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SUMMARY:Dinesh Shah (Bank of Canada)
DTSTART:20201203T230000Z
DTEND:20201204T003000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/1
DESCRIPTION:Title: To blockchain or not to blockchain? The Bank of Canada
’s journey into digital currency\nby Dinesh Shah (Bank of Canada) as
part of Blockchain Research Seminar Series\n\n\nAbstract\nThe Bank of Can
ada has undertaken a multi-phase experimental project\, called Jasper\, to
critically examine the value proposition of distributed ledger technology
in the financial system. Unlike most technologies blockchain is not value
free: it attempts to organize the world with a different conception of tr
ust. We describe our journey\, collaboration with other central banks and
financial institutions\, our findings and outstanding questions.\n\nDinesh
Shah is a director of Fintech research at the Bank of Canada. He leads a
team that focuses on research on e-money and fintech. His research interes
t includes the analysis of emerging and potentially disruptive technologie
s with wide applications to financial market infrastructure and the financ
ial system. He also drives the five phases of Project Jasper\, which was t
he first project globally that involves a collaboration between a central
bank and commercial banks to build a proof-of-concept interbank payment sy
stem with distributed ledgers. He joined the Bank of Canada in 2009 as an
Enterprise Architect\, then became a technical researcher focusing on rese
arch and analysis developments in e-money and payment systems and their im
pact on the Bank of Canada's mandate. He received an honored BSc degree fr
om the University of Kent.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/1/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Sam Blackshear (Novi Research)
DTSTART:20210128T230000Z
DTEND:20210129T003000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/2
DESCRIPTION:Title: A Safe Language for Programming with Money\nby Sam
Blackshear (Novi Research) as part of Blockchain Research Seminar Series\
n\n\nAbstract\nI will discuss the design and implementation of Move\, a ne
w language for programming with money and other digital assets. Move allow
s programmers to define custom resource types with semantics inspired by l
inear logic. We have formalized the semantics of Move and proven that all
Move programs enjoy resource safety\, a value conservation guarantee simil
ar to (e.g) conservation of mass. We are using Move to implement high-assu
rance currency issuance\, payments\, access control\, and governance in th
e Libra blockchain.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/2/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:David Dill (Novi Research)
DTSTART:20210218T230000Z
DTEND:20210219T003000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/3
DESCRIPTION:Title: Formal verification of Move programs for the Libra blo
ckchain\nby David Dill (Novi Research) as part of Blockchain Research
Seminar Series\n\n\nAbstract\nThe Libra blockchain\, which was initiated i
n 2018 by Facebook\, includes a novel programming language called Move for
implementing smart contracts. The correctness of Move programs is especia
lly important because the blockchain will host large amounts of assets\, t
hose assets are managed by smart contracts\, and because there is a histor
y of large losses on other blockchains because of bugs in smart contracts.
The Move language is designed to be as safe as we can make it\, and it is
accompanied by a formal specification and automatic verification tool\, c
alled the Move Prover. A project to specify and formally verify as many im
portant properties of the Move standard library is now well underway.\n\nT
his talk will be about the goals of the project and the most interesting i
nsights we've had as of the time of the presentation. The entire blockchai
n implementation\, including the Move language\, virtual machine\, the Mov
e Prover\, and near-final various Move modules are available on http://git
hub.com/libra\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/3/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Gerry Tsoukalas (University of Pennsylvania)
DTSTART:20210324T160000Z
DTEND:20210324T173000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/4
DESCRIPTION:Title: Inventory\, Speculators\, and Initial Coin Offerings (
ICOs)\nby Gerry Tsoukalas (University of Pennsylvania) as part of Bloc
kchain Research Seminar Series\n\n\nAbstract\nInitial Coin Offerings (ICOs
) are an emerging form of fundraising for Blockchain-based startups. We pr
opose a simple model of matching supply with demand with ICOs by companies
involved in production of physical products. We examine how ICOs should b
e designed---including optimal token floating and pricing for both the uti
lity tokens and the equity tokens (aka\, security token offerings\, STOs)-
--in the presence of product risk and demand uncertainty\, make prediction
s on ICO failure\, and discuss the implications on firm operational decisi
ons and profits. We show that in the current unregulated environment\, ICO
s lead to risk-shifting incentives (moral hazard)\, and hence to underprod
uction\, agency costs\, and loss of firm value. These inefficiencies\, how
ever\, fade as product margin increases and market conditions improve\, an
d are less severe under equity (rather than utility) token issuance. Impor
tantly\, the advantage of equity tokens stems from their inherent ability
to better align incentives\, and hence continues to hold even in unregulat
ed environments.\n\nGerry Tsoukalas is an assistant professor at the Whart
on School at the University of Pennsylvania\, teaching the core MBA class
in Business Analytics\, as well as graduate and undergraduate-level electi
ves in mathematical modeling for finance.\n\nHis research interests lie at
the intersection of operations\, technology and finance\, with a focus on
fintech operations. Specific areas of application include how to optimall
y design and operate crowdfunding and blockchain-based platforms\, supply
chain finance and portfolio management. His work has appeared in leading a
cademic journals\, including Management Science\, Operations Research\, an
d M&SOM. He serves on the editorial board of Management Science\, as an As
sociate Editor.\n\nProfessor Tsoukalas completed his undergraduate studies
in France\, receiving degrees in Physics from the University of Paris\, a
nd Aeronautical Engineering from the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronauti
que et de l’Espace-Supaero (2005). He completed his graduated studies in
the US\, receiving a Masters in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT (2007
) and a PhD in Economics & Finance from the Management Science & Engineeri
ng Department at Stanford University (2009-2013). He was also previously a
doctoral scholar at the MIT Operations Research Center (2011-2012).\n\nPr
ofessor Tsoukalas has experience working with a variety of firms in the fi
nancial services and tech industries. Previously\, He was a structured pro
ducts trader at Morgan Stanley in London (2007-2009). He has also consulte
d for and advised several startups\, proprietary investment firms and hedg
e funds\, including EvA Funds (2010-2011)\, and Weiss Asset Management (20
12-2013)\, and has held stints in several international banks\, including
Barclays Capital (2006) and Societe Generale (2005).\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/4/
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SUMMARY:Percy Liang (Stanford University)
DTSTART:20210308T200000Z
DTEND:20210308T210000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/5
DESCRIPTION:Title: Deep Models and on Shaping their Development\nby P
ercy Liang (Stanford University) as part of Blockchain Research Seminar Se
ries\n\n\nAbstract\nModels in deep learning are wild beasts: they devour r
aw data\, are powerful but hard to control. This talk explores two approac
hes to taming them. First\, I will introduce concept bottleneck networks\,
in which a deep neural network makes a prediction via interpretable\, hig
h-level concepts. We show that such models can obtain comparable accuracy
with standard models\, while offering the unique ability for a human to pe
rform test-time interventions on the concepts. Second\, I will introduce p
refix-tuning\, which allows one to harness the power of pre-trained langua
ge models (e.g.\, GPT-2) for text generation tasks. The key idea is to lea
rn a continuous task-specific prefix that primes the language model for th
e task at hand. Prefix-tuning obtains comparable accuracy to fine-tuning\,
while only updating 0.1% of the parameters. Finally\, I will end with a b
road question: what kind of datasets should the community develop to drive
innovation in modeling approaches? Are size and realism necessary attribu
tes of a dataset? Could we have made all the modeling progress in NLP with
out SQuAD? As this counterfactual question is impossible to answer\, we pe
rform a retrospective study on 20 modeling approaches and show that even a
small\, synthetic dataset can track the progress that was made on SQuAD.
While inconclusive\, this result encourages us to think more critically ab
out the value of datasets during their construction.\n\nBio: Percy Liang i
s an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University (B.S.
from MIT\, 2004\; Ph.D. from UC Berkeley\, 2011). His research spans many
topics in machine learning and natural language processing\, including rob
ustness\, interpretability\, semantics\, and reasoning. He is also a stron
g proponent of reproducibility through the creation of CodaLab Worksheets.
His awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and
Engineers (2019)\, IJCAI Computers and Thought Award (2016)\, an NSF CARE
ER Award (2016)\, a Sloan Research Fellowship (2015)\, a Microsoft Researc
h Faculty Fellowship (2014)\, and multiple paper awards at ACL\, EMNLP\, I
CML\, and COLT.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/5/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Daphne Koller (Stanford University)
DTSTART:20210322T190000Z
DTEND:20210322T200000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/6
DESCRIPTION:by Daphne Koller (Stanford University) as part of Blockchain R
esearch Seminar Series\n\nAbstract: TBA\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/6/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Surya Ganguli (Stanford University)
DTSTART:20210405T190000Z
DTEND:20210405T200000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/7
DESCRIPTION:by Surya Ganguli (Stanford University) as part of Blockchain R
esearch Seminar Series\n\nAbstract: TBA\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/7/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Shakir Mohamed (DeepMind)
DTSTART:20210419T190000Z
DTEND:20210419T200000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/8
DESCRIPTION:by Shakir Mohamed (DeepMind) as part of Blockchain Research Se
minar Series\n\nAbstract: TBA\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/8/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Wen Tong (Huawei Wireless)
DTSTART:20211118T230000Z
DTEND:20211119T000000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/9
DESCRIPTION:Title: 6G-Blockchain: Open Issues and Directions\nby Wen
Tong (Huawei Wireless) as part of Blockchain Research Seminar Series\n\n\n
Abstract\nThe application of Blockchain technologies to real time communic
ations networks has created many new challenges and opportunities. One of
the objectives for 6G wireless is to create a real-time and massive Blockc
hain system as a foundational platform for the trustworthiness of network
operations\, hence\, the 6G-Blockchain will be the basis for the traceable
PoW (proof-of-work) mechanism to ensure the trust\, such that every real-
time data session\, and every real-time signaling operation will be record
ed on the public ledger\, such as permission based hyper-ledger. In this t
alk\, firstly we discuss the challenges of 6G-Blockchain to connect trilli
ons of the IoT devices with good faith of security\, integrity and privacy
\; secondly\, we discuss the fundamental real-time challenges for the 6G-B
lockchain with respect to the its latency\, its throughput and its scalabi
lity\; thirdly\, we propose a comprehensive zero-knowledge verification sy
stem\, a.k.a. zk-Faric system\, for providing a real-time privacy preservi
ng framework to improve the usability and scalability of the 6G-Blockchain
\; Lastly \, we propose a computational trust-metric model as the consensu
s mechanism for the 6G-Blockchain.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/9/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Lewis Gudgeon (Imperial College London)
DTSTART:20211209T220000Z
DTEND:20211209T230000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/10
DESCRIPTION:Title: DeFi: Finance 2.0?\nby Lewis Gudgeon (Imperial Co
llege London) as part of Blockchain Research Seminar Series\n\n\nAbstract\
nDecentralized Finance (DeFi)\, a blockchain powered peer-to-peer financia
l system\, is mushrooming. One and a half years ago the total value locked
in DeFi systems was approximately 700m USD\, now\, as of November 2021\,
it stands at around 100bn USD. The frenetic evolution of the ecosystem has
created challenges in understanding the basic principles of these systems
and their security risks.\n\nIn this talk\, I delineate the DeFi ecosyste
m along the following axes: its primitives\, its operational protocol type
s and its security. I distinguish between technical security\, which has a
healthy literature\, and economic security\, which is largely unexplored\
, connecting the latter with new models and thereby synthesizing insights
from computer science\, economics and finance. Finally\, I turn to the ope
n research challenges in the ecosystem\, and try to answer the question: i
s this Finance 2.0?\n\nBio: Lewis Gudgeon is a fourth year PhD Candidate i
n the Computer Science Department at Imperial College London\, supervised
by Professor William Knottenbelt. His background is primarily in Economics
\, having first studied Philosophy\, Politics and Economics as an undergra
duate followed by a MPhil in Economics Research at the University of Cambr
idge. His work focuses on DeFi systems\, particularly the design\, behavio
ur and risks of protocols for borrowing and saving (Protocols for Loanable
Funds) and stablecoins.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/10/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Christine Parlour (Haas School of Business at the University of Ca
lifornia\, Berkeley)
DTSTART:20220203T230000Z
DTEND:20220204T000000Z
DTSTAMP:20260422T225722Z
UID:Blockchain_Research_Seminar/11
DESCRIPTION:by Christine Parlour (Haas School of Business at the Universit
y of California\, Berkeley) as part of Blockchain Research Seminar Series\
n\nAbstract: TBA\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/Blockchain_Research_Seminar/11/
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