SoK: Blockchain Decentralization

Zhang, Luyao; Ma, Xinshi; Liu, Yulin

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.04256

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Governance and Performance Properties. We extend our classification of solutions with governance [168] and performance [32], [47] properties, as they are factors that intrinsically influence security and privacy [7]. We collect insights from related literature to define:…”

Section: Security Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability [Extended Version]

Augusto,

Belchior,

Correia

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Recent years have witnessed significant advancements in cross-chain technology. However, the field faces two pressing challenges. On the one hand, hacks on cross-chain bridges have led to monetary losses of around 3.1 billion USD, highlighting flaws in security models governing interoperability mechanisms and the ineffectiveness of incident response frameworks. On the other hand, users and bridge operators experience restricted privacy, which broadens the potential attack surface. In this paper, we present the most comprehensive study to date on the security and privacy of blockchain interoperability. We employ a systematic literature review, yielding a corpus of 212 relevant documents, including 58 academic papers and 154 gray literature documents, out of a pool of 531 results. We systematically categorize 57 interoperability solutions based on a novel security and privacy taxonomy. Our dataset, comprising academic research, disclosures from bug bounty programs, and audit reports, exposes 45 cross-chain vulnerabilities, 25 theoretical attacks, and 93 mitigation strategies. Leveraging this data, we analyze 14 notable bridge hacks accounting for over 2.9 billion USD in losses, mapping them to the identified vulnerabilities. Our findings reveal that a substantial portion (65.8%) of stolen funds originates from projects secured by intermediary permissioned networks with unsecured cryptographic key operations. Privacy-wise, we demonstrate that achieving unlinkability in cross-chain transactions is contingent on the underlying ledgers providing some form of confidentiality. Our study offers critical insights into the security and privacy of cross-chain systems. We pinpoint promising future research directions, underscoring the urgency of enhancing security and privacy efforts in cross-chain technology. The identified improvements can mitigate the financial risks associated with bridge hacks, fostering user trust in the blockchain ecosystem and, consequently, wider adoption.

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Section: Security Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability [Extended Version]

Augusto,

Belchior,

Correia

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Note that IMs based on private chains partially guarantee this property (◑); there is no confidentiality (○). Governance and Performance Properties: We extend our classification of solutions with governance [168] and performance [32], [47] properties, as they are factors that intrinsically influence security and privacy [7]. We collect insights from related literature to define:…”

Section: The Table Identifies the Interoperability Mode Used By Each ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability

Augusto,

Belchior,

Correia

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Recent years have witnessed significant advancements in cross-chain technology. However, the field faces two pressing challenges when it comes to security and privacy. Hacks on cross-chain bridges have led to monetary losses of around 3 billion USD, highlighting flaws in security models governing interoperability mechanisms (IMs) and the ineffectiveness of incident response frameworks. Additionally, the exploration of privacy within cross-chain scenarios remains relatively unexplored. Hackers benefit from extensive privacy, whereas users and bridge operators experience restricted privacy, thereby broadening the potential attack surface for adversaries. In this paper, we present the most comprehensive study to date on the security and privacy of blockchain interoperability. Our study employs a rigorous systematic literature review, yielding a corpus of 178 relevant documents, including 58 academic papers and 120 gray literature documents, out of a pool of 531. We systematically categorize 56 interoperability solutions based on a newly created taxonomy focusing on security and privacy considerations. Our dataset, comprising academic research, disclosures from bug bounty programs, and audit reports, exposes 45 cross-chain vulnerabilities, 25 theoretical attacks, and 88 mitigation strategies. Leveraging this data, we analyze 14 notable bridge hacks accounting for over USD 2.9 billion in losses, mapping them to the identified vulnerabilities. Our findings reveal that a substantial portion (65.8\%) of stolen funds originates from projects secured by permissioned intermediary networks with unsecured cryptographic key operations. Regarding privacy, we demonstrate that achieving unlinkability in cross-chain transactions is contingent on the underlying ledgers providing some form of confidentiality. In conclusion, our study offers critical insights into the challenges and vulnerabilities within the realm of cross-chain interoperability. We pinpoint promising directions for future research that can guide both industry practitioners and academics toward substantial advancements in this field. Our work underscores the urgency of enhancing security and privacy measures in cross-chain technology to mitigate the substantial financial risks associated with bridge hacks and to foster user trust in the blockchain ecosystem.

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“…As blockchain technology matures, its applications have expanded into various domains, such as data sharing, item tracking, supply chain monitoring, power systems, and digital voting [47]. By enabling distributed trust, blockchain empowers a decentralized economy [66].…”

Section: Blockchain Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Decoding Social Sentiment in DAO: A Comparative Analysis of Blockchain Governance Communities

Quan,

Wu,

Deng

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Blockchain technology is leading a revolutionary transformation across diverse industries, with effective governance standing as a critical determinant for the success and sustainability of blockchain projects. Community forums, pivotal in engaging decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), wield a substantial impact on blockchain governance decisions. Concurrently, Natural Language Processing (NLP), particularly sentiment analysis, provides powerful insights from textual data. While prior research has explored the potential of NLP tools in social media sentiment analysis, a gap persists in understanding the sentiment landscape of blockchain governance communities. The evolving discourse and sentiment dynamics on the forums of top DAOs remain largely unknown. This paper delves deep into the evolving discourse and sentiment dynamics on the public forums of leading DeFi projects—Aave, Uniswap, Curve Dao, Aragon, Yearn.finance, Merit Circle, and Balancer—placing a primary focus on discussions related to governance issues. Despite differing activity patterns, participants across these decentralized communities consistently express positive sentiments in their Discord discussions, indicating optimism towards governance decisions. Additionally, our research suggests a potential interplay between discussion intensity and sentiment dynamics, indicating that higher discussion volumes may contribute to more stable and positive emotions. The insights gained from this study are valuable for decision-makers in blockchain governance, underscoring the pivotal role of sentiment analysis in interpreting community emotions and its evolving impact on the landscape of blockchain governance. This research significantly contributes to the interdisciplinary exploration of the intersection of blockchain and society, with a specific emphasis on the decentralized blockchain governance ecosystem. We provide our data and code for replicability as open access on GitHub.

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SoK: Blockchain Decentralization

Cited by 9 publications

References 64 publications

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability [Extended Version]

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability [Extended Version]

SoK: Security and Privacy of Blockchain Interoperability

Decoding Social Sentiment in DAO: A Comparative Analysis of Blockchain Governance Communities

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