Blockchain Papers

Esha Tyagi, Arun Ahirwar, Deepak Khandelwal, Ashika Goyal · 5 authors

E-voting systems are gaining ground in international space, considering the versatility embedded in them in terms of making voting far more accessible and less expensive in logistics. Such systems, however, pose much higher security issues regarding privacy, especially while using biometric details, such as facial recognition, to verify the voter. The paper describes an e-voting system based on the blockchain architecture coupled with advanced privacy-preserving techniques like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and end-to-end encryption. Voters have shied away from adopting this voting system as it is ensured by decentralization, transparency, and tamper-proofness, all at the cost of their identity and biometric data. In addition to this, this blockchain-based system also ensures that no one control is there for the voting process by any particular entity; hence, it guarantees impartiality. Because of ZKPs, it is ensured that voter verification can take place without exposing sensitive personal data in nature. Unlike the traditional e-voting-on-a-blockchain models, ours includes a dynamic key rotation mechanism for further anonymity of votes, with a multi-layer encryption to protect voter credentials even against potential quantum computing threats. Further, this blocking-based system makes sure that not a single entity is controlling the entire process of voting, thus guaranteeing impartiality. Voter verification takes place through the means of ZKP without any sensitive personal information being revealed. As a result, end-to-end encryption keeps intact the integrity of a vote from the moment it is cast until it is finally counted, further building confidence in the election process. It turns out to be a safe and scalable solution for future worldwide adoption of evoting.

Tao Zhang

Blockchain has been an attractive platform both for covert channel and covert communication. Recent years have witnessed growing researches on achieving covert communication with blockchain applications. Identifying covert channels in blockchain is necessary and important to design blockchain based covert communication schemes. However, there still lacks a systematical method to analyze all possible covert channels in blockchain applications. In the paper, we propose a layer based covert channel identification method to analyze both covert storage channels and covert timing channels in blockchain applications. 11, 15, 14 and 19 new covert channels are identified in Bitcoin, Zcash, Monero and Ethereum with the proposed method, which proves the effectiveness of the method. The method is general and can be applied to identify covert channels in other blockchain applications, which lays foundation for both practical covert communication with blockchain applications and covert communication detection research.

Asjad Alli Khan, Sweta, Saurabh Krishna Chauhan, Vijay Kumar · 5 authors

The need for secure and accessible electronic voting systems has become increasingly critical, particularly during global emergencies that restrict physical polling access. While existing e-voting solutions offer convenience, they face significant challenges in ensuring vote integrity, voter privacy, and system security. This paper presents a novel blockchain-based evoting system that combines the security features of distributed ledger technology with traditional voting requirements. Our system architecture integrates a Distributed Permission Ledger Technology (DPLT) layer for voter validation and an Ethereum blockchain layer for immutable vote recording. The implementation utilizes smart contracts for automated vote processing and cryptographic techniques to maintain voter anonymity while ensuring transparent verification. We compare it with traditional e-voting systems and come up with considerable improvements in terms of security, transparency, and cost-effectiveness. Results indicate that blockchain technology can address all the important electoral challenges, such as resistance to tampering, real-time auditing ability, and reduced infrastructure costs. Case studies' evaluations found that the system is quite feasible for largescale elections, especially during emergencies when physical voting becomes unfeasible. Potential implementation barriers, such as technical complexity and social acceptance, have also been highlighted as a basis for future activities in blockchainbased democratic processes.

Junkai Liang, Xin Zhang, Di Hu, Qingni Shen · 6 authors

Zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (zk-SNARK) schemes have been a promising technique in verified computation. Zk-SNARK schemes were designed to be mathematically secure against cryptographic attacks and it remains unclear whether they are vulnerable to fault injection attacks. In this work, we provide a positive answer by presenting ZK-Hammer, which leaks secrets from zk-SNARK schemes via Rowhammer. We incur faults in the exponentiate variables in the Quadratic Arithmetic Program (QAP) problem. Then we analyze the faulty proof using the bilinear pairing technique and manage to recover the secret. We employ a Rowhammer fault evaluation in libsnark and identify 3 CVEs.

Mathew Sebastian

Cryptography has played a pivotal role in securing communication across human history. From ancient techniques such as hieroglyphic substitutions and Caesar's cipher to contemporary cryptographic systems like RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography, the field has continuously adapted to evolving technological paradigms. This article provides a comprehensive review of the historical development of cryptography, highlighting key milestones from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, through the mechanical encryption devices of World War II, to the theoretical foundations established by Claude Shannon. It examines the revolutionary introduction of public-key cryptography and follows developments into the digital era, where blockchain technology and privacy innovations like Zero-Knowledge Proofs have expanded cryptographic applications beyond traditional security roles. The article also explores emerging challenges and innovations, particularly those involving artificial intelligence and quantum computing, considering the implications of quantum threats and the ongoing global efforts to develop quantum-resistant encryption standards.

Ιωάννου, Κωνσταντίνος

This thesis focuses on the detection and analysis of sandwich attacks in the Ethereum ecosystem, with an emphasis on transactions executed through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Uniswap [1]. Sandwich attacks are a malicious strategy in which an attacker inserts transactions before and after a victim’s transaction, exploiting price fluctuations for personal gain [2]. The goal of the project is to develop a detection mechanism based on real on-chain data. To achieve this, the Python programming language was utilized, and the approach was based on transaction data exported from Etherscan. The tool processes transactions via .csv files, performing filtering and chronological sorting. It then applies a sliding window algorithm to detect suspicious patterns such as BUY–BUY–SELL and SELL–SELL–BUY, which are associated with sandwich attacks. The tool identifies cases where the same address interacts with the same liquidity pool before and after a victim’s transaction, suggesting potential price manipulation. Identified attackers are logged in a structured JSON file along with the relevant transactions and timestamps. This approach ensures both flexibility and accuracy, while avoiding the technical limitations of live API usage. During testing, numerous sandwich attacks were detected, primarily in tokens with high transaction volume and activity. The SELL–SELL–BUY pattern was observed more frequently than BUY–BUY–SELL, with most attacks occurring within 0–2 seconds between steps. Furthermore, several repeated attacker addresses were identified, indicating the presence of bots executing systematic strategies. Through this analysis, the system detects patterns indicative of sandwich attacks and records the attackers in a JSON file. While it does not implement an automated reporting mechanism, the generated data can potentially support the submission of formal complaints to regulatory entities or be used for further research aimed at strengthening security in the DeFi ecosystem [3].

Alex B. Grilo, Philippe Lamontagne

The round complexity of interactive proof systems is a key question of practical and theoretical relevance in complexity theory and cryptography. Moreover, results such as QIP = QIP(3) (STOC'00) show that quantum resources significantly help in such a task. In this work, we initiate the study of round compression of protocols in the bounded quantum storage model (BQSM). In this model, the malicious parties have a bounded quantum memory and they cannot store the all the qubits that are transmitted in the protocol. Our main results in this setting are the following: 1. There is a non-interactive (statistical) witness indistinguishable proof for any language in NP (and even QMA) in BQSM in the plain model. We notice that in this protocol, only the memory of the verifier is bounded. 2. Any classical proof system can be compressed in a two-message quantum proof system in BQSM. Moreover, if the original proof system is zero-knowledge, the quantum protocol is zero-knowledge too. In this result, we assume that the prover has bounded memory. Finally, we give evidence towards the “tightness” of our results. First, we show that NIZK in the plain model against BQS adversaries is unlikely with standard techniques. Second, we prove that without the BQS model there is no 2–message zero-knowledge quantum interactive proof, even under computational assumptions.

K. Thanushree, U. Padmavathi

The rise of quantum computing poses a serious threat to the cryptographic backbone of decentralized systems like Ethereum's Plasma chains, which rely on classical cryptography. This paper introduces a novel approach, integrating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) with hybrid frameworks that blend quantum-resistant algorithms with traditional cryptographic techniques. This hybrid approach ensures strong quantum-resistant security while maintaining Plasma's scalability, performance, and compatibility with Ethereum's ecosystem. This study focuses on critical plasma components like state transitions, fraud proofs, and exit strategies, that are most vulnerable to quantum attacks, proposing hybrid cryptography for low risk, high frequency transactions, while leveraging post-quantum solutions like Kyber and NTRU for securing long-term commitments and high-risk processes. By establishing clear decision criteria to determine when hybrid cryptography should take precedence over pure PQC, based on factors such as computational efficiency, security demands, and system interoperability. The insights set a new standard for Plasma's quantum resilience, ensuring it stays secure and adaptable as quantum computing evolves, paving path for decentralized finance to thrive in the face of quantum threats.

Abdul Khalique Shaikh, Naresh Adhikari, Amril Nazir, Abdul Salam Shah · 6 authors

<ns3:p>Background Ensuring the security and trustworthiness of a digitized and automated electoral process remains a significant challenge in democratic systems. As digital voting systems are increasingly being investigated around the world, ensuring the integrity of the process using robust security measures is of great importance. This paper presents a simplified model to enhance electoral integrity by leveraging Blockchain technology in the context of Oman’s digital voting system. The model uses Blockchain technology to create a secure and trustworthy voting environment, addressing key vulnerabilities in digital electoral systems. Methods The research utilized a quantitative approach, employing an experimental design methodology using open-source software to simulate voting systems. Synthetic population data is utilized for operating these systems, while advanced biometric authentication technologies are used to verify voter identities. Blockchain technology is leveraged to ensure secure vote recording, with smart contracts used to authenticate voters and securely record votes. Additionally, synchronous transactions are executed for both voter registration and voting processes, enhancing the overall security and efficiency of the system. Results The experimental results shows that Blockchain enhances electoral integrity and security in Oman voting system, improves transparency and reliability in elections. The performance evaluation of the model focuses on efficiency, reliability, and scalability metrics. Asynchronous transactions are utilized to improve processing time for voter registration and voting. Election administrators can manage, monitor, and certify election results, while Ethereum nodes ensure decentralized verification and transparency in the voting process. Conclusion This research offers insights for policymakers to consider Blockchain for electoral reforms, addressing issues like data integrity, fraud prevention, and transparency to boost voter trust. A strong regulatory framework and public awareness are crucial for successful implementation. Pilot projects are needed to assess Blockchain’s practical impact. Oman could lead global innovation in electoral technology, though infrastructure and public resistance challenges must be managed.</ns3:p>

Tzanko Golemanov, Emilia Golemanova

Abstract— Remote electronic voting promises increased accessibility but remains constrained by persistent challenges related to coercion in unsupervised environments, credential compromise, and the difficulty of sustaining long-term voter trust. While coercion-resistant approaches commonly rely on revoting, most existing systems treat credential loss or recovery as an administrative exception, often reintroducing identity linkage or trusted intermediaries and offering limited means for voters or observers to verify that an election unfolded as intended. This paper presents Arcaunt, a remote voting architecture that elevates anonymous credential recovery to a first-class security property and integrates it directly into the voting lifecycle. The architecture introduces an Anonymous Recovery Channel (ARC), enabling voters to revoke and replace compromised credentials without identity disclosure or reliance on administrator discretion. Recovery is logically and operationally decoupled from ballot casting. This preserves ballot secrecy and prevents temporary compromise of credentials, devices, or voter autonomy from becoming a permanent loss of voting control. Arcaunt builds on established cryptographic mechanisms, including publicly verifiable bulletin boards, commitment-based ballots, and unlinkable bearer credentials. These components provide ballot integrity and verifiability without exposing voter identities and form the foundation on which revoting, recovery, and auditability are composed. Individual assurance is provided through deferred, non-transferable verification mechanisms: voters receive a receipt at ballot submission, while verification becomes possible only after election closure, preventing real-time feedback that could enable coercion while still allowing voters to confirm that their final valid ballot was recorded and included. At the system level, integrity is enforced through an append-only, publicly auditable ledger and deterministic “last valid vote” counting rules, ensuring that administrative database access cannot alter election outcomes without detection. The architecture explicitly bounds its threat model, acknowledging limits against global traffic analysis and continuous coercion while constraining failures to be temporary and non-scalable. We analyze the security properties of the proposed system under realistic adversarial assumptions and evaluate a prototype implementation, demonstrating that anonymous recovery, coercion-resistant revoting, individual verification, and public auditability can be combined efficiently without reliance on trusted administrators or specialized hardware. Keywords—e-voting, arcaunt, anonymous recovery channel (arc), coercion resistance, sha-3, digital democracy, govtech, zero-knowledge proofs.

Ebiringa, Divine

This thesis investigates how blockchain technology and data science methods can jointly improve the security, transparency, and trustworthiness of electoral systems. Against a backdrop of rising concerns over election integrity in traditional voting systems, scholars and nations have begun to integrate blockchain systems. However, adoption appears to remain low. This study systematically reviews 116 peer-reviewed articles and analyzes five national case studies (Estonia, Switzerland, the United States, Russia, and Romania). It examines (1) blockchain’s potential to secure voter verification, prevent fraud, and ensure immutable vote records; (2) data-science methods (e.g. machine learning, zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encryption) for anomaly detection, performance optimization, and privacy preservation; and (3) the ethical, political, and societal implications of digital voting, including the digital divide and regulatory compliance. A mixed-methods approach was adopted. First, SLR was used to identify, screen, and synthesize 28 core studies. Then multiple case studies were used to analyse real-world blockchain-voting system implementations to highlight practical successes and setbacks. From this, a conceptual framework for a hybrid blockchain voting system that integrates smart contracts, layered consensus model, and an off-chain data-science layer for real-time monitoring was developed. Findings show consensus that blockchain can enhance election integrity, and data-science techniques further strengthen authentication, detect intrusions, and enable privacy-preserving analytics. However, it was also found that legal and regulatory gaps, infrastructure and literacy barriers, lack of scalability, and the need to build public trust remain huge hindrances to widespread adoption. The thesis recommended a hybrid voting architecture that combines public and private blockchains and off-chain data science monitoring, and its interface is user-friendly. Policymakers and election administrators are urged to pilot such integrated systems, refine identity-management protocols, and invest in voter education to ensure both technical robustness and broad societal acceptance, thereby paving the way toward more secure, transparent, and efficient democratic processes.

M. Badrul Alam, Shazneen Islam Akhi, A K M Mahbubur Rahman, Jubaida Nur Jumana · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Kishor Bholane

The business world is seeing towards the cryptocurrency as a future currency. A very less literature is available on cryptocurrencies. This research paper focused on the concept, features, history and the mechanism of cryptocurrency. It also discussed the current status of cryptocurrencies in India and some leading cryptocurrencies with their market cap. While considering cryptocurrency as a digital investment, its pros and cons are to be kept in mind, which are also included in this research paper.

Ward Beullens, Lucas Dodgson, Sebastian Faller, Julia Hesse

No abstract is available for this record.

Chen Wang, Ziyuan Liu, Masahiro Mambo

With the widespread adoption and increasing application of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency wallets used in Bitcoin and Ethereum play a crucial role in facilitating decentralized asset management and secure transactions. However, wallet security relies heavily on private keys, with insufficient attention to the risks of theft and exposure. To address this issue, Chaum et al. (ACNS’21) proposed a “proof of ownership” method using a “backup key” to prove ownership of private keys even when exposed. However, their interactive proof approach is inefficient in large-scale systems and vulnerable to side-channel attacks due to the long key generation time. Other related schemes also suffer from low efficiency and complex key management, increasing the difficulty of securely storing backup keys. In this paper, we present an efficient, non-interactive proof generation approach for ownership of secret keys using a single backup key. Our approach leverages non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs and symmetric encryption, allowing users to generate multiple proofs with one fixed backup key, simplifying key management. Additionally, our scheme resists quantum attacks and provides a fallback signature. Our new scheme can be proved to capture unforgeability under the computational indistinguishability from the Uniformly Random Distribution property of a proper hash function and soundness in the quantum random oracle model. Experimental results indicate that our approach achieves a short key generation time and enables an efficient proof generation scheme in large-scale decentralized systems. Compared with state-of-the-art schemes, our approach is applicable to a broader range of scenarios due to its non-interactive nature, short key generation time, high efficiency, and simplified key management system.

Kyvalya Garikapati, Akash Bag, Sambhabi Patnaik

This chapter explores the transformative impact of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology on financial transactions. It delves into the challenges of ensuring currency legitimacy and authenticity in traditional and digital transactions, highlighting the growing desire to bypass intermediary institutions like banks. The chapter discusses the emergence of cryptocurrency as a decentralized virtual currency and its various types, including payment cryptocurrencies, utility tokens, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It also explores the historical origins of blockchain technology, tracing its roots to the 1980s and its evolution into the revolutionary force it is today. The chapter emphasizes the role of cryptography in securing digital transactions and analyzes the factors contributing to the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. It concludes by emphasizing the need to balance the promises and concerns associated with this technological advancement.

Tao Shang

No abstract is available for this record.

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

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

Rundong Gan, Le Wang, Liang Xue, Xiaodong Lin

Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a pivotal component of the emerging Web3 landscape, is gaining popularity but remains vulnerable to market manipulations, such as wash trading. Wash trading is an illegal practice, where traders buy and sell assets to themselves within cryptocurrency exchanges to artificially inflate trading volumes and distort market perceptions. However, current research primarily focuses on traditional exchanges based on the Order-book mechanism (similar to stock markets), while ignoring the Automated Market Maker (AMM) exchanges, which dominate over 75% of the market and represent a significant innovation within the DeFi. This study utilizes entity recognition technology to detect wash trading on AMM exchanges within Ethereum-like systems, based on the understanding that colluding addresses (perceived as the same entity) must use ETH for transaction fees and exhibit direct or indirect ETH transfer links. We identify wash trading when addresses with transfer connections almost simultaneously buy and sell assets while their total asset holdings remain nearly constant. This comprehensive blockchain network analysis, compared to focusing solely on transactions within exchanges, unveils covert wash trading activities. Our detection method achieves a 95.9% recall and a 96.7% true negative rate in identifying pools affected by wash trading, demonstrating its superiority over existing methods. Furthermore, we apply our method to 98,945 pools from Uniswap V2 &amp; V3 (the most popular AMM exchanges on Ethereum) and identify 1,070,626 abnormal transactions, totaling $27.51 billion in trading volume. Analysis of these transactions uncovers insights into wash traders’ behaviors, including the utilization of multiple addresses and the dual roles of certain addresses as wash traders and liquidity providers. These insights are crucial for developing more effective strategies to combat fraudulent activities in the DeFi ecosystem and enhance financial scrutiny.

Kaushikkumar Patel

In the internet's evolution, cryptocurrencies and decentralized platforms represent a significant shift. This chapter explores this shift, emphasizing Ethereum's role in Web 3. As we move from centralized to decentralized systems, Ethereum emerges as a “world computer.” This chapter explores Ethereum's blockchain and smart contract technology. It clarifies Ethereum and Ether (ETH), highlighting their impact on DeFi and NFTs. Ethereum offers opportunities but also faces scalability and fee challenges. The chapter provides a balanced view, exploring these issues and Ethereum's potential to alter the internet and finance. Readers will understand Ethereum's Web 3 role, its industry implications, and developments enhancing its ecosystem.

Masoud Eshaghinasrabadi

This article provides a statistical approach to describe the fit of the most popular cryptocurrencies, building off a previous report, "A Statistical Analysis of Cryptocurrencies." We examined Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Binance, Ripple, Cardano, Solana, and Doge coins. To model our cryptocurrencies, we utilized trading prices between 2017 and 2022 in light of historic events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we performed a correlation analysis to help understand the relationship between the popular cryptos. Here, we report that the candidate distributions we fit to model the currencies needed to be more independent to describe the return of all popular cryptos. This could be due to the need for Correlation between some of these popular cryptos. We found the generalized hyperbolic and the generalized t showed the best performance of the models tested, though these approaches remained limited in their overall fitness. Their performance also varied by cryptocurrency under investigation, with Tether demonstrating the worst fit across all candidate models. Using our fit models, we also predicted the average daily returns for January 1st, 2023, to February 1st, 2023, and generally found good predictive validity. These results are critical in understanding the movements of cryptos and help better understand the risk associated with trading these currencies.

Andrea Coladangelo, Saachi Mutreja

It is well-known that digital signatures can be constructed from one-way functions in a black-box way. While one-way functions are essentially the minimal assumption in classical cryptography, this is not the case in the quantum setting. A variety of qualitatively weaker and inherently quantum assumptions (e.g. EFI pairs, one-way state generators, and pseudorandom states) are known to be sufficient for non-trivial quantum cryptography. While it is known that commitments, zero-knowledge proofs, and even multiparty computation can be constructed from these assumptions, it has remained an open question whether the same is true for quantum digital signatures schemes (QDS). In this work, we show that there $\textit{does not}$ exist a black-box construction of a QDS scheme with classical signatures from pseudorandom states with linear, or greater, output length. Our result complements that of Morimae and Yamakawa (2022), who described a $\textit{one-time}$ secure QDS scheme with classical signatures, but left open the question of constructing a standard $\textit{multi-time}$ secure one.

Christian Fieberg, Steffen Günther, Thorsten Poddig, Adam Zaremba

No abstract is available for this record.

Shun-Fa Wu, Cheng Tuan-Mu, Kuang‐Chieh Yen

In this paper, we conduct a portfolio analysis based on the lottery-like characteristics of cryptocurrencies to examine return predictability. Our results show that cryptocurrencies with higher lottery-like characteristics exhibit lower one-month ahead returns. This phenomenon, known as the lottery-like effect, suggests that investors overvalue cryptocurrencies with stronger lottery-like traits, leading to lower future returns. Moreover, the effect persists over longer horizons, and the results remain robust after controlling for other crypto-asset characteristics.