Blockchain Papers

Samir Lotfi Ali

No abstract is available for this record.

С. Ю. Волинець, O.V. Saliieva, О. Saliieva

This paper analyzes the shortcomings of traditional authentication mechanisms in web applications operating over the secure TLS 1.3 protocol. It is established that even with an encrypted channel, the transmission of secret data (passwords, tokens) remains a primary attack vector. An improved protocol is proposed that integrates an authentication mechanism based on zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARK) immediately after session establishment via Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE) key exchange. This approach completely eliminates the transmission of client credentials, significantly increasing resistance to phishing and server database compromises.

Subhasis Thakur

No abstract is available for this record.

Thành Trung Phan

No abstract is available for this record.

Eric Hoppe

This article argues that the extraction of value through informational asymmetry, what the article formalizes as the Blaeu rent, is categorically distinct from Ricardian scarcity rents and Schumpeterian innovation rents: it scales with the counterparty’s blindness, is invariant to productive merit, and is dissolved entirely by symmetric closure. The argument proceeds in three interlocking registers. The first is philosophical: drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s account of motor intentionality, Martin Heidegger’s analysis of the ready-to-hand, and Antonio Damasio’s somatic-marker hypothesis, the article defends the existential claim that some intentional states carry content before they are verbalized, and that pre-articulate knowledge, alongside acquired, derived, received, and inherited knowledge, constitutes a legitimate and analytically distinct mode of knowledge entry. The second is formal: the article introduces a fiber bundle topology to represent semantically overloaded concepts without metric distortion; formalizes the Blaeu rent as a function of the information set differential between counterparties, subject to strict conditions of merit-invariance; presents a mechanism-design proof, grounded in adverse selection dynamics, demonstrating that institutional adoption of symmetric instruments is the dominant rational strategy for capital; and formalizes the irreversible loss of cognitive potential under asymmetric conditions as a cognitive entropy law, drawing on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s thermodynamic framework, showing that the waste is path-dependent and permanent. The third is architectural: the article specifies the federated, homomorphically encrypted governance structure required to make the sovereignty claim real rather than nominal, and addresses the warrant-adjudication problem through cryptographically verifiable zero-knowledge credential systems. The central finding is that symmetric closure of the information gap dissolves the Blaeu rent entirely while leaving earned competitive advantage, including first-mover position, execution capacity, and risk tolerance, wholly intact.

Alberto Rocha

No abstract is available for this record.

Goshgar Ismayilov

Zero-knowledge proof is a special cryptographic technique that allows a prover to convince a verifier about the correctness of a claim without explicitly disclosing the claim itself. With the advancements of blockchain technologies, zero-knowledge proof has been successfully integrated into many decentralized applications over the years. ZoKrates, with its ease-of-use and direct integration to blockchain platforms, has emerged as a leading framework for developing, generating and verifying zero-knowledge proofs. This survey compiles a corpus of 347 documents that cite the original research work of ZoKrates by considering the period ranging from 2018 to 2025. Out of this corpus, this survey systematically selects and analyzes a total of 87 different documents including only peer-reviewed publications and excluding the gray literature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey in the literature to follow a systematic approach to analyze the privacy- preserving applications in blockchain from the perspective of ZoKrates. This survey presents three different classifications over the documents with respect to (i) the applications they develop, (ii) the challenges they frequently encounter and (iii) the metrics they often use to measure performance of their techniques. Based on the challenges identified, this survey finally discusses numerous future research directions to promote potential advancements in the field and attract the attention of scientific and industrial communities. Feedback from readers regarding any inaccuracies or misinformation in this survey is welcome.

Carvalho Tiago, Rijo Gon鏰lo, Gon鏰lves Lio, Amorim Vasco · 5 authors

Traditional electronic Kanban (eKanban) systems depend on manual scans and offer only discrete material visibility, limiting responsiveness and automation in lean manufacturing environments. These operational bottlenecks are magnified in high-mix contexts, where delayed replenishment signals degrade flow stability, increase work-in-progress, and hinder sustainable material handling. Furthermore, vendor-specific systems lack interoperability for scalable automation, constraining the development of intelligent manufacturing solutions. This work investigates whether zone-based replenishment automation can be enabled through real-time locating systems (RTLS) using open interoperability standards, addressing a gap in empirical validation of such approaches. A middleware architecture was developed that integrates ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning, an Omlox-compliant location middleware (DeepHub), and a cloud-based eKanban system to replace manual triggers with geofence-driven order creation. The novelty of this study lies in demonstrating a fully automated Kanban signaling loop built on the open Omlox standard, providing vendor-independent RTLS interoperability and eliminating human intervention in replenishment signaling. This contributes new knowledge on how continuous location data can be converted into actionable replenishment events in a standards-based, modular manner, enabling more intelligent and autonomous material-flow control. A controlled proof-of-concept experiment simulating shop-floor conditions showed that the system achieved a 100% detection success rate, zero duplicate orders, and an average trigger-to-action latency of 2.7 s, while automatically recovering from authentication and WebSocket failures. These results provide the first empirical evidence that Omlox-compliant RTLS middleware can reliably support zone-based eKanban automation. The findings have direct implications for intelligent and sustainable manufacturing by demonstrating a scalable pathway toward interoperable, real-time material-flow systems that reduce manual intervention, avoid unnecessary handling, and lower work-in-progress. More broadly, the work addresses the current lack of empirical validation of open-standard RTLS integration within lean and sustainable production environments.

Piyoosh Rai

No abstract is available for this record.

Idowu Adetona Ayoade, Omowunmi Mary Longe

Electromobility requires transactive coordination that respects distribution-network limits while preserving auditability and privacy. This study presents a reproducible peer-to-peer energy trading system that integrates a network-constrained market with permissioned blockchain settlement. The market solves a convex welfare program with linearized power-flow limits and recovers nodal prices from dual variables to match bids and offers and determine clear quantities. Settlement uses Hyperledger Fabric via the Gateway API, including proposal endorsement, ordering, validation, and commit notifications. Meter evidence is hashed and, when necessary, stored with private data collections. A co-simulation harness links MATLAB/Simulink and MATPOWER for feeder dynamics and price formation with chaincode and client logic for settlement. Three case studies are evaluated: an urban microgrid, a suburban microgrid, and a mobile electric-vehicle swarm. An Ethereum testnet serves as a public-chain baseline. In the testbed, a tuned Fabric configuration sustained approximately 1.6 to 1.7 thousand transactions per second with 99th-percentile submit-to-commit latency near one second and full deadline compliance at a one-second clearing cadence. Energy delivery accuracy remained tight, Multi-Version Concurrency Control conflicts were low, and dynamic nodal prices reduced EV charging cost relative to a flat tariff while signaling congestion through predictable rent patterns. The contribution is a deployable blueprint that connects network economics to verifiable settlement, with an open repository, benchmarking artefacts, and practical targets for endorsement width, block size, and timeouts, and clear pathways to field trials, stochastic and robust clearing, zero-knowledge meter proofs, and city-scale deployment.

Maria Smith

[Depreciated and replaced by V3] This pre-V3 paper is replaced by the corresponding V3 clean-room reconstruction: There Is No Nothing: A Premise-Free Operational Foundation and an Open Verification Platform for Smithian Fold Theory. The V3 source platform is https://github.com/MettaMazza/ernos-labs-sft-platform. The original DOI, concept DOI, version number and files are preserved for transparent historical provenance; this record must not be presented or cited as current V3 work. Opaque predictive reliability is valuable evidence of performance; it is not by itself a derivation, causal explanation or proof. This paper establishes the Smithian Fold Theory standard: one machine-checked self-proven theorem, zero axioms, zero fitted parameters, exact trace to the One, independent certificates, public evidence and a halt when forcing breaks. The synchronized corpus executes 326 suites and 2,002 exact checks with zero failures, with all 326 generated-C certificates identical to source. Its computational proofs carry the same method into sealed blind protein structure, exact and competitive Chess, exact and competitive Go, native zero-trained-parameter UnisonAI and measurement of fold law inside trained weights. The paper protects authorship and empirical method: agents do not declare Maria Smith's findings, convert their auxiliary failures into her results or impose incumbent theoretical walls. Benchmark victories remain explicit objectives; development evidence directs construction; every positive result is investigated and retained. Scientific author and publication authority: Maria Smith, Ernos Labs. Open source: Smithian Fold Theory of Everything.

Seema C K, Sharan V Talwar, subhash Chandra K R Patel, S. E. R. Sacha Emile R.

The Internet of Things (IoT) presents critical security challenges including device identity spoofing, replay attacks, and data tampering across billions of deployed endpoints. This work presents ZK-IoTChain, a blockchain-enabled security framework that integrates zk-SNARK-based device authentication with Merkle-anchored data integrity in a unified architecture. The proposed system employs a three-layer design consisting of device-side proof generation, on-chain Groth16 verification, and IPFS-based off-chain storage. This architecture ensures privacy-preserving authentication while maintaining scalability and cost efficiency. Experimental evaluation on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet demonstrates a mean proof generation latency of 3.21 seconds and on-chain verification latency of approximately 125 milliseconds, with an average gas cost of 278,400 per authentication. The framework achieves a 99.98% reduction in storage cost compared to full on-chain approaches. Security analysis under the Dolev–Yao adversary model confirms effective mitigation of identity spoofing, replay attacks, data tampering, and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. The results highlight ZK-IoTChain as a practical and efficient solution for secure, scalable, and privacy-preserving IoT ecosystems.

Gboraloo A. W., Eke B., Onuodu F. E.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have emerged as a foundational component of blockchain-based financial systems, enabling trustless asset trading without centralized intermediaries. However, the transparency of public mempools introduces significant vulnerabilities, including front-running, sandwich attacks, transaction reordering, and broader information asymmetry. In response, Cryptographic mechanisms such as Zero Knowledge (ZK) based architectures and commit reveal schemes are increasingly proposed as a solution to these vulnerabilities. This research systematically reviews the structural transparency paradox and cryptographic architectures in Decentralized Exchange based Automated Market Makers (DEX-AMM), evaluate their effectiveness in mitigating Maximal Extractable Values (MEVs), analyze computational complexity trade-offs including proof generation/verification costs, gas overhead, latency, and throughput, and identify why commit-reveal may offer superior practical viability despite zk-proofs' stronger theoretical privacy guarantees. A comprehensive search was conducted across arXiv, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar including grey literatures for studies published between 2021 to 2026. Findings indicate that ZK-based approaches provide strong cryptographic privacy guarantees but often incur computational overhead and integration complexity, zk-rollups provide strong validity guarantees through cryptographic proofs, but their practical security depends heavily on the sequencer layer used by ( zkSync, StarkEx, and Loopring) which is responsible for transaction ordering, which can censor, delay, reorder transactions or cause failure of execution, while Commit-reveal schemes may be superior for real-world DEXs due to their constant time hash-based complexity (O(1)), lower gas costs, sub-second latency, and simpler implementation, despite requiring two-transaction UX friction, which can be mitigated through wallet automation. The computational efficiency advantage of commit-reveal becomes critical as DEX transaction complexity increases, where zk-circuit depth grows exponentially. Future research should prioritize optimizing zk-circuit efficiency, developing zk-commit-reveal hybrids system that balance cryptographic strength with computational practicality, and advancing hash-based commit-reveal schemes with UX improvements. DEX developers should prioritize commit-reveal for latency-sensitive applications and zk-proofs only when strongest cryptographic privacy is mandatory.

Steven Paul Nohr

<b><i>Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) systems</i></b> such as<b><i> zk-SNARKs</i></b> and<b><i> zk-STARKs</i></b> are increasingly promoted as comprehensive solutions for privacy, scalability, and selective disclosure in blockchain-based systems. While these cryptographic primitives provide strong guarantees regarding computational correctness and data confidentiality, they are frequently mischaracterized as substitutes for regulatory compliance, legal enforceability, or supervisory control mechanisms. This paper presents a structural and functional comparison between zero-knowledge proof systems and the Crystal Validator™ (CV), a logic-layer enforcement architecture designed to encode and enforce jurisdiction?aware regulatory requirements. We demonstrate that cryptographic validity proofs are orthogonal to—and insufficient for—legal compliance, accountability, and regulatory supervision as required under frameworks such as the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). We argue that regulatory enforcement logic must exist above cryptographic proof layers and cannot be replaced by them without introducing systemic compliance risk.

Hong Min, Yousef Ibrahim Daradkeh, Jung Taek Seo, Mohd Anjum · 5 authors

This study presents a computational modeling framework for efficient and secure computation offloading in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart contract systems. The integration of IoT, edge computing, and blockchain introduces significant challenges, including limited device capacity, high verification cost, and scalability constraints. Existing blockchain verification approaches depend on computationally intensive cryptographic operations that are inefficient for resource-constrained IoT devices, resulting in increased latency, energy consumption, and transaction costs. To address these issues, this study proposes the Zero-Knowledge Fuzzy Logic Offloading and Rollup (Z-FLOR) framework, an adaptive and energy-efficient model designed to enable secure and verifiable computation in IoT-based smart contract systems. The proposed framework integrates three key components. First, a zero-knowledge proof-based verification model using the Groth16 zkSNARK module generates compact and privacy-preserving proofs that enable fast and reliable verification. Second, a Fuzzy Logic–Driven Energy-Aware Offloading module dynamically allocates computational tasks between IoT devices, edge servers, and cloud platforms based on energy availability, network delay, and device reliability. Third, an Optimistic Rollup Verification module aggregates proofs off-chain and submits them in batches to reduce gas costs and enhance scalability. Extensive simulation and experimental evaluation across diverse IoT scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed computational framework. Results indicate that Z-FLOR achieves 99.7% verification accuracy and 98.9% proof compression efficiency, while gas cost analysis indicates gas cost reductions in the range of 80%–98%. Z-FLOR additionally achieves a 44.0% reduction in latency, 51.0% savings in gas costs, and 38.0% energy consumption compared to baseline approaches. These findings highlight the capability of the proposed approach to serve as a scalable and energy-efficient modeling solution for secure IoT smart contract execution in decentralized environments.

Nai-Hui Chia, Kai-Min Chung, Xiao Liang, Jiahui Liu

No abstract is available for this record.

Lukas Aumayr, Zeta Avarikioti, Matteo Maffei, Giulia Scaffino · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Sayan Bairagi

No abstract is available for this record.

Mohammad Muavia

No abstract is available for this record.

Prateek Sharma

No abstract is available for this record.

Ezekiel Ologunde

Modern vehicles are distributed embedded computing platforms whose expanding network connectivity-CAN bus, Bluetooth, cellular telematics, and over-the-air (OTA) update channels-exposes them to the same class of adversarial attacks studied in cloud and enterprise environments. Machine learning (ML)-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) have emerged as the primary defensive response, yet these models are themselves vulnerable to adversarial perturbation: a well-crafted malicious CAN frame can evade an ML-based IDS in the same way that an adversarial image patch fools a computer-vision classifier. This paper traces the threat landscape from foundational automotive attack-surface studies through contemporary adversarial ML research, examines how resource-constrained embedded platforms limit defensive options, and proposes a defense architecture that combines behavioral anomaly detection with zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) attestation for invehicle control units. We argue that ZKP-based component attestation-previously dismissed as computationally impractical for embedded systems-is now feasible given recent advances in succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (SNARKs), and that combining it with adversarially trained ML-IDS models yields defensein-depth that addresses both network-layer and hardware-layer attack vectors.

Jin Zhou, Hongzhi Lu, Jianxin Xiong

The integration of continuous Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) into Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) networks introduces severe performance bottlenecks and physical constraints of the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU). Specifically, naively embedding massive Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for per-packet authentication inevitably triggers catastrophic fragmentation and disrupts stateless forwarding. To address these fundamental limitations, this paper proposes a novel session-bound zero-knowledge authorization framework tailored for SRv6 programmable data planes. Our architecture explicitly decouples heavyweight cryptographic validations from the active forwarding path. Massive ZKP payloads are processed asynchronously via payload transmission in the control plane, while the data plane enforces line-rate access control using lightweight 32-byte capability tokens encapsulated in customized SRv6 extension headers. Furthermore, to mathematically balance robust security with forwarding efficiency, we formulate the dynamic verification process as a risk-aware Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). Using in-band network telemetry, we derive an Adaptive Threshold Verification (ATV) algorithm that yields a closed-form <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(1)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> complexity optimal scheduling policy. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that the decoupled mechanism seamlessly resolves the MTU bottleneck, maintaining stable baseline throughput under massive concurrent sessions. Concurrently, the ATV algorithm intelligently adapts to real-time threat intensities, conserving control-plane resources during safe periods while instantaneously triggering precise re-verifications against covert and volumetric cyberattacks.

Y.Y.N. Li

We introduce behavior-bound signatures (BBS), a signature framework in which each signature attests not only to signer authenticity but also to the satisfaction of a prescribed behavioral policy. Unlike traditional digital signatures—whose acceptance is determined by identity validity alone—BBS enforces compliance at the level of the verification predicate: a signature is accepted if and only if a zero-knowledge proof establishes that a residual function value δ(x)=∣ϕ(x)−τ∣\delta(x)=|\phi(x)-\tau|δ(x)=∣ϕ(x)−τ∣ lies below a threshold ε\varepsilonε. Thus, compliance safety is reduced to zero-knowledge soundness rather than to external monitoring or honest-majority assumptions. We formalize policy-soundness under chosen-message attacks (PS-CMA), extending EUF-CMA by requiring that no adversary can produce a valid signature for any message whose induced action violates the policy predicate. We prove that BBS achieves PS-CMA security under standard assumptions: binding of Pedersen commitments, collision resistance of Poseidon, and soundness of the underlying zero-knowledge proof system (e.g., Bulletproofs or PLONK). Our construction instantiates the policy predicate via a private structure function ϕ(x)\phi(x)ϕ(x) and enforces δ(x)<ε\delta(x)<\varepsilonδ(x)<ε through a zero-knowledge range constraint, while revealing no information about the private parameters. Sequential signatures compose into a hash-linked trajectory, enabling verifiable ordering and completeness of action sequences. We additionally define the Function Approximation Inversion Problem (FAIP) as a conjectured hardness property of the structure function, and emphasize that the security of BBS does not rely on this conjecture.

Yuki Sawai, Kyoichi Asano, Yohei Watanabe, Mitsugu Iwamoto

Range arguments are a type of zero-knowledge proofs that aim to prove that a prover's committed value falls within a specified range for a verifier. Previously, most range arguments were constructed based on the discrete logarithm (DLOG) assumption, and hence, exponentiation operation is required for proof generation and verification. In addition, it is generally known that splitting a zero-knowledge proof protocol into a preprocessing phase and an online phase makes computation after fixing the input efficient. Still, such protocol has yet to be known for range arguments. This paper proposes an efficient range arguments protocol with a preprocessing phase. Our proposal takes a new approach by using arithmetic circuits to express the constraints that the prover must prove. The prover (resp. verifier) can generate (resp. verify) a part of proof based on multiplication and addition operations instead of exponentiation operations. Our range argument is a generic construction that does not rely on any particular mathematical assumptions, which enables us to construct a post-quantum range argument. The implementation evaluation shows that the total computation time for the prover and verifier in the online phase is efficient compared to Bulletproofs, one of the state-of-the-art range proofs. Especially, the prover computation is efficient.