Aviv Zohar's guest appearances

Aviv Zohar

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Lex Cybernetica Podcast

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Dean Tribble

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Ryan Zurrer

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Prof. Aviv Zohar is an associate prof. at The School of Engineering and Computer Science at The Hebrew University and The Chief Scientist at QED-it. His research interests include the economics of computational systems and protocols, cryptocurrencies, multi-agent systems, game theory, mechanism design, and networks.In his interview, Zohar gives a Cryptocurrency-101, then explains some of the cyberthreats they are susceptible to, including brute force attacks, double spending, exchange raids, stolen cold wallets, and 51% attacks. He also talks about the regulatory problems with cryptocurrencies - for example, if the bank, or exchange, loses all your crypto - whose responsibility is it to compensate you?The state comptroller’s warning that ministers ought to refrain from owning crypto, as that would constitute a conflict of interest should they legislate crypto, is strange, Zohar claims, as any such legislation would have very minor affect, if any, on the value of global, non-central-bank controlled currencies. On the other hand, Zohar does think crypto should be regulated, but in Israel it’s mostly unregulated, while the little regulation that is in place is bad - and offers alternatives. He also shares his gruelling experience with receiving and converting a Bitcoin grant that he’d been using for his research. This episode of Lex Cybernetica, hosted by Ido Kenan .

Prof. Aviv Zohar is an associate prof. at The School of Engineering and Computer Science at The Hebrew University and The Chief Scientist at QED-it. His research interests include the economics of computational systems and protocols, cryptocurrencies, multi-agent systems, game theory, mechanism design, and networks. In his interview, Zohar gives a Cryptocurrency-101, then explains some of the cyberthreats they are susceptible to, including brute force attacks, double spending, exchange raids, stolen cold wallets, and 51% attacks. He also talks about the regulatory problems with cryptocurrencies - for example, if the bank, or exchange, loses all your crypto - whose responsibility is it to compensate you? The state comptroller’s warning that ministers ought to refrain from owning crypto, as that would constitute a conflict of interest should they legislate crypto, is strange, Zohar claims, as any such legislation would have very minor affect, if any, on the value of global, non-central-bank controlled currencies. On the other hand, Zohar does think crypto should be regulated, but in Israel it’s mostly unregulated, while the little regulation that is in place is bad - and offers alternatives. He also shares his gruelling experience with receiving and converting a Bitcoin grant that he’d been using for his research. This episode of Lex Cybernetica, hosted by Ido Kenan .

Lex Cybernetica Interview  E01 – Prof. Aviv Zohar

Yonatan Sompolinsky

Hebrew University academics Aviv Zohar and Yonatan Sompolinski joined us to discuss their research at the forefront of blockchain technology. We talked about their early proposals for scaling Bitcoin using the GHOST protocol, which later inspired Ethereum. And then we discussed SPECTRE and a new type of network based on directed acrylic graphs (DAG). DAGs abandon the blockchain data structure to allow constant generation of blocks that later get merged achieving block times of seconds and throughput many orders of magnitudes above current blockchain network. Topics covered in this episode:  How Aviv Zohar wrote one of the first academic papers on Bitcoin in 2011 The GHOST protocol and how it could allow much faster block times The difference between what Ethereum built and the GHOST protocol Why DAG (Directed Acrylic Graphs) have massive advantages over blockchains Towards massive on-chain scaling and speed with the SPECTRE Protocol Their view on existing DAG-based networks like IOTA and Byteball  Episode links:  SPECTRE Medium Post SPECTRE (full paper) Accelerating Bitcoin's Transactions Inclusive Blockchain Protocols On Bitcoin and Red Balloons Aviv's Website Yonatan's Website  This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/192

Hebrew University academics Aviv Zohar and Yonatan Sompolinski joined us to discuss their research at the forefront of blockchain technology. We talked about their early proposals for scaling Bitcoin using the GHOST protocol, which later inspired Ethereum. And then we discussed SPECTRE and a new type of network based on directed acrylic graphs (DAG). DAGs abandon the blockchain data structure to allow constant generation of blocks that later get merged achieving block times of seconds and throughput many orders of magnitudes above current blockchain network. Topics covered in this episode: <ul> <li>How Aviv Zohar wrote one of the first academic papers on Bitcoin in 2011</li> <li>The GHOST protocol and how it could allow much faster block times</li> <li>The difference between what Ethereum built and the GHOST protocol</li> <li>Why DAG (Directed Acrylic Graphs) have massive advantages over blockchains</li> <li>Towards massive on-chain scaling and speed with the SPECTRE Protocol</li> <li>Their view on existing DAG-based networks like IOTA and Byteball</li> </ul> Episode links: <ul> <li><a href="https://medium.com/@avivzohar/the-spectre-protocol-7dbbebb707b5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SPECTRE Medium Post</a></li> <li><a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1159.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SPECTRE (full paper)</a></li> <li><a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/881.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Accelerating Bitcoin's Transactions</a></li> <li><a href="http://fc15.ifca.ai/preproceedings/paper_101.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Inclusive Blockchain Protocols</a></li> <li><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2626.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">On Bitcoin and Red Balloons</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/%7Eavivz/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aviv's Website</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/%7Eyoni_sompo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yonatan's Website</a></li> </ul> This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: <a href="https://epicenter.tv/192/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">epicenter.tv/192</a>

Aviv Zohar & Yonatan Sompolinsky: Of Spectre & Ghosts – Radical Ideas to Scale Blockchain Tech