Put open source to work
July 16–17, 2018: Training & Tutorials
July 18–19, 2018: Conference
Portland, OR

Decentralizing decision making on the blockchain

Steven W (Decred)
5:05pm–5:45pm Thursday, July 19, 2018
Blockchain
 Location: Portland 256
Average rating: ****.
(4.00, 1 rating)

Who is this presentation for?

  • Developers, security experts, and blockchain enthusiasts

Prerequisite knowledge

  • A basic understanding of blockchain technology

What you'll learn

  • Explore decentralized blockchain governance, its utility, and the problems it solves

Description

Blockchain technology has shown that it is possible to disintermediate the storage and transmission of value. Steven Wagner explains how the Decred project has taken blockchain technology one step further by decentralizing the process of political decision making by implementing on-chain voting by users. You’ll learn the benefits of upgradable consensus rules and how to orderly transition a blockchain from one set of consensus rules to another. Decred innovates upon the foundation laid by Bitcoin by implementing processes that address Bitcoin’s greatest challenges while creating a framework to competently address future contentious issues.

Topics include:

  • Hybridized PoW/PoS (proof of work/proof of stake)
  • Hard fork protection: Keeping the chain unified and securing the chain from the infamous 51% attack
  • Consensus rules for upgrading consensus rules
  • Immutable database timestamping
  • Block rewards and incentive structures
  • Privacy on the blockchain
  • Sustainable funding of open source work
Photo of Steven W

Steven W

Decred

Steven Wagner has been a full-time member of the Decred Project for the last three years and is a senior contributor. Working closely with the community, he designed Decred’s “stake diff” ticket price algorithm. He has contributed code to several other blockchain open source projects and has given talks on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Since the late ’90s, he has worked cross-functionally in IT and development and helped accelerate the culture of collaboration through Agile methods.