The pool-hopping attack casts down the expected profits of both the mining pool and honest miners in Blockchain. The mainstream countermeasures, namely PPS (pay-per-share) and PPLNS (pay-per-last-N-share), can hedge pool hopping, but pose a risk to the pool as well as the cost to miners. In this study, we apply the zero-determinant (ZD) theory to design a novel pooled mining which offers an incentive mechanism for motivating non-memorial and memorial evolutionary miners not to switch in pools strategically. In short, our hopping-proof pooled mining has three unique features: 1) fee-free. No fee is charged if the miner does not hop. 2) wide applicability. It can be employed in both prepaid and postpaid mechanisms. 3) fairness. Even the pool can dominate the game with any miner, he has to cooperate when the miner does not hop among pools. The fairness of our scheme makes it have long-term sustainability. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose a hopping-proof pooled mining with the above three natures simultaneously. Both theoretical and experimental analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme.
Improving transaction throughput is an important challenge for Bitcoin. However, shortening the block generation interval or increasing the block size to improve throughput makes it sharing blocks within the network slower and increases the number of orphan blocks. Consequently, the security of the blockchain is sacrificed. To mitigate this, it is necessary to reduce the block propagation delay. Because of the contribution of new Bitcoin protocols and the improvements of the Internet, the block propagation delay in the Bitcoin network has been shortened in recent years. In this study, we identify impacts of compact block relay---an up-to-date Bitcoin protocol---and Internet improvement on the block propagation delay and fork rate in the Bitcoin network from 2015 to 2019. Existing measurement studies could not identify them but our simulation enables it. The experimental results reveal that compact block relay contributes to shortening the block propagation delay more than Internet improvements. The block propagation delay is reduced by 64.5% for the 50th percentile and 63.7% for the 90th percentile due to Internet improvements, and by 90.1% for the 50th percentile and by 87.6% for the 90th percentile due to compact block relay.
Open access
3 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Caching and Content Delivery
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Internet technology has driven the dissemination revolution of images, but also makes the illegal reproduction and unauthorized use of images extremely rampant. At present, the registration of digital copyright of images should be authorized by authoritative management agencies. There are many problems, such as long audit cycle, no substantive review, difficulty in proof, high cost, centralized storage and so on. Based on blockchain technology and SIFT local feature extraction algorithm, this paper studies and implements a new generation of image digital copyright system. SIFT algorithm is used to extract the invariant features of image such as angle of view, brightness and rotation, etc. which will constitute the local feature vector set of the image, and these local feature vector sets are regarded as the only copyright basis of the image. Even if the image is modified by scaling, rotation and brightness, local features can still be extracted correctly, which can effectively prevent copyright registration of infringing images; Furthermore, IPFS (Inter-Planetary File System) was utilized for distributed storage of images' copyright features; Finally, Hyperledger Fabric and smart contract (chaincode) are used to realize copyright registration, copyright transfer and other functions. The experimental results show that the system has the advantages of automatic similar infringement detection, decentralized storage, tamper-proof and traceability.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
In this paper, we design DeLottery, a decentralized lottery and gambling system based on block chain technology and smart contracts. Lottery is a classical form of entertainment and charity for centuries. Facing the bottleneck of the combination between lottery and information technology, we use smart contracts and blockchain in decentralized, intelligent, and secure systems for lottery industries. Moreover, we are inspired by the algorithm of RANDAO, an outstanding way of random number generation in blockchain scenario. The components and the functions of the novel system are described in details. We implement DeLottery in a blockchain network and show functioning procedure and security of the proposed lottery system.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Osamah Ibrahim Khalaf, Ghaida Muttashar Abdulsahib, Hamed Daei Kasmaei, Kingsley A. Ogudo
This article develops and defines Blockchain technology in its classic format. New suggested proposed algorithms are then analyzed in order to introduce new and modified versions of Blockchain technology. After that, fundamental infrastructure is presented in order to represent its application in new generation of telecommunications. In addition, this article interrogates these algorithms and their efficiency to make secure connections that transfer data packets in any format (boxes or packets of information) in a secure and encrypted method at which sender and receiver of information remain anonymous. Then, this research describes applications of the novel approach in new format of making live stream technology in real world communications. Moreover, according to this new approach, new concepts can be predicted in the new generation of social media based on live communications. Meanwhile, the compatibility is justified for consistency, reliability and flexibility of this new proposed technology with other existing and defined format of technology in today's world. At last, conclusions of this new emerging technology and its superiority compared to other designed technologies in the field of live streaming and telecommunications are discussed.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Meng Shen, Jie Zhang, Liehuang Zhu, Ke Xu · 5 authors
Machine learning (ML) techniques are expected to be used for specific applications in Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs). Support vector machine (SVM) is one of the typical ML methods and widely used for its high efficiency. Due to the limitation of data sources, the data collected by different entities usually contain attributes that are quite different. However, in some real-world scenarios, when training an SVM classifier, many entities face the same problem that they are lacking in data with adequate attributes. Thus multiple entities are required to share data to combine a dataset with diverse attributes and then jointly train a comprehensive classifier. However, data privacy concerns are raised because of data sharing. To sovle the problem, we propose a privacy-preserving SVM classifier training scheme over vertically-partitioned datasets posessed by multiple data providers. In our scheme, we utilize consortium blockchain and threshold homomorphic cryptosystem to establish a secure SVM classifier training platform without a trusted third-party. We keep lots of training operations locally over original data and necessary interactions between participants are protected by the threshold Paillier and consortium blockchain. Security analysis proves that our scheme can preserve the privacy of the original data and the training intermediate values. Extensive experiments indicate that our scheme has high efficiency and no accuracy loss.
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
This paper presents an extensive study of the different ways the Internet of Things (IoT) applications exploit the recently developed blockchain technology. Even though the blockchain technology was originally presented as a security mechanism, its numerous benefits such as decentralization, immutability, persistence, anonymity and auditability can be used by IoT systems in different ways. More specifically, we classify the ways IoT systems exploit blockchain into three categories: resource management, decentralized information sharing, and IoT security. The comprehensive study of the applications of the blockchain technology in the different IoT domains presented in this paper sheds the light on the future research directions in the integration of the two technologies.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The current land administration system of many countries including India is plagued with incomplete and damaged records. Different departments pertaining to land administration system store their own copy of records, which lead to incomplete verification and document forgery. In this paper, we present a blockchain-powered land administration system, termed as LandLedger, which provides accountable, transparent, efficient, secure and scalable land property administration. The proposed architecture of LandLedger realizes property verification, registration and revocation using specially designed transactions on a permissioned blockchain, which is managed by various departments such as Registrar's office, The Income tax department, The Revenue department and so on. LandLedger uses Merkle Patricia Tree to implement ownership verification and property history checking efficiently. The implementation of LandLedger shows its practicality with enhanced features in comparison to the current practice used in many countries including India.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The number of interconnected internet of things (IoT) devices is expected to achieve a fivefold increase over the last decade. This increasing number of IoT devices brings into focus the security challenges of IoT networks. Blockchain (BC) is one of the promising technologies that can be employed for achieving this challenging task. BC is used to store data blocks in the distributed ledger (Database) that is immutable. In this paper, we aim to take the advantages of BC technology in improving the IoT network security. In particular, we propose a security framework for IoT networks to enhance the devices' authentication. The proposed architecture consists of three layers, blockchain layer, authenticator layer and requester layer. The devices' authentication process is divided into two phases: device enrollment phase, and device authentication phase. The proposed framework satisfies the three pillars of security namely, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Confidentiality is achieved by limiting the access to authorized device only which keep the data hidden from outsiders. Integrity is guaranteed by using BC that maintains the data from being altered. Availability is assured by maintaining the BC database on the cloud.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain technology can be used to solve the problem of the management of the digital copyright. Though some related ideas have been proposed, few papers propose a complete digital copyright management system based on public chain and simulation. A system based on public chain enables copyright owners and users to trade directly without resorting to a centralized organization. In this paper, a secure digital copyright management system based on Ethereum is proposed. Firstly, a model is established based on smart contracts and InterPlanetary File System. Secondly, use the improved ELGamal encryption algorithm to encrypt session data and protect privacy and evaluate the efficiency of the improved algorithm. Lastly, a transaction watermark that is consistent with the transaction information on the chain is added to the image data, providing proof for the piracy.
QR Code Applications and Technologies
Digital Rights Management and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
One of the key requirements of a properly functioning digital society is the implementation of a decentralized identity management scheme through which the identity of every citizen can be uniquely determined. Specifically, we believe what is required is for a PKI to be deployed at a global scale. A PKI consists of a collection of digital certificates that cryptographically bind an individual's identity to their public key. In this article, we present an overview of our recent work in the areas of identity management and privacy, with specific emphasis on the deployment of a blockchain backed PKI. Once a PKI is in place, we are in a position to perform a number of common network tasks much more securely and efficiently than we can do currently.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Gaganjeet Singh Reen, Manasi Mohandas, S. Venkatesan
Electronic Health Records(EHR) are gaining a lot of popularity all over the world. The current EHR systems however have their fair share of problems related to privacy and security. We have proposed a mechanism which provides a solution to most of these problems. Using a permissioned Ethereum blockchain allows the hospitals and patients across the world to be connected to each other. Our mechanism uses a combination of symmetric and asymmetric key cryptography to ensure the secure storage and selective access of records. It gives patients full control over their health records and also allows them to grant or revoke a hospital's access to his/her records. We have used IPFS(inter planetary file system) to store records which has the advantage of being distributed and ensures immutability of records. The proposed model also maintains the statistics of diseases without violating the privacy of any patient.
Open access
2 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Mubariz Rehman, Nadeem Javaid, Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Imran · 5 authors
Internet of Things (IoTs) is widely growing domain of the modern era. With the advancement in technologies, the use of IoTs devices also increases. However, security risks regarding service provisioning and data sharing also increases. There are many existing security approaches. However, these approaches are not suitable for IoTs devices due to their limited storage and computation resources. These secure approaches also require a specific hardware. With the invention of blockchain technologies, many security risks are eliminated. Blockchain also supports data sharing mechanism. In this paper, we proposed a secure service providing mechanism for IoTs using blockchain. We introduced cloud nodes for maintaining the validity states of edge service providers. The edge node reputation is considered as a service rating given by end users. Incentive is given to edge servers after validation of service codes. Incentive is in the form of cryptocurrency. Incentive and edge node reputation values are stored in cloud node and are updated with respect to time. Smart contract is proposed to check the validity state of the edge servers. Smart contract is also used for the comparison and verification of the service codes provided by edge servers. In our proposed system, we perform service authentication at both cloud and edge server layer. Moreover, Proof of Authority (PoA) is used as a consensus mechanism. PoA enhanced overall performance of our proposed system. By experimental analysis, it is shown that our proposed model is suitable for resource constrained devices.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Sana Sabah Sabry, Nada Mahdi Kaittan, Israa Majeed
As the Bitcoin keeps increasing in value compared to other cryptocurrencies, more attention has been given to Blockchain Technology (BT) which is the infrastructure behind the Bitcoin, especially on its role in addressing the problems of the classical centralized system. As a digital currency, Bitcoin is dependent on the decentralized cryptographic tools and peer-to-peer system. The digital currency implements a distributed ledger using Blockchain when verifying any type of transaction. In this paper, the aim is to describe how digital currency networks such as Bitcoin provides a “trust-less” platform for users to embark on money transfers without necessarily depending on any central trusted establishments such as payment services or financial institutions. Furthermore, this work comprehensively overviewed the basic principle that underly BT, such as transaction, consensus algorithms, and hashing. This study also provided a novel classification for blockchain types according to their system architecture and consensus strategy. For each type, our contribution was provided with an example which clearly describes the blockchain features and the transaction steps. Our classification intended to help researchers understand and choose the blockchain for their application. The paper ends with the discussion of the differences between each type
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become popular and motivate more hackers to steal digital funds. Users protect their private keys using crypto wallets to keep their funds safe from hackers. While the most secure option is hardware wallet, it suffers from lack of a secure and convenient backup and recovery process. Almost all existing wallets use mnemonics to back up the private keys, and a user must write down these words on a piece of paper. This approach is not only inconvenient but also problematic since the paper could be lost or stolen, resulting in a hacker recovering the keys. In this paper, we propose a new digital scheme to securely back up a hardware wallet relying on the side-channel human visual verification enabled by display screen on a hardware wallet. Using this method, we transfer the root of private keys from one hardware wallet to another wallet securely even via an untrusted terminal, such as a smartphone. At the end of this process, the user has two hardware wallets with the same private keys while she may use one of them as the main wallet and another one as a backup wallet.
2 source records
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Block chain has drawn major attention recently in the area of cyber security. Till to date many detection techniques and protection mechanisms have been proposed to enhance the security. In this paper we have proposed an overview of distributed ledger framework, block chain to defense against the cyber attacks. We here present a comprehensive overview of block chain architecture and some major algorithms used in different block chains. The future trends of block chain technology in the applications such as IoT security, E-voting, Banking sector has also coined out in this paper.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The booming Internet of Things (IoT) market has drawn tremendous interest from cyber attackers. The centralized cloud-based IoT service architecture has serious limitations in terms of security, availability, and scalability, and is subject to single points of failure (SPOF). Recently, accommodating IoT services on blockchains has become a trend for better security, privacy, and reliability. However, blockchain's shortcomings of high cost, low throughput, and long latency make it unsuitable for IoT applications. In this paper, we take a retrospection of existing blockchain-based IoT solutions and propose a framework for efficient blockchain and IoT integration. Following the framework, we design a novel blockchain-assisted decentralized IoT remote accessing system, RS-IoT, which has the advantage of defending IoT devices against zero-day attacks without relying on any trusted third-party. By introducing incentives and penalties enforced by smart contracts, our work enables "an economic approach" to thwarting the majority of attackers who aim to achieve monetary gains. Our work presents an example of how blockchain can be used to ensure the fairness of service trading in a decentralized environment and punish misbehaviors objectively. We show the security of RS-IoT via detailed security analyses. Finally, we demonstrate its scalability, efficiency, and usability through a proof-of-concept implementation on the Ethereum testnet blockchain.
Muhammad Anwar Hussain, Muhammad Shafie Abd Latiff, Syed Hamid Hussain Madni, Raja Zuraidah Raja Mohd Rasi · 5 authors
Blockchain, Bitcoin's core technology, and spinal cord have received enthusiastic attention since the last couple of decades. The Blockchain serves as a paradigm for distributed and unchangeable computations for bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. The key features behind this technology are to create a reliable, secure, transparent, decentralized, and reliable autonomous ecosystem. It is useful for a variety of applications, especially for legacy devices, resources, and infrastructure. In this article, we presented a technical overview, its application, and the challenges associated with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. This study aims to provide a ground-breaking overview and future research direction and promising importance of Blockchain.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Peter Mell, Aurélien Delaitre, Frederic de Vaulx, Philippe Dessauw
Previous work presented a theoretical model based on the implicit Bitcoin specification for how an entity might issue a protocol native cryptocurrency that mimics features of fiat currencies. Protocol native means that it is built into the blockchain platform itself and is not simply a token running on another platform. Novel to this work were mechanisms by which the issuing entity could manage the cryptocurrency but where their power was limited and transparency was enforced by the cryptocurrency being implemented using a publicly mined blockchain. In this work we demonstrate the feasibility of this theoretical model by implementing such a managed cryptocurrency architecture through forking the Bitcoin code base. We discovered that the theoretical model contains several vulnerabilities and security issues that needed to be mitigated. It also contains architectural features that presented significant implementation challenges; some aspects of the proposed changes to the Bitcoin specification were not practical or even workable. In this work we describe how we mitigated the security vulnerabilities and overcame the architectural hurdles to build a working prototype.
Open access
3 source records
cs.CR
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Béla Gipp, Norman Meuschke, Joeran Beel, Corinna Breitinger
The proportion of information that is exclusively available online is continuously increasing. Unlike physical print media, online news outlets, magazines, or blogs are not immune to retrospective modification. Even significant editing of text in online news sources can easily go unnoticed. This poses a challenge to the preservation of digital cultural heritage. It is nearly impossible for regular readers to verify whether the textual content they encounter online has at one point been modified from its initial state, and at what time or to what extent the text was modified to its current version. In this paper, we propose a web-based platform that allows users to submit the URL for any web content they wish to track for changes. The system automatically creates a trusted timestamp stored in the blockchain of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for the hash of the HTML content available at the user-specified URL. By using trusted timestamping to secure a ‘snapshot’ of online information as it existed at a specific time, any subsequent changes made to the content can be identified.
Open access
Archaeological Research and Protection
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques