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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 86497

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Hamed Taherdoost

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Department of Arts, Communications and Social Sciences, University Canada West, Vancouver, BC V6B 1V9, Canada
Interests: information system; IT management; information security management; research methodology; blockchain technology; cyber security
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An innovative approach to storing information, executing transactions, performing functions, and establishing trust is provided by the emergence of blockchain technology as a novel distributed consensus scheme. Blockchain technology facilitates the performance and storage of secure transactions without relying on any centralized authority. Thus, security and privacy are significant features of blockchain technology that can lead to the success or failure of distributed ledger technology. Despite the fact that blockchain technology is recognized to intrinsically provide more secure transactions, the security and privacy of blockchain in different applications of the technology is still a matter of concern. Thus, the interest to study different aspects of blockchain security and privacy and techniques to provide security and privacy in blockchain technology is rising in both industry and academia.

This Special Issue aims to collect ongoing studies in blockchain security and privacy focusing on the following scopes:

Blockchain technology adoption
Blockchain security issues and challenges
The accuracy of smart contracts in the blockchain
Blockchain security and attacks
Blockchain security in cloud computing
Security aspects of blockchain technology
Strategies to defend blockchain technology against threats
Representative consensus algorithms
Anonymous signatures
Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof
New business model based on blockchain technology
Regulatory and legal issues related to the use of blockchain technology
Security analysis for blockchain systems
Attack detection and prevention for blockchain system
Data privacy protection for Consortium blockchain

Dr. Hamed Taherdoost
Guest Editor

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. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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
privacy
blockchain security
distributed ledger
blockchain technology
smart contracts

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 132 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Blockchain Innovations, Applications, and Future Prospects

by Hamed Taherdoost

Electronics 2024, 13(2), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13020422 - 19 Jan 2024

Viewed by 3119

Abstract

This Special Issue delves into the diverse applications of blockchain technology, spanning topics including democratic elections, business models, secure data storage, and large-scale ICT security [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

26 pages, 608 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exemplary Ethereum Development Strategies Regarding Security and Gas-Saving

by Manfred Baldauf, Erik Sonnleitner and Marc Kurz

Electronics 2024, 13(1), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010117 - 27 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1191

Abstract

Ethereum is a rapidly evolving blockchain with new features as well as new vulnerabilities being introduced regularly. Interaction with the network is costly compared to other blockchains or traditional software systems. When starting to develop on Ethereum, a supported smart contract programming language needs to be learned, most notably Solidity. Having various pitfalls raises the question of what the best practices for the safe and efficient usage of Ethereum are. This study primarily aims to combine knowledge from existing research resources, while also introducing new approaches learned from practical smart contract development analysis and inquiry, which are subsequently compiled into lists of best practices. The most important findings are that code quality and security should be prioritized. Moreover, some simple gas-saving strategies can help to decrease interaction costs with little effort. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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17 pages, 389 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Novel Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proof Technology-Driven Car Insurance

by Zhuoliang Qiu, Zhijun Xie, Xianliang Jiang, Chuan Ran and Kewei Chen

Electronics 2023, 12(18), 3869; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12183869 - 13 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2169

Abstract

It is crucial to ensure the privacy and authenticity of the owner’s information in car insurance claims. However, the current traditional car insurance claims scenario suffers from inefficiency, complex service, unreliable data, and data leakage. Therefore, considering the privacy and sensitivity of insurance information and car owner data, we can use blockchain, smart contracts, and zero-knowledge proof technology to improve the current problems. This paper proposes a novel car insurance claim scheme based on smart contracts, blockchain, and zero-knowledge proof. Our scheme focuses on preserving privacy in the car insurance authorization and claim process. We design a private smart contract for the creation and revocation of car insurance and public smart contract for the authorization and validation of car insurance. By using ZoKrates, generating zero-knowledge proofs off chain and verifying the proofs on chain reduces the amount of data storage and computation on chain and provides privacy protection for sensitive information. Experimental results confirm the efficacy of our scheme in terms of security and performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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20 pages, 1072 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Blockchain-Based Method for Optimizing the Routing of High-Frequency Carbon-Trading Payment Channels

by Yu Song, Ao Xiong, Xuesong Qiu, Shaoyong Guo, Dong Wang, Da Li, Xin Zhang and Yue Kuang

Electronics 2023, 12(12), 2586; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122586 - 8 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1973

Abstract

Carbon trading is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. It is a market mechanism aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide emissions. Blockchain technology can be applied to the carbon-trading scenario using characteristics that guarantee the security, decentralization, data immutability, and data traceability of the carbon-trading process. It would be difficult to implement carbon trading on blockchains for all enterprises and individuals, as the current performance of blockchains does not meet the requirements. There has been extensive research conducted on blockchain performance optimization, and the off-chain payment channel is one of the more mature solutions. This approach involves the transfer of transactions to off-chain transactions, thus avoiding high transaction fees. Existing research has addressed the problem of routing security and efficiency, with less emphasis on factors such as routing transaction costs, node reputation, and routing path considerations. This paper researches the optimization of payment routing in Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) and proposes the Multi-Factor Routing Payment Scheme (MFPS), which integrates factors such as the node reputation, transaction fee cost, and distance to select the route for payment transactions. In order to improve the success ratio of routing transactions, the transaction-splitting algorithm is proposed. To ensure the security and privacy of the transaction process, the Asymmetric Time-Lock Contract (ATLC) protocol is proposed. The results of extensive experimental simulations show that the MFPS proposed in this paper outperforms the ShortestPath, Cheapest, and SplitDistance algorithms. It achieves an approximately 13.8%∼49% improvement in the transaction success ratio and reduces the average transaction processing cost. The security and privacy measures can defend against wormhole and double-flower attacks and exhibit better performance in terms of computational verification and message overhead. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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19 pages, 2821 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain-Based Authentication Protocol Design from a Cloud Computing Perspective

by Zhiqiang Du, Wenlong Jiang, Chenguang Tian, Xiaofeng Rong and Yuchao She

Electronics 2023, 12(9), 2140; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12092140 - 7 May 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2161

Abstract

Cloud computing is a disruptive technology that has transformed the way people access and utilize computing resources. Due to the diversity of services and complexity of environments, there is widespread interest in how to securely and efficiently authenticate users under the same domain. However, many traditional authentication methods involve untrusted third parties or overly centralized central authorities, which can compromise the security of the system. Therefore, it is crucial to establish secure authentication channels within trusted domains. In this context, we propose a secure and efficient authentication protocol, HIDA (Hyperledger Fabric Identity Authentication), for the cloud computing environment. Specifically, by introducing federated chain technology to securely isolate entities in the trust domain, and combining it with zero-knowledge proof technology, users’ data are further secured. In addition, Subsequent Access Management allows users to prove their identity by revealing only brief credentials, greatly improving the efficiency of access. To ensure the security of the protocol, we performed a formal semantic analysis and proved that it can effectively protect against various attacks. At the same time, we conducted ten simulations to prove that the protocol is efficient and reliable in practical applications. The research results in this paper can provide new ideas and technical support for identity authentication in a cloud environment and provide a useful reference for realizing the authentication problem in cloud computing application scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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18 pages, 1184 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain-Based Security Configuration Management for ICT Systems

by Dimitrios Chatziamanetoglou and Konstantinos Rantos

Electronics 2023, 12(8), 1879; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12081879 - 16 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3226

Abstract

The world has become increasingly dependent on large-scale and distributed information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures and systems in sectors such as energy, transport, banking, healthcare, water supply, and digital services, while their protection is considered of paramount importance and has already drawn remarkable attention from governments and key industry players. Establishing common approaches by leveraging existing frameworks and cyber security practices for improving the security postures of those systems is one of the major objectives for ensuring an adequate level of protection and avoiding the detrimental effects of disruptions on society and citizens. Configuration management (CM) is one of those common practices for establishing and maintaining the integrity and consistency of a system and its elements with regard to the function, performance, and status of technical and physical attributes, and it contributes to a desirable security posture throughout the lifecycle of a system. This study addresses the importance of CM, and while considering the corresponding frameworks, standards, and best practices, it proposes a permissioned blockchain-based approach, that inherits the benefits of the blockchain technology and ensures the integrity of the systems’ configuration across the complete lifecycle management of its products and services as an underlying model for mapping and integrating CM functions. Furthermore, this study briefly presents the benefits and challenges of the application of permissioned blockchain models and proposes a smart-contract-based role-based access control mechanism, in addition to presenting an operating concept based on brief but real-life lifecycle requirements of organizational configuration management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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23 pages, 3548 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain and Interplanetary File System (IPFS)-Based Data Storage System for Vehicular Networks with Keyword Search Capability

by N. Sangeeta and Seung Yeob Nam

Electronics 2023, 12(7), 1545; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12071545 - 24 Mar 2023

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7537

Abstract

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and black boxes are indispensable for road safety and accident management. Visible highway surveillance cameras can promote safe driving habits while discouraging moving violations. According to CCTV laws, footage captured by roadside cameras must be securely stored, and authorized persons can access it. Footages collected by CCTV and Blackbox are usually saved to the camera’s microSD card, the cloud, or hard drives locally but there are concerns about security and data integrity. These issues may be addressed by blockchain technology. The cost of storing data on the blockchain, on the other hand, is prohibitively expensive. We can have decentralized and cost-effective storage with the interplanetary file system (IPFS) project. It is a file-sharing protocol that stores and distributes data in a distributed file system. We propose a decentralized IPFS and blockchain-based application for distributed file storage. It is possible to upload various types of files into our decentralized application (DApp), and hashes of the uploaded files are permanently saved on the Ethereum blockchain with the help of smart contracts. Because it cannot be removed, it is immutable. By clicking on the file description, we can also view the file. DApp also includes a keyword search feature to assist us in quickly locating sensitive information. We used Ethers.js’ smart contract event listener and contract.queryFilter to filter and read data from the blockchain. The smart contract events are then written to a text file for our DApp’s keyword search functionality. Our experiment demonstrates that our DApp is resilient to system failure while preserving the transparency and integrity of data due to the immutability of blockchain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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16 pages, 4044 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Implementing Blockchain-Based Traceable Certificates as Sustainable Technology in Democratic Elections

by Robin Singh Bhadoria, Arka Prabha Das, Abul Bashar and Mohammed Zikria

Electronics 2022, 11(20), 3359; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11203359 - 18 Oct 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2813

Abstract

A democratic election is a crucial event in any country. Therefore, the government of the country is concerned with creating more competitive and fairer elections. This paper discusses the survey and scope of Blockchain technology adoptions in conducting elections. A distributed digital ledger is used in the Blockchain technology that is utilized for recording transactions happening between two parties. Ledger conducts this processing in an efficient and effective manner with latest secure mechanism of encryption algorithms. Therefore, the data stored in several blocks in each transaction is secure, transparent, and tamper-proof, which ultimately improves the transparency and voter confidentiality. This paper demonstrates how the benefits of the Blockchain technology such as immutability, transparency and end-to-end verifiability can be utilized by the national governments around the world to ensure fair democratic elections. In short, we aim to present a rigorous mechanism of a Blockchain based e-voting system, its efficiency based on different consensus algorithms and the overall progress and analysis based on some critical parameters to anticipate the feasibility of the successful implementation of the proposed e-voting system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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Review

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38 pages, 603 KiB

Open AccessReview

Blockchain-Based E-Voting Systems: A Technology Review

by Mohammad Hajian Berenjestanaki, Hamid R. Barzegar, Nabil El Ioini and Claus Pahl

Electronics 2024, 13(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010017 - 19 Dec 2023

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 39037

Abstract

The employment of blockchain technology in electronic voting (e-voting) systems is attracting significant attention due to its ability to enhance transparency, security, and integrity in digital voting. This study presents an extensive review of the existing research on e-voting systems that rely on blockchain technology. The study investigates a range of key research concerns, including the benefits, challenges, and impacts of such systems, together with technologies and implementations, and an identification of future directions of research in this domain. We use a hybrid review approach, applying systematic literature review principles to select and categorize scientific papers and reviewing the technology used in these in terms of the above key concerns. In the 252 selected papers, aspects such as security, transparency, and decentralization are frequently emphasized as the main benefits. In contrast, although aspects like privacy, verifiability, efficiency, trustworthiness, and auditability receive significant attention, they are not the primary focus. We observed a relative lack of emphasis on aspects such as accessibility, compatibility, availability, and usability in the reviewed literature. These aspects, although acknowledged, are not as thoroughly discussed as the aforementioned key benefits in the proposed solutions for blockchain-based e-voting systems, whereas the considered studies have proposed well-structured solutions for blockchain-based e-voting systems focusing on how blockchain can strengthen security, transparency, and privacy, in particular, the crucial aspect of scalability needs attention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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28 pages, 2842 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Survey on Parameters Affecting MANET Performance

by Ahmed M. Eltahlawy, Heba K. Aslan, Eslam G. Abdallah, Mahmoud Said Elsayed, Anca D. Jurcut and Marianne A. Azer

Electronics 2023, 12(9), 1956; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12091956 - 22 Apr 2023

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3692

Abstract

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructure-less network where mobile nodes can share information through wireless links without dedicated hardware that handles the network routing. MANETs’ nodes create on-the-fly connections with each other to share information, and they frequently join and leave MANET during run time. Therefore, flexibility in MANETs is needed to be able to handle variations in the number of existing network nodes. An effective routing protocol should be used to be able to route data packets within this dynamic network. Lacking centralized infrastructure in MANETs makes it harder to secure communication between network nodes, and this lack of infrastructure makes network nodes vulnerable to harmful attacks. Testbeds might be used to test MANETs under specific conditions, but researchers prefer to use simulators to obtain more flexibility and less cost during MANETs’ environment setup and testing. A MANET’s environment is dependent on the required scenario, and an appropriate choice of the used simulator that fulfills the researcher’s needs is very important. Furthermore, researchers need to define the simulation parameters and the other parameters required by the used routing protocol. In addition, if the MANET’s environment handles some conditions where malicious nodes perform network attacks, the parameters affecting the MANET from the attack perspective need to be understood. This paper collects environmental parameters that might be needed to be able to set up the required environment. To be able to evaluate the network’s performance under attack, different environmental parameters that evaluate the overall performance are also collected. A survey of the literature contribution is performed based on 50 recent papers. Comparison tables and statistical charts are created to show the literature contribution and the used parameters within the scope of the collected papers of our survey. Results show that the NS-2 simulator is the most popular simulator used in MANETs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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24 pages, 3473 KiB

Open AccessReview

Blockchain-Based New Business Models: A Systematic Review

by Hamed Taherdoost and Mitra Madanchian

Electronics 2023, 12(6), 1479; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12061479 - 21 Mar 2023

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 17397

Abstract

The role of blockchain in new business model development requires greater focus because the technology is still in its infancy. Thus, there has been little research on the effects of the various blockchain networks (such as public, private, and consortium). This finding prompted a thorough investigation of new blockchain-based business models created between 2012 and 2022 to close this gap. This review’s focus is on journals, and duplicate articles have been removed. Works based on interviews, articles in press, non-English articles, reviews, conferences, book chapters, dissertations, and monographs are also not included. Seventy-five papers from the past ten years are included in this evaluation. This study examines the current state of new blockchain-based business models. Additionally, the implications and applications in the related literature have been investigated. These findings highlight numerous open research questions and promising new directions for investigation, which will likely be helpful to academics and professionals. The business strategies built on blockchain are currently on a path with a rapid upward trajectory. Blockchain technology offers businesses numerous chances to modify and develop new company models. By changing the conventional framework, blockchain innovation leads to the development of new methods for developing company models. The supportive potential of blockchain technologies such as NFT and P2E is increasingly being coupled with the development of new corporate projects and the modification of current business models. Since this field of study is still fairly new, researchers will have fresh opportunities to analyze its characteristics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancement in Blockchain Technology and Applications)

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