Siamak Abdi, Giuseppe Di Fatta, Atta Badii, Giancarlo Fortino
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that has applications in many domains such as cryptocurrency, smart contracts, supply chain management, and many others. Distributed consensus is a fundamental component of blockchain systems that enables secure, precise, and tamper-proof verification of data without relying on central authorities. Existing consensus protocols, nevertheless, suffer from drawbacks, some of which are related to scalability, resource consumption, and fault tolerance. We introduce Blockchain Epidemic Consensus Protocol (BECP), a novel fully decentralised consensus protocol for blockchain networks at a large scale. BECP follows epidemic communication principles, without fixed roles like validators or leaders, and achieves probabilistic convergence, efficient message dissemination, and tolerance to message delays. We provide an extensive experimental comparison of BECP against classic protocols like PAXOS, RAFT, and PBFT, and newer epidemic-based protocols like Avalanche and Snowman. The findings indicate that BECP provides desirable gains in throughput, consensus latency, and substantial message-passing efficiency compared to existing epidemic-based approaches, validating its usability as an effective and scalable approach for next-generation blockchain systems.
We present Free-Delete, a censorship-resistant group-chat protocol whose membership is validated by non-fungible-token (NFT) ownership while user privacy ranges across five selectable modes. A single Groth16 circuit, anchored in a sparse Merkle tree of verifiable commitments, realises (i) Fully Anonymous messaging, (ii) Linkable Anonymous reputation building, (iii) Publicly Identified disclosure, (iv) Confidential end-to-end encryption, and (v) Rate-Limited Accountability that revokes keys on spam—all without moderator involvement or economic deposits. A black-paper prototype written in TypeScript, Circom 2, and Solidity achieves 0.35 s for register and 1.38 s for postMessage on consumer hardware; on-chain verification costs 3–5.5×105 gas per proof on Polygon. These results demonstrate that NFT-gated, stake-free, privacy-preserving communication can be deployed today on any EVM chain.
Layer-2 protocols can assist Ethereum's limited throughput, but globally broadcasting layer-2 data limits their scalability. The Danksharding evolution of Ethereum aims to support the selective distribution of layer-2 data, whose availability in the network is verified using randomized data availability sampling (DAS). Integrating DAS into Ethereum's consensus process is challenging, as pieces of layer-2 data must be disseminated and sampled within four seconds of the beginning of each consensus slot. No existing solution can support dissemination and sampling under such strict time bounds. We propose PANDAS, a practical approach to integrate DAS with Ethereum under Danksharding's requirements without modifying its protocols for consensus and node discovery. PANDAS disseminates layer-2 data and samples its availability using lightweight, direct exchanges. Its design accounts for message loss, node failures, and unresponsive participants while anticipating the need to scale out the Ethereum network. Our evaluation of PANDAS's prototype in a 1,000-node cluster and simulations for up to 20,000 peers shows that it allows layer-2 data dissemination and sampling under planetary-scale latencies within the 4-second deadline.
Cryptocurrency mining, especially Bitcoin's Proof of Work (PoW), significantly impacts the environment through high energy consumption, carbon footprint, and e-waste. Ethereum's adoption of Proof of Stake (PoS) in 2022 offers a potential solution to reduce these effects. This study compares the environmental impacts of PoW and PoS, focusing on energy consumption, mining efficiency, hash rate, and carbon footprint. Using regression analysis and t-tests on data from Bitcoin (PoW) and Ethereum (before and after PoS) from 2017 to 2024, the results show that PoS significantly reduces energy consumption, carbon footprint, and e-waste, while improving mining efficiency. The findings highlight that transitioning to PoS can mitigate the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining and encourage its broader adoption to align with global sustainability goals.
This study, conducted in 2024, explores the potential of blockchain technology to enhance data integrity in space communications and operations. With the growing complexity and reliance on satellite networks for global connectivity, Earth observation, and deep space exploration, ensuring tamper-proof and secure communication is critical. The research proposes a blockchain-based framework that integrates satellites, ground stations, and spacecraft as decentralized nodes, addressing existing security challenges such as data tampering, unauthorized access, and signal jamming. Based consensus combining Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm with Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) processes is introduced to optimize security and latency in space environments. The feasibility of the framework is evaluated through simulations and case studies, demonstrating its effectiveness in mitigating space-specific threats, with practical implications for missions such as NASA's Artemis program. The study concludes that blockchain offers a transformative solution for securing space communications and urges stakeholders to pilot such technologies for future space operations.
We hypothesize that peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network nodes can be attractive to attackers due to their visibility, sustained uptime, and resource potential. Towards validating this hypothesis, we investigate the state of active reconnaissance attacks on Ethereum P2P network nodes by deploying a series of honeypots alongside actual Ethereum nodes across globally distributed vantage points. We find that Ethereum nodes experience not only increased attacks, but also specific types of attacks targeting particular ports and services. Furthermore, we find evidence that the threat assessment on our nodes is applicable to the wider P2P network by having performed port scans on other reachable peers. Our findings provide insights into potential mitigation strategies to improve the security of the P2P networking layer.
Peter Howson, Antulio Rosales, Olivier Jutel, Inte Gloerich · 8 authors
This paper explores how so-called ‘Web3’ blockchain projects are materially and socially constituted. A blockchain is an append-only distributed database. The technology is being hyped as applicable for a whole range of industries, social service provisions, and as a fix for economic disparities in communities left behind by mainstream financial systems. Drawing on case studies from our ongoing research we explain how, despite being virtual, Web3 projects are dependent on clearly defined spaces of production from which they derive their speculative value. We conceptualise this relationship as Crypto/Space, where space and blockchain software are mutually constituted. We consider how Crypto/Spaces are produced in three ways: 1) how project developers are adopting a parasitic relationship with host locations to appropriate energy, infrastructure, and local resources; 2) how projects enable ‘virtual land grabs’ where developers are engaging in land acquisitions, and associated displacement of local people, with no real intention to use the land for the declared purpose; and 3) how blockchain technology and speculative finance imaginaries are inspiring new anarcho-capitalist crypto-utopian ‘Exit zones’, often in the Global South. Far from being a zero-sum virtual game world, we argue that cryptocurrency projects are parasitic, often requiring predation on poor and otherwise marginalised communities to appropriate resources, onboard new users and enable favourable regulation.
Juhani Latvakoski, Jouni Heikkinen, Jari Palosaari, Vesa Kyllönen · 5 authors
The aim of this research has been to enable the management of trustworthy relationships between stakeholders, service providers, and physical assets, which are required in critical energy and mobility cyber–physical systems (CPS) applications. The achieved novel contribution is the concept of trustworthy communities with respective experimental solutions, which are developed by relying on verifiable credentials, smart contracts, trust over IP, and an Ethereum-based distributed ledger. The provided trustworthy community solutions are validated by executing them in two practical use cases, which are called energy flexibility and hunting safety. The energy flexibility case validation considered the execution of the solutions with one simulated and two real buildings with the energy flexibility aggregation platform, which was able to trade the flexibilities in an energy flexibility marketplace. The provided solutions were executed with a hunting safety smartphone application for a hunter and the smartwatch of a person moving around in the forest. The evaluations indicate that conceptual solutions for trustworthy communities fulfill the purpose and contribute toward making energy flexibility trading and hunting safety possible and trustworthy enough for participants. A trustworthy community solution is required to make value sharing and usage of critical energy resources and their flexibilities feasible and secure enough for their owners as part of the energy flexibility community. Sharing the presence and location in mobile conditions requires a trustworthy community solution because of security and privacy reasons, but it can also save lives in real-life elk hunting cases. During the evaluations, the need for further studies related to performance, scalability, community applications, verifiable credentials with wallets, sharing of values and incentives, authorized trust networks, dynamic trust situations, time-sensitive behavior, autonomous operations with smart contracts through security assessment, and applicability have been detected.
As the device complexity keeps increasing, the blockchain networks have been celebrated as the cornerstone of numerous prominent platforms owing to their ability to provide distributed and immutable ledgers and data-driven autonomous organizations. The distributed consensus algorithm is the core component that directly dictates the performance and properties of blockchain networks. However, the inherent characteristics of the shared wireless medium, such as fading, interference, and openness, pose significant challenges to achieving consensus within these networks, especially in the presence of malicious jamming attacks. To cope with the severe consensus problem, in this paper, we present a distributed jamming-resilient consensus algorithm for blockchain networks in wireless environments, where the adversary can jam the communication channel by injecting jamming signals. Based on a non-binary slight jamming model, we propose a distributed four-stage algorithm to achieve consensus in the wireless blockchain network, including leader election, leader broadcast, leader aggregation, and leader announcement stages. With high probability, we prove that our jamming-resilient algorithm can ensure the validity, agreement, termination, and total order properties of consensus with the time complexity of$O(n)$. Both theoretical analyses and empirical simulations are conducted to verify the consistency and efficiency of our algorithm.
In this paper, we present a decentralized network protocol, Space Network Protocol, based on Communication Satellite Services. The protocol outlines a method for distributing information about the status of satellite communication services across the entire blockchain network, facilitating fairness and transparency in all communication services. Our primary objective is to standardize the services delivered by all satellite networks under the communication satellite protocol. This standard remains intact regardless of potential unreliability associated with the satellites or the terminal hardware. We proposed PoD (Proof of Distribution) to verify if the communication satellites are online and PoF (Proof of Flow) to authenticate the actual data flow provided by the communication satellites. In addition, we also proposed PoM (Proof of Mesh) to verify if the communication satellites have successfully meshed together. Utilizing zero-knowledge proof and multi-party cryptographic computations, we can evaluate the service provisioning parameters of each satellite, even in the presence of potential terminal or network node fraud. This method offers technical support for the modeling of distributed network services.
This conceptual modelling research investigates infrastructure designs supporting decentralized social media leveraging blockchain verified identities and non-fungible token (NFT) facilitated content transactions.Diagrammatic analysis following the object-oriented methodology depicts economic and software mechanisms allowing participant monetization of original posts through cryptocurrency micropayments and resale royalties.Systematic ownership protections aim to foster trust and transparency deactivated in conventional models exploiting uncompensated user data.While limitations persist in underlying platform maturity, regulatory uncertainty, and mass adoption prerequisites, envisioned participatory architectures offer renewed pathways to reconcile open exchange with personal agency and value.
With the increasing popularization and application of the smart grid, the harm of the data silo issue in the smart grid is more and more prominent. Therefore, it is especially critical to promote data interoperability and sharing in the smart grid. Existing data-sharing schemes generally lack effective incentive mechanisms, and data holders are reluctant to share data due to privacy and security issues. Because of the above issues, a dynamic incentive mechanism for smart grid data sharing based on evolutionary game theory is proposed. Firstly, several basic assumptions about the evolutionary game model are given, and the evolutionary game payoff matrix is established. Then, we analyze the stabilization strategy of the evolutionary game based on the payoff matrix, and propose a dynamic incentive mechanism for smart grid data sharing based on evolutionary game theory according to the analysis results, aiming to encourage user participation in data sharing. We further write the above evolutionary game model into a smart contract that can be invoked by the two parties involved in data sharing. Finally, several factors affecting the sharing of data between two users are simulated, and the impact of different factors on the evolutionary stabilization strategy is discussed. The simulation results verify the positive or negative incentives of these parameters in the data-sharing game process, and several factors influencing the users’ data sharing are specifically analyzed. This dynamic incentive mechanism scheme for smart grid data sharing based on evolutionary game theory provides new insights into effective incentives for current smart grid data sharing.
Engin Zeydan, Luis Blanco, Josep Mangues, Şuayb S. Arslan · 5 authors
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) has recently emerged as an identity and access management framework based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that enables users or organizations to control their own data. The Open RAN (O-RAN), on the other hand, provides a framework for sharing infrastructure-related data between users and mobile network operators (MNOs). By leveraging SSI, O-RAN can benefit from decentralized and secure identity management that enables a more transparent, efficient, and user-centric network ecosystem. This paper examines identity, inventory and configuration management, and authentication of users or MNOs for a resource sharing scenario in an O-RAN architecture. At the end of the paper, we explain the potential limitations and possible solutions for applying SSI to improve security, privacy, trust, and interoperability in O-RANs.
Zi-hao Wang, Hang Wang, Zhuowen Li, Xinghua Li · 9 authors
The utilization of blockchain technology as a distributed information sharing system has gained widespread adoption across various domains. However, its application to Flying Ad-Hoc Network (FANET), characterized by severe packet loss, poses significant challenges. The high packet loss rates in FANETs can result in decreased consensus success rates and negatively impact information sharing consistency and efficiency. In this paper, we proposed RoUBC, a novel consensus scheme for Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANET), which is based on the Raft protocol and is designed to address the challenges posed by the severe packet loss network in FANET. The proposed scheme consists of two phases: leader election and block consensus. In the leader election phase, we integrate multi-criteria decision-making and link prediction algorithms to design an efficient stable-leader election method. In the block consensus phase, we propose a dynamic block verification algorithm based on historical verification information to achieve efficient block consensus. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that the proposed consensus protocol is safe and live, effectively ensuring the consistency of message sharing in FANET. Experiment results show that our scheme outperforms traditional Raft schemes, with 35% increase in consensus success rate and 25% improvement in consensus efficiency.
Navin V. Keizer, Onur Ascigil, Michał Król, George Pavlou
The Web has become an integral part of life, and over the past decade, it has become increasingly centralised, leading to a number of challenges such as censorship and control, particularly in search engines. Recently, the paradigm of the decentralised Web (DWeb), or Web3, has emerged, which aims to provide decentralised alternatives to current systems with decentralised control, transparency, and openness. In this paper we introduce Ditto, a decentralised search mechanism for DWeb content, based on similarity search. Ditto uses locality sensitive hashing (LSH) to extract similarity signatures and records from content, which are stored on a decentralised index on top of a distributed hash table (DHT). Ditto uniquely supports numerous underlying content networks and types, and supports various use-cases, including keyword-search. Our evaluation shows that our system is feasible and that our search quality, delay, and overhead are comparable to those currently accepted by users of DWeb and search systems.
Michail‐Alexandros Kourtis, George Xilouris, Michael C. Batistatos, Anastasios Kourtis · 5 authors
Abstract—Reliable and ubiquitous communications, offering high data rates, low latency and supporting large numbers of connected devices, are critical requirements for modern emergency rescue missions. Multiple teams of First Responders, operating at remote areas, on rough terrain or under harsh conditions (e.g. wildfires, earthquakes, flooding etc.) need seamless connectivity to send/receive mission data and organize their operations. Decentralized swarm computing architectures offer a wide range of capabilities to enhance and accelerate edge processing for critical use case scenarios. This paper presents a converged approach on swarm computing and intelligence using Decentralized Autonomous Organizations for emergency communications, and how a swarm of drones can leverage different edge accelerators for different applications.
MANETs aredecentralized network that involves mobile nodes. As the overall network is mobile and has no centralization, network management, routing, and security become very challenging. Though many works have been presented, still there is a lack in organizing the network due to unauthorized access, centralized security schemes, and the dynamic nature of the nodes. This paper proposed a novel Blockchain-assisted Secure Routing (Block-Sec) protocol for MANETs. All mobile nodes are authenticated by Distributed One-Time Passcode (DOT) based authorization scheme. All authorized nodes are segregated into multiple clusters based on Weight based Dynamic Clustering (WDC) algorithm in which multiple metrics are considered in clustering and re-clustering processes. After cluster formation, each cluster is elected with optimal Cluster Head (CH) by Strawberry Optimization (SBO) algorithm with a new objective function. After cluster formation, the optimal route is selected by Fast Neural Net-assisted Fuzzy (FNNF) algorithm by combining multiple variables. Data transmission is secured by Efficient Elliptic Curve (E2C2) algorithm. With the combined algorithms, the proposed approach obtainedimproved efficiency in packet delivery ratio (PDR), throughput, time analysis, and security level.
The rise of Internet-of-Things enables the development of smart applications devoted to improving the quality of life in urban and rural areas, thus fostering the creation of smart territories. However, some dislocated areas are underprivileged in providing such services due to the lack, inefficiency, or excessive cost of Internet access. Opportunistic networking techniques might aid in surmounting these problems. In this article, we propose a framework that relies on an untrusted Data Mule to carry data from an offline source to an online destination. In particular, we present a framework that enables the communication between different actors and a reward mechanism using Distributed Ledger Technologies, Smart Contracts, and Decentralized File Storage. The protocol involved in bringing a Client’s message online and getting back a response is thoroughly explained in all its steps and then discussed on the most important trust and security issues. Finally, we evaluate such a protocol and the whole framework through a series of communication latency tests, an analysis of the Smart Contract usage, and simulations in which buses act as Data Mules. Our results suggest the feasibility of our proposal in a smart territory scenario.
We demonstrate how to leverage Apple's Find My protocol, most well known as the underlying protocol of the AirTag, for arbitrary data-muling and location services. This provides a new "infrastructure-free" deployment, where areas with frequent human activity can take advantage of this zero-cost backhaul network. While there are severe limitations (e.g. no acknowledgement channel back to the sending device), Find My-based networking could still be a reliable backhaul with sufficient transmission redundancy and knowledge of deployment context. Towards that end, we develop TagAlong, a protocol for scalable, efficient data transmission on the Find My network. We implement a proof-of-concept and demonstrate throughput up to 12.5 bytes/sec and up to a 97% data reception rate.
Lucian Trestioreanu, Wazen M. Shbair, Flaviene Scheidt de Cristo, Radu State
With the growing adoption of Distributed Ledger Technologies and the subsequent scaling of these networks, there is an inherent need for efficient and resilient communication used by the underlying consensus and replication mechanisms. While resilient and efficient communication is one of the main pillars of an efficient blockchain network as a whole, the Distributed Ledger Technology is still relatively new and the task of scaling these networks has come with its own challenges towards ensuring these goals. New content distribution concepts like Information Centric Networking, of which Named Data Networking is a worthy example, create new possibilities towards achieving this goal, through in-network caching or built-in native multicasting, for example. We present and evaluate XRP-NDN Overlay, a solution for increasing the communication efficiency for consensus-validation based blockchains like the XRP Ledger. We experiment by sending the XRP Ledger consensus messages over different Named Data Networking communication models and prove that our chosen model lowers the number of messages at node level to minimum necessary, while maintaining or improving blockchain performance by leveraging the possibilities offered by an overlay such as specific communication mechanisms.
Multimedia networking is the area of study associated with the delivery of heterogeneous data including, but not limited to, imagery, video, audio, and interactive content. Multimedia and communication network researchers have continually struggled to devise solutions for addressing the three core challenges in multimedia delivery: security, reliability, and performance. Solutions to these challenges typically exist in a spectrum of compromises achieving gains in one aspect at the cost of one or more of the others. Networked videogames represent the pinnacle of multimedia presented in a real-time interactive format. Continual improvements to multimedia delivery have led to tools such as buffering, redundant coupling of low-resolution alternative data streams, congestion avoidance, and forced in-order delivery of best-effort service; however, videogames cannot afford to pay the latency tax of these solutions in their current state. The Secure Multi-Channel Internet Memory Information Control (S-MIMIC) protocol was developed as a novel solution to address these challenges by leveraging recent developments in blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Multiple algorithms were developed within the S-MIMIC protocol to perform create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) interactions via distributed ledger and blockchain technologies. Performance of the the S-MIMIC protocol was evaluated by porting its capabilities into an open source First-Person Shooter (FPS) videogame developed within the Unity3D game engine. SMIMIC efficacy was evaluated across the dimensions of confidentiality, integrity, availability and read/write performance. Though performance evaluation of the S-MIMIC focused on implementation within videogames, this protocol may be used to augment data delivery in multiple industries to include: medical information, legal documents, financial transactions, and many other applications that require security, reliability and performance guarantees.
Informally, a distributed system is grassroots if it is permissionless and can have autonomous, independently-deployed instances - geographically and over time - that may interoperate voluntarily once interconnected. More formally, in a grassroots system the set of all correct behaviors of a set of agents P is strictly included in the set of the correct behaviors of P when they are embedded within a larger set of agents P' ⊃ P. Grassroots systems are potentially important as they may allow communities to conduct their social, economic, civic, and political lives in the digital realm solely using their members' networked computing devices (e.g., smartphones), free of third-party control, surveillance, manipulation, coercion, or rent seeking (e.g., by global digital platforms such as Facebook or Bitcoin). Client-server/cloud computing systems are not grassroots, and neither are systems designed to have a single global instance (Bitcoin/Ethereum with hardwired seed miners/bootnodes), and systems that rely on a single global data structure (IPFS, DHTs). An example grassroots system would be a serverless smartphone-based social network supporting multiple independently-budding communities that can merge when a member of one community becomes also a member of another. Here, we formalize the notion of grassroots distributed systems; describe a grassroots dissemination protocol for the model of asynchrony and argue its safety, liveness, and being grassroots; extend the implementation to mobile (address-changing) devices that communicate via an unreliable network (e.g. smartphones using UDP); and discuss how grassroots dissemination can realize grassroots social networking and grassroots cryptocurrencies. The mathematical construction employs distributed multiagent transition systems to define the notions of grassroots protocols, to specify the grassroots dissemination protocols, and to prove their correctness. The protocols use the blocklace - a distributed, partially-ordered counterpart of the replicated, totally-ordered blockchain.