Introducing DCI's New Podcast: Grey Mirror
In this episode: Tadge Dryja, a research scientist at DCI who co-invented the Lightning Network. We chat about his current research (uTreeXO, a dynamic accumulator for Bitcoin state) and discuss non-fork ways to bootstrap upgrades to a network (a bridge node for uTreeXO).
Cryptocurrency Research Review
Introducing the first issue of the DCI’s Cryptocurrency Research Review. Read it here
Michael Casey's "Vertcoin’s Struggle Is Real: Why the Latest Crypto 51% Attack Matters"
You may not have heard of Vertcoin, a crypto project designed to curtail concentration in mining power in the interests of broad-based participation. But if you care about security, decentralization and open access for cryptocurrencies, then the questions raised by a recent breach of its blockchain will matter to you.
Wired 25: Neha Narula and Alexis Ohanian say it's Early Days yet for Cryptocurrency
By KLINT FINLEY 10.15.18 07:36 PM Wired.com
Full article here
Today at the WIRED25 Summit, Neha Narula and Alexis Ohanian talked about some of the ways blockchain, the decentralized ledger technology at the heart of bitcoin and other "cryptocurrencies," could press forward through the current slump and actually become useful.
WIRED25: The Future of Cryptocurrency - MIT Media Lab's Neha Narula and Reddit's Alexis Ohanian On What's Ahead
MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative Director Neha Narula spoke with WIRED’s Brian Barrett as part of WIRED25, WIRED’s 25th anniversary celebration in San Francisco.
Utreexo: A dynamic accumulator for Bitcoin state - A description of research by Thaddeus Dryja
One of the earliest-seen and most persistent problems with Bitcoin has been scalability. Bitcoin takes the idea of "be your own bank" quite literally, with every computer on the bitcoin network storing every account of every user who owns money in the system. In Bitcoin, this is stored as a collection of "Unspent transaction outputs", or "utxo"s, which are somewhat unintuitive, but provide privacy and efficiency benefits over the alternative "account" based model used in traditional finance.
Static-Memory-Hard Functions, and Modeling the Cost of Space vs. Time
By Thaddeus Dryja, Quanquan C. Liu and Sunoo Park
Static-Memory-Hard Functions, and Modeling the Cost of Space vs. Time was presented at the Cryptography Conference 2019, which is organized by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR).
Responsible disclosure in the era of cryptocurrencies
DCI Bitcoin Core developer Cory Fields shares his experience disclosing a critical Bitcoin Cash vulnerability.
Cellular structure for a digital fiat currency
This paper by DCI Reserach Scientist Robleh Ali sets out a structure for a digital fiat currency system. The primary benefit of the cellular structure is that it lowers barriers to entry for payments by using trustless intermediation between cells in the system. The larger purpose of this structure is to create an open foundation for a decentralized financial system in which competition can thrive but which cannot be captured by private interests.
Does Your Supply Chain Need a Blockchain?
Many new digital technologies at various stages of development hold promise for manufacturers and the supply chain. The challenge for management teams is knowing which technologies to invest in—and when. Case in point: blockchain technology. Once seemingly at the far end of the time horizon, blockchains are suddenly poised for rapid growth. Why? Because they offer a solution to the growing problem of how to manage increasingly complicated networks of manufacturers and suppliers at a time when transparency, speed, and agility are critical.
Another perspective on cryptocurrency regulation
This week our colleague Gary Gensler was profiled in The New York Times talking about how Ethereum and Ripple should be classified as securities. DCI director Neha Narula continues the conversation about how cryptocurrencies and tokens should be regulated.
The problem with ICOs is that they’re called ICOs
The MIT Technology review interviews Robleh Ali, former manager of digital currency for the Bank of England, now research scientist at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, on why initial coin offerings are dangerous and how to make them more useful.
A Former Top Wall Street Regulator Turns to the Blockchain
From the New York Times, Nathaniel Popper profiles DCI Senior Advisor Gary Gensler, former chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission ahead of his statements on the regulation of cryptocurrencies to be made at the Business of Blockchain Conference.
This is how Bitcoin works
Neha Narula, director of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, helps PBS NewsHour understand how Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies work. Watch the video below or read the transcript interview with Neha, "This is how Bitcoin works."
In blockchain we trust
The dot-com bubble of the 1990s is popularly viewed as a period of crazy excess that ended with hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth being destroyed. What’s less often discussed is how all the cheap capital of the boom years helped fund the infrastructure upon which the most important internet innovations would be built after the bubble burst.
Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens
This paper by Christian Catalini and Joshua Gans explores how entrepreneurs can use initial coin offerings — whereby they issue crypto tokens and commit to accept only those tokens as payment for future use of a digital platform — to fund venture start-up costs.
zkLedger: Privacy-Preserving Auditing on Distributed Ledgers
Auditing and financial oversight are critical to proving institutions are complying with regulation. This paper presents zkLedger, the first system to protect ledger participants’ privacy and provide fast, provably correct auditing.
The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything
In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society’s faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping.
Christian Catalini on the business of blockchain and cryptoeconomics
Christian Catalini is one of the world's leading academics on the business and economics of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Here are a few of his publications.