ED Discussion
Blockchains are gaining fast adoption thanks to their strong security properties. For example, as of July 2021, blockchain-powered decentralized finance (DeFi) manage more than 55 billion USD in value. However, blockchain as a technology is still in its infancy and facing various challenges, including poor performance, lack of privacy, disconnection from the real world.
In this course, we will read recent papers on how to improve the security, privacy, scalability, and the functionality of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts using various cryptographic tools.
The schedule is tentative and subject to change.
# | Date | Section | Topics (presenter) | Deadline |
---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 08/23 Mon | Introduction | Lecture Logistics and overview | |
1 | 08/25 Wed | Lecture Intro to blockchains | ||
2 | 08/30 Mon | Scalability | Lecture
Overview of scalability problem, payment channels, and Layer 2 protocols Readings: | Presentation sign up due |
3 | 09/01 Wed | Discussion MAD-HTLC: because HTLC is crazy-cheap to attack (Oakland 21) (Lulu Zhou) | ||
4 | 09/06 Mon | Discussion Arbitrum: Scalable, private smart contracts (USENIX 18) (Sarisht Wadhwa) | Team formation | |
5 | 09/08 Wed | Discussion
An Empirical Analysis of Privacy in the Lightning Network (FC 21)
(Luke Qin and Ziyi Zhang) Readings: | ||
6 | 09/13 Mon | Lecture Consensus and HotStuff (Dr. Ted Yin) | ||
7 | 09/15 Wed | State and storage (Part I) | Lecture
State and Stateless. Vector commitments (KZG) Readings: | |
8 | 09/20 Mon | Lecture
Vector commitments cont. and PointProofs Readings: | ||
9 | 09/22 Wed | Project pre-proposal presentations | Make a short presentation about your intended project to solicit feedback from your classmates.
| Project pre-proposal presentation |
10 | 09/27 Mon | State and storage (Part II) | Lecture Hyperproofs: Aggregating and Maintaining Proofs in Vector Commitments (Dr. Alin Tomescu) | Project proposal due (deadline extended) |
11 | 09/29 Wed | Discussion Flyclient: Super-Light Clients for Cryptocurrencies (Oakland 20) (Sasha Popov and Yubo Ding) | ||
- | 10/04 Mon | No class | ||
12 | 10/06 Wed | Privacy and anonymity | Lecture
Privacy-preserving techniques in blockchains Readings: | |
13 | 10/11 Mon | Discussion Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts (EuroSP 19) (Ruikang Li and Kunal Upadya) | ||
14 | 10/13 Wed | Discussion
AMR: Autonomous coin mixer with privacy preserving reward distribution (AFT 21)
(Bohan Li and Brian Rodrigez) Readings:
| ||
15 | 10/18 Mon | Discussion Remote Side-Channel Attacks on Anonymous Transactions (USENIX 20) (Yu Tang and Ryan Chang) | ||
16 | 10/20 Wed | Oracles | Lecture Oracles and their applications | |
17 | 10/25 Mon | Discussion ASTRAEA: A Decentralized Blockchain Oracle (Will Lenihan and Gio Vignone) | ||
18 | 10/27 Wed | Discussion SoK: Oracles from the ground truth to market manipulation (Silas Lenihan and Jack Rosenthal) | ||
19 | 11/01 Mon | Discussion CanDID: Can-Do Decentralized Identity with Legacy Compatibility, Sybil-Resistance, and Accountability (Oakland 21) (Jannis Stoeter and Sachin Sanjay) | ||
20 | 11/03 Wed | DeFi Security | Lecture
Intro to DeFi and DeFi Security Readings: | |
21 | 11/08 Mon | Discussion
Order-fairness for byzantine consensus (CRYPTO 20)
(Andrew Epprecht & Yupei Liu) Readings: | ||
22 | 11/10 Wed | Discussion
Attacking the DeFi Ecosystem with Flash Loans for Fun and Profit
(Derrick Adam and Dylan Paul) Readings: | ||
23 | 11/15 Mon | group project presentation | Discussion Group Presentations (Team 3 (5.15-5.30 PM), Team 7 (5.35-5.50 PM), Team 9 (5.55-6.10 PM)) | |
24 | 11/17 Wed | Discussion Group Presentations (Team 1 (5.15-5.30 PM), Team 5 (5.35-5.50 PM), Team 8 (5.55-6.10 PM)) | ||
25 | 11/22 Mon | Discussion Group Presentations (Team 4 (5.15-5.30 PM), Team 2 (5.35-5.50 PM), Team 10 (5.55-6.10 PM), Team 6 (6.15-6.30 PM)) |
See this page.