This talk will discuss what it would mean to build the abstraction of a widely distributed universal computer. In the process, the talk will revisit blockchain protocols through the lenses of first distributed computing principles and present simpler alternative protocols.

Rachid Guerraoui is professor in computer science at EPFL where he leads the Distributed Computing Laboratory. He worked in the past with HP Labs in Palo Alto and MIT. He has been elected ACM Fellow and Professor of the College de France. He was awarded a Senior ERC Grant and a Google Focused Award.