The Future of Money 11.14.14

From gold coins to one-ton circular stones to sheets of plastic, history has seen a colorful array of stores of value and media of exchange, otherwise known as money. Today, money is etherealizing into cryptographic computation, precious metal in virtual worlds, and other bewildering forms.

Hosted by the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, this November 14 workshop will bring together academics and industry professionals to explore the coming shape of money and other financial instruments.

Events include

• Alpha launch of Permacoin, a new cryptocurrency (altcoin).
• Talks by distinguished faculty members working in the field and leading innovators in the financial industry.
• Brainstorming sessions around innovations in the future of money with a $10,000 grant to be awarded.

Launch of Permacoin

Permacoin is a virtual currency that provides a more sustainable alternative to Bitcoin. It was developed in 2014 by Andrew Miller, Elaine Shi, and Jonathan Katz of the University of Maryland; Ari Juels of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech; and Bryan Parno of Microsoft Research.

Bitcoin is widely regarded as the first broadly successful e-cash system. An often cited concern, though, is that mining Bitcoins wastes computational resources. Permacoin proposes a modification to Bitcoin that re-purposes its mining resources for a greener, more broadly purposeful goal: distributed storage of archival data for later use. For example, data sets might include records of Library of Congress or a project digitally archiving maps. Unlike Bitcoin and its proposed alternatives, Permacoin requires clients to invest not just computational resources, but also in storing valuable data.

Read what others are saying about Permacoin in New Scientist and The Register.

Schedule

November 13

EVENING KICKOFF

This evening event is graciously hosted at Two Sigma
Dress: Business Casual

Directions shared upon RSVP

6:30 pm Guests Arrive

6:50 pm The Future of Money Workshop: Welcome by Ari Juels,
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

7:00 pm  KEYNOTE: The Invention of Coinage by Dr. Ute Wartenberg,
Executive Director, American Numismatic Society

7:30 pm Reception

November 14

WORKSHOP

Hosted by the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech 
Directions shared upon RSVP.

7:45 – 8:30 am Breakfast

8:30 – 8:50 am Welcome: Dan Huttenlocher, Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell Tech;
Adam Shwartz, Director, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

8:50 am  KEYNOTE: Duncan Goldie-Scot, Chairman, Musoni Kenya and Director, Microfinance Club of New York

SESSION I: Industry Talks (Session Chair: abhi shelat)

9:30 – 9:45 am Industry Talk: Lauren Pollak, Jump Associates

9:45 – 10:00 am Industry Talk: Plate Tectonics and Punctuated Equilibrium: An Introduction to FinTech: Simon Yoo, Founder and Managing Partner,
Green Visor Capital

SESSION II: Breakout Sessions & Presentations

10:00 am -10:45 am

Breakout session teams will explore innovations in finance and virtual currency in advance of the workshop. Workshop breakout sessions will be an opportunity to further develop them in person and present them to the wider audience. A grant will be awarded to one winning team for development of its idea. Each team will be co-led by a faculty member and an industry expert.

Co-leaders

Burt Kaliski, Verisign; Rafael Pass, Cornell Tech

Shiri Azenkot, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute; Joshua Ruch, Rho Capital Partners, Rho Ventures

Elaine Shi, University of Maryland; Rich Marin, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University

Vitaly Shmatikov, Cornell Tech, University of Texas, Austin; David True, Broadly Curious Advisors

Ari Juels, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute; Stuart Feldman, East Coast, Google

Larry Rudolph, Two Sigma; abhi shelat, University of Virginia

10:45 am -11:05 am Coffee Break

11:05 -12:00 pm Breakout Sessions Continue

LUNCH: 12:10 – 1:05 pm On-site lunch & breakout team presentations to judges

SESSION III: Research Talks and Permacoin Alpha Launch (Session Chair: Yuval Ishai)

1:05 – 1:35 pm Permacoin Launch: Elaine Shi, University of Maryland; Andrew Miller, University of Maryland

SESSION IV: Research Talks and Fireside Chat (Session Chair: Andrew Myers)

1:35 – 1:50 pm Research Talk: The Vulnerabilities Caused by Bitcoin’s Unstable Governance: David Yermack, Director, NYU Pollack Center for Law and Business

1:50 – 2:05 pm Research Talk: Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin: Eli Ben-Sasson, Technion

2:05 – 2:20 pm Fireside Chat: Barry Silbert , Founder, Digital Currency Group; Founder, SecondMarket; and Ari Juels, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

2:20 –  3:15 pm Break

SESSION V: Research Talks (Session Chair: Vitaly Shmatikov)

3:15 – 3:30 pm Research Talk: Emin Gün Sirer, Cornell University

3:30 – 3:45 pm Research Talk: Rafael Pass, Cornell Tech

PRIZES AWARDED 3:45 – 4:15 pm

SESSION VI: Technion-Cornell Joint Research Partners Exposition (Session Chair: Claire Cardie, Cornell University)

4:15 – 6:00 pm

Nir Ailon, Technion: Learning From Preferences

Shiri Azenkot, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute: PassChords: Authentication on Touchscreens with no Audio or Visual Feedback

Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Technion; Claire Cardie, Cornell University: Technological, ideological and educational challenges to public participation in policy making

Michael Elad, Technion; Pascal Spincemaille, Weill Cornell Medical College; Yi Wang, Weill Cornell Medical College: Smart Sampling and Reconstruction for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Zachary Grinspan, Weill Cornell Medical College; Barry Kosofsky, Weill Cornell Medical College; Hillel Pratt, Technion: Development of a Pediatric Neurology ICU Multimodal Monitor (NeuroICU-Dashboard)

RUMP SESSION: A series of quick, informal presentations, fueled by beer and snacks

6:00 – 7:00 pm

The Rump Session is a series of short (three-to-five minute) talks, supplemented by beer, wine, and snacks. Talks may be serious or beer-appropriate, but should discuss new material; speakers may present half-baked product or research ideas, demonstrate prototypes, deliver diatribes, or otherwise amuse and/or instruct audience members. To submit a talk, please send a talk title and a one-sentence abstract (summary) by e-mail to the Rump Session chair, Zikai Wen (zkwen@cs.umd.edu) by noon on November 14th.

Follow us

Follow #futureofmoney for all social postings throughout the event.

Questions? Contact Ari Juels, Organizer.