Ring confidential transactions (RingCT) is a classical protocol that enhances transaction privacy within blockchain technology. It is primarily utilized in anonymous cryptocurrencies such as Monero. In recent years, to counter the security threats posed by quantum computing to classical RingCT (C-RCT), several post-quantum RingCT (P-RCT) protocols were proposed. However, prior studies do not address the account transition from C-RCT to P-RCT, which is essential to ensure the quantum resistance and usability of user accounts following the upgrade from C-RCT to P-RCT. In this article, we introduce a RingCT account transition protocol (RAT), which allows users to migrate their accounts from the blockchain with C-RCT to that with P-RCT. The protocol consists of two cryptographic components: 1) a zero-knowledge proof scheme used to prove that two group generators correspond to the same witness and 2) a cross-cryptosystems commitment transition protocol. RAT is fully decentralized and does not require any trusted third parties. Additionally, the transition process does not disclose the account balance and maintains both atomicity and consistency. The security of our protocol relies on the cryptographic components within RingCT, without the need for additional security assumptions, such as a trusted setup. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our protocol in practice.
This article proposes a novel method for managing usage counters within an anonymous credential system, addressing the limitation of traditional anonymous credentials in tracking repeated use. The method takes advantage of blockchain technology through Smart Contracts deployed on the Ethereum network to enforce a predetermined maximum number of uses for a given credential. Users retain control over increments by providing zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) demonstrating private key possession and agreement on the increment value. This approach prevents replay attacks and ensures transparency and security. A prototype implementation on a private Ethereum blockchain demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method, paving the way for its potential deployment in real-world applications requiring both anonymity and usage tracking.
We consider random trigonometric polynomials with general dependent coefficients. We show that under mild hypotheses on the structure of dependence, the asymptotics as the degree goes to infinity of the expected number of real zeros coincides with the independent case. To the best of our knowledge, this universality result is the first obtained in a non-Gaussian dependent context. Our proof highlights the robustness of real zeros, even in the presence of dependencies. These findings bring the behavior of random polynomials closer to real-world models, where dependencies between coefficients are common.
In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the presence of malicious nodes (MNs) poses significant challenges to data integrity, network stability, and system reliability. These issues are intensified by energy resource constraints and limitations within centralized authentication systems, necessitating an energy-efficient solution to ensure real-time responsiveness. Although artificial intelligence-driven approaches enhance detection capabilities, they overcome challenges related to data volume, coordination overhead, and latency in centralized control. This study introduces blockchain-machine learning (BC-ML), a novel hybrid model that seamlessly integrates blockchain and machine learning (ML) techniques to effectively identify MNs in WSNs. The model establishes an energy-efficient blockchain among cluster heads (CHs) for robust node authentication, incorporating a Schnorr-like zero-knowledge-proof technique to validate node data during communication initiation. Utilizing a hybrid lightweight approach with both symmetric and asymmetric ciphers enhances the security of node data transmission. A new proof-of-authority method is introduced, which leverages node digital certificates instead of conventional data transactions. This consensus mechanism reduces the processing overhead associated with larger data sizes in traditional proof-of-work methods, thereby improving both energy efficiency and scalability. To address dataset imbalances, the model employs a hybrid unsupervised ML technique, combining adaptive synthetic sampling with a convolutional neural network for efficient analysis of nodes and network features. The ML model, hosted on a robust data server, ensures ongoing oversight by updating CHs with security levels for detected MNs, thereby reducing storage and mitigating coordination challenges. Comprehensive analyses validate the effectiveness of the BC-ML model for detecting MNs, optimizing resource utilization, minimizing delays, and prolonging node and network lifetimes. Security analysis further confirms the ability of the model to mitigate diverse attacks and meet the stringent WSN security requirement.
DNA fingerprinting and matching for identifying suspects has been a common practice in criminal investigation. Such proceedings involve multiple parties such as investigating agencies, suspects and forensic labs. A major challenge in such settings is to carry out the matching process between the suspects' DNA samples and the samples obtained from the crime scene without compromising the privacy of the suspects' DNA profiles. Additionally, it is necessary that sensitive details pertaining to the investigation such as the identities of the suspects and evidence obtained from the crime scene must be kept private to the investigating agency. We present a novel DNA matching scheme, termed as PrivaMatch, which addresses multiple concerns about privacy of the suspects' DNA profiles and the crime scene evidence. In the proposed scheme, the investigating agencies oblivious transfer and zero-knowledge proofs to privately obtain the DNA profiles of the suspects from the forensic lab's database.In addition, we present a clever data obfuscation technique using homomorphic encryption and modular arithmetic for the investigating agency to privately obtain the DNA profile of the crime scene's sample, keeping the profile oblivious from the forensic lab. The DNA profile of the crime scene sample is operated on using a homomorphic cryptosystem such that neither of the parties (e.g., the investigation agency, forensic labs, DNA database owners) learns about the private data of the other parties. The proposed scheme is analysed formally and the practicality of its security strengths is verified using simulations under standard assumptions.
Rollups have emerged as a promising approach to improving blockchains' scalability by offloading transactions execution off-chain. Existing rollup solutions either leverage complex zero-knowledge proofs or optimistically assume execution correctness unless challenged. However, these solutions suffer from high gas costs and significant withdrawal delays, hindering their adoption in decentralized applications. This paper introduces TEERollup, an efficient rollup protocol that leverages Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to achieve both low gas costs and short withdrawal delays. Sequencers (system participants) execute transactions within TEEs and upload signed execution results to the blockchain with confidential keys of TEEs. Unlike most TEE-assisted blockchain designs, TEERollup adopts a practical threat model where the integrity and availability of TEEs may be compromised. To address these issues, we first introduce a distributed system of sequencers with heterogeneous TEEs, ensuring system security even if a certain proportion of TEEs are compromised. Second, we propose a challenge mechanism to solve the redeemability issue caused by TEE unavailability. Furthermore, TEERollup incorporates Data Availability Providers (DAPs) to reduce on-chain storage overhead and uses a laziness penalty mechanism to regulate DAP behavior. We implement a prototype of TEERollup in Golang, using the Ethereum test network, Sepolia. Our experimental results indicate that TEERollup outperforms zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups), reducing on-chain verification costs by approximately 86% and withdrawal delays to a few minutes.
Nicolas Huber, Ralf Küsters, Julian Liedtke, Daniel Rausch
Abstract Electronic voting (e-voting) systems have become more prevalent in recent years, but security concerns have also increased, especially regarding the privacy and verifiability of votes. As an essential ingredient for constructing secure e-voting systems, designers often employ zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), allowing voters to prove their votes are valid without revealing them. Invalid votes can then be discarded to protect verifiability without compromising the privacy of valid votes. General purpose zero-knowledge proofs (GPZKPs) such as ZK-SNARKs can be used to prove arbitrary statements, including ballot validity. While a specialized ZKP that is constructed only for a specific election type/voting method, ballot format, and encryption/commitment scheme can be more efficient than a GPZKP, the flexibility offered by GPZKPs would allow for quickly constructing e-voting systems for new voting methods and new ballot formats. So far, however, the viability of GPZKPs for showing ballot validity for various ballot formats, in particular, whether and in how far they are practical for voters to compute, has only recently been investigated for ballots that are computed as Pedersen vector commitments in an ACM CCS 2022 paper by Huber et al. Here, we continue this line of research by performing a feasibility study of GPZKPs for the more common case of ballots encrypted via Exponential ElGamal encryption. Specifically, building on the work by Huber et al., we describe how the Groth16 ZK-SNARK can be instantiated to show ballot validity for arbitrary election types and ballot formats encrypted via Exponential ElGamal. As our main contribution, we implement, benchmark, and compare several such instances for a wide range of voting methods and ballot formats. Our benchmarks not only establish a basis for protocol designers to make an educated choice for or against such a GPZKP, but also show that GPZKPs are actually viable for showing ballot validity in voting systems using Exponential ElGamal.
Zeiger is a pencil puzzle consisting of a rectangular grid, with each cell having an arrow pointing in horizontal or vertical direction. Some cells also contain a positive integer. The objective of this puzzle is to fill a positive integer into every unnumbered cell such that the integer in each cell is equal to the number of different integers in all cells along the direction an arrow in that cell points to. In this paper, we prove that deciding solvability of a given Zeiger puzzle is NP-complete via a reduction from the not-all-equal positive 3SAT (NAE3SAT+) problem. We also construct a card-based physical zero-knowledge proof protocol for Zeiger, which enables a prover to physically show a verifier the existence of the puzzle's solution without revealing it.
For the podcast associated with this article, please visit https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/pages/Podcasts. This Focus Issue opens with the first President’s page by Prof. Thomas Lüscher entitled ‘From a group of friends to an esteemed institution: past successes and future challenges for the European Society of Cardiology’ in which the new President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) summarizes the key steps that have made ESC one of the largest and most prestigious medical societies in the world.1 He also highlights the main exciting goals that he will pursue during his presidency over the next two years. Then the Editor’s page entitled ‘European Heart Journal: a call to action’ in which the Editors of the European Heart Journal (EHJ) highlight the mission of the Journal, which is not only the dissemination of innovative scientific knowledge but also the promotion of best clinical practice.2 The Editors invite population, clinical, and translational scientists to submit their best manuscripts to EHJ highlighting the opportunities offered by the Journal. The Issue continues with three innovative European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines: the ‘2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)’3, the ‘2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of chronic coronary syndromes’,3 and the ‘2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of peripheral arterial and aortic diseases’.4 The rest of the Issue focuses on arrhythmias and ischaemic heart disease. Ischaemic heart disease remains the number one killer in the world and major efforts are needed to reduce its devastating impact.5–9 In a State of the Art Review article entitled ‘Myocardial ischaemic syndromes: a new nomenclature to harmonize evolving international clinical practice guidelines’, William Boden from the Boston University School of Medicine in the United States, and colleagues note that since the 1960s for chronic stable manifestations of myocardial ischaemia, various classifications have emerged over time, often with conflicting terminology—e.g. ‘stable coronary artery disease’ (CAD), ‘stable ischaemic heart disease’, and ‘chronic coronary syndromes’ (CCS). While the 2019 European guidelines introduced CCS to impart symmetry with ‘acute coronary syndromes’ (ACS), the 2023 American guidelines endorsed the alternative term ‘chronic coronary disease’.10 An unintended consequence of these competing classifications is perpetuation of the restrictive terms ‘coronary’ and ‘disease’, often connoting only a singular obstructive CAD mechanism. It is now important to advance a more broadly inclusive terminology for both obstructive and non-obstructive causes of angina and myocardial ischaemia that fosters conceptual clarity and unifies dyssynchronous nomenclatures across guidelines. The authors therefore propose a new binary classification of ‘acute myocardial ischaemic syndromes’ and ‘non-acute myocardial ischaemic syndromes’, which comprises both obstructive epicardial and non-obstructive pathogenetic mechanisms, including microvascular dysfunction, vasospastic disorders, and non-coronary causes. They herein retain the accepted categories of acute coronary syndrome, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (MI), and non-ST-segment elevation MI, as important subsets for which revascularization is of proven clinical benefit, as well as new terms like ischaemia and MI with non-obstructive coronary arteries. Overall, such a more encompassing nomenclature better aligns, unifies, and harmonizes different pathophysiologic causes of myocardial ischaemia and should result in more refined diagnostic and therapeutic approaches targeted to the multiple pathobiological precipitants of angina pectoris, ischaemia, and infarction. Risk stratification and optimal management of atrial fibrillation (AF) remain major targets in cardiovascular medicine.11–18 In the Fast Track Clinical Research article entitled ‘Gender and contemporary risk of adverse events in atrial fibrillation’, Asgher Champsi from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and colleagues indicate that the role of gender in decision-making for oral anticoagulation in patients with AF remains controversial.19 The population cohort study used electronic healthcare records of more than 16 500 000 patients from UK primary care (2005–2020). Primary (composite of all-cause mortality, ischaemic stroke, or arterial thromboembolism) and secondary outcomes were analysed using Cox hazard ratios (HR), adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities. A total of about 79 000 patients with AF were included, aged 40–75 years, 36% women, no prior stroke, and no prescription of oral anticoagulants. During a total follow-up of 431 086 patient-years, women had a lower adjusted primary outcome rate with HR 0.89 vs. men (P < .001) and HR 0.87 after censoring for oral anticoagulation (P < .001). This was driven by lower mortality in women (HR 0.86; P < .001). No difference was identified between women and men for the secondary outcomes of ischaemic stroke or arterial thromboembolism, any stroke or any thromboembolism, and incident vascular dementia. Clinical risk scores were only modest predictors of outcomes, with CHA2DS2-VA (ignoring gender) superior to CHA2DS2-VASc for primary outcomes in this population (receiver operating characteristic curve area 0.651 vs. 0.639; P < .001) and no interaction with gender (P = .45) (Figure 1). The impact of gender on adverse events in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) based on a population cohort study using electronic healthcare records from UK primary care (2005–20).19 The authors conclude that removal of gender from clinical risk scoring could simplify the approach to which patients with AF should be offered oral anticoagulation. The contribution is accompanied by an Editorial by Gregory YH Lip and Peter Brønnum Nielsen from the University of Liverpool and Konsta Teppo from the University of Turku in Finland.20 The authors highlight that when ischaemic stroke rates were higher in women compared with men one to two decades ago, and women were undertreated with OACs, the use of the CHA2DS2-VASc score made sense, performing better than a non-sex CHA2DS2-VASc (i.e. CHA2DS2-VA). In more contemporary years, when the sex difference in AF-related stroke risk is less evident, the use of CHA2DS2-VA may offer some degree of simplicity in initial decision-making for stroke prevention. However, rather than undue focus of risk stratification schemes for identifying the somewhat artificial high-, moderate-, or low-risk subgroups, we should promote the initial identification of ‘low-risk’ patients, given the limitations of all clinical risk scores. After all, patients do not fall into three ‘static’ stroke risk categories, especially since risk is dynamic in nature and many stroke risk factors (e.g. blood pressure) represent a continuum of risk. Given the limitations of clinical risk scores in predicting high-risk patients, more emphasis could perhaps be placed on initially identifying the low-risk patients, such that ‘the default is stroke prevention, unless they are low-risk’, with these ‘low-risk’ patients being those with a CHA2DS2-VA score of zero. Patients with high bleeding risk (HBR) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are at increased risk of not only bleeding, but also ischaemic events.21,22 In a Clinical Research article entitled ‘Long-term outcomes of high bleeding risk patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: a Korean nationwide registry’, Jeehoon Kang from the Seoul National University College of Medicine in the Republic of Korea, and colleagues aimed to determine the long-term relative risk of ischaemic and bleeding events in HBR patients.23 This study was a nationwide cohort study, based on the Korean National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database. Patients diagnosed with stable angina or acute coronary syndrome and those who underwent PCI in Korea between 2009 and 2018 were included in the analysis. According to the Academic Research Consortium HBR criteria, the total population was divided into HBR and non-HBR groups. The co-primary outcomes were major bleeding events and ischaemic (composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and ischaemic stroke) events. Among a total of more than 325 000 patients who underwent PCI, 20% had HBR. During the follow-up period, HBR patients had a higher risk for major bleeding events (23.9% vs. 8.9%, P < .001) and ischaemic events (33.8% vs. 14.4%, P < .001). The HBR group also exhibited a greater risk of all-cause mortality (HR 3.73, P < .001). The authors conclude that among patients undergoing PCI, those with HBR are at increased long-term risk for both bleeding and ischaemic events, with a greater risk of mortality compared with non-HBR patients. This manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Marco Valgimigli and Antonio Landi from the Cardiocentro Ticino Institute, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC) in Switzerland.24 The authors conclude that this study adds to the overarching body of literature emphasizing the long-term importance of bleeding risk assessment in patients undergoing PCI. Bleeding first rather than ischaemic risk assessment emerges as the new paradigm for maximizing the net benefit of antithrombotic treatments in HBR patients. The cardiological community used to value the ischaemic risk at the expense of the bleeding risk. Yet, the study by Kang et al. reinforces once more the concept that a Copernican revolution should occur and that the ischaemic risk evolves around the bleeding risk and not vice versa. In a Clinical Research article entitled ‘Atherosclerosis quantification and cardiovascular risk: the ISCHEMIA trial’, Nick Nurmohamed from Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands, and colleagues sought to determine the prognostic value of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA)-derived atherosclerotic plaque analysis in ISCHEMIA.25 Atherosclerosis imaging quantitative computed tomography (AI-QCT) was performed on all available baseline CCTAs to quantify plaque volume, composition, and distribution. Multivariable Cox regression was used to examine the association between baseline risk factors (age, sex, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, ejection fraction, prior coronary disease, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and statin use), number of diseased vessels, atherosclerotic plaque characteristics determined by AI-QCT, and a composite primary outcome of cardiovascular death or MI over a median follow-up of 3.3 years. The predictive value of plaque quantification over risk factors was compared in an area under the curve (AUC) analysis. Analysable CCTA data were available from 3711 participants (79% with multivessel CAD). Amongst the AI-QCT variables, total plaque volume was most strongly associated with the primary outcome (adjusted HR 1.56; P = .001). The addition of AI-QCT plaque quantification and characterization to baseline risk factors improved the model’s predictive value for the primary outcome at 6 months (AUC 0.688 vs. 0.637; P = .006), at 2 years (AUC 0.660 vs. 0.617; P = .003), and at 4 years of follow-up (AUC 0.654 vs. 0.608; P = .002) (Figure 2). The findings were similar for the other reported outcomes. Study design and main outcomes of the current study. AI-QCT, atherosclerosis imaging quantitative computed tomography; AUC, area under the curve; CAD, coronary artery disease; CCTA, coronary computed tomography angiography; CV, cardiovascular; FU, follow-up; MI, myocardial infarction; NRI, net reclassification improvement.25 The authors conclude that in the ISCHEMIA trial, total plaque volume is associated with cardiovascular death or MI. In this highly diseased, high-risk population, enhanced assessment of the atherosclerotic burden using AI-QCT-derived measures of plaque volume and composition modestly improve event prediction. The contribution is accompanied by an Editorial by Noel Bairey Merz from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA (USA).26 Bairey Merz notes that the ISCHEMIA trial’s Guidelines-directed medical treatment (GDMT) adherence protocol worked well and could be replicated in systems. What would these protocols cost? On average, investments in secondary prevention interventions can yield a return of $10 for every $1 invested. Utilization of AI might reduce the costs. As we look to the future of targeted secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease related to the development of deep learning image analysis platforms and novel therapeutics, let’s not forget to invest in what we already know and ensure we deploy GDMT and adherence enhancers first. Type 1 long QT syndrome (LQT1) is caused by pathogenic variants in the KCNQ1-encoded Kv7.1 potassium channels, which pathologically prolong ventricular action potential duration (APD). In a Translational Research article entitled ‘KCNQ1 suppression-replacement gene therapy in transgenic rabbits with type 1 long QT syndrome’, Sahej Bains from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (USA), and colleagues rescued the pathologic phenotype in transgenic LQT1 rabbits using a novel KCNQ1 suppression-replacement (SupRep) gene therapy.27KCNQ1-SupRep gene therapy was developed by combining into a single construct a KCNQ1 shRNA (suppression) and an shRNA-immune KCNQ1 cDNA (replacement), packaged into adeno-associated virus serotype 9, and delivered in vivo via an intra-aortic root injection. To ascertain the efficacy of SupRep, 12-lead electrocardiograms were assessed in adult LQT1 and wild-type (WT) rabbits and patch-clamp experiments were performed on isolated ventricular cardiomyocytes. KCNQ1-SupRep treatment of LQT1 rabbits resulted in significant shortening of the pathologically prolonged QT index (QTi) towards WT levels. Ventricular cardiomyocytes isolated from treated LQT1 rabbits demonstrated pronounced shortening of APD compared with LQT1 controls, leading to levels like WT. Under β-adrenergic stimulation with isoproterenol, SupRep-treated rabbits demonstrated a WT-like physiological QTi and APD90 behaviour. The authors conclude that this study provides the first animal model, proof-of-concept gene therapy for correction of LQT1. In LQT1 rabbits, treatment with KCNQ1-SupRep gene therapy normalizes the clinical QTi and cellular APD90 to near WT levels both at baseline and after isoproterenol. If similar QT/APD correction can be achieved with intravenous administration of KCNQ1-SupRep gene therapy in LQT1 rabbits, these encouraging data should compel continued development of this gene therapy for patients with LQT1. The editors hope that this issue of the European Heart Journal will be of interest to its readers. Dr. Crea reports speaker fees from Abbott, Amgen, Astra Zeneca, BMS, Chiesi, Daiichi Sankyo, Menarini outside the submitted work. With thanks to Amelia Meier-Batschelet, Johanna Huggler, and Martin Meyer for help with compilation of this article.
In the Hippocratic conception, medicine is a synthesis of technique, philosophy and humanism, but in essence it is nothing more than the expression of the living being to counter predestination. Its foundation is the dose–response relationship that a living organism expresses when perturbed by an external agent. In practice, however, this interpretation is defined by the knowledge, thought, economic means, politics and religious sentiment of the community to which the organism belongs. Homeopathy, too, does not escape these considerations. It is a child of the vitalistic philosophy of the time when it was formulated by a giant of human history, Samuel Hahnemann. At that time, knowledge did not allow for the biological definition of disease, but simply the acceptance or rejection of the Hippocratic view of the symptom as an attempt at self-healing. As a therapeutic modality, therefore, homeopathy was formulated by its founder as an intervention aimed at promoting the self-healing of an organism, postulating that this act was defined by the response that the organism engaged to counter an anomaly. Consequently, the therapeutic method had a heuristic nature, independent of any knowledge of the nature of the homeopathic remedy or the biological mechanisms underlying the administration of such a remedy. In fact, the therapy implied a personalized intervention that did not necessarily foresee its definition within a general scheme. These foundations have two unfortunate consequences. The first is that the pursuit of homeopathy involves a self-limiting characteristic, not foreseeing the development of the therapeutic modality. The second is that homeopathy is not easily generalizable, not favoring its uptake in medical practice in places designated for the removal of anomalies in a large number of people, such as in a hospital. But what is more important is the fact that it a priori avoids conceiving a definition of reality, as the scientific method pursues with experiment and reproducibility, assuming as real what is exact and not necessarily what is true. This is the primary reason that causes the potential marginalization of homeopathy, because in a society that bases its evolution on the canons that defined the Scientific Revolution, a therapeutic modality that after two centuries does not strive to justify its foundations, limiting itself to the free subjective interpretation of those who pursued it, questions its own right to existence. Therefore, if Hahnemann promoted a view that was astonishing for its inherent foresight, anticipating many concepts of modern health care, the problem resides in the fact that he was unable to notice the fragility of his own perspective. The founding of experimental medicine by Claude Bernard, the misinterpretation of Pasteur's discoveries and the exaltation of Koch's discoveries rendered Hahnemann's vitalistic conception obsolete. In fact, they promoted the creation of an orthodoxy rooted in the social pact between public institutions and professional orders, defining an official medicine model that entails the adoption of a certain culture and not proven capability. From this, homeopaths were excluded or at most tolerated. Because if “science” was an inadequate word, it was enough to replace it with the locution “demonstration of efficacy”, which lent itself better to the interested intervention of some, but which the personalization of the homeopathic method did not allow to justify. Medicine did not consider that by adopting a Cartesian mechanistic model, it justified the absurdity of administering 10 million molecules of a drug per cell of an organism with predictable health damage. But to establish itself, it entrusted pharmacology with the task of establishing an efficacy criterion based on a certain minimum dose of the drug (threshold model), ideologically postulating the non-authentic nature of a methodological approach that envisaged dilutions and the action of infinitesimal doses.[ 1 ] [ 2 ] Indeed, in postulating the view of the organism as a machine, and valuing the preservation of the structure over maximum function, the disease was attributed to the malfunction of a mechanism, which must be inhibited (or removed). Therefore, the experimental evidence showing the existence of self-healing processes, stimulated by low-dose interference, was consciously disregarded. With this behavior, to affirm itself, biomedicine distorted experimental reality. But this conduct took place because neither the essence of the vital process nor the physiology of biological systems was then known. Their partial elucidation has occurred in the past 80 years. While homeopaths withdrew—as they still do, entrenching themselves in fideistic positions or displaying “bird of the woods” behavior in Hobbesian terms—homeopathy postulated a view similar to the “immobile motor” (unmoved mover) of the Western metaphysical tradition: “mover” because it is the final goal toward which the organism tends, thus justifying self-healing, and “unmoved” because it is an uncaused cause (i.e., the first primary cause). In this view, homeopathy does not need to improve its identity, being already realized in itself as a pure act in its ontological nature, as Hahnemann intrinsically postulated. Therefore, industries did not promote pleonastic investments for scientific research programs since they believed that the therapeutic modality of homeopathy did not require it. Indeed, homeopaths observed with indifference the fact that scientific progress explained the existence of life, the dimensions and functions of cells,[ 3 ] and the fact that the heart must beat.[ 4 ] This was achieved, along with biological research,[ 5 ] [ 6 ] through the Science of Complexity,[ 7 ] [ 8 ] Information Theory,[ 9 ] and the introduction of Far-from-Equilibrium Thermodynamics.[ 10 ] In fact, the new approach justifies the dose–response interaction of a living organism in aging, hormesis, premature senescence, apoptosis and necrosis as a function of the increasing intensity of a perturbation, such as the ingestion of a drug.[ 11 ] Having translated the dose–response into a more general framework, the following considerations are obtained. The world moves toward disorder, and the ordered features of living beings can be justified only by assuming that their existence constitutes a tool for facilitating the achievement of a more disordered status. In practice, being healthy means efficiency in exporting disorder, while disease represents a reduced efficiency to do so. The interaction of a xenobiotic with a living being always involves damage, but the software of living beings is programmed to counter this action through existing repair mechanisms and the evolution of more efficient ones. Therefore, therapeutic methods are aimed at stimulating self-repair mechanisms or inhibiting certain biological processes, thus allowing the restoration of optimal health. Premature senescence is a phenomenon that can result from an excess of drug molecules postulated by orthodox medicine to induce the inhibition of a certain biological mechanism that can cause a permanent alteration of cells' metabolic mechanisms, resulting in so-called adverse effects. Hormesis is the only process that can be beneficial, as it promotes the creation of more efficient modes of cell functioning in metabolizing, synthesizing and storing useful molecules, as well as facilitating the elimination of waste products, unlike biomedicine.[ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] In practice, hormesis justifies evolution but also directs the organism to benefit from breathing, proper nutrition and physical exercise, promoting behavior that implies increased lifespan. It practically summarizes the concepts we condense into the word “well-being” but, more importantly, it promotes self-awareness about the meaning of existence and the interaction of a living being with the territory where it lives. Only in the case of a therapeutic modality was it not justified to talk about hormesis, primarily because it justified homeopathy,[ 1 ] [ 2 ] and therefore it had to be forgotten; but even today, when pharmacology has had to accept it because experimental evidence cannot be hidden for long, hormesis tends to be not talked about within the homeopathy community because many of its practitioners, in pursuing the abovementioned “immobile motor” belief, do not want to accept hormesis and thereby prompt an alliance with the holders of patents for drugs used by orthodox medicine.[ 15 ] [ 16 ] Indeed, hormesis entails an enantiodromic effect (stimulatory at low doses, inhibitory at high doses) as a function of the intensity of perturbation, such as the number of molecules of a drug, which, justifying the principle of “Similia similibus curentur”, would provide a specific foundation to a method that, being holistic, is considered not to require specific justification. Therefore, the fact that two groups of researchers have independently demonstrated with DNA arrays that homeopathic remedies have a biological action consistent with that supported by manuals and that this action follows the rules of hormesis,[ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ] should not constitute proof. Those who hold the patents, on the other hand, see it as “smoke in the eyes” because they might find out that their drugs, due to unfavorable pharmacokinetics, could go from being inhibitors to stimulators, with non-exciting effects for those who use them. But for Dr. Peter Fisher, former Editor of Homeopathy , it was enough to promote interest, and after attending a scientific session dedicated to hormesis, which I organized 12 years ago at an international conference, he decided to ask me to act as Guest Editor for a special issue of this journal dedicated to the topic of hormesis. For the average homeopathic practitioner, however, the existence of drug molecules in a homeopathic remedy may be acceptable, but there has always been the problem that an effect of ultra-diluted solutions cannot readily be explained because from 12C potency onwards it has been taught that there can be no molecules. Therefore, to justify the action of ultra-diluted homeopathic remedies, there must be another mechanism. Better to think of two homeopathies: one “hormetic” with molecules; and one without, which envisages the existence of another biologically active agent. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the action of a drug is singular and essentially involves the allosteric alteration of the receptor, which triggers a certain response after interaction with a drug. This is true for all living beings, from the amoeba to the elephant, as stated by Monod,[ 6 ] because the cell only presents optimal responses. The objection often made that homeopathy is limited to gene activation is the result of those objectors' personal interpretation of biology. Gene activation involves an interaction between genes and a molecule, exactly as in the case of the drug–receptor interaction: they are different processes, I agree, but they follow the same paradigm, and the distinction is specious. Therefore, the homeopath is inclined to introduce hypotheses, even strange ones, to justify the action of the drug, in most cases keeping an eye on the solvent. But if the solvent plays a determining role, it would not be possible to justify the fact that a homeopathic remedy has the same effect when prepared according to different pharmacopeias; nor would it be possible to understand the effect of dilution, as hormesis justifies. Of course, there is always the possibility of the existence of paraphernalia properties, invoking electromagnetism, for example, as some hypothesize.[ 20 ] [ 21 ] Unfortunately, faith can help existence, exemplified in the person who “can't change his mind and won't change the subject” (a Churchillian aphorism). However, it is also true that science is demented like democracy, based on dissent; but science also implies the correctness of the experiment and the measurement. Electromagnetism in homeopathy has not been verified in the experiments publicized so far. Those who conducted them forgot to check Google, and the supposed devices that were assumed to demonstrate such a claim were rejected by the patent offices because they could not work.[ 22 ] Fortunately, however, there are also expressions of wisdom, as summarized by the principle of Ockham's razor, which has led people to argue that the effect of homeopathic remedies does not lie in the solvent but, as with all drugs, in the molecules of the drug.[ 23 ] [ 24 ] Unfortunately, in the eyes of fundamentalist homeopaths, this is the result of ethically unjustifiable observations, as they result from experimental evidence, in blatant contradiction to the principle that “the holistic approach of homeopathy as healing system goes far beyond any specific information”. In the past 10 years, three independent research groups (Jayesh Bellare, Iris Bell, and Alexander Konovalov) have convincingly demonstrated that highly diluted drug solutions contain nanoparticles,[ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ] much like the drugs used in modern pharmacology to reduce adverse therapy effects and improve membrane transport.[ 35 ] [ 36 ] [ 37 ] These nanoparticles, measuring 100 to 300 nm, start forming from a certain dilution threshold (10 −5 to 10 −7 M) following succussion, which facilitates the transfer of metasilicates from the container walls and the dissolution of air, thereby requiring a certain gas molecule/drug molecule ratio. Metasilicates are necessary to form a coating around a core of drug molecules,[ 33 ] and the air helps create a more structured “cage” compared with the solvent alone. Gases dissolve in water forming clathrates (cages),[ 38 ] and these clathrates, along with metasilicates, stabilize the core of the drug particles. These findings lead me to define a homeopathic remedy as a “clathrate of clathrates of gas molecules”, present as nanobubbles. This is confirmed by the fact that heating to 70 °C causes the nanoparticles to disappear along with the remedy's efficacy,[ 21 ] as the gas solubility decreases when heated. It is astonishing that something so elementary had not previously been highlighted in over two centuries of history, underscoring the poverty of scientific research in homeopathy and the superficiality with which production industries have addressed the subject. The chemical–physical characterization of these nanoparticles indicates that their properties are ideal for overcoming the barriers that cells possess to prevent the passage of external agents. The great merit of these studies remains their finally shedding of light on the nature of homeopathic remedies and the key role of succussion, which Hahnemann had introduced, though he misinterpreted its significance (and could not have done otherwise). Moreover, the use of technology has promoted a new perspective on the significance of ultra-diluted solutions, the primary source of the nightmare that has plagued homeopaths since Avogadro's number was defined approximately 70 years after the founding of homeopathy. Alexander Konovalov, the Russian academic chemist long overlooked by homeopaths, stated that it is practically impossible to obtain a solution with zero concentration by successive dilution.[ 30 ] Bellare's research team[ 23 ] has shown with high-speed video sequences how gas bubbles developed by succussion lead to the partial levitation of nanoparticles to the surface of the solution, forming a flotation film familiar to those who work in laboratories and commonly used in the extraction industry for processing about a billion tons of minerals annually. Thus, a non-solution is created, as the system is not homogeneous.[ 39 ] When the ratio of nanoparticles on the surface to those within the solution reaches a certain value, sampling with usual methods always implies taking a greater number of molecules than expected. Therefore, succussed solutions are always much more concentrated than anticipated.[ 40 ] Recently, a study by Dandapat's group on Arsenicum album 30C (10 −60 M) showed a significant presence of di-arsenic trioxide nanocrystals of 15 nm size, allowing for structural analysis via diffractometry.[ 41 ] In other words, these studies have shown that ultra-diluted solutions indeed contain drug molecules in the order of nanograms per cubic centimeter, which is several molecules in the same order of magnitude as the cells in our body. This perspective, comprising a drug molecule-based full justification of homeopathy,[ 42 ] [ 43 ] [ 44 ] renders unnecessary the various other hypotheses advanced to explain the action of homeopathic remedies under the assumption of molecule absence. However, many homeopaths cannot accept such justification of their therapeutic modality, and simultaneously they do not realize that this rebuttal induces the marginalization of their role in society. The aforementioned arguments show that the foundations of homeopathy have a well-defined coherent scientific basis. They implement a view outlined some years ago and, once accepted, may be helpful to promote a new perspective of this therapeutic modality. I am old, but I consider myself fortunate to have spent my life in a laboratory of excellence, surrounded by many intelligent people. I am a chemist whose life led me to interact with homeopathic doctors, who professed ideas that my profession viewed with scepticism. This was a great fortune because homeopathy gave me a valuable lesson, and it saddens me to see how the fundamentalism of some of its proponents leads to the marginalization of the discipline and the loss of an enormous cultural heritage over the past two Homeopathy have scientific research is researchers have and some homeopathy industries have had to change their to be by the But what is most is that many people have to their in a cultural that does not the of as by the fact that are from pursuing this In homeopathy is at a to a that justifies its existence. This is due to the fact that many of its have to a philosophy that did not consider such approach that does not help one see far have not their in a world made by the progress of scientific research and In the cause of in the fact of postulated an (i.e., the of the over the of its in the holistic view, to define the properties of the I that the progress of in a place like the of where different and was when people the to in in the place of I that and the can be with the of this I am not to my nor am I but at the of to change them. 14 20 of This is by
This research suggests an authentication system for encrypted payment amounts using zero-knowledge proof and encryption algorithm, with the goal of enhancing security and trustworthiness of blockchain transactions. The system effectively processes large-scale transaction data by incorporating functional modules like data input, verification, and output in a modular system architecture. Results from experiments demonstrate that the system achieves a verification precision of 99.8% when handling transaction data sets of various sizes, with processing time increasing proportionally as the transaction size grows, indicating excellent scalability. This research offers effective options for financial transactions, supply chain management, and digital asset management, guaranteeing the security and integrity of transactions while enhancing transparency and traceability in multi-party interactions. Furthermore, by examining various usage situations, the system showcases its wide range of potential and value in practical use. This research introduces fresh technological methods for verifying security in blockchain transactions and establishes a basis for future studies and implementation.
The security of academic credentials is increasingly at risk due to cyberattacks and credential fraud. Traditional verification systems rely on centralised databases, creating single points of failure and privacy concerns. This paper explores Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) with blockchain to enhance educational data security. We propose an optimised ZKP protocol for education, improving lightweight infrastructure, scalability, credential revocation, and ease of use. By refining existing techniques, our approach enhances secure, privacy-preserving credential verification, creating a resilient educational data system.
Abstract: In traditional digital identity management solutions, the authentication process mostly adopts a centralized authentication model, where user identity data is stored in a single authentication authority, which leads to a myriad of problems such as data leakage, data tampering, and single point of failure. How to ensure the security of user identity data and how to carry out effective privacy protection is the key to ensuring the digitalization process in various industries. Blockchain has the characteristics of decentralization and tampering, which can provide a reliable data storage solution. Zero-knowledge proof technology can verify the correctness of certain facts without revealing specific information. In digital identity applications, zero-knowledge proof allows users to prove their identity without revealing any personal information. Therefore, this paper proposes an identity authentication model based on blockchain and zero-knowledge proof to ensure the security of the user's identity data during the identity authentication process. Meanwhile, in order to make the authentication process more reliable, smart contract technology is introduced to complete the whole authentication process.
Current authentication schemes based on zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) still face issues such as high computation costs, low efficiency, and security assurance difficulty. Therefore, we propose a secure and efficient authentication scheme (SEAS) for large-scale IoT devices based on ZKP. In the initialization phase, the trusted authority creates prerequisites for device traceability and system security. Then, we propose a new registration method to ensure device anonymity. In the identity tracing and revocation phase, we revoke the real identity of abnormal devices by decrypting and updating group public keys, avoiding their access and reducing revocation costs. In the authentication phase, we check the arithmetic relationship between blind certificates, proofs, and other random data. We propose a new anonymous batch authentication method to effectively reduce computation costs, enhance authentication efficiency, and guarantee device authentication security. Security analysis and experimental results show that an SEAS can ensure security and effectively reduce verification time and energy costs. Its security and performance exceed existing schemes.
Open access
User Authentication and Security Systems
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Ahmad Musamih, Abduraouf Hassan, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman · 6 authors
Child labor has been on the rise in recent years, which necessitates improved identification and reporting mechanisms. Current labor management systems, which are often manual or article-based, lack traceability, audit, privacy, security, and trust features. This leads to challenges in detecting and reporting violations, particularly in large or remote areas. The persistence of this issue undermines the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the important role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in addressing this challenge. Our article proposes a solution combining machine learning and blockchain to automate child labor detection and ensure traceable, auditable, private, and secure reporting. Utilizing Decentralized Proxy Re-Encryption (DPRE), Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), and oracles on the Ethereum blockchain, with decentralized storage, our approach maintains privacy and transparency. We present a child labor detection model using Mask2Former and ResNet-18 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to achieve high accuracy and reliability. The model’s performance is evaluated using various metrics, achieving an accuracy rate of 89.45%, a precision score of 0.906, and a recall score of 0.9332. Additionally, we assess smart contracts for cost-efficiency and security, and discuss the solution’s generalizability, challenges, and practical implications. We make the source code of our solution publicly available on GitHub.
In this paper, security mechanism called zero knowledge proofs has been defined using subset sum problem. We have used subset sum problem for robustness analysis of zero-knowledge proofs technique in cryptography. The upper bound of subset sum problem given by meet-in-the-middle algorithm is more efficient than Nïve algorithm, so we have used meet-in-the-middle algorithm for analyzing robustness in comparison with discrete logarithm problem used by Henry. Also, we have computed covariance between asymptotic notations of meet-in-the-middle and the discrete logarithm problem is employed in the technique of zero knowledge proofs which is positive. Positive covariance between them shows that relationship between input variants used by both functions is similar in behavior. Both functions are growing in same direction and our used function (meet-in-the-middle) is growing faster than Henry (Discrete Logarithm).
Olive Franzese, Ali Shahin Shamsabadi, Luck, Carter, Haddadi, Hamed
The black-box service model enables ML service providers to serve clients while keeping their intellectual property and client data confidential. Confidentiality is critical for delivering ML services legally and responsibly, but makes it difficult for outside parties to verify important model properties such as fairness. Existing methods that assess model fairness confidentially lack either (i) reliability because they certify fairness with respect to a static set of data, and therefore fail to guarantee fairness in the presence of distribution shift or service provider malfeasance; and/or (ii) scalability due to the computational overhead of confidentiality-preserving cryptographic primitives. We address these problems by introducing online fairness certificates, which verify that a model is fair with respect to data received by the service provider online during deployment. We then present OATH, a deployably efficient and scalable zero-knowledge proof protocol for confidential online group fairness certification. OATH exploits statistical properties of group fairness via a cut-and-choose style protocol, enabling scalability improvements over baselines.
Dominik Meißner, Frank Kargl, Benjamin Erb, Felix Engelmann
Taking part in surveys, experiments, and studies is often compensated by rewards to increase the number of participants and encourage attendance. While privacy requirements are usually considered for participation, privacy aspects of the reward procedure are mostly ignored. To this end, we introduce PrePaMS, an efficient participation management system that supports prerequisite checks and participation rewards in a privacy-preserving way. Our system organizes participations with potential (dis-)qualifying dependencies and enables secure reward payoffs. By leveraging a set of proven cryptographic primitives and mechanisms such as anonymous credentials and zero-knowledge proofs, participations are protected so that service providers and organizers cannot derive the identity of participants even within the reward process. In this paper, we have designed and implemented a prototype of PrePaMS to show its effectiveness and evaluated its performance under realistic workloads. PrePaMS covers the information whether subjects have participated in surveys, experiments, or studies. When combined with other secure solutions for the actual data collection within these events, PrePaMS can represent a cornerstone for more privacy-preserving empirical research.
Cloud computing allows clients with limited computational resources to offload computations to more powerful remote servers. In this paradigm, homomorphic encryption (HE) schemes enable a server to run any computation on a client's encrypted data. These schemes are widely used in cloud computing protocols such as delegated computing, two-party secure computation, and zero-knowledge proofs. Quantum homomorphic encryption (QHE) aims to achieve the objectives of HE with quantum data and quantum circuits, enabling cloud quantum servers to compute on encrypted quantum data uploaded by clients. In this work, we consider a scenario where a client has access to a quantum “encryption/decryption device”, which allows the encryption, transmission, reception, and decryption of quantum states, but not universal quantum computation. In this setting, we provide a proof-of-concept software simulation of quantum homomorphic encryption. Our code implements the “EPR scheme” of Broadbent and Jeffery, which allows for the execution of universal quantum circuits by the server at the cost of requiring shared EPR pairs between the client and server. Our implementation explores the near-term viability of the EPR scheme. Perhaps unsurprisingly, our experiments indicate that the additional cost of homomorphic circuit evaluation is minor in comparison to the simulation cost of the quantum operations. Our simulation toolkit is implemented in Python and is open-source.
Data privacy has become a severe concern due to the substantial growth in data gathering and processing, driven by the widespread adoption of cloud computing and cryptocurrency. Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) has emerged as a promising cryptographic protocol for ensuring data privacy. However, ZKP suffers from high computational costs, making it excessively slow when implemented in software. To identify performance bottlenecks in the ZKP protocol, existing research has focused on CPU performance evaluation at the architecture level, considering factors such as execution time and memory consumption. Nevertheless, ZKP protocols have distinct memory and computing needs at each stage, these studies lack detailed CPU performance analyses necessary to improve ZKP performance and promote wider adoption.In this paper, we provide a comprehensive performance analysis of widely used ZKP libraries on CPUs. We perform four different analyses to characterize the CPU microarchitecture, memory, code, and scalability performance of the ZKP protocol on different CPUs. Our analysis reveals that the ZKP protocol performs differently on different CPUs, emphasizing the need for microarchitecture-specific analysis and optimizations. We evaluate loads and stores, last level cache (LLC) misses per kilo instructions (MPKI), and maximum memory bandwidth utilization of ZKP. We observe the proving stage consumes the highest memory bandwidth (25Gbps). We identify the functions that consume the most CPU time in each stage of the ZKP protocol and categorize each stage as compute, control-flow, or data-flow intensive. Also, we identify the proving stage as the most scalable with the potential to be sped up by parallel computation. These findings provide valuable insights for designing future ZKP accelerators, leading to more efficient and scalable ZKP implementations.
Haotian Yang, Pujie Jing, Zihan Wu, Lu Liu · 5 authors
The image integrity of real-time monitoring is crucial for monitoring crop growth, helping farmers and researchers improve production efficiency and crop yields. Unfortunately, existing schemes just focus on ground equipment and drone imaging, neglecting satellite networks in remote or extreme environments. Given that satellite internet features wide area coverage, we propose SEAIS, a secure and efficient agricultural image storage scheme combining blockchain and satellite networks. SEAIS presents the mathematical model of image processing and transmission based on satellite networks. Moreover, to ensure the integrity and authenticity of image data during pre-processing such as denoising and enhancement, SEAIS includes a secure agricultural image storage and verification method based on blockchain, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proof. Specifically, images are stored via IPFS, with hash values and metadata recorded on the blockchain, ensuring immutability and transparency. The simulation results show that SEAIS exhibits more stable and efficient processing times in extreme environments. Also, it maintains low on-chain storage overhead, enhancing scalability.
In this paper, we propose a smart contract-based multi-candidate self-tallying voting scheme in order to guarantee the privacy of ballots in the case of multiple candidates. This scheme uses the ElGamal cryptosystem to ensure the security of the ballots, and combines it with a Distributed Encryption algorithm to make the voting scheme have self-tallying features, and guarantees the correctness of the intermediate data through zero-knowledge proofs. The experimental results show that the scheme improves the voting efficiency without compromising the security.