Cryptography in Blockchains and Their Applications
Cryptography in Blockchains and Their Applications
Conceptualized 12 years ago as a core component of Bitcoin, blockchain has gained a vast amount of interest. Informally speaking, a blockchain is a distributed, shared, and immutable ledger that maintains a growing list of ordered records. It became extremely popular among the industries in the last few years. Many companies are exploring applications of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies.
In this talk, the speaker will introduce blockchain and highlight some of the latest development in this area. In particular, we will discuss the role of cryptography in blockchains, and why it is crucial. We will also discuss attacks that may circumvent present cryptographic protection mechanisms. Topics covered include threshold cryptosystems, anonymous credentials, ring signatures, zero-knowledge proofs, and post-quantum cryptography. Finally, we will conclude the talk with challenges related to the adoption of blockchain technologies and insights developed from our experience.
Note: no recording of this talk is available per the speaker's request.
About the speaker
Professor, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Man Ho Allen Au is a Full Professor at the Department of Computing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before that, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong. Allen's research interests include Information Security, Applied Cryptography, and Blockchain Technology, and their applications. He was ranked as the top 1% HKU Scholar (by Clarivate Analytics in the top 1% worldwide by citations) in 2020 - 2022, and World's Top 2% Scientists by single-year impact and by career-long impact in the list published by Stanford University in Oct 2022. He is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Journal of Information Security and Applications, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Cryptologic Research.
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