Blockchain Papers

Xuyang Wang

This article delves into the inherent security of blockchain technology by evaluating the sophisticated techniques it employs. Key among these are mathematical hash functions, elliptic curve cryptography, and zero-knowledge proofs. Mathematical hash functions ensure that data stored is immutable; any slight alteration to the information will lead to a drastically different hash output, making any tampering evident. Elliptic curve cryptography provides a robust encryption mechanism, ensuring that data transactions remain confidential and secure. Meanwhile, zero-knowledge proofs enable one party to prove to another that they possess specific knowledge without revealing the actual information, further bolstering privacy. Owing to these technological underpinnings, blockchain not only excels in safeguarding sensitive data but also facilitates operations like verifying information authenticity. Moreover, in sectors like supply chain management, it offers capabilities for precise logistics positioning and traceability. Such applications underline blockchain’s potential as a tool for transparency and security in various industries. Through these features and mechanisms, blockchain stands as an exemplar of digital security in today’s interconnected era.

Rafah Amer Jaafar, Saad N. Alsaad, Mohammed N. Al‐Kabi

Educational certificate counterfeiting is a major global challenge. There is no doubt that addressing both the problem of forgery and the verification of academic certificates is a fundamental issue that deserves research, development, and support at the highest levels. This paper presents a decentralized educational certificate verification system leveraging the Ethereum blockchain and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to combat counterfeiting. Ropsten is used as a real-life Ethereum test network to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. IPFS is used to store educational certificate files on a decentralised file system. The smart contract is built in the Solidity language, compiled, and deployed using the online Remix IDE. The verification process is supported by scanning a QR code, which retrieves the validating certificate’s information from the Ethereum network in real-time.

Achilleas Spanos, Ioanna Kantzavelou

No abstract is available for this record.

Dechao Kong, Xiaoqi Li, Wenkai Li

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets recorded on the blockchain, providing cryptographic proof of ownership over digital or physical items. Although Solana has only begun to gain popularity in recent years, its NFT market has seen substantial transaction volumes. In this paper, we conduct the first systematic research on the characteristics of Solana NFTs from two perspectives: longitudinal measurement and wash trading security audit. We gathered 132,736 Solana NFT from Solscan and analyzed the sales data within these collections. Investigating users' economic activity and NFT owner information reveals that the top users in Solana NFT are skewed toward a higher distribution of purchases. Subsequently, we employ the Local Outlier Factor algorithm to conduct a wash trading audit on 2,175 popular Solana NFTs. We discovered that 138 NFT pools are involved in wash trading, with 8 of these NFTs having a wash trading rate exceeding 50%. Fortunately, none of these NFTs have been entirely washed out.

Shengnan Li, Carlo Campajola, Claudio J. Tessone

The core of many cryptocurrencies is the decentralised validation network operating on proof-of-work technology. In these systems, validation is done by so-called miners who can digitally sign blocks once they solve a computationally-hard problem. Conventional wisdom generally considers this protocol as secure and stable as miners are incentivised to follow the behaviour of the majority. However, whether some strategic mining behaviours occur in practice is still a major concern. In this paper we target this question by focusing on a security threat: a selfish mining attack in which malicious miners deviate from protocol by not immediately revealing their newly mined blocks. We propose a statistical test to analyse each miner's behaviour in five popular cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monacoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. Our method is based on the realisation that selfish mining behaviour will cause identifiable anomalies in the statistics of miner's successive blocks discovery. Secondly, we apply heuristics-based address clustering to improve the detectability of this kind of behaviour. We find a marked presence of abnormal miners in Monacoin and Bitcoin Cash, and, to a lesser extent, in Ethereum. Finally, we extend our method to detect coordinated selfish mining attacks, finding mining cartels in Monacoin where miners might secretly share information about newly mined blocks in advance. Our analysis contributes to the research on security in cryptocurrency systems by providing the first empirical evidence that the aforementioned strategic mining behaviours do take place in practice.

Saba Inam, Shamsa Kanwal, Rabia Firdous, Fahima Hajjej

Improved software for processing medical images has inspired tremendous interest in modern medicine in recent years. Modern healthcare equipment generates huge amounts of data, such as scanned medical images and computerized patient information, which must be secured for future use. Diversity in the healthcare industry, namely in the form of medical data, is one of the largest challenges for researchers. Cloud environment and the Block chain technology have both demonstrated their own use. The purpose of this study is to combine both technologies for safe and secure transaction. Storing or sending medical data through public clouds exposes information into potential eavesdropping, data breaches and unauthorized access. Encrypting data before transmission is crucial to mitigate these security risks. As a result, a Blockchain based Chaotic Arnold's cat map Encryption Scheme (BCAES) is proposed in this paper. The BCAES first encrypts the image using Arnold's cat map encryption scheme and then sends the encrypted image into Cloud Server and stores the signed document of plain image into blockchain. As blockchain is often considered more secure due to its distributed nature and consensus mechanism, data receiver will ensure data integrity and authenticity of image after decryption using signed document stored into the blockchain. Various analysis techniques have been used to examine the proposed scheme. The results of analysis like key sensitivity analysis, key space analysis, Information Entropy, histogram correlation of adjacent pixels, Number of Pixel Change Rate, Peak Signal Noise Ratio, Unified Average Changing Intensity, and similarity analysis like Mean Square Error, and Structural Similarity Index Measure illustrated that our proposed scheme is an efficient encryption scheme as compared to some recent literature. Our current achievements surpass all previous endeavors, setting a new standard of excellence.

Moustafa Mowaffak Saad, Dalia Sobhy, Amani A. Saad

Blockchainsand smart contracts are pivotal in transforming interactions between systems and individuals, offering secure, immutable, and transparent trust-building mechanisms without central oversight. However, Smart Contracts face limitations due to their reliance on blockchain-contained data, a gap addressed by ’Oracles’. These bridges to external data sources introduce the ’Oracle problem’, where maintaining blockchain-like security and transparency becomes vital to prevent data integrity issues. This paper presents Veritas, a novel decentralized oracle system leveraging a layer-2 scaling solution, enhancing smart contracts’ efficiency and security on Ethereum blockchains. The proposed architecture, explored through simulation and experimental analyses, significantly reduces operational costs while maintaining robust security protocols. An innovative node selection process is also introduced to minimize the risk of malicious data entry, thereby reinforcing network security. Veritas offers a solution to the Oracle problem by aligning with blockchain principles of security and transparency, and demonstrates advancements in reducing operational costs and bolstering network integrity. While the study provides a promising direction, it also highlights potential areas for further exploration in blockchain technology and oracle system optimization.

Cindy Handoko Tantowibowo, Wei‐Chuen Yau

Abstract Counterfeit artwork presents a significant risk to copyright holders and the economy. Without expertise in art, it is not straightforward to distinguish an artwork counterfeit from a genuine piece. This work designs and implements a reliable solution that enables users with near‐field communication‐enabled Android smartphones to verify artwork authenticity by accessing its respective certificate of authenticity stored in the Ethereum blockchain. To represent a physical artwork, the artwork image and metadata are stored in an inter‐planetary file system and minted as an ERC721 non‐fungible token to a smart contract deployed in Ethereum Rinkeby Testnet. The mobile app ArtProtect was developed to generate certificate of authenticity based on each non‐fungible token fetched through OpenSea Testnet API. Users access this information by scanning an near‐field communication tag embedded into the artwork. The content of the tag is signed by the respective artwork's artist and responsible agent by using Ethereum signing with their Ethereum wallet accounts. Through testing and analysis, the implemented work is secure, tamper‐evident, usable, flexible, and inexpensive to be applied to a real‐world scenario.

Ivan Homoliak, Martin Perešíni

In this work, we review existing cryptocurrency wallet solutions with regard to authentication methods and factors from the user's point of view. In particular, we distinguish between authentication factors that are verified against the blockchain and the ones verified locally (or against a centralized party). With this in mind, we define notions for $k-factor$ authentication against the blockchain and $k-factor$ authentication against the authentication factors. Based on these notions, we propose a classification of authentication schemes. We extend our classification to accommodate the threshold signatures and signing transactions by centralized parties (such as exchanges or co-signing services). Finally, we apply our classification to existing wallet solutions, which we compare based on various security and key-management features.

Shimal Sh. Taher, Siddeeq Y. Ameen, Jihan A. Ahmed

Scalability remains a critical challenge for blockchain technology, limiting its potential for widespread adoption in high-demand transactional systems. This paper proposes an innovative solution to this challenge by applying the Snake Optimization Algorithm (SOA) to a blockchain framework, aimed at enhancing transaction throughput and reducing latency. A thorough literature review contextualizes our work within the current state of blockchain scalability efforts. We introduce a methodology that integrates SOA into the transaction validation process of a blockchain network. The effectiveness of this approach is empirically evaluated by comparing transaction processing times before and after the implementation of SOA. The results show a substantial reduction in latency, with the optimized system achieving lower average transaction times across various transaction volumes. Notably, the latency for processing batches of 10 and 100 transactions decreased from 30.29 ms to 155.66 ms–0.42 ms and 0.37 ms, respectively, post optimization. These findings indicate that SOA is exceptionally efficient in batch transaction scenarios, presenting an inverse scalability behavior that defies typical system performance degradation with increased load. Our research contributes a significant advancement in blockchain scalability, with implications for the development of more efficient and adaptable blockchain systems suitable for high throughput enterprise applications.

S Muthulakshmi, A. Kannammal

Electronic voting system is the process of polling votes and counting votes. In most of the countries voting may now be done electronically, there are still several difficulties involved, including the expense of paper, how ballots are organized, the possibility of varying results when tallying the votes, and others. Duplicate votes pose a significant concern as they can be fraudulently cast by individuals. To focus on this issue, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is employed to enhance the voting procedure in a secured manner. A directed acyclic graph is used by the Internet of Things Application (IOTA), a promising distributed ledger system. Faster transaction confirmation, high scalability and zero transaction fees are achieved via the Directed Acyclic Graph structure. In both IOTA tangle and blockchain technology, the public cast duplicate votes. The unauthorized user can create duplicate votes in the blockchain as well as IOTA tangle. This can be focused in this proposed method. The double spending problem can be solved by using Crow Search Algorithm (CSA). This Optimization problem produces an improved result for resolving double spending in e-voting systems.

Said El Kafhali

In a democratic regime, voting is crucial to making collective decisions. Unfortunately, although this activity has great significance and value, little effort has been made to improve the way we vote. Paper ballots are still the most used method, although this method is relatively simple, brings many inconveniences, and represents a contradiction to the modern world and its advances. This paper mostly focuses on a review study of blockchain-based voting systems. It aims at identifying the strategies and the guidelines as well as provides a comprehensive end-to-end electronic voting system based on blockchain, with the help of cryptographic techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs to improve privacy. The novelty of this paper is that we tackle the limitations of electronic voting systems found in the literature, including cost, identity management, and scalability problems. Our purpose is to provide key elements for organizations on how to design their proper electronic voting system based on blockchain technology.

Sweta Gupta, Kamlesh Kumar Gupta, Piyush Kumar Shukla

ABSTRACT Voting has always been a crucial topic of public attention for democratic reasons. The ease of use and low cost are the result of e‐voting being frequently used for such important decision outcomes. However, the tremendous authority and intervening data in current e‐voting systems make it risky and difficult to achieve correct equity and clarity in e‐voting. So, by combining e‐voting with blockchain technology, these issues can be resolved while providing reorganization and intervention‐resistant characteristics. A voter's improper manipulation, frequent voting, or non‐party voting, may also undermine fairness. A verifier is therefore required to check the e‐voting mechanism in order to ensure its effectiveness and control the process equality and fairness. In this paper, a Blockchain‐based e‐Voting Mechanism (BVM) is developed for providing the end to end security and fairness for transparent voting. This mechanism also provides a zero‐knowledge proof (ZP) based verifier to inspect the voting procedure against voter's mis‐operations and uses a novel Improved Master‐key Administration (IMA) based public key cryptography to attack prevention. The utilization of blockchain technology ensures transparency, anonymity, confidentiality, authentication, tamper resistance, and a high level of data integrity, making it a promising choice for modernizing and enhancing the electoral process. Also, the performance of BVM has been compared with similar voting mechanisms and analyzed based on time complexity, security analysis, performance factors like delay and throughput, and anti‐attack examination.

K. Britto Alex, Kannan Selvan

No abstract is available for this record.

Zeming Wei, Jiawen Fang, Zhicheng Hong, Yu Zhou · 9 authors

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that possesses characteristics such as decentralization, tamper resistance, and programmability. However, while blockchain ensures transaction openness and transparency, transaction privacy is also at risk of being exposed. Therefore, this paper proposes the blockchain transaction privacy protection method based on the stealth address and the note mechanism to address the privacy leakage risk in blockchain public environments. Firstly, the proposed method generates a random seed known only to the parties involved based on the Diffie–Hellman key exchange protocol, ensuring the privacy of transactions. Then, it utilizes the Note Commitments table to maintain the binding relationship between the stealth address and the corresponding note, enabling efficient transfer and verification of note ownership. The uniqueness of the stealth address is utilized as an invalidation identifier for notes in the Nullifier table, ensuring efficient verification of the correctness of note invalidation identifiers. Additionally, this method employs Pedersen commitment and Bulletproofs range proof to generate proof of the legality of transaction amounts, enabling the concealment of transaction amounts and facilitating private transactions between the parties involved. Finally, this paper presents a detailed performance analysis, implementation, and testing of the method. From the results, it can be concluded that the method proposed can effectively prevent fraudulent behavior by various transaction participants and ensure the security, privacy, and integrity of the transaction. Critical processes consume only milliseconds, and the related commitments and proofs are also minimal, which is crucial for controlling transaction costs. At the same time, this method achieves a completely decentralized privacy transaction solution.

Tengyun Jiao, Zhiyu Xu, Minfeng Qi, Sheng Wen · 6 authors

A smart contract is a computerised transaction agreement that carries out predefined terms without human involvement or third-party intermediaries. It serves as a trust intermediary in several industries, including finance, insurance, and supply chain management, in the blockchain 2.0 era. With the increasing interest in smart contracts, security has become a serious problem. Examining typical vulnerability types and vulnerability detection methodologies is of special importance. In this research, a comprehensive evaluation of common smart contract security vulnerabilities is conducted, and a three-tier threat model is then provided to classify the vulnerabilities. In addition, we examine fourteen existing smart contract analysis tools for finding vulnerabilities and classify them according to the main technique they apply. This article is designed to serve as a reference for people who wish to analyse deployed code and enhance existing detection techniques. At the conclusion, open issues and future research paths regarding smart contract vulnerability detection are presented.

Yunwei Guo, Haochen Liang, Liehuang Zhu, Keke Gai

Payment channels serve as an effective solution to the scalability problem of cryptocurrencies, which significantly increase transaction rates by allowing users to conduct large-scale offline transactions off-chain without posting everything to the blockchain. However, the existing payment channels lack privacy protection for the transaction amount and the linking relationship between the two parties to the transaction. Therefore, in order to address the scalability and privacy issues of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, this paper proposes a zk-SNARKs-based anonymous payment channel (zk-APC), which supports an unlimited number of off-chain payments between the payer and the payee and protects the privacy of the participants. Specifically, the proposed scheme achieves relational anonymity and amount privacy for both on-chain and off-chain transactions in the payment channel through utilizing zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARKs) and commitment schemes. This paper proves that the proposed method is more effective than similar schemes through a performance evaluation.

Da-Wei Zhou Da-Wei Zhou, Su-Zhen Cao Da-Wei Zhou, Xiao Zhao Su-Zhen Cao, Dandan Zhao · 5 authors

<p>To solve the problems of existing e-auction protocols such as semi-trustworthiness of outsourced third parties, collusive attacks among participants, unsatisfactory decentralized structure, and inability of public verification, we propose an efficient first-price sealed e-auction protocol under a secure multi-party computational malicious model. First, the protocol combines the additive homomorphism of the ElGamal cryptographic algorithm to achieve a decentralized structure and eliminate the problem of semi-trustworthiness of outsourced third parties; it uses (n, n) threshold encryption and decryption techniques to solve the problem of collusion attacks among participants and uses Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) technology to achieve public verifiability of auction results. Additionally, the protocol proposes a method to quickly find the maximum value of the data encoding, which can avoid multiple processing of confidential data and thus effectively reduce the number of communication rounds. The combination of zero-knowledge proof and ideal/realistic simulation paradigm proves that the protocol in this paper is resistant to up to n-1 party collusion attacks and satisfies the security of the secure multi-party computational malicious model. Finally, after theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, the protocol not only satisfies higher security performance but also has greater overall operational efficiency.</p> <p> </p>

Kausthav Pratim Kalita, Debojit Boro, Dhruba K. Bhattacharyya

Abstract The rise of technology has resulted in the evolution of data generation at a rapid speed. With the high increase in the volume of data, it has become necessary to store it using reliable and scalable data management systems. Blockchain offers a storage structure that ensures the security and reliability of the stored data. Smart contracts further enhance the technology by enforcing more stringent record management activities. In recent times, there has been widespread utilization of IPFS in conjunction with blockchain technology. This utilization facilitates the establishment of decentralized and distributed data storage, as well as the connection of blockchain transactions to external data, thereby enhancing scalability and reducing storage expenses within blockchain applications. This paper introduces an effective collaborative ecosystem called SSE_CIB, where images undergo multiple operations including quantization before getting uploaded to IPFS. The image‐related details are stored in the blockchain to keep track of record entries. In our approach, a watermarking process has also been included to ensure the protection of copyright. Further, the images undergo block‐wise rotation based on a secret key and bit‐wise operation with a key image for enhanced security and protection. The work is implemented and tested using real‐life images in an Ethereum environment incorporated with a smart contract that enables proper execution of transactions.

Yiwen Zheng

Bitcoin Core serves as the foundational software responsible for verifying and validating all transactions and blocks within the Bitcoin blockchain, hence upholding the security and integrity of the whole Bitcoin network. This study extensively examines the internal mechanisms, structure, and conceptual framework of Bitcoin Core. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Bitcoin Core architecture, with a focus on evaluating its capacity to fulfill the rigorous demands of a decentralized Bitcoin network. This study not only provides a comprehensive understanding of the essential elements that drive the Bitcoin network, but it also explores the numerous factors that have a substantial impact on the operational availability of Bitcoin nodes. All of these factors are essential for ensuring the efficient operation of the Bitcoin network, encompassing the physical environment, architectural designs of nodes, and maintenance requirements. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the underlying mechanisms of Bitcoin, shedding light on its inherent robustness and the factors that contribute to its consistent performance within the ever-changing landscape of digital currencies. The objective of this endeavor is to furnish a detailed exposition of the mechanics of Bitcoin, so enhancing its prevalence and familiarity among individuals.

Arash Heidari, Nima Jafari Navimipour, Hasan Dağ, Samira Talebi · 5 authors

Abstract In recent years, the proliferation of deep learning (DL) techniques has given rise to a significant challenge in the form of deepfake videos, posing a grave threat to the authenticity of media content. With the rapid advancement of DL technology, the creation of convincingly realistic deepfake videos has become increasingly prevalent, raising serious concerns about the potential misuse of such content. Deepfakes have the potential to undermine trust in visual media, with implications for fields as diverse as journalism, entertainment, and security. This study presents an innovative solution by harnessing blockchain-based federated learning (FL) to address this issue, focusing on preserving data source anonymity. The approach combines the strengths of SegCaps and convolutional neural network (CNN) methods for improved image feature extraction, followed by capsule network (CN) training to enhance generalization. A novel data normalization technique is introduced to tackle data heterogeneity stemming from diverse global data sources. Moreover, transfer learning (TL) and preprocessing methods are deployed to elevate DL performance. These efforts culminate in collaborative global model training zfacilitated by blockchain and FL while maintaining the utmost confidentiality of data sources. The effectiveness of our methodology is rigorously tested and validated through extensive experiments. These experiments reveal a substantial improvement in accuracy, with an impressive average increase of 6.6% compared to six benchmark models. Furthermore, our approach demonstrates a 5.1% enhancement in the area under the curve (AUC) metric, underscoring its ability to outperform existing detection methods. These results substantiate the effectiveness of our proposed solution in countering the proliferation of deepfake content. In conclusion, our innovative approach represents a promising avenue for advancing deepfake detection. By leveraging existing data resources and the power of FL and blockchain technology, we address a critical need for media authenticity and security. As the threat of deepfake videos continues to grow, our comprehensive solution provides an effective means to protect the integrity and trustworthiness of visual media, with far-reaching implications for both industry and society. This work stands as a significant step toward countering the deepfake menace and preserving the authenticity of visual content in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Jide Kehinde Adeniyi, Sunday Adeola Ajagbe, Abidemi Emmanuel Adeniyi, Pragasen Mudali · 7 authors

Voting aims to provide the best decision or select the most selected option for the largest group of voters. Malicious parties gaining access, and otherwise tampering with election results, or the votes make this effort counterproductive. To alleviate this, this study examined the introduction of blockchain. The transparent and immutable nature of the blockchain makes this data impossible to alter and allows the election results to be transparent. To further increase the transparency of the system while keeping voters anonymous, a biometric based cryptography was introduced. The biometric was introduced as the source for the private key for each voter while a public was generated to act as the identity of the voter. The biometric trait of each individual is unique and cannot be forged, hence the identity of the voter is secured. The public key available cannot be traced by to the private key, hence, identity of the voter is anonymous. The system showed an encouraging performance after testing.

Tongzhou Shen, Liehuang Zhu, Feng Gao, Zhuo Chen · 6 authors

As a decentralized network infrastructure, the data sent to the blockchain are public and temper-evident. The cover of massive normal transactions in a blockchain network is ideal for constructing a stable and reliable covert channel to achieve one-to-many group covert communication. Existing blockchain-based covert communication schemes face challenges in balancing concealment, embedding rate and filtering efficiency, making them unsuitable for direct extension to group scenarios. Adopting a key-leakage scheme can increase the channel capacity while maintaining high concealment from external adversaries. However, it will also expose more knowledge to the receiver. A malicious receiver has the ability to steal a sender’s identity or replay historical transactions to control the entire channel. In this paper, we define the capabilities of malicious receivers in blockchain-based group covert communication scenarios and propose a group covert communication scheme resistant to transaction forgery attacks. Theoretical analysis and experiments prove that our covert transactions do not have any transaction correlativity, ensuring the unique authenticity of the sender’s identity while maintaining supreme concealment compared with the existing schemes. The precision and recall of machine learning detection results can reach 0.57–0.62 (0.5 is the ideal value).

Wooyoung Son, Soonhong Kwon, Sung-Heun Oh, Jong‐Hyouk Lee

As the demand and diversity of digital content increase, consumers now have simple and easy access to digital content through Over-the-Top (OTT) services. However, the rights of copyright holders remain unsecured due to issues with illegal copying and distribution of digital content, along with unclear practices in copyright royalty settlements and distributions. In response, this paper proposes an automated OTT service copyright distribution management system using the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) to safeguard the rights of copyright holders in the OTT service field. The proposed system ensures that the rights to exercise copyright transactions and agreements, such as trading of copyright, can only be carried out when all copyright holders of a single digital content agree based on the Threshold Schnorr Digital Signature. This approach takes into account multiple joint copyright holders, thereby safeguarding their rights. Furthermore, it ensures fair and transparent distribution of copyright royalties based on the ratio information outlined in ODRL. From the user’s perspective, the system not only provides services proactively based on the rights information specified in ODRL, but also employs zero-knowledge proof technology to handle sensitive information in OTT service copyright distribution, thereby addressing existing privacy concerns. This approach not only considers joint copyright holders, but also demonstrates its effectiveness in resolving prevalent issues in current OTT services, such as illegal digital content replication and distribution, and the unfair settlement and distribution of copyright royalties. Applying this proposed system to the existing OTT services and digital content market is expected to lead to the revitalization of the digital content trading market and the establishment of an OTT service environment that guarantees both vitality and reliability.