Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have proven to be a phenomenal success. The underlying techniques hold a huge promise to change the future of financial transactions, and eventually our way of computation and collaboration.  At the heart of the Bitcoin system is a blockchain, that records  transactions between users in consecutive time windows. The blockchain is maintained by a peer-to-peer network of nodes called Bitcoin  miners via the so-called proof-of-work mechanism.

In this talk, I will lay the cryptographic foundations of blockchains, which consist of the paradigms, approaches and techniques used to conceptualize, define and provide solutions to important functionality, efficiency and security requirements for blockchain related tasks.

This talk will cover the following: 1) Bitcoin blockchain basics; 2) General methodology; 3) Nakamoto’s proof-of-work based protocol; 4) Beyond proof-of-work; and 5) Novel applications on top of blockchain.