One File for the Price of Three: Catching Cheating Servers in Decentralized Storage Networks

distributed storage ethereum August 06, 2018 at 06:00 PM Ethan Cecchetti, Ian Miers, and Ari Juels
Ever raise a quarter billion dollars and need to solve a really hard problem? Well, neither did we, but we've been talking to Filecoin about helping solve one of theirs.

On-Chain Vote Buying and the Rise of Dark DAOs

on-chain voting voting e-voting trusted hardware identity selling July 02, 2018 at 03:22 PM Philip Daian, Tyler Kell, Ian Miers, and Ari Juels
We explore the space of trust-minimizing coordination mechanisms for on-chain vote buying and exploitation in the permissionless model.

Choose-Your-Own-Security-Disclosure-Adventure

security disclosure May 30, 2018 at 10:15 AM Emin Gün Sirer
In this Choose Your Own Adventure Game, you navigate the process of warning the world about an exploit you have uncovered in a large software project.

Pisa: Arbitration Outsourcing for State Channels

custodian pisa state channels scaling May 22, 2018 at 02:00 PM Patrick McCorry, Surya Bakshi, Iddo Bentov, Sarah Meiklejohn, and Andrew Miller
As deployed today, cryptocurrencies do not scale. To tackle this scaling problem, we introduce Pisa, which complements existing work on so-called "layer 2" solutions.

Online Signature Services Are Broken

signatures crypto outsourcing April 26, 2018 at 10:55 AM Emin Gün Sirer
There are many online services that will help collect signatures for you, as well as services that will collect and forward legally binding letters. All of them are broken.

Paralysis Proofs: How to Prevent Your Bitcoin From Vanishing

ethereum bitcoin sgx paralysis proofs January 18, 2018 at 09:30 AM Fan Zhang, Phil Daian, Iddo Bentov, and Ari Juels
Suppose that N players share cryptocurrency using an M-of-N multisig scheme. If N-M+1 players disappear, the remaining ones have a problem: They've permanently lost their funds. In this blog, we propose a solution to this critical problem using the power of the trusted hardware.

The Social Workings of Contract

ethereum contracts January 17, 2018 at 01:00 PM Karen Levy
Guest blogger Prof. Karen Levy describes how contracts often include terms that are unenforceable, purposefully vague, or never meant to be enforced, how this helps set expectations, and what this means for smart contracts.

Decentralization in Bitcoin and Ethereum

bitcoin ethereum January 15, 2018 at 07:37 AM Adem Efe Gencer, Soumya Basu, Ittay Eyal, Robbert van Renesse, and Emin Gün Sirer
We have been examining the state of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks over time. In a recent study, we examine the level of decentralization in these two networks, with some interesting takeaways for the future.

How Not To Run A Blockchain Lottery

lottery bitcoin blockchain December 25, 2017 at 08:05 AM Emin Gün Sirer
Devising a lottery based off of a blockchain is a lot harder than it seems. Also, this is a parable for the Bitcoin blockchain debate.

Parity Proposals’ Potential Problems

ethereum forks hacks December 13, 2017 at 08:00 AM Phil Daian and Lorenz Breidenbach
This post argues that the recently proposed EIPs to rescue the frozen ethers are dangerous.