Aviv Yaish (Yale)- Deconstructing and Rebuilding Trust in Decentralized Economies
Abstract: Financial systems are becoming increasingly digital and decentralized, demanding a practical fusion of distributed systems security and economic theory. A key enabler of this change, blockchain technology, promises more private and egalitarian economic mechanisms, built by facilitating consensus between pseudonymous actors. However, the theoretical security of these systems may mask significant real-world risks. In this talk, I will present recent advances in bridging this gap between theory and practice. First, I will discuss the resolution of a decade-old puzzle: the lack of observed attacks on major consensus mechanisms. I will then distill the lessons learnt into a holistic approach to designing robust systems and demonstrate its adoption in practice using several lines of work on the economics and security of modern digital markets, tackling problems including denial-of-service resistance in distributed systems and pseudonymous markets where consumers may cheaply create new identities.
Speakers
Aviv Yaish
Aviv is a postdoc at Yale University, where he makes and breaks distributed systems by bridging economic theory and practice. His approach is driven by a philosophy of constructive deconstruction: pushing systems to their limits is key to making them robust. Aviv’s work has been recognized across several fields: security (CCS Distinguished Paper award), economics (CBER Best Paper award), and industry (three prizes from the Ethereum Foundation and Flashbots). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Hebrew University (HUJI), where he was the sole lecturer for large-scale courses and won a teaching award. During his studies, he served as a research consultant at Matter Labs. His honors include the AIANI and Jabotinsky fellowships, and inclusion in HUJI’s top 10 CS teaching staff of ‘20, CBER’s Top PhD Graduates of ‘23-‘24, CBER’s Rising Stars of ’25, and HUJI’s 40 Under 40 of ‘25 lists.
