Introduction to Blockchains

Since Bitcoin was open sourced in 2009 we've been reading about how crytpocurrencies are the new internet, and are going to change the world for better or worse (depending on who you ask). How do cryptocurrencies actually work though? What technologies and principles lie under the hood? This talk will introduce the audience to the blockchain: a linked list used as a distributed ledger to record transactions between parties. Attendees will learn:
   
    * The structure of a blockchain, and why we can trust them
    * Interesting properties of blockchains, and their implications
    * How blockchains are decentralized, and why
    * Other uses for blockchains
   
If you're interested in knowing more about the "mathy" side of cryptocurrencies, or want to learn more about blockchains outside of the context of bitcoin, this talk is for you! No prior knowledge of data structures or security algorithms is necessary. This talk is an explanation of blockchains from the ground up, covering topics from merkle trees to hashing algorithms to Byzantine fault tolerance. I hope to see you there!