When the Bitcoin Foundation fell apart and funding for Bitcoin core development was needed, the MIT founded the Digital Currency Initiative to step in. In the years since, the DCI has evolved into a vibrant center of cutting edge research on some of the most difficult challenges around blockchain technology. DCI Director Neha Narula joined us to discuss the DCI's position between academia and industry, their policy on conflicts of interest, and their most fascinating research topics. Topics discussed in this episode:How her interest in distributed systems and scaling lead led her to the blockchain spaceThe mission and history of the MIT's Digital Currency InitiativeHow cryptocurrency might evolve over time as an academic fieldThe DCI's project on digital fiat currencyHow zkLedger could enable privacy-preserving auditing for distributed ledgersWhy sharding is unlikely to succeed in the short- and medium termWhy Neha is most optimistic about layer 2 approaches to scaling like lightning networkThe story of discovering and writing about IOTA's vulnerabilityHow DCI handles conflicts of interest and strives for neutrality Links mentioned in this episode: MIT Digital Currency InitiativeNeha Narula Personal WebsiteWhat's New at MIT's Digital Currency InitiativeThe Importance of Layer 2Cryptographic vulnerabilities in IOTAzkLedger | the future of auditzkLedger WhitepaperNeha Narula: The future of money | TED Talk Support the show, consider donating: BTC: 1CD83r9EzFinDNWwmRW4ssgCbhsM5bxXwg (https://epicenter.tv/tipbtc)BCC: 1M4dvWxjL5N9WniNtatKtxW7RcGV73TQTd (http://epicenter.tv/tipbch)ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth) This episode is also available on :Epicenter.tvYouTubeSouncloud Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts. Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sƒbastien Couture & Meher Roy.