Cybersecurity, Blockchain, and the Rise of Cryptocurrency

Description:

What are the cybersecurity risks and opportunities associated with the rise of digital finance? What are the critical challenges that cryptocurrencies pose for law, technology, and policy, both in the United States and worldwide?

Ben Fisch, currently at Stanford University’s Applied Crypto Group and the Center for Blockchain Research, will join the Yale faculty next year as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science.

He is a widely recognized expert on “blockchains” like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These systems have revolutionized trust, transparency, and privacy for applications in finance and beyond. As of January 2021, cryptocurrencies collectively control assets worth over one trillion dollars.

Fisch’s work focuses n the intersection of privacy and verifiability. The seemingly contradictory concept of an information system that is simultaneously private yet also publicly verifiable, enabled by so-called “zero-knowledge proofs,” is a wonder of computer science. It has far-reaching applications, particularly within the realm of digital finance, where privacy is strongly needed but lack of transparency facilitates cybercrime, mismanagement, and fraud.

The discussion, which will moderated by Joan Feigenbaum, Grace Murray Hopper Professor of Computer Science at Yale, is co-sponsored by the Jackson Institute’s Schmidt Program and the Department of Computer Science.

This event is being held in person and will be simulcast via Zoom Webinar. In-person attendance is open to members of the Yale campus community with Yale ID. All may attend via Zoom.