Prof. Aviv Zohar
Prof. Aviv Zohar is an associate professor at The School of Engineering and Computer Science at The Hebrew University and The Chief Scientist at QED-it. His research interests include the economics of computational systems and protocols, cryptocurrencies, multi-agent systems, game theory, mechanism design, and networks.
In his interview, Zohar gives a Cryptocurrency-101, then explains some of the cyberthreats they are susceptible to, including brute force attacks, double spending, exchange raids, stolen cold wallets, and 51% attacks. He also talks about the regulatory problems with cryptocurrencies - for example, if the bank, or exchange, loses all your crypto - whose responsibility is it to compensate you?
The state comptroller’s warning that ministers ought to refrain from owning crypto, as that would constitute a conflict of interest should they legislate crypto, is strange, Zohar claims, as any such legislation would have very minor affect, if any, on the value of global, non-central-bank controlled currencies. On the other hand, Zohar does think crypto should be regulated, but in Israel it’s mostly unregulated, while the little regulation that is in place is bad - and offers alternatives. He also shares his gruelling experience with receiving and converting a Bitcoin grant that he’d been using for his research. This episode of Lex Cybernetica, hosted by Ido Kenan.
Our podcast is now on Stitcher and iTunes! You can listen to it via Android or IOS as well:
