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Archive / INF Seminars / INF_2022_11_30_Timothy_Holt

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	A short discussion about Bitcoin

Host: Prof. Ernst Wit

Wednesday

30.11

USI Campus Est, room D1.14, Sector D // Online on Microsoft Teams

12:30 -13:30


	Timothy Holt (Institute of Computing, USI), Dr. Giw Zanganeh (Tether), Dr. Pietro Poretti (City of Lugano)

Abstract:
Bitcoin is an elegant combination of fundamental technologies in computing. Parallel and distributed computing, peer-to-peer networks, public-key cryptography, digital signatures, and cryptographic hash functions are the building blocks that make the world’s most powerful computing system tick. This seminar will start with an introduction to Lugano’s Plan ₿, followed by a presentation on the technical functioning of the Bitcoin network. The technical lesson will then be followed by a didactic discussion on how this computational system has spawned an economic and social phenomenon that is becoming ever more pervasive in our society today.

Biographies:
Timothy Holt is a PhD student in the Institute of Computing supervised by Olaf Schenk. Timothy holds a Bachelor in Economics and Business Law from the University of Alberta, and a Master in Finance from the University of Lausanne. His research interests are in high-performance computational methods to improve the functioning of energy markets.

Giw Zanganeh holds a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Giw spent 5 years on the board and as a Managing Director of Alacaes, a Swiss company developing advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage solutions for large-scale electricity storage. He then spent 2.5 years with AIL as a Grid Analyst and Program Manager before joining Tether in August of this year as the Head of Plan ₿.

Pietro Poretti holds a PhD in law from the University of Bern and a MAS in oil and gas from the Graduate Institute (Geneva) and the French Institute of Petroleum (Paris). He studied law at the University of Fribourg and at the Europa-Institut (Saarbruecken, Germany), and was a fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law (Georgetown University, Washington D.C.). Before joining the Lugano City administration as Director of Economic Development, he was active as counsel for a Geneva based law firm advising sovereign and business clients on international trade and investment matters, as well as senior legal officer of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).