Essential Blockchain and Crypto Mechanics for Engineers: Do you really own Bitcoin?
HYBRID EVENT: Attend IN-PERSON at University of South Florida in ENB 113 or ON-LINE at Microsoft Teams URL provided herein.
ALL ATTENDEES: Please register (at NO COST) - even though the remote attendence URL is provided below.
TALK SLIDES AT: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iz3O2NGw3Oy6KToyODWdZrHJpqm1cHpi/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=112749112840320398956&rtpof=true&sd=true
This talk serves as an introduction to important Web3 technologies such as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), blockchains, cryptocurrencies and Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
The main focus will be on public permissionless blockchains, crypto mechanics, smart contracts and blockchain governance. Consensus algorithms, random number generators, and use of cryptographic hash functions will be discussed as well as “proof-of-work” and “proof-of-stake” techniques employed by most common cryptocurrencies. Also discussed will be the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues surrounding mining/minting crypto, crypto money supply, solo/pooled mining and how crypto is typically held by institutions and individuals.
The aim of this talk is to provide a deeper level of understanding of these technologies than the overly simplistic and often inaccurate explanations of blockchain typically espoused by the media.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 28 Oct 2022
- Time: 07:30 PM UTC to 09:00 PM UTC
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- 4220 E Fowler Ave
- Tampa, Florida
- United States 33620
- Building: ENB - Engineering Building II
- Room Number: ENB 113
- Click here for Map
- Contact Event Hosts
- Co-sponsored by USF Electrical Engineering Department Graduate Series
- Starts 13 October 2022 09:00 PM UTC
- Ends 28 October 2022 10:00 PM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Dr. Michael A Ramalho of IEEE FWCS SP/COMM Chair and IEEE Blockchain Community
Biography:
Michael A Ramalho, Ph.D. is an IEEE Senior Member and a recipient of the 2021 IEEE Florida Council Outstanding Engineer Award. Dr. Ramalho has extensive experience as a director, lead/chief architect, and principal investigator in networking, media signal processing, unified communications, packet-based error correction, and acoustic spread-spectrum communication technologies. He is IEEE Florida West Coast Section chair of the Joint Signal Processing and Communication Chapter and an active member of the IEEE Blockchain Community.
Dr. Ramalho was especially active in Internet Telephony in the Web1 era during which time he ran an Internet Telephony research program at Telcordia Technologies, was co-chair of the Voice Over IP Forum, and was Chief Telephony Technologist at Voxware, Inc. during its IPO. He was the first to introduce lossless codec technology to Internet Telephony, resulting in ITU-T Standard G.711.0.
He has also worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories and Cisco Systems. He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University and a M.Eng.E.E. from Cornell University. He holds over 55 patents. He has authored many standards in the ITU-T, IETF, and IMTC, and many foundational input documents to ETSI, 3GPP, and ANSI Committee T1 standards.
Email:
Agenda
The next phase of the Internet, commonly referred to as Web3, aims to solve many of the problems of Web2 by moving data ownership and power to idividuals and away from captive, closed platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and popular e-commerce platforms.
Key in the Web3 transition are Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) that are organizations represented by rules (ensconced in computer code) that are transparent, controlled by DAO members, and are not influenced/controlled by a central government. Individual cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplaces are examples of DAOs.
Blockchain technology - while it is not exclusively Web3 technology and has many applications outside of Web3 - represents an essential component used in many Web3 advances.
Most introductory blockchain material for layperson audiences uses overly simplistic and often inaccurate explanations of blockchain technology, such as “solving a complex puzzle” or “mining” in the case of Bitcoin. Engineering and computer science practitioners need a deeper layer of understanding before they can fully appreciate and assess some of the finer points of the technology. In doing so, they can better assess the widely pontificated benefits of crypto, blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts, NFTs or other Web3 advances.
This talk intends to span this technology chasm by an engineering analysis of blockchain and essential technologies used in blockchain and common cryptocurrencies such as: consensus algorithms, random number generators, and use of cryptographic hash functions (widely used within crypto). Attendees will learn specifically how Bitcoin blocks are “chained” and should appreciate the ESG-related differences between the so-called “proof-of-work” and “proof-of-stake” consensus used in common crypto models. Also discussed will be Ethereum (and Etherium Virtual Machines), solo-vs-pooled crypto mining/minting, crypto wallets, and governance issues of crypto (e.g., crypto money supply).
The talk aims to empower attendees to better challenge some of the widely held assertions for crypto, DeFi and Web3 in general.
MSFT Teams Meeting ID/Password (if URL above doesn't work):
Meeting ID: 295 367 273 19
Passcode: u6eDw6
ALL ATTENDEES: Please register (at NO COST) - even though the remote attendence URL is provided openly here (useful to gague attendence).