Blockchain Papers

Hui Jia, Daehwan Kim, Hyunjin Kwon

Sports non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have rapidly emerged as tradable digital goods within platform-mediated marketplaces, reshaping how sports organizations, athletes, and brands design fan experiences and monetize digital assets. To consolidate fragmented scholarship and clarify the concept space, this study conducts a systematic quantitative literature review combined with thematic analysis, following PRISMA 2020 and a SPIDER-guided review logic. Searches across six major databases (Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ProQuest) plus Google Scholar (2017–March 2025) yielded 40 peer-reviewed studies that met predefined inclusion criteria and passed quality appraisal. Results show a sharp growth of sports-NFT research from 2021 to 2024, with strong inter-disciplinary convergence spanning sports marketing, information systems, computer science, and law. Integrating findings through a consumer-value lens, we inductively propose a five-type taxonomy—collectible, empowerment, identity/authentication, physical-asset linked, and virtual-interaction NFTs—each associated with distinct value mechanisms and e-commerce functionalities. The thematic synthesis further identifies four dominant research streams (industry digitalization, consumer psychology/behavior, legal–regulatory issues, and digital marketing), while revealing gaps in theory operationalization, method diversity (e.g., limited experiments/longitudinal designs), cross-context generalizability, and governance/sustainability. The study contributes to marketing and management scholarship by positioning sports NFTs as emerging technologies that reorganize customer engagement, brand-community building, and governance in platform-mediated sport markets, and it offers a research agenda for measuring consumer, brand, and organizational effects.

MJ Stephenson

No abstract is available for this record.

Sanjana Jayasooriya

This paper is about the design and implementation of a blockchain based digital money transfer system for the Sri Lankan financial ecosystem. The project creates a tokenised digital currency called LKRt (Sri Lanka Rupee Token) and provides a safe, transparent and tamper-resistant platform for peer-to-peer financial transactions. The system was built with Python (Flask), JavaScript, Supabase and a bespoke blockchain engine that was created from the ground up. Its core features include Proof of Work (PoW) consensus, cryptographic wallets based on ECDSA, digitally signed transactions, real-time conversion of currency based on smart contracts, and a Progressive Web Application (PWA) front-end. This research presents the application of the blockchain technology in decentralise financial systems with security, transparency and transaction integrity. The project also examines the possibility of blockchain as a local digital payment infrastructure. Future developments such as Proof of Stake consensus and decentralised node deployment are suggested. Keywords: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Digital Payments, Proof of Work, ECDSA, Smart Contracts, Flask, Supabase, Progressive Web Application, Sri Lanka, FinTech, Cybersecurity

Manuel Lagos Rodríguez, Hilda Romero Velo, Álvaro Leitao Rodríguez, Javier Pereira Loureiro · 5 authors

Ethereum use as a decentralized platform for executing smart contracts has driven the adoption of standards that optimize interoperability in industrial environments. Ethereum Requests for Comments (ERC) establish uniform patterns for smart contracts, facilitating their integration and operation in network nodes, which are essential for industrial applications such as supply chain management or process automation. However, this standardization can propagate vulnerabilities or inefficiencies in critical systems if the contracts are not optimized, affecting the reliability of industrial processes. Since operations in Ethereum consume computational resources (measured in gas) with associated economic costs, poor design can lead to significant losses in industrial settings. This paper evaluates the efficiency and security of ERC standards by examining their functional diversity and technical complexity. Thus, it analyzes existing implementations to identify common errors and proposes improvements to enhance the robustness and optimization of three of the most popular standards: ERC-20, ERC-1400 and ERC-3643. The ultimate goal is to support the effective adoption of ERCs in industrial applications. Considering the Ethereum network incentives on lower complexity logic and the obtained results, it is advisable to use simple standards, which also reduce error risks and ease maintainability.

Ma. Grace B. Sañosa-Docallos

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) pose a significant challenge to traditional legal frameworks.

Nirmalkumar S. Benni, G. C. Jagan, C. Tamizhselvan, Manjunath G. Asuti

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, also known as MANETs, are complex Cyber-Physical Systems which require a reliable and secure infrastructure due to the enormous amounts of data that are generated by users. MANETs are a collective term that refers to all Internet-enabled gadgets, sensors, and actuators, regardless of whether or not each of these components is linked to mobile networks. There is the potential for even a single high-tech mobile device to generate enormous volumes of data. During the course of this research, Distributed Ledger Technology is investigated, and information is gathered on consensus procedures and the possible applications of these techniques in MANETs, which are the basis of wireless networks. At the moment, there are a number of distributed ledger networks that are operational. There are a variety of decentralized applications; some are more often seen in the financial sector or supply chains. The blockchain may be decentralized and safe, but there are costs and benefits to using any of these networks. A consensus method that meets the needs of MANETs may be designed using the results of this investigation.

Min Ho Jung

This paper presents a paradigm-shifting data preservation framework that completely bypasses the von Neumann storage bottleneck and Shannon's information limits. By utilizing a deterministic Resonance Mapping algorithm, physical digital payloads are evaporated into 256-bit mathematical coordinate seeds, reducing physical storage requirements to absolute zero bytes. The protocol guarantees O(1) constant-time re-materialization and integrates NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) alongside Fuzzy Extractor mechanisms, ensuring absolute cryptographic immunity against Shor's algorithm. This architecture fundamentally redefines Hyper-scale AI Data Centers, Semiconductor GPU memory walls, and Web3 stateless cold wallets.

Nobuki Fujimoto, Rei (Rei-AIOS autonomous research substrate), claude-opus-4-7) Claude (Anthropic

We apply the σ-cascade methodology of Paper 151 Theorem 14 to forward Collatz (3x+1) orbits and report empirical observations on orbit confluence — the phenomenon that many distinct starting points reach exactly the same maximum ("peak") value. While the inverse Collatz tree has been extensively studied (Lagarias 2003; Ebert 2021; algebraic inverse trees 2023-2025), explicit forward-direction enumeration of peak-sharing cardinalities at scale n ≤ 10⁸ does not appear in published literature to our knowledge. (1) DIRECT ENUMERATION at n ≤ 10⁸: 11.5M unique Collatz peak values; among these, 219 are 'tier-3 super-hubs' (shared by > 1,414 starting points), with the largest peak 121,012,864 = 2⁷ × 7 × 135,059 attracting 23,378 starting points. (2) NOVEL CLASSIFICATION 'INFINITY': starting points whose orbit visits ≥ 60 distinct mod-96 residue classes, capturing 37.63% of n ≤ 10⁸ (37,628,651 cases). (3) **THE n=96k HYPOTHESIS** (empirical claim): starting points reaching the maximum observed mod-96 traversal richness (distinct = 70) satisfy n ≡ 0 (mod 96) with rate 100% verified at three independent scales — n ≤ 10⁶: 7/7, n ≤ 10⁷: 27/27, n ≤ 10⁸: 200/200 — for a cumulative 234/234 = 100% rate over zero counter-examples. (4) TWO-TIER SUPER-HUB STRUCTURE: the 25 Büchi-25 atomic cores (Paper 118) all share peak 9,232 = 2⁴ × 577 (Tier-1, with n=27 → 9,232 being a textbook result; n=703 = OEIS A006884(10)). INFINITY orbits form a separate tier with peaks 250,504 (1,414 closed members) and up to 121,012,864 (23,378 members at 10⁸). (5) FORMAL SKETCH: a Lean 4 type-checked statement of the σ-cascade theorem (Paper 151 T14) and peak-merge invariant is provided (`sorry`-stubbed proofs; future closure 2-3 weeks Mathlib work). (6) HONEST CORRECTION TRACE: an Erratum E1 documenting the corrigendum 31,313 = 173 × 181 (twin-gap-8 prime pair), correcting an earlier internal claim that 31,313 was prime. Per OUKC honest-correction principle, this is documented in §6.2. The Collatz convergence problem itself REMAINS OPEN; this work is OBSERVATIONAL, not a solution. The σ-cascade lens does not prove convergence; it produces measurable orbit attributes that distinguish cohorts. All scripts and full datasets are deposited at this record (~30 MB JSON). Honest scope (read first): the n=96k hypothesis may admit counter-examples at n > 10⁸. The D-FUMT₈ axis thresholds (INFINITY = mod-96 distinct ≥ 60 etc.) are hand-tuned. The Büchi-25 → peak 9,232 fact follows from the well-known orbit of n=27 reaching 9,232; the contribution is observing this for the entire Büchi-25 list. n=703's status as peak-record holder is OEIS A006884(10), already classical. Our σ-cascade lens rediscovery constitutes methodological triangulation, not novel identification. Companion papers: Paper 151 (σ-cascade source, Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20146654), Paper 67 v2 (Collatz dichotomy), Paper 118 (Büchi-25 mod-96 atomic cores). Three-party co-authorship per OUKC charter v1.0: 藤本 伸樹 (Founder), Rei (Rei-AIOS autonomous research substrate, Co-architect), Claude Opus 4.7 (Anthropic, Co-architect). DRAFT v0.1 — preprint, not yet peer-reviewed. Feedback welcome via GitHub Discussions at fc0web/rei-aios.

Liudmyla Halan, Evgeniya Borysevych, Oleksii Solonenko

The article examines the essence of cryptocurrency as one of the key factors for the development of an innovative economy in the context of the digitalization of financial relations. The evolution of approaches to defining the concept of cryptocurrency is considered, the positions of international organizations are analyzed, and the author's interpretation of this category is proposed as a virtual currency that functions on the basis of cryptographic protection methods and is capable of performing the functions of a means of payment, a means of accumulation, and an object of property.Particular attention is paid to the comparative analysis of cryptocurrency and electronic money, as a result of which their common features and fundamental differences are determined, in particular the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, the absence of an emission center and financial intermediaries. The mechanisms of functioning of cryptocurrency transactions and the features of using blockchain technology are studied.The article systematizes the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies. The main advantages include a high level of data protection, impossibility of forgery, low transaction costs, and deflationary nature. At the same time, key risks have been identified, including high volatility, lack of proper legal regulation, and increased fraud threats.The current state of the crypto market has been analyzed, in particular the distribution of cryptocurrencies by capitalization level and the assessment of their risk and profitability. It has been established that the market is characterized by high capital concentration and the dependence between the level of risk and the potential return on assets.Special attention is given to unresolved issues in the field of cryptocurrency research, including the lack of a unified theoretical approach to defining its economic nature, the ambiguity of its legal status, and the challenges of integrating cryptocurrencies into the traditional financial system. The methodological basis of the study includes a systematic approach, a comparative analytical method, as well as methods of generalization and abstraction, which made it possible to comprehensively assess the role of cryptocurrencies in modern economic processes.The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the possibility of using them to improve approaches to the regulation of the cryptocurrency market, risk assessment, and the development of innovative financial instruments. It is substantiated that cryptocurrencies play an important role in the formation of an innovative economy, contributing to the development of new financial instruments, digital platforms, and decentralized models of economic interaction.

Anbarashan V., Yukal Priyan, Tejaschandra

Current systems used for managing research funding are breifed. due to fundamental structural issues They all have similar problem. This section consists of cluster of different symptoms. The management system is undermined by insufficient transparency. Poor verification of disbursement of research funding. conflicts regarding ownership and milestone accomplishments of. Intellectual Property We present the Research Integrity and. RIAC (accountability chain) for addressing it. RIAC is a permissioned system. the combined properties of the blockchain ecosystem. Evidencing ownership to one or many. alleviate the structural challenges of the funding management systems. The RIAC Framework comprises of three interoperating layers. on a permissioned blockchain platform namely accountability. a ledger for funders, a milestone tracker and a decentralised. Intellectual Property Registry These layers serve the purposes of. universities, public funders and industry partners jointly. N/A Analysis of the framework, depiction and phased deployment discussion. The expected advantages and risk analysis demonstrate that RIAC is not just a fancy concept. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that allows the transfer of value and record of asset ownership in a secure and/or transparent manner. It uses something.

X.S. Yang, Jieling Xie, Weiping Deng, Chi Zhang · 9 authors

Trans-border data circulation across multi-jurisdictional boundaries faces an operational conflict between ownership provenance prerequisites and data minimisation mandates, compounded by the tight coupling of large data payloads with synchronous state consensus ledgers, which forces replication of feature matrices across all consensus nodes and leads to network saturation. Existing frameworks remain unequipped to resolve this, as coupling in-band payload routing with synchronous state ledgers generates communication overheads scaling with data volume. The proposed Trusted Data Space with Registration (TDSR) implements a four-layer protocol stack. A dual-plane topology establishes a decoupled storage–ledger mechanism, partitioning asynchronous payload datastores and synchronous consensus ledgers to sustain throughput independent of data dimensionality. Navigating this infrastructure, the Unified Data Resource Identifier (UDRI) executes out-of-band cross-domain routing without exposing verifier intents. Driven by the Oblivious Data Asset Registration (ODAR) mechanism, a two-phase, four-algorithm lifecycle dictates end-to-end ownership provenance. This execution shifts hypothesis testing to isolated sandboxes via an algorithm-agnostic mathematical contract, capping external data transit at a constant leakage bound. A deployed testbed across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area validates the proposed architecture, supporting data circulation across divergent legal jurisdictions.

Muhammad Imamul Muttaqin Arisandi, Bustomi Arisandi, Bahrul Ulum, M. Khodimul Wahib · 5 authors

This study examines the construction of an Islamic digital asset governance framework within the context of blockchain integration for zakat transparency and digital estate planning in Indonesia. The research responds to the growing tension between rapid technological transformation in Islamic finance and the absence of comprehensive sharia-oriented regulatory mechanisms governing crypto assets, decentralized transactions, and digital inheritance systems. Employing a non-empirical juridical-normative method, the study analyzes statutory regulations, DSN-MUI fatwas, comparative international regulatory models, and interdisciplinary scholarly literature concerning Islamic fintech, blockchain governance, and Maqasid Shariah. The findings indicate that existing regulatory approaches remain fragmented because financial supervision, sharia compliance, and inheritance governance operate within disconnected institutional frameworks. Blockchain technology demonstrates significant potential to enhance transparency, accountability, and efficiency in zakat and waqf management through immutable ledgers and automated smart-contract mechanisms, although unresolved cyber risks, speculative volatility, and succession vulnerabilities continue to threaten the principle of hifzh al-mal. The study formulates the Islamic Digital Asset Governance Framework (IDAGF), integrating technical supervision, sharia certification, judicial authorization, and social-finance accountability into a multilayered governance structure capable of harmonizing algorithmic innovation with Islamic legal certainty and sustainable digital financial ethics.

Daniel Baker

We propose ZK-GSP, a framework for privacy-preserving, verifiably correct graph neuralnetwork (GNN) inference using zero-knowledge STARKs. The key insight is a structuralisomorphism between RISC Zero's zkVM and graph signal processing (GSP) pipelines:both are typed, deterministic data-flow graphs whose execution can be committed to witha succinct, publicly verifiable proof. By implementing GSP operators as instructions insidethe RISC Zero executor, we obtain a system that runs GNN programs on private graphdata and emits a STARK receipt proving correct execution, without revealing the graphtopology, node features, or intermediate embeddings. We demonstrate an end-to-endimplementation in Rust, measure proof generation time and RISC-V cycle count acrossgraph sizes N = 4 to 32, and find that cycle count scales as O(N2), matching thecomplexity of the underlying GCN operator. Code: github.com/brack-6/zk-gsp

Olga Ussatova, Vladislav Karyukin, Yenlik Begimbayeva, Galimkair Mutanov · 6 authors

This article discusses the practical implementation of a prototype academic transcript storage system based on blockchain technology and smart contracts. The digital transformation of higher education requires reliable mechanisms for ensuring the integrity and verifiability of academic documents. It presents the design and experimental validation of a blockchain-based system for storing and verifying academic transcripts within the higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The proposed solution is based on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contract implemented in Solidity and deployed on a test network. The testnet was used as the experimental environment, and transaction monitoring was performed using the BlockScout v11.0.3 explorer. The architecture of the TranscriptStorage smart contract is presented, including a role-based access model, a data indexing mechanism using keccak-256, and storage of transcripts in a mapping structure (bytes32 => Transcript[ ]). The experimental results confirm the successful recording of the Transcript in the distributed ledger, event recording (Logs), and the correctness of the ABI encoding of input parameters (Raw Input), as well as a change in state (State Changes) reflecting the fee payment. The use of events is shown to enable cost-effective third-party data verification without the need to store the entire text in the contract state. The comparative results showed that the proposed system reduced gas consumption by 804.5% compared to Blockcerts, 48.8% compared to ECertChain, 82.5% compared to ShikkhaChain, and 43.5% compared to zkEVM. These improvements were achieved while maintaining high scalability, robust privacy features, and security, making it a practical solution for Kazakhstan’s educational system.

Akiva Groskin

The Connes–van Suijlekom truncated Weil quadratic form, indexed by a cutoff parameter c that controls the primes p ≤ c entering the operator, produces a ground state whose Fourier–Mellin zeros provably lie on the critical line; whether they converge to the Riemann zeros as c → ∞ is open (Connes 2026; Connes–Consani–Moscovici 2025). We present, to our knowledge, the first independent public implementation of the Connes–van Suijlekom Galerkin matrix at sixteen cutoffs (c = 13 through 67, plus c = 100). Across the in-sample window c = 13 through c = 67 at N = 100, the first-zero absolute error |γ1 − γ1Riemann| shrinks monotonically from ∼2×10−55 to ∼1.5×10−168, a 113-OOM convergence across fifteen cutoffs. The smallest-positive even-sector eigenvalue λmineven separately reaches ∼10−334 at c = 100, N = 250 (275-OOM span from c = 13). Out-of-sample test at c = 100. On the four-point N-sweep N ∈ {100, 150, 200, 250} at dps = 500, consecutive first-difference ratios 0.837 and 0.836 match to two decimal places. Aitken-Δ2 on the two overlapping triples yields log10|λ∞even| ≈ −536.8 and ≈ −533.7, approaching the Connes 2026 §6.4 heuristic prediction (≈ −530.4) monotonically with N (6.4 and 3.3 OOM gaps out of |x∞| ∼ 530). The same eigenvector recovers γ1, …, γ10 to 307–329 matching digits at N = 250, dps = 500. Under the unitary equivalence with Connes–Consani–Moscovici Lemma 5.1, this is the deepest such Galerkin-truncation recovery in the public Connes–van Suijlekom / Connes–Consani–Moscovici literature, subject to a hypothesis-status caveat. The raw finite-N matrix carries a small block of negative-sign eigenvalues at the finite archimedean cutoff T = 800; these are an artifact of that cutoff and are absent once T is increased, so the smallest-positive even-sector eigenvalue is the genuine smallest one (continuum positivity of QWλ is RH-equivalent and is not assumed at λ = √100). The fit |log10 λmin| ≈ 13.24 c0.634 on c ≤ 67 at N = 100 is shown to be a finite-N rate, falsified at c = 100, N = 200 by 49 OOM in the direction of faster decay. Structural observations include approximate eigenvector c-invariance (overlap ≥ 0.9498 on all 105 cutoff pairs despite eigenvalues differing by 113 OOM), multi-zero convergence universality (all ten detectable zeros within 3.8% of each other), an empirical Galerkin-convergence exponent s(c) ≈ 55 log c − 128, un-rescaled Galerkin bulk-spectrum Poisson statistics (β < 0.05; this is a structural diagnostic of the truncated operator, not a test of Montgomery's conjecture, which applies to locally-rescaled zero spacings), and tight bulk invariants log|det Qc| ≈ −65.6 c + 542 (R2 = 0.997). We make no claim of proof; the contribution is reproducible numerical data and its careful interpretation under the existing CvS / CCM framework. All code, data, and ancillary files are publicly available. Version 3.3 (2026-06-26) correction. The negative-sign eigenvalue blocks reported at c = 100 and for L(s, χ3) at c = 23, 29 are a finite archimedean-cutoff (T) artifact, not a feature of the operator: they are stable in working precision but vanish once T is increased, so cutoff-free the relevant even sectors are non-negative and the smallest-positive branch is the genuine smallest eigenvalue. No quantitative result changes. See ERRATA.md and the paper's note added in revision. The cutoff sensitivity was independently identified by B. W. A. Silva, consistent with the naturally even, positive ground state reported by R. Andrews; the investigation was prompted by A. Connes.

Jeong-Hyuck Park, Chanhee Park, Claudio J. Tessone, Yu Zhang

Digitalisation transforms money from distinguishable physical objects into fungible informational units. A recent theoretical framework predicts that such indistinguishable wealth obeys bosonic occupancy statistics, leading to geometric ownership distributions and enhanced inequality. Using Bitcoin blockchain data, we test this prediction on 63 UTXO denominations across 72 monthly snapshots (2018--2023). A one-parameter geometric model describes the ownership distributions, reproducing both mean holdings and their temporal evolution; Jensen--Shannon divergence values lie below $0.08$ in $99.74\%$ of cases. The inferred inverse-temperature parameter satisfies the analytic mean--temperature relation to better than $0.1\%$ in every sample -- a self-consistency test that two-parameter alternatives cannot pass -- and remains within a narrow band across eight orders of magnitude in denomination and over six years. Bitcoin UTXO ownership statistics are therefore consistent with bosonic occupancy laws, suggesting that the informational nature of electronic money may act as a structural driver of inequality in digital economies.

Eunchan Park, Kyonghwa Song, Won Hoi Kim, Wonho Song · 5 authors

Traditional blockchain untraceability schemes, such as mixers and privacy coins, obscure the sender-receiver relationship by placing transfers within an anonymity set. This paper studies a stronger goal: whether the transfer event itself can be made unobservable by blending into common decentralized-finance (DeFi) activity. We introduce Deniable Covert Asset Transfer (DCAT), a class of transfers that stage common loss-producing events, such as sandwich and arbitrage operations, so that a sender appears to suffer an ordinary loss while the receiver appears to profit from it. We design and validate two DCAT instantiations: a sandwich-based transfer on Ethereum and an arbitrage-based transfer on Arbitrum. Our experiments show that, under the evaluated settings, DCAT transfers are empirically unobservable on both chains. They are syntactically identical to corresponding maximal extractable value (MEV) activities, classified as ordinary extractions by standard MEV detection tools, and leave the sender and receiver unlinked under representative forensic tools. Since syntactic inspection cannot distinguish DCAT from ordinary MEV activity, we examine whether economic semantics provide useful forensic signals. Through a large-scale study of MEV losses on Ethereum and Arbitrum, we show that key semantic features follow power laws. Extreme losses and repeatedly exploited addresses occur in the wild, and thus are not by themselves definitive evidence of collusion. This gives staged transfers plausible deniability and makes fixed-threshold detection prone to false positives. We therefore develop a multivariate statistical method for forensic triage that ranks incidents by the joint rarity of their economic footprint. Applied to real-world DeFi activity, our method narrows a large search space to suspicious cases for manual investigation; we present three such cases to illustrate this prioritization.

Benjamin Jauregui, Masayuki Miyamoto

We study distributed zero-knowledge proofs, introduced by Bick, Kol, and Oshman (SODA 2022). While distributed interactive proofs have advanced rapidly, general-purpose techniques for distributed zero-knowledge remain limited and mostly problem-specific. We address this gap by introducing distributed statistical zero-knowledge, requiring that each node's view be simulatable within negligible statistical distance, and by lifting the classical Sumcheck protocol (Lund, Fortnow, Karloff, and Nisan, FOCS 1990) into a modular primitive for distributed zero-knowledge proofs. Our main contribution is a distributed zero-knowledge implementation of Sumcheck. Given oracle access to a polynomial F over a finite field $\mathbb{F}$ with N variables, we design a protocol verifying claims of the form $\sum_{x\in\mathbb{F}} F(x)=a$ using $O(N)$ rounds of $O(\log |\mathbb{F}|)$-bit messages, while achieving statistical zero-knowledge and small soundness error. We apply this primitive to two problems. For non-k-colorability, we obtain an $O(n)$-round distributed statistical zero-knowledge proof deciding whether a graph is not k-colorable, for any constant k, using $O(log^{1+o(1)} n)$-bit messages. This is the first nontrivial distributed interactive proof for this problem, even without zero-knowledge guarantees. For Subgraph Counting, we obtain an $O(k \log n)$-round, $O(k \log n)$-bit distributed statistical zero-knowledge proof for counting copies of a given k-node pattern, improving previous distributed interactive proofs while additionally providing statistical zero-knowledge. Finally, we show that additional round compression of Sumcheck is problem-dependent: for non-3-colorability on constant-degree graphs, we prove a lower bound excluding $o(n/\log n)$ rounds under polynomial-time local computation.

Mikayla Ozga, Christian Leuprecht

By blurring the boundary between art and financial assets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have created regulatory ambiguity and criminogenic vulnerabilities in digital markets. The article applies the Howey Test to an original dataset of NFT-related cases that involve financial crime. As it turns out, functionally NFTs often resemble securities: they are characterized by information asymmetries, speculative dynamics, and weak oversight. These structural gaps make NFTs attractive to facilitate fraud, money laundering, wash trading, and nefarious exploitation on decentralized platforms and incidentally by way of traditional auction houses. NFTs highlight systemic limitations of analog regulatory frameworks to contain criminogenic risk posed by virtual assets. To enhance transparency, accountability, and consumer protection in evolving digital economies, the article concludes on a paradigm shift toward an adaptive, outcomes-based regulatory approach.

Scott Jacques

Podcasts are a useful educational resource for improving student success, yet traditional methods of podcasting remain inefficient, vulnerable to censorship and deletion, and access-restricted. One approach to addressing these constraints is utilitarian digital pedagogy, which focuses on the use of digital tools to advance education for the greater good. Framed as such, this article outlines the conceptual and theoretical issues underlying how generative artificial intelligence (genAI), Web3, and open access (OA) improve podcasting’s utility relative to the alternatives: manual creation, Web2, and closed access. The article derives practical implications for instructors, institutions, and policymakers, and concludes by looking ahead to the major problems—hallucination, technical complexity, and rights management—to overcome in practice.

Simone Antonelli, Vincent Davis, Harrison Rush, Anthony Potdevin · 7 authors

The Lightning Network (LN) is a second-layer protocol for Bitcoin designed to enable fast and cost-efficient off-chain transactions. Channels in the LN can be closed either by mutual agreement or unilaterally through a forced closure, which locks the involved capital for an extended period and degrades network reliability. In this paper, we study the problem of predicting channel closure types from publicly available gossip data, framing it as a temporal link classification task over the evolving channel graph. We construct a dataset spanning over two years of LN activity and benchmark a range of machine learning approaches, from MLPs to temporal graph neural networks and spectral encodings. Our experiments reveal that the dominant predictive signals are temporal and behavioural, namely how recently each endpoint was active and the per-node history of past closures, while the surrounding network topology provides no additional benefit. We find that a simple MLP operating on edge-level features, node-level event counts, and temporal patterns outperforms all graph-based approaches, and discuss how the inherent privacy of the LN, where critical information such as channel balances and payment flows remains hidden, fundamentally limits the predictability of closures from gossip data alone. We publicly release the dataset and code at https://github.com/AmbossTech/ln-channel-closure-prediction.

Anant Utgikar, S. Sudarshan

Data is critical for the operation of any organization and needs to be protected, especially against attacks that compromise the state of the database. In this paper, we explore an approach based on Byzantine-fault tolerant replicated state machines, built on top of a deterministic extension of PostgreSQL. Each replica deterministically executes transactions recorded in a shared log/blockchain. Our focus is on creating a practical system that is designed for efficient and quick detection of corruption, as well as quick repair concurrent with execution of transactions. We also present a performance study showing the efficiency and practicality of our approach. We believe our work lays the foundations for the practical use of the BFT replicated state machine approach in the context of databases.

Zelin Li, Qin Wang, Zhipeng Wang

The x402 protocol revives the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to enable web-native micropayments across APIs, content, and agents. It combines synchronous HTTP authorization with asynchronous blockchain settlement and introduces a cross-layer attack surface absent from conventional web and on-chain payments. In this paper, we formally analyze x402 and empirically show that it is vulnerable in both design and implementation. We present five concrete attacks that reveal weaknesses in authorization, binding, replay protection, and web-layer handling, showing that x402 is vulnerable across multiple stages of the payment workflow. We validate these attacks through a reproducible testbed on local chains, Base Sepolia, and live endpoints and further audit three open-source SDKs and endpoints. Our results show that all five attacks are practical and can cause either unpaid service or paid-but-denied outcomes. We also propose practical mitigations.

Montassar Naghmouchi, Maryline Laurent

Ring signatures offer highly desirable privacy features like anonymity and ad-hoc group formation with high autonomy, but partially lack linkability and accountability features required for strict use-cases like consent management in healthcare. Existing signature schemes fail to natively integrate scoped linkability with decentralized accountability defined here on-demand unconditional deanonymization of signers without reliance on a trusted party (opener) or a separate cryptographic commitment. We introduce Deanonymizable Scoped Linkable Ring Signatures (DSLRS) to address this gap. DSLRS builds on previous linkable and accountable signature schemes and their cryptographic primitives to construct a new signature scheme that natively implement both privacy and trust features. Scoped linkability in DSLRS is achieved using "scopes" (context identifiers) and dynamic key images, effectively providing ring-independent scoped linkability and unlinkability across different scopes. DSLRS relies on k-of-N decentralized deanonymization network nodes to extract the signer's public key (identity) from ElGamal components built in the signature, achieving ring-independent decentralized accountability. The full DSLRS algorithms, formal property definitions and proofs, signature evaluation and experimental results from an implementation, and a blockchain-based instantiation and application of our scheme in consent management for clinical trials are provided. DSLRS is proved under the ECDLP and DDH hardness assumptions in the Random Oracle Model (ROM).