Prediction Held up
Boneh: An operating quantum computer will likely be built within his lifetime
“I would speculate that in my lifetime, We'll probably see some sort of a, of operating quantum computer.”
Assertion Supported
Boneh: Matter Labs achieved zkEVM capability decades ahead of expectations
“Compiling Uniswap V-II solidity into you know, a snark capable circuit. We thought this was going to be decades away and you got it to work.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Boneh predicts Bitcoin and Ethereum data will survive until year 3000
“So I think that the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains are going to be with humanity now forever, you know, in the year 3000, you know, the era of Futurama, we're still going to be looking at the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains. Maybe they won't be called that,…”
Opinion
Boneh: Shift to online life drives cybersecurity focus more than Snowden
“I think Snowden might be actually a small part of it. I think the bigger issue is that more and more of our lives are going online, and as more of our data is available on computers, it's obviously, obviously also available to be hacked and stolen, and so comp…”
Insight
Boneh: Smartphone-based 2FA fails when users browse directly on their mobile devices
“Unfortunately today all second factor authentication schemes are essentially based on, well, the smartphone. And what happens if you only interact with the website through your smartphone, right? So in fact, we're hearing more and more of people that the only …”
Insight
Boneh: Security technology's ultimate goal is narrowing attacks strictly to social engineering
“Is to make it so that the only attack that's possible on you is a social engineering attack.”
Insight
Boneh: Faster computers help cryptographic defenders more than they help attackers
“And the reason is because as computers get faster we can you know, end, end user machines can actually handle larger and larger numbers. But if you just make the number, like, twice as big, Factoring it is not twice as hard. Factoring it becomes exponentially …”
Assertion Supported
Boneh: Functional quantum computers would break modern internet cryptography and Bitcoin
“All the world of crypto that we use on the internet today, and for Bitcoin as well, ah, would be well, would be broken if someone was able to build a quantum computer.”
Insight
Non-AES block ciphers cannot compete with Intel hardware acceleration
“It's gonna be really hard to promote any other block cipher, because any other block cipher is gonna have to be implemented in, in software, and there's no way it will compete with what Intel did.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dan Boneh: 50x blockchain speedups will unlock unimaginable new applications
“The same thing is going to happen here is that, you know, we speed things up by a factor of 50 and all of a sudden we get a whole bunch of new applications we couldn't even imagine.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Boneh predicts the widespread emergence of fractional NFT ownership
“So that's pretty interesting, and I think we're going to be seeing things like fractional ownership of NFTs.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Boneh predicts an aftermarket for composable NFT enhancements will emerge
“We're going to see enhancements to NFTs, so you can buy an NFT, and then there could be an aftermarket for enhancing it, like this image that you have, your background image, Ariana.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Boneh: Blockchains will adopt quantum-resistant signatures before quantum threats emerge
“Quantum computers are ever built. Yes, they will be able to affect the signature algorithm that's used for securing assets on blockchains today, but not to worry. We have other signature algorithms that are actually quantum resistance. So even if you have a qu…”
Insight
Boneh: Cryptography uniquely bridges deep theoretical math with global real-world deployment
“It's one of the few areas, I have to say, where you can do deep mathematics, and at the same time, it would be extremely applied and deployed and used by billions of people all over the world.”
Insight
Boneh: Advanced security technology will fail to deploy without strong user interfaces
“You could have the best technology, but if it's not wrapped in a nice user interface that people have fun and, you know, they're comfortable using, it's never gonna get deployed. It's never gonna work.”
Insight
Boneh: Smartwatches are ideal 2FA mechanisms because they stay on the body
“The direction we'd like to go at, to move to, is where the second factor is something that's always on the human body. So, one of the beautiful applications for smart watches is exactly a second factor, right? My smart watch, my watch actually, is always on me…”
Insight
Boneh: Unlike passwords, compromised biometric fingerprints cannot be revoked or reset
“If your fingerprint, if you suspect that your fingerprint has been somehow compromised, there's no way for you to revoke your fingerprint.”
Insight
Boneh: The most impactful security technology operates invisibly to the user
“So the best security technology that has had the most impact in the world is security technology that is, is invisible, that people don't even know that it's there.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Boneh: Implicit authentication false positive rates remain too high for mass adoption
“The false positive rates on that are still a little too high for it to be massively and widely used, but that is definitely a very interesting direction.”
Assertion Supported
Boneh: Stanford researchers developed a zero-knowledge solvency proof for Bitcoin exchanges
“So what we designed is basically A mechanism that allows you to prove solvency, but do it in a way that's called zero knowledge. So you can prove that you're solvent, so an exchange, can prove that the amount of bitcoins it has is more than the obligations tha…”
Assertion Supported
Boneh: Big tech security teams possess the authority to delay product launches
“In big companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google security teams in fact are involved in the process from the design phase, which is really important. And then if a product is about to ship out and a security, the security team discovers a big vulnerability, they…”
Insight
Boneh: Post-launch UI security fixes face severe user adoption friction
“Cause once your product is out there, once you build a user base, your users are used to using the product in a particular way. If it turns out that you have to make changes in the user interface because of security concerns, ah, that actually would make it ha…”
Insight
Boneh: MOOCs serve as 21st-century interactive textbooks rather than university replacements
“I now I've come to realize this MOOC is basically like a 21st century textbook. So if you take the MOOC online, you should be, it's almost the same as actually reading a textbook on crypto.”
Insight
VCs ignore pitches without "billions of dollars" on slide one
“When, ah, when you go pitch to VCs, the first thing they tell you is like, on slide number one, you're supposed to have some word, somewhere, it's where, you're supposed to have the words, billions of dollars, somewhere on slide number one, otherwise the VCs d…”
Dan Boneh