English

How Do Smart Contracts Benefit Security Protocols?

Cryptography and Security 2022-04-21 v2

Abstract

Smart contracts have recently been adopted by many security protocols. However, existing studies lack satisfactory theoretical support on how contracts benefit security protocols. This paper aims to give a systematic analysis of smart contract (SC)-based security protocols to fulfill the gap of unclear arguments and statements. We firstly investigate \textit{state of the art studies} and establish a formalized model of smart contract protocols with well-defined syntax and assumptions. Then, we apply our formal framework to two concrete instructions to explore corresponding advantages and desirable properties. Through our analysis, we abstract three generic properties (\textit{non-repudiation, non-equivocation, and non-frameability}) and accordingly identify two patterns. (1) a smart contract can be as an autonomous subscriber to assist the trusted third party (TTP); (2) a smart contract can replace traditional TTP. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide in-depth discussions of SC-based security protocols from a strictly theoretical perspective.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.08699,
  title  = {How Do Smart Contracts Benefit Security Protocols?},
  author = {Rujia Li and Qin Wang and Qi Wang and David Galindo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.08699},
  year   = {2022}
}