Announcing the Silicon Salon
What if semiconductor manufacturers made chips especially intended for crypto-wallets? That’s the topic of Blockchain Commons’ first Silicon Salon, which will feature two different chip manufacturers who are expanding into the crypto industry. The first is CrossBar, a leader in Resistive RAM (ReRAM) technology, which can implement high-performance physical unclonable functions (PUFs). Together, ReRAM memory and PUF solutions enable a new class of secure computing and storage with physical countermeasures — and CrossBar is interested in bringing that to digital-asset management. The second is Tropic Square, whose tropic01 secure element offers a fully transparent and auditable chip as a basis for better hardware security. They use transparency as a driver for innovation.
Because Blockchain Commons is dedicated to bringing together a community of developers and manufacturers to jointly develop specifications that will empower the entire industry, we’ve seized upon our work with these two companies to produce our first salon since the pandemic: a virtual Silicon Salon, where semiconductor manufacturers, crypto-wallet makers, and other interested parties can come together to talk about the next generation of semiconductors, which for the first time ever will be specialized for our cryptographic needs.
The Silicon Salon is scheduled for June 1st, running three hours beginning at 9am PT (noon ET, 6pm CET). Signups for the Salon are now available on Eventbrite, with tickets limited to the first 40 participants.
The first hour of the Salon will feature presentations from silicon manufacturers, crypto-wallet makers, and experts in the field about how semiconductor design can support cryptographic functionality. Companies CrossBar, Tropic Square, and Proxy and experts Bryan Bishop and Christopher Allen are all scheduled to talk.
The other two hours of the Salon will feature facilitated discussion of topics intended to determine the needs of the hardware-wallet community. Specific topics may include: the importance of MCU and secure enclave integration; the importance of secure and persistent storage; the need for physical countermeasures; the advantages of hardware and software cryptography; the use of open licenses for hardware; and discussions of how new semiconductor designs intended for cryptography can improve security and efficiency. We don’t have all the answers: one of the most important goals of the salon is to find out the needs and thoughts of the community!
We hope you’ll join us to learn a bit about what’s already going on and to share your ideas, requirements, and expertise!
We are limiting the number of attendees to allow for Q&A from the community, thus we are charging US$25 to hold a space at this unique virtual event. So sign up soon! If you are already a Patron or a monthly sponsor on Github of Blockchain Commons, please check your email: we will be sending you a free invite code automatically. If you don’t receive it, contact us directly.