Emerging Cryptographic Protocols for Blockchain and Its Applications

A special issue of Cryptography (ISSN 2410-387X). This special issue belongs to the section "Blockchain Security".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2022) | Viewed by 18625

Special Issue Editors

School of Computer and Information Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China
Interests: applied cryptography; blockchain; cloud/fog computing security; AI security
FinTech Research, Bank of Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0G9, Canada
Interests: cryptography; data security; privacy; blockchain; consensus mechanisms; smart contract; digital currency
Strategic Centre for Research in Privacy-Preserving Technologies & Systems (SCRIPTS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Interests: cybersecurity; database security; data privacy; cloud security and applied cryptography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, massive research attention has been attracted by Blockchain because of its numerous benefits, including decentralization, persistency, anonymity, and audibility. In addition, it plays a pivotal role in a wide range of emerging fields such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems, machine learning, edge computing, next-generation wireless communications, Fintech, social networking, agriculture, crowdsourcing, and so on. Although vast efforts have been dedicated to Blockchain, it suffers from weak anonymity, poor scalability, and various attacks, which impedes the emergence of other killer applications of Blockchain like Bitcoin. Therefore, it is urgent to conduct research addressing security, privacy, and scalability issues in Blockchain and its applications in emerging fields.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for researchers to publish high-quality and original research papers presenting the recent developments and state-of-the-art solutions on the aspects of cryptographic techniques for Blockchain in emerging fields. Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit theoretical or applied papers dealing with the following topics (not an exhaustive list):

  • Theories of Blockchain and distributed ledger technology;
  • Distributed consensus and fault-tolerance mechanisms;
  • Security, privacy, and trust of Blockchain and distributed ledger technology;
  • Decentralization, scalability, and security tradeoff;
  • Performance analysis and optimization;
  • Simulation and performance evaluation techniques;
  • Smart contract and chain code: languages, security and privacy;
  • Applications and services based on Blockchain;
  • Protocols and algorithms based on Blockchain;
  • Lightning network/payment channel network;
  • Blockchain and machine learning/artificial intelligence;
  • Blockchain in the Internet of things (IoT);
  • Blockchain in cyber-physical systems;
  • Blockchain in Fintech;
  • Blockchain in social networking;
  • Blockchain in supply chain management;
  • Blockchain in agriculture;
  • Blockchain in connected and autonomous vehicles;
  • Blockchain in crowdsourcing and crowdsensing;
  • Blockchain in mobile cellular networks;
  • Blockchain in edge and cloud computing;
  • Blockchain in next-generation communications and networks;
  • Blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Extended versions of some relevant papers presented at PST 2021 will be sought, but this call for papers is also fully open to all those who wish to contribute by submitting a relevant research manuscript.

Dr. Rongxing Lu
Dr. Jun Shao
Dr. Duc-Phong Le
Dr. Cong Zuo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cryptography is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • blockchain
  • distributed consensus
  • distributed ledger
  • smart contract
  • privacy
  • security
  • trust
  • applications

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1083 KiB  
Article
Certificate Management Scheme for VANETs Using Blockchain Structure
by Maharage Nisansala Sevwandi Perera, Toru Nakamura, Masayuki Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, Chen-Mou Cheng and Kouichi Sakurai
Cryptography 2022, 6(2), 20; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cryptography6020020 - 25 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2604
Abstract
Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs), a special kind of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs), play an important role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Via wireless technology, vehicles exchange information related to road conditions and their status, and, thereby, VANETs enhance transportation safety and efficiency. A [...] Read more.
Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs), a special kind of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs), play an important role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Via wireless technology, vehicles exchange information related to road conditions and their status, and, thereby, VANETs enhance transportation safety and efficiency. A critical aspect of VANETs is providing privacy for the vehicles. The employment of pseudonym certificates is a well-known solution to the privacy problems in VANETs. However, certificate management faces challenges in renewing certificates and revoking vehicles. The centralized certificate management, especially resulting in the delay of the revocation process, harms the nodes of VANETs. This paper proposes a blockchain structure-based certificate management for VANETs and voting-based revocation to halt misbehaving vehicles’ actions. Moreover, this paper presents extended privacy for the participants of the voting process using ring signatures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Cryptographic Protocols for Blockchain and Its Applications)
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45 pages, 1548 KiB  
Article
Beyond Bitcoin: Recent Trends and Perspectives in Distributed Ledger Technology
by Diego Romano and Giovanni Schmid
Cryptography 2021, 5(4), 36; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cryptography5040036 - 13 Dec 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4709
Abstract
In the last four years, the evolution and adoption of blockchain and, more generally, distributed ledger systems have shown the affirmation of many concepts and models with significant differences in system governance and suitable applications. This work aims to analyze distributed ledger technology [...] Read more.
In the last four years, the evolution and adoption of blockchain and, more generally, distributed ledger systems have shown the affirmation of many concepts and models with significant differences in system governance and suitable applications. This work aims to analyze distributed ledger technology (DLT) critically. Starting from the topical idea of decentralization, we introduce concepts and building blocks currently adopted in the available systems centering on their functional aspects and impact on possible applications. We present some conceptual framing tools helpful in the application context: a DLT reference architecture, off-chain and on-chain governance models, and classification of consensus protocols. Finally, we introduce the concept of process authenticity, reviewing tools and strategies for integrating DLT with the physical world and proposing a constructive scheme for the authentication of a physical resource through alphanumeric data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Cryptographic Protocols for Blockchain and Its Applications)
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Review

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52 pages, 2390 KiB  
Review
A Review of Blockchain in Fintech: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Future Directions
by Keerthi Nelaturu, Han Du and Duc-Phong Le
Cryptography 2022, 6(2), 18; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cryptography6020018 - 19 Apr 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 10110
Abstract
The primary purpose of this paper is to bridge the technology gap between Blockchain and Fintech applications. Blockchain technology is already being explored in a wide number of Fintech sectors. After creating a unique taxonomy for Fintech ecosystems, this paper outlines a number [...] Read more.
The primary purpose of this paper is to bridge the technology gap between Blockchain and Fintech applications. Blockchain technology is already being explored in a wide number of Fintech sectors. After creating a unique taxonomy for Fintech ecosystems, this paper outlines a number of implementation scenarios. For each of the industries in which blockchain is already in use and has established itself as a complementary technology to traditional systems, we give a taxonomy of use cases. In this procedure, we cover both public and private blockchains. Because it is still believed to be in its infancy, especially when it comes to financial use cases, blockchain has both positive and negative aspects. As a result, it is critical to be aware of all of the open research issues in this field. Our goal is to compile a list of open research challenges related to various aspects of the blockchain’s protocol and application layers. Finally, we will provide a clear understanding of the applications for which blockchain can be valuable, as well as the risks associated with its use in parallel. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Cryptographic Protocols for Blockchain and Its Applications)
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