Summer School on
Blockchain Technologies: From Cryptographic E-cash to Modern Cryptocurrencies
May 30 – June 2, 2016, in Corfu, Greece

http://bitcoinschool.gr

Description
The rise of Bitcoin and other so-­called “cryptocurrencies” has renewed interest in electronic payment systems and raised many research questions, which range from understanding, formalizing, and analyzing the protocols that support the underlying blockchain technology to designing new cryptocurrencies with better security guarantees.  There have been a number of relevant papers that have appeared in recent cryptography and security conferences, but the space of research problems is enormous and — especially with the introduction of more robust blockchain platforms like Ethereum — is still growing.

This summer school aims to bring together the communities working on cryptocurrencies, cryptographic electronic cash, and distributed consensus. The target audience is anyone (students, researchers, developers, professionals) with an interest in cryptography/security.  It is helpful for participants to have a basic knowledge of cryptography but we will make sure to provide an overview of all the necessary cryptographic building blocks; similarly, we expect that the school will be able to educate and motivate even those participants who already work within these research areas.

Travel Grants
We have two sources of funding for student travel.  The first is the National Science Foundation (NSF), who are able to fund 10 student travel grants of up to 1000 USD each for students attending a US-based university, and the second is IOHK, who are able to fund 6 students based in Greece or Ukraine.

If you are interested in applying please do the following: (1) email organizers@bitcoinschool.gr with the subject line “Student Stipend” by March 31 2016 and include your CV and a short statement of why you are interested in attending the school, and (2) have your academic advisor email organizers@bitcoinschool.grwith a short letter of support.

Submissions
We are soliciting ideas for presentations of roughly 10-20 minutes each.  To submit an idea for a talk, please send by April 15 a short abstract to organizers@bitcoinschool.gr and specify how much time you’d like.

Organizers
Foteini Baldimtsi, Boston University, USA
Aggelos Kiayias, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR
Sarah Meiklejohn, University College London, UK

Invited Speakers
Rainer Boehme, University of Innsbruck, AT
Joseph Bonneau, Stanford University, USA
Jerry Brito, Coin Center, USA
Jan Camenisch, IBM Research Zurich, CH
Nicolas Christin, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
George Danezis, University College London, UK
Adam Joyce, Elliptic, UK
Roger Wattenhofer, ETH Zurich, CH
Vassilis Zikas, Renssalaer Polytecnic Institute, USA
Aviv Zohar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IL

Dates
Stipend application deadline    March 31 2016
Talk proposal deadline             April 15 2016
Early registration deadline       April 22 2016
Summer school                       May 30 – June 2 2016

Website and Contact
http://bitcoinschool.gr
organizers@bitcoinschool.gr