Securing the Bitcoin Network

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Available at 2:25pm PDT

Session 1: Consensus

Session 2: Proof of Work

Session 3: Attack Vectors

Bitcoin's security is predicated on the accuracy and robustness of the software and hardware running it, and the actions of those participating in the network. As the use of Bitcoin grows, the security of the network must grow and strengthen. In this track, our speakers detail why supporting Bitcoin requires understanding and proactively addressing its security risks.

Speakers on this Track

Matt CoralloConsensus

Matt is an Open Source Bitcoin Engineer at Square Crypto.

Adam BackProof of Work

Adam Back is Co-Founder & CEO of Blockstream, a bitcoin infrastructure company. He is an applied-cryptographer, cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper as the 1997 inventor of Bitcoin's proof of work. Adam has held management positions in public market companies such as Microsoft, EMC, VMWare as well as co-founded multiple startups across a 25 career focused on internet security and applied cryptography. Adam holds a Comp Sci PhD from University of Exeter.

Nic CarterProof of Work (Moderator)

Nic is a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, a Cambridge, MA-based venture firm investing in startups in the public blockchain industry, and the cofounder of Coin Metrics, a blockchain analytics firm. Previously, he served as a cryptoasset analyst at Fidelity investments. Nic holds an Msc Finance from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in philosophy from the University of St Andrews.

Cory FieldsAttack Vectors

Cory Fields is a Bitcoin Core lead developer. Previously, Cory served on the board of The XBMC Foundation and worked as a developer on XBMC.

Andrew PoelstraAttack Vectors

Andrew Poelstra is a cryptographer whose involvement with Bitcoin dates back to 2011. He is co-maintainer of the libsecp256k1 high-performance crypto library and is currently the Director of Research at Blockstream. He has helped develop a number of privacy technologies including Confidential Transactions, MuSig and Scriptless Scripts. Most recently, he has worked with Sanket Kanjulkar and Pieter Wuille to develop Miniscript, a programming language for Bitcoin contracts designed for ease of development and analysis.

AJ TownsAttack Vectors

AJ is a Bitcoin Core Developer at Paradigm.

Dr. Neha NarulaAttack Vectors (Moderator)

Neha Narula is the Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, where she leads research and development on central bank digital currency and securing decentralized cryptocurrencies. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from MIT in 2015, where she published work on fast, scalable databases. Neha was named to WIRED's list of 25 leaders shaping the next 25 years of technology, was listed on Fortune's Ledger 40 under 40, and her TED talk on the future of money has been viewed by over 2 million people.

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