Seminar at Ecole Polytechnique by Thibaut Lajoie-Mazenc on “Bitcoin and the Blockchain”

This afternoon a former student, Thibaut Lajoie-Mazenc (X12), came back to Ecole Polytechnique – in part, to simply catch up with old acquaintances – but, also, to present his work on in-depth analysing, and offering an extremely detailed tutorial on, Bitcoin and Blockchains. Bernadette Charron-Bost had met Thibaut in Rennes, where he did his internship, and had organised a seminar, which turned in to a very enthusiastic and far-reaching discussion.

In audience of: Mohammed Hawari (X12), Bernadette Charron-Bost
In audience of: Mohammed Hawari (X12), Bernadette Charron-Bost

Bitcoin being what it is, “the code is the specification”, an impressive amount of Thibaut’s work was argued from the point of his having read, and “reverse engineered” what’s actually in the code – rather than being based on work inferred from papers inferred from other papers. This made the discussion both thought-provoking, and extremely lively.

Daniel Augot asking for clarification
Daniel Augot asking for clarification

Active audience participation. Note: no research scientists were harmed during this presentation ;)
Active audience participation. No research scientists were harmed during this presentation 😉

Juan Antonio Cordero Fuertes being thoughtful during the seminar
Juan Antonio Cordero Fuertes being thoughtful during the seminar

 

Some of the work that Thibaut presented has been published here, and is quite an interesting read: