Exploring Game Theory and Cryptography in Blockchain Research | Jiasun Li (GMU)

Abstract: I plan to divide the talk into two parts. In the first part, I will review my past and ongoing research on applying game theory and mechanism design to blockchain research, highlight two pieces of work: 1. The economic forces that simultaneously compromise and sustain decentralization; 2. The promise of Bitcoin mining to actually lower total carbon emission in the overall economy. In the second half, I will introduce my current interests in incorporating cryptography into mechanism design. I will explain how cryptography may enable the implementation of otherwise infeasible mechanisms, and envision how economic approaches may complement cryptography.If there is extra time (highly unlikely), I can dive in more other work that fall in the same theme.