<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">From: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">EE Executive Office <<a href="mailto:eemain@princeton.edu" class="">eemain@Princeton.EDU</a>><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Thursday, November 29, 4:30pm, E-Quad B205 - Pramod Viswanath, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</b><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">November 26, 2018 at 10:38:23 AM EST<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="mailto:ee-seminar@princeton.edu" class="">ee-seminar@Princeton.EDU</a><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Reply-To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">EE Executive Office <<a href="mailto:eemain@princeton.edu" class="">eemain@Princeton.EDU</a>><br class=""></span></div><br class=""><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: right;" class=""><span class=""><img class="" apple-inline="yes" id="89C01472-3544-44E5-82CA-C331A1221607" height="120" width="230" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D47818.3819A520"></span><span class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: right;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">EE SEMINAR SERIES<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left" width="0" style="width: 527.4pt; border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 6.75pt; margin-right: 6.75pt;"><tbody class=""><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Speaker:</span></i></strong><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""> </span></i><em class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Pramod Viswanath, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Title:</span></i></strong><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""> </span></i><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Why Blocks and Why Chains; A First Principles (Re)Design of Blockchains</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Day:</span></i></strong><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""> </span></i><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="date-display-single"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Thursday, November 29, 2018</span></span><em class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Time:</span></i></strong><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></strong></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class="">4:30 pm</span></em><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Room:</span></i></strong><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""> </span></i><em class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class="">B205 Engineering Quadrangle<o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Host:</span></i></strong><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></strong></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-style: normal;" class="">Prof. Naveen Verma</span></em><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 8.85pt;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 8.85pt;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></strong></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 8.85pt;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="703" colspan="2" style="width: 527.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Abstract:</span></b><b class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Today's blockchains do not scale in a meaningful way. As more nodes join the system, the efficiency of the system (computation, communication, and storage) degrades, or at best stays constant. Furthermore, the security of the permission less system imposes limitations on the core performance metrics of throughput, latency and reliability. We take a first principle approach to the blockchain ecosystem addressing each of the various components holistically. Our approach is characterized by seeking fundamental limits (those prescribed by the physics of the underlying network) to performance and designing algorithms that attain them. This research is informed by decades of experience in information theory, coding theory, algorithms, wireless communication and packet networks. This talk will highlight key outcomes of this research program, including:</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Prism</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(a new consensus algorithm that guarantees information theoretically optimal throughput, latency, reliability),<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Spider</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(a new networking protocol for off-chain payment channels),<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Polyshard</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(a new coded storage architecture), and<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Dandelion</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(a new network privacy layer). <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">References:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.08092" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.08092</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10361" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10361</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05088" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05088</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07468" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07468</a></span><em class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: normal;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="90" style="width: 67.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><strong class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></i></strong></div></td><td width="613" style="width: 459.9pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><em class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></em></div></td></tr><tr style="height: 0.25in;" class=""><td width="703" colspan="2" valign="top" style="width: 527.4pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; height: 0.25in;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><img class="" apple-inline="yes" id="A9BD2731-4BFD-42E2-91A1-5666A5AAD07E" height="192" width="159" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D48574.2743C3C0"><b class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Bio:</span></b><b class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">Pramod Viswanath received the Ph.D. degree in EECS from UC Berkeley in 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he was a member of research staff at Flarion technologies, NJ. Since 2001, he is on the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he currently is a professor. He is a coauthor, with David Tse, of the text Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, which has been used in over 60 institutions around the world. He is coinventor of the opportunistic beamforming method and codesigner of Flash-OFDM communication algorithms adapted into fourth-generation cellular systems.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">His current research interests are in blockchain technologies from a variety of angles: networking protocols, consensus algorithms, payment channels, distributed coded storage and incentive designs. He is co-founder and CEO of Applied Protocol Research, a startup doing research on blockchain technologies. Applied Protocol Research is staffed by academics (professors, PhDs, and intern graduate students), with a wide variety of backgrounds (EE/CS/ECON covering both theory/systems from different institutions (Berkeley, CMU, Illinois, MIT, Stanford, USC, UW-Seattle).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;" class="">This talk is joint work by the speaker with: Mohammad Alizadeh (MIT), Salman Avestimehr (USC), Giulia Fanti (CMU), Sreeram Kannan (UW-Seattle), Sewoong Oh (Illinois) and David Tse (Stanford).</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>