WCT November 29th Meeting Recap

As a club, we’ve been getting a lot of requests to share what exactly we do during our meetings. This is our first WCT meeting minutes post, and we hope that this will be helpful for those looking to join our organization or learn more about the crypto space!

Each meeting, two of our members prepare a presentation on a blockchain or crypto topic and another two lead a book-club style discussion of a recent article. This week the presentation focused on the mechanics of mining while the article covered the strengths and weaknesses of public and private blockchains.

Presentation — Mining

(Derek Chen and Andy Walner)

Key Takeaways

• Miners work to be the first to validate transactions through solving complex mathematical problems by brute force
• To solve these problems, miners must find a nonce value where the block hash is smaller than the block’s number of bits
• Mining is a very power-intensive process, with one bitcoin transaction requiring approximately six residences’ daily power use (Read more about sustainable mining here)
• Mining is done with two types of hardware: graphics cards (GPUs) which are more versatile but aren’t always as efficient or application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs), which are hard to acquire but offer superior tech for mining specific coins
• Proof of Stake is another method of verifying transactions (as opposed to proof of work) where miners’ put up their coins up as collateral if they verify an incorrect block.
• Two types of Proof of Stake are Random Block selection and Coin age-based selection (Read more about PoS here)

Discussion — Public vs. Private Blockchains

(Abhi Muchhal and Anthony Jonikas)

Public vs. Private

• Public blockchains offer slower transaction verification and network communication, are immutable, and cannot restrict access.
• Private blockchains offer faster transaction verification and network communication, the ability to fix errors and reverse transactions, and the ability to restrict access and reduce the likelihood of outsider attacks

Key Discussion Points

• While private blockchains offer enterprises visibility over transactions such as steps in supply chains, private blockchain transactions can be reversed, which begs questions of whether that compromises transparency
• Private blockchains could be more effective if shared over an entire industry (ex. Ford, GM, Chrysler and the rest of the automotive industry)
• Public blockchains could be used as a marketing tool by companies whose value proposition focuses on the transparency of their supply chain or sourcing (ex. Conflict Diamonds, read more here)

Check back next week to find out more about what WCT is talking about!