This book presents the best papers from the 4th International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy (MARBLE) 2023, held in London, UK. While most blockchain conferences and forums are dedicated to business applications, product development, or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launches, this conference focused on the mathematics behind blockchain to bridge the gap between practice and theory.
The book spans the divide between theoretical promise and practical reality in blockchain technology and explores the challenges hindering its real-world integration across diverse sectors, offering comprehensive insights into issues like scalability, security, and privacy.
Panos Pardalos is an emeritus distinguished professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, USA. He also holds the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Professor title in the same department. Additionally, he is the director of the Center for Applied Optimization and is an affiliated faculty member of the Computer and Information Science Department, the Hellenic Studies Center, and the Biomedical Engineering Program. Professor Pardalos is a world-leading expert in global and combinatorial optimization. He is also a member of several Academies of Sciences and holds honorary Ph.D. degrees and affiliations. He is a founding editor of Optimization Letters, Energy Systems, and co-founder of the International Journal of Global Optimization, and Computational Management Science. His recent research interests include network design problems, optimization in telecommunications, e-commerce, data mining, biomedical applications, and massive computing.
Ilias S. Kotsireas is a full professor of Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He has the founder and director of the CARGO Lab for more than 15 years. He has published over 150 research works in computational algebra, metaheuristics, high-performance computing, dynamical systems, and combinatorial design theory. He is on seven international journals’ editorial boards, including being a managing editor of a Springer journal and an editor-in-chief for another Springer journal and a Birkhauser book series. He has organized numerous international conferences in Europe, North America, and Asia, often leading as a program committee chair or general chair.
William Knottenbelt is a professor of Applied Quantitative Analysis at the Department of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK. His broad area of research interest is the application of mathematical modelling techniques to real-life systems. Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to modelling and optimisation in parallel queuing systems, modelling of storage systems, stochastic modelling of sport, stochastic modelling of healthcare systems, resource allocation and control in cloud-computing environments, numerical solution of Markov models and specification techniques for SLA specification, compliance prediction and monitoring.
Stefanos Leonardos is a lecturer in Machine Learning at the Department of Informatics, King’s College London, UK. His research interests span the areas of game theory and its applications in blockchain-enabled, digital economic systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and in strategic interactions that dynamically evolve over time. He has won numerous best paper awards for his research on the design of decentralized economies and on the analysis of exploration-exploitation algorithms in multi-agent systems.
