Blockchain Papers

Pei-Hsuan Tsai, Silvana Trimi, Jia-Wei Tang

No abstract is available for this record.

Ashfaq Ahmed

Over the past two years, Hong Kong hasn’t just talked about Web3 transformation — it has executed it. A sequenced rollout of real policies. A clear regulatory masterplan. A vision anchored in innovation and investor protection. Today, Hong Kong is emerging as one of the world’s most credible and forward-looking regulated digital asset hubs. In my latest article, I break down how the SFC’s A-S-P-I-Re Roadmap, new licensing frameworks, custody standards, staking regulations, and tokenisation initiatives are reshaping the entire virtual asset landscape across 2024–2025. This is not just regulatory evolution — it’s regulatory engineering. 🔍 Inside the article: • The real meaning of “same activity, same risk, same regulation” • How reforms are raising the bar for VATPs and market integrity • Why Hong Kong’s digital asset roadmap is now a global reference point • The rise of institutional-grade custody + cybersecurity requirements • The strategic push behind Project Ensemble and tokenised finance • How collaboration between the SFC, HKMA, and industry is driving safe innovation Hong Kong’s approach shows that a digital asset market can be innovative, resilient, and globally aligned — all at once.

Muh. Rafianto, Erick Irawadi Alwi, St. Hajrah Mansyur

Sistem identitas digital konvensional seringkali bergantung pada otoritas terpusat yang rentan terhadap kebocoran data dan manipulasi. Komunitas Developer Student Club Universitas Muslim Indonesia (DSC UMI) memerlukan mekanisme verifikasi keanggotaan yang kredibel, aman, dan menjaga privasi pengguna. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengimplementasikan sistem identitas digital terdesentralisasi yang terintegrasi penuh pada platform Android menggunakan teknologi blockchain dan Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) yang merujuk pada seluruh logika sistem, termasuk interaksi blockchain dan kriptografi, yang diproses secara mandiri pada sisi klien (backendless) tanpa ketergantungan pada server perantara. Metode pengembangan menerapkan pendekatan Minimum Viable Product (MVP) dengan arsitektur mobile-first. Sistem dibangun berbasis Android native menggunakan bahasa Kotlin yang diintegrasikan dengan jaringan Polygon Amoy Testnet melalui pustaka Web3j. Autentikasi memanfaatkan sensor biometrik lokal untuk membangkitkan bukti kriptografis berbasis hash SHA-256 tanpa menyimpan data mentah di server. Hasil pengujian white box menunjukkan bahwa aplikasi berhasil menghubungkan dompet digital MetaMask, memvalidasi logika anti-duplikasi pada Smart Contract, dan secara otomatis menerbitkan Soulbound Token (NFT) sebagai tanda keanggotaan yang sah. Kesimpulannya, integrasi blockchain pada perangkat bergerak terbukti efektif menghadirkan identitas digital yang berdaulat (Self-Sovereign Identity), transparan, dan dapat diaudit (auditable) tanpa mengorbankan privasi data anggota komunitas.

S M Mostaq Hossain, Amani Altarawneh

Firmware integrity is a foundational requirement for securing Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), where malicious or compromised firmware can result in persistent backdoors, unauthorized control, or catastrophic system failures. Traditional verification mechanisms such as secure boot, digital signatures, and centralized hash databases are increasingly inadequate due to risks from insider threats and single points of failure. In this paper, we propose a decentralized firmware integrity verification framework built on the Ethereum blockchain, offering tamper-proof, transparent, and trustless validation. Our system stores SHA-256 hashes of firmware binaries within smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, using Web3 and Infura for seamless on-chain interaction. A Python-based client tool computes firmware hashes and communicates with the blockchain to register and verify firmware authenticity in real-time. We implement and evaluate a fully functional prototype using real firmware samples, demonstrating successful contract deployment, hash registration, and integrity verification through live blockchain transactions. Experimental results confirm the reliability and low cost (in gas fees) of our approach, highlighting its practicality and scalability for real-world CPS applications. To enhance scalability and performance, we discuss extensions using Layer-2 rollups and off-chain storage via the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). We also outline integration pathways with secure boot mechanisms, Trusted Platform Module (TPM)-based attestation, and zero-trust architectures. This work contributes a practical and extensible model for blockchain-based firmware verification, significantly strengthening the defense against firmware tampering and supply chain attacks in critical CPS environments.

Ajimon George, Maria Susan Mathew

In today's fast-paced business environment, art has experienced a dramatic and quick transition. These days, artists are not only artists; they are also artrepreneurs who combine their artistic and business acumen. Digital and social media are essential components of the significant development of artistic self-employment. Social media sites like YouTube and Instagram are now critical for establishing a strong online presence, interacting with a global audience, and bypassing intermediaries.Art Education is the procedural approach of teaching and learning artistic skills, aiming to foster creativity, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the world. Creative methods, aesthetic questions, and individual artistic expressions are the main topics of contemporary art education. However, they hardly ever give art students the technological, entrepreneurial, and self-management abilities needed to create and maintain financial rewards from artistic endeavours. Since many artists work for themselves or as freelancers, entrepreneurship is a vital part of arts education and is critical for career success in the arts. The lines between digital technologies, art, and commerce are becoming increasingly hazy. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to reconsider the function of art education in light of the emergence of Web3. Without addressing these linkages, art pedagogy runs the risk of leaving students unprepared to deal with both creative agency and financial independence in the digital age. The skill gap is widened when such competencies are not included, making it more difficult for graduates to turn their artistic expertise into long-term professions. Recent research on arts entrepreneurship education reiterates this worry and shows how the abilities offered in art schools continue to diverge from those needed in the creative sectors. Despite being highly skilled and productive when they leave school, graduates lack the necessary skills in related fields like marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship. A hybrid curriculum that strikes a balance between art education and business training is necessary to connect creativity with entrepreneurial education. Project-based collaborations, internships, and real-world simulations are examples of experimental techniques that are seen to be particularly effective in equipping students with both business and creative skills (Ávila & Davel, 2023). There is an urgent need to reconsider the significance of art pedagogy and develop a groundbreaking educational framework that logically integrates various fields. To close this gap, the art curriculum must be completely changed to incorporate digital technologies and entrepreneurship. The goal of modern pedagogy is to provide art students with the necessary tools for a sustainable career, visibility, smart use of digital technology, market adaptation, and financial independence-not to dilute the content. The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop, a revolutionary framework that tackles issues regarding the merging of art with business and digital skills, has been proposed in this study as a solution to this important necessity in art academia. Such a drastic change would equip art students to pursue jobs that are both financially feasible and creatively satisfying.The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop provides a clear framework for introducing students to international art by combining social media-driven art education into conventional art courses. This methodology helps students fulfil the needs of the digital economy by integrating multidisciplinary elements into art instruction. Universities can equip artists who lack the requisite technological abilities and help them develop resilience in the digital age in this way. This Opinion Article posits that the modern education of art needs to immediately shift out of a studio-based, skills-oriented model to begin digitally empowered artrepreneurial education. Whereas conventional methods focus on mastering the arts, they do not equip graduates with a creative economy that is influenced by the dynamics of social media, the governance of platforms, and the creation of visibility through algorithms. This paper will argue that the S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop as a futureoriented solution to the challenge of digital literacy, entrepreneurial ability, and creative practice is viable because it integrates all three into a pedagogical framework.The limitations outlined above necessitate a re-examination of how existing scholarship conceptualises creativity, entrepreneurship, and digital fluency in art education. The following section synthesises prior studies that inform the development of the S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop.Promoting creativity in art discipline higher education is often an unexplored area that needs attention at the institutional level, as creativity is no longer seen as a luxury but a necessity in the current economic world post-COVID-19 outbreak and quarantines. Systematic integration of creativity in universities is imperative rather than treating art as a separate domain. The four correlating factors for fostering creativity-conversation, scholarly relations, liminal spaces and leadership-must be included in the present-day art curriculum. This framework criticises traditional pedagogies and addresses creativity as a perpetual, relational and formal mechanism crucial for learning, leadership and innovation (Rae, 2023).Due to the ever-evolving nature of the art economy, entrepreneurial skills have become an integral aspect of art education. Traditional art education is often expertise-centric, relying solely on artistic mastery. Today's Artists must be selfsufficient and capable of dealing with complex market dynamics, navigating digital platforms and building personal brand image. This can be attained only by integrating entrepreneurial training into the art curriculum, which can lead to fostering innovation and adaptability (Zhang & Wang, 2022).Despite the increasing acceptance of entrepreneurship education in higher education, it is often overlooked in the field of the arts. There is a scarcity of existing research to comprehend arts entrepreneurship, which hinders its integration into the arts curriculum. Artrepreneurship education is valuable in enhancing the entrepreneurial competencies of artists. However, there is a need to address the gap between skills acquired through art education and skills actually required for their viable careers (Wong & Chan, 2024).A novel pedagogy must equip artists with skills not only for fostering artistic persona but also autonomy, resilience and digital fluency-enabling a generation of artrepreneurs capable of steering Web3 platforms, building and learning viable habits and practices and reclaiming rights over their original creations (Bridgstock, 2013).Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Web3 technologies now serve as core components of art production, distribution and monetisation in the present-day world. These technologies include Blockchain, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations). Generative AI models like Midjourney and DALL•E allow artists to create complex visual concepts from simple text prompts, fundamentally changing the creative process and the definition of a 'tool' in art. AI functions not only as a catalyst for artistic innovation but also as a source of ethical challenges, particularly through the use of generative models such as GANs and diffusion models that reshape creative processes while raising concerns of authorship, originality, and artistic integrity(Amini, 2025).Art education must strategically include these technologies in its art pedagogy, as these are no longer just peripheral tools but fundamental in the rapidly evolving creative economy. NFTs have transformed the conventional perception of ownership and creatorship, introducing students to the idea of digital origination, providing access to global art dissemination through a decentralised system of networks. Smart contracts, a novel term, allow the generation of digital royalties, thereby reimagining the importance of entrepreneurial agency and financial independence for a creator. Web3, NFTs and DAOs are revolutionising art education, transitioning traditional university models into a 'metaversity' concept.NFTs help in keeping a secure record of students' data, DAOs provide decentralised learning centres, while Web3 facilitates customised open learning. The metaverse provides interactive virtual environments for engaging, synchronous, and asynchronous education (Sutikno & Aisyahrani, 2023).Previous research supports critiques of traditional art education, indicating the scarcity of existing research in arts entrepreneurship and a gap between skills acquired through art education and skills actually required for their viable careers (Wong & Chan, 2024). Conventional arts education relies on studio setup and knowledge dissemination, which deals with developing creative, sophisticated, disciplinary, and technical skills. These theoretical or conceptual disseminations of knowledge, which are monotonous, neglect adequate skill development, fail to include critical thinking, and often lack real-world relevance. This is particularly alarming given that most creative, performing and literary artists are self-employed or work on a freelance basis, making entrepreneurial skills critical for career sustainability and success. Art educators are often facing a dilemma in identifying and defining the skill sets required for artrepreneurial pedagogy (Bridgstock, 2013).The older, outdated framework is hindered by faculty hesitance to accept art education as a new frontier due to their narrow perception of entrepreneurial education as merely a "vocation", which conflicts with the age-old romanticisation of art as distinct from a source of revenue. Lack of consensus by art school managers on a curriculum that suits present needs by adopting successful business schools' models is another issue (Beckman, 2007). The available curriculum doesn't equip artists with the necessary Web3 skills, which are essential for navigating their careers. Students generate strong academic portfolios but are appraised with limited digital presence or tool proficiency, building a gap between their talents and tangible opportunities. Most programs also neglect the critical rise of technologies like AI, NFTs and Smart contracts. This overlooks recent technologies, leaving the students unprepared for navigating digital art markets. There is a pressing need for the formation of a formal instructional framework with strategic entrepreneurial and digital competencies.As an example, a recent graduate surveys conducted of design and fine arts courses in Asia and Europe have shown that students graduate with good portfolios, but they lack a digital presence, a fact that has a direct impact on employability on algorithmdriven creative markets. Most of these institutions still focus on studio production as they provide very scarce training on online visibility, digital rights, and monetisation strategies. Conversely, those programs with experience of implementing hybrid creative-entrepreneurship courses (e.g., digital portfolio markets, social-media-based exhibition projects) claim to find substantially better graduate interaction with international audiences. These instances point to the fact that disconnect is not a hypothetical notion but it can be seen in actual educational outcomes. They may organise interactive exhibitions in a virtual space, allowing a global audience to access, interact with, and buy their artwork in real-time. Digital fluency and the commercial skills needed in art markets are expanded and disseminated through such encounters.These tools allow art students to move beyond traditional studio-based instruction because of their transformative ability to develop new models for creativity and collaboration. Students can gain practical experience that prepares them for jobs as artrepreneurs by interacting directly with these (Sutikno & Aisyahrani, 2023).The implementation of this kind of technologies in art education goes NFT-based assignments make evaluation more transparent through verifiable ownership records and metadata trails. DAO-led collaborative projects allow instructors to assess participation, governance decisions, and community contribution as part of the creative output.The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop may immediately address all of the drawbacks of traditional art education, which leave students unprepared to succeed in professional marketplaces. This framework fills the gap in the demands of the digital world by incorporating multidisciplinary elements into art instruction. It works as a cycle that allows for skill improvement and iterative participation over a number of semesters. The creative framework addresses the demands of today's art students by combining social media and entrepreneurial abilities. The authors disclose that there are no commercial or financial relationships that could potentially create a conflict of interest regarding this research.The research received no support of funding.The referencing style used in the study is APA formatting style.

Marsela Marsela

Transformasi digital di era Web3 telah mengubah paradigma kepemilikan dan distribusi karya intelektual, terutama melalui kemunculan teknologi blockchain dan Non-Fungible Token (NFT). NFT menawarkan peluang baru bagi kreator untuk memperoleh nilai ekonomi langsung dari karya digital tanpa perantara, sehingga menantang sistem distribusi konvensional. Namun, di balik potensi tersebut, terdapat berbagai persoalan mendasar terkait regulasi, literasi digital, dan ketimpangan akses teknologi yang menghambat perkembangan ekosistem ekonomi kreatif di Indonesia. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis dinamika ekonomi politik kekayaan intelektual digital di era NFT dengan menyoroti relasi antara kekuasaan, kebijakan publik, dan struktur pasar global. Metode penelitian menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif-deskriptif melalui studi literatur sistematis terhadap publikasi akademik dan dokumen kebijakan nasional periode 2022–2025. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa absennya regulasi formal dan lemahnya sistem perlindungan kekayaan intelektual digital memperlemah posisi tawar kreator lokal di tengah dominasi platform global. Analisis ekonomi politik media menunjukkan bahwa struktur kepemilikan digital masih dikuasai oleh kekuatan pasar transnasional, sehingga menimbulkan ketimpangan distribusi nilai. Penelitian ini menegaskan pentingnya kebijakan yang integratif antara hukum kekayaan intelektual, inovasi blockchain, dan pemberdayaan kreator lokal agar transformasi ekonomi digital di Indonesia dapat berjalan inklusif, berkeadilan, dan berkelanjutan.

P. Chinnasamy, N. Hemanth Reddy, K. Manjusri, P. Kusuma Priya · 5 authors

Medi Chain is a system that is established to introduce a higher degree of trust and transparency into the process of medicine supply. In the current times, counterfeit and bootleg drugs are a point of serious concern, particularly in cases where the physician prescribes them. Medicine batches are tracked and recorded by Medi Chain via blockchain since the stage of manufacture to the point of sale. The data stored is unchangeable and unbreachable as all the data is stored on the Sepolia Ethereum network in the form of smart contracts. Through QR- based checks, the platform enables users of the site to scan a code and instantly access essential information, including the source of the medication, who touched it, and the presence of a valid prescription pivotal to that prescription. This has made the system easy to use as the blockchain logic is written in Solidity and Web3.js, and the user interface is written in React.js and Tailwind CSS. Firebase is used to deal with secure log in, document uploading, and storage of prescription files. The system includes some basic yet significant precautions to ensure that the process of medicine handling happens safely in all stages. Each medicine flow remains exposed and safe and cannot be abused or misused. MetaMask logins, quick scans on QR, allow its users to quickly verify authenticity, making sure that prescriptions are adhered to.

Satoshi Kawauchi

This paper proposes a Decentralized Autonomous Intelligence (DAI) architecture that overcomes the self-referential limitations of conventional AI and Web3 systems by dynamically grounding collective intelligence in physical reality. By coupling internal consensus with high-fidelity external data such as environmental, biological, and economic signals, the framework prevents value drift, Sybil manipulation, and speculative bias. The result is a reality-aligned, secure, and scalable intelligence system optimized for real-world utility and immediate deployment.

Elizabeth A. Sweigart

<p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Amidst the rise of Web3, a technology transforming user interactions and challenging corporate control, this study uses a hybrid model of appreciative inquiry that matches the remote and decentralized nature of Web3 communities, to investigate the formation of a blockchain startup and its emergent culture and values. Despite limited resources, the company has built a diverse, global community via digital platforms, exceeding stakeholder expectations. This appreciative inquiry uncovers a community manifesting five core values: excellence, sustainable innovation, inclusivity, continuous learning, and creativity, challenging stereotypes often associated with the Web3 industry. This work advances participative research by introducing a hybrid model of appreciative inquiry tailored for remote and decentralized Web3 communities. By adapting appreciative inquiry to the unique dynamics of blockchain-dependent organizations, this study extends the methodology’s applicability and demonstrates its effectiveness in uncovering and fostering core communal values within cutting-edge technological contexts.</span></p>

Matthew Rafat

As of January 2026, cryptocurrency represents the triumph of marketing over utility. As the FTC and SEC give wide latitude to crypto platforms, can Web3 save crypto from becoming yet another consumer fraud?

Siddharth Sudhir

This preprint introduces Risk Oracle, an exploit-intelligence–driven SBOM attestation framework designed to support practical risk gating in CI/CD. The system combines signals from Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) and Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) with SBOM-to-vulnerability matching to produce a policy-backed gate decision (e.g., pass / warn / block) while keeping the workflow interpretable and reproducible. A core design goal is bounded disclosure: the producer can commit to full findings and then disclose only a limited subset (e.g., top-K highest-risk issues) suitable for downstream verification, reducing disclosure risk while preserving auditability. The paper details the end-to-end pipeline (producer/verifier roles), a typed attestation schema, a scoring and decision procedure, and an evaluation that studies (i) signal behavior under pinned KEV/EPSS snapshots and (ii) operational overhead under synthetic SBOM scaling intended to approximate CI workloads. Key contributions A practical SBOM attestation pipeline that integrates exploit-intelligence signals for operational decision-making in CI/CD. A typed attestation schema and verifier procedure supporting bounded disclosure. A policy-driven scoring and gating framework (pass/warn/block) grounded in vulnerability-management practice. Evaluation focused on interpretability and operational cost (runtime/payload scaling) under reproducible, pinned snapshots. Artifacts / Reproducibility Code, scripts, and pinned snapshot references: [GitHub link] Suggested citationSudhir, S. (2026). Risk Oracle: Exploit-Intelligence–Driven SBOM Attestations with Bounded Disclosure (preprint). Zenodo. DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.18153487] Keywords: SBOM, software supply chain security, vulnerability management, KEV, EPSS, OSV, attestation, CI/CD, bounded disclosure, reproducibility

Faisal Orakzai

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology transforming the digital economy. This research paper provides a comprehensive primer on blockchain technology, covering its architecture, core principles, and applications. We explore the transition from centralized to decentralized systems, the cryptographic foundations of security (SHA-256, Merkle Trees), and the evolution of smart contracts. Additionally, we analyze the impact of blockchain across various industries and its role in the emerging Web3 infrastructure.

Saha Reno, Koushik Roy, G M Abdullah Al Kafi, Khandakar Md Shafin

ABSTRACT The simultaneous achievement of scalability, security and decentralisation remains an open problem for distributed ledger technologies. This paper introduces InternxtChain, a novel framework leveraging Internxt's decentralised storage infrastructure with zero‐knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and sharded proof‐of‐storage (SPoS) consensus. Specifically, erasure‐coded sharding ensures data availability and fault tolerance by splitting files into encoded fragments distributed across nodes; BLS‐381 aggregated signatures enable efficient consensus by compressing multiple signatures into a single short proof; and zk‐SNARK audits provide tamper‐evident storage verification without revealing user data. InternxtChain addresses this challenge through three synergistic mechanisms: (i) erasure‐coded sharding with (6,3) Reed–Solomon encoding, (ii) zk‐SNARKs for storage auditability and (iii) an SPoS consensus based on BLS‐381 aggregated signatures. Experimental evaluation on a testbed of 2048 nodes across 16 geographic regions shows that InternxtChain processes 2800 transactions per second (TPS) with a median latency of 420 ms, while maintaining 99.9% data integrity under up to 30% Byzantine nodes. These results establish a practical path toward harmonising Web3 principles with real‐world throughput, cost and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) auditability requirements.

吴振友, CHEN-YU WU

[[abstract]]隨著元宇宙、區塊鏈與非同質化代幣(NFT)等技術的發展，數位藝術的創作、展示與流通方式都在改變。而數位作品長期面臨所有權與盜版的問題，使在數位創作的實務上存在各種挑戰，促使研究者思考與想像元宇宙與數位藝術結合的可能性與研究性。本研究在思考如果這些虛擬空間結合了區塊鏈與 NFT 技術與元宇宙之藝術創作，是否能改善數位藝術作品的所有權問題與協助觀眾理解Web3.0相關的概念。研究方法以創作實作為主，會在元宇宙空間中打造一個數位藝術展覽，展出創作者過去的天文攝影、AI 繪圖與影片，並透過 NFT 將這些作品上鏈，結合空間設計與互動安排，觀察實際運作情形。研究結果顯示，NFT上鏈機制可有效建立可追溯可建立版權的數位資產，改善數位作品盜版與複製的所有權問題，透過元宇宙展覽也能提供沉浸式體驗，融入區塊鏈知識提升反詐騙概念，展現出藝術創作與社會教育功能的可能性。 With the development of technologies such as the metaverse, blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the creation, exhibition, and circulation of digital art are undergoing significant transformations. However, digital artworks have long faced challenges related to ownership ambiguity and copyright infringement, posing practical difficulties for digital art creation. These issues have prompted researchers to explore the potential and feasibility of integrating metaverse environments with digital art practices. This study aims to examine whether the integration of blockchain and NFT technologies within metaverse-based art creation can improve ownership protection of digital artworks and assist audiences in understanding concepts related to Web3.0. A practice-based research approach was adopted, in which a digital art exhibition was constructed within a metaverse virtual environment. The exhibition presented the creator’s astronomical photography, AI-generated images, and video works, all of which were minted as NFTs on the blockchain. Spatial design and interactive arrangements were incorporated to observe and analyze the practical operation of the exhibition. The results indicate that NFT minting mechanisms can effectively establish traceable digital assets with verifiable ownership records, thereby mitigating issues related to unauthorized duplication and copyright disputes. Furthermore, metaverse-based exhibitions can provide immersive viewing experiences while integrating blockchain knowledge to enhance awareness of anti-fraud concepts, demonstrating the potential of digital art to function as both an artistic practice and a medium for social education.

Vishal Chaudhary

No abstract is available for this record.

Wulf A. Kaal

No abstract is available for this record.

Pierpaolo Della Monica, Ivan Visconti, Andrea Vitaletti, Marco Zecchini

An essential requirement for the large-scale adoption of Web3 is enabling users to benefit from their data even within already deployed systems. This raises an important open question: how can existing, widely adopted software verify that a user has retrieved specific data from a TLS server? Impressive scientific results (e.g., DECO [CCS20] and the work of Xie et al. [USENIX24]) and industrial products (TLSNotary) have recently made progress in the above challenging direction. However, while they nicely leave TLS servers untouched, the retrieved data is then used in computations with verifiers that are required to run some advanced non-standardized cryptographic schemes (e.g., ZK-SNARKs), which clearly limits the large-scale adoption of the proposed technologies. In this paper, building on top of previous approaches and relying on the recent concept of Predicate Blind Signatures of Fuchsbauer and Wolf [Eurocrypt24], we bypass the limits of prior work by presenting ACTS a distributed architecture that, while still leaving TLS servers untouched, it allows a user to show possession of data retrieved from TLS servers simply requiring that the software of the verifier can check a standard signature. Our contributions include a round-optimal predicate blind signature protocol that produces standard RSA-PSS signatures. We show how this primitive can be integrated into the DECO architecture (and its successors) to certify data retrieved from TLS servers. Furthermore, we have optimized our construction to make it practical on commodity hardware for a large and significant class of policies implemented by the notary (i.e., the actor that is in charge of obliviously certifying TLS data, therefore preserving data confidentiality). We provide an experimental evaluation on the simple but powerful enough use case of a PDF document downloaded from a TLS server and encoded into an AES-GCM ciphertext. The user will then get a certified PDF through a standard PADES signature added obliviously to the PDF along with some metadata by a notary service. The resulting standard signed PDF document can be transparently verified using off-the-shelf PDF readers. Our experimental validation demonstrates that our architecture is suitable for real-world deployment in concrete scenarios.

Igor Calzada

No abstract is available for this record.

Ahmet Ramazan Ağırtaş, Arda Buğra Özer, Zülfükar SAYGI, Oğuz Yayla

Unbiased and unpredictable randomness is a cornerstone of Web3 security, underpinning everything from consensus protocols to DeFi logic. Although Distributed Verifiable Random Functions (DVRFs) eliminate central points of failure, current designs often have to compromise performance. Most existing protocols are hindered by one of three limitations: proofs that scale linearly with the number of participants, high computational cost of bilinear pairings, or latency introduced by mandatory interactive steps during generation. In this work, we present Icy-DVRF, a protocol that improves DVRFwCP by employing a preprocessing scheme similar to FROST to reduce the number of interaction rounds among participants and lowering the additional communication cost from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(n^{2} t)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(t)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> while maintaining constant-size proofs. The downside of our construction is that, relative to DDH-DVRF and GLOW-DVRF, this approach incurs an additional off-chain communication round due to the threshold structure of our non-interactive zero-knowledge proof. This architecture ensures that verification costs remain low, regardless of the set of participants. While theoretical estimates suggest verification costs of approximately one quarter of those of standard designs, our empirical benchmarks on the Sepolia testnet, utilizing the EIP-2537: Precompile for BLS12-381 curve operations, confirm that Icy-DVRF requires only 88,803 gas for full execution. This represents a significant 43.02% reduction in total gas consumption compared to existing pairing-based constructions, saving 67,035 gas per on-chain verification. Off-chain, eliminating DVRFwCP&#x2019;s Augmented Secure-DKG round yields a per-node speedup ranging from a factor of 1.46 at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(n,t)=(5,3)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to a factor of 4.43 at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(n,t)=(50,34)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.

Johannes Bennke

No abstract is available for this record.

Ellen Shi, Ellen Wu

No abstract is available for this record.

Muhammad Siddiqui

No abstract is available for this record.

Vadim Tsyvian

LAYER 0: RESTORING REAL-WORLD ONTOLOGY TO DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE The Restoration of Digital Legal Personality through Object-to-Subject Transformation This paper proposes restoring the ontological logic of the physical world within the digital realm. In physical reality, Layer 0 (corporeal presence) implicitly guarantees that an agent is a Subject. The digital world lost this layer, leading to a critical systemic error: the granting of legal capacity to "dead" Objects (code), which results in the mass voidness of transactions due to Vitiated Consent (Defect of Will). The author introduces the concept of Object-to-Subject Transformation. We assert that the only way to eliminate this legal voidness is to re-introduce the human will as a tangible force. The Core Mechanism: The solution is the Organization of the Stream. By actively directing a continuous flow of entropy tokens from physical reality to a digital entity, the human performs a volitional act. This active organization is the endowment of Will, which ontologically transforms the digital entity from an inert Object into a capable Subject. Key Contributions: Restoration of Reality: Layer 0 re-establishes the physical-to-digital link that was lost in standard TCP/IP architecture. Elimination of Voidness: By ensuring "No Will = No Action," the protocol prevents transactions that would be legally void ab initio. Discrete Subjectivity: Legal personality becomes a dynamic state that exists strictly during the moment of active human engagement (Stream Organization). Conclusion This work integrates legal theory and cryptography to create a post-quantum standard of trust, where the human remains the sole source of Subjectivity, preventing the legal and ontological collapse of the digital economy. Keywords: Layer 0, Object-to-Subject Transformation, Digital Legal Personality, Discrete Legal Personality, Sybil Resistance, Capacity to Act, AI Liability, Vitiated Consent, ZK-PoB, Proof of Personhood, Biological Entropy, Model Collapse, Web3 Security, Digital Identity, Intentional Entropy

Amrendra Singh Yadav, Mihir Bhatt, Sameer Yadav, Sanjeev Kumar Dwivedi · 5 authors

The rapid evolution of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) necessitates secure, scalable, and low-latency route navigation mechanisms that can operate in highly dynamic vehicular environments. Emerging paradigms such as Vehicular Digital Twins (VDTs) further enhance IoV ecosystems by enabling real-time virtual representations of physical vehicles, facilitating predictive analytics, intelligent decision-making, and context-aware routing. However, conventional VANET-based approaches suffer from centralized trust dependencies, high computational overhead, and limited adaptability to real-time traffic conditions. This paper proposes BFRN-IoV, a blockchain- and fog-enabled route navigation framework that integrates lightweight ECC-HMAC-based mutual authentication, RSU-assisted fog routing, and global route validation via a Geo-Location Provider (GLP), while leveraging VDTs for enhanced situational awareness and dynamic route optimization. The framework ensures key security properties-including confidentiality, integrity, pseudonymity, unlinkability, and non-repudiation-using ECDH-derived session keys, HKDF-based key expansion, and HMAC verification, while preserving privacy through pseudonym-based identity management. A permissioned blockchain provides immutable and auditable logging of routing interactions without exposing vehicle identities. Simulation results using SUMO and implementation via Web3 demonstrate significant improvements in routing accuracy, along with reduced communication and computational overhead compared to existing approaches. Formal verification using the Scyther tool confirms robustness against replay, impersonation, and man-in-the-middle attacks. The proposed framework delivers a unified, secure, and efficient solution for real-time IoV route navigation, further strengthened by the integration of VDTs in next-generation intelligent transportation systems.