As social media grows to entangle and remould the lives of people, so grows the concern over data privacy, censorship, server outages, and control over personal information by proprietary bodies due to their centralized design. The rise of blockchain has encouraged researchers to consider the decentralization framework for developing online social networks to resolve the challenges mentioned above. In a decentralized ecosystem, no one entity has absolute access to data and the power to enforce arbitrary decisions. The benefits of this include ownership over personal data, censorship resistance, data security, and improved control over user-generated content. In this paper, we propose the design of Ethnos, a social networking application built to harness the powers of blockchain and distributed storage technology to heighten the security and reliability of users as well as their data. In that context, suitable smart contracts have been fabricated. This paper also prospects integration of two-factor user authentication and trust score checks with Ethnos to corroborate the trustworthiness of both user and data. In addition, Ethnos incorporates a remuneration system to compensate users for their contribution to and engagement with the platform.
The greatest advantage that Web3 applications offer over Web 2.0 is the evolution of the data access layer. Opaque, centralized services that compelled trust from users are replaced by trustless, decentralized systems of smart contracts. However, the public nature of blockchain-based databases, on which smart contracts transact, has typically presented a challenge for applications that depend on data privacy or that rely on participants having incomplete information. This has changed with the introduction of confidential smart contract networks that encrypt the memory state of active contracts as well as their databases stored on-chain. With confidentiality, contracts can more readily implement novel interaction mechanisms that were previously infeasible. Meanwhile, in both Web 2.0 and Web3 applications the user interface continues to play a crucial role in translating user intent into actionable requests. In many cases, developers have shifted intelligence and autonomy into the client-side, leveraging Web technologies for compute, graphics, and networking. Web3's reliance on such frontends has revealed a pain point though, namely that decentralized applications are not accessible to end users without a persistent host serving the application. Here we introduce the Non-Fungible Program (NFP) model for developing self-contained frontend applications that are distributed via blockchain, powered by Web technology, and backed by private databases persisted in encrypted smart contracts. Access to frontend code, as well as backend services, is controlled and guaranteed by smart contracts according to the NFT ownership model, eliminating the need for a separate host. By extension, NFP applications bring interactivity to token owners and enable new functionalities, such as authorization mechanisms for oracles, supplementary Web services, and overlay networks in a secure manner. In addition...
In blockchain-based data marketplaces, the cross-chain solution based on relay chains has become an effective way to support digital asset transfer between heterogeneous blockchains. If a digital asset is popular, it will be frequently transferred between multiple data marketplaces. Digital assets are typically represented as (Non-fungible Tokens) NFTs. However, when utilizing a cross-chain transfer scheme based on a relay chain that involves locking, unlocking and burning of the NFT, it can lead to significant transaction costs. Due to the frequent minting and burning of popular NFTs, they tend to consume a significant amount of gas, resulting in high transaction costs. To address this issue, we propose the DART scheme, a secure and low-cost cross-chain transaction scheme for popular digital assets based on (dynamic NFT) DNFT and relay chain. The scheme mainly includes three aspects: Firstly, the initial owner of (Data NFT) DataNFT locks it onto the gateway contract on SChain, mints a (Cross-chain NFT) CNFT on the relay chain that references the DataNFT for resale, and minted DataNFT on the destination blockchain until the CNFT is no longer being resold. Secondly, the DNFT standard is utilized to implement CNFTs. The DNFT standard records the transaction hash of each CNFT resale, ensuring the secure reselling of DataNFTs. Thirdly, the metadata of DataNFT is encrypted to ensure its security during cross-chain transmission. Finally, we selected Axelar Network as the relay network and successfully implemented a prototype of the system. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed scheme.
Online social networks (OSNs) have become integral to daily life, yet the prevalent centralized model of these platforms presents considerable challenges in terms of security, privacy, and management. In response to these concerns, a decentralized architecture underpinned by blockchain technology emerges as a promising solution. This paper delves into the development of an OSN service leveraging blockchain technology to facilitate decentralized operation, thereby addressing the aforementioned issues. Through the utilization of the Interplanetary Filesystem (IPFS), large volumes of low-security data are effectively decentralized, contributing to enhanced data integrity and accessibility. Furthermore, the establishment of a decentralized autonomous organization empowers users with greater autonomy, enabling democratic self-governance of the OSN. This innovative approach not only addresses existing shortcomings but also paves the way for a more resilient, transparent, and user-centric social networking paradigm.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) as an rising alternative for improving safety and transparency in reportsharing structures is very promising. In this regard, the existing have a look at is providing a blockchain-based system for file sharing where allotted ledgers may be used to conquer the restrictions of centralized structures. To make certain that the records shared is secure, unchangeable, and necessary, the gadget applies consensus, hashing, and encryption strategies. The use of clever contracts lets in for automatic execution of documentsharing transactions in a steady manner, thus lowering the capability risks associated with fraud or prison troubles. Furthermore, users are furnished with more control by letting them specify permissions and get right of entry to constraints for his or her documents. To make it smooth to use the blockchain and combine those technologies, the system makes use of decentralized file storage primarily based on Blockchain. Also, the databases used by this machine are FileCoin for login information and Web3 Token for document sharing and storing, which brings protection into the scene, makes storage decentralized, and increases transparency.
Cryptocurrency, despite the upsurge as a speculative investment, is still a long way from being people’s money. The extreme technicality poses a significant barrier for the general public to adopt it as a medium of exchange. Therefore, simplifying the payment process is a predominant necessity; for example, facilitation in adopting conventional payment instruments can bring convenience to both merchants and consumers. This article proposes a novel cryptocurrency card payment protocol leveraging the Payment Channel Network (PCN) concept, facilitating high throughput and affordable transactions. Our design is based on the Bitcoin-backed Lightning Network (LN) with adjustments to make it executable by a smart card. It also preserves the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, reduces operational costs in several ways, and allows instant settlement for the recipients as compared to both conventional and cryptocurrency card payment systems. Our game theoretical analysis, where we model the engagement between the cardholder and the card agent as a long-run extensive form game, attests that they accord with the protocol without experiencing any honest loss under pragmatic conditions. We also discuss the privacy features compared to conventional card payments and LN. The protocol can function independently, without the need for trust, and can also be regulated for those seeking government mediation. This approach can potentially revolutionize the payment landscape by allowing the public to use cryptocurrency for everyday transactions conveniently and allowing existing cryptocurrency holders to conduct affordable micropayments.
Yizhong Liu, Boyu Zhao, Zedan Zhao, Jianwei Liu · 7 authors
Web3 is a revolutionary Internet paradigm that focusing decentralization, user empowerment, and intelligence. One of its key technologies is decentralized identity (DID), which has gained significant attention recently. However, existing DID solutions are not scalable enough to be compatible with the large-scale identity node applications required by Web3 across various fields. To overcome this challenge, we propose the first multi-layer Web3 DID architecture utilizing sharding blockchain, which provides management, scalability, and compatibility. This architecture leverages leader shards and the main chain to establish trust, while regular shards manage DID-related transactions. Specific system processes and query optimizations are also given. Besides, formal security analysis and comprehensive simulation evaluations have demonstrated that the architecture can achieve all proposed security and performance goals, including low latency of down to 2 seconds and high throughput of up to 90KTPS.
The widespread availability of tools to collect and share spatial data enables us to produce a large amount of geographic information on a daily basis. This enormous production of spatial data requires scalable data management systems. Geospatial architectures have changed from clusters to cloud architectures and more parallel and distributed processing platforms to be able to tackle these challenges. Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems as a backbone of distributed systems have been established in several application areas such as web3, blockchains, and crypto-currencies. Unlike centralized systems, data storage in P2P networks is distributed across network nodes, providing scalability and no single point of failure. However, managing and processing queries on these networks has always been challenging. In this work, we propose a spatio-temporal indexing data structure, DSTree. DSTree does not require additional Distributed Hash Trees (DHTs) to perform multi-dimensional range queries. Inserting a piece of new geographic information updates only a portion of the tree structure and does not impact the entire graph of the data. For example, for time-series data, such as storing sensor data, the DSTree performs around 40% faster in spatio-temporal queries for small and medium datasets. Despite the advantages of our proposed framework, challenges such as 20% slower insertion speed or semantic query capabilities remain. We conclude that more significant research effort from GIScience and related fields in developing decentralized applications is needed. The need for the standardization of different geographic information when sharing data on the IPFS network is one of the requirements.
Beginning with a comprehensive definition of Decentralized Applications (DApps) and their developmental trajectory, this treatise delves into their inception around 2010. It is intriguing to note that by 2020, DApps had already found preliminary applications in diverse sectors, ranging from finance to archaeology. Yet, there remains vast untapped potential awaiting exploration and refinement within the realm of DApps. The discourse then navigates the intricate web of DApps' system architecture, illuminating the cardinal aspects of their design, evolution, and eventual deployment. Herein, the essence of systematic planning during the design phase is underscored, underpinning its pivotal role in shaping the efficacy of the application. Further shedding light on DApps' expansive utility, the paper underscores their transformative influence in areas such as authentication systems and real-time operational control. However, the journey of DApps is not without its challenges. The document elucidates the complexities associated with crafting robust smart contracts, mitigating scalability concerns, and nurturing user acceptance and integration. In light of these hurdles, a clarion call is made for persistent research and avant-garde innovation, propelling DApps to their true potential in the evolving digital landscape.
Hugo Schnoering, Pierre Porthaux, Michalis Vazirgiannis
Exploring transactions within the Bitcoin blockchain entails examining the transfer of bitcoins among several hundred million entities. However, it is often impractical and resource-consuming to study such a vast number of entities. Consequently, entity clustering serves as an initial step in most analytical studies. This process often employs heuristics grounded in the practices and behaviors of these entities. In this research, we delve into the examination of two widely used heuristics, alongside the introduction of four novel ones. Our contribution includes the introduction of the \textit{clustering ratio}, a metric designed to quantify the reduction in the number of entities achieved by a given heuristic. The assessment of this reduction ratio plays an important role in justifying the selection of a specific heuristic for analytical purposes. Given the dynamic nature of the Bitcoin system, characterized by a continuous increase in the number of entities on the blockchain, and the evolving behaviors of these entities, we extend our study to explore the temporal evolution of the clustering ratio for each heuristic. This temporal analysis enhances our understanding of the effectiveness of these heuristics over time.
Andreea Raluca Duguleană, Cristina Tănăsescu, Mihai Duguleană
This research aims to establish the primary drivers influencing the development and consumers’ decision-making process in web3 games—decentralized games that function according to the play-to-earn paradigm. We observe several types of micro-economies developed within five play-to-earn games and highlight four roles consumers play at any given time. Our study offers a different perspective on rational consumer behaviour in cryptocurrency-based games and paves the way to better understanding their dynamics and evolution. Results shed light on the construction of in-game economies and how individuals of a given type engage in different playing activities. Furthermore, we compare the key features of web3 games with those similar to classic online games and assess if the play-and-earn implementations represent an evolution from previous revenue models. Using our proposed methodology, researchers can compare and classify any P2E games. We conclude by establishing a set of actions that enable consumers to benefit from this new phenomenon.
S Sarumathi, Apoorv Raj Saxena, Yash Raj Saxena, Mehreen S Md Sana · 6 authors
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) represents an alternative paradigm in financial infrastructure, operating a top the Ethereum Blockchain. DeFi leverages Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to facilitate the exchange of coins/tokens within Liquidity Pools (LPs). However, the current framework limits transactions to a single chain, resulting in prolonged processing times for cross-chain transactions. The principal drawbacks of existing AMMs include protracted transaction confirmation periods and constraints in single-chain functionality. This paper introduces Mixta, a web-based multi-chain interoperable AMM, aiming to address these limitations. Mixta empowers users to seamlessly exchange assets across different chains, ultimately reducing transaction confirmation times.
Wireless community networks (WCNs) represent bottom-up network infrastructures facing the following challenges: (1) Managing diverse devices, (2) Establishing effective real-time incentives, (3) Addressing anomalies, attacks, and faults, and (4) Ensuring data integrity verification. Inspired by [2], we introduce the decentralized wireless community network (DeWCN) concept, enabling community members to contribute resources to a common resource pool in a verifiable and incentivized manner. Consensus participants, selected from conflict-free network areas, maintain a distributed ledger with partial Byzantine fault tolerance for transparency and protocol automation. By leasing out storage, computing, and bandwidth resources with globally agreed-upon contributions, individuals can receive real-time cost compensation.
Mikel Cortes-Goicoechea, Csaba Király, Dmitriy Ryajov, José L. Muñoz · 5 authors
Scalability in blockchain remains a significant challenge, especially when prioritizing decentralization and security. The Ethereum community has proposed comprehensive data-sharding techniques to overcome storage, computational, and network processing limitations. In this context, the propagation and availability of large blocks become the subject of research to achieve scalable data-sharding. This paper provides insights after exploring the usage of a Kademlia-based Distributed Hash Table (DHT) to enable Data Availability Sampling (DAS) in Ethereum. It presents a DAS-DHT simulator to study this problem and validates the results of the simulator with experiments in a real DHT network, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Our results help us understand what parts of DAS can be achieved based on existing Kademlia DHT solutions and which ones cannot. We discuss the limitations of DHT solutions and discuss other alternatives.
Naomi A. Arnold, Peijie Zhong, Cheick Tidiane Bâ, Benjamin A. Steer · 8 authors
Distributed ledger technologies have opened up a wealth of fine-grained transaction data from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This allows research into problems like anomaly detection, anti-money laundering, pattern mining and activity clustering (where data from traditional currencies is rarely available). The formalism of temporal networks offers a natural way of representing this data and offers access to a wealth of metrics and models. However, the large scale of the data presents a challenge using standard graph analysis techniques. We use temporal motifs to analyse two Bitcoin datasets and one NFT dataset, using sequences of three transactions and up to three users. We show that the commonly used technique of simply counting temporal motifs over all users and all time can give misleading conclusions. Here we also study the motifs contributed by each user and discover that the motif distribution is heavy-tailed and that the key players have diverse motif signatures. We study the motifs that occur in different time periods and find events and anomalous activity that cannot be seen just by a count on the whole dataset. Studying motif completion time reveals dynamics driven by human behaviour as well as algorithmic behaviour.
Pengfei Huang, Xiaojun Ren, Teng Huang, Arthur Sandor Voundi Koe · 6 authors
Node synchronization is essential for the stability of the Bitcoin network. Critics have raised doubts about the ability of a new node to quickly and efficiently synchronize with the Bitcoin network and alleviate the storage pressure from existing full nodes to stockpile new data. Basic pruning and other techniques have been explored to address these concerns but have been insufficient to reduce node synchronization delay and effectively suppress the growth of synchronized data. In this study, we propose SnapshotPrune, a novel pruning and synchronization protocol that achieves fast node bootstrapping in the Bitcoin blockchain. Real Bitcoin historical data are leveraged to measure the synchronization time and monitor the network traffic during node bootstrapping. The protocol requires data downloads that are 99.70% less than Bitcoin Core, 81% less than CoinPrune, and 60% less than SnapshotSave, thereby saving 97.23% of download time. Findings show that the proposed design enhances the storage efficiency and reduces the node synchronization delay compared with existing techniques. We hypothesize that the efficiency of this protocol increases with the block height.
Yang Feng, Zongya Ding, Linpeng Jia, Yi Sun · 5 authors
In the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), consumers can help each other protect data against hardware failures and improve data availability through replication. While previous replication methods in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks can be used to increase data availability in the IPFS network, they are either hostile to peers with limited availability, preventing them from achieving adequate data availability, or lack flexibility. An ideal replication method should optimize data availability in a manner equitable to all peers while providing flexibility. To achieve this goal, this paper introduces a blockchain-based file replication mechanism. Leveraging the non-tamperable and traceable nature of blockchain technology, our mechanism achieves secure storage and trustworthy query of peers’ information used in the file replication process. Unlike most earlier methods, our mechanism employs an Arweave-inspired file replication algorithm that prioritizes the less available files within the system for replication until all files’ availabilities are optimized. Replicating files according to predefined system-wide cooperation rules like this not only limits the selfishness of peers but also facilitates timely adjustments in response to changes in the P2P system. In addition, our mechanism also uses smart contracts to judge and exclude dishonest peers, thereby fostering honest cooperation among peers without involving any third party.
Daniel Melero Martinez, Mohammed El‐Hajj, Dipti Kapoor Sarmah
Motivated by the need for an equitable and decentralized music streaming service, this paper presents a comprehensive solution focused on ensuring fair compensation for creators of musical content. It is anchored in five critical design principles: Security, scalability, anonymity, legality, and user incentivization. The implementation utilizes the IoTA distributed ledger technology to align closely with these essential criteria. Thereby offering valuable insights on the inherent challenges and possibilities of this innovative technology. The proposed solution consists of four primary components: a user-friendly mobile application enabling intuitive music playback, a distribution software that simplifies the dissemination of music, a website facilitating music management, and a smart contract that forms the decentralized foundation for handling payments and storing metadata. The study also incorporates a detailed analysis of the platform's scalability, focusing on its ability to accommodate an expanding user base and increasing data volume, ensuring sustained performance and security. Significant strides have been made in designing user-centric interfaces for decentralized music streaming, establishing a robust validation system to safeguard intellectual property rights, and pioneering novel strategies to optimize music distribution within the platform.
This paper presents a cryptographic solution for establishing trust in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, addressing issues of privacy, performance, and anonymity. Our protocol utilizes Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) for continuous trust validation during data transfers. This procedure compels each node to continually demonstrate its integrity, significantly decreasing the potential for network at- tacks. Upon evaluation, the protocol proved to be highly scalable and efficient, expanding network reach without requiring additional control messages. This result validates the protocol’s robustness, suggesting its potential use in larger and more intricate P2P network architectures.
Md Arif Hassan, Cong T. Nguyen, Chi-Hieu Nguyen, Dinh Thai Hoang · 6 authors
Web 3.0 is the third generation of the World Wide Web (WWW), concentrating on the critical concepts of decentralization, availability, and increasing client usability. Although Web 3.0 is undoubtedly an essential component of the future Internet, it currently faces critical challenges, including decentralized data collection and management. To overcome these challenges, blockchain has emerged as one of the core technologies for the future development of Web 3.0. In this paper, we propose a novel blockchain-based information management framework, namely Smart Blockchain-based Web (SBW), to manage information in Web 3.0 effectively, enhance the security and privacy of users’ data, bring additional profits, and incentivize users to contribute information to the websites. Particularly, SBW utilizes blockchain technology and smart contracts to manage the decentralized data collection process for Web 3.0 effectively. Moreover, in this framework, we develop an effective consensus mechanism based on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to reward the user’s information contribution and conduct game theoretical analysis to analyze the user’s behavior in the considered system. Additionally, we conduct simulations to assess the performance of SBW and investigate the impact of critical parameters on information contribution. The findings confirm our theoretical analysis and demonstrate that our proposed consensus mechanism can incentivize the nodes and users to contribute more information to our systems.
Yu Gao, Carlo Campajola, Nicolò Vallarano, Andreia Sofia Teixeira · 5 authors
IOTA is a distributed ledger technology that relies on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network for communications. Recently an auto-peering algorithm was proposed to build connections among IOTA peers according to their "Mana" endowment, which is an IOTA internal reputation system. This paper's goal is to detect potential vulnerabilities and evaluate the resilience of the P2P network generated using IOTA auto-peering algorithm against eclipse attacks. In order to do so, we interpret IOTA's auto-peering algorithm as a random network formation model and employ different network metrics to identify cost-efficient partitions of the network. As a result, we present a potential strategy that an attacker can use to eclipse a significant part of the network, providing estimates of costs and potential damage caused by the attack. On the side, we provide an analysis of the properties of IOTA auto-peering network ensemble, as an interesting class of homophile random networks in between 1D lattices and regular Poisson graphs.
Fueled by the growing popularity of proof-of-stake blockchains, there has been increasing interest and progress in permissioned consensus protocols, which could provide a simpler alternative to existing protocols, such as Paxos and PBFT. In particular, the recently proposed Streamlet protocol provides a surprisingly simple and streamlined consensus approach, which crystallizes years of research in simplifying and improving classical consensus protocols. While the simplicity of Streamlet is a major accomplishment, the protocol lacks certain practical features, such as supporting a stable block proposer, and it makes strong assumptions, such as synchronized clocks and the implicit echoing of all messages. Most importantly, it requires sending $O(N^3)$ messages per block in a network of $N$ nodes, which poses a significant challenge to its application in larger networks. To address these limitations, we introduce Pipelet, a practical streamlined consensus protocol. Pipelet employs the same block-finalization rule as Streamlet, but attains state-of-the-art performance in terms of communication complexity and provides features that are crucial for practical applications, such as clock synchronization and stable block proposers. At the same time, Pipelet retains the simplicity of Streamlet, which presents significant practical advantages, such as ease of implementation and verification.