SUGGESTED THEMES FOR ICCSEHBT 2021

As the security and privacy is a key evaluation parameter in the practical deployments of the blockchain platforms or the blockchain-based applications, some researches have been conducted in the area of cryptography and cryptographic techniques, which are considered as the underlying fundaments of the blockchain. However, on the one hand, there are still many cryptographic techniques that can provide desirable security properties have not been well-studied or well-applied in blockchain. On the other hand, some cryptographic primitives having been used in existing blockchain systems are high consuming in computation or communication, which greatly impacts the usability and practicability of the blockchain. Exploring lightweight cryptographic alternatives and new promising cryptographic techniques for blockchain is still a challenging research direction. The blockchain is likely to bring in considerable change to a large number of systems and businesses. Distributed protection, and therefore privacy and security, is the core of the blockchain technologies and thus has the potential to either make them a major success or cause them to fail miserably.

The conference aims to discuss the most relevant ongoing research efforts in blockchain security and privacy. Apart from the sessions by eminent speakers discussing the challenges and solutions , research papers are invited on the following topics (but are not limited to) :

• Hash functions for blockchain systems
• Encryption and Digital signature schemes for blockchain systems
• Access control protocol and Authentication schemes for blockchain systems
• Key management protocols for blockchain systems
• Commitments and zero-knowledge proofs for blockchain systems
• Secure multi-party computation protocols for blockchain systems
• Private information retrieval and Proof of retrievability schemes for blockchain systems
• Post-quantum cryptography for blockchain systems
• Platforms for decentralized consensus (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Ripple, Open Blockchain, etc.)
• New threat models and attacks on existing blockchain technologies
• Defences and counter measures
• Simple payment verification modes and lightweight blockchain clients
• Anonymity and privacy issues and measures to enhance anonymity and privacy
• Scalability issues and solutions
• Incentive mechanisms for blockchains
• Economic, monetary, legal, ethical, and societal aspects
• Applicability of the technology in financial markets
• Fraud detection and financial crime prevention
• Case studies (for instance, of adoption, attacks, forks, and scams)
• New applications

However, topics are not restricted to the above. Research papers on any other topic on blockchian systems are also welcome.

CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT