Blockchain's impact
On the internet cryptography was traditionally responsible for secure communication via [[key exchange]] and encryption.
However the most recent applications have been in the blockchain space where it is being used for 2 use cases:
- Data Integrity - [[signatures]], [[commitments]], [[ZK proofs]]
- Protecting secret keys via threshold signatures.
Similarly there are many other sciences that have also been advanced with the coming of blockchains Conference:
- New Consenus Protocol (distributed systems)
- New Cryptography (ZK-SNARKs)
- New Enconomic Models (tokenomics, lending protocols, exchanges)
- New Democractic Governance Mechanisms (DAOs)
- New progrogramming languages and verification tools
What is blockchain used for?
A blockchain provides a method to coordinate among many parties where there is no single trusted party. An important contrapostive - If there is a trusted party then blockchain is generally not required.
Current application areas
- Finance (DeFi) - new financial instruments, exchanges, lending...
- Managing digital assets (NFTs) - Assured provenance
- DAOs
What are the new innovations that blockchain brought to the world?
- 2009 - Bitcoin gave us the Ledger - a public append only data structure.
- 2015 - Ethereum gave us the blockchain computer that allowed people to write composable programs on the blockchain.
- 2017 -> Current Day - a number of application areas have come up.
What is a blockchain
A blockchain is composed of 4 different layers:
- Consensus Layer (data availability)
- Execution Layer (blockchain computer)
- Application Layer (DAPPs, smart contracts)
- User facing tools (wallets, cloud servers)
Hot research topics
- Scaling problem - Ethereum processes 15tps. How to increase?
- Privacy on the blockchain - businesses cant use if all transactions are problem
- Interoperability between blockchains
- Managing Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)
- Zero knowledge proofs of solvency. (the FTX case)