Dear Mark, Thank you for your email. Registration was opened on Wednesday as planned and we list some initial background papers here: https://scalingbitcoin.org/papers/ To encourage early submissions to help with planning, review and circulation, we will accept on a rolling basis, expressions of interest and proposals surrounding Bitcoin scalability *until 00.00 UTC Sept 1st 2015*. Please email them to proposals@scalingbitcoin.org I very much looking forward to meeting you and to the technical discussions in Montreal next month! Please feel free to also follow us on Twitter @ScalingBitcoin Yours sincerely, Pindar Wong Chair, Montreal Workshop Planning Committee Chairman, VeriFi (Hong Kong) Ltd. On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 3:13 AM, Mark Friedenbach wrote: > I want to put a big thank-you out to Pindar, Warren, and others in the > organizing committee who I know must have put in a lot of hours to make > this happen. I will be attending, and I hope to see many of you there too. > It is my sincere hope that the academic structure of a workshop will help > break down some of the communication walls that have arisen in this debate, > and help us all work towards finding a compromise towards scaling bitcoin, > something we all want to see happen. > > On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 1:45 AM, Pindar Wong via bitcoin-dev < > bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote: > >> Bitcoin Scalability Workshops >> >> In recent months the Bitcoin development community has faced difficult >> discussions of how to safely improve the scalability and decentralized >> nature of the Bitcoin network. To aid the technical consensus building >> process we are organizing a pair of workshops to collect technical >> criteria, present proposals and evaluate technical materials and data with >> academic discipline and analysis that fully considers the complex tradeoffs >> between decentralization, utility, security and operational realities. This >> may be considered as similar in intent and process to the NIST-SHA3 design >> process where performance and security were in a tradeoff for a security >> critical application. >> >> Since Bitcoin is a P2P currency with many stakeholders, it is important >> to collect requirements as broadly as possible, and through the process >> enhance everyone’s understanding of the technical properties of Bitcoin to >> help foster an inclusive, transparent, and informed process. >> >> Those with technical interest are invited to participate in this pair of >> workshops with the following intent: >> >> Phase 1: Scene setting, evaluation criteria, and tradeoff analysis. >> >> Montreal, Canada: September 12th-13th, 2015 >> >> Scalability is not a single parameter; there are many opportunities to >> make the Bitcoin protocol more efficient and better able to service the >> needs of its growing userbase. Each approach to further scaling the Bitcoin >> blockchain involves implicit trade offs of desired properties of the whole >> system. As a community we need to raise awareness of the complex and subtle >> issues involved, facilitate deeper research and testing of existing >> proposals, and motivate future work in this area. >> >> The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the general tradeoffs and >> requirements of any proposal to scale Bitcoin beyond its present limits. >> Session topics are to include the presentation of experimental data >> relating to known bottlenecks of Bitcoin’s continued growth and analysis of >> implicit tradeoffs involved in general strategies for enabling future >> growth. >> >> This event will not host sessions on the topic of any specific proposals >> involving changes to the Bitcoin protocol. Such proposals would be the >> topic of a 2nd, follow-on Phase 2 workshop described below; this event is >> intended to “set the stage” for work on and evaluation of specific >> proposals in the time between the workshops. >> >> Phase 2 will be planned out further as part of Phase 1 with input from >> the participants. >> >> Phase 2: Presentation and review of technical proposals, with simulation, >> benchmark results. >> >> Hong Kong, SAR, China: TBD Nov/Dec 2015 >> >> Hopefully to be easier for the Chinese miners to attend, the second >> workshop pertaining to actual block size proposals is to be planned for >> Hong Kong roughly in the late November to December timeframe. >> >> The purpose of this workshop is to present and review actual proposals >> for scaling Bitcoin against the requirements gathered in Phase 1. Multiple >> competing proposals will be presented, with experimental data, and compared >> against each other. The goal is to raise awareness of scalability issues >> and build a pathway toward consensus for increasing Bitcoin’s transaction >> processing capacity or, barring that, identify key areas of further >> required research and next steps for moving forward. >> >> Preliminarily, Phase 2 will be a time to share results from experiments >> performed as a result of Phase 1 and an opportunity to discuss new >> developments. >> >> How do the Workshops work? >> >> - >> >> Both events will be live-streamed with remote participation >> facilitated via IRC for parallel online discussion and passing questions to >> the event. >> - >> >> These workshops aim to facilitate the existing Bitcoin Improvement >> Proposals (BIP)[1] process. Most work will be done outside of the workshops >> in the intervening months. The workshops serve to be additive to the design >> and review process by raising awareness of diverse points of view, studies, >> simulations, and proposals. >> - >> >> Travel, venue details, and accommodation recommendation are available >> at scalingbitcoin.org. Registration begins August 12th at an >> early-bird ticket price of $150 USD until September 3rd. The ticket prices >> do not come close to covering the venue expense and travel subsidies, hence >> the need for corporate sponsors. >> - >> >> Please see the FAQ at scalingbitcoin.org which should answer most >> other questions. >> >> >> Travel Subsidies for Independent/Academic Researchers >> >> There will be an application process for independent or academic >> researchers to apply for travel assistance to help cover the expense of >> airfare and hotel fees up to $1,000 per qualified presenter who intends to >> give a presentation. The four underwriters of this event have agreed to >> jointly review applications and cover the travel subsidies for qualified >> presenters. See scalingbitcoin.org for details. >> >> Sponsors of the Montreal Workshop >> >> The first workshop is hosted and with logistics handled by the Montreal >> consultancy CryptoMechanics . >> >> The Underwriters jointly responsible for venue expenses and researcher >> travel subsidies are currently the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, >> Chaincode Labs, Blockstream, and Chain.com. >> >> Current sponsors include: Cryptsy, BitcoinTalk, Final Hash, Blockstream, >> MIT DCI, Chaincode Labs, IDEO Futures, Kraken, and Chain.com. >> >> Additional sponsors are needed. Please see scalingbitcoin.org for >> sponsorship details or contact me directly via < pindar dot wong at >> gmail.com > >> >> Online Workshop Resources >> >> - >> >> Bitcoin-Workshops-Announce list >> >> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-workshops-announce >> - >> >> Bitcoin-Workshops discussion list >> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-workshops >> - >> >> #bitcoin-workshops chat on the Freenode IRC network >> http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=bitcoin-workshops >> >> >> Call for Proposals/Papers/Presentations >> >> If you have any research relevant to issues surrounding Bitcoin >> scalability, your proposal for a presentation at the Montreal workshop >> would be most welcome. Please see scalingbitcoin.org for submission >> details. >> >> Pindar Wong >> >> Chair, Montreal Workshop Planning Committee >> >> Chairman, VeriFi (Hong Kong) Ltd. >> >> [1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Improvement_Proposals >> >> _______________________________________________ >> bitcoin-dev mailing list >> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org >> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev >> >> >