'Cryptography makes impossible possible'

Video by Wang Haolan

There is a consensus among scientists that the best results often seem foolish at first, Martin Edward Hellman, winner of the 2015 ACM Turing Award who is engaged in cryptography, said at the forum.

Hellman said his work was initially discouraged by his colleagues until it was proven worthwhile, leading him to speak about the wisdom of foolishness during a lecture at Stanford University School of Engineering.

Video by Han Shuang

Cryptography plays a crucial role in secure financial transactions, protecting a staggering number of financial transactions every day. Public key cryptography is essential to e-commerce and blockchains, he said.

Martin Edward Hellman

“Public key cryptography makes the seemingly impossible possible. Ideas seemingly stupid are often the best ideas, so technological innovation needs to be more tolerant of seemingly stupid ideas,” he said.