By: Geeq  on Nov 1, 2019

View the slides from Geeq Founder and Chief Economist John P. Conley‘s talk “Game Theory for Distributed Systems”, which introduced Geeq’s Proof of Honesty (PoH) to a packed ballroom of attendees of the CryptoEconomics Security Conference held during San Francisco Blockchain Week, October 2019.

Blockchain is Interdisciplinary

John took his audience of economists and computer scientists through the ideas from distributed systems, non-cooperative game theory, and mechanism design that combined, eventually, to the development of Proof of Honesty.

Enterprise Blockchain Requires A New Security Model

John founded Geeq, in part, because he realized that when it comes to blockchain security, the protocols designed to provide the best security are the ones that assume the worst. Proof of Honesty is the result of asking the question: what if the 2/3 honesty assumption (frequently made to address the Byzantine Fault Tolerance dimension of security in distributed systems) is an unreasonable assumption for blockchains?

John is a systematic, rigorous, and determined guy. As he began to think about attack vectors for blockchains, he also began to combine his axiomatic training in game theory with his knowledge of mathematics, computer science, ICT (information and communications technology), and mechanism design. One way he describes Proof of Honesty is that it “brings blockchain security to a new level because it implements a unique, coalition-proof equilibrium rather than allowing the network of validators to settle on some (potentially malicious) Nash equilibrium strategy”.

Geeq’s Security versus Other Blockchains

Another way to describe it is to use Geeq’s security comparison table below.

For explainers with a lighter touch, please bookmark Geeq’s Explainers Page. To head straight for the theory, please read Geeq’s Technical Paper.