Follow blockchain research across journals, conferences, and preprint repositories.
1,104 results · page 8 of 46
Dongyu Meng, Fabio Gritti, Robert McLaughlin, Nicola Ruaro · 7 authors
No abstract is available for this record.
Jasvant Mandloi, Pratosh Bansal
No abstract is available for this record.
Chaimae El Filali, Imad Bourian, Khalid Chougdali
Authentication is becoming essential due to the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications in smart cities, supply chain, and healthcare. In the healthcare sector, hospitals use centralized server-based systems to manage user information and patient medical records. However, this approach may lead to scalability, interoperability, security and privacy challenges. To address these issues, this paper presents a blockchain-based multi-factor authentication (MFA) framework for IoT healthcare systems. The framework uses the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts to improve authentication security and minimize unauthorized access risk. It also uses the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to securely and efficiently store sensitive medical data. Performance and security are evaluated to show the effectiveness, reliability, and feasibility of the proposed system.
D C Saputro, Noor A Setiawan, Azkario Rizky Pratama, Avinanta Tarigan
The increasing adoption of blockchain technology in education has introduced alternative approaches to identity verification beyond centralized credential systems. This study proposes and implements a decentralized authentication mechanism for Moodle LMS using ERC-721 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) verified through MetaMask. Developed as a proof-of-concept following a design science methodology, the system links on-chain identity tokens to Moodle accounts without storing usernames or passwords. The architecture integrates Ethereum smart contracts, nonce-based digital signature verification, and Moodle’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) framework. Functional testing confirms that access is granted exclusively to users possessing valid ERC-721 tokens and verified wallet signatures. Replay attack simulations demonstrate effective resistance through nonce validation, while ensuring that no sensitive credential data is exposed during the authentication process, in contrast to default Moodle login mechanisms. Performance evaluation using Apache JMeter indicates stable operation under moderate loads. Although scalability and token management limitations remain, the results demonstrate the technical feasibility and enhanced security advantages of NFT-based authentication for learning management systems.
Subhasis Thakur, Martín Serrano
No abstract is available for this record.
Andrea Esposito, Francesco P. Rossi, Marco Bernardo, Francesco Fabris
Algorand is a scalable and secure permissionless blockchain that achieves proof-of-stake-based consensus via binary Byzantine agreement BBA∗and cryptographic self-sortition. In this paper we present a process algebraic model of the Algorand consensus protocol with the aim of enabling formal verification. Our model captures the behavior of participants in terms of the structured alternation of consensus steps toward a committee-based agreement. We verify the robustness of the protocol in the presence of coordinated malicious participants that may try to force the commitment of an empty block instead of the proposed one. The verification of our pure process algebraic model translated in the LNT language is conducted through a novel application of equivalence- checking-based noninterference analysis, which we have implemented in the CADP toolkit through its script verification language SVL.
Namrata Jangam, Hazra Shaikh, Shraddha Pawar, Zainab Shaikh · 5 authors
No abstract is available for this record.
Christopher Schulze
GLYPH is a transparent verification layer for Ethereum for trustless on-chain verification of heterogeneous proof systems. It unifies upstream SNARK and STARK settlement through a single packed arity-8 sumcheck verifier over p = 2^128 - 159, while preserving upstream assumptions. The design centers on a universal adapter surface, UCIR compilation, and a chain-bound artifact interface for stateless verification. Benchmark evidence in the whitepaper reports 29.45k total transaction gas in recorded testnet receipts. This record includes the whitepaper and the formal proof appendix.
Raj Mehta, Prasham Shah, Pimal Khanpara
No abstract is available for this record.
Qianqian Pan, Jun Wu
In the coming 6G era, Internet of Consumer Electronics (ICE) is promising in academia and daily life. To improve the intelligence and reliability of ICE devices with limited resources, a cloud-edge-end collaborative intelligent architecture is designed. However, the current collaborative intelligent ICE system faces multiple security threats, e.g., illegal access to the intelligent data/model resources and poisoning/backdoor attacks during collaborative intelligent model training. The security of the intelligent collaborative ICE is still an open issue. To solve this problem, we propose a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP)-driven zero trust method to protect the security of the intelligent collaborative ICE. First, a zero-trust intelligent collaborative ICE security framework is established for the confidentiality and availability protection of data/model resources. Second, we propose a zero-trust multi-factor access control mechanism for mutual authentication and trust evaluation-based resource access authorization. Third, the ZKP-driven collaborative intelligent ICE mechanism is designed. In this mechanism, the selective differential privacy-based data preservation scheme and the zero-knowledge collaborative intelligent model training scheme are devised. Finally, experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed secure intelligent collaborative ICE.
Luca Olivieri, Luca Pasetto, Luca Negrini, Pietro Ferrara
No abstract is available for this record.
Isaac Amankona Obiri, Qi Xia, Jianbin Gao, Hu Xia · 5 authors
The growing adoption of electronic personal health records (ePHRs) demands cryptographic solutions that ensure secure and efficient data access. Threshold cryptography provides a framework for controlled multi-party access, yet existing schemes face practical limitations. Many require trusted key dealers, creating single points of failure and key escrow vulnerabilities, while others rely on pairing-based constructions that scale poorly. Furthermore, batch-oriented processing in previous schemes fails to support individual on-demand access patterns typical in healthcare applications. We propose a Distributed Identity-Based Threshold Decryption (DIBTD) scheme that addresses these limitations. First, our protocol removes all trusted setup assumptions through a fully distributed key generation mechanism based on verifiable secret sharing. Second, it achieves constant-time encryption and decryption operations, independent of committee size, by using efficient elliptic curve operations on secp256k1 rather than computationally heavy pairings, yielding up to 56× faster encryption than prior work. Third, DIBTD integrates the detection of malicious actors via zero-knowledge proofs, allowing the dynamic exclusion of compromised participants during system initialization. We provide formal security proofs showing the security of IND-CCA2 in the random oracle model under the discrete logarithm of the elliptic curve (ECDLP) and computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) assumptions. The scheme remains secure against adaptive adversaries that control up to$t-1$participants. Experimental evaluation demonstrates practical efficiency: ciphertexts of only 86 bytes, constant 33-byte public keys, and sub-millisecond encryption latency. A pure Rust implementation on commodity hardware achieves 0.065ms per patient record while maintaining 128-bit security.
Wenjiang Shang, Hailing Li, Jun Wang, Chun Gui · 6 authors
The proliferation of mobile payments has brought about increasingly severe security challenges, including data breaches and identity forgery, which pose a significant threat to user assets and privacy. To meet the stringent security requirements of China’s multi-level protection scheme (MLPS) level 3 for financial systems, this study proposes an innovative privacy-enhancing protection scheme for mobile banking payments. This scheme is designed to provide comprehensive security throughout the entire lifecycle, from payment authentication to subsequent auditing. Specifically, our solution introduces two core mechanisms: the privacy-preserving authentication (PPA) protocol, which ensures the privacy of user identities and transaction data during the payment process by combining the private data access characteristics of oblivious RAM (ORAM) with zero-knowledge proof technology; and the distributed ledger audit mechanism (DLAM), which utilizes the decentralized and immutable features of blockchain, supplemented by ORAM, to guarantee the integrity of system logs and the privacy of the auditing process.
Li Xu, Mohd Nurul Hafiz Ibrahim, Mustafa Muwafak Alobaedy, S. B. Goyal
This is the first PRISMA-guided systematic review of scalable blockchain digital signatures for healthcare, synthesizing evidence from 85 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2024. The review examines five thematic areas: digital signatures, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, hybrid blockchain architectures, and regulatory compliance. Particular emphasis is placed on scalability challenges and the role of alternative consensus protocols, such as Proof-of-Stake and Delegated Proof-of-Authority (DPoA), in addressing the energy and latency limitations of Proof-of-Work (PoW). Findings highlight the value of smart contracts in automating consent and authentication processes, while hybrid blockchain models are shown to balance security with scalability. The synthesis also identifies persistent challenges, including interoperability with legacy systems, energy consumption, and compliance with GDPR and HIPAA regulations. Importantly, emerging approaches such as Layer-2 scaling, AI-enhanced validation, and post-quantum cryptography are highlighted as promising directions. By integrating technical and regulatory perspectives, this review contributes a critical roadmap for researchers, healthcare providers, and system architects seeking secure, efficient, and regulation-compliant blockchain frameworks
Ilyes Tarik MAZARI, Yanis Mazari, Ilyan Mazari
We present the Mazari Bidirectional Architecture, a cryptographic framework providing end-to-end privacy guarantees for computation systems employing homomorphic encryption (HE), differential privacy (DP), and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). The architecture comprises two complementary orderings: Y.I.N. Mazari Ordering (DP→ZK→HE) for secure data submission and Y.A.N.G. Mazari Ordering (VERIFY→DISAGGREGATE→DECRYPT→DENOISE) for secure result retrieval. Through exhaustive permutation analysis, we prove that among all possible orderings for each direction, exactly one ordering in each direction is secure—and these orderings are mathematical duals. The Y.I.N. ordering prevents information leakage during data submission, while the Y.A.N.G. ordering prevents timing side-channel attacks during result retrieval. This paper provides comprehensive coverage of all implementation variations, security proofs, and robustness analysis to establish technical foundations for privacy-preserving computation research.
Р.І. Мордвінов
The article systematizes modern methods of zero-knowledge proof (ZKP). Classification features are considered: protocol interactivity, algebraic or stochastic basis, need for trusted setup, type of zero-knowledge, and proof model. Classical schemes (Fiat–Shamir, Schnorr, Blum), modern zk-SNARK and zk-STARK, as well as novel approaches – PLONK, Halo 2, Bulletproofs, lattice-based ZKPs, and machine learning proofs are described. A comparative analysis is conducted according to efficiency, proof size, generation and verification complexity. It is shown that SNARKs provide compactness but require a trusted setup, while STARKs are transparent and post-quantum secure but large. Open problems are highlighted: recursive proofs, standardization, metadata protection, and applications in machine learning. It is concluded that further research in this field is aimed at creating scalable, secure, and quantum-resistant protocols for digital technologies.
R.I. Mordvinov
The article systematizes modern methods of zero-knowledge proof (ZKP). Classification features are considered: protocol interactivity, algebraic or stochastic basis, need for trusted setup, type of zero-knowledge, and proof model. Classical schemes (Fiat–Shamir, Schnorr, Blum), modern zk-SNARK and zk-STARK, as well as novel approaches – PLONK, Halo 2, Bulletproofs, lattice-based ZKPs, and machine learning proofs are described. A comparative analysis is conducted according to efficiency, proof size, generation and verification complexity. It is shown that SNARKs provide compactness but require a trusted setup, while STARKs are transparent and post-quantum secure but large. Open problems are highlighted: recursive proofs, standardization, metadata protection, and applications in machine learning. It is concluded that further research in this field is aimed at creating scalable, secure, and quantum-resistant protocols for digital technologies.
Sneha A. Sahare, Aditya Patil, Sanchit Satao, Kaustubh Deotighare · 7 authors
In this paper we present BlockMedLedger, a decentralized patient health record management system based on blockchain and IPFS. BlockMedLedger provides solutions to the challenges of healthcare data silos, security vulnerabilities and patient ownership of their own data. The patient centric model supports patients, medical data owners, to have complete control over their own medical data, while providing an efficient process to facilitate secure sharing of the medical data with care providers initiated through smart contracts and cryptographic access controls. The system uses an Ethereum compatible blockchain to support access control decision and IPFS for decentralized encrypted storage of encrypted medical records. The implementation demonstrates good security, efficient access, retrieval and sharing of encrypted health information for health care providers and patients while meeting requirements specified in HIPAA utilizing zero-knowledge proofs and patient consent control features.
B. Bhushan, Karthik Pappu, Akshay Mittal
Agentic AI platforms launch short-lived software agents that act with delegated authority across services and organizations. Existing authentication protocols were designed for traditional web applications and long-lived microservices, not ephemeral autonomous agents, creating uncertainty about their applicability to agentic scenarios. This paper systematically analyzes authentication mechanisms for agentic ecosystems, including SPIFFE/SPIRE for workload identity, OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect for user delegation, Token Exchange for delegation chains, DPoP for sender-constrained tokens, CIBA for human step-up, and decentralized identity approaches for cross-domain portability. We propose a five-pattern taxonomy organizing these mechanisms by interaction type: user-to-agent, orchestrator-to-agent, agent-to-internal service, agent-to-external API, and cross-domain federation. For each pattern, we evaluate capabilities and limitations based on specifications and implementations, identify integration prerequisites, and highlight operational challenges. To validate the feasibility of protocol composition, we implement a hybrid prototype that demonstrates agent-to-internal-service authentication. Measurements show that sender-constrained tokens add 52ms of cold-path and 11ms of warm-path overhead, with token caching providing a 4.6× speedup. Our analysis indicates that protocol compositions can address core agentic requirements (ephemerality, delegation, replay prevention, auditability) within a single trust domain, while identifying critical research gaps, including multi-hop delegation semantics, federation automation, and high-churn performance.
Anina Abraham, Manjunatha Hiremath, Fabiola Hazel Pohrmen
Conventional authentication techniques, such as one-time passwords and passwords, are extremely susceptible to data breaches, credential theft, and phishing attacks. These vulnerabilities are increased when using shared or public devices. This paper proposes a password-less authentication architecture for various environments and organization based on Zero-Knowledge Proofs in order to overcome these issues. The proposed model ensures that no sensitive credentials are sent or retained by having a user demonstrate that they possess a secret without disclosing it to the server. In doing so, the attack surface linked to traditional login methods is greatly reduced. The framework is meant to be scalable, lightweight and easy to integrate with learning management systems, corporate sites, online test platforms, and university websites.
Isidora Poznanović
This paper presents zero knowledge proofs, their cryptographic significance and applications. It presents a basic classification: interactive and noninteractive zero knowledge proofs. It presents and compares three protocols of non-interactive zero knowledge proofs: ZK-SNARK, ZK-STARK and Bulletproofs. It presents the quadratic residue problem and proofs it with both interactive and non-interactive zero knowledge proofs. The non-interactive protocol used to prove the quadratic residue problem is ZK-SNARK. The proof is implemented in the Python programming language, using python-snark library.
Takaya Kondo, Takeshi Nakai, Koutarou Suzuki
Abstract Fair exchange is a cryptographic protocol that enables two parties to exchange their electronic data fairly, i.e., it ensures that no one can steal the other party’s item. FairSwap and OptiSwap are well-known fair exchange protocols for files and coins based on smart contracts. Although the design principles for the two protocols are similar, there is an extreme difference in round complexity and communication overhead between the two protocols. This gap can be a barrier to users since they must choose one of them. In order to remove the barrier, this work generalizes these two protocols. It proposes a fair exchange protocol that allows users to adjust the communication overhead and the number of rounds by a newly introduced parameter. Our protocol contains FairSwap, OptiSwap, and protocols with intermediate efficiency between them. Moreover, to evaluate the gas costs of our protocol, we present a performance evaluation of the proposed protocol by Solidity implementation over Ethereum.
Z. Liu, Nianmin Yao, Shengyuan Bai, Tengyi Mai
As vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) increase in size and complexity, ensuring secure, flexible, and privacy-preserving vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) authentication remains a major challenge. Existing protocols often focus solely on identity verification, overlooking the need for access control based on vehicle attributes. Furthermore, vehicles must obtain authentication credentials from various trusted entities, including automakers, regulators, and government agencies. However, the absence of a unified credential issuance mechanism introduces fragmentation and inconsistencies during the registration process. To address these issues, we propose a V2I authentication protocol, called PriV2I, that integrates distributed credential issuance, attribute-based access control, and strong anonymity guarantees. During vehicle registration, our approach uses Shamir’s Secret Sharing with a threshold t of n across multiple certification authorities (CAs) to consolidate credentials. A vehicle credential can only be issued by a predefined threshold number of CAs, enhancing security and flexibility. Within the authentication protocol, Pointcheval-Sanders (PS) signatures enable fine-grained access control based on vehicle attributes such as type and role. Meanwhile, noninteractive zero-knowledge proofs protect identity privacy by allowing vehicles to prove credential possession and policy compliance without revealing sensitive information. The proposed scheme also supports batch authentication at Roadside Units (RSUs) to efficiently handle high-density environments and includes a comprehensive revocation mechanism to trace and revoke malicious vehicles promptly and securely. In our implementation, the computation cost during the authentication phase is 75.58 ms. The communication overhead per authentication exchange is 992 bytes across two messages. Overall, the protocol provides a secure, scalable, and privacy-preserving solution tailored to modern VANET environments.
Xudong Zhu, Xuyang Song, Yi Deng, Gang Yang
Abstract Zero knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge protocol (zk-SNARK) is an application oriented variant of zero knowledge proof, which enables a prover to convince a verifier that a statement is true, without revealing any other information beyond the correctness of the statement itself. Due to its powerful capabilities and high efficiency, it has been widely deployed in various blockchain based applications to provide privacy and scalability. While these applications place high demands on small proof size, fast verification and decentralization, currently available zk-SNARK with the shortest proof size and the fastest verification speed is in the common reference string (CRS) model, that is they require the trusted setup. After the pioneering results proposed by Bellare et al. in ASIACRYPT 2016, there have been lots of efforts to construct zk-SNARKs that satisfy subversion zero knowledge (S-ZK) and standard soundness from the zk-SNARK in the CRS model. These constructions could be regarded secure in the bare public key (BPK) model because that the equivalence between S-ZK in the CRS model, and uniform non-black-box zero knowledge in the BPK model has been proved by Abdolmaleki et al. in PKC 2020. Thus, compared to the CRS model, the BPK model better characterizes decentralized blockchain based application such as cryptocurrencies and anonymous credentials. In this study, by leveraging the power of random oracle (RO) model, we proposed the first publicly verifiable non-uniform ZK zk-SNARK scheme in the BPK model maintaining comparable efficiency with its conventional counterpart, which can also be compatible with the well-known transformation proposed by Bitansky et al. in TCC 2013 to obtain an efficient designated-verifier zk-SNARK. We achieve this goal by only adding a constant number of elements into the CRS, and using an unconventional but natural method to transform Groth’s zk-SNARK in EUROCRYPT 2016. In addition, we propose a new speed-up technique that provides a trade-off. Specifically, if a logarithmic number of elements are added into the CRS, according to different circuits, the CRS verification time in our construction could be approximately 9–23% shorter than that in the conventional counterpart.