Issue #64
Paper of the Week:
Paper Title: Encrypted Blockchain Databases.
TLDR:
Blockchain databases are a crucial technology for the development of non-trivial smart contracts, distributed applications and marketplaces. However, concerns over the confidentiality of the data they manage will increase.
This work considers the problem of end-to-end encrypted blockchain databases. With such a system, a client can encrypt its database before storing it on the blockchain. To query it, the client uses its secret key and executes a query protocol with the blockchain.
An encrypted NoSQL blockchain database can be trivially constructed from a decentralized/blockchain encrypted multi-map (EMM) since both key-value stores and document databases can be represented as dictionaries.
The proposed blockchain EMM constructions can work on any blockchain. To achieve this level of generality, a simple abstraction called an append-only data store (ADS) is used that captures the properties and functionality of blockchains that needed.
Three different constructions are presented: (i) A list-based construction, (ii) A tree-based construction, and (iii) A patched construction.
This work also shows how to use the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains to instantiate an ADS.
Lastly, the schemes are implemented on the Algorand testnet and evaluated under a variety of different settings.
Authors: Daniel Adkins*, Archita Agarwal*, Seny Kamara*, Tarik Moataz†,
Affiliations: * Brown University and † Aroki Systems.
Security:
1. Paper Title: The Provable Security of Ed25519: Theory and Practice.
Summary: This work provides the first detailed analysis and security proofs of Ed25519 signature schemes.
Authors: Jacqueline Brendel*, Cas Cremers*, Dennis Jackson†, and Mang Zhao*,
Affiliations: * CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security and † ETH Zurich.
2. Paper Title: Modified Secure Hashing algorithm(MSHA-512).
Summary: MSHA-512 with high performance having 40 rounds instead of 80 rounds when compared with SHA-512 algorithm.
Authors: Ashoka SB* and Lakshmikanth D*,
Affiliations: * Maharani Cluster University.
3. Paper Title: Hunting for Re-Entrancy Attacks in Ethereum Smart Contracts via Static Analysis.
Summary: A static analysis tool, a combination of symbolic execution and equivalence checking by a satisfiability modulo theories solver to analyze smart contract vulnerabilities to re-entrancy attacks.
Authors: Yuichiro Chinen*, Naoto Yanai*, Jason Paul Cruz*, and Shingo Okamura†,
Affiliations: * Osaka University and † National Institute of Technology.
4. Paper Title: Decentralized Lightweight Detection of Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin Clients.
Summary: This work proposes two approaches for Bitcoin clients to detect whether an eclipse attack against them is ongoing.
Authors: Bithin Alangot*, Daniel Reijsbergen*, Sarad Venugopalan*, and Pawel Szalachowski*,
Affiliations: * Singapore University of Technology and Design.
Privacy:
1. Paper Title: Cross-Layer Deanonymization Methods in the Lightning Protocol.
Summary: Two novel linking algorithms to reveal the ownership of Bitcoin addresses that are controlled by LN nodes using publicly-available data.
Authors: Matteo Romiti*, Friedhelm Victor†, Pedro Moreno-Sanchez‡, Bernhard Haslhofer*, and Matteo Maffei‡,
Affiliations: * Austrian Institute of Technology, † Technische Universität Berlin, and ‡ Technische Universität Wien,
Scalability:
1. Paper Title: Gravity: a blockchain-agnostic cross-chain communication and data oracles protocol.
Summary: The implementation of a complex interconnected network of oracles, supporting communication of blockchain networks with the outside world, cross-chain communication and transfers, as well as integrating sidechains, within one holistic and self-governing system.
Authors: Aleksei Pupyshev*, Dmitry Gubanov*, Elshan Dzhafarov*, llya Sapranidi*, Inal Kardanov*, Vladimir Zhuravlev*, Shamil Khalilov*, Marc Jansen*, Sten Laureyssens*, Igor Pavlov*, and Sasha Ivanov*,
Affiliations: * Waves Association.
Proofs:
No papers.
Consensus:
1. Paper Title: Proofs of Useless Work Positive and Negative Results for Wasteless Mining Systems.
Summary: This work formally defines three properties that are necessary for wasteless PoW systems: (1) solve “meaningful” problems (2) solve them efficiently and (3) be secure against double-spend attacks.
Authors: Maya Dotan* and Saar Tochner*,
Affiliations: * The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Tokenomics:
1. Paper Title: Backtesting of Algorithmic Cryptocurrency Trading Strategies.
Summary: A tool for backtesting algorithmic trading strategies for cryptocurrencies that provides a convenient way to automatically run comparisons of multi-dimensional parameter spaces for algorithmic trading strategies.
Authors: Jan Spörer*
Affiliations: * Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
2. Paper Title: Hashing Out Agreements: An Overview of 'Smart' Contracts under Canadian Law.
Summary: An overview of smart contracts under Canadian contract law.
Authors: Florian Martin-Bariteau* and Marco Pontello*,
Affiliations: * University of Ottawa.
3. Paper Title: Blockchain Collaboration with Competing Firms in a Shared Supply Chain: Benefits and Challenges.
Summary: It is important to understand firms’ incentives to join the blockchain consortium when the supply chain network becomes visible as a result.
Authors: Yao Cui*, Vishal Gaur*, and Jingchen Liu†,
Affiliations: * Cornell University and † Nanjing University.
Conferences, Journals, & CFPs:
August 3-6 - The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Decentralized Applications and Infrastructures (IEEE DAPPS 2020) (Oxford)
September 14-18 - Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology (CBT’2020) (United Kingdom)
October 21-23 - The second ACM conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT’20) (New York City)
Conferences’ Videos:
Jobs:
RFPs:
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