Blockchain Papers

Patricia Callejo, Ignacio Fernández, Marcelo Bagnulo

Abstract Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are becoming increasingly popular as a way to represent and own digital property. However, the usage of NFTs also prompts questions about privacy. In this work, we show that it is possible to use NFTs to retrieve enough information to fingerprint users. By doing so, we can uniquely associate users with blockchain accounts. This would allow linking several blockchain accounts to the same user. This work focuses on the vulnerabilities presented by some popular NFT marketplaces. Since NFTs may have HTML files embedded, they allow the use of fingerprinting techniques if not handled carefully. Finally, we provide recommendations and countermeasures for the different actors in this ecosystem to avoid these kinds of tracking methods and, in doing so, safeguard user privacy.

Shamsa Kanwal, Saba Inam, Zara Nawaz, Fahima Hajjej · 6 authors

IoT enables the emergence and implementation of smart devices to address real-world problems and challenges. Today we are surrounded by various smart devices, such as smart phones, smart homes, smart cars, smart televisions, and smartwatches that assist us in making our lives easier and smoother. IoT is a conglomeration of multiple technologies at various layers to impart the best of ubiquitous and pervasive computing to deliver several benefits in a variety of application sectors such as medicine, agriculture, and industry. In an IoT setting, blockchain technology is used for addressing security challenges and eradicating third-party participation. Utilizing public networks for storing or transmitting health care images poses risks of eavesdropping, data breaches, and unauthorized access. Before uploading medical data to the decentralized network, encryption is required to prevent unauthorized access. The aim of this study is to integrate technologies to ensure transactions are conducted safely and securely. We proposed an IoT-Blockchain system based on chaos encryption scheme using Tinkerbell mapping to ensure medical data integrity and authenticity. The suggested approach is examined to assess performance parameters such as, key space analysis, key sensitivity analysis, Information Entropy (IE), histogram, correlation of adjacent pixels, Number of Pixel Change Rate (NPCR), Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI), Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE) and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM). These findings demonstrated that the suggested method is extremely efficient in avoiding security breaches and guaranteeing information integrity.

Damiano Di Francesco Maesa, Laura Ricci, Luca Santarella, Yitbarek Yimame

Centralised cryptocurrency exchanges are often a mandatory first point of entry for most blockchain users. This means that such services have to compete for user attention, often by boosting their attractiveness through questionable behaviours. One of such practices is wash trading, i.e. injecting fake trades to artificially boost the service statistics to portray an unreal users engagement. To protect inexperienced users from dishonest services it is then paramount to develop a set of techniques to identify fraudulent behaviours. This is why, in this paper, we propose a set of automated, yet intuitive analysis that may hint at possible misbehaviour. The goal of these techniques is to be intuitive enough to be understandable by inexperienced users. To this aim we present our experimental results on the real world data of two exchanges, one considered honest and the other suspicious. The outcome is encouraging, as it reveals how dishonest behaviour can be macroscopically detectable, even by the considered intuitive tests.

Maoyi Xie, Ming Hu, Ziqiao Kong, Cen Zhang · 10 authors

Although Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications facilitate tamper-proof transactions among multiple anonymous users, since attackers can access the smart contract bytecode directly, vulnerabilities in the transaction mechanism, contract code, or third-party components can be easily exploited to manipulate token prices, leading to financial losses. Since price manipulation often relies on specific states and complex trading sequences, existing detection tools have limitations in addressing this problem. In addition, to swiftly identify the root cause of an attack and implement targeted defense and remediation measures, auditors typically prioritize understanding the methodology behind the attack, emphasizing 'how' it occurred rather than simply confirming its existence. To address these problems, this paper presents a novel automatic price manipulation detection and analysis framework, named DeFort, which contains a price manipulation behavior model to guide on-chain detection, multiple price monitoring strategies to detect pools with abnormal token prices, and various profit calculation mechanisms to confirm attacks. Based on behavioral models, DeFort can automatically locate transactions and functions that cause abnormal price fluctuations and identify attackers and victims. Experimental results demonstrate that DeFort can outperform state-of-the-art price manipulation detection methods. Furthermore, after monitoring 441 real-world projects for two months, DeFort successfully detected five price manipulation attacks.

Makadiya Kishan, S. Madhu, Vaghela Krunal

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become increasingly more popular in recent years as a manner to represent particular virtual assets on the blockchain. However, the creation of NFTs can be a complicated and technical process that calls for an understanding of blockchain technology and programming. To make the procedure more accessible to a wider target audience, NFT turbines have been developed to enable customers to create their very own NFTs without the want for technical knowhow. This paper pursues to discover the consumer experience of NFT mills and their capability effect on the adoption of NFTs. We conducted a literature evaluation to study present studies on NFTs and case studies of NFT generator structures and remarks from popular NFT generator systems to gain insights into the person revealed. Our analysis revealed that NFT turbines can substantially simplify the procedure of making and selling NFTs. By supplying person-pleasant interfaces and automation of technical duties, NFT turbines can allow a much broader audience to take part in the NFT marketplace. There also are demanding situations that want to be addressed to make sure a fine user enjoy. These encompass issues around the protection, transparency, and authenticity of NFTs. We identified numerous key layout concerns for NFT turbines, which include ease of use, customization alternatives, and assistance for a couple of blockchains. we discovered that Mintable gives a streamlined and consumer-friendly revel in for developing and selling NFTs, with several customization options and aid for multiple blockchains. NFT generators will possibly play an increasingly vital function in permitting users to take part in this emerging economy. Overall, this research highlights the significance of personal experience within the design of NFT generators and gives insights and hints for designers looking to create NFT generator systems that are consumer-friendly, on-hand, and secure.

Minfeng Qi, Qin Wang, Zhipeng Wang, Manvir Schneider · 8 authors

In this article, we present the first Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) on constructing Layer Two (L2) solutions for Bitcoin. We carefully examine a representative subset of ongoing Bitcoin L2 solutions (40 out of 335 extensively investigated cases) and provide a concise yet impactful identification of six classic design patterns through two approaches (i.e., modifying transactions and creating proofs). Notably, we are the first to incorporate the inscription technology (emerged in mid-2023), along with a series of related innovations. We further establish a reference framework that serves as a baseline criterion ideally suited for evaluating the security aspects of Bitcoin L2 solutions, and which can also be extended to broader L2 applications. We apply this framework to evaluate each of the projects we investigated. We find that the inscription-based approaches introduce new functionality (i.e., programability) to Bitcoin systems, whereas existing proof-based solutions primarily address scalability challenges. Our security analysis reveals new attack vectors targeting data/state (availability, verification), assets (withdrawal, recovery), and users (disputes, censorship).

Tong Liu, Si-Nga Lai, Xiaochen Yuan, Yue Liu · 5 authors

This article proposes a new digital watermarking mechanism based on the Ethereum blockchain, Smart Contract, and Interplanetary File System (IPFS), with an enhanced Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT) algorithm for watermark embedding and extraction. The proposed scheme aims to address the limitations of existing digital watermarking techniques, such as dependence on third-party platforms, by leveraging the decentralization feature of blockchain. The Smart Contract is used to manage the transaction between the parties involved in the watermarking process, while IPFS is used to store the watermark data. The enhanced FWHT algorithm is used to embed the watermark into the host image without affecting its visual quality. The results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of both imperceptibility and robustness. Additionally, it demonstrates that our scheme can effectively resist various attacks. Therefore, our scheme can be a promising solution for image copyright protection, authentication applications, and image trading.

Muhammad Razali, Azrul Amri Jamal, Syed Abdullah Fadzli, Muhammad D. Zakaria · 6 authors

The act of voting is an inherent and essential entitlement that is universally granted to all individuals. Electronic voting, commonly known as e-voting, is a voting method that utilises electronic equipment to facilitate and manage the process of casting and tallying votes. Electronic voting systems are employed to expedite the process of tallying ballots. Furthermore, it will reduce the amount of money needed to pay for counting staff while also reducing human error. The implementation of remote voting would greatly benefit individuals residing at a considerable distance from their designated polling location, as it would afford them the convenience of casting their vote at any given time and from any geographical area. The utilisation of blockchain technology presents novel opportunities for the creation and advancement of innovative digital services. The implementation of Blockchain-Enabled e-Voting has promise in mitigating instances of election fraud and enhancing voter accessibility. The voting process involved the utilisation of electronic devices, such as computers or smartphones, by those who met the criteria for voter eligibility. This method ensured that the voting process maintained the principle of anonymity. The significance of electronic credibility services has seen substantial development, becoming as a crucial element inside the contemporary information era. This project seeks to implement the objective of constructing an electronic voting system utilising blockchain technology. The two-level architecture ensures secure voting without relying on current (non-blockchain) technologies for redundancy. The blockchain-based voting project is made up of two components that work together to make the whole thing operate. One will be the admin, who will be in charge of creating elections, as well as adding candidates to the smart contract elections. The other type of user is the voter, who can vote for their preferred candidate and have their vote recorded on the blockchain to make it tamper-proof.

Sonitema Laia, Ari Moesriami Barmawi

Election systems often face severe challenges regarding security and trust. Threats such as vote falsification and lack of transparency in vote counting have shaken the integrity of elections in various countries. The use of blockchain technology in e-voting has been proposed as an attractive solution to overcome this problem. Several studies use blockchain for the security of electronic voting systems. The existing methods are not resistant against impersonation attacks and man-in-the-middle attacks. This research proposes a new scheme to strengthen a blockchain-based e-voting system. The blockchain used in the proposed method is Ethereum. The proposed scheme uses the modified framework and The Goldreich-Goldwasser-Halevi (GGH) signature scheme. Digital signatures generated using Goldreich-Goldwasser-Halevi (GGH) can strengthen the identity of the message sender so that enemies cannot imitate someone. In this research, the Voter's public key and anonymous ID are used by the Voter to maintain the Voter's anonymity. Based on the experimental results, it can be concluded that the proposed scheme is stronger than the previous scheme because the probability of success in impersonating the sender with the proposed scheme using an impersonation attack and man-in-the-middle attack is small.

Meiqi Li, Kaiping Xue, Xinyi Luo, Wentuo Sun · 7 authors

Electronic voting plays a crucial role in facilitating democratic and convenient decision-making in people’s lives. However, implementing an electronic voting system poses challenges, such as meeting the stringent security requirements for anonymity, fairness, and verifiability. Another concern is the performance degradation when dealing with a large number of voters. In this paper, we propose$S^{3}$Voting, a blockchain sharding-based e-voting scheme that addresses these challenges. By combining robust security and scalability,$S^{3}$Voting provides reliable technical support for conducting large-scale elections. Utilizing advanced technologies such asHomomorphic Time-Lock Puzzle (HTLP)andone-time ring signature, the system safeguards voters’ privacy and ballot confidentiality. The approach involves dividing voters and miners into smaller shards, and implementing shard managing mechanisms to ensure security and enhance system efficiency. Through thorough security analysis, we demonstrate that$S^{3}$Voting not only meets the fundamental security requirements of e-voting but also offers verifiability and strong robustness-essential elements for successful large-scale elections. Moreover, experimental results indicate that$S^{3}$Voting significantly reduces the computational burden on individual miners and minimizes system processing time compared to existing blockchain-based e-voting solutions.

Samuel Hand, Alexander Koch, Pascal Lafourcade, Daiki Miyahara · 5 authors

Abstract A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) allows a prover to prove to a verifier that it knows some secret, such as a solution to a difficult puzzle, without revealing any information about it. In recent years, ZKP protocols using only a deck of playing cards for solutions to various pencil puzzles have been proposed. The previous work of Lafourcade et al. deals with a famous puzzle called Slitherlink. Their proposed protocol can verify that a solution forms a single loop without revealing anything about the solution, except this fact. Their protocol guarantees that the solution satisfies the single-loop condition, by interactively constructing a solution starting from a state that holds a simple single loop, and proceeding via steps that preserve the invariant of encoding a single loop, until the proper solution is reached. A drawback of their protocol is that it requires additional verifications to guarantee a single loop. In this study, we propose a more efficient ZKP protocol for such a puzzle with fewer additional verifications. For this, we employ the previous work of Robert et al., which addressed the connectivity property in a puzzle. That is, we verify that a solution is connected but not split, to be a single loop. Applying our proposal, we construct a card-based ZKP protocol for Moon-or-Sun, which has its specific rule of alternating pattern in addition to the single-loop condition.

George Misiakoulis, Harris Niavis, Stéphane Kündig, Konstantinos Loupos

E-voting systems often face risks such as data breaches, vote manipulation, and lack of voter confidence. Balancing security and anonymity has posed significant obstacles that obscured the immense potential of electronic voting systems. This paper addresses critical challenges in e-voting, including security vulnerabilities, lack of transparency, scalability and user accessibility issues. We propose a privacy-preserving framework to tackle these challenges, enhancing the security, transparency and scalability of e-voting systems. Our framework leverages blockchain to provide a tamper-evident ledger, zero-knowledge proofs to ensure ballot secrecy and data integrity and Merkle Trees to facilitate data storage in a scalable manner. Furthermore, we present findings of the framework's performance that was conducted under an e-voting use case, while we suggest improvements towards an even more secure and transparent framework.

Ammar Almomani, Ahmad Al–Qerem, Mohammad Al Khaldy, Mohammad Alauthman · 6 authors

This chapter analyzes the most sophisticated cryptography methods which are used to protect blockchain-based cryptocurrency transactions against attacks by botnets. First, a background will explain blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and threat space for bots is going to sing in. Core cryptographic building blocks such as hash functions and digital signatures are outlined. The chapter furthermore outlines methods to confront botnet threats in blockchain ecosystems, including two processes to sign the user charting, a sign policy standard, code signing, attestation, multi-party computation for private transactions, and zero-knowledge proofs. Finally, we present some obstacles and ideas for research along the way. Conclusively, the systematic incorporation of cryptographic defenses would be the providing layer of security as well as the guarantee of the integrity of cryptocurrency transactions. Continual improvements in scalable cryptographic algorithms and their implication in blockchain platforms will make secure mechanisms against botnets possible.

Neyire Deniz Sarier

No abstract is available for this record.

R. I. Minu, G. Nagarajan

In the era of digital transformation, trust and security are paramount in ensuring the integrity of various online transactions and processes, including voting systems. Traditional centralized trust management and voting systems have faced challenges related to security, transparency, and accountability. To address these issues, this research introduces a novel Blockchain-Enabled Decentralized Trust Management and Secure Voting System . It leverages blockchain technology, a decentralized and immutable ledger, to enhance trust, transparency, and security in trust management and voting processes. This system combines several key components, including smart contracts, cryptographic techniques, and distributed ledger technology, to create a robust and tamper-resistant infrastructure. In the trust management aspect, the proposed system employs a decentralized reputation system where individuals and entities can build trust through transparent and verifiable interactions. Smart contracts automate trust-building processes and provide a reliable mechanism for dispute resolution. This system allows for trust to be quantified and established in a trustless environment. The secure voting component introduces a tamper-proof and transparent voting system. Through the use of cryptographic keys and digital signatures, voters can securely cast their votes while ensuring anonymity and integrity. All voting transactions are recorded on the blockchain, providing a permanent and auditable record of the election process. Verification of election results becomes accessible to all stakeholders, enhancing transparency and trust in the electoral process. The Blockchain-Enabled Decentralized Trust Management and Secure Voting System represents a significant step towards enhancing trust and security in critical online processes, such as voting. By combining blockchain technology, cryptography, and decentralized trust mechanisms, it offers a promising solution to address the challenges associated with centralized trust management and voting systems. This research paves the way for a more transparent, secure, and accountable future in the realm of digital trust and elections.

Vassilis Papaspirou, Ioanna Kantzavelou, Yagmur Yigit, Λέανδρος Μαγλαράς · 5 authors

The evolution of authentication mechanisms in ensuring secure access to systems has been crucial for mitigating vulnerabilities and enhancing system security. However, despite advancements in two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA), authentication mechanisms remain weak in system security, particularly when individuals accessing critical systems are involved. In response to this challenge, we propose a novel blockchain-based multi-factor dynamic authentication mechanism (BMFA) that integrates honeytoken technology to enhance security. Our proposed mechanism leverages Ethereum blockchain technology and smart contracts to provide a decentralized and robust authentication framework. By incorporating honeytokens into smart contracts, we introduce a dynamic layer of security that continuously adapts to prevent potential attacks. Our evaluation demonstrates that our BMFA mechanism effectively addresses various security challenges, including brute force attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and smart contract vulnerabilities, while providing robust protection against unauthorized access. Our findings emphasise the efficacy of the BMFA mechanism in enhancing system security and mitigating evolving threats in authentication processes for next-generation critical industrial control systems.

Samuel de Oliveira Ribeiro, Dayan Ramos Gomes, Nara Raquel D. Andrade, Emanuel Aurélio F. de Miranda · 5 authors

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital objects with unique identities and ownership verified via blockchain networks. The digital arts and media industry has embraced NFTs for their secure features, such as defining authorship, transfer, and royalties, which can be programmed into smart contracts. The classification of NFTs is crucial for their commercialization but often relies on the author’s definition, which may be prone to errors, or on expert evaluation. In this work, we analyze NFT collection classes based on metadata extracted from OpenSea, the largest NFT platform. We assess the efficiency of supervised machine learning to identify the most relevant attributes of these collections and classify them into the nine most popular categories on the platform. Our results demonstrate the challenges of automating classification to assist users and platform curators, achieving a promising accuracy of 67% and an F1 score of 72% in the best cases.

Manav Pankaj Jariwala, Mohammad S. Obaidat, Mohammad Wazid, Amit Kumar Mishra · 5 authors

A decentralized file storage system is a system for storing the data. The files are stored across a distributed network of nodes. It does not rely on a centralized server. Each node in the network maintains a copy of the data. In this system, files are broken into smaller pieces and then distributed over multiple nodes. It improves redundancy and makes the system resilient. It leverages over peer-to-peer (P2P) networking protocols. It also utilizes blockchain technology to provide secure and efficient file storage. A decentralized file storage system has various applications, i.e., content distribution, file sharing and collaboration, decentralized applications (dApps), content deliv-ery networks (CDNs), personal data ownership and data backup and recovery. Though it is used in various applications, at the same time, it also has several issues, including data secrecy and data integrity. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a blockchain-based decentralized scheme for a secure file storage system. The proposed scheme offers a robust solution for addressing the security issues that are associated with centralized file storage systems. It is accomplished by utilizing the Ethereum blockchain, solidity smart contracts, Metamask, React.js, CSS, and Ethers.js. The evaluation of the implemented system has shown that it is effective in ensuring safe and decentralized file storage.

Xiaohua Wu, Jing Wang, Tingbo Zhang

No abstract is available for this record.

Milan Feltovic

Blockchain technology has evolved from its origins in cryptocurrencies to become a fundamental component of secure digital interactions across diverse sectors, including healthcare, finance, and public administration. This article delves into the theoretical and practical applications of cryptography within blockchain networks, emphasizing key cryptographic functions, algorithms, and protocols such as RSA, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and SHA-256. It scrutinizes the use of digital signatures for transaction verification and the crucial role of hash functions in ensuring data integrity. Additionally, the article presents practical examples of symmetric and asymmetric encryption methods, underscoring their significance in maintaining privacy and security. The study also highlights the emerging challenges posed by quantum computing and explores ongoing research in post-quantum cryptography. Furthermore, it provides insights into the advancements in cryptographic techniques essential for the robustness of decentralized networks. By linking theoretical frameworks with practical implementations, this article aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the cryptographic security measures pivotal for the future of blockchain technology.

Rui Pan, Zeshun Shi, Adam Belloum, Zhiming Zhao

Preserving privacy in blockchain-based systems is crucial for ensuring anonymity and confidentiality during transactions. While cryptographic solutions can address on-chain privacy concerns, their implementation on blockchains may introduce performance overhead, which remains unclear to researchers and practitioners. This paper investigates the performance impact of integrating zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) into the widely adopted permissioned blockchain framework called Hyperledger Fabric. The study focuses on evaluating the scalability and bottleneck aspects of blockchain platforms incorporating ZKPs. Through comprehensive experimentation and analysis, the study reveals that the integration of ZKPs compromises performance in terms of transaction rates and latency, while effectively safeguarding users’ personal information. Implementing on-chain ZKP feature would result in a performance loss of 30% to 87.5% in various experimental configurations in Hyperledger Fabric. The findings presented in this paper are informative for the design and implementation of blockchain-based systems with strict privacy requirements.

Chunjie Guo, Lin You, Xingyu Li, Gengran Hu · 6 authors

Biometric authentication is a very convenient and user-friendly method. The popularity of this method requires strong privacy-preserving technology to prevent the disclosure of template information. Most of the existing privacy protection technologies rely on classic encryption techniques, such as homomorphic encryption, which incur huge system overhead and cannot be popularized. To address these issues, we propose a novel biometric authentication scheme with privacy protection based on support vector machine and zero knowledge proof (BioAu–SVM+ZKP). BioAu–SVM+ZKP allows users to authenticate themselves to different service providers without disclosing any biometric template information. The evidence is generated through the zero-knowledge proof utilizing polynomial commitments. Our approach for generating a unique and repeatable biometric identifier from the user’s fingerprint image leverages the multi-classification property of SVM. Notably, our scheme not only reduces the communication overhead but also provides the privacy protection features. Besides, the communication overhead of BioAu–SVM+ZKP is constant. We have simulated the authentication scheme on the common dataset NIST, analyzed the performance and proved the security.

Divyanshu Awasthi, Priyank Khare, Vinay Kumar Srivastava, Amit Kumar Singh

No abstract is available for this record.

Ritika Gupta, Manoj Singh Adhikari, Dharm Raj, Vishal Jain · 6 authors

With the emergence of web2.0 the internet experienced a transformative shift in the sectors of organization and sharing of data. This era introduced interactive and user-generated content-based platforms which allowed communications and information to become bidirectional between clients and servers. It also revealed several vulnerabilities that arose from the intermediary dependency and central control. Web3.0 is the next step in this evolution of the internet that offers a promising decentralized, user-centric, and secure digital ecosystem. The core enabling technology of this evolution is blockchain, a distributed and immutable ledger that has extended its influence in recent years far beyond the realm of digital currencies to become a fundamental component of web3.0. This chapter explores the merging of blockchain and web3.0 to create an integrated digital landscape that overcomes previous vulnerabilities, practical strategies of integration, combined impact and diverse use cases such as DeFi, DApps and DAO.