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SUMMARY:An Overview of Blockchain Security - Nicolas Courtois (University 
 College London)
DTSTART:20161108T193000Z
DTEND:20161108T203000Z
UID:TALK69000@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Swaraj Dash
DESCRIPTION:We invite you to our third talk of term by Nicolas Courtois\, 
 a cryptographer and senior lecturer who has recently done a lot of work on
  blockchains and cryptocurrencies!\n\nAbstract: In this presentation we wi
 ll overview a number of important questions which underpin the security of
  blockchains.\nWe study Chaumian and Nakamoto e-cash\, see why bitcoin is 
 quite slow\, explain the role of digital signatures and mining in building
  so called "trustless systems"\, study the bitcoin network and 51% attacks
 \, explain some issues with ECC cryptography. Then we study some technique
 s which allow to make bitcoin payments more secure (e.g. hardware wallets)
  and more private (stealth address\, ring signatures).\n\nSpeaker bio: Nic
 olas Courtois is a cryptographer and senior lecturer in computer science a
 t University College London.\nHe was one of the co-authors of both the XSL
  attack against block ciphers such as the Advanced Encryption Standard and
  the XL system for solving systems of algebraic equations that was used in
  the attack. Other cryptographic results of Courtois include algebraic att
 acks on stream ciphers\, attacks on the KeeLoq and Hitag 2 systems used fo
 r remote keyless automobile entry systems\, and an analysis of cryptograph
 ic weaknesses in public transit smart cards including the London Undergrou
 nd Oyster card and the Dutch national analogue (OV-chipkaart). He holds mo
 re than a dozen patents\, has more than a hundred publications and his blo
 g is often cited in the press.\nMore recently\, he has been working on (an
 d blogging about) cryptocurrencies and he’ll talk to us about security a
 spects of the innovative technology underlying them\, blockchains!\n\nCome
  along to the talk to find out more about the world of bitcoin and cryptoc
 urrencies! We are heading to the pub after the talk\, and the first drink 
 is on CUCaTS! FREE DRINKS! Hope to see many of you at the talk and pub.
LOCATION:MR3\,  Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Camb
 ridge
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