Title: Blockchain: what it is and why it matters

Speaker: Laura Ricci & Damiano di Francesco Maesa (Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa)

Location: Aula 205 (ex 32) – DISIA – Viale Morgagni 59 (need to register here https://tinyurl.com/mrx654pn).

The seminar will be also online and you can participate at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/5f7tuh5u

Abstract: A blockchain protocol is employed to implement a tamper-free distributed ledger that stores transactions created by the nodes of a P2P network and agreed upon through a distributed consensus algorithm, avoiding the need for a central authority. Blockchain technology has a great potential to radically change our socio-economical systems by guaranteeing secure transactions between untrusted entities, reducing their cost, and simplifying many processes. Such technology is going to be exploited in many areas like IoT, social networking, health care, electronic voting and so on. This talk will introduce the basic principles of this new, disruptive technology, highlighting a set of “killer applications”. We will also show the innovative potential for research in such a field, showing results on the study of blockchain transaction graphs to characterize users’ behaviors.