Blockchains are decentralized digital trust platforms, perhaps the next infrastructure of the information world we are living in ("web 3.0"). In this talk, we deconstruct blockchains from first principles allowing one to answer basic questions, e.g., what precisely are blockchains? The deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction allow one to see blockchains as variegated, multidisciplinary research and engineering topic mixing networking, cryptography, algorithms, data structures, memory management, operating systems, virtual machine designs, mechanism designs – featuring nearly all of EE/CS topics under a common, cohesive umbrella.

The second part of the talk will feature Q&A (AMA session) on the thrill of conducting multidisciplinary research from first principles, graduate study tips and ECE at Princeton University. Students are encouraged to bring any questions they have related to graduate school in EECS.

Pramod Viswanath is the Forrest G Hamrick Professor in Engineering at Princeton University. His current research interests are in blockchains. He is founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope, a blockchain startup company. He has also worked on wireless communications in the past, and is a co-author of the esteemed book Fundamentals of wireless communication.

Website: web3.princeton.edu