Abstract: In blockchain environments, transaction validation is often performed by thousands of computers, making the process resource-intensive. To prevent resource exhaustion, users are required to pay for the computational resources their transactions consume. The introduction of smart contracts adds another layer of complexity, as these contracts can involve expensive computations that need to be verified at a cost that is unknown in advance. In this talk, I will discuss how smart contracts create denial-of-service vulnerabilities that are challenging to mitigate in the blockchain context and how developments within Ethereum’s ecosystem have exacerbated this issue. The talk is designed to be accessible, requiring no prior knowledge of the subject.
The talk is based on joint work with Aviv Yaish, Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, and Arthur Gervais.
Bio: Aviv Zohar is a researcher in blockchain and distributed systems, focusing on the security, scalability, and economics of decentralized systems. He is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and will be spending a sabbatical at Princeton in the upcoming year.