Blockchain – Through the Looking Glass I

An introduction into Blockchain technology ignoring the hype and any snake oil selling. A technology agnostic look at the mathematical and computer science building blocks spanning topics such as cryptography, distributed systems and essence of the human concept known as trust.

We all know the effects of the Gartner hype cycle and with regards to Blockchain technology we might wonder: Are we still on the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” or did we crash into the “Trough of Disillusionment”? No matter the current state, let’s hope we are at one point heading to the “Plateu of Productivity”, however this might look.In spite of the hype and the buzzword bingo, blockchain as a technology contains a lot of interesting concepts and building blocks from a diverse range of computer science domains, such as cryptography, distributed computing, fault tolerant computer systems or formal verification.

In this talk we want to take a closer look at those basic building blocks. Without regards to which cryptocurrencies or blockchain frameworks rise in the next years, knowing about those fundamentals will be a worthwhile investment with a stable return on investment. It will also provide ammunition in the next big discussion with a manager requesting to “3-D print a blockhain and HTML into a bitcoin”.