3 April 2019 - Blockchain Network Design & The Science of Complex Systems Engineering (M. Zargham, BlockScience)
With a critical view on most of today's "cryptoeconomic designs", Michael will speak about how to structure complexity, the role of blockchain technology for socio-technical systems, and how he uses a new simulation tool to inform design decisions.
Where: LEE E 101
Date: 03.04.2019
Time: 18:00-20:00 (incl. apero)
Registration required: see below
Spaces are limited, please register here and indicate you affiliation: external pageDoodle
PROGRAM
18:15 WELCOME
Marcus M. Dapp, COSS/FuturICT2
18:17 GUEST TALK
Blockchain Network Design & The Science of Complex Systems Engineering
(M. Zargham, external pageBlockScience )
As decentralized applications are not just pieces of software but enablers of entire new economies, the challenge to get their design right is formidable. Most blockchain-enabled networks are complex -- the interdependence of their various system components with each other and the external environment, as well as evolutionary processes, make it near impossible to predict global system behavior. Complex System Engineers apply professional engineering processes and tools to deal with extreme degrees of complexity and to design towards desired emergent system outcomes iteratively.
With a critical view on most of today's "cryptoeconomic designs", Michael will speak about how to structure complexity, the role of blockchain technology for socio-technical systems, and how he uses a new simulation tool to inform design decisions. His talk will address various questions around engineering such new economies in a professional manner: The pros (emergent intelligence, markets, wisdom of the crowd) and cons (unintended consequences, rich-get-richer, mob mentality) of social and technical co-evolution and the links between
computational social science and systems engineering (emergence gap and design methodology, precautionary principle and
design validation). He will also showcase the computational methodology BlockScience is developing to address the above challenges (verifiers dilemma, computational experiments).
(BIO) Dr. Michael Zargham holds a PhD in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied optimization and control of decentralized networks. His earliest work on peer-to-peer effects in business decision making was developing algorithms to reverse engineer the word of mouth effect in enterprise software licensing decisions in 2005. In the intervening years, Dr. Zargham designed data driven decision systems and built a data science team for a media technology firm. He has also worked on the mathematical specifications of blockchain enabled software systems with a focus on observability and controllability of the information state of the networks. Most recently, he founded BlockScience, an engineering, research, and analytics firm focused on design and analysis of complex networks.
19:00 Q&A / Discussion
19:15 APERO
Offered by the COSS group & external pagefuturICT2.eu research project.
20:00 CLOSING
The "Blockchain Research Zurich" meetup is for researchers by researchers. Academics and students from all Swiss Universities are cordially invited.
Spaces are limited, please register here and indicate you affiliation: external pageDoodle
On twitter, please use #blockchainresearchzh.