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SUMMARY:Bitcoin: How to design a peer-to-peer currency - Sakunthala Pandit
 haratne\, Churchill College
DTSTART:20150128T194000Z
DTEND:20150128T203000Z
UID:TALK56847@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jasper Lee
DESCRIPTION:Bitcoin is commonly known as an electronic currency\, but the 
 truly novel part is its protocol to establish trust without relying on a c
 entral authority. Bitcoin uses digital signatures combined with a hash-bas
 ed proof-of-work system to establish this trust. Designing such a protocol
  requires deep knowledge of cryptography and distributed systems. It's a p
 uzzle to consider not only why Bitcoin was designed the way it was\, but h
 ow it could be improved.\nUnlike other distributed protocols\, the bitcoin
  network itself requires minimal structure. It is composed of identical no
 des that agree on a chain of transactions\, commonly known as the blockcha
 in\, which relies on only very simple cryptography. Modifying the blockcha
 in for uses other than currency is another intriguing design problem.
LOCATION:Wolfson Hall\, Churchill College
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