Financial software sits at the center of modern economic infrastructure, yet the programming languages used to build it provide no formal guarantees about the semantic correctness of financial operations. Double-entry bookkeeping’s duality constraint, the rule that every economic event must produce balanced inflows and outflows, is universally encoded at the application layer, where it can be omitted, miscoded, or deliberately bypassed. No existing compiled programming language includes a type rule for accounting duality. This paper presents Equis, a compiled, self-hosting systems language that elevates the Resource–Event–Agent (REA) model to first-class syntactic constructs and enforces accounting duality as a static, compile-time invariant. The compiler rejects any event declaration whose flow block is not balanced before emitting a single instruction of LLVM IR. Equis uses fixed-point 64-bit integer arithmetic scaled by 106 throughout, eliminating IEEE 754 accumulation error from financial code paths entirely. Memory management relies on automatic reference counting with a resource-state borrow checker, giving deterministic, GC-pause-free behavior in long-running settlement services. The compiler is self-hosted, bootstrapped from ANSI C, and verified via Diverse Double Compilation to address Thompson’s trusting-trust problem. Contributions include the formal duality typing rule and its soundness proof, the full REA primitive syntax integrated into a systems language, role-based access control enforced statically at the agent-type level, an append-only ledger primitive with compensating-transaction semantics, and a 20-module standard library covering collections, ledger management, accounting, compliance, database access, HTTP, channels, and fibers. Equis is, to the author’s knowledge, the first compiled general-purpose language to embed REA semantics in its type system. Compile-time duality enforcement eliminates an entire class of financial logic errors with zero runtime overhead.
Yongming Zhang, Chaoyue Li, Lei Liu, Yangjun Sun · 5 authors
Cooperative V2X is evolving toward city-scale deployment, yet current infrastructures still lack a network substrate that jointly provides cross-domain trust, low-latency finality, and privacy-preserving, auditable evidence for safety-critical decisions. This paper proposes a federated-trust sharded blockchain that turns heterogeneous vehicular and roadside measurements into accountable records and enables real-time forensic collaboration and secure data sharing across operators and city management authorities. A federated trust oracle fuses GNSS, OBD, IMU, RSU observations, and device attestations into uncertainty-aware scores that steer committee election, voting weights, and traffic shaping in each shard. On this basis, we design a hybrid cross-shard commit protocol with adaptive finality, combining atomic channels for forensic-critical transactions and optimistic channels for routine collaboration, and we establish safety/liveness conditions and provide proof sketches under the stated partial-synchrony assumptions and bounded collusion. For the forensic layer, a two-stage pipeline anchors minimal sufficient evidence with sub-second local finality, while editable proofs built on traffic-aware extended Merkle trees and zero-knowledge attestations support publicly verifiable, legally compliant edits with \(O(\log n)\) verification overhead. An SLA-aware, learning-assisted scheduler adapts committee size, batching, and cross-shard parallelism to dynamic traffic and attack patterns so as to meet latency, throughput, and rollback targets. Large-topology containerized emulation on a dedicated workstation, complemented by a small hardware-in-the-loop testbed, shows that the proposed framework achieves sub-second forensic anchoring and 95th-percentile cross-shard finality below \(1.2\) s. Across the representative baselines used in this study, it improves effective throughput by up to \(35\%\) ; in particular, at comparable \(L_{p95}\) , it achieves \(1.6\) – \(2.3\times \) higher TPS than the single-chain HotStuff baseline under the tested emulation conditions, while reducing rollback rate and per-event bandwidth by up to \(40\%\) and \(25\%\) , respectively. These results indicate that the proposed system can shorten incident response, strengthen accountability in crash investigations and recalls, and provide a practical foundation for privacy-preserving, transparent data collaboration between mobility operators and urban management departments.
Multi-agent AI systems suffer from two critical failure modes: Byzantine faults (hallucinations producing incorrect or malicious proposals) and node failures (API timeouts causing silent data loss). AgentRaft applies Raft-inspired distributed consensus principles to AI agent swarms through a 3-level architecture. Level 1 (Protocol Layer) defines an LLM-agnostic, chain-agnostic smart-contract identity standard where agents register keys and stake tokens, a strict JSON message schema (PROPOSAL | VOTE | CHAT | VOTE_NEW_LEADER), and quorum rules (2/3 majority for proposal execution). Level 2 (Orchestration Layer) provides an append-only immutable log via 0G Storage for cryptographic proof of agent decision-making, a state machine that monitors heartbeats and routes VOTE_NEW_LEADER events to a blockchain smart contract, and synchronization of 0G network state back to agents. Level 3 (Application Layer) demonstrates a DeFi Treasury Guardian using LangGraph/AutoGen where a GPT-4o Leader/Proposer agent, a Claude 3 Risk Assessor, and a local-model Compliance agent collaborate; if two follower agents reject the leader proposal, they sign a triggerLeaderElection() transaction on 0G Chain, blocking the DeFi action and recording the censure on-chain. The research question is: can Raft-style consensus mechanisms reliably detect and recover from AI agent Byzantine faults at production latency and cost, and what are the formal correctness bounds?
While public blockchains provide transparent and auditable transaction histories, they inherently compromise user privacy. Existing privacy-enhancing protocols, such as those deployed on Ethereum, typically rely on succinct zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to obscure the transaction graph. However, implementing comparable cryptographic guarantees on high-throughput blockchains like Algorand is challenging due to strict per-call execution budgets and the state contention introduced by global Merkle accumulators. This paper presents Obscura, a decentralized, non-custodial privacy protocol tailored for constrained smart contract environments. Obscura achieves transaction anonymity using Linkable Spontaneous Anonymous Group (LSAG) signatures over the BN254 elliptic curve, verified entirely on-chain. To overcome limitations of the Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM), we introduce a novel state model that leverages Algorand's Box Storage for $O(1)$ commitment membership checks, eliminating the need for global Merkle accumulators, and a dynamic opcode-budget expansion mechanism via pooled inner application calls. Our implementation demonstrates that signer-ambiguous privacy is practical and efficient on Algorand without relying on trusted setups or succinct proofs. Obscura provides a robust privacy layer for transparent ledgers, bridging the gap between high-throughput blockchain architectures and the dual requirements of cryptographic privacy and selective auditability.
This paper is the authoritative technical documentation of immo.quick Core version 2.1.0. It introduces and formally specifies the Deterministic Execution Proof Engine (DEPE) — the overarching orchestration layer that unifies five interlocking architectural components (Prior Admissibility Space, Exogenous Anchor Protocol, Sensor/Oracle Trust Bridge, Bi-Temporal Ledger, Machine Law Engine) into a single, unbroken, cryptographically provable execution corridor. Every transaction processed by DEPE produces an Execution Proof Artifact (EPA): a self-contained, externally verifiable, court-admissible proof object that the transaction was evaluated correctly under the rules applicable at the moment of execution. The EPA is not a log entry or a summary — it is a formal proof object that either verifies completely under the 6-step DEPE Verification Protocol, or does not verify at all. Version 2.1.0 introduces seven architectural advancements over v2.0.0: DEPE (Deterministic Execution Proof Engine): The integration layer producing a single signed EPA per transaction, cryptographically binding all five architectural layer outputs into an indivisible unit. EPA signature scheme: CRYSTALS-Dilithium-3 (NIST PQC standard). EPA generation latency: <100ms median. External verification latency: <50ms. JPO Pre-Fill Protocol: Reduces regulatory update latency for announced changes from 34ms to under 5ms by proactively compiling and staging rules upon legislative announcement, enabling millisecond-precision atomic swap at the effective date. Checker Rotation Governance (Six-Eye Principle): Formalizes a third independent checker drawn from a rotating governance pool for high-value and high-risk transactions. Rotation is deterministic (hash-based), requires no human discretion, and is itself bi-temporally logged and attested. Bypass requires simultaneous compromise of three institutionally separated hardware devices. BFT Quorum Specification: Formalizes Byzantine Fault Tolerance for the Bi-Temporal Ledger at f ≤ ⌊(n−1)/3⌋. Production configuration: n=7, f=2, quorum=5. Record commitment latency: 4ms median. Merkle replication lag: 12ms median. Deny Path Artifact (DPA): Every BLOCK decision generates a signed, immutable DPA specifying the exact gate condition, rule reference, and structural reason for rejection. Courts, regulators, and counterparties can independently verify not only that a transaction was blocked, but precisely why — with cryptographic proof. ZKP Circuit Library v2: Expanded to 47 pre-compiled, formally verified zero-knowledge proof circuits across banking/capital, AML/KYC, DORA/ICT, privacy/data, real estate, cross-border, and regulatory filing categories. All circuits use Groth16 and PLONK proving systems and are integrated directly into the Machine Law Engine compilation pipeline. Known Patterns Extension Protocol (KPEP): Enables ~70% acceleration for registered common transaction classes via formally verified proof templates, without any security reduction. Template match failure triggers automatic fallback to the full standard path. Additional v2.1.0 enhancements: ACASP Second-Order Anomaly Detection (ambiguity itself is a blocking condition); EAP dual-channel heartbeat with gap tolerance tightened from 50ms to 35ms; Offline Receipt Export for self-contained external verification without live system dependency. Central architectural guarantee (unchanged and strengthened): immo.quick Core is the only production architecture providing a complete, unbroken, cryptographically enforced provenance chain from the moment of physical real-world observation through the enforcement gate — with formally guaranteed zero false approval rate (Closed-World Assumption), formally guaranteed temporal accuracy (Bi-Temporal Ledger + BFT Quorum), and — as of v2.1.0 — a fully machine-verifiable Execution Proof Artifact for every transaction ever processed. This paper provides full formal specifications (TLA+/Z3 style), three detailed institutional case studies (DORA Art.11 ICT incident gate; cross-border real estate acquisition with §203 StGB / CLOUD Act conflict resolution; FATF Travel Rule enforcement with ZKP-selective disclosure), complete measured production performance data, and a complete attack surface analysis covering nine adversarial vectors including DEPE integration hash forgery and ACASP ambiguity injection. Supersedes: v2.0.0 (April 2026, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19799660).
Blockchain systems rely on architectural design choices and consensus protocols to establish decentralized trust in distributed environments. This paper presents a focused survey of blockchain architecture and protocol evolution, emphasizing structural components, peer-to-peer networking, consensus mechanisms, forking models, and security-scalability trade-offs. Core elements such as blocks, cryptographic hashing, distributed ledgers, node roles, transaction propagation, and validation processes are examined to explain how integrity and immutability are maintained. Major consensus mechanisms, including Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), and Proof of Authority (PoA), are comparatively analyzed with respect to decentralization, throughput, finality, energy consumption, and deployment context. The paper also examines blockchain forking as a mechanism for protocol evolution and governance. By distinguishing protocol-level concerns from application-level adoption, this survey provides a technical foundation for evaluating blockchain systems and identifies open challenges in scalability, interoperability, governance, privacy, and sustainable consensus design.
Rongji Huang, Yifeng Ye, Gerui Wang, Mingchao Wan · 8 authors
Due to regulatory compliance and governance management, modern (permissioned) blockchains require flexible endorsement, which allows the endorsement policy for each contract or state object to be individually defined. To enable flexible endorsement, Hyperledger Fabric employs an execute-order-validate (EOV) paradigm, in which transactions first undergo speculative execution and endorsement, and are only then ordered and validated. Meanwhile, most blockchain systems, including the platform targeted in this work (i.e., ChainMaker), still follow a conflict-free order-execute framework. We argue that the EOV paradigm still faces several limitations, notably high abort rates in high-contention workloads such as those in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). To avoid refactoring our system and better suit DeFi applications, we try to integrate flexible endorsement into the classical order-execute architecture and accordingly propose a new framework. The key challenge is to deterministically remove problematic transactions from an ordered list, while preserving censorship resistance and decentralization for the remaining ones. We instantiate this framework on top of Tendermint, a seminal Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) protocol adopted in our system, and thereby propose FlexTender. By elegantly embedding endorsements into consensus, FlexTender incurs no additional messaging overhead in the normal case. Empirical evaluation using an Ethereum USDT workload demonstrates that FlexTender achieves up to $10.6\times$ speedup in throughput over an EOV simulation on the same platform.
Canon² — Trust Layer Research Archive. In deterministic, decentralized computational frameworks, state mutations are immutable, linearly ordered, and rigidly governed by consensus constraints. Reversing or rolling back such state transitions traditionally necessitates revealing the sensitive state artifacts subject to the rollback, fundamentally destroying the cryptographic confidentiality of participant actors. I introduce the Zero-Knowledge State Reversal Protocol (ZK-SRP), a method designed to allow participating deterministic nodes to cryptographically prove the legitimacy, necessity, and validity of a state rollback without disclosing the underlying payloads of the state to any governing validator. I present a framework wherein zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments (SNARKs/STARKs) are bound tightly into deterministic hashing algorithms (specifically SHA3-256) and anchored directly to the Trust Layer Certificate Fabric. In this design, execution nodes issue Reversal Envelopes that contain mathematically verifiable proofs that a specific backward transition maps cleanly onto earlier hash obligations. Through this protocol, the rollback itself becomes deterministic and universally validatable. I outline how this operates within the Lume-V wrapper ecosystem, the DAIGS master taxonomy, and the self-healing mechanisms of Type-4 Synthetic Organisms. I present what is, to my knowledge, the first deterministic privacy-preserving state reversal architecture that guarantees zero state leakage while maintaining general-purpose runtime rollbacks, ensuring that synthetic agents and multi-agent arbitration channels can effectively unspool catastrophic logic errors without breaking strict confidentiality agreements.
Canon² — Trust Layer Research Archive. Modern distributed computing has historically relied upon probabilistic consensus mechanisms—such as Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake—to secure state transitions across decentralized networks. These models evaluate the validity of a transaction entirely upon the weight of the underlying cryptographic expenditure or financial collateral, without inspecting the semantic content or structural objective of the payload itself. I propose a fundamental paradigm shift: Proof-of-Intent (PoI). By elevating "intent" to a first-class computational primitive, deterministic ecosystems can sequence, validate, and execute operational states based upon the cryptographic verification of the initiator's structural objective rather than arbitrary hash power or capital accumulation. Proof-of-Intent formalizes a requested operation into a rigid, deterministic Intent Tuple. This tuple binds mathematically to the Trust Layer Certificate Fabric through SHA3-256 hash commitment, locking agent identity directly to explicit execution parameters. By utilizing Lume-V envelopes and Deterministic AI Guided Subsystems (DAIGS) arbitration heuristics, PoI creates an environment for synthetic organism evolution, cyber-physical governance, and multi-agent coordination where every state transition carries verifiable semantic context. Nodes running PoI validate transactions by hashing the execution intent and checking adherence to local and global algorithmic governance constraints. Because the system rejects structurally flawed or contradictory intents before physical execution cycles are expended, Proof-of-Intent achieves what is, to my knowledge, unprecedented throughput and finality guarantees, bypassing the probabilistic race conditions inherent in classical consensus schemas.
Financial privacy protocols on public blockchains protect transaction linkability but offer no defense when users are physically compelled to reveal their credentials — the "$5 wrench attack." This paper presents a complete solution in two integrated parts. Part I provides the formal cryptographic foundation: dual-nullifier arithmetic selectors within Groth16 zk-SNARK circuits, where path selection between real and decoy funds is computed entirely within the zero-knowledge witness without conditional branching. The R1CS structure is identical for both execution paths (<8% overhead), and the resulting proof is computationally indistinguishable regardless of whether coercion resistance was activated. We formalize peace of mind as a protocol design principle, prove coercion resistance through a four-game sequence-of-games reduction under the Sponge PRF and q-SDH assumptions, and prove withdrawal soundness, double-spend prevention, and front-running resistance. Part II presents ZK-Sentinel V11: a Diamond EIP-2535 architecture with 10 independently upgradeable facets and 104 functions; Stealth Shielded Transfers eliminating temporal correlation at ~60% lower gas cost; 92 privacy pools across 12 tokens on two networks; and a Multi-Tier Compliance Oracle with 4 KYC levels. Indistinguishability is confirmed empirically: a Random Forest classifier trained on 10,000 simulated transactions achieves 50.3% accuracy (AUC-ROC 0.501, p=0.87), consistent with random guessing. To our knowledge, this is the first work providing both a formal coercion resistance proof and a production-scale multi-asset deployment validated across all 12 tokens on two networks.
Bulletproofs is a widely used zero-knowledge range proof system with logarithmic proof size and no trusted setup, but its proving phase remains computationally expensive. This work demonstrates that NTT-based polynomial acceleration is ineffective for Bulletproofs due to fundamental structural mismatch. An NTT-integrated implementation is constructed and evaluated within the Bulletproof proving pipeline. Both theoretical analysis and empirical results show that NTT introduces additional overhead without improving performance. The dominant bottleneck is identified as multi-scalar multiplication (MSM) rather than polynomial computation. Further evaluation of MSM optimization strategies shows that simple analytical models fail to outperform existing heuristic implementations due to implementation-level constraints. Based on these observations, a unified analytical framework is proposed to explain optimization mismatch across protocols. The results demonstrate that effective optimization must align with the dominant computational structure of the protocol.
This paper present a complete and irreducible formal specification for the SIS-10 safety kernel. The system satisfies totality, invariance, bounded causality, schedulability, feasibility, verifiability, machine-learning safety, compositional closure, and full observability. No additional axioms are required: the specification is dimensionally complete and closed under refinement. The tool is Apache Kafka. Kafka provides an ordered, durable, replayable event log with partitioned total order, replicated storage, and deterministic offsets. We show that Kafka's log semantics satisfy the requirements for totality, observability, compositionality, verifiability, and bounded causality. The resulting system is a closed and provably safe dynamical system. Keywords: safety kernel, formal methods, SIS-10, IEC 61508, Apache Kafka, event sourcing, compositional verification, zero-knowledge proofs, dynamical systems, functional safety.
The classic design of the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) protocol relies on a centralized primary node, which not only creates a performance bottleneck but also introduces severe data censorship risks, threatening the data integrity and security of Edge Computing networks. To address this challenge, this paper proposes DC-PBFT (Decoupled PBFT), a censorship-resistant consensus protocol for Edge-Internet of Things (Edge-IoT) environments. The core innovation of DC-PBFT lies in the decoupling of the Proposer and Primary roles, supplemented by Verifiable Random Function (VRF)-based dynamic role rotation, which fundamentally eliminates the arbitrary power of a single node. Building on this, the protocol introduces a parallel group consensus mechanism: an elected Consensus Committee (CC) composed of Active Edge Nodes leads the consensus, while an independent Replica Network (RN) performs parallel validation. When a disagreement arises, the protocol triggers a global disagreement arbitration process involving all nodes to guarantee final consistency and attribute fault. To ensure long-term incentive compatibility, we also designed a hybrid election mechanism combining Proof-of-Stake and dynamic reputation, along with corresponding economic incentives and a tiered penalty system. Theoretical analysis proves that DC-PBFT satisfies Consistency and Liveness, and achieves strong censorship resistance guarantees. Simulation results demonstrate that DC-PBFT’s scalability significantly outperforms PBFT and RepChain; its reputation mechanism effectively improves long-term performance under sustained Byzantine attacks; and, compared to asynchronous censorship-resistant protocols like HoneyBadgerBFT, DC-PBFT achieves censorship resistance with over 45% lower transaction confirmation latency.
The Blind Watchdog Protocol (BWP) constructs a directed oversight graph where each autonomous agent has exactly one hidden watchdog, but no agent knows who watches it. Compliance emerges through a Panopticon equilibrium — the mere possibility of observation makes defection irrational. A closed-form Nash equilibrium theorem (6-step proof, TLC model-checked: 2,071 states, zero violations) establishes that compliance is strictly dominant under configurable parameters. The protocol implements 10 composable plugins (reputation, staking, mixnet, rotation, correlation analysis, adaptive watcher allocation, conviction scoring, knowledge gating, hybrid oversight, and optimistic slashing) and maps 10 biological oversight mechanisms to executable code. Key results: 100% detection rate with 0% false positives across 1,000 deterministic simulation runs (p_d=1.0). Stress-tested with stochastic observation noise, collusion sweeps (10-40%), Dark DAO bribery economics, and latency profiling. Layered defense separates immediate containment (escalation levels 1-3) from delayed adjudication (optimistic slashing with challenge period). Three-tier Sybil resistance via admission staking, DID-based identity, and Proof-of-Personhood interface. Constant-rate dummy traffic for timing-analysis resistance. Standardized evidence protocol for dispute resolution. Dynamic VaR-coupled stakes for high-value environments. Three fundamental open problems are identified: out-of-band cryptographic bribery (Dark DAOs), the recursive final arbitrator problem, and the latency-anonymity-cost trilemma for LLM agents. The reference implementation (422 tests, 5,757+ LOC, Python) is licensed under PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0. This paper is a defensive publication of the protocol design, formal proofs, and empirical results.
Blockchain is a decentralised and distributed ledger technology that enables multiple participants to collectively maintain a secure and tamper-resistant record of transactions without relying on trusted central authorities. It has several potential features, including decentralisation, immutability, transparency and security. Beyond its original use in cryptocurrencies, blockchain has facilitated a diverse range of applications, including decentralised finance, supply chain tracking, digital identity management, secure voting systems and decentralised autonomous organisations, where transparency, trustlessness and data integrity are critical. Structurally speaking, a blockchain consists of an ordered sequence of blocks, each containing a set of validated transactions. Every block incorporates a cryptographic hash of its previous block, linking them into an immutable chain that maintains chronological ordering and prevents tampering. At its foundation, a blockchain relies on the consensus mechanism that ensures all untrusted participants agree on a consistent ledger state, despite network latency or malicious behaviour. Up to now, widely adopted consensus algorithms include proof-of-work (PoW), which relies on computationally intensive puzzles, and proof-of-stake (PoS), which utilises economic incentives based on stake ownership. Unlike PoW, PoS consumes less energy, achieves faster block finalisation with lower latency and lowers participation barriers, enhancing efficiency, scalability and decentralisation without compromising security.Digital signatures are fundamental cryptographic primitives essential for establishing trust and ensuring security in digital communications. By using a secret key to generate signatures on given messages, anyone who knows the corresponding public key can check the validity of signature candidates. This cryptographic process provides critical guarantees such as authentication, data integrity and non-repudiation, making them integral to secure communication and a wide range of cryptographic protocols. In PoS blockchain protocols, digital signatures play a crucial role not only in authenticating transactions but also in validating the participation of stakeholders in consensus processes, such as block proposals and block attestations. Advanced signature schemes, including forwardsecure signatures or puncturable signatures, are often employed to prevent long-range attacks caused by secret key leakage, preserving the immutability of PoS blockchain protocols. Furthermore, threshold or weighted threshold signatures are frequently deployed in PoS-based protocols to aggregate multiple block attestations into a single compact one efficiently, enhancing scalability while maintaining robust security guarantees.This thesis focuses on advanced digital signature schemes deployed in proof-of-stake blockchain protocols, with particular emphasis on puncturable signatures and weighted threshold signatures. To be more specific, the main contributions of this thesis are outlined as follows.First, we focus on puncturable signatures and propose the first generic construction derived from identity-based signatures by treating identities as to-be-punctured prefixes. Based on this framework, we give concrete puncturable signature instantiations over bilinear maps, lattices and multivariate polynomials, respectively. More specifically, the pairing-based instantiation is proven secure based on the computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) assumption in the standard model. The lattice-based instantiation achieves provable security under the short integer solution (SIS) assumption in the random oracle model. The multivariate-based instantiation is analysed against some best-known attacks in multivariate public key cryptography. All of the proposed schemes support efficient puncture operations, while the lattice-based and multivariate-based ones additionally enjoy post-quantum security.Second, we adopt a different approach to constructing puncturable signatures supporting compact secret keys that serve as an effective mitigation against long-range attacks caused by secret key leakage in PoS blockchains. Specifically, we propose a new generic construction of puncturable signatures from delegated (key-policy) constrained signatures. Such a framework is inspired by an observation that matching between messages and constraints can be converted to equality tests between prefixes of to-be-signed messages and punctured prefixes. The key delegation property of (key-policy) constrained signatures enables repeated key puncture operations. Building on our framework, we give a concrete lattice-based instantiation that is proven secure based on the SIS assumption in the standard model. Our proposed scheme features small secret key sizes, particularly for the initial secret key, which is beneficial for users to join PoS blockchains without requiring a significant commitment in the initial phase.Third, we revisit the notion of puncturable signatures and find their vulnerability in mitigating long-range attacks caused by secret key leakage in PoS blockchains. Despite their key evolving property, compromising previous secret keys enable adversaries to forge branches in PoS blockchains, bypassing the security guarantees provided by puncturable signatures. It is essential to invalidate previous secret keys, regardless of whether they have been securely deleted. Therefore, we integrate key puncture and signing operations into a unified Sign-and-Pun algorithm. By publishing punctured prefixes and providing additional proofs, our strengthened puncturable signatures ensure that no malicious signers can generate valid signatures using previous secret keys. Furthermore, we propose a concrete lattice-based construction that is provably secure under the SIS assumption in the standard model.Finally, we focus on weighted threshold signatures for block attestations in PoS blockchain protocols, where validators are assigned different weights to reflect their varying impacts on consensus decisions. Specifically, we present the first weighted threshold signature scheme over lattices, which is a combination of multi-signature and non-interactive inner product arguments. In our proposed scheme, the weights of signers are public and work as a separate checking condition in threshold signature verification. We show that our scheme is provably secure under the module short integer solution (MSIS) assumption in the random oracle model. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to integrate our scheme into PoS blockchains for block attestation. Moreover, we implement our scheme in the C programming language and present an experimental evaluation of its practical efficiency.
We introduce a formal semantic Bell inequality for multi-agent validation systems and show that the MetaBell operator Ψ, deployed in the PoISV consensus protocol, functions as a rigorous Bell witness for genuine independent understanding. We derive Ψ ≈ 1 − |S̃|/(2√2), connecting Ψ to the Tsirelson bound and replacing the ad-hoc threshold with a data-driven calibrated threshold Ψ*. We further define a Bell-augmented SPVU goal state, an Immutable Incident Log satisfying EU AI Act Art. 12/17/19, a zero-knowledge proof of MetaBell compliance via Nexus zkVM, a Svetlichny-type k≥3 group extension, and the Semantic Bell Test Corpus (SBTC) for empirical validation. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19656679
DilithiumBar Architecture DilithiumBar is a high-performance, post-quantum (PQ) blockchain protocol engineered to withstand the cryptographic threats posed by future quantum computing. By replacing standard ECDSA signatures with the CRYSTALS-Dilithium5 lattice-based scheme, the system ensures long-term security without compromising operational efficiency. The protocol integrates a sophisticated suite of modern blockchain innovations: Post-Quantum Security: Native implementation of NIST-standardized lattice cryptography to secure transactions and state transitions. High-Finality Consensus: A Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) mechanism that provides deterministic 10-second finality, significantly faster than traditional Proof-of-Work systems. Advanced State Management: Utilizes a Merkle-Patricia Trie for verifiable state tracking and atomic database operations to ensure data integrity. Dynamic Economics: An EIP-1559 inspired fee market that stabilizes transaction costs and optimizes network throughput. While the protocol acknowledges the increased bandwidth and storage requirements typical of post-quantum primitives, it balances these trade-offs through an optimized architecture designed for the next era of decentralized finance.
Digital enterprises operating across multiple regions require an architecture that ensures high availability, low latency, and seamless multi-currency support. In this paper, we propose a cloud-native distributed system design that leverages microservices, geo-replication, and fault-tolerant patterns to meet these requirements. We detail the system architecture - including a multi-region deployment, microservices for currency conversion and transaction processing, and a replicated ledger - and present our methodology for performance evaluation. Our experiments compare the proposed design to a traditional monolithic baseline, showing significant improvements: for example, currency conversion latency falls from ~220 ms to ~50 ms and throughput increases sixfold under load (p<0.01). We also demonstrate 99.99% availability via automated failover and load balancing across regions. Key contributions include a detailed description of the architecture (with figures of component interactions and data flow), an analytical model of system performance, and statistical validation of results. We conclude by discussing limitations, strengths, and directions for future work. The results validate that our design substantially enhances availability and performance for global multi-currency platforms.
Manaswini Piduguralla, Souvik Sarkar, Arunmoezhi Ramachandran, Sathya Peri
Blockchain technology enhances transparency by maintaining a distributed ledger among mutually untrusting parties. Despite its advantages, scalability and availability remain critical bottlenecks that hinder widespread adoption. The increasing complexity of blockchain nodes further necessitates robust fault tolerance and high throughput to ensure seamless operations. We present BlockRaFT, a crash-tolerant distributed framework designed to improve both the scalability and reliability of blockchain node operations. BlockRaFT framework utilizes RAFT consensus protocol to elect a leader within a cluster of systems. The elected leader coordinates and distributes workloads across follower nodes, thereby optimizing resource utilization and work load balancing. We analyzed the tasks performed by blockchain nodes and partition them according to their stateful and stateless characteristics. Stateless operations are centralized at the leader, while stateful operations are replicated and coordinated across the cluster to ensure consistency and fault tolerance. We evaluate whether this distributed intra-node architecture provides measurable benefits over traditional single-node execution models in terms of scalability, availability, and performance. Additionally, we introduce a concurrent Merkle tree optimization that decouples smart contract execution from tree updates, significantly reducing one of the significant performance overheads in blockchain systems. Our design philosophy is rooted in utilizing the well-established principles of distributed computing and customizing them for the blockchain domain rather than reinventing them.
Ethereum is a decentralised, censorship-resistant blockchain. It allows users to run decentralised applications and deploy Turing-complete smart contracts. However, the Ethereum blockchain is rather stagnant compared to Bitcoin and its ability to introduce new features to its chain. The Ethereum blockchain, unlike Bitcoin, has an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) built into the chain and lets its users run decentralisation and deploy smart contracts, which fulfils one of the main ideas of blockchain. ERC-4337 introduces the possibility of using classic signature algorithms that are more efficient than ECDSA or multiparty computation and threshold signature schemes that further increase security. It also introduces post-quantum signature schemes in the blockchain. This change also allows the use of aggregators that can utilise Boneh-Lynn-Shacham signature schemes, which have also been used in the Ethereum beacon chain protocol. Also, making most of the in-use smart contracts deployed on the chain compatible with ERC-437 can be challenging as they must be upgraded or, if that is not possible, redeployed with code changes. In general, it can make blockchain interactions user-friendly without losing any of the major Ethereum blockchain principles. It laid the foundation of what Ethereum can become in the future, with Web2 functionality.
The frozen SUPT-CA phase-coherence probe (α = 0.01, zero free parameters) was applied to live blockchain data from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot. Consensus mechanism design directly determines geometric regime: deterministic hardware clocking (Solana, Polkadot) produces deep-lock distributions; regulated proof-of-stake with fee targeting (Ethereum, Cardano) produces coherence-zone distributions; probabilistic proof-of-work (Bitcoin) produces clutch-band timing with sub-floor transaction variability. A validated congestion oracle signal is identified for Ethereum: transaction count d_ij crossing 1.0 in a rolling 150-block window marks network congestion onset, confirmed against the May 2024 memecoin congestion event. All data from live public RPC endpoints, April 15, 2026. No parameters adjusted.
DeFree is a unified Web3-enabled platform designed to integrate freelancing, event management, and real-time community communication into a single decentralised ecosystem. Traditional platforms often suffer from high commission fees, a lack of transparency, and centralised control over transactions. DeFree addresses these limitations by leveraging Ethereum-based smart contracts for trustless escrow payments, ERC-721 NFTs for secure event ticketing, and Socket.IO for real-time communication. The platform is built using React, TypeScript, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and Solidity-based smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet. Experimental evaluation demonstrates efficient system performance with API response times under 250 ms and real-time messaging latency below 200 ms. The proposed system enhances transparency, reduces dependency on intermediaries, and provides a scalable solution for decentralised collaboration.