PhD course Data Science: Crypto and Incentive-based Mechanisms for Blockchain Technology
Speaker: Vangelis Markakis (University of Athens), Ivan Visconti (University of Salerno), Andrea Vitaletti (Sapienza University of Rome), Philip Lazos (Input Output IOG, United Kingdom)
Title: Crypto and Incentive-based Mechanisms for Blockchain Technology
3CFU
Abstract:
1st part) The Blockchain Era started with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin that Nakamoto designed by crucially and cleverly using digital signatures and cryptographic hash functions. Nowadays mainstream blockchains and their applications strongly rely on more advanced cryptographic tools that in the past were considered of theoretical interest only. The goal of this course is to overview the various cryptographic notions that have played a key-role for the success of blockchains and their applications.
2nd part) The purpose of these lectures is to provide an overview of game-theoretic and economic aspects that arise in the design and analysis of blockchain protocols. To this end, we will present recent research that has been carried out on the following selected list of topics: 1) design and analysis of reward sharing schemes in Proof of Stake protocols, where the goal is to decide how to split rewards from block production to the players 2) governance in blockchain systems, concerning the design of voting rules for decision making in decentralized autonomous organizations, 3) transaction fee mechanism design, which concerns the design of appropriate policies for congestion control, 4) tokenomics, involving economic policies for the supply and distribution of tokens in a cryptocurrency system, and 5) stable coins, where the goal is to design cryptocurrencies that can be pegged to a real reserve asset, such as fiat currency.