# It's All about Trust

> Ittai Abraham (Intel) surveys some of the amazing scalability advances in blockchain technologies over the past 5 years, including (1) progress in consensus protocols (partial synchrony, asynchrony, and synchrony); (2) the emergence of DAG-based data propagation protocols; and (3) blockchain executi...

- URL: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/videos/its-all-about-trust
- Authors: [Ittai Abraham](https://a16zcrypto.com/team/ittai-abraham)
- Published: 2023-08-22
- Updated: 2025-01-29
- Focus areas: research
- Tags: scaling & throughput, video
- Format: videos

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Ittai Abraham (Intel) surveys some of the amazing scalability advances in blockchain technologies over the past 5 years, including (1) progress in consensus protocols (partial synchrony, asynchrony, and synchrony); (2) the emergence of DAG-based data propagation protocols; and (3) blockchain execution paradigms (sharding, rollups, L2 sequencers) and how they relate to consensus and notions of asymmetric trust.

[Embedded media](https://www.youtube.com/embed/63nbCWxBsnA?feature=oembed)

**About the speaker**

Ittai is a senior researcher at Intel. He does research in algorithms and distributed computing. He also helps edit the blog Decentralized Thoughts ([https://decentralizedthoughts.github….](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnNITFFqczZxX2Z5aDIwblJJdHJ2djBRRnliZ3xBQ3Jtc0tueTlDdC1rQTVYYmUzOWxELWlhVy1oRUdkVjVqU2hMZ19VdnZDM1p3MVpNYkU1SUZDbGpSOURwVmwzM3BkWGhSQUdoTG1tUmJNZzlKQTRjNUFRTE1lZlFFY1hPeEJjOFE4dUdaQjhuUjFpeFByQjJUOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fdecentralizedthoughts.github.io%2F%29&v=63nbCWxBsnA).

**About a16z crypto research**

a16z crypto research is a multidisciplinary lab that works closely with our portfolio companies and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. More about us: a16z.com/2022/04/21/announcing-a16z-crypto-research

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