QCon11Years
QCON LONDON 2017

Conference:March 6-8, 2017
Workshops:March 9-10, 2017

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Track: Practical Cryptography & Blockchains: Beyond the Hype

Location:

  • Mountbatten, 6th flr.

Day of week:

  • Wednesday

Looking past the hype of blockchain technologies, alternate title: Weaselfree Cryptography & Blockchain

Track Host:
Riccardo Spagni
Crytocurrency Expert & Lead Maintainer Monero/Monero Core
Riccardo is a member of the Monero Core Team, who are stewards of the Monero Project, and is also the lead maintainer of the Monero and Monero Core projects. With an academic background in informatics and logistics, Riccardo spent many years in software development, before starting a business in the import/export industry with his wife. Due to the success of that business, he had enough freedom to start tinkering with Bitcoin early in 2011. In 2012 he became involved in various cryptocurrency-related projects, and more recently he has launched PayBee, a digital currency payment processor. Riccardo and his wife live along the Garden Route on the coast of South Africa, where he spends weekends pack rafting, hanging out with their six dogs, building and flying multicopters, and playing with LEGO.

Trackhost Interview

Question: 
What’s the focus of the work you’re doing today?
Answer: 

I own and operate a consultancy that works with financial institutions on blockchain and Bitcoin projects. I’m also the lead maintainer of the Monero project, which is a privacy focused cryptocurrency that isn’t based on Bitcoin. And between those two, I’m in contact with a lot of people who want to use cryptocurrency in one form or another, but don’t know how.

Question: 
Who is the audience for this track?
Answer: 

There’s such a mixed crowd that are attracted to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It’s likely that we’ll see a lot of people who are from the finance industry or are interested in Bitcoin, Monero, cryptocurrency, blockchain etc.

10:35am - 11:25am

by Elaine Ou
Security Engineer @GlobalFinancialAccess & Co-Creator of Sand Hill Exchange
Blockchain Introduction: Peering Through the Hype

Will answer the questions: what is a blockchain, why all the hype, what makes a blockchain secure, what can be built on top of blockchains, what are some real-world use-cases?

11:50am - 12:40pm

by Riccardo Spagni
Crytocurrency Expert & Lead Maintainer Monero/Monero Core

by Peter Todd
Bitcoin Core Developer & @Coinkite Advisor

by Elaine Ou
Security Engineer @GlobalFinancialAccess & Co-Creator of Sand Hill Exchange

by Jeremy Rand
Lead Engineer @Namecoin

by David Vorick
Sia Creator & @NebulousLabs Founder

by Paul Sztorc
@BitcoinHivemind Creator

by Rob Witoff
Chief Architect @Coinbase
Practical Cryptography & Blockchain Panel
1:40pm - 2:30pm

by Peter Todd
Bitcoin Core Developer & @Coinkite Advisor

Practical Blockchains: Building on Bitcoin

Talk will answer the questions:

  • Why use Bitcoin over other blockchains
  • What are safe, future proof ways to peg data to Bitcoin's blockchain
  • What is Bitcoin script, and how can it be used?
2:55pm - 3:45pm

by Jeremy Rand
Lead Engineer @Namecoin
Case Study: Alternate Blockchains

It seems that everyone is creating their own blockchain. Is this justified, or should they be using Bitcoin? This talk will use Namecoin and Monero as case studies to see what advantages exist for using a different blockchain, what approaches exist for doing so (e.g. merge-mined sidechains), and what risks you might be exposing your users to if you use a blockchain that isn't as secure as Bitcoin.

4:10pm - 5:00pm

by David Vorick
Sia Creator & @NebulousLabs Founder

Big Ideas: Decentralised Storage

Will cover: the need for distributed / decentralised storage, real life use-cases for distributed storage systems, dealing with data loss in a distributed system, brief overview of IPFS and Sia, building on top of distributed storage systems

5:25pm - 6:15pm

by Paul Sztorc
@BitcoinHivemind Creator
Blockchain: The Oracle Problems

Will cover: why the oracle problem is so hard (specifically, this historical evolution of failures, from API, to clearnet website, to darknet website, to multisig escrow, to judicial "competition", to Ethereum/Augur, and why they fail), may also cover basics of blockchain ("blockchain as immortal software", ledger "rents", revenge of "the idea guy").

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