DistOS 2021F 2021-12-02

Notes

Lecture 21
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Ethereum security - what do you think?

Yeah, it isn't great

So, do you trust this enough to put your entire economic future into this sort of technology?

The problem isn't that Ethereum couldn't be made more secure
 - it just can't be made as secure as it would need to be to
   trust it as people are saying we should trust it
 - it just can't be fixed on the fly like other systems
    - requires too much buy-in

The key thing about trusted third parties is they are accountable
 - if anything, within a political system

Blockchains are potentially revolutionary
 - just not with proof of work
 - has to be proof of stake or, better, some trusted third party
    - they can fix the blockchain when it messes up
    - and because it is public, there can be accountability

Why are blockchains at all interesting?
 - in finance, traditionally everything is kept secret
    - only privileged entities get to see what's going on
 - but with blockchains, money flows are public
    - we don't know who, but we know how much and how fast
    - and we can de-anonymize selectively as necessary