Better in Practice than in Theory: Lessons from the Rise of Bitcoin

Bitcoin has had far more real-world impact as a crypto-currency than any academic proposal in this space. Depending on one's perspective, this is either despite or because its design violates many assumptions cryptographers and security researchers hold dear. While it builds off of crypto concepts researched in the 90s, Bitcoin was developed and rose to prominence almost completely independently of the mainstream academic research community. How did we miss the ideas behind Bitcoin? What questions remain about Bitcoin that academics are well-positioned to answer? What lessons can we learn to avoid missing such a promising idea in the future? How can academics productively collaborate with the broader Bitcoin research and development community?