Building Secure Blockchains In Theory and Practice -
​​​​​​​As blockchains like Bitcoin evolve from a niche curiosity to a mainstream technology, securing these systems against attackers is more important than ever. To help meet this challenge, we can draw on decades of techniques from cryptography and distributed computing. However, real-world systems differ in key ways from standard theoretical models, leaving gaps in our understanding that an attacker might be able to exploit. In this talk, I'll discuss how my work helps bridge this gap, from developing new theoretical tools to analyzing real-world protocols.