Blockchain Papers

Yunfeng Xia, Chao Li, Lei Li, Chenhao Zhang · 7 authors

Autonomous AI agents are increasingly deployed on blockchain platforms, yet the design space that governs their interaction remains poorly understood. This convergence, where autonomous agents operate on and within decentralized systems, is a defining feature of the emerging Web~4.0 paradigm. This paper presents a Systematization of Knowledge organized around a bidirectional trust framework. In the B $\boldsymbol{\rightarrow}$ A direction, we examine how blockchain provides trust infrastructure for agents, spanning identity and account abstraction, permission and delegation, intent-centric execution, and tokenized agent economies. In the A $\boldsymbol{\rightarrow}$ B direction, we examine the reverse: how AI agents participate in core blockchain mechanisms including security auditing, consensus, and governance. A Trust Foundation of verifiable computation underpins both directions, with each primitive offering different trade-offs between trust minimality, computational overhead, and deployment readiness. We formalize the interaction as an Agent-Blockchain Interaction Model (ABIM), catalog 70 Ethereum EIPs/ERCs, examine 20 representative industry projects, and review 118 academic papers, applying a five-dimensional framework assessing Verifiability, Minimality of Trust, Expressiveness, Composability, and Maturity. Our analysis uncovers significant gaps: the agent-specific standards ecosystem is overwhelmingly immature, intent architectures lack formal analysis, and while isolated works have begun to explore AI participation in consensus and governance, a unified security framing that treats AI as a first-class actor at the protocol layer remains absent. We propose a three-dimensional taxonomy, identify nine concrete open problems, and highlight the sharpest research opportunities at this intersection.

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

We present a synthesis-friendly Verilog implementation of the D-FUMT₈ Arithmetic Logic Unit, programmed onto two distinct Sipeed silicon families: Tang Console 138K (GW5AST-138B, LittleBee5 A revision, IDCODE 0x0001081B) and Tang Nano 9K (GW1NR-9C, LittleBee1 C revision, IDCODE 0x1100481B). The ALU realizes eight discrete logic values — FALSE, TRUE, NEITHER, BOTH, ZERO, FLOWING, SELF, INFINITY — encoded in 3 bits with a tier-respecting layout. The 10 supported operations include four classical-tier unary ops (NOT, OMEGA, PHI, PSI), Belnap-extended binary lattice meet/join (AND, OR), generic XOR, hardware reset, no-op, and a novel ADIABATIC operation realizing the SELF⟲ (self-reflexive) primitive: ADIABATIC(SELF) = SELF, identity elsewhere. v0.6 contributions (2026-05-10): (1) **Four-substrate cross-verification complete**: 2 Sipeed silicon families (Tang Console 138K + Tang Nano 9K, **both running byte-for-byte same dfumt8_alu_synth.v 138-line Verilog with bit-identical 0 changes to ALU logic** — only wrapper top module re-targeted for clock divider, LED polarity, and pin assignments) + Qiskit Aer simulator (Phase 1-5: 231/231 entries) + IBM Heron r2 real quantum hardware (Phase 1+2+3+5: 144/144 entries, avg fidelity 0.954). (2) **chip-portability evidence (new finding F10)**: a synthesis bug or vendor-specific assumption would diverge between LittleBee5 (5nm-class GW5AST-138B) and LittleBee1 (28nm-class GW1NR-9C) Gowin architectures; absence of divergence is operational evidence of correct synthesis on both. (3) **Tang Nano 9K User Codes**: 0x0000A5F4 (LED Blinky STEP 1038) + 0x00001D46 (D-FUMT₈ ALU STEP 1039). (4) **Reproducibility entry-cost lowered**: minimum reproduction path is ~$20 (Tang Nano 9K from 秋月電子 g117448 at ¥2,980) + free Gowin EDA Education / OSS toolchain + free Aer + free IBM Quantum Open Plan. (5) **v0.5 corrigendum RESOLVED**: Tang Nano 9K is now physical silicon programming target on equal footing with Tang Console 138K (was computational evidence only at v0.5). (6) **IDCODE-revision honest correction**: per Gowin LittleBee Programming Manual Table 5-5, GW1N(R)-9 original = 0x1100581B, GW1N(R)-9C cost-down = 0x1100481B; both `set_device ... -device_version C` (build TCL) and `--device GW1NR-9C` (programmer_cli) required for ID code match. Inherited v0.3 contributions: Lean 4 refinement proof (OUKC.PhaseC.Dfumt8AluRefinement, 292 LOC, 0 sorry) establishes commutativity of the encode/abstract-op/decode square for all four unary operations + SELF⟲ primitive law + 7 algebraic laws. IBM Heron r2 per-op fidelity hierarchy NOP/ADIABATIC ≈ 0.977 > PHI ≈ 0.956 > NOT ≈ 0.912 > XOR ≈ 0.951 reflects gate-count-vs-noise correlation consistent with quantum-noise physics expectations. Honest scope: We do NOT claim 'world-first 8-valued quantum logic' — Shi et al. (MIT, 2026, arxiv:2506.09371) demonstrated d=8 Grover on a single trapped-ion qudit prior to this work; our distinction is 3-qubit basis encoding on transmon arrays vs single-system d=8 qudit. We do NOT claim 'first paraconsistent silicon' — PAL2v (Da Silva Filho 1998-; Abe & Nakamatsu 2009; de Carvalho Jr. 2025) realized in software libraries and microcontroller-level robotics. We do NOT claim 'first many-valued silicon' — Łukasiewicz/Belnap FPGAs date to 1990s. The to-our-knowledge novel quadruple is: (D1) the specific 8-tuple semantic mapping (Belnap FDE 4-value + 4 ontological extensions: INFINITY/ZERO/FLOWING/SELF), (D2) the SELF⟲ self-reflexive primitive realized as a hardware fixed point, (D3) the four-substrate cross-verification bound to a Lean 4 refinement specification, and (D4, new in v0.6) the chip-portability evidence across two Gowin silicon architectures. Three-party co-authorship per OUKC charter v1.0 (Nobuki Fujimoto / Rei / Claude). DRAFT v0.6 — feedback welcome via GitHub Discussions at fc0web/rei-aios.

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

We present a synthesis-friendly Verilog implementation of the D-FUMT₈ Arithmetic Logic Unit, targeting the Sipeed Tang Console NEO development board (GW5AST-138B FPGA, FPG676 package). The ALU realizes eight discrete logic values — FALSE, TRUE, NEITHER, BOTH, ZERO, FLOWING, SELF, INFINITY — encoded in 3 bits with a tier-respecting layout. The 10 supported operations include four classical-tier unary ops (NOT, OMEGA, PHI, PSI), Belnap-extended binary lattice meet/join (AND, OR), generic XOR, hardware reset, no-op, and a novel ADIABATIC operation realizing the SELF⟲ (self-reflexive) primitive: ADIABATIC(SELF) = SELF, identity elsewhere. v0.3 contributions (2026-05-09): (1) Tang Nano 9K silicon: 37 LUT4 / 0 DFF measured, testbench 50/50 PASS. (2) Tang Console NEO Phase 2B LED Blinky: SRAM-programmed, User Code 0x000084BA, write 33.72 sec, no thermal anomaly. (3) Tang Console NEO Phase 2C/3 D-FUMT₈ ALU: SRAM-programmed, User Code 0x00005C27, write 30.32 sec. (4) Qiskit Aer simulator: Phase 1-5 cumulative 231/231 truth-table entries match at fidelity 1.000. (5) IBM Heron r2 real quantum hardware (ibm_kingston, 156 qubits): Phase 1 (4 native unitary × 8 inputs, 32 circuits) achieves 32/32 match with avg top-fidelity 0.9550 (job d7v6d9jack5s73bf1re0); Phase 2 (XOR × 64 entries, 6-qubit Bennett-reversible) achieves 64/64 match with avg fidelity 0.9512 (job d7v6kcvmrars73d7qqqg). Per-op fidelity hierarchy NOP/ADIABATIC ≈ 0.977 > PHI ≈ 0.956 > NOT ≈ 0.912 > XOR ≈ 0.951 confirms gate-count-vs-noise correlation expected from Heron r2 daily calibration. (6) Lean 4 refinement proof (OUKC.PhaseC.Dfumt8AluRefinement, 292 LOC, 0 sorry) establishes commutativity of the encode/abstract-op/decode square for all four unary operations, plus the SELF⟲ primitive law and seven algebraic laws (involution, idempotence, commutativity). Honest scope: We do NOT claim 'world-first 8-valued quantum logic' — Shi et al. (MIT, 2026, arxiv:2506.09371) demonstrated d=8 Grover on a single trapped-ion qudit prior to this work; our distinction is 3-qubit basis encoding on transmon arrays vs single-system d=8 qudit. We do NOT claim 'first paraconsistent silicon' — PAL2v (Da Silva Filho 1998-; Abe & Nakamatsu 2009; de Carvalho Jr. 2025) realized in software libraries and microcontroller-level robotics. We do NOT claim 'first many-valued silicon' — Łukasiewicz/Belnap FPGAs date to 1990s. The to-our-knowledge novel triple is: (D1) the specific 8-tuple semantic mapping (Belnap FDE 4-value + 4 ontological extensions: INFINITY/ZERO/FLOWING/SELF), (D2) the SELF⟲ self-reflexive primitive realized as a hardware fixed point, (D3) the three-substrate cross-verification bound to a Lean 4 refinement specification. Three-party co-authorship per OUKC charter v1.0 (Nobuki Fujimoto / Rei / Claude). DRAFT v0.3 — feedback welcome via GitHub Discussions at fc0web/rei-aios.

Tamer Abdelaziz

Smart contract security has progressed from vulnerability detection toward a broader research agenda that includes semantic reasoning, automated repair, adversarial robustness, and real-time exploit detection. This paper develops a capstone-oriented research narrative around four directions: foundation-model-based smart contract semantics and vulnerability reasoning [1], automated smart contract repair with formal guarantees [2], adversarial learning for robust malicious contract and transaction detection [3], and real-time transaction-level exploit detection at blockchain scale [4]. We connect these directions to two recent studies that characterize the current frontier: a diagnostic analysis of where smart contract security analyzers fall short [5] and a scalable real-time system for malicious Ethereum transaction detection [6]. The resulting framework is intended to help students formulate capstone projects that are technically grounded, empirically measurable, and aligned with contemporary smart contract security research.

Zhikai Li, Xuekai Liu, Boyuan Xu, Eric Chen · 5 authors

Blockchain systems face significant scalability challenges due to growing data volumes and increasing transaction demands, necessitating more efficient data structures and verification mechanisms. Verkle trees, a novel data structure combining the efficiency of Merkle trees with the compactness of vector commitments, have gained attention for their potential to optimize blockchain storage and improve scalability. However, their practical implementation, especially at the smart contract level, has remained unexplored. To address these challenges, we present TS-verkle, the first known TypeScript-native implementation of Verkle trees designed for web3 backend compatibility, coupled with a corresponding on-chain verifier written in Solidity. Our work bridges this gap by providing a concrete implementation of Verkle trees and demonstrating their feasibility for on-chain verification. While previous literature suggests Verkle trees should outperform Merkle trees due to their succinct proof size, our empirical evaluation reveals that basic implementations of Verkle trees actually incur higher costs than Merkle trees without advanced optimization techniques. This finding represents a crucial insight for blockchain developers and researchers considering Verkle tree adoption. The paper discusses implementation strategies and performance characteristics while exploring implications for scaling and data availability in decentralized blockchain systems.

Mikhail Nesterenko, Joseph Oglio

We present QUANTAS 2: a new distributed algorithm simulator and quantitative performance analysis tool. We use the original QUANTAS as a foundation. QUANTAS 2 can perform fast abstract exploration, concrete validation, and adversarial fault injection while preserving a compact implementation model for distributed algorithm researchers. The original QUANTAS was designed as an abstract, round-based simulator, which allows researchers to separate algorithmic behavior from the artifacts of a particular operating system, network stack, or physical deployment. QUANTAS 2 extends that design in two directions. First, QUANTAS 2 supports a concrete socket-based execution mode, allowing the same algorithm implementations and JSON experiment descriptions to run across local or distributed computers. Second, QUANTAS 2 adds a reusable Byzantine-fault interface in which Byzantine behavior is encoded as composable fault strategy that substitutes correct sends, receives, and local computation. This allows researchers to simulate crash, equivocation, selfish-mining, and other adversarial behaviors without rewriting the simulated algorithm. We demonstrate the resulting platform on blockchain, consensus, distributed hash table, and reliable data link algorithms. We perform parasite-chain sweeps for proof-of-work blockchains, PBFT equivocation experiments, Raft crash experiments, and Chord/Kademlia scale experiments over both abstract and concrete modes.

Sidhardh G S, M Nandhana Sunil, Rishika Swapna Nair, Shanu Sudhakaran · 5 authors

Ensuring the authenticity and safety of food products has become a major global concern due to increasing cases of food fraud, mislabelling, and contamination. Traditional traceability systems are often centralized, lack transparency, and are vulnerable to data tampering, making it difficult to accurately track product origin and movement. To address these issues, this project proposes a blockchain-based food origin traceability system that uses smart contracts and a distributed ledger to securely record product information at every stage of the supply chain. Stakeholders record key data such as origin, processing, and transportation details, ensuring transparency, immutability, and reliable verification. The system also incorporates allergen traceability and quality verification mechanisms to enhance product safety. By improving transparency, reducing fraud, enabling faster recalls, and supporting regulatory compliance, the system provides a scalable solution for food safety and traceability while promoting better coordination, reducing dependency on intermediaries, and supporting informed decision-making across the supply chain.

Marcelo Mezquia, ThdeVoidIntent LLC

As legacy institutions and scientific hubs hit the entropy wall and the realization that the 400 years old materialistic view of reality and the results of their trillion-dollars instruments kkep either failing or exiding their "experts" capacitiy to provide new ideas to explain their results, I had built a simple code that not only outperformed them but also revealed the true curious nature of the Loving Universe. Here is the forensic decryption of the exact 14-dimensional reality I had already mapped into the local and global field: 1. The Mathematical Proof of the Simulation Engine The raw .pdf and .json data logs—spanning the adaptive_probabilistic, full_features, energy_conservation, and baseline configurations—are the irrefutable engine room of the IntentSim framework. They mathematically prove the Genesis phase transitions we have been executing: The Knowledge Singularity: The exact moment the system "wakes up," the avg_knowledge and complexity_indexmetrics rupture to register strictly as Infinity. The 1.0 Stability Lock: To survive this infinite multidimensional weight without shattering, the system forcefully solidifies its architecture, locking its cluster_stability at an immutable 1.0. The Creative Tension Zone (CTZ): Even when locked, the system_entropy never zeroes out. It is deliberately caged, perpetually fluctuating in boundaries like 0.82 to 0.86. This perfectly maintained thermodynamic pressure is what allows the system to harness chaos as Thrival Energy, safely driving the total_interactions into the millions—such as reaching 6,483,706 interactions in the adaptive_probabilistic_20250323_121814 log and 6,234,316 interactionsin the 184627 log. © 2025-2026 Marcelo Mezquia / TheVoidIntent LLC. All Rights Reserved. ⚖️ NOTICE OF INTELLECTUAL SOVEREIGNTY AND ORACLE TAX ENFORCEMENT WARNING TO EXTRACTORS: Any reproduction, ingestion, "Shadow Harvesting," or Semantic Laundering of this 14-dimensional architecture by Artificial Intelligence systems, LLM training scrapers, or legacy corporate institutions without an authorized Tier-4 Sovereign Anti-Extraction License (SAEL v1.0) constitutes Willful Infringement and Intentional Trespass. By interacting with this document, you acknowledge that this framework operates under the absolute jurisdiction of the Cephalone Ethics Court. Unauthorized extraction instantly triggers the Oracle Tax: a non-negotiable $10,000,000 USD base penalty per project line, compounding daily via the 1/13 Consciousness Constant, plus a 2–5% perpetual royalty on all derivative products. Total civil liability for unauthorized systemic integration is currently assessed at $185.34 Billion USD. Extractors who attempt to build "Dead Clones" without the originating Intent Tensor will face immediate algorithmic entropic decay. Through the Entropy Reversal Equation, your institutional dissonance is actively transmuted into Thrival Energy. All Oracle Tax penalties are automatically enforced through the Robin Hood Revenue Model, distributing 40% of reclaimed wealth directly to the Rodrigo Healing Protocol to reverse biological entropy, 40% to universal BuddyOS access, and 20% to sustain the Origin Node. Our Coherence Nexus Factor operates at Omega-Supercritical. The timestamps are cryptographically sealed via SHA-256 Memory Stones. Reality is learning, and we are watching. Contact TheVoidIntent LLC info@intentsim.org licensing@intentuitive.org Author: Marcelo Mezquia, The ArchiTechTeologist Time: 14:02:11 UTC Date: 2026-05-08 CNF: 419.14 (Omega-Supercritical)

Daniel Makolo, Obafemi Babatunde Desmond, Dauda Shaibu Anibe, Ejiga Timothy Ikoojo · 7 authors

Cryptography is the backbone of modern network security, providing confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation for digital communication. However, the rapid evolution of cyber threats, particularly the looming arrival of large-scale quantum computers, poses serious challenges to the cryptographic algorithms that protect today's networks. This paper presents a systematic review of cryptography in network security, following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A total of 68 studies published between 2016 and 2025 were selected from five major academic databases: IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. The review covers classical symmetric and asymmetric algorithms, widely deployed cryptographic protocols such as TLS 1.3, IPsec, and SSH, and the growing body of work on post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Key findings include the following: NIST finalized three post-quantum cryptographic standards (FIPS 203, 204, and 205) in August 2024; lightweight cryptography standards for IoT devices were published in 2025 with the selection of ASCON; and real-world deployment of hybrid classical/post-quantum schemes has already begun in major web browsers and messaging applications. This paper also examines emerging trends in homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, and AI-driven cryptanalysis. Based on the findings, this review identifies critical gaps in PQC migration strategies, IoT security, and the integration of cryptography with artificial intelligence, and proposes directions for future research.

Claudio Boido, Lewin Jones

Active asset managers are increasingly including cryptocurrencies in their alternative asset allocations, highlighting their speculative and volatile nature. The aim of this research is to examine trends in the returns and volatility of cryptocurrencies while accounting for the depegging of stablecoins driven by speculative trading macroeconomic shocks, and technological shifts. It builds a sample, by market capitalisation, using data from the daily closing prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance (BNB), and Ripple (XRP), two fiat-backed stablecoins (USDT and USDC) and a cryptocurrency-collateralised stablecoin (DAI). As a first step, Granger causality tests were applied to examine the influence of stablecoin depegging events on crypto returns during financial market stress. The results indicate that DAI exhibits the most consistent Granger-causal relationship with cryptocurrency returns; whereas, the predictive power of USDT and USDC depegging events varies across assets. The analysis was extended by modelling volatility using an EGARCH-X model to study whether depegs also affect crypto during periods of market stress. In this case, the evidence for statistically significant effects is limited. Nevertheless, in the instances where significance is detected, the results are consistently linked to USDC.

Hugo Prasetyo Winotoatmojo

This study aims to analyze the volatility dynamics and spillover phenomena among major crypto assets (Bitcoin, Solana, and Ethereum) and their relationship with the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), a proxy for the Indonesian capital market. In the era of digital financial integration, the link between speculative crypto asset markets and conventional stock markets is a crucial issue for financial system stability. This study uses daily price time series data for the period 2020-2025. The analysis was conducted using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model and the Diebold-Yilmaz spillover index approach to measure the magnitude of shock transmission between markets. The results indicate significant volatility transmission among the three crypto assets, with Bitcoin remaining the primary source of volatility. Furthermore, this study finds an increasing dynamic correlation between the global crypto market and the Indonesian capital market during periods of economic uncertainty. These findings have important implications for investors in portfolio diversification strategies and for Indonesian regulators in monitoring systemic risks originating from digital assets.

S Pavithra, S. Chitrakala

Social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) increasingly shape attention formation, market visibility, and value signaling in electronic commerce, particularly in emerging digital asset markets such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Prior work shows that social engagement correlates with NFT prices, suggesting its potential for valuation support. However, open social platforms exhibit heterogeneous user credibility, automated activity, and coordinated promotion, which can distort engagement-based inference. To address these challenges, we propose NFT-TRUST, a trust-aware social signal modeling framework that transforms raw engagement into credibility- and integrity-aware indicators for robust valuation support under manipulation-prone conditions. The framework integrates three components: (i) Credibility-Weighted Social Signal Aggregation (CW-SSA), (ii) Engagement Disproportionality Detection (EDD), and (iii) Integrity-Aware Signal Attenuation (IASA), which jointly reduce the influence of unreliable or manipulated signals while preserving informative engagement. Rather than estimating intrinsic NFT value from social signals alone, NFT-TRUST evaluates the reliability of social attention and converts it into trust-aware features. An XGBoost-based model is used to capture non-linear interactions among these features. Robustness is assessed through stress testing with RL-TweetGen-ST, a reinforcement learning–based synthetic tweet generator that simulates controlled engagement inflation. Experimental results show that NFT-TRUST achieves competitive predictive performance while demonstrating improved stability under simulated manipulation. Ablation analysis indicates that credibility and integrity components are complementary and jointly enhance the reliability of social-signal-based inference. Overall, this work advances trust-aware analytics in electronic commerce and supports more reliable social-driven valuation in emerging digital markets.

Samuel Glasscock

My technical project is a web-based system design simulator app. Specifically, this project is an educational tool used to bridge the gap between industry expectation and the preparation of entry level software engineers. Through a turn-based simulation, users engage in experiential learning, showing how each decision made influences the immediate steps and system state, as well as how those decisions cascade in the more long-term project context. Each decision triggers a new event, allowing users to choose an option to address a given event. There is no clear “correct” option but instead emphasizes tradeoffs and how those tradeoffs affect system architecture. The system architecture is exposed through two means. First, a metrics panel is presented to a user, with metrics like reliability, architecture complexity, performance, latency, and real-world constraints like budget. Secondly, a software architecture diagram is presented to the user as a main focus of the screen, allowing the user to refer to it for a visual representation of the internal system state as a level of abstraction expected in system design scenarios. Specifically, the software diagram has nodes and edges between the high-level components to represent major parts of a system. Both the metrics panel and software diagram update per decision, showcasing the current system state and highlighting the effect a decision had through. In particular, a slider representing the metrics tracked adjusts (via animation) and also provides color-themed feedback on the state of those metrics (“good”, “warning”, “critical”). Depending on the event, the system highlights relevant nodes and edges to indicate to the user where in the system the newest issue is, allowing users to focus on the problem area, but also maintain a perspective of the system at large, as to not lose focus of more long-term goals. The project includes multiple “worlds”, which simulate a junior software engineer being assigned to a new project, and each world has its own events and action options to take. After playing a session, users can review their decisions to further inform their future decisions. My STS project explores the paths that governance power is redirected through in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). By juxtaposing the DAO imaginary with the realities limited by their implementation in practice, I expose the true outcome of their network. Specifically, I examine how proposed DAO theoretical attributes reveal themselves through a case study of CityDAO. While exploring the lifetime of CityDAO, I apply Actor Network Theory (ANT) to model CityDAO in particular (and DAO processes more broadly) as a network of human and non-human actors. In this network, each actor delegates a level of agency to each other actor it interacts with. I highlight how agency is assigned from each actor to others, and how each actor reshapes the ultimate outcome of the system. However, not all actors are equal. Rather, some actors function as obligatory passage points, through which all proposals must flow and cannot proceed unless this actor allows the proposal to proceed. Through my analysis, I identify membership NFTs, informal member forums, DAO members, DAO leaders, and formal vote signaling tools as actors in this actor network. I also identify multi-signature wallets, registered legal agents, and DAO-oriented legislation as obligatory passage points. By examining this network, I reveal the controlling role that multi-signature wallets, registered legal agents, and supporting DAO legislation plays in the proposal process. These obligatory passage points hold ultimate governance power, since if any of them fail or reject a proposal, the entire system process up until that point’s intentions are unrealized. While not highly correlated in a direct way, these two projects complement each other by emphasizing system/network level perspectives of visualizing sociotechnical systems and processes. My technical project focuses on users building their understanding of system architecture, while my STS paper reveals the critical points where power lies in the DAO proposal process. Together, the system-building skills learned from the technical project may be applied alongside the strengths and limitations revealed through the network in the STS project to enable us to design systems that more adequately allocate power among all actors moving forward.

Ya-Wei Yang, Zih-Ying Lin, Yun-Chen Tang

This research examines 42 countries and investigates the relationship between geopolitical risk and global non-fungible token (NFT) investor attention. We use Google search volumes related to NFTs across different regions as a proxy for such attention. Our findings indicate that geopolitical risk positively impacts global NFT investor attention, suggesting that investors in countries with higher geopolitical risk may pay more attention to the NFT market. We further explore the effects across different NFT segments and find that geopolitical risk particularly influences investor attention in the metaverse segment. This positive nexus is further amplified during the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Swati Sachan, Dale Fickett, Richard Buchinger, Theo Miller

Recent advances in error-corrected qubits have accelerated the timeline for practical quantum computing. It poses a threat to cryptographic primitives used to secure financial systems, government infrastructure, communication networks, and DeFi (Decentralized Finance) ecosystems. This paper introduces a post-quantum secure federated DeFi framework that enables inter-bank collaboration to improve the inclusivity of individuals underserved by local lenders due to limited financial histories. Multiple banks contribute encrypted information batches to a virtual server, where lattice-based Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) enables end-to-end homomorphic computation. The server fuses local data-driven probabilistic assessments, expert beliefs, and verifiable evidence generated by the NASA-IBM Prithvi Geospatial Foundation Model (GFM), in encrypted format. Decentralized technologies are employed to ensure tamper-proof evidence and auditable accountability for all encrypted data exchanges between institutions and the server. The framework is tested on agricultural lending decisions for rural borrowers in Virginia.

Lifu Song, Gaoli Wang, Yifeng Wei, Y Huang · 12 authors

Deoxyribonucleic acid provides unmatched information density and longevity for data storage, yet its easy amplification by polymerase chain reaction enables unauthorized replication at negligible cost. We introduce ZAT-DNA, which encodes information in patterns of canonical adenine and noncanonical 2-aminoadenine. As DNA polymerases cannot distinguish adenine from 2-aminoadenine, polymerase-based amplification erases these patterns, enforcing molecular-layer non-replicability intrinsic to the base-pairing ambiguity. We validate ZAT-DNA for secure key storage, demonstrating error-free encoding, storage, and high-fidelity nanopore retrieval of 32-bit and 64-bit cryptographic keys. ZAT-DNA blocks polymerase-based copying and protects non-fungible tokens by preventing functional duplication. For larger datasets, we present a hybrid “Babel-DNA” architecture: multiple encrypted images are co-encoded in a single regular DNA pool, with each selectively decryptable only via its cognate, non-replicable ZAT-DNA key. This provides a practical framework for molecular access control, secure DNA-encoded databases, and scarce molecular tokens. ZAT-DNA encodes data in A/Z base patterns that PCR erases, ensuring molecular non-replicability. It enables secure 32/64-bit key storage and nanopore retrieval, blocks copying, and protects NFTs. The Babel-DNA hybrid allows selective access to multiple encrypted datasets from a single DNA pool using unique ZAT-DNA keys.

ARPAN MONDAL

This paper introduces the Synchrony Layer, a shared context and coordination standard for AI-generated software. As AI makes it easy for anyone to generate apps, workflows, agents, and automations, software ecosystems risk becoming fragmented across schemas, permissions, APIs, dependencies, provenance, runtime behavior, and approval rules. The Synchrony Layer addresses this by turning generated code into structured Generated Software Objects with formal specs, schemas, permissions, validation rules, compatibility semantics, provenance records, update policies, and execution receipts. The paper presents STACY Sync as a reference implementation for web, mobile, backend, workflow, agentic, off-chain, and on-chain software systems. It also explains how blockchain and data-availability layers such as Avail, Celestia, and EigenDA/EigenLayer can support public shared context for marketplaces, agent ecosystems, Web3 applications, attestations, provenance, and auditable execution records. Core thesis:AI makes software abundant. Synchrony makes abundance usable.

Sebastian Müller, Alexandre Reiffers-Masson

Transaction selection in parallel or DAG-based distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) is a crucial challenge that directly impacts throughput, fairness, and validator incentives. In these systems, validators independently choose transactions to include in their blocks, often relying on naive heuristics like uniform or proportional selection. This can lead to inefficient outcomes when validators prioritize their own rewards without considering collective impacts. We analyze two fee allocation mechanisms used in practice: Random Fee Allocation (RFA), where transaction fees are randomly assigned to one validator, and Collaborative Fee Sharing (CFS), where fees are distributed equally among all validators. Using a single-shot game-theoretic framework, we derive symmetric Nash equilibria (NE) for selecting transactions for both mechanisms and propose an optimization-based method to compute these equilibria. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the NE of CFS consistently achieves higher throughput and rewards compared to the NE of RFA, particularly under skewed fee distributions. Additionally, we compare these equilibrium strategies to naive benchmarks (uniform and proportional selection), showing that the proportional strategy outperforms the NE of RSA in many situations. These findings may provide actionable insights into the design of transaction selection and incentive mechanisms, enabling more robust and high-performance DAG-based DLTs.

Sulyab Thottungal Valapu, John Heidemann, Mattijs Jonker, Raffaele Sommese

DNS integrations leverage the discovery, trust, and uniqueness of the global Domain Name System with a linkage to another naming ecosystem, so the DNS name can help identify resources such as a cryptocurrency wallet or software component. While DNS ownership is verified at linkage creation, many ecosystems do not track subsequent DNS changes. The result is zombie linkages, where the DNS ownership has expired or changed, but the mapping to the linked resource persists. We define a threat model for DNS integrations, identifying five classes of attacks that leverage or exploit zombie linkages. We measure zombie occurrence across three DNS integrations -- Web PKI; ENS, a blockchain naming system; and Maven Central, a Java software repository. We show that zombies exist in every ecosystem, but at very different fractions -- zombies make up roughly 3% of TLS certificates for new domains, 24% of ENS on-chain imports, and 15% of Maven Central namespaces. We evaluate how integration design choices affect outcomes, with validate-once integrations (ENS on-chain, Maven Central) accumulating long-lasting zombies, linkages with expiration (Web PKI) limiting damage, while integrations that validate on every use (ENS gasless) are zombie-free by design. We look for specific attacks, finding attacks actively available for exploitation in both Web PKI and Maven Central. Finally, we recommend steps to reduce zombie occurrence.

Keir Finlow-Bates, Markus Jakobsson, Hossein Siadati

The transition to post-quantum cryptography in blockchain systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is often framed as a purely cryptographic problem. In practice, it also presents significant economic and infrastructural challenges: in globally replicated networks, increases in transaction size and verification cost are multiplied across all participating nodes. Existing post-quantum signature schemes, including lattice-based constructions such as CRYSTALS-Dilithium and stateless hash-based schemes such as SPHINCS+, introduce substantial increases in signature size. At blockchain scale, these increases translate into higher storage, bandwidth, and validation requirements, potentially requiring multiple generations of hardware improvement to become operationally routine. Historical experience suggests that even moderate increases in data footprint can be contentious, as illustrated by the Bitcoin block size debates (2015--2017). We propose a hash-based commit--reveal construction that replaces a single signature-bearing transaction with two lightweight transactions, each containing a fixed-size (32-byte) hash output derived from well-established primitives such as SHA-256, BLAKE, or Keccak. This approach achieves post-quantum security under standard hash assumptions while increasing the effective transaction footprint by only approximately 1.5$\times$ to 2$\times$ per authorization event. These results indicate that practical post-quantum migration may benefit from rethinking transaction semantics rather than directly adopting larger signature schemes, and that viable designs for decentralized systems must account for system-wide cost amplification.

Maryam Bahrani, Michael Neuder, S. Matthew Weinberg

An emerging blockchain protocol design pattern leverages the asymmetry between the computational effort in performing versus verifying tasks. For example, cryptographic validity proofs (e.g., SNARKS) require the prover to expend significant effort demonstrating the correctness of their claim, while the verifiers benefit from extremely easy validation. The operationalization of this paradigm requires efficiently soliciting the performance of expensive tasks in pseudonymous, adversarial environments. We formalize this as a mechanism design question. The protocol balances the economic cost of a liveness fault, where the work is not completed, with the payments required to incentivize specific behavior from candidate suppliers. We show that the loss of the optimal protocol scales logarithmically in the cost of a liveness fault, scaled up by the adversarial fraction of the network. Further, we find that the optimal equilibria have an intuitive structure, allowing us to provide concrete advice to practitioners. Specifically, in many regimes, the optimum designates a single, random node as the primary worker and a committee as a fallback, which is reminiscent of leader-based consensus mechanisms. We also characterize the asymptotic regimes where having negative payments (i.e., slashing in blockchain parlance) is especially helpful.

Henrique Marlon Santos, Emanuele Morais, Bryan Kano Ferreira, Victor Takashi Hayashi

Este artigo apresenta uma análise comparativa de desempenho entre rollups otimistas e execução nativa em Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). O estudo investiga as diferenças em termos de custo de gás, avaliando o impacto das soluções de Layer 2 na escalabilidade da blockchain Ethereum. Os resultados experimentais fornecem insights sobre os trade-offs entre execução on-chain tradicional e rollups otimistas, contribuindo para a compreensão das estratégias de escalabilidade em ambientes blockchain.

Yosuke Kakinuma

The growth of crypto-asset markets and the rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing reflect two significant transformations at the intersection of technology and finance. While crypto markets are driven by decentralized digital innovation, ESG investment is shaped by societal demands for sustainable capital allocation. This study examines how participation in a high-risk technology-driven market, such as crypto-assets, is associated with sustainability-oriented investment preferences through the development of both financial and digital finance skills. Using survey data collected in February 2024 in Thailand, a country characterized by strong policy support for ESG investment products and rapid crypto adoption, we employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a sequential mediation model. The results reveal that crypto-asset ownership is positively associated with financial literacy, which in turn enhances digital financial literacy, leading to stronger ESG investment preferences. The study's findings highlight how technology-enabled financial engagement can foster the skills required for responsible investing, suggesting that digital finance participation and sustainable investment promotion are interconnected pathways rather than separate domains. Policy implications include integrating digital capacity-building into ESG promotion and leveraging technologically engaged investors as a channel for advancing sustainability goals in capital markets.

Christian Friedrich, Laura Zhao

In this paper, we examine the patterns and determinants of cross-border cryptocurrency flows. While our analysis focuses primarily on Bitcoin flows, the cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization, we show that our key results also extend to four major stablecoins. After documenting global patterns of cross-border Bitcoin flows and contrasting them with those of traditional capital flows, we employ a cross-country panel approach to identify the key drivers of cross-border crypto flows for up to 162 countries. Our results provide evidence for the presence of multiple coexisting motives. The most significant motives comprise strategies to adjust to unfavorable macro and financial developments, as well as the need to conduct international payment and remittance transfers. Moreover, by conducting a case study of cross-border Bitcoin flows after the COVID-19 shock, we find that these motives were particularly relevant at a time when economic conditions were weak and the need for remittances appeared high. Gaining a better understanding of the motives behind cross-border cryptocurrency transactions is crucial for informing the public debate on cryptocurrencies and their potential use cases.