Visiting Researcher Talk: Prof Yiu Siu-Ming

Talk Title
Stablecoin: Underlying Technology, Traceability, and Risks

Speaker
Prof Yiu Siu-Ming

About the Speaker
Professor Yiu Siu-Ming is a professor in the School of Computing and Data Science (CDS) at the University of Hong Kong. He directs the FinTech and Blockchain Laboratory as well as the Cyber Security and Post-quantum Cryptography Laboratory. He has published over 300 research papers and has been named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher three times. For more than a decade, he has ranked among the top 1% of researchers at the University of Hong Kong.

In addition to his research achievements, Professor Yiu has received numerous teaching awards at the departmental, faculty, and university levels. He collaborates closely with law enforcement agencies, including the Hong Kong Police, Customs Department, and ICAC, to address emerging technological crimes, and he serves in government bodies such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) and the Hong Kong Genome Institute (HKGI).

Description
This talk reviews the foundations of blockchain technology, focusing on the anonymous nature of its original design. It introduces the mixer technique, which makes cryptocurrency and stablecoin transactions more difficult to trace, and examines the different categories of stablecoins, highlighting that not all are truly "stable." A recent scam case involving stablecoins is also discussed. The talk presents a cryptographic approach to revealing the identities of suspects in suspicious transactions while protecting the privacy of innocent users. If time permits, it concludes with a brief overview of stablecoin regulation in Hong Kong.