EE817/IS893: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Calendar (subject to change depending on schdule)

Useful Links for Reading Papers

2/25/2019

Topic: Introduction I
Presenter: Yongdae Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:

2/27/2019

Topic: Introduction II
Presenter: Yongdae Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List: "Overview of Cryptography" in Handbook of Applied Cryptography

3/4/2019

Topic: Cryptography
Presenter: Yongdae Kim
Slides: Slides from 2/27/2019
Reading List:

3/6/2019

Topic: P2P Network
Presenter: Yongdae Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- E. Chan-Tin, P. Wang, J. Tyra, T. Malchow, D. Foo Kune, N. Hopper, Y. Kim, "Attacking the Kad Network - Real World Evaluation and High Fidelity Simulation using DVN", WSCN'09
- J. R. Douceur, "The Sybil Attack", IPTPS'02
- F. Lopez, "Introduction to Gossip"

3/11/2019

Topic: Bitcoin
Presenter: Yongdae Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- Satoshi Nakamoto, "Bitcoin Whitepaper"

3/13/2019

Topic: BFT
Presenter: Daegeun Yoon
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- M. Castro, B. Liskov, "Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance", OSDI'99

3/18/2019

Topic: BLEEP I
Presenter: Yonggon Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- R. Jansen, N. Hopper, "Shadow: Running Tor in a Box for Accurate and Efficient Experimentation", NDSS'12
- (Github) "Shadow Github"

3/20/2019

Topic: BLEEP II
Assignment: Project Pre-proposal(Due: 3/24)
Presenter: Yonggon Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- A. Miller, R. Jansen, "Shadow-Bitcoin: Scalable Simulation via Direct Execution of Multi-threaded Applications"

3/25/2019

Topic: Mining Attacks I
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Yujin Kwon
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(attack paper) I. Eyal and E. Gun Sirer, "Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable", FC'14

3/27/2019

Topic: Mining Attacks II
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Yujin Kwon
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- R1(required)(attack paper) I. Eyal, "The miner's dilemma", IEEE S&P'15
- R2(required)(attack paper) Y. Kwon, D. Kim, Y. Son, E. Vasserman, Y. Kim, "Be Selfish and Avoid Dilemmas:Fork After Withholding (FAW) Attacks on Bitcoin", ACM CCS'17

4/1/2019

Topic: Network Attacks I
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Geunwoo Lim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(attack paper) M. Apostolaki, A. Zohar, L. Vanbever, "Hijacking Bitcoin: Routing Attacks on Cryptocurrencies", IEEE S&P'17

4/3/2019

Topic: Network Attacks II
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Joonhyuk Lee
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(attack paper) E. Heilman, A. Kendler, A. Zohar, S. Goldberg, "Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin's Peer-to-Peer Network", USENIX Sec'15
- (optional) Y. Marcus, E. Heilman, S. Goldberg, "Low-Resource Eclipse Attacks on Ethereum's Peer-to-Peer Network"

4/8/2019

Topic: Other Types of Consensus I
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Hyunjin Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) Y. Gilad, R. Hemo, S. Micali, G. Vlachos, N. Zeldovich, "Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies", ACM SOSP'17
- (optional) S. Bano, A. Sonnino, M. Al-Bassam, S. Azouvi, P. McCorry, S. Meiklejohn, G. Danezis, "SoK: Consensus in the Age of Blockchains"

4/10/2019

Topic: Other Types of Consensus II
Assignment: Reading Report, Project Full Proposal(Due: 4/10)
Presenter: Minjung Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(attack paper) M. Kim, Y. Kwon, Y. Kim, "Is Stellar as secure as you think?", IEEE S&B'19

4/15/2019 (Midterm Exam Period)

No class: Midterm Exam

4/17/2019 (Midterm Exam Period)

No class: Midterm Exam

4/22/2019

Topic: PoS(Proof of Stake)
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Jaewan Hong
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) G. Fanti, L. Kogan, S. Oh, K. Ruan, P. Viswanath, G. Wang, "Compounding of Wealth in Proof-of-Stake Cryptocurrencies", FC'19
- (optional) BitFury Group, "Proof of Stake versus Proof of Work"

4/24/2019

Topic: Other Types of Consensus III
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Seunggeun Baek
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) S. Park, A. Kwon, G. Fuchsbauer, P. Gazi, J. Alwen, K. Pietrzak, "SpaceMint: A Cryptocurrency Based on Proofs of Space", FC'18
- (optional) L. Chen, L. Xu, N. Shah, Z. Gao, Y. Lu, W. Shi, "On Security Analysis of Proof-of-Elapsed-Time(PoET)", SSS'17

4/29/2019

Topic: Scalability Method I
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Beongjun Choi
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) E. Kokoris-Kogias, P. Jovanovic, L. Gasser, N. Gailly, E. Syta, B. Ford, "OmniLedger: A Secure, Scale-Out, Decentralized Ledger via Sharding", IEEE S&P'18

5/1/2019

Topic: Scalability Method II
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Suyeong Lee
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) A. Miller, I. Bentov, S. Bakshi, R. Kumaresan, P. McCorry, "Sprites and State Channels: Payment Networks that Go Faster than Lightning", FC'19

5/6/2019

No class: Substitute Holiday (Children's Day)

5/8/2019

Topic: Security of Smart Contract
Assignment: Reading Report, Project Midterm Report(Due: 5/12)
Presenter: Daejun Kim
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(attack paper) L. Luu, D. H. Chu, H. Olickel, P. Saxena, A. Hobor, "Making smart contracts smarter", ACM CCS'16
- (optional) J. Krupp, C.Rossow, "TEETHER: Gnawing at Ethereum to Automatically Exploit Smart Contracts", USENIX Sec'18
- (optional) N. Atzei, M. Bartoletti, T. Cimoli, "A survey of attacks on Ethereum smart contracts (SoK)", POST'17
- (optional) M. Dameron, "Beigepaper: An Ethereum Technical Specification"

5/13/2019

Topic: Economics and Token Economy I
Assignment: Reading Report
Presenter: Yujin Kwon
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) Y. Kwon, H. Kim, J. Shin, Y. Kim, "Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash: Coexistence or Downfall of Bitcoin Cash?", IEEE S&P'19

5/15/2019

Topic: Economics and Token Economy II
Presenter: Yujin Kwon
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (required)(non-attack paper) Y. Kwon, J. Liu, M. Kim, D. Song, Y. Kim, "Impossibility of Full Decentralization in Permissionless Blockchains"

5/20/2019

Work on Class Project (No Class)

5/22/2019

Work on Class Project (No Class)

5/27/2019 - 9:00~10:30

Topic: Applications I
Presenter: Hyunjin Choo
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (optional) Aurora Labs, "IDEX: A Real-Time and High-Throughput Ethereum Smart Contract Exchange"
- (optional) W. Warren, "Front-running, Griefing and the Perils of Virtual Settlement (Part 1)"
- (optional) W. Warren, "Front-running, Griefing and the Perils of Virtual Settlement (Part 2)"
- (optional) G. Basin, "The State of Decentralized Exchanges"
- (optional) D. Siegel, "Understanding The DAO Attack"

5/27/2019 - 10:30~12:00

Topic: Applications II
Presenter: Hoon Shin
Slides: pdf
Reading List:
- (optional) Maker Team, "MakerDAO Whitepaper"
- (optional) N. Al-Naji, J. Chen, L. Diao, "Basis Whitepaper"

6/3/2019 (Project Final Presentation)

Topic: Project Final Presentation

6/5/2019 (Project Final Presentation)

Topic: Project Final Presentation
Assignment: Project Final Report(Due: 6/16)

6/10/2019 (Final Exam Period)

No class: Final Exam

6/12/2019 (Final Exam Period)

No class: Final Exam

Useful Links (Borrowed from Zhi-Li Zhang's 8211 web page)

"Effective Reading of Papers in Science and Technology", by Michael Hanson and Dylan McNameee
"An Evaluation of the Ninth SOSP Submissions or How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper", R. Levin, and D. D. Redell, ACM Operating Systems Review, 17 (3), July 1983, pp 35-40.
"How to Increase the Chances Your Paper is Accepted at ACM SIGCOMM", by Craig Partridge
"How to write a good research paper and give a good research talk", S. L. Peyton Jones, J. Hughes, and J. Launchbury, ACM SIGPLAN Notices 28 (11) Nov 1993.
"The art of Speaking", by Mike Dahlin
"Should Computer Scientists Experiment More?", by Walter Tichy
"A guide for new referees in theoretical computer science", by Ian Parberry
"How to have a bad career in research/academia", by David Patterson
"A Ph.D is Not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science", by Peter J. Feibelman (every science/engineer Ph.D student who is serious about a research career should read this book!)

You can also explore the CMU's Advice on Research and Writing webpage and Armando Fox's webpage on paper writing and presentations. Computer Research Association (CRA) also has a site for students with a lot of useful information.