David
Tse
Building a secure decentralized world
Celebrated Professor of Engineering at Stanford University & co-founder of BabylonChain, a blockchain project that is Scaling Bitcoin to secure the decentralised world.
The inventor of the legendary proportional-fair scheduling algorithm, David has redefined the landscape of cellular technology, with billions of users worldwide benefiting from its unparalleled speed.
It's no exaggeration to say that if you're experiencing the lightning-fast connectivity of 3G, 4G, or 5G, you're already utilizing the revolutionary technology developed by David Tse.
For this and his many other contributions to wireless communications, he received the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, the two top awards in the information sciences. Named after the pioneers of the information age, previous recipients of these awards include Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman (inventors of public-key cryptography) and Andrew Viterbi (co-founder of Qualcomm Inc. and pioneer of CDMA technology)
Driven by his belief that the current control of information infrastructure by a handful of companies is detrimental to society, David has in recent years turned his sights to blockchains, which he saw as a solution that could empower people and propel innovations. With his characteristic strategic mindset, David initiated a research program in blockchain infrastructure and soon found a new home in this field.
Today, David's research group at Stanford is actively collaborating with top industry blockchain projects, such as the Ethereum Foundations, Protocol Labs, and Cardano, on improving the security and scalability of blockchain consensus protocols.
David’s team has recently made significant contributions to enhancing the security of the PoS Ethereum Consensus protocol.
Press Mentions
Research & Blogs
Bitcoin-Enhanced Proof-of-Stake Security: Possibilities and Impossibilities
David Tse and his co-authors have achieved a significant milestone as their latest research paper has been accepted by the 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, recognized as the world's leading security conference.
This paper serves as the foundation of Babylon, a revolutionary protocol designed to enhance the security of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains.
This article discusses the security issues inherent in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains and proposes a new protocol called Babylon, which uses an off-the-shelf PoS protocol to checkpoint onto the Bitcoin blockchain to address these issues. The article explains that PoS chains are energy-efficient and have fast finality, but are susceptible to non-slashable long-range safety attacks, low liveness resilience, and difficulty in bootstrapping from low token valuation. The Babylon protocol reduces the stake withdrawal delay from weeks to less than 5 hours, at a transaction cost of less than 10K USD per annum for posting the checkpoints onto Bitcoin.
Check out the research paper to learn more!
Ebb-and-Flow Protocols: A Resolution of the Availability-Finality Dilemma
As blockchain technology continues to evolve, one of the biggest challenges that developers face is how can a blockchain stay live even as network connections come and go, while still maintaining a safe and accurate ledger? This is where David Tse and his team come in.
In their latest groundbreaking article, "Solving the Availability-Finality Dilemma in Blockchain with Ebb-and-Flow Protocols", Tse and his co-authors present a new class of consensus protocols that tackle this very problem.
This paper also delineates the ideal security properties of Ethereum PoS and provides a construction to achieve them.
Click here to read the research paper or watch the Youtube video
Three Attacks on Ethereum Proof-of-Stake
In recent times, the blockchain community has been abuzz with discussions on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Ethereum, particularly around how to address its vulnerability to attacks.
David Tse, his students and Ethereum Foundation collaborators highlight the potential risks posed by attackers, particularly two types of attacks that could be used to increase profits or stall the protocol. The authors provide refined variants of these attacks, which considerably lower the requirements for adversarial stake and network timing, making them more severe.
Click here to read the Research paper
How Claude Shannon Invented the Future
Quantum Magazine
David Tse's insightful article on the power of information theory was published in Quanta Magazine, a renowned publication in science and technology. Drawing on his broad experience, Tse explores how this revolutionary field is shaping our modern world and driving innovation in areas like communication and artificial intelligence. Don't miss this thought-provoking piece.
About
David Tse is a visionary electrical engineering expert who has made groundbreaking contributions to wireless communication, blockchain technology and genomics research.
He is a celebrated professor at Stanford University and a co-founder of BabylonChain, a blockchain project that is Scaling Bitcoin to secure the decentralised world.
In addition, David is an advisor of Bain Capital Crypto, where he provides strategic guidance to the investment firm.
Wireless Communication
David Tse is the inventor of the highly acclaimed proportional-fair scheduling algorithm, which has brought about a revolutionary change in the cellular technology industry. This pioneering algorithm has improved the speed of cellular technology, benefiting billions of users worldwide. It's a fact that the lightning-fast connectivity of 3G, 4G, or 5G that you experience today is a result of the groundbreaking technology developed by David Tse.
Collaboration with Ethereum
David Tse's research group has collaborated with various industry blockchain projects, including the Ethereum Foundations, Protocol Labs, and Cardano. They have received over $6 million in funding in the past two years. Contributions include improving the security of the PoS Ethereum Consensus protocol launched at the Ethereum Merge.
Research Contributions
David Tse's research has had a significant impact on the fields of electrical engineering, wireless communication, and blockchain technology. He has authored numerous papers that have earned him six best paper awards and over 77,000 citations. His co-authored text, Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, is a widely used reference in the field.
Contributions to Genomics Research
David Tse's contributions to genomics research are equally impressive. He designed assembly software to handle DNA and RNA sequencing data, which has been used by researchers around the world to analyze and understand the human genome. His work has had a significant impact on this rapidly growing field.
Education
David Tse's contributions to education have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at U.C. Berkeley in 2008 and the Frederick Emmons Terman Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2009. He is a highly sought-after mentor and advisor, helping to shape the next generation of electrical engineering and blockchain technology experts.
Awards and Honors
David Tse's work has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. He was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2018, and he received the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award in 2017 for his groundbreaking work in wireless communication theory. In 2019, he was awarded the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal for his contributions to the theory and practice of wireless communication.
