Rachid Guerraoui, EPFL
19 December 2019, Room ALG, 9:20am
Demystifying Bitcoin
The goal of this talk is to explain the bitcoin algorithm from the distributed computing perspective, precisely define the underlying double-payment problem, and present a simpler alternative to solve the problem without relying on consensus. Whereas the original solution consumes an energy that is equivalent to that of an entire industrial country, the alternative solution induces close to zero energy.
Rachid Guerraoui is professor in computer science at EPFL where he leads the laboratory of Distributed Computing. He worked in the past with Ecole des Mines de Paris, CEA Saclay, HP Labs in Palo Alto and MIT. He has been elected ACM fellow and professor of the College de France. He was awarded a Senior ERC Grant and a Google Focused Award.