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Blockchain & Money: Session 4: Blockchain Basics & Consensus by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Session 4: Blockchain Basics and Consensus Session 4 Study Questions: What is the Byzantine General’s problem? How does proof-of-work and mining in Bitcoin address it? More generally, how does blockchain technology address it? What other consensus protocols are there? What are some of the tradeoffs of alternative consensus algorithms–proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, etc.? How do economic incentives work within blockchain technology to maintain decentralized ledgers and avoid double spending? What are the incentives of consensus protocols & mining? Session 4 Readings: ‘Geneva Report’ Chapter 1 (pages 1-7); Casey, Crane, Gensler, Johnson & Narula. ‘Blockchain Technology Review’ NIST (pages 23-32, section 3 & 4). ‘The Byzantine Generals Problem’; Lamport, Shostak & Pease (382-387).…
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Blockchain & Money: Session 3: Blockchain Basics & Cryptography by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Session 3: Blockchain Basics & Cryptography Session 3 Study Questions: What are the design features–cryptography, append-only, time-stamped blocks, distributed consensus algorithms, and networking– of Bitcoin, the first use case for blockchain technology? What are cryptographic hash functions, asymmetric cryptography and digital signatures? How are they utilized to help make blockchain technology verifiable and immutable? What is the double spending problem and how it is addressed by blockchain technology? Session 3 Readings: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System; Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper. ‘Blockchain Technology Overview’ NIST (pages 9-23, sections 1 & 2) ‘Blockchain 101-A Visual Demo’ Brownworth; Youtube video. Bitcoin is just the first use-case of blockchain technology. We’re going to look…
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Blockchain & Money: Sessions 1 & 2: Introduction and Money, Ledgers & Bitcoin by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Blockchain & Money: Session 15: Central Banks and Commercial Banking, Part 1 by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Blockchain & Money: Session 12: Assessing Use Cases by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
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Blockchain & Money: Sessions 1 & 2: Introduction and Money, Ledgers & Bitcoin by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
There’s a great course available for free about Blockchain & Money. The semester long course is taught by Professor Gary Gensler (yes, the S.E.C. Gary Gensler), offered by M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management, and, freely available via video-lecture. I pored over the videos and studiously took notes as I watched. The course is for students wishing to explore blockchain technology’s potential use–by entrepreneurs & incumbents–to change the world of money and finance. The course goes through a review of the technology’s initial application, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and then lays an understanding of the commercial, technical and public policy fundamentals of blockchain technology, distributed ledgers and smart contracts in both open…
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Billions were stolen in blockchain hacks last year…
According to this article, the total value of the losses from 122 attacks in 2020 would be worth $3.8 billion today. We know how some hackers passed away their time during the lockdown: By running Bitcoin-related hacks and potentially netting “nearly $3.78 billion” in 2020, according to a report from Atlas VPN. Data collected by Slowmist Hacked showed that there were 122 attacks in 2020, targeting three major areas: –Decentralized apps running on the Ethereum platform had 47 attacks (current value $437 million) –Cryptocurrency exchanges had 28 attacks (current value $300 million in losses) –27 attacks on blockchain wallets Via ZDNet—Billions were stolen in blockchain hacks last year
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What exactly IS Blockchain? Blockchain Technology Explained [VIDEO]
Blockchain & Money: Session 17: Secondary Markets and Crypto-Exchanges, by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Blockchain & Money: Session 13: Blockchain Payments, Part 1 by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
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What exactly IS Blockchain? Blockchain Technology Explained [VIDEO]
This video gives an interesting, easy-to-follow explanation of “blockchain” technology, including what exactly it is and it’s potential impact to the tech landscape. Below are some choice quotes that stuck out to me and quickly help convey some key concepts: “What is Blockchain? A shared trusted, secure database; se. can enable inter-organizational collaboration” “You can get from small to large by centralizing, but you get from large to infinite by distributing. And that’s what blockchain can do for this next 3d generation internet.”—Blockchain Technology Explained youtube video “The interesting part of the blockchain is really in what it enables in terms of new forms of distributed organization.” “Blockchain is an…
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Blockchain & Money: Session 16: Central Banks and Commercial Banking, Part 2 by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Blockchain & Money: Session 22: Trade Finance & Supply Chain, by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Get ready for self-driving banks
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Get ready for self-driving banks
This article from the Financial Times looks at the algorithms and blockchain technology that may be required for 21st century regulation. DeFi turns all this on its head. It leverages blockchain technology to deliver services with no human intermediation. One example is creating money markets with algorithmically derived interest rates based on supply and demand — rates that traditional banks set by committee. Other DeFi projects include decentralised exchanges that allow users to trade without brokers, and protocols for lending that do not involve loan officers or credit committees. Although these “self-driving banks” are new, they are not small. They are likely to be mainstream before self-driving cars start to…
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Blockchain & Money: Session 24: Conclusion, by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
Blockchain & Money: Session 9: Permissioned Systems by M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with Professor Gary Gensler
“The Truth About Blockchain” from HBR by Marco Iansiti & Karim Lakhani
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The Importance of Configuration
Configuration is the way a system’s settings are set during the initial set-up phase of software/hardware and also the on-going maintenance and updating of the system’s settings. It is a HUGELY important task. It can be daunting for some. It can be tolerable but boring for others. And, for yet others, it can be the absolute first place one wants to go to when setting something up! A magical place where one wants to become deeply intimate with each and every setting and how it effects other aspects of the system! Sign us up for the last camp, please! The average users knowledge of configuration of different systems can be…
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Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Race Is On
Quantum computers and quantum cryptography have become hot industry buzzwords that are popping up more in the press. With that, the question becomes what happens to the security of our data covered by today’s pre-quantum cryptography technology? This Forbes article helps highlight solutions on the way in the race to post-quantum cryptography: The good news is that solutions are on the way. Recognizing the urgency of the task and the time needed to formulate, choose, standardize and deploy new systems, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standardization process in 2016. In July 2020, NIST announced seven third-round candidates, covering both public-key encryption (PKE) and digital…
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What is Multi-Factor Authentication and Why is It Necessary?
Many people have heard the basics of account protection: Get a password manager for your online accounts, make your passwords complex and never reuse them. But what about Multi-Factor Authentication? What is Multi-Factory authentication, what’s so special about it, and why is it needed? Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), also sometimes known as Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), adds another layer of security to the sign-in process giving accounts further protection against unauthorized access. MFA requires multiple (two or more elements) to be used in order to grant full authentication. Multifactor authentication consists of 3 major things: Something you know: This can be a password, or the answer to a security question that cannot…
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WSJ–“Companies Urged to Adjust Hiring Requirements for Cyber Jobs”…
News of the current shortage of cybersecurity professionals and the demand needed in the coming years to fill roles is seemingly ubiquitous these days. There’s an interesting article in the WSJ on the correlation between the shortage of cybersecurity capable applicants available and the job requirements being posted by hiring companies & HR departments. Despite holding a doctorate in computer science and having extensive military, federal and private-sector experience, Mr. Cunningham said he is routinely approached by companies offering entry-level positions. Job postings on social-media websites for positions usually regarded as gateway roles are rife with such requirements. For instance, one post on recruiting site Glassdoor for a security operations…
