Wikipedia

Yonatan Sompolinsky

Yonatan Sompolinsky is an Israeli computer scientist and blockchain researcher who co-developed the Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree (GHOST) protocol, which influenced the design of Ethereum.[1] He is known as the founder of Kaspa,[2] a proof of work (PoW) network that uses his Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree Directed Acyclic Graph (GHOSTDAG) protocol.

Yonatan Sompolinsky
Yonatan Sompolinsky speaking at Oxford Union in March 2026
Known forKaspa
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Distributed systems
Mechanism design
Cryptocurrency
InstitutionsHarvard University
Aviv Zohar
Websitehashd.ag

Education

edit

Sompolinsky graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a B.Sc. in mathematics and M.Sc. in computer science.[3][4] He received his PhD in computer sciences from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2021, completing a doctoral dissertation titled "The Design and Architecture of Permissionless Consensus Protocols" under the supervision of Prof. Aviv Zohar.[5][6] His doctoral research focused on high-throughput blockchain architectures and the ordering of distributed transactions.

Career

edit

Sompolinsky co-founded DAGLabs in 2018, a company dedicated to implementing protocols developed in academia. By 2021, it had closed.[7] He held a postdoctoral research position in computer science at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences[8] and later became an associate in computer science.[9] His research centered on transaction ordering protocols, distributed consensus, and miner extractable value (MEV).

Research contributions

edit

In 2013, as a master's student in computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sompolinsky's research focused on the development of PoW protocols which alleviate the speed-security tradeoff and preserve decentralisation.[10] The development of these protocols then later formed the basis of his PhD. He remains an active contributor to academic and industry research on blockchain and decentralised systems, with an address at the Oxford Union on 12 March 2026.[11] As of April 2026, he has an h-index of 9 according to Google Scholar[12] and his publications have been cited 4,529 times.

GHOST

edit

Sompolinsky’s early research, with Aviv Zohar from 2013-2015 explored limitations of blockchain designs and the security-speed trade‑off of the Nakamoto consensus. They proposed the GHOST protocol as a means to reduce waste from orphaned blocks and improve security in high throughput environments. The protocol was formalised in the academic paper “Secure High-Rate Transaction Processing in Bitcoin” and published in 2015.[13] Vitalik Buterin implemented a simplified single-level version of GHOST in Ethereum's design[14][15][16] which was a variant of Sompolinsky's "Inclusive Blockchain Protocols"[17] adapted for proof of stake.

SPECTRE

edit

In 2016, Sompolinsky, Zohar, and Yoad Lewenberg proposed a new protocol dubbed Serialization of Proof-of-work Events: Confirming Transactions via Recursive Elections (SPECTRE)[18]. Through this research effort, it was presented as a blockDAG consensus protocol that uses a pairwise ordering of blocks rather than total block ordering to remain secure under high throughput and fast confirmation times.[19]

PHANTOM GHOSTDAG

edit

Following his work on GHOST and SPECTRE consensus protocols, Sompolinsky, together with Zohar in 2021, pursued the idea of a PoW protocol that generalises the Nakamoto consensus to a Directed Acyclic Graph of blocks. They presented a paper titled "PHANTOM GHOSTDAG: A Scalable Generalization of Nakamoto Consensus"[20] which mathematically proves higher throughput without sacrificing security assumptions. This work was featured by ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies[21] and the GHOSTDAG protocol was then implemented as the underlying technology of Kaspa, which achieves a block rate of 10 blocks per second.[22]

DAG KNIGHT

edit

In 2022, Sompolinsky co-authored "DAG KNIGHT: A Parameterless Generalization of Nakamoto Consensus" with Michael Sutton. The paper describes a permissionless consensus protocol that does not assume network latency, remains secure, and is responsive to actual network conditions. It was published through Harvard University's Center for Research on Computation and Society[23] and presented at The Crypto Economics Security Conference (CESC), Berkeley.[24]

Bitcoin

edit

From 2013 to 2018, Sompolinsky contributed to research on Bitcoin’s mining behaviour, security properties, and economic incentives. As a speaker at Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong on December 7 2015, he shared ideas from this research.[25][26]

In 2015, he researched the economic incentives underlying the mining of Bitcoin. In the paper "Bitcoin Mining Pools: A Cooperative Game Theoretic Analysis", game theory was applied to explain why miners form pools, how cooperative strategies affect network stability, and the role of incentives to maintain consensus. The International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS) published the work in May 2015.[27]

In 2016, Sompolinsky and Zohar examined the security guarantees in "Bitcoin’s Security Model Revisited"[28], which improved the understanding of Bitcoin’s security guarantees and led to working with Ayelet Sapirshtein on extended selfish mining research.[29] They examined adversarial strategies, optimised selfish mining attacks, and identified conditions where miners would have incentive to profitably deviate from the Bitcoin protocol. The work was formalised in "Optimal Selfish Mining Strategies in Bitcoin".[30]

In 2018, Sompolinsky and Zohar completed an analysis on the economic mechanisms that underpin the Bitcoin protocol, which was published in "Bitcoin’s Underlying Incentives".[31] Their work examined Bitcoin's economic incentives for miners such as block rewards and transaction fees.

Development of Kaspa

edit
Message embedded in the coinbase of the Kaspa genesis block

On 14 August 2021, the domain name kaspa.org[32] was registered, and members of the Kaspa community created a web site at that address.[33] On 2 September 2021, a white paper describing a protocol, titled "PHANTOM GHOSTDAG: A Scalable Generalization of Nakamoto Consensus" was published by the Association for Computing Machinery.[21]

On 7 November 2021, Kaspa was fair launched as an open-source node implementation PoW network by defining the genesis block of Kaspa.[34][35]

Embedded in the coinbase transaction of the genesis block is the Aramaic text: "Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God.” This note cites Ezra 7:18 from the original Aramaic text Dahava vs. Kaspa.[36] Kaspa is the Aramaic word for “silver” and “money”.[37]

Awards and recognition

edit

Sompolinsky was named the winner of the 2025 Binance Blockchain 100 award in the Independent Researcher category.[38] He publicly declined the recognition and an invitation to attend the in-person award ceremony at Binance Blockchain Week on December 3, 2025 in Dubai.[39] [40]

Selected publications

edit

References

edit
  1. ↑ Bashir, Imran (30 March 2018). Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition: Distributed ledger technology, decentralization, and smart contracts explained (2 ed.). Birmingham: Packt Publishing Limited. pp. 328, 564. ISBN 978-1-78883-904-4.
  2. ↑ Uphold, Intelligence Unit (16 November 2023). "KAS Research Paper" (PDF). Uphold Institutional. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  3. ↑ "In which I run with the GHOSTs of my hometown". hashd.ag. 24 November 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  4. ↑ "Bitcoin's Underlying Incentives - ACM Queue". ACM Queue. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  5. ↑ "The Authority for Research Students". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 11 March 2026. Retrieved 2 April 2026.
  6. ↑ "The Design and Architecture of Permissionless Consensus Protocols". Hebrew University of Jerusalem Library Catalog / HUJI Library Discovery Service. 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
  7. ↑ Shehriyar, Ali (29 August 2024). "Beyond Bitcoin: Kaspa's Ascent in the Proof-of-Work Realm". ByteTree. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  8. ↑ "Yonatan Sompolinsky, Postdoc". Computer Science at Harvard University. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". Harvard SEAS Directory. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  10. ↑ Uphold (10 May 2024). Uphold Institutional x Kaspa - Dr Martin Hiesboeck Interview with Yonatan Sompolinsky (Video). Retrieved 2 April 2026 – via YouTube.
  11. ↑ Oxford Union (7 April 2026). Kaspa Founder Yonatan Sompolinsky Address at the Oxford Union. Retrieved 7 April 2026 – via YouTube.
  12. ↑ "Yonatan Sompolinsky, Research Associate at Harvard University". Google Scholar. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  13. ↑ Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Zohar, Aviv (16 July 2015). "Secure High-Rate Transaction Processing in Bitcoin". Financial Cryptography and Data Security. 8975: 507–527. ISBN 978-3-662-47853-0.
  14. ↑ Buterin, Vitalik; Schneider, Nathan (27 September 2022). Proof of stake: the making of Ethereum and the philosophy of blockchains. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1644212486.
  15. ↑ Buterin, Vitalik (24 January 2014). "Ethereum: A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency And Decentralized Application Platform". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
  16. ↑ Buterin, Vitalik (2014). "Ethereum Whitepaper". Ethereum. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  17. ↑ Lewenberg, Yoad; Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Zohar, Aviv (16 July 2015). Böhme, Rainer; Okamoto, Tatsuaki (eds.). "Inclusive Block Chain Protocols". Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer: 528–547. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-47854-7_33. ISBN 978-3-662-47854-7.
  18. ↑ Rizzo, Pete; O'Leary, Rachel Rose (25 October 2017). "SPECTRE Creators Seek VC Backing for Blockchain-Free Cryptocurrency". Coindesk. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
  19. ↑ Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Lewenberg, Yoad; Zohar, Aviv (15 January 2018). "SPECTRE: A Fast and Scalable Cryptocurrency Protocol". Cryptology ePrint Archive. Retrieved 4 April 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  20. ↑ Baldimtsi, Foteini (23 November 2021). Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies. ACM Conferences. New York,NY,United States: Association for Computing Machinery. ISBN 978-1-4503-9082-8.
  21. 1 2 Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Wyborski, Shai; Zohar, Aviv (2 September 2021). PHANTOM and GHOSTDAG: A Scalable Generalization of Nakamoto Consensus. ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2021). pp. 57–70. doi:10.1145/3479722.3480990.{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  22. ↑ Niv, Tomer (29 May 2025). "Kaspa: The Israeli Answer To Scaling Bitcoin". Forbes. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  23. ↑ "Center for Research on Computation and Society - Applied Cryptography and Society". The DAG KNIGHT Protocol: A Parameterless Generalization of Nakamoto Consensus. Harvard CRCS. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  24. ↑ "Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence at Berkeley". Crypto Economics Security Conference. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
  25. ↑ Rizzo, Pete (7 December 2015). "Hard Fork Question Divides Developers at Scaling Bitcoin Day 2". Coindesk. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
  26. ↑ Scaling Bitcoin (30 December 2015). Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong - Dec 7 2015 - Morning Part 02. Retrieved 4 April 2026 – via YouTube.
  27. ↑ Weiss, Gerhard (2015). Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems "Bitcoin Mining Pools: A Cooperative Game Theoretic Analysis". Richland, SC: International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. pp. 919–927. ISBN 978-1-4503-3413-6.
  28. ↑ Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Zohar, Aviv (31 May 2016), Bitcoin's Security Model Revisited, arXiv, arXiv:1605.09193, retrieved 2 April 2026
  29. ↑ Wirdum, Aaron van (27 December 2016). "If There Is An Answer To Selfish Mining, Braiding Could Be It". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  30. ↑ Grossklags, Jens; Preneel, Bart, eds. (2017). Financial Cryptography and Data Security: 20th International Conference, FC 2016, Christ Church, Barbados, February 22-26, 2016, Revised Selected Papers. Security and Cryptology (1st ed. 2017 ed.). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer. ISBN 978-3-662-54970-4.
  31. ↑ Sompolinsky, Yonatan; Zohar, Aviv (21 February 2018). "Bitcoin's underlying incentives". Communications of the ACM. 61 (3): 46–53. doi:10.1145/3152481. ISSN 0001-0782.
  32. ↑ "Whois kaspa.org". Whois. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  33. ↑ "Kaspa". Rhubarb Media. Retrieved 2 April 2026.
  34. ↑ Alecio, Daniel (26 February 2026). "What top blockchain executives are leaning into in 2026". The Street. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
  35. ↑ "Genesis block - Kaspa.stream Block Explorer". Kaspa.stream Block Explorer. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  36. ↑ Alt, Albrecht; Kittel, Rudolf; Bardtke, Hans; Rüger, Hans Peter; Ziegler, Joseph; Elliger, Karl; Rudolph, Wilhelm; Weil, Gérard E.; Schenker, Adrian, eds. (1997). Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: = Torah, neviʾim u-ketuvim (Ed. funditus renovata, ed. 5. emendata, 5. verb. Aufl ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. ISBN 978-3-438-05218-6.
  37. ↑ Köhler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Richardson, Mervyn E. J.; Köhler, Ludwig (1 January 2002). The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12445-5.
  38. ↑ "The Blockchain 100 | 2025 - Awardees". Binance. 3 November 2025. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
  39. ↑ Bustos, Federico (7 November 2025). "Kaspa Founder Declines Binance Dubai Invite, Criticizes Listing Practices". Crypto Economy. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  40. ↑ Sompolinsky, Yonatan [@hashdag] (7 November 2025). ""@binance, Thanks for including me in the top 100 blockchain people list, appreciate the signal! I must decline the Dubai invite though. I do not wish to disrespect, but many of the award voters are avid kaspians who rooted for my kaspa status [...]"". (X social network).
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yonatan_Sompolinsky&oldid=1359193837"