May 8-9, 2023

Simmons Auditorium, Tepper School of Business
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University's first-ever Secure Blockchain Summit brought together experts from academia and industry to discuss the future of blockchain research, technology, and applications, focusing on a variety of topics, including crypto-economics, applied cryptography, programming languages, security and privacy, policy and usability, ethics, equity, and more.

Secure Blockchain Initiative logo next to CyLab logo

 About    |    Schedule    |    Speakers    |    Organizers    |    Sponsors

 

About

Despite advances, many research questions still need answering to ensure blockchain protocols and applications are ready for widespread use. As the industry continues to see more consumer applications, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), securing the fundamental research elements of the technology, especially from a security, privacy, ethics, and societal impact perspective, is of utmost importance.

Carnegie Mellon University's first-ever Secure Blockchain Summit brought together experts from academia and industry to discuss the future of blockchain research, technology, and applications, focusing on a variety of topics, including crypto-economics, applied cryptography, programming languages, security and privacy, policy and usability, ethics, and equity.

Schedule

Day 1: May 8th, 2023

  • 8:00 - 9:00 AM - Breakfast and registration
  • 9:00 - 9:15 AM - Opening remarks (Lorrie Cranor)

Session I: Crypto-economics

Moderator: Ariel Zetlin-Jones

  • 9:15-10:15 AM:  (Keynote) Robert Townsend - Innovative Financial Designs Using the New Technologies: Two Key Examples and More General Considerations   (Slides | Video)
  • 10:15-10:35 AM:  Matt Weinberg - Statistically Undetectable Selfish Mining   (Video)
  • 10:35-10:55 AM:  Ariel Zetlin-Jones - Automated Exchange Economies   (Slides | Video)
  • 10:55-11:15 AM:  BREAK
  • 11:15-11:35 AM:  Hao ChungRapidash: Foundations of Side-Contract-Resilient Fair Exchange   (VideoSlides)
  • 11:35-11:55 AM:  Ke Wu - What Can Cryptography Do For Decentralized Mechanism Design?   (VideoSlides)
  • 11:55 AM-12:15 PM:  Agostino CapponiDo Flashbots Relays Mitigate Frontrunning Risk and MEV?   (VideoSlides)

Lunch

  • 12:15-1:50 PM

Session II: Applied Cryptography

Moderator: Elaine Shi

  • 1:50-2:10 PM:  Hugo Krawczyk - You Only Speak Once - Private Computing on Public Blockchains   (Slides | Video)
  • 2:10-2:30 PM:  Tal Rabin - SPRINT: Robust High Throughput Distributed Schnorr Signature   (Video | Slides)
  • 2:30-2:50 PM:  Riad WahbyNo Silver Bullet: A brief survey of key management technology
  • 2:50-3:15 PM:  BREAK
  • 3:15-3:35 PM:  Lisa MasserovaStoring and Retrieving Secrets on a Blockchain   (Slides | Video)
  • 3:35-3:55 PM:  Mingxun Zhou - Piano: extremely simple, single-server pir with sublinear server computation   (Video)
  • 3:55-4:00 PM:  Closing remarks

Evening Events:

  • 4:00-5:30 PM:  Walk in the park or BREAK
  • 5:30-8:00 PM:  Dinner at The Oaklander

 

Day 2: May 9th, 2023

  • 8:00-9:00 AM:  Breakfast and registration
  • 9:00-9:05 AM:  Opening remarks

Session III: Programming Language

Moderator: Fraser Brown

  • 9:05-9:25 AM:  Fraser BrownCirC: Compiler infrastructure for proof systems, software verification, and more
  • 9:25-9:45 AM:  Alex OzdemirSatisfiability Modulo Finite Fields (with applications to compilers to zero-knowledge proofs)   (Slides | Video)
  • 9:45-10:05 AM:  Andrew MyersEnforcing Integrity and Availability in a Deconstructed Blockchain   (Video)
  • 10:05-10:20 AM:  BREAK
  • 10:20-10:40 AM:  Jonathan AldrichObsidian: A Safe, Usable Language for Smart Contracts   (Slides | Video)
  • 10:40-11:00 AM:  Jan Hoffmann - Automatic Gas Bound Analysis for Smart Contracts   (Slides | Video)
  • 11:00-11:20 AM:  Chandrakana NandiVerifying Smart Contracts Using The Certora Prover   (Video)
  • 11:20-11:40 AM:  Ben LivshitsThe Blockchain Imitation Game

Lunch

  • 11:40 AM-12:50 PM

Session IV: Policy Panel   (Video)

Moderator: Ariel Zetlin-Jones 

Lightning Talks

  • 1:40-1:45 PM:  Giulia Fanti - Raft-Forensics: CFT Distributed Consensus with Accountability of Byzantine Faults   (VideoSlides)
  • 1:45-1:50 PM:  Osman YaganAnalysis and Optimization of Resilience in Blockchain Peer-to-Peer Networks
  • 1:50-1:55 PM:  Hanan HibshiIntroducing Hands-on Blockchain CTF Exercises in Security Classes: Highlights and Challenges
  • 1:55-2:00 PM:  Sauvik DasModeling Barriers to Self-Custody for Cryptocurrency Novices  (VideoSlides)
  • 2:00-2:05 PM:  Zhangxiang HuPrivacy In Decentralized Exchanges With Automated Market Maker
  • 2:05-2:10 PM:  Chris WilmerLedger: The world's first peer-reviewed journal for blockchain research   (VideoSlides)
  • 2:10-2:15 PM:  Wenpin TangMechanism design under the Proof of Stake protocol   (VideoSlides)
  • 2:15-2:35 PM:  Andrew Miller - Pitfalls & Opportunities in TEE-based smart contracts
  • 2:35-2:50 PM: BREAK

Session V: Ethics and Equity Panel   (Video)

Moderator: Nicolas Christin

Speakers

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Jonathan Aldrich
Professor
CMU's Computer Science
Department

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Leemon Baird
Co-Founder
Hedera Hashgraph

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Fraser Brown
Assistant Professor
CMU's Software and Societal
Systems Department

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Agostino Capponi
Associate Professor
Columbia University

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Hao Chung
Ph.D. Student
CMU's Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department

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Sauvik Das
Assistant Professor
CMU's Human-Computer
Interaction Institute

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Giulia Fanti
Assistant Professor 
CMU's Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department

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Hanan Hibshi
Assistant Teaching Professor
CMU's Information Networking Institute

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Jan Hoffmann
Assistant Professor 
CMU's Computer Science
Department

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Zhangxiang Hu
Cryptographer 
Ripple

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Tae Wan Kim
Associate Professor 
CMU's Tepper School of Business

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Hugo Krawczyk
Principal Researcher
Algorand Foundation

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Ben Livshits
Reader
Imperial College London

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Michael Madison
Professor
University of Pittsburgh

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Giovanna Massarotto
Research Fellow
University of Pennsylvania

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Lisa Masserova
Graduate Research Assistant
CMU's Computer Science
Department
 

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Andrew Miller
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign

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Andrew Myers
Professor
Cornell University

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Chandrakana Nandi
Research Scientist
Certora

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Alex Ozdemir
Ph.D. Student 
Stanford University 

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Tal Rabin
Professor
University of Pennsylvania

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Martin Saint
Director of Academics
CMU-Africa

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Kyle Soska
Head of Research
Ramiel Capital

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Wenpin Tang
Assistant Professor
Columbia University

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Robert Townsend
Professor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Riad Wahby
Assistant Professor
CMU's Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department

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Matt Weinberg
Assistant Professor
Princeton University
 

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Chris Wilmer
Associate Professor
University of Pittsburgh

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Ke Wu
Ph.D. Student 
CMU's Computer Science Department

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Osman Yagan
Research Professor
CMU's Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department 

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Mingxun Zhou
Ph.D. Student
CMU's Computer Science
Department

Secure Blockchain Summit Committee

Elaine Shi'

Elaine Shi
C
o-director
Blockchain@CMU Initiative

Nicolas Christin

Nicolas Christin
Co-director
Blockchain@CMU Initiative

Ariel Zetlin-Jones

Ariel Zetlin-Jones
C
o-director
Blockchain@CMU Initiative

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Fraser Brown
Assistant Professor
Software and Societal
Systems Department

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Michael Lisanti
Director
CyLab Partnerships

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Isabelle Glassmith
Project Manager
CyLab Partnerships

Thank you to our inaugural Summit sponsors!


Secure Blockchain Institute Circle Sponsors

Algorand Foundation Logo, Ripple Logo

Secure Blockchain Sponsorship Opportunities

We are offering a limited number of sponsorship opportunities to companies and organizations seeking to support the CMU Secure Blockchain Initiative and Summit. For more information, please contact the CyLab partnerships team at partnerships@cylab.cmu.edu.

 
CMU Secure Blockchain Initiative (SBI)

The CMU Secure Blockchain Initiative is supported by seed sponsorships from Algorand Foundation and Ripple. Our goal is to work together with industry partners to ensure that the research outputs are relevant and applicable to the challenges faced by the blockchain industry.

Learn more about partnering with the CMU Secure Blockchain Initiative.