Imperial organised the fourth MARBLE Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy which took place in London on 11-13 July 2023.

MARBLE (Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy) focuses on the mathematics and economics behind blockchain, seeking to bridge the gap between practice and theory. It aims to provide a high-profile, cutting-edge platform for mathematicians, computer scientists and economists to present the latest advances and innovations in key theories of blockchain.

Blockchain technology has enabled permissionless networks that can be used by anyone, without the need for a central authority. Blockchain-based alternatives to traditional financial services have come to be called decentralised finance – a key theme throughout MARBLE.

The first edition of the conference was held in Santorini in May 2019, the second edition was online due to Covid-19, and the third edition was held in Vilamoura in July 2022.

The 2023 Conference featured 6 keynote speakers, alongside technical sessions and plenty of opportunity for socialising and networking at drinks receptions, coffee breaks and a conference dinner.

General Chair Professor William Knottenbelt commented on the success of the event: “The economic aspects of blockchain are as vital as the technical aspects so it was great to once again gather experts from academia and industry to tackle this topic. We enjoyed three days of high-quality keynote talks and thought-provoking research paper presentations with sessions on topics such as decentralised finance, game theory and cryptocurrencies and compliance.

“I would like to thank all the conference delegates for helping to create a lively and engaging event, and also to the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis for sponsoring the event. I am especially grateful to Jaswinder Gill for leading the local organisation of the event.”

Throughout all three days, there were various technical sessions on decentralised finance, game theory and cryptocurrencies and compliance.

At the end of the conference, the Best Paper Award was given out to Nikos Papadis and Leandros Tassiulas for their paper on Deep Reinforcement Learning-based Rebalancing Policies for Profit Maximization of Relay Nodes in Payment Channel Networks. In summary, their work uncovered a way for relay nodes in payment channel networks to maximise profits by using a technique called submarine swaps.

Keynote talks: Bitcoin mining, decentralised finance and crime in the metaverse

Throughout the three-day conference, attendees heard from a range of keynote speakers on various topics from bitcoin mining to crime in the metaverse.

On Day One Co-Chair Professor William Knottenbelt opened the conference, shortly followed by the first Keynote talk on The CF Bitcoin Interest Rate Curve and its Distribution On-Chain which was given by Thomas Erdosi, Senior Product Manager at CF Benchmarks, the leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmarks and indices.

Day One also featured a Keynote talk from leading cryptocurrency and blockchain researcher, Dr Garrick Hileman on the present, past and future of distributed systems adoption.

Day Two opened by Tara Annison, Head of Technical Crypto Advisory at Elliptic, the leading crypto compliance company, who gave a talk on Crimes in the Metaverse.

Attendees also heard from Dr Jiahua Xu, Lecturer in Financial Computing at UCL who spoke about the Making of Dominant Currencies: Evidence in DeFi.

In the afternoon, Mark Morton, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scilling Digital Mining - Ireland’s first and only Bitcoin mining company, Dr Juan Ibanez, Chief of Staff at the DLT Science Foundation, and Dr Alexander Freier, Research Professor of International Relations at the Catholic University of Codoba, gave a talk on How Bitcoin Mining Contributes to Renewable Energy Development.

Finally on Day 3, Statistician and Head of Quantitative Strategies at Clearstar in Zurich Artur Sepp gave the final keynote talk on automated market making in DeFi for Trading and Liquidity Providing: Mathematics and Practice.