Title
Decentralized Cryptographic Systems

Abstract
Much of our digital infrastructure still relies on centralized systems, which are prone to failure and, more importantly, present appealing targets for criminals and other ill-intentioned parties. A successful attack on a centralized system can have huge repercussions in terms of loss of confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and services: alas, once private data leaks, it is impossible to “put it back” into the confidential domain.

The fragility of centralized systems is one of the reasons that the interest in decentralized cryptographic systems has surged in recent years. Decentralized systems are more resilient against external and internal threats:  even if some fractions of the parties are corrupt and misbehave, it is still possible to guarantee crucial security properties such as data privacy and correctness of outcomes.

In this talk I will give a high-level overview of some of our work on the advanced cryptographic protocols (such as Secure Multiparty Computation, Zero-Knowledge, and Threshold Cryptography) which can be used to build secure decentralized cryptographic systems.