Issue #44
Paper of the Week:
Paper Title: Ant Routing scalability for the Lightning Network.
TLDR:
The Lightning Network was introduced in order to address Bitcoin scalability and builds on a “layer 2”-network set on top of Bitcoin’s network that facilitates micro-payments between bitcoin users without needing to broadcast the transaction on the blockchain.
Although not a complete graph, it has the property of channel composition that allows any user on the network to make secure payments to any other node in the same connected component of the network, even when no direct payment channel exists.
The need for a good routing algorithm is essential, and ideally, one wants to have a routing algorithm which is safe, decentralized, anonymous, and only requires minimum knowledge of the network from all participants.
Ant Routing is a completely decentralized routing algorithm which does not require beacon nodes nor routing tables. Instead, each node of the network executes the exact same task which requires no knowledge of the topology of the network.
The goal of this article is to estimate the performance of Ant Routing, and propose more precise and efficient implementation. In particular, it investigates if this routing algorithm is compatible with the original ambition of the Lightning Network to solve Bitcoin scalability at planetary level, hence providing an instantaneous decentralized global payment network.
This article gives a positive answer to this question. The conservative estimates presented show that Ant Routing can sustain more than 10,000 transactions per second.
Authors: Cyril Grunspan*, Gabriel Lehéricy* and Ricardo Pérez-Marco†,
Affiliations: * De Vinci Research Center and † CNRS.
Security:
1. Paper Title: On the Profitability of Selfish Mining Against Multiple Difficulty Adjustment Algorithms.
Summary: This work investigates the profitability of selfish mining against difficulty adjustment algorithms other than Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s, while suggesting parameter changes that may improve the algorithms’ resistance to selfish mining.
Authors: Michael Davidson* and Tyler Diamond*,
Affiliations: * NIST.
Privacy:
No papers.
Scalability:
2. Paper Title: Local Bitcoin Network Simulator for Performance Evaluation using Lightweight Virtualization.
Summary: A new blockchain network simulation framework for Bitcoin performance analysis and evaluation that adopts the virtualization approach for constructing a private network through executing Bitcoin’s full node reference application with the ability of performing fine tuned testing scenarios.
Authors: Lina Alsahan*, Noureddine Lasla*, and Mohamed Abdallah*,
Affiliations: * HBKU.
Proofs:
No papers.
Consensus:
1. Paper Title: Fully Distributed Verifiable Random Functions and their Application to Decentralised Random Beacons.
Summary: The first systematic analysis of (Non-Interactive) Fully Distributed Verifiable Random Functions (DVRFs), including their syntax and the definition of their integrity and privacy properties.
Authors: David Galindo*†, Jia Liu*, Mihai Ordean†, and Jin-Mann Wong*,
Affiliations: * Fetch.AI and † University of Birmingham.
2. Paper Title: Streamlined Blockchains: A Simple and Elegant Approach.
Summary: A new paradigm called for directly constructing blockchain protocols that enables a new family of protocols which are extremely simple and natural.
Authors: Elaine Shi*,
Affiliations: * Cornell University.
3. Paper Title: Streamlet: Textbook Streamlined Blockchains.
Summary: Two instantiations: one that is secure against < 1/3 corruptions and tolerates arbitrary network delays; and one that secures against minority corruptions and whose safety guarantees rely on network synchrony assumptions.
Authors: Benjamin Y Chan* and Elaine Shi*,
Affiliations: * Cornell University.
Tokenomics:
1. Paper Title: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) as Subjects of Law – the Recognition of DAOs in the Swiss Legal Order.
Summary: This work explores current reflections on how those new forms of entities, which have similar characteristics to companies, can be dealt with in Swiss private law.
Authors: Sven Riva*,
Affiliations: * University of Neuchâtel.
2. Paper Title: ICO Market Report 2018/2019 – Performance Analysis of 2018's Initial Coin Offerings.
Summary: This paper illustrates the ICO market of that year and scrutinizes how prices of the issued tokens have developed until mid 2019.
Authors: Mathias Fromberger* and Lars Haffke*,
Affiliations: * Technische Universität München.
Upcoming Conferences:
Feb 10-14 - Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2020(Malaysia)
Feb 19-21 - Stanford Blockchain Conference 2020 (Palo Alto)
March 07-08 - Cryptoeconomic Systems Conference 2020 by MIT Press (Boston)
April 13-16 - The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Decentralized Applications and Infrastructures (IEEE DAPPS 2020) (Oxford)
Past Conferences’ Videos:
Jobs:
RFPs:
“Significant research in the blockchain space is constantly being achieved by academic researchers. Unfortunately, a lot of this research is overlooked due to the massive numbers of papers being generated and the way they are being promoted and published. We’ve put together a categorized list of academic papers that can guide our subscribers and keep them up to date.”
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