Rome, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1983 he has been on the MIT faculty, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, where he is Ford Professor of Engineering. Silvio's research interests are cryptography, zero knowledge, pseudorandom generation, secure protocols, and mechanism design. Silvio is the recipient of the Turing Award (in computer science), of the Goedel Prize (in theoretical computer science) and the RSA prize (in cryptography). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
