This Week in Blockchain Research Issue #22

Issue #22

zk CapitalAug 21, 2019

Issue #22

Paper of the Week:

Paper Title: How do Private Digital Currencies Affect Government Policy?

TLDR: 

  1. This paper highlights that a private digital currency has significant implications for a corrupt emerging market; one with high volatility and a government that sets policies based on selfish interests rather than considering the welfare of citizens.

  2. Citizens gain from the existence of the private digital currency through two channels: (i) private digital currencies offer diversification and (ii) private digital currencies serve as competition for local investments so that the existence of the private digital currency restrains monetary policy, thereby generating lower inflation.

  3. Private digital currencies encourage local investments also operating through two channels: (i) a private digital currencies generally serve as a complement rather than as a substitute for local investments and (ii) the existence of the private digital currencies disciplines monetary policy by creating an alternative to local fiat.

  4. Governments may gain from permitting the private digital currencies within the local economy because they extract revenue gains from citizens through taxation.

  5. Governments permit the private digital currencies because of the additional revenue without regard to citizen welfare. This finding is particularly important because it implies that the previously discussed citizen welfare gains arise in equilibrium.

Authors: Max Raskin*, Fahad Saleh†, and David Yermack*,

Affiliations: * NYU and † McGill University.

Security:

1. Paper Title: Traceable and linkable ring signatures, traceable range proofs and applications on regulatable privacy-preserving blockchains.

Summary: A traceable and linkable ring signature (with the security proofs) that realizes the regulatory function for users’ identities, and can prevent the malicious regulator from double spending, escaping from regulation, slandering users and forging signatures.

Authors: Wulu Li*, Lei Chen*, Xin Lai*, Xiao Zhang*, and Jiajun Xin*,

Affiliations: * Shenzhen Onething Technologies Co.

2. Paper Title: Blockchain-enabled Cryptographically-secure Hardware Obfuscation.

Summary: This paper forms an idea of how cryptographically-secure hardware obfuscation can be achieved by relying on the notion of Blockchain.

Authors: Fatemeh Ganji*, Shahin Tajik*, Domenic Forte*, and Jean-Pierre Seifert†,

Affiliations: * University of Florida and † Technische Universität Berlin.

Privacy:

No Papers.

Scalability:

1. Paper Title: Aleph: Efficient Atomic Broadcast in Asynchronous Networks with Byzantine Nodes.

Summary: A protocol that improves the state-of-the-art HoneyBadgerBFT by reducing the asymptotic latency while matching the optimal communication complexity.

Authors: Adam Gągol*†, Damian Leśniak*†, Damian Straszak*, Michał Świętek*†,

Affiliations: * Aleph Zero Foundation and † Jagiellonian University.

Proofs:

1. Paper Title: Efficient zero-knowledge arguments in the discrete log setting, revisited.

Summary: This work revisits zero-knowledge proofs in the discrete logarithm setting introducing almost no overhead. Next, a conceptually simple commit-and-prove argument is constructed for satisfiability of a set of quadratic equations.

Authors: Max Hoffmann*, Michael Kloo߆, and Andy Rupp†,

Affiliations: * Ruhr-University Bochum and † Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Consensus Protocols:

1. Paper Title: Ouroboros Clepsydra: Ouroboros Praos in the Universally Composable Relative Time Model.

Summary: A modified version of Ouroboros Praos where stakeholders can learn the slot number when they lose this information. Ouroboros Clepsydra satisfies the Common Prefix, Chain Growth and Chain Quality properties.

Authors: Handan Kılınç Alper*,

Affiliations: * Web3 Foundation.

2. Paper Title: Analysis of Nakamoto Consensus.

Summary: Proof that Nakamoto consensus satisfies the traditional safety and liveness properties.

Authors: Ling Ren*,

Affiliations: * University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Tokenomics:

1. Paper Title: Why Do Public Blockchains Need Formal and Effective Internal Governance Mechanisms?

Summary: The core argument of this paper is that not only is it, in practice, impossible for public blockchains to govern successfully via exclusive reliance on their technical code – but also that, without legitimate and effective internal governance of public blockchain systems that rely on formalised and effective social mechanisms, they are unlikely to be taken up at scale as a tool for social co- ordination (ie governance by blockchain), and are thus likely to remain, at best, a marginal technology.

Authors: Karen Yeung* and David Galindo*,

Affiliations: * The University of Birmingham.

2. Paper Title: The SEC Says That (Some) Crypto Tokens Are Not Securities (Finally)!

Summary: Determining whether cryptocurrency is a security and how to comply with applicable laws is a continuing area of development in federal and state securities regulation.

Authors: Herrick K. Lidstone*,

Affiliations: * Burns, Figa & Will, P.C.

Conferences:

Jobs:

“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.”

Thanks for reading! If we missed anything, shoot us an email so that we can feature it in our next newsletter!

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