Cryptic Labs adds 2 Nobel laureates as advisers for blockchain security research

Cryptic Labs, a research institute that wants to use blockchain technology to solve security problems, has announced the addition of two Nobel laureates in economics — Eric Maskin and Christopher Pissarides — to its economic advisory board.
They will be called upon to provide insights into game theory and token economics, bolstering the institute’s mission to address the lack of blockchain industry expertise in both fields. Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that enables both security and transparency, and it is used widely in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
With the new experts, Palo Alto, California-based Cryptic Labs can offer clients research-based insights to better guide their innovations. Maskin, who hails from Harvard University, will focus on game theory and mechanism design, with an emphasis on how blockchain companies can guide user incentives at a micro level, while Pissarides, who comes from the London School of Economics, will provide expertise on macroeconomic trends.
The two Nobel laureates will work alongside Cryptic Labs’ chief scientist, Whitfield Diffie, the preeminent cryptographer who won the 2015 Turing Award.
“I am honored to welcome two of the world’s most established experts in economics,” said Humphrey Polanen, managing director of Cryptic Labs, in a statement. “Doctors Maskin and Pissarides will offer unparalleled expertise and insight to the blockchain industry, providing nuanced understandings of behavioral economaics to our clients. Along with Dr. Diffie, the new heads of our economics advisory board will help us live up to our mission to fill a critical and essential gap in the industry. These experts will help our client companies navigate complex problems, advising them on token economics and helping them craft the incentive systems they need to ensure adoption and growth.”
Maskin won a Nobel Prize in 2007 for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory. He is currently the Adams University Professor at Harvard and continues to publish research in the fields of game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics.
Pissarides brings expertise in macroeconomics, focusing on the effect of the labor and money supply at a macro level. He specializes in the economics of labor markets, macroeconomic policy, economic growth, and structural change and was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in the economics of markets with frictions.
The two join a team of experts in advising blockchain companies across diverse industries, ranging from media to artificial intelligence and telecommunications, and will be tasked with guiding their design processes and helping assess their economics.
Source: VentureBeat