Erica Blum

PhD Student

I study cryptography and consensus algorithms, focusing on security of consensus protocols under different trust models and network conditions.

I am a graduating computer science PhD student at University of Maryland College Park, advised by prof. Jonathan Katz.

Update (Spring 2023): I’m excited to be joining the CS department at Reed College as an assistant professor, starting Fall 2023.

Email / CV / Google Scholar / GitHub

[Asiacrypt22] State Machine Replication under Changing Network Conditions.
Andreea B. Alexandru, EB, Jonathan Katz, and Julian Loss.

[Asiacrypt21] Tardigrade: An Atomic Broadcast Protocol for Arbitrary Network Conditions.
EB, Jonathan Katz, and Julian Loss.

[TCC20] Asynchronous Byzantine Agreement with Subquadratic Communication.
EB, Jonathan Katz, Chen-Da Liu-Zhang, and Julian Loss.

[CRYPTO20] Always Have a Backup Plan: Fully Secure Synchronous MPC with Asynchronous Fallback.
EB, Chen-Da Liu-Zhang, and Julian Loss.

[SODA20] The Combinatorics of the Longest-Chain Rule: Linear consistency for proof-of-stake blockchains.
EB, Aggelos Kiayias, Cristopher Moore, Saad Quader, and Alexander Russell.

[TCC19] Synchronous Consensus with Optimal Asynchronous Fallback Guarantees.
EB, Jonathan Katz, and Julian Loss.

2018-Present

PhD Computer Science (in progress, expected Spring 2023)

MS Computer Science (completed Spring 2020)

2014-2018

BS Mathematics (Minor: Computer Science)