Seminar: Mathematical Literacy: Cryptocurrencies, SS 2019

Prof. Dr. Clara Löh / Dr. Florian Strunk / J. Witzig

News

The schedule is now available.
The organisational meeting for this seminar will be on Wednesday, February 6, at 13:15 (M 311). Alternatively, you can register for this seminar by sending an email to clara.loeh@mathematik.uni-r.de .
The talks are distributed and all registered participants should have received an email.
The Templates for reports/handouts are online (see below); of course, you can also produce the report/handout by other means.
This seminar will be held in English. The written report can be submitted in English or German. The handouts should be in English.

Seminar: Mathematical Literacy: Cryptocurrencies

Methods from distributed computing and cryptography allow to build decentralised, digital, currencies (such as Bitcoin and many others). More generally, one can use the same technology to set up a decentral system of smart contracts.

The goal of this seminar is to understand these concepts. More precisely, we will study the foundations from distributed computing and cryptography needed to understand the blockchain concept, the construction of cryptocurrencies, and smart contracts. In particular, we will discuss correctness, fault tolerance, efficiency, and security of distributed algorithms and we will also prove that certain distributed problems are unsolvable. Moreover, we will compare different types and specifications of cryptocurrencies.

This seminar will only focus on mathematical aspects, not on economic, legal, or social aspects. This seminar is about the principles of this technology and no endorsement of any kind.

Time/Location

Wednesday, 8:30--10:00, M 102

Material

Overview of all talks (and some organisatorial hints).
LaTeX template for handouts: .tex, .pdf
LaTeX template for reports: .tex, .pdf
Hints on writing mathematical texts (in German)
More such hints
Small print on slide talks

Prerequisites

Analysis I/II, Linear Algebra I/II; Algebra; no previous knowledge in computer science is necessary, but it is certainly helpful to have some familiarity with the concept of algorithm (as, e.g., explained in the Numerik course).
This seminar is suitable for Bachelor/Master students and Lehramtsstudenten. For Lehramtsstudenten, this seminar could be the starting point for a project under my supervision.

Formalities/Credits

See the commented list of courses.

Last Change: March 18, 2019.