Episode 142: Hasu & Georgios on Bitcoin Security & Elastic Block Size Proposals

Zero Knowledge

In this episode, Anna and guest host Georgios chat with Hasu, an independent crypto researcher focused on economics and security, about elastic block size proposals in both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

They cover how Hasu found his way into research as well as the history of the block size BIPs that shaped the ecosystem as well as Ethereum’s EIP 1559

Here are some additional links:
Research paper: A model for Bitcoin’s security and the declining block subsidy
Analysis of EIP-2593 (Escalator)
Analysis of EIP-1559

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Thank you to this week’s sponsor Trail of Bits.

Trail of Bits found a bug in yVault that would have allowed an attacker to drain most (if not all) of the pool's assets. They quickly reported the bug to the yVault team and were able to secure the roughly $400K USD held in the system. This bug, which was thankfully caught, highlights the risk stemming from increased complexity caused by composition in the DeFi space. ‘

Generally - DeFi composability is hard. For example, If you integrate multiple tokens, any one token could compromise the security of your entire platform. On the other hand, if you integrate multiple platforms, your protocol could suffer from complex interactions.

If this is a relevant topic for you or the project you work on, reach out to Trail of Bits to arrange a security assessment, or sign up for their Ethereum security office hours.
Here is a link to their blog post “Accidentally stepping on a DeFi lego” https://blog.trailofbits.com/2020/08/05/accidentally-stepping-on-a-defi-lego Contact them here: https://www.trailofbits.com/contact/

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