October 2016

Our Bizarre Future ofBitcoins, Blockchains and Smart Contracts

Prof William Knottenbelt

Imperial College Centre forCryptocurrency Research and Engineering

Who are we?

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/cryptocurrency

ProfWilliamKnottenbelt(Director)

DrCatherineMulligan(AssociateDirector)

DrRobertLearney(AssociateDirector)

IainStewart(Researcher)

AndrewPaine(Researcher)

The Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering

What is our mission?

•Toconductresearchdirectedatdesigningandengineeringimprovementstotheprotocolsunderpinningblockchaintechnology

•Togaininsightsintothedynamicoperationsofblockchainsandassociatedmarkets

•Toexplorenovelapplicationsacrossmultipledomains

Weviewinteractionandpartnershipwithindustryandgovernmentasfundamentaltoalloftheseactivities

A blockchain allows untrusting parties with common interests to co-create a permanent, unchangeable and transparent

record of exchange and processing without relying on a central authority.

Why is blockchain technology significant?

“Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement… the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value”

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

•If the Internet is a disruptive platform designed to facilitate the dissemination of information…..

•…then blockchain technology is a disruptive platform designed to facilitate the exchange of value

What is the potential?

•Protected from fraud &censorship•Trust without third-parties•No central point of control

What is a blockchain?

Adapted from: https://bitsonblocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/one_block.jpg

Visualisations of the Bitcoin Blockchain

http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~dm214

1

Source: FirstPartner

Components of a blockchain

2

Source: FirstPartner

Components of a blockchain

3

Source: FirstPartner

Components of a blockchain

Two Popular Open Blockchain Platforms

Or why blockchain transactions don’t always have to be financial in nature

• Better for students

• Better for companies

• Better for universities

Or how blockchains can help put trust back into supply chains

Provenance in Food Supply Chains

Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering

Or how blockchain can enable Government 2.0

Participation, Collaboration, and Transparency

• The DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) was the world’s first blockchain-based company

• It comprised a set of Ethereum smart contracts designed to support an investor-directed venture fund

• It raised $150m worth of capital (Ether) in 28 days through a token sale

Smart contracts: A cautionary tale

But then…

One third of the money was stolen thanks to a smart contract coding error…

Smart contracts: A cautionary tale (cont…)

• The Ethereum community resolved to “hard fork” the Ethereum Blockchain – that is, to issue a new software stack – to reverse the effect of the “theft”

• Yet a significant minority of miners continued to run the original unpatched software, rebadging it Ethereum Classic

• The result is two blockchains which continue to exist in parallel, with many unforeseen consequences

Smart contracts: A cautionary tale (cont…)

In this universe, code is law and the “theft” will not be reversed.

In this universe, crime is not OK, even on a blockchain, and the “theft” has been reversed.

“New” Ethereum

EthereumClassic

Other areas we are exploring

•InternetofThingsApplications•Healthcare•CryptocurrenciesforNationStates

With thanks to (Imperial students and colleagues)…Cathy Mulligan, Rob Learney, Iain Stewart, Andrew Paine, David Birch, Dan McGinn, Alberto de Capitani, Cedric Colle, Kenneth Lindroos, Andrej Maris, Pete Turnbull, Tomas Virgl, Kacper Zylka, Theodor Gherzan, Lei Geng, Chloe Mak, Mohammad Ali Shahadat, Tina Zhang, Slavyan Gradev, Ronan Kumar, Rad Ploshtakov, David Pollak, Henry Young, Timothy Lim, Jack Bridger, Anne Mottram, Miguel Cansado Carvalho, Lottie Carruthers, Joshua Howarth, Veronika Kolejakova, Zoe Vance, Ying Chan, Kayla Shapiro, Pierre (Eugene) Valassakis, Aubrianna Zhu, Ario Aliabadi, CataldoAzzariti, Adrien Boukobza, Robin Marle, Leila Sweidan, Adam Kent, Daniel Middlecote, Luke Parsons, Priyav Shah, Nimalesh Sukumar, Mohammed Al-Hakim, Nicolas Gotchac, Suryansh Rastogi, Jack Thorp, Joshua Lind, Leif Lundbaek, Daniel Lucsanszky, Valentin Grand, Adam Pinckard, Olivier Khatib, Anosh Zahir, Pooja Rao, Samuel Martinet, Alan Vey, Annika Monari, Antoine Vernet, Zeynep Gurguc, Jenny O’Connor, David Boyle, Yike Guo, Michael Huth, Naranker Dulay, Jeremy Pitt, Damiano Brigo, Julie McCann, Anandha Gopalan, Victoria Nicholl, Ann Halford, Julian Sikondari, Bruno Cotta, Julia Zanghieri, Colin Smith, Anne Barrett, Mikhaela Gray, Susan Eisenbach, David Gann, Ling Ge, Mike Russell, Jeff Magee, Alice Gast…

With thanks to (external connections)…Sandra Ro (CME Group), Timo Schlaefer (Crypto Facilities), Daniel Masters (Global Advisors), Jean-Marie Mognetti (Global Advisors), Peter Smith (Blockchain), Simon Scorer (BoE), Robleh Ali (BoE), Ian Billet (BoE), Bob Wigley, Jamie Burke (Outlier Ventures), Alice Corsini (Oraclize), Thomas Bertani(Oraclize), Jessi Baker (Provenance), Cedric Jeanson (Bitspread), Ritika Sen (Bitspread), Pascal Gauthier (Kaiko), Thomas Wilkinson (Home Office), Victoria Birch (Norton Rose Fulbright), Adam Vaziri (Diacle), Edan Yago (Epiphyte), Gabrielle Patrick (Epiphyte), Adam Webb (Digital Catapult), Madalina Nazare(Digital Catapult), Rikesh Patel (Standard Chartered), Charles Hayter (Crypto Compare), Vlad Cealicu (Crypto Compare), Aeron Buchanan (Ethcore), Raymond Mulligan (Credit Suisse), Harini Kulatunga (BP), Nick Colossimo (BAE Systems), Nikolas Anastasiou (Emergent Systems), Charles Elderkin (Citi), Michael Mainelli(Z/Yen), Tony Kenyon (Guardtime), Simon Taylor (11:FS), Tim Nugent (Thomson Reuters), Matt Clifford (Entrepreneur First), George Hallam (Ethereum), Sam Warburton (RWE), Toby Stokes (BAFTA), Gerard O’Malley (The Film Network), Scott Riley (Kynetix), Matt Dolton (Kynetix), Alex Amsel (Colony)…

Thankyou!

CommentsQ&A

Contact:wjk@imperial.ac.uk

Extra slides