Emin Gün Sirer & Ittay Eyal: Bitcoin-NG – Scientists Versus the Church

Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

One of the concerns confronting the Bitcoin community is that of scaling the transaction throughput rate: How do we go from the current rate of approx. 5 transactions per second to a thousand times that?

In this episode, we talk to Emin Gun Sirer and Ittay Eyal from Cornell University regarding Bitcoin NG; a next generation Bitcoin blockchain design that addresses some protocol based limitations preventing Bitcoin from increasing transaction throughput.

Their proposal also enables fast (initial) transaction confirmations on the order of 10-20 seconds.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Metrics to measure the security and fairness properties of Nakamoto consensus as implemented in Bitcoin.
• A network emulation of Bitcoin designed by their team to study properties of Bitcoin network.
• Technical design of Bitcoin NG
• Concerns with Bitcoin NG
• Impact of Bitcoin NG on various stakeholders if it is adopted in the main Bitcoin network.

Episode links:

• Bitcoin-NG White Paper
• Bitcoin-NG: A Secure, Faster, Better Blockchain
• Bitcoin-NG and the Blockchain Test bed (Scaling Bitcoin Workshop Slides)

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/103