Blockchain: A very funny explanation

If you’ve ever heard an entrepreneur excited to discuss the
potential of blockchain – without being totally sure what they’re
talking about — you’re going to love this conference
presentation. 

At one of the world’s most prestigious cryptography conferences
earlier this week, one speaker nailed exactly what makes
blockchain technology so exciting.

Watch the video, via Jess Sorrell: 

In case you didn’t get the joke, allow us to explain: Blockchain
blockchain blockchain blockchain.

This short talk was given at Crypto 2018 in Santa Barbara,
California, which is a conference for mathematicians and
computer scientists to discuss new findings in the world of
cryptography — the study of how to encrypt and decode data so
unwanted parties can’t access it. 

To be clear, it’s not a cryptocurrency conference, although some
presenters do touch on topics related to digital currency and
blockchain. 

This talk was given in what’s called a “rump session,” an event
during the evening that’s a little bit less formal — many talks
are jokes, and it’s not meant to be a forum for serious security
research.

The last slide in the blockchain talk includes a link to a
similar stunt
in 2007, where a scientist repeated “chicken chicken chicken”
during a humorous session at a conference. 

“Presentations that are not purely technical in nature are also
heartily encouraged,” the conference website dryly states,
going on to detail a few reasons for why a talk might belong in
the rump session. And we quote: 

1. Money: I have already bribed the rump session chair.
2. Will be funny: I really, really promise.
3. Real breaking news: I found this result yesterday on the
   beach.

We don’t know who exactly gave this particular talk. However, in
this year’s schedule of rump
sessions at the conference, one four-minute talk on
Tuesday was just titled “Blockchain!” It was given by Jon
Callas, a well-known security professional who co-founded PGP
Corp, Silent Circle, and Blackphone, and started working for
Apple in 2016,
according to Reuters. 

The programming community seemed to liked the talk: