Bimoo

gotta stop getting my hopes up for a sunn o))) concert every time someone advertises a drone show

Finally got around to uploading the corresponding video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8uRkvrnc_c

Major update to the paper with @mbahrani @pgarimidi on transaction fee mechanism design in a post-MEV world (i.e., with active block producers), now with searchers (Sections 2.5+4) and tight welfare guarantees (Section 5). Full paper at https://timroughgarden.org/papers/eobp3.pdf

Happy to report that the main open theory question from my original work on EIP-1559 has been resolved (with two brilliant collaborators, Hao Chung and Elaine Shi)---no transaction fee mechanism can be DSIC, MMIC, and OCA-proof! https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.09321.pdf
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One unexpected thing about the MOOCs is that it's in some sense the "pursest" teaching that I've ever done --- no certification, no assessment (other than self-assessment), etc. Everyone there was/is hungry for knowledge and skills, in many cases with few other avenues to attain them

I've gotten many hundreds of messages like this since my MOOCs on algorithms launched in 2011.

Hearing stories like this never, ever gets old.

@has so happy you found it useful!

never thought i'd ever unironically say to myself "thank god, it's justin timberlake" but that's how bad the usual "worst of the 80s" music is at my local grocery store

Oof, might be awhile. For one, a lot of the science hasn't stabilized enough to immortalize in a video lecture. For two, these are an utterly insane amount of work --- probably 20+ hours of work behind the scenes for each hour you see on YouTube

Thanks! Most recently I leaned into my obsessive side and put out something like 8+ hours of videos on proof-of-stake protocols, e.g. more than you ever wanted to know about PoW vs. PoS pros and cons here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnS9VMqVPpE&list=PLEGCF-WLh2RLOHv_xUGLqRts_9JxrckiA&index=84

I like the metaphor of root access, thanks, definitely going to steal that!

I much prefer "blockchain=computer" to "blockchain=DB" though (DB metaphor emphasizes storage rather than computation; normies are familiar with computers in a way that they're not with DBs, etc.)

In 2002, when I would tell someone that I was a computer scientist, I would often get an eye-roll and a joke about pets dot com in response

Looking forward to the day when junior researchers in blockchains/web3 no longer risk winding up as collateral damage due to bad actors of the past

Oof, rough luck for one of my research advisees---one of his interviewers for a graduate fellowship (a biologist, randomly) was still bitter about getting rugged by a crypto co-founder back in 2017 and unwilling to talk about anything other than FTX in the interview

Day 3 videos from December's Columbia CryptoEconomics Workshop (working sessions led by @mikeneuder.eth @justindrake @soispoke @barnabe @davidecrapis @ansgar.eth Casper Schwarz-Schilling on inclusion lists/execution tickets/timing games/etc.) at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpktWkixc1gVBL86kRMKAjulTD9SlnNIj

Here's the talk intro I'm currently playing with (meant to motivate blockchains/web3 without ever resorting to cryptocurrencies/finance/etc.), something like 7-8min before I get into all the technical stuff (h/t @skominers and @cdixon.eth you'll see I stole some stuff from you)

I'm going back on the academic lecture circuit in 2024 (often with skeptical audiences), so I'm currently fine-tuning my blockchain+web3 arguments/analogies/explanations. Feedback very welcome!!

Is the following a good analogy?
1. The Internet aspires to be neutral infrastructure for communication.
2. Permissionless blockchains aspire to be neutral infrastructure for computation.