Rethinking crypto attacker models

Blockchains operate in a radically new, highly adversarial environment where subtle protocol flaws can be immediately monetized by anonymous actors. This fundamentally intertwines an assortment of fields — cryptography, distributed systems, and mechanism design among many others. As a consequence, blockchain security can no longer be thought of from a single lens.

In this talk, Mahimna Kelkar (Cornell University) shows how attackers can erode security through the very same tools typically used to build secure protocols. The first part of the talk challenges assumptions of key ownership and knowledge by illustrating powerful new bribery attacks. The second part discusses accountability in cryptography and its incentives.

About the presenter Mahimna recently graduated with a PhD in computer science from Cornell University. His research focus is on applied cryptography and the foundations of security for decentralized systems.

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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