EBSIS Summer School
on Distributed Event Based Systems
and Related Topics 2018

July 9—13, 2018 – Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland


★ Lecture Abstract

Blockchains: Foundations and Security

Roger Wattenhofer (ETH Zurich)

I will first give a short introduction to the original Bitcoin system, quickly explaining some of the basics such as transactions and double spending. How does this Bitcoin blockchain relate to more traditional distributed systems, what are the advantages and disadvantages? Towards this end, I will discuss some broader technical aspects in more detail: scalability, throughput, speed, energy efficiency, privacy, etc. Moreover, I will present duplex micropayment channels; apart from scalability, these channels also guarantee end-to-end security and instant transfers, laying the foundation of a network of payment service providers. My goal is to have an interactive discussion on all these topics, since I suspect many experts in the room.

Speaker Bio

Roger Wattenhofer is a full professor at the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He received his doctorate in Computer Science from ETH Zurich. He also worked some years at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Roger Wattenhofer's research interests are a variety of algorithmic and systems aspects in computer science and information technology, e.g., distributed systems, positioning systems, wireless networks, mobile systems, social networks, deep neural networks. He publishes in different communities: distributed computing (e.g., PODC, SPAA, DISC), networking and systems (e.g., SIGCOMM, MobiCom, SenSys, OSDI), and algorithmic theory (e.g., STOC, FOCS, SODA, ICALP). His work received multiple awards, e.g. the Prize for Innovation in Distributed Computing for his work in Distributed Approximation. He published the book "Distributed Ledger Technology: The Science of the Blockchain", which has been translated to Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.