Forks in the Bitcoin network result from the natural competition in the blockchain's Proof-of-Work consensus protocol. Their frequency is a critical indicator for the efficiency of a distributed ledger as they can contribute to resource waste and network insecurity. We introduce a model for the estimation of natural fork rates in a network of heterogeneous miners as a function of their number, the distribution of hash rates and the block propagation time over the peer-to-peer infrastructure. Despite relatively simplistic assumptions, such as zero propagation delay within mining pools, the model predicts fork rates which are comparable with the empirical stale blocks rate. In the past decade, we observe a reduction in the number of mining pools approximately by a factor 3, and quantify its consequences for the fork rate, whilst showing the emergence of a truncated power-law distribution in hash rates, justified by a rich-get-richer effect constrained by global energy supply limits. We demonstrate, both empirically and with the aid of our quantitative model, that the ratio between the block propagation time and the mining time is a sufficiently accurate estimator of the fork rate, but also quantify its dependence on the heterogeneity of miner activities. We provide empirical and theoretical evidence that both hash rate concentration and lower block propagation time reduce fork rates in distributed ledgers. Our work introduces a robust mathematical setting for investigating power concentration and competition on a distributed network, for interpreting discrepancies in fork rates -- for example caused by selfish mining practices and asymmetric propagation times -- thus providing an effective tool for designing future and alternative scenarios for existing and new blockchain distributed mining systems.
S M Habibullah, Sahabul Alam, Shivnath Ghosh, Arindam Dey · 5 authors
Blockchain is a decentralized electronic account book that is secure, open, and impervious to manipulation, and records transactions across numerous computers. Internet of Things (IoT) deployed sensors are limited in bandwidth, processing power, and battery life. Energy efficiency is a vital factor and a decisive matter for energy-bound IoT-based networks. This paper provides an idea of the working principle of blockchain technology in IoT-enabled energy systems. It investigates the fundamentals of blockchain technology, clarifying its decentralized nature, cryptographic mechanisms, and consensus algorithms that ensure data immutability and transparency. It explores how blockchain technology can be integrated with various IoT fields for energy efficiency. The paper investigates the blockchain-based energy consumption approaches in IoT qualitatively, and quantitatively with future research directions and challenges. It is seen that the hybrid blockchain model is suitable for energy efficiency in IoT.
Bitcoin, launched in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, established a new digital economy where value can be stored and transferred in a fully decentralized manner - alleviating the need for a central authority. This paper introduces a large scale dataset in the form of a transactions graph representing transactions between Bitcoin users along with a set of tasks and baselines. The graph includes 252 million nodes and 785 million edges, covering a time span of nearly 13 years of and 670 million transactions. Each node and edge is timestamped. As for supervised tasks we provide two labeled sets i. a 33,000 nodes based on entity type and ii. nearly 100,000 Bitcoin addresses labeled with an entity name and an entity type. This is the largest publicly available data set of bitcoin transactions designed to facilitate advanced research and exploration in this domain, overcoming the limitations of existing datasets. Various graph neural network models are trained to predict node labels, establishing a baseline for future research. In addition, several use cases are presented to demonstrate the dataset's applicability beyond Bitcoin analysis. Finally, all data and source code is made publicly available to enable reproducibility of the results.
Background: Land records have traditionally derived their credibility from a central database of local government records, with copies issued to land owners. Physical records are the only credible source of any information related to land ownership that has been in existence for a long time. However, physical records are prone to manipulation and fraud. Recently, some academic research has begun to address the potential use of blockchain technology to improve the security and reliability of land registration processes. Objective: The purpose of the present work is to propose an architecture for blockchain-based access control for distribution, ensuring information privacy. We take advantage of the benefits of blockchain technology in improving land record management while granting access to electronic data through user permissions. Methods: This approach replicates cryptographic primitives, while smart contracts are used to assist land record owners and users in interacting with each other using the Ethereum blockchain in the proposed system. The approach includes performance evaluation by the execution of a smart contract and security analysis to check the system robustness. Results: The performance evaluation and security analysis prove the proposed blockchain architecture to be secure and feasible for practical implementation in managing land records. Conclusion: The research proves how the application of blockchain technology can significantly enhance both security and reliability in land registration processes, giving credibility to tamper-resistant systems for maintaining information about land ownership.
Andrey L. Bulgakov, Anna V. Aleshina, Sergey D. Smirnov, Alexey D. Demidov · 6 authors
This article addresses the issues of scalability and security in blockchain networks, with a focus on sharding algorithms and decentralized data storage. Key challenges include the low throughput and high transaction latency in public networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Sharding is examined as a method to enhance performance through data distribution, but it raises concerns regarding node management and reliability. Sharding schemes, such as Elastico, OmniLedger, Pyramid, RepChain, and SSchain, are analyzed, each presenting its own advantages and drawbacks. Alternative architectures like Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) demonstrate potential for improved scalability but require further refinement to ensure decentralization and security. Protocols such as Brokerchain, Meepo, AHL, Benzene, and CycLedger offer unique approaches to addressing performance and transaction consistency issues. This article emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach, including dynamic sharding, multi-level consensus, and inter-shard coordination. Additionally, a conceptual model is proposed that incorporates the sharding of transactions, states, and networks, which enables greater scalability and efficiency.
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) promise decentralization, transparency, and security, yet the reality often falls short due to fundamental governance flaws. Poorly designed governance frameworks leave these systems vulnerable to coercion, vote-buying, centralization of power, and malicious protocol exploits-threats that undermine the very principles of fairness and equity these technologies seek to uphold. This article surveys the state of DLT governance, identifies critical vulnerabilities, and highlights the absence of universally accepted best practices for good governance. By bridging insights from cryptography, social choice theory, and e-voting systems, we not only present a comprehensive taxonomy of governance properties essential for safeguarding DLTs but also point to technical solutions that can deliver these properties in practice. This work underscores the urgent need for robust, transparent, and enforceable governance mechanisms. Ensuring good governance is not merely a technical necessity but a societal imperative to protect the public interest, maintain trust, and realize the transformative potential of DLTs for social good.
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.
In recent years, a more advanced form of phishing has arisen on Ethereum, surpassing early-stage, simple transaction phishing.This new form, which we refer to as payload-based transaction phishing (PTXPHISH), manipulates smart contract interactions through the execution of malicious payloads to deceive users.PTXPHISH has rapidly emerged as a significant threat, leading to incidents that caused losses exceeding $70 million in 2023 reports.Despite its substantial impact, no previous studies have systematically explored PTXPHISH.In this paper, we present the first comprehensive study of the PTXPHISH on Ethereum.Firstly, we conduct a long-term data collection and put considerable effort into establishing the first ground-truth PTXPHISH dataset, consisting of 5,000 phishing transactions.Based on the dataset, we dissect PTXPHISH, categorizing phishing tactics into four primary categories and eleven sub-categories.Secondly, we propose a rule-based multidimensional detection approach to identify PTXPHISH, achieving an F1-score of over 99% and processing each block in an average of 390 ms.Finally, we conduct a large-scale detection spanning 300 days and discover a total of 130,637 phishing transactions on Ethereum, resulting in losses exceeding $341.9 million.Our in-depth analysis of these phishing transactions yielded valuable and insightful findings.Scammers consume approximately 13.4 ETH daily, which accounts for 12.5% of the total Ethereum gas, to propagate address poisoning scams.Additionally, our analysis reveals patterns in the cash-out process employed by phishing scammers, and we find that the top five phishing organizations are responsible for 40.7% of all losses.Furthermore, our work has made significant contributions to mitigating real-world threats.We have reported 1,726 phishing addresses to the community, accounting for 42.7% of total community contributions during the same period.Additionally, we have sent 2,539 on-chain alert messages, assisting 1,980 victims.This research serves as a valuable reference in combating the emerging PTXPHISH and safeguarding users' assets.
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has revolutionized network management by providing unprecedented flexibility, control, and efficiency. However, its centralized architecture introduces critical security vulnerabilities. This paper introduces a novel approach to securing SDN environments using IOTA 2.0 smart contracts. The proposed system utilizes the IOTA Tangle, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure, to improve scalability and efficiency while eliminating transaction fees and reducing energy consumption. We introduce three smart contracts: Authority, Access Control, and DoS Detector, to ensure trusted and secure network operations, prevent unauthorized access, maintain the integrity of control data, and mitigate denial-of-service attacks. Through comprehensive simulations using Mininet and the ShimmerEVM IOTA Test Network, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in enhancing SDN security. Our findings highlight the potential of IOTA 2.0 smart contracts to provide a robust, decentralized solution for securing SDN environments, paving the way for the further integration of blockchain technologies in network management.
Shezon Saleem Mohammed Abdul, Anup Shrestha, Jianming Yong
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is rapidly evolving, promising to revolutionize financial services through blockchain technology. Successful integration of asset transfers across diverse DeFi platforms hinges on effective interoperability and transaction finality, ensuring security and cost efficiency. This paper introduces CrossDeFi, a novel cross-chain communication protocol tailored to address the challenges posed by heterogeneity in consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, and token systems. CrossDeFi introduces two key mechanisms: Miner and bridge selection (MBS) and improved transfer confirmation (ITC). The MBS mechanism optimizes the selection of miners and bridges based on the unique characteristics of each blockchain, significantly improving transfer accuracy, cost efficiency, and speed. Meanwhile, the ITC mechanism leverages cryptographic primitives to secure asset transfer confirmations, ensuring robust transaction finality. The protocol’s effectiveness is demonstrated through detailed efficiency and security analyses, complemented by a prototype evaluation that showcases its capabilities in reducing transfer durations and costs. These findings underscore the potential of CrossDeFi to transform the DeFi ecosystem.
This article addresses critical health data integrity by proposing an HF (Hyperledger Fabric)-based architecture with integration into the global health data architecture based on distributed content-addressable storage networks.
Yi Gong, Boyuan Yu, Lei Yang, Fanke Meng · 7 authors
With the evolution of next-generation communication networks, ensuring robust Core Network (CN) architecture and data security has become paramount. This paper addresses critical vulnerabilities in the architecture of CN and data security by proposing a novel framework based on blockchain technology that is specifically designed for communication networks. Traditional centralized network architectures are vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, particularly in roaming scenarios where there is also a risk of private data leakage, which imposes significant operational demands. To address these issues, we introduce the Blockchain-Enhanced Core Network Architecture (BECNA) and the Secure Decentralized Identity Authentication Scheme (SDIDAS). The BECNA utilizes blockchain technology to decentralize data storage, enhancing network security, stability, and reliability by mitigating Single Points of Failure (SPoF). The SDIDAS utilizes Decentralized Identity (DID) technology to secure user identity data and streamline authentication in roaming scenarios, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches during cross-network transmissions. Our framework employs Ethereum, free5GC, Wireshark, and UERANSIM tools to create a robust, tamper-evident system model. A comprehensive security analysis confirms substantial improvements in user privacy and network security. Simulation results indicate that our approach enhances communication CNs security and reliability, while also ensuring data security.
Juseong Jeon, Sejin Park, Deokwoo Lee, Juncheol Ahn
The blockchain market has been experiencing rapid growth recently. Alongside this, Web3 services based on blockchain technology are expanding and gaining attention. These services can support not only encompass gaming and financial services but also leverage the numerous nodes existing in the network to distribute tasks, thereby supporting parallel computing. However, there is no way to directly access web3 services in the current network topology, which limits the expansion of services. Therefore, the current Web3 relies on centralized web servers as access points for services, resulting in the inevitable loss of benefits associated with decentralization, such as the shift in data sovereignty.
Ole Delzer, Richard Hobeck, Ingo Weber, Dominik Kaaser · 6 authors
Abstract The growing popularity of blockchains highlights the need to improve their scalability. While previous research has focused on scaling transaction processing, the scalability of transaction creation remains unexplored. This issue is particularly important for organizations needing to send large volumes of transactions quickly or continuously. Scaling transaction creation is challenging, especially for blockchain platforms like Ethereum, which require transactions to include a sequence number. This paper proposes four different methods to scale transaction creation. Our experimental evaluation assesses the scalability and latency of these methods, identifying two as feasible for scaling transaction creation. Additionally, we provide an in-depth theoretical analysis of these two methods.
Abstract Blockchain technology has gained attention in recent times owing to its ability to revolutionize traditional trade through its distributed ledger attribute. The prompt advancement of blockchain demands new systematic studies to investigate and analyze the existing knowledge in this domain. In the current work, the present standing and emerging trends of blockchain have been analyzed to direct both new and experienced researchers in establishing a baseline for future research projects. Likewise, the research advancement of consensus protocol was reviewed with a particular emphasis on their security perspective. Accordingly, the attributes, appropriate scenarios, and probable weaknesses of different consensus protocols and their future trends were reviewed. This helps in scrutinizing how blockchain technology can be applied to a variety of emerging fields, including economics, healthcare, information systems, wireless networks, and smart grids. Additionally, the current evaluation provides a throughout discussion of blockchain applications in various fields. Finally, the paper offers a brief insight into limitations and prospective future development in this domain. Overall, the aim is to aid newbies in investigating and scheming new solutions while considering the present demands and issues.
In addressing the significant challenges caused by the expansion of data storage needs in blockchain systems, this paper explores the integration of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) with Substrate-based blockchain. By leveraging IPFS for off-chain storage and Substrate for on-chain operations, this system addresses the key challenges such as bloated storage, inefficiency, and accessibility while preserving data distribution and privacy. Through a comparative analysis with an Ethereum-based system, this study reveals significant advantages of the Substrate-IPFS solution. There is a significant reduction in data storage size and faster block confirmation times, leading to potentially lower transaction costs. The proposed approach enhances data privacy through the use of the Blake2 hashing algorithm. Overall, this research showcases the potential of Substrate-IPFS integration in overcoming the limitations of traditional blockchain storage approaches. Further exploration into the storage cost optimisation within the Substrate framework and additional functionalities using modular pallets could pave the way for significant advancements in the distributed data storage.
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has revolutionized network management by providing unprecedented flexibility, control, and efficiency. However, its centralized architecture introduces critical security vulnerabilities. This paper presents an innovative approach to securing SDN environments using IOTA 2.0 smart contracts. The proposed system leverages the IOTA Tangle, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure, to enhance scalability and efficiency while eliminating transaction fees and reducing energy consumption. We introduce three smart contracts—Authority, Access Control, and DoS Detector—to ensure secure network operations, prevent unauthorized access, and mitigate denial-of-service attacks. Through comprehensive simulations using Mininet and the ShimmerEVM IOTA Test Network, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in enhancing SDN security. Our findings highlight the potential of IOTA 2.0 smart contracts to provide a robust, decentralized solution for securing SDN environments, paving the way for further integration of blockchain technologies in network management.
Michał Król, Onur Ascigil, Sergi Reñé, Alberto Sonnino · 8 authors
The Ethereum Global Network (EGN) hosts a complete ecosystem of decentralized services, including blockchains such as Ethereum mainnet but also exchange markets, content delivery networks, and many more. Service discovery is a fundamental mechanism in the EGN, allowing new nodes to look up and connect to other nodes already participating in one of these services. The current service discovery of the EGN, DISCv5, is not scalable and efficient enough to support the current and future needs of the ecosystem. We present DISC-NG, a novel service discovery protocol for the EGN that is scalable, efficient, and secure. DISC-NG leverages the EGN-wide DHT to allow service participation advertisements to meet service discovery requests. DISC-NG compensates the unbalance in service popularity and minimizes the potential for abuse by malicious nodes. We implement DISC-NG in devp2p, the network stack used by the majority of clients connecting to the EGN, as well as in a large-scale simulator. DISC-NG can discover services in the EGN faster than DISCv5 while being more robust to malicious nodes. DISC-NG is now in a staging phase and scheduled for deployment as an improvement to DISCv5.
Blockchain technology, known for its decentralized and immutable nature, serves as the foundation for various applications. As a prominent application of blockchain, decentralized storage is powered by blockchain technology and is expected to provide a reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional centralized storage. A major challenge in blockchain-powered decentralized storage is how to guarantee the quality of storage services in decentralized storage nodes (DSNs). Storage auditing can ensure the integrity and security of the stored data. Unfortunately, it incurs additional computational costs for data owners and extra storage overheads for DSNs, which thereby cannot be directly applied to decentralized storage networks consisting of nodes with various computation and storage capacity. In this article, we overcome these problems and minimize additional burdens in storage auditing. We propose EDCOMA, a computation and storage efficient auditing scheme for blockchain-based decentralized storage, in which a double compression method is designed to compress data authenticators using both data and polynomial commitment. To prevent replay attacks on double compression launched by DSNs, we introduce zero knowledge proof and design a compression arithmetic circuit to guarantee the execution of compression operations in DSNs. We analyze the security of EDCOMA under the random oracle model and conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of EDCOMA. Experimental results affirm that EDCOMA outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in both computational and storage efficiency.
Carlos E. B. Santos, Lucileide M. D. da Silva, Matheus F. Torquato, Sérgio N. Silva · 5 authors
This work proposes an implementation of the SHA-256, the most common blockchain hash algorithm, on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to improve processing capacity and power saving in Internet of Things (IoT) devices to solve security and privacy issues. This implementation presents a different approach than other papers in the literature, using clustered cores executing the SHA-256 algorithm in parallel. Details about the proposed architecture and an analysis of the resources used by the FPGA are presented. The implementation achieved a throughput of approximately 1.4 Gbps for 16 cores on a single FPGA. Furthermore, it saved dynamic power, using almost 1000 times less compared to previous works in the literature, making this proposal suitable for practical problems for IoT devices in blockchain environments. The target FPGA used was the Xilinx Virtex 6 xc6vlx240t-1ff1156.
Abstract The introduction of blockchain technology has brought about significant transformation in the realm of digital transactions, providing a secure and transparent platform for peer-to-peer interactions that cannot be tampered with. The decentralised and distributed nature of blockchains guarantees the integrity and authenticity of the data, eliminating the need for intermediaries. The applications of this technology are not limited to the financial sector, but extend to various areas, such as supply chain management, identity verification, and governance. At the core of these blockchains is the consensus mechanism, which plays a crucial role in ensuring the reliability and integrity of a system. Consensus mechanisms are essential for achieving an agreement amongst network participants regarding the validity of transactions and the order in which they are recorded on the blockchain. By incorporating consensus mechanisms, blockchains ensure that all honest nodes in the network reach a consensus on whether to accept or reject a block, based on predefined rules and criteria. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel consensus mechanism named Erdos, which seeks to address the shortcomings of existing consensus algorithms, such as the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Erdos emphasises security, decentralisation, and fairness. One notable feature of this mechanism is its equitable node-selection algorithm, which ensures equal opportunities for all nodes to engage in block creation and validation. In addition, Erdos implements a deterministic block finalisation process that guarantees the integrity and authenticity of the blockchain. The main contribution of this research lies in its innovative approach to deterministic block finalisation, which effectively mitigates the various security risks associated with blockchain systems.
O presente artigo emprega a abordagem Kitchenham para realizar um mapeamento sistemático das técnicas de escalonamento presentes na blockchain Ethereum. O estudo focou em analisar as vantagens e desvantagens de sete das soluções mais populares, incluindo: sharding, state channel, sidechains, plasma, validium, rollup zk e otimista. Os resultados indicam que as técnicas mapeadas oferecem benefícios, como aumento da capacidade de transações e redução dos custos. No entanto, também apresentam limitações e riscos que afetam a segurança da rede.