Lecture

Bitcoin and Blockchain

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In course

HUM-122(b): Global issues: communication B

Ce cours présente les enjeux mondiaux de la communication en lien avec l'essor de l'intelligence artificielle (IA). L'approche interdisciplinaire intègre les SHS avec les sciences de l'ingénierie et initie au décryptage des enjeux sociaux, techniques et po ...

Description

This lecture covers the concepts of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Bitcoin is a new currency that does not rely on a central organization and is technically intriguing. Blockchain is an immutable, distributed ledger that underlies Bitcoin, providing a permanent record of transactions with various applications. The lecture delves into the challenges of exchanging value without intermediaries, the concept of digital goods being fungible, and the properties of cryptographic hash functions. It also explores the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, the process of creating new bitcoins, and the impact of transaction fees. Additionally, it discusses the implications of blockchain technology on trust, the environment, and cybercrime.

Instructors (3)

Florian Lucas Jaton

Florian Jaton is a researcher and lecturer at EPFL (College of Humanities) and at the University of Lausanne (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences). He previously worked at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at Mines Paris, and at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. His research interests are the sociology of algorithms, the philosophy of mathematics, and the history o

Rémi Philippe Lebret

James Richard Larus

Expertise James Larus is a Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC) at EPFL (école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). Before joining IC in October 2013, Larus was a researcher, manager, and director in Microsoft Research for over 16 years and an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Larus has been an active contributor to numerous communities. He published over 100 papers (with 14 be

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Bitcoin

Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC or XBT; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. The cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency began use in 2009, when its implementation was released as open-source software. The word "bitcoin" was defined in a white paper published on October 31, 2008.

Blockchain

A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree, where data nodes are represented by leaves). Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain (compare linked list data structure), with each additional block linking to the ones before it.

Bitcoin network

The Bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer network of nodes which implement the Bitcoin protocol. The protocol itself implements a highly available, public, and decentralized ledger. The nodes verify that each update to the ledger follows the rules of the Bitcoin protocol. Users broadcast cryptographically signed messages to the network using Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet software. These messages are proposed transactions, changes to be made in the ledger. Each node has a copy of the ledger's entire transaction history.

Blockchain analysis

Blockchain analysis is the process of inspecting, identifying, clustering, modeling and visually representing data on a cryptographic distributed-ledger known as a blockchain. The goal of blockchain analysis is to discover useful information about different actors transacting in cryptocurrency. Analysis of public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is typically conducted by private companies like Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic, Nansen, CipherTrace, Elementus, Dune Analytics, CryptoQuant.

Decentralized computing

Decentralized computing is the allocation of resources, both hardware and software, to each individual workstation, or office location. In contrast, centralized computing exists when the majority of functions are carried out, or obtained from a remote centralized location. Decentralized computing is a trend in modern-day business environments. This is the opposite of centralized computing, which was prevalent during the early days of computers. A decentralized computer system has many benefits over a conventional centralized network.

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