The 6th Technion Summer School on Cyber and Computer Security

Decentralized Cryptographic Currencies and Blockchains

10-14, September 2017, Technion

Sunday till Tuesday at Churchill Auditorium / Wednesday till Thursday at Kogan Auditorium

Chairs: Eli Ben-Sasson + Eli Biham

Bitcoin is the first decentralized crypto-currency to gain significant public trust and usage. The long-term survival of Bitcoin, or even any decentralized crypto-currency, is debatable, but the genie that Bitcoin unleashed is likely to remain. For Bitcoin has shown for the first time in human history, that a combination of cryptographic and distributed protocols executed over a decentralized network consisting of anonymous nodes, could give rise to a societal function that, thus far, has required reliance on a Central Trusted Party (CTP). In the case of Bitcoin, this societal function is Fiat Money, i.e., Money whose supply is limited by decision and consensus, rather than by physical scarcity (Fiat, in Latin, means “it shall be”). By now Bitcoin has led to hundreds of sibling coins and scores of startup companies that are working to improve and extend different aspects of Bitcoin such as better consensus protocols, new financial capabilities, improved privacy and stability, to name a few.
Bitcoin’s core protocols and capabilities strongly rely on cryptographic tools, such as digital signatures (for maintaining fund-ownership), moderately hard cryptographic puzzles (for mining and reaching consensus) and, in newer crypto-currencies, zero knowledge proofs (to enhance privacy and fungibility).
The topic of this summer school will thus be to expose participants to the cryptographic tools, challenges and progress in this exciting field.

Confirmed Speakers:

Prof. Eli Ben-Sasson – Technion
Prof. Joseph Bonneau – New York University
Arthur Breitman – Tezos, Co-founder and Tech Lead
Vitalik Buterin – Ethereum, Chief Scientist; Foundation President
Roi Carthy – Sigulariteam
Prof. Ittay Eyal – Technion
Gideon Greenspan – CEO and Founder, Coin Sciences Ltd
Kathryn Haun – Stanford University and Coinbase
Jonathan J. Klinger, LL.M – Cyberlaw Attorney
Dr. Neha Narula – MIT
Prof. Rafael Pass – Cornell University
Mark Smargon – VP Blockchain & Co-Founder at Colu
Meni Rosenfeld – Chairman of Israel Bitcoin Association
Peter Van Valkenburgh, J.D.- Director of Research
Zooko Wilcox – Zcash, Founder and CEO
Prof. Aviv Zohar – Hebrew University

List of Topics:
Bitcoin, Ethereum and ZCash — overview
Blockchain Scalability and Stability
Game theory, economic incentives
Zero knowledge proofs — applications to crypto-currencies
Legal and regulatory aspects of crypto-currencies

For a full list of topics please see the program

Registration:

Due to the overwhelming response to our summer school, registration has closed. Registration will not be available on-site. We thank you for your interest and apologies for any inconvenience

Venue:
The event will take place at the Technion campus:
From Sunday till Tuesday at Churchill Auditorium.
From Wednesday till Thursday at Kogan Auditorium, EE Building.

Accommodation:
We reserved several rooms at the dormitories which can be rented for students during the summer school. If you are a student and wish for a room in the dormitories, please contact us before 25.08.17 at cyber@technion.ac.il

Some hotel options:
http://marom.hotelasp.com/ (closest to the Technion though not in a walking distance)
https://www.danhotels.com/HaifaHotels/DanPanoramaHaifaHotel/
https://english.goldencrown.co.il/golden-crown-haifa-hotel (touristic area in the German Colony of Haifa, far from the Technion)

Language:
All talks will be in English

Visa:
Notice that citizens of some countries may require Visa to enter Israel. Please check in advance whether you need to apply to an Israeli visa at your local consulate.

Sponsorship:
To become a sponsor of our event please contact cyber@technion.ac.il

In Cooperation with