Date:

Game theoretic modeling

Most blockchains are designed and analysed using the traditional cryptographic setting with two types of the users: honest users who follow the protocol faithfully and malicious users who deviate from the protocol arbitrarily. However, it is necessary to take reflect on rational users who are interested in maximising their personal gains. In this respect, adopting a game modelling perspective allows creating a balanced incentive structure.

MORE RELATED

Bridging digital and physical worlds for security

Conventional authentication schemes used in blockchains are based on cryptographic credentials generated in the ‘digital world’, such as PINs/passwords, long-term secret keys, or digital signatures. Yet, such digital credentials are easy to copy and steal. We have designed security protocols which depend on the properties of the ‘physical world’ such as location, distance, and time — such physical properties are much harder to spoof or manipulate as they are governed by physics, i.e., physical laws. For example, to access the blockchain, a participant should have a correct ‘physical fingerprint’ which can be its location or a distance to an asset. These properties can be measured and observed and as such we can continuously verify the authenticity and integrity of the blockchains.

Consensus algorithms and mining

Consensus algorithms are about how a set of decentralised users maintain a common state or a log. In a typical permission-less setting, the mining process causes a huge waste of real resources like electricity. An interesting question is whether the consensus or the trust among users in a decentralised environment can be achieved without the overconsumption of resources. We have a specific proposal for this — Work your Stake. We want to study this and other solutions.