Related papers: Techreport: Evaluating Tor-based Location Privacy …
The long-term success of cryptocurrencies largely depends on the incentive compatibility provided to the validators. Bribery attacks, facilitated trustlessly via smart contracts, threaten this foundation. This work introduces, implements,…
The Robot Operating System (ROS) streamlines human processes, increasing the efficiency of various production tasks. However, the security of data transfer operations in ROS is still in its immaturity. Securing data exchange between several…
Over the past decade, the Bitcoin P2P network protocol has become a reference model for all modern cryptocurrencies. While nodes in this network are known, the connections among them are kept hidden, as it is commonly believed that this…
This study explores the intricacies of waiting games, a novel dynamic that emerged with Ethereum's transition to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS)-based block proposer selection protocol. Within this PoS framework, validators acquire a distinct…
As one of the most popular blockchain platforms supporting smart contracts, Ethereum has caught the interest of both investors and criminals. Differently from traditional financial scenarios, executing Know Your Customer verification on…
In proof-of-work based blockchains such as Ethereum, verification of blocks is an integral part of establishing consensus across nodes. However, in Ethereum, miners do not receive a reward for verifying. This implies that miners face the…
Several hundred Tor exit relays together push more than 1 GiB/s of network traffic. However, it is easy for exit relays to snoop and tamper with anonymised network traffic and as all relays are run by independent volunteers, not all of them…
While Ethereum's discovery protocols (Discv4/ Discv5) incorporate robust cryptographic designs to protect user privacy, real-world deployment reveals critical vulnerabilities when users deviate from security guidelines. In this paper, we…
Tor is an anonymity network that allows offering and accessing various kinds of resources, known as hidden services, while guaranteeing sender and receiver anonymity. The Tor web is the set of web resources that exist on the Tor network,…
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger technology that ensures transparency, security, and immutability through cryptographic techniques. However, advancements in quantum computing threaten the security of classical cryptographic…
We present a new dispute resolution protocol that can be built on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike existing applications like Kleros, privacy is ensured by design through the use of the zero-knowledge protocols Semaphore and MACI (Minimal…
The Ethereum network, built on the devp2p protocol stack, was designed to function as a "world computer" by supporting decentralized applications through a shared P2P infrastructure. However, the proliferation of blockchain forks has…
In recent years, Ethereum gained tremendously in popularity, growing from a daily transaction average of 10K in January 2016 to an average of 500K in January 2020. Similarly, smart contracts began to carry more value, making them appealing…
Tor, one of the most popular censorship circumvention systems, faces regular blocking attempts by censors. Thus, to facilitate access, it relies on "pluggable transports" (PTs) that disguise Tor's traffic and make it hard for the adversary…
Given the large adoption and economical impact of permissionless blockchains, the complexity of the underlying systems and the adversarial environment in which they operate, it is fundamental to properly study and understand the emergent…
Private BitTorrent trackers enforce upload-to-download ratios to prevent free-riding, but suffer from three critical weaknesses: reputation cannot move between trackers, centralized servers create single points of failure, and upload…
In May 2023, the Ethereum blockchain experienced its first inactivity leak, a mechanism designed to reinstate chain finalization amid persistent network disruptions. This mechanism aims to reduce the voting power of validators who are…
Contemporary blockchain such as Bitcoin and Ethereum execute transactions serially by miners and validators and determine the Proof-of-Work (PoW). Such serial execution is unable to exploit modern multi-core resources efficiently, hence…
Ever since the introduction of the internet, it has been void of any privacy. The majority of internet traffic currently is and always has been unencrypted. A number of anonymous communication overlay networks exist whose aim it is to…
In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) during "the merge" - making it the largest PoS cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. With this work, we present a comprehensive…