International Association for Cryptologic Research

International Association
for Cryptologic Research

CryptoDB

New proof systems for sustainable blockchains: proofs of space and verifiable delay functions

Authors:
Krzysztof Pietrzak , IST Austria
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Honor: Invited talk
Abstract: The distinctive feature of Bitcoin is that it achieves decentralisation in an open setting where everyone can join. This is achieved at a high price, honest parties must constantly dedicate more computational power towards securing Bitcoin's blockchain than is available to a potential adversary, which leads to a massive waste of energy; at its hitherto peak, the electricity used for Bitcoin mining equaled the electricity consumption of Austria. In this lecture I will discuss how disk-space, instead of computation, can be used as a resource to construct a more sustainable blockchain. We will see definitions and constructions of "proof of space" and "verifiable delay functions", and how they can be used to construct a Blockchain with similar dynamics and security properties as the Bitcoin blockchain.
BibTeX
@misc{asiacrypt-2019-30080,
  title={New proof systems for sustainable blockchains: proofs of space and verifiable delay functions},
  note={Invited talk},
  author={Krzysztof Pietrzak},
  year=2019
}