Web3 applications, such as on-chain gaming, require unbiased and publicly verifiable randomness that can be obtained quickly and cost-effectively whenever needed. Existing services, such as those based on Verifiable Random Functions (VRF), incur network delays and high fees due to their highly interactive nature. FlexiRand [CCS 2023] addressed these problems by hiding the output of the VRF and using that as a seed to derive many randomnesses locally. These randomnesses are instantly available for usage. However, these randomnesses can not be verified independently (or instantly) without disclosing the seed, leaving scope for malicious actors to cheat. To solve this problem, we introduce a new notion, called instantly-verifiable VRF (iVRF), which enables the generation of many randomnesses from one VRF output seed, such that each of them is verifiable independently - this enables the solution to generate randomnesses, such that they are and also . To instantiate we propose a generic construction called InstaRand - it combines any (possibly distributed) VRF at the server's end with another VRF at the client's end to construct an iVRF. Our specific instantiation uses the BLS-based GLOW-DVRF [Euro S&P 2021] at the server's end and the DDH-based VRF of Goldberg et al. [RFC 2023] at the client's end. We use the universal composability framework to analyze the security. Moreover, due to its generality, InstaRand can be instantiated with any post-quantum secure VRF to yield a post-quantum secure iVRF. Our experiments demonstrate that our instantiation of InstaRand is . The client incurs a cost to generate the seed (server's VRF output) by querying the GLOW-dVRF servers once. Once the seed is set up, the client locally generates the pseudorandom value on demand in , avoiding the client-server round-trip delay. Each value can be independently verified in . This yields a improvement in terms of output generation and improvement in verification cost over existing solutions.
Christos Karapapas, Iakovos Pittaras, George C. Polyzos, Constantinos Patsakis
The InterPlanetary File System~(IPFS) offers a decentralized approach to file storage and sharing, promising resilience and efficiency while also realizing the Web3 paradigm. Simultaneously, the offered anonymity raises significant questions about potential misuse. In this study, we explore methods that malicious actors can exploit IPFS to upload and disseminate harmful content while remaining anonymous. We evaluate the role of pinning services and public gateways, identifying their capabilities and limitations in maintaining content availability. Using scripts, we systematically test the behavior of these services by uploading malicious files. Our analysis reveals that pinning services and public gateways lack mechanisms to assess or restrict the propagation of malicious content.
Election is the key process typically utilized for maintaining democracy in a given society. Recent technological advancements, such as Blockchain (BC), have been already deployed in previous works to realize non-conventional e-Voting systems. The main goal for such proposals is to provide the necessary level of security and reliability, while maintaining transparency, trust, and remote elections. However, the distributed and publicity nature of BC brought new challenges related to privacy and performance trade-off. This paper aims to address these issues by integrating smart contracts for reliability and transparency, Differential Privacy for enhancing vote anonymity, and Self-Sovereign Identities to unlock the potential of the Web3 framework for verifiable credentials and digital identities. Specifically, a novel ($k,\epsilon $)-differential privacy mechanism is developed, where a randomly selected candidate is pivoted from which retrievable votes are transferred to other candidates. Final election results are then statistically approximated. We evaluate the proposed methods for different arrival rates (10–80 TX/s), different total numbers of cast votes (10k–50k votes), and different numbers of elected candidates (2–8 candidates). To demonstrate the applicability of our proposal in real-life scenarios, we deploy our SC on a cloud-based permissioned BC network using Hyperledger Besu, with nodes set in Google’s EU and USA data centers. Our experimental results showed that BP-Vot could provide 24% enhancement in latency over state-of-the-art solutions ($\approx 1$s/TX compared to 1.24 s/TX). Additionally, using a standardized Min-Max regression mechanism, we show that BP-Vot could provide no less than 98% accuracy in votes approximation during all experiments, with a linearly increasing accuracy trend as a function of the total number of cast votes. Finally, we formally evaluate the proposed differential privacy method and prove that it is robust against reconstruction attacks.
The growing threat posed by quantum computing to traditional cryptographic systems demands a radical redesign of digital voting architectures. This review explores the development of a post-quantum blockchain voting protocol, emphasizing the integration of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to ensure data privacy, voter anonymity, and verifiable election integrity. The study synthesizes advancements in lattice-based and hash-based cryptographic algorithms capable of withstanding quantum attacks and evaluates their applicability within decentralized ledger frameworks. Particular attention is paid to the role of ZKPs—such as zk-SNARKs and zk-STARKs—in constructing tamper-resilient, end-to-end verifiable voting systems without compromising performance or transparency. Through critical analysis of recent protocols, consensus mechanisms, and deployment models, this paper identifies key design principles for scalable, secure, and inclusive e-voting infrastructures. The review concludes with strategic recommendations for transitioning from prototype systems to robust electoral frameworks in anticipation of the quantum era.
Christian Delgado‐von‐Eitzen, Manuel J. Fernández Iglesias, Luis Anido, Martín Llamas Nistal
This paper introduces a novel access control architecture based on a dual-blockchain model that separates access management from data storage to enhance security and scalability. The system enables users to submit access requests to a primary blockchain, where smart contracts dynamically verify permissions before retrieving data from a secondary, isolated blockchain. This design enforces fine-grained, account-level access control while preventing direct exposure of sensitive data. A proof of concept was implemented using Hyperledger YUI to interconnect Ethereum-based blockchains, demonstrating secure inter-chain communication and dynamic permission enforcement. The proposed solution addresses key limitations in existing blockchain infrastructures and offers a flexible, decentralized framework suitable for applications requiring robust data governance and regulatory compliance.
The e-voting system, which is based on blockchain technology, greatly improves the security, transparency, and integrity of electronic voting. This is achieved by using a decentralized ledger system that distributes the recording of votes, allows for public verification, and maintains voter anonymity through cryptographic methods. This resilient method guarantees that once a vote is submitted, it is securely recorded and cannot be changed without the agreement of network members, thereby protecting the integrity of elections. Built on the private Go Ethereum (Geth) network, this study implements an e-voting system that features validator nodes for transaction verification, user-friendly mobile applications for voter interaction, and comprehensive smart contract capabilities that define the voting process rules. The mobile application guides users from launching the app and authenticating their identity to selecting candidates and securely recording their votes, ensuring seamless connectivity to the blockchain and incorporating essential verification steps. Furthermore, the implementation process includes meticulous setup of Ethereum nodes, smart contract development, and thorough testing for functionality, performance, and security. The evaluation focuses on aspects like maintaining data transparency, user authentication, and resilience against unauthorized access, demonstrating high user satisfaction with the app's performance. Ultimately, this blockchain-based system addresses modern electoral challenges, ensuring a secure, transparent, and reliable voting experience that fosters trust among all stakeholders involved.
Abstract: A decentralized voting system utilizing blockchain technology offers a transformative approach to traditional election processes. This innovative method addresses several challenges, including low voter turnout, security vulnerabilities, lack of transparency, potential vote tampering, and delays in result processing. This paper focuses on the design and development of a smart contract-based online voting system, leveraging the Ethereum blockchain as its foundation. The proposed system eliminates the necessity for intermediaries by utilizing blockchain's immutable and distributed ledger, thereby securing votes and facilitating a fully auditable voting process. Smart contracts are employed to automate voter registration, ballot generation, and vote counting, which helps minimize errors and enhance operational efficiency. Furthermore, the Ethereum network enforces a one-vote-per-voter policy through the Gas token mechanism, effectively preventing duplicate voting and ensuring the integrity of elections. A proof-of-concept application is presented and tested with simulated voting data, demonstrating the system's capability to maintain anonymity while ensuring the integrity of the voting process. This research highlights the potential of blockchain technology to bolster voter confidence, increase participation, and reduce election costs.
B. Sujatha, Yarrampati Ganesh, N. Leelavathy, R. Tamilkodi · 7 authors
Objectives: A blockchain-based E-Voting system shall be designed to secure and make transparent voting through biometric and facial recognition for voter authentication with the help of smart contracts to automate electoral processes. Methods: The research used the Ethereum blockchain technology with smart contracts to automatically schedule elections, register voters, and declare election results. Volunteers controlled information relating to the voter, which included name, email address, phone number, biometrics, and facial images. All this was available for authenticated access. The IPFS contained all this for decentralized and immutable record-keeping. Findings: This E-Voting system is therefore proposed based on enhancing the security as well as the transparency brought about in the electoral processes. Using smart contracts that are developed with Ethereum prevents manipulation and provides integrity regarding data. Studies show the IPFS storage system leads to complete decentralization together with immutability-a critical flaw seen in systems of traditional voting. One can ensure the participation will be done by only voters who are verified, much improvement compared to the level of reliability as well as integrity offered through the various methods applied within the current electoral processes. These study results reinforce blockchain's effectiveness in ensuring that voting applications are secure as well as tamper-proof. Novelty: A blockchain and IPFS-based secure, decentralized voting solution to maintain data integrity and transparency. Keywords: Blockchain, E-Voting, Secure Voter Authentication, Smart Contracts, Online Voting, Election Automation
The Borda Count method, a widely used ranked voting system, is known for its fairness and simplicity. However, when applied to large-scale voting systems, it faces challenges related to computational complexity, scalability, and system reliability. This paper proposes an optimization model for the Borda Count method by integrating blockchain consensus mechanisms, including Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), aiming to enhance the voting process's efficiency, accuracy, and fault tolerance.We explore how blockchain technology can address the computational challenges of Borda Count, ensuring secure, transparent, and decentralized voting while maintaining high system reliability. By leveraging blockchain's immutability and consensus mechanisms, the proposed model significantly reduces computational overhead, increases the robustness of the system against node failures, and improves the accuracy of the voting results.This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the Borda Count method and blockchain consensus mechanisms, outlines a novel optimization algorithm, and provides a theoretical evaluation of the model's performance. We conclude by discussing the advantages of integrating blockchain with Borda Count for distributed voting systems and suggest potential directions for future research.
Traditional voting systems face numerous challenges, including security vulnerabilities, transparency issues, and operational inefficiencies, which undermine public confidence in electoral processes.Blockchain technology offers a promising solution with its immutable, decentralized, and cryptographically secure framework, addressing these critical issues.This paper presents a blockchainbased voting system implemented across multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) platforms, including Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Polygon, and Celo.The system leverages smart contracts for secure vote management and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for voter authentication, ensuring the uniqueness and authenticity of each vote.Our research includes a comprehensive evaluation of the system's performance, focusing on transaction costs, processing speed, and scalability.The findings demonstrate the potential of blockchain technology to efficiently handle large volumes of electoral data while maintaining security and integrity, thereby enhancing the reliability and transparency of voting systems.
Open access
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Voting is a cornerstone of collective participatory decision-making in contexts ranging from political elections to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Despite the proliferation of internet voting protocols promising enhanced accessibility and efficiency, their evaluation and comparison are complicated by a lack of standardized criteria and unified definitions of security and maturity. Furthermore, socio-technical requirements by decision makers are not structurally taken into consideration when comparing internet voting systems. This paper addresses this gap by introducing a trust-centric maturity scoring framework to quantify the security and maturity of seventeen internet voting systems. A comprehensive trust model analysis is conducted for selected internet voting protocols, examining their security properties, trust assumptions, technical complexity, and practical usability. In this paper we propose the Internet Voting Maturity Framework (IVMF) which supports nuanced assessment that reflects real-world deployment concerns and aids decision-makers in selecting appropriate systems tailored to their specific use-case requirements. The framework is general enough to be applied to other systems, where the aspects of decentralization, trust, and security are crucial, such as digital identity, Ethereum layer-two scaling solutions, and federated data infrastructures. Its objective is to provide an extendable toolkit for policy makers and technology experts alike that normalizes technical and non-technical requirements on a univariate scale.
The Domain Name System (DNS) has been providing a decentralized global namespace to support all Internet applications and usages over the last few decades. In the recent years, a number of blockchain-based name systems have emerged with the claim of providing better namespace decentralization than DNS. The community at large seems uncertain with regard to which of these systems is the best in providing decentralized Internet namespace control. In this paper, we first deconstruct the design of DNS, identify its three essential components and explain who controls each of them. We then examine the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) as a representative example of blockchain-based naming systems, gauge the degree of its decentralization. Finally, we conduct a comparative analysis between DNS and ENS to assess the validity and affordability of each design and the (de)centralization in their namespace control and name system operations.
G. Somasekhar, Sreedhar Jinka, Chinna Kullayappa Kanekal, Anusha Marouthu
Traditional voting schemes are often overwhelmed by problems such as deception, influence, and incompetence, which can be resolved by applying blockchain technology with transparency, decentralization, and immutability. This study proposes a safe and indisputable digital voting system with blockchain technology to maintain the integrity of the voting procedure. The reliability and privacy of the voting procedure are upheld with distributed ledger technology and cryptographic techniques. The essence of the proposed method is the immutability of the blockchain ledger, which ensures a tamper-proof record of each cast vote, promoting transparency and offering a way of audit for free verification. The proposed method employs cryptographic protocols to protect individual votes while preserving complete transparency and verifiability of the voting procedure. The InterPlanetary Filesystem (IPFS) is applied to ensure data integrity. Moreover, the practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) consensus algorithm is utilized to remove glitches in distributed settings. The proposed approach provides a decentralized platform where voters can cast their votes from anywhere without difficulty using an internet connection, eliminating the need for physical ballot papers and polling stations. Using immutable ledger and cryptographic security aspects in blockchain, the reliability of the voting procedure can be protected while maintaining voter anonymity and confidentiality. Finally, it is shown that the proposed scheme outweighs other existing approaches.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Alex Berke, Tobin South, Robert Mahari, Kent Larson · 5 authors
Tax returns contain financial information of interest to third parties: public officials are asked to share financial data for transparency, companies seek to assess the financial status of business partners, and individuals need to prove their income to third-parties.Tax returns also contain sensitive data such that sharing them in their entirety undermines privacy.We outline how zero-knowledge cryptography may be applied to address this tension by allowing individuals and organizations to make provable claims about select information in their tax returns without revealing additional information, in a way that can be independently verified by third parties.We highlight key system goals and design specifications for this zero-knowledge tax disclosure system (zkTax) and present a prototype implementation.The prototype consists of three distinct services that can be distributed: a tax authority that provides signed tax documents; a Redact & Prove Service that enables users to redact tax documents and produce a zero-knowledge proof attesting the provenance of the redacted data; and a Verify Service to check the validity of claims.We demonstrate how zkTax could be implemented with minimal changes to existing tax infrastructure, allowing the system to be extensible to other contexts and jurisdictions.This work provides a practical example of how distributed tools leveraging cryptography can enhance existing government or financial infrastructures, providing immediate transparency alongside privacy without system overhauls.
This study aims to explore a method for the de-anonymization of Bitcoin addresses based on Formal Concept Analysis (FCA).Although Bitcoin, as a decentralized cryptocurrency, offers user privacy protection, its anonymity has also been exploited by criminals, leading to an increase in illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing.To address this challenge, we propose a novel deanonymization framework that constructs a formal context using Bitcoin transaction data and generates the corresponding concept lattice.By extracting the attribute weight vectors for each category, our model can effectively classify Bitcoin addresses, thereby identifying potential high-risk addresses.
Open access
Advanced Data and IoT Technologies
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Baowei Wang, Fengxiao Guo, Yuting Liu, Bin Li · 5 authors
Abstract Voting plays a vital role in democratic societies. Adopting electronic voting can effectively increase voter participation and significantly reduce the financial burden on the organizers. In recent years, with the prevalence of blockchain technology, numerous blockchain-based electronic voting schemes have emerged. Compared with traditional electronic voting schemes, they have more favorable security features. However, existing schemes generally suffer from inefficient voting procedures, limited functionality, and dependence on specific blockchain platforms, making them challenging to deploy in diverse voting scenarios. This paper proposes an efficient and versatile electronic voting scheme on blockchain that addresses these problems using our proposed smart contract-based aggregated blind signature, zero-knowledge proofs, and threshold encryption scheme. In the paper, the scheme’s various features, including security, are analyzed in detail, and the scheme is deployed and tested on the Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum blockchain platform. The experiment results demonstrate that the voting scheme satisfies the security requirement, and it has outstanding advantages in performance.
Open access
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The decentralized, distributed ledger, a fundamental aspect of blockchain technology, plays a pivotal role in various sectors, including electronic voting (e-voting) systems. When considering e-voting, the significance of blockchain technology in boosting the security, transparency, and integrity of the entire process is evident. This ranges from the initial steps of user registration and authentication to the final stages of voting and result validation. Unlike conventional voting systems, which are plagued by issues such as fraud, tampering, and a lack of transparency in the result tallying and viewing processes, not to mention the delays, blockchain-enabled e-voting mitigates these challenges within government frameworks. It ensures a secure, tamper-proof, and transparent procedure, where each vote is recorded as an immutable transaction, thereby enhancing the process’s reliability. This paper explores the integration of voice recognition and fingerprinting using blockchain technology for enhancing the security of e-voting systems, comparing alternative authentication methods, and emphasizing the need for a multimodal approach to achieve better security and reliability of the voting systems.
Henry Ohiani Ohize, Adeiza James Onumanyi, Buhari Ugbede Umar, Lukman Adewale Ajao · 11 authors
Abstract Electronic voting (e-voting) systems are gaining increasing attention as a means to modernize electoral processes, enhance transparency, and boost voters’ participation. In recent years, significant developments have occurred in the study of e-voting and blockchain technology systems, hence reshaping many electoral systems globally. For example, real-world implementations of blockchain-based e-voting have been explored in various countries, such as Estonia and Switzerland, which demonstrates the potential of blockchain to enhance the security and transparency of elections. Thus, in this paper, we present a survey of the latest trends in the development of e-voting systems, focusing on the integration of blockchain technology as a promising solution to address various concerns in e-voting, including security, transparency, auditability, and voting integrity. This survey is important because existing survey articles do not cover the latest advancements in blockchain technology for e-voting, particularly as it relates to architecture, global trends, and current concerns in the developmental process. Thus, we address this gap by providing an encompassing overview of architectures, developments, concerns, and solutions in e-voting systems based on the use of blockchain technology. Specifically, a concise summary of the information necessary for implementing blockchain-based e-voting solutions is provided. Furthermore, we discuss recent advances in blockchain systems, which aim to enhance scalability and performance in large-scale voting scenarios. We also highlight the fact that the implementation of blockchain-based e-voting systems faces challenges, including cybersecurity risks, resource intensity, and the need for robust infrastructure, which must be addressed to ensure the scalability and reliability of these systems. This survey also points to the ongoing development in the field, highlighting future research directions such as improving the efficiency of blockchain algorithms and integrating advanced cryptographic techniques to further enhance security and trust in e-voting systems. Hence, by analyzing the current state of e-voting systems and blockchain technology, insights have been provided into the opportunities and challenges in the field with opportunities for future research and development efforts aimed at creating more secure, transparent, and inclusive electoral processes.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Valeh Farzaliyev, Calvin Pärn, Heleen Saarse, Jan Willemson
Abstract This paper studies several building blocks needed for electronic voting in order to prepare for the post-quantum era. In particular, we present lattice-based constructions for a generic zero-knowledge (ZK) proof of ballot correctness, a ZK proof of ballot correctness applicable for the homomorphic tallying scenario, and a ZK proof to achieve cast-as-intended verification during the vote casting period. We implement and benchmark our ballot correctness proofs, giving concrete estimations comparing the performance of homomorphic tallying and mix-net based e-voting systems in case of our lattice-based constructions.
In crowd-sourced data aggregation over the Internet, participants share their data points with curators. However, a lack of strong privacy guarantees may discourage participation, which motivates the need for privacy-preserving aggregation protocols. Moreover, existing solutions remain limited with respect to public auditing without revealing the participants’ data. In realistic applications, however, there is an increasing need for public verifiability (i.e., verifying the protocol correctness) while preserving the privacy of the participants’ inputs, since the participants do not always trust the data curators. At the same time, while publicly distributed ledgers may provide public auditing, these schemes are not designed to protect sensitive information. In this work, we introduce two protocols, dubbed Masquerade and zk-Masquerade, for computing private statistics, such as sum, average, and histograms, without revealing anything about participants’ data. We propose a tailored multiplicative commitment scheme to ensure the integrity of data aggregations and publish all the participants’ commitments on a ledger to provide public verifiability. zk-Masquerade detects malicious participants who attempt to poison the aggregation results by adopting two zero-knowledge proof protocols that ensure the validity of shared data points before being aggregated and enable a broad range of numerical and categorical studies. In our experiments, we use homomorphic ciphertexts and commitments for a variable number of participants and evaluate the runtime and the communication cost of our protocols.
A. A. Gerasyov, I. N. Efremova, I. S. Arhipova, R. N. Kamalov
The purpose of research. The actual problem in voting systems is not the prevention of fraud and the failure to ensure the integrity of elections. Therefore, the task of building a system of safe and transparent voting is urgent. The purpose of the research is design and develop an information and computing system based on smart contacts for online voting. Methods. The presented system has the form of a decentralized system that can overcome a number of limitations, such as the likelihood of human error, falsification of voting results and problems with accessibility, using blockchain technology, which provides protection against unauthorized access and transparent record keeping. The use of smart contract technology also ensures that the voting process will be automated, transparent and secure. Thanks to the ability to execute self-executing contracts based on predefined rules, smart contracts can eliminate the need for intermediaries, reduce the likelihood of errors and ensure a high degree of accountability. Results. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed system, testing was carried out, after which a comparative analysis was made with other similar systems. The system can ensure that votes are counted accurately and cannot be manipulated, thereby increasing confidence in the results of the voting process. In addition, the system can potentially reduce the costs associated with traditional voting methods and improve accessibility for voters, since it can be accessed remotely via a web interface. In general, the system will be of interest to various organizations and individuals seeking to conduct safe and transparent voting processes. Conclusion. The use of this software product will provide security and convenience when participating in various online voting, reliable storage of votes and the provision of detailed statistics on the conducted voting.
Open access
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The rapid convergence of urbanization and digital technologies is fundamentally reshaping city governance through data-driven systems. This transformation, however, is largely controlled by surveillance capitalist entities, raising profound concerns for democratic values and citizen rights. As private interests extract behavioral data from public spaces without adequate oversight, the principles of transparency and civic participation are increasingly threatened. This erosion of data sovereignty represents a critical juncture in urban development, demanding urgent interdisciplinary attention. This comment proposes a paradigm shift in urban data governance, advocating for the reclamation of data sovereignty to prioritize community interests over corporate profit motives. The paper explores socio-technical pathways to achieve this goal, focusing on grassroots approaches that assert ‘data dignity’ through privacy-enhancing technologies and digital anonymity tools. It argues for the creation of distributed digital commons as viable alternatives to proprietary data silos, thereby democratizing access to and control over urban data. The discussion extends to long-term strategies, examining the potential of blockchain technologies and decentralized autonomous organizations in enabling self-sovereign data economies. These emerging models offer a vision of ‘crypto-cities’ liberated from extractive data practices, fostering environments where residents retain autonomy over their digital footprints. By critically evaluating these approaches, the paper aims to catalyze a reimagining of smart city technologies aligned with principles of equity, shared prosperity, and citizen empowerment. This realignment is essential for preserving democratic values in an increasingly digitized urban landscape.