[Theory] REMINDER: 5/20 TTIC Distinguished Lecture Series: Tim Roughgarden, Columbia University

[Brandie Jones via Theory]

*When:    * Monday, May 20th at *11:30 AM CT*



*Where:    *Talk will be given *live, in-person* at

                     TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue

                     5th Floor, Room 530


*Virtually:  *via Panopto (Livestream
<https://uchicago.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6ca90811-1c40-45a3-99e5-b0820141ea88>
)



*Who:         *Tim Roughgarden, Columbia University

*Title:        *The Computer in the Sky

*Abstract:  * Turing-complete blockchain protocols approximate the
idealized abstraction of a "computer in the sky" that is open access, runs
in plain view, and, in effect, has no owner or operator. This technology
can, among other things, enable stronger notions of ownership of digital
possessions than we have ever had before. Building the computer in the sky
is hard (and scientifically fascinating), and in this talk, I'll highlight
three threads in my recent research on this challenge:

Possibility and impossibility results for permissionless consensus
protocols (i.e., implementing an “ownerless” computer).
Incentive-compatible transaction fee mechanism design (i.e., making an
“open-access” computer sustainable and welfare-maximizing). A
Black-Scholes-type formula for quantifying adverse selection in automated
market makers (some of the most popular "programs" running on the computer
in the sky).

The talk will emphasize the diversity of mathematical tools necessary for
understanding blockchain protocols and their applications (e.g.,
distributed computing, game theory, mechanism design, and continuous-time
stochastic processes) and the immediate practical impact that mathematical
work on this topic has had (e.g., Ethereum's EIP-1559 and LVR for automated
market makers).


*Bio: *Tim Roughgarden is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at
Columbia University and the Founding Head of Research at a16z crypto. Prior
to joining Columbia, he spent 15 years on the computer science faculty at
Stanford, following a PhD at Cornell and a postdoc at UC Berkeley. His
research interests include the many connections between computer science
and economics, as well as the design, analysis, applications, and
limitations of algorithms.


For his research, he has been awarded the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award,
the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE),
the Kalai Prize in Computer Science and Game Theory, the Social Choice and
Welfare Prize, the Mathematical Programming Society's Tucker Prize, the
INFORMS Lanchester Prize, and the EATCS-SIGACT Gödel Prize. He was an
invited speaker at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians and
the Shapley Lecturer at the 2008 World Congress of the Game Theory Society.
He is a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the ACM, the Game Theory
Society, and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory. He has
written or edited ten books and monographs, including Twenty Lectures on
Algorithmic Game Theory (2016), Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis of
Algorithms (2020), and the Algorithms Illuminated book series (2017-2020).


Hos*t: Avrim Blum <avrim at ttic.edu>*

--
*Brandie Jones *
*Executive **Administrative Assistant*
Toyota Technological Institute
6045 S. Kenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL  60637
www.ttic.edu
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