Engineering Commons^™

Blockchain Security: Double-Spending Attack And Prevention, William Henry Scott Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis shows that distributed consensus systems based on proof of work are vulnerable to hashrate-based double-spending attacks due to abuse of majority rule. Through building a private fork of Litecoin and executing a double-spending attack this thesis examines the mechanics and principles behind the attack. This thesis also conducts a survey of preventative measures used to deter double-spending attacks, concluding that a decentralized peer-to-peer network using proof of work is best protected by the addition of an observer system whether internal or external.

Spartandark: Anonymity Model Integration With A Blockchain Network Using Spartangold, Nishanth Uchil

Master's Projects

Demand for blockchain ecosystems has seen exponential growth in recent times due to its decentralized nature and trustless verification process for the transactions involved. However, transaction data needs to be leveraged for verification, which coupled with the transparent nature of the blockchain ledger, provides sufficient data for malicious entities to reveal identities and even financial history of users. Data masking techniques have been employed over the years to make blockchain transactions anonymous, making them resistant to identity analysis, a key set of methods being zero-knowledge proof (zk-proof) protocols that guarantee zero data leak. In this research, we develop SpartanDark, a …

Blockchain Games: What On And Off-Chain Factors Affect The Volatility, Returns, And Liquidity Of Gaming Crypto Tokens, Sumer Sareen

CMC Senior Theses

Blockchain games took the internet by storm as they offered a new way for users to play video games, own the assets in those games, and benefit monetarily from their efforts. Through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies, new, Web3 games ushered in a unique asset class for retail and institutional investors to diversify into and benefit from. This paper uses cross-sectional data from 30 blockchain gaming companies to identify on and off-chain factors that affect the company’s token volatility, returns, and liquidity. A multiple linear regression found the percentage of tokens dedicated to a company’s private sale and rewarding users, …

Privacy In Blockchain Systems, Murat Osmanoğlu, Ali̇ Aydin Selçuk

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Privacy of blockchains has been a matter of discussion since the inception of Bitcoin. Various techniques with a varying degree of privacy protection and complexity have been proposed over the past decade. In this survey, we present a systematic analysis of these proposals in four categories: (i) identity, (ii) transaction, (iii) consensus, and (iv) smart contract privacy. Each of these categories have privacy requirements of its own, and various solutions have been proposed to meet these requirements. Almost every technique in the literature of privacy enhancing technologies have been applied to blockchains: mix networks, zero-knowledge proofs, blind signatures, ring signatures, …

Incentive Analysis Of Blockchain Technology, Rahul Reddy Annareddy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Blockchain technology was invented in the Bitcoin whitepaper released in 2008. Since then, several decentralized cryptocurrencies and applications have become mainstream. There has been an immense amount of engineering effort put into developing blockchain networks. Relatively few projects backed by blockchain technology have succeeded and maintained a large community of developers, users, and customers, while many popular projects with billions of dollars in funding and market capitalizations have turned out to be complete scams.

This thesis discusses the technological innovations introduced in the Bitcoin whitepaper and the following work of the last fifteen years that has enabled blockchain technology. A …

A Deep-Dive Into Cryptojacking Malware: From An Empirical Analysis To A Detection Method For Computationally Weak Devices, Ege Tekiner

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cryptojacking is an act of using a victim's computation power without his/her consent. Unauthorized mining costs extra electricity consumption and decreases the victim host's computational efficiency dramatically. In this thesis, we perform an extensive research on cryptojacking malware from every aspects. First, we present a systematic overview of cryptojacking malware based on the information obtained from the combination of academic research papers, two large cryptojacking datasets of samples, and numerous major attack instances. Second, we created a dataset of 6269 websites containing cryptomining scripts in their source codes to characterize the in-browser cryptomining ecosystem by differentiating permissioned and permissionless cryptomining …

Off-Chain Transaction Routing In Payment Channel Networks: A Machine Learning Approach, Heba Kadry

Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain is a foundational technology that has the potential to create new prospects for our economic and social systems. However, the scalability problem limits the capability to deliver a target throughput and latency, compared to the traditional financial systems, with increasing workload. Layer-two is a collective term for solutions designed to help solve the scalability by handling transactions off the main chain, also known as layer one. These solutions have the capability to achieve high throughput, fast settlement, and cost efficiency without sacrificing network security. For example, bidirectional payment channels are utilized to allow the execution of fast transactions between …

What Tesla’S $1.5 Billion Bet On Bitcoin Means For Crypto Legitimacy, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Some significant issues need to be resolved before Tesla can accept Bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment, says UNSW Business School's Mark Humphery-Jenner

Blockchain Technology And Its Applications Across Multiple Domains: A Survey, Wajde Baiod, Janet Light, Aniket Mahanti

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Blockchain technology has become an active area of research and a technological option for many businesses and industrial communities. With its distributed, decentralized, and trustless nature, blockchain can provide businesses with new opportunities and benefits through increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced integrity and transparency, better security, and improved traceability. Although blockchain’s largest applications have been in the finance and banking sector, we now see experiments and proposed applications in different fields. This paper provides an overview of blockchain technology; it brings together all the key design features, characteristics, and benefits of blockchain that make it a superior and unique technology, …

Memory Foreshadow: Memory Forensics Of Hardware Cryptocurrency Wallets – A Tool And Visualization Framework, Tyler Thomas, Mathew Piscitelli, Ilya Shavrov, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present Memory FORESHADOW: Memory FOREnSics of HArDware cryptOcurrency Wallets. To the best of our knowledge, this is the primary account of cryptocurrency hardware wallet client memory forensics. Our exploratory analysis revealed forensically relevant data in memory including transaction history, extended public keys, passphrases, and unique device identifiers. Data extracted with FORESHADOW can be used to associate a hardware wallet with a computer and allow an observer to deanonymize all past and future transactions due to hierarchical deterministic wallet address derivation. Additionally, our novel visualization framework enabled us to measure both the persistence and integrity of artifacts produced by the …

Investigating The Predictability Of A Chaotic Time-Series Data Using Reservoir Computing, Deep-Learning And Machine- Learning On The Short-, Medium- And Long-Term Pricing Of Bitcoin And Ethereum., Molly Kenny

Dissertations

This study will investigate the predictability of a Chaotic time-series data using Reservoir computing (Echo State Network), Deep-Learning(LSTM) and Machine- Learning(Linear, Bayesian, ElasticNetCV , Random Forest, XGBoost Regression and a machine learning Neural Network) on the short (1-day out prediction), medium (5-day out prediction) and long-term (30-day out prediction) pricing of Bitcoin and Ethereum Using a range of machine learning tools, to perform feature selection by permutation importance to select technical indicators on the individual cryptocurrencies, to ensure the datasets are the best for predictions per cryptocurrency while reducing noise within the models. The predictability of these two chaotic time-series …

The Free Education Project: Higher Education Funding, E2 Implementation, And Crowdsourcing Crypto Development, Louis Carter, John R. Ziegler, Ovidui Purice, Edward Lehner Ph.D.

Publications and Research

This short paper, written in three different sections, explores how a cryptocurrency’s issuance and network effects could fund higher education. Synthesizing research from the Bronx Community College Cryptocurrency Research Lab, Bernard Lietaer’s notion of creating money for the needs of society, lessons learned by Galia Benartzi and the Hearts Project, and an exploration of how communities coalesce around open-source cryptocurrency projects, the authors provide an overview of the problem of funding higher education, the ways in which money that is needed could be created, and the key components to building a highly effective developer community. These three distinct yet vitally …

Principles And Features Of Blockchain Technology Implementation In The Railway Industry, L.F. Kazanskaya, N.A. Drivolskaya

Journal of Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineers

Objective: to Consider the advantages and disadvantages of using blockchain technology and the possibility of introducing cryptocurrencies in the transport sphere of Russia. Methods: methods of generalization, grouping, comparative analysis, system approach, problem statement, study of literary sources and normative-legislative documents, results of activity, study and generalization of experience were Used. Results: blockchain technology applied to cryptocurrencies is Considered. The principle of operation of the blockchain technology in the transaction of bitcoins between users in relation to the railway industry. The conclusion is made about the problems of introduction of cryptocurrencies as payment instruments in the near future due to …

Analysis Of Bitcoin Cryptocurrency And Its Mining Techniques, Suman Ghimire

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital, decentralized cryptocurrency created by an individual under pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In fact, it is the first digital, decentralized currency. Several developers and organizations have explored the importance of digital cryptocurrency and the concept of the blockchain. Bitcoin is assumed to be one of the secure and comfortable payment methods that can be used in the upcoming days. The backbone of Bitcoin mining is the concept of the blockchain, which is assumed to beone of the ingenious invention of this century. The blockchain is the collection of blocks that are linked together in such a way …

Frameup: An Incriminatory Attack On Storj: A Peer To Peer Blockchain Enabled Distributed Storage System, Xiaolu Zhang, Justin Grannis, Ibrahim Baggili, Nicole Lang Beebe

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this work we present a primary account of frameup, an incriminatory attack made possible because of existing implementations in distributed peer to peer storage. The frameup attack shows that an adversary has the ability to store unencrypted data on the hard drives of people renting out their hard drive space. This is important to forensic examiners as it opens the door for possibly framing an innocent victim. Our work employs Storj as an example technology, due to its popularity and market size. Storj is a blockchain enabled system that allows people to rent out their hard drive space …

Inception: Virtual Space In Memory Space In Real Space, Peter Casey, Rebecca Lindsay-Decusati, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Virtual Reality (VR) has become a reality. With the technology's increased use cases, comes its misuse. Malware affecting the Virtual Environment (VE) may prevent an investigator from ascertaining virtual information from a physical scene, or from traditional “dead” analysis. Following the trend of antiforensics, evidence of an attack may only be found in memory, along with many other volatile data points. Our work provides the primary account for the memory forensics of Immersive VR systems, and in specific the HTC Vive. Our approach is capable of reconstituting artifacts from memory that are relevant to the VE, and is also capable …

Implementation Of Blockchain Technology In The Construction Industry, Steven Graham

Construction Management

In general, the construction industry has been pretty resistant to change. While most industries have gained in productivity over the years through implementation of new technologies and other factors, construction industry productivity has been on a steady decline since the 1960s. Even though there are a multitude of reasons for this, including more complex building types and a decline in the workforce, the major problem holding construction back are project management issues and alienation of project stakeholders in the construction process. Some improvements have been made to help with collaboration between parties, like BIM (building information modeling) and project management …

Enhancing Trust In The Cryptocurrency Marketplace: A Reputation Scoring Approach, Dan Freeman, Tim Mcwilliams, Sudip Bhattacharyya, Craig Hall, Pablo Peillard

SMU Data Science Review

Trust is paramount for the effective operation of any monetary system. While the distributed architecture of blockchain technology on which cryptocurrencies operate has many benefits, the anonymity of users on the blockchain has provided criminal users an opportunity to hide both their identities and illicit activities. In this paper, we present a scoring mechanism for cryptocurrency users where the scores represent users’ trustworthiness as safe or risky transactors in the cryptocurrency community. In order to distinguish law-abiding users from potential threats in the Bitcoin marketplace, we analyze historical thefts to profile transactions, classify them into risky and non-risky categories using …

The Tao Of The Dao: Taxing An Entity That Lives On A Blockchain, David J. Shakow

All Faculty Scholarship

In this report, Shakow explains how a decentralized autonomous organization functions and interacts with the U.S. tax system and presents the many tax issues that these structures raise. The possibility of using smart contracts to allow an entity to operate totally autonomously on a blockchain platform seems attractive. However, little thought has been given to how such an entity can comply with the requirements of a tax system. The DAO, the first major attempt to create such an organization, failed because of a programming error. If successful examples proliferate in the future, tax authorities will face significant problems in getting …

If I Had A Million Cryptos: Cryptowallet Application Analysis And A Trojan Proof-Of-Concept, Trevor Haigh, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Cryptocurrencies have gained wide adoption by enthusiasts and investors. In this work, we examine seven different Android cryptowallet applications for forensic artifacts, but we also assess their security against tampering and reverse engineering. Some of the biggest benefits of cryptocurrency is its security and relative anonymity. For this reason it is vital that wallet applications share the same properties. Our work, however, indicates that this is not the case. Five of the seven applications we tested do not implement basic security measures against reverse engineering. Three of the applications stored sensitive information, like wallet private keys, insecurely and one was …

Demonstrating The Functionality And Efficacy Of Blockchain-Based System In Healthcare Using Simulation Tools, Jad S. Mubaslat

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have been a rapidly growing industry and area of academic research since Bitcoin's launch in early 2009. Blockchains have already been applied in spaces outside of finance, such as healthcare. This work explores the Bitcoin blockchain and a blockchain-based care coordination system through the use of modeling and simulation tools. Two agent based models are constructed: one to represent the Bitcoin blockchain, and a second to represent a blockchain-based care coordination system, MDChain. Insight is provided that is relevant to current issues within the Bitcoin community and predictions are made as to its future. The feasibility of …

Cryptocurrency: Proof Of Purchase, Adam Johnson, Robert Breckenridge, Kara Lucord

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The original purpose of this project was to research the capabilities of a relatively new cryptocurrency platform known as Ethereum. Extensive research brought to light Ethereum’s wide range of developmental capabilities and shifted our focus to the consideration of how the features that Ethereum offers can be used to improve some of the flaws within the world of cryptocurrency. Some cryptocurrency users find these systems useful, because it gives them a means of anonymity. This makes it pretty easy to launder money, make illegal purchases, and double spend. Our solution solves all of these issues, by tying a digital currency …