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In this blog post, we present a high-level overview of the paper describing the Ouroboros Proof of Stake protocol implemented in Cardano´s blockchain. After the overview follow some comments about theoretical aspects of the protocol.
In general, Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus protocols elect the network nodes responsible to send the next block to the blockchain on the basis of the nodes’ amount of stake.
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Prior to the Bitcoin blockchain of “Satoshi Nakamoto”, distributed ledger systems were lacking two important properties which are essential for a decentralized digital cash system. The first property which existing distributed ledger systems were missing, was the ability to scale to a network of millions of users. And secondly, systems at the time were not permissionless
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Introduction Public blockchains are not suited to function as a data storage provider. Since they are append-only ledgers, storing many large files would result in a dramatic increase of the whole distributed ledger. That would force the network nodes to store huge databases leaving it in the hands of just a few providers. Likewise, the […]
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Cryptocurrency Exchanges Anyone who wants to get into the cryptocurrency market and does not want to mine blocks needs to exchange his fiat money at an exchange, the only alternative to this is to get cryptocurrency from another holder. Centralized exchanges like Bitfinex, Coinbase, Kraken, Poloniex or Shapeshift intermediate the bid and offer matching process […]
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We are compiling a list of recent technologies developments in the blockchain sector. Our focus is mostly on projects which promise scalability, but includes also proposals which aim to overcome some deficiencies in Bitcoin´s PoW based blockchain, e.g. which aim to improve fairness, usefulness, or privacy. You can find the current state of our work […]
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It is important to have an estimate of risk for a portfolio when trading with financial assets. Two basic and commonly used risk measures are value-at-risk and expected shortfall. We will illustrate the two concepts with an example and provide the necessary R code to actually calculate the values of both measures. If we take […]
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Transactions in Bitcoin are recorded in its blockchain. This makes it possible to see whether coins sent through the network are still valid unspent coins. At the same time, however, the transparency of the data stored in the blockchain can be used to infer private information of users. There are already many cryptocurrencies and “money […]
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AppeCoin, Sergio D. Lerner‘s proposal for an e-cash scheme, is designed for a peer-to-peer network which does not rely on a Trusted Third Party. Like the cryptocurrencies Monero or Zcash, AppeCoin is a protocol which aims to guarantee to its users full privacy. Lerner’s e-cash scheme leverages coin shuffling. Unlike ZeroCoin, where the monetary units […]
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The full technical article is available here. Introduction Payment confidentiality is a property for cryptocurrencies which allows the user to hide the sender and receiver, as well as the amount of a transaction in the blockchain. Monero Research Lab invented Ring Confidential Transactions, while Zcash uses a different approach based on recent scientific progress in the field […]
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Synopsis of our full article: Though the research on quantum computers is still facing big challenges, there is also some progress in this field. The National Institute of Security and Technology (NIST) recently published a report on Post-Quantum Cryptography which informs about new developments. They believe that it is time to think of quantum-safe primitives, […]
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The challenge of modern cryptography is to find efficient but secure encryption schemes. The Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) is a widely used encryption scheme which is specified in many standards. It is used for example in Ethereum’s Whisper. While Bitcoin Core does not implement ECIES, it can be employed to send secure messages […]
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Elliptic curve cryptography is becoming more and more popular. One of its main supporters is the cryptocurrency system Bitcoin which uses an elliptic curve scheme for their digital signatures. Smaller key size, a more efficient implementation than the RSA system, and a similar level of security make elliptic curve cryptography an interesting alternative to RSA. […]