1. “SurferMonkey: A Decentralized Anonymous Blockchain Intercommunication System via Zero Knowledge Proofs” by Miguel Díaz Montiel, Rachid Guerraoui, and Pierre-Louis Roman

TLDR:

• Over the course of 2022, we have witnessed an explosion of new Layer 1 protocols competing for market share in the smart contract ecosystem. The standardization of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has contributed to this trend since it has decreased switching costs for application developers.

• As applications become increasingly cross-chain, the need for better interoperability solutions is now salient. The current approach using so-called bridges has many drawbacks, especially related to security as evidenced by the number of hacks that bridges have faced.

• This paper discusses an alternative cross-chain interoperability schema called SurferMonkey. Unlike public relayers, SurferMonkey uses Zero-Knowledge Proofs to intermediate cross-chain messages.

2. “Rational Ponzi Games in Algorithmic Stablecoin (Conceptual version)” by Shange Fu, Qin Wang, Jiangshan Yu, and Shiping Chen

TLDR:

• The collapse of TerraUSD highlighted the challenges of designing Algorithmic Stablecoins (AS) that continuously keep parity with a fiat currency.

• This paper discusses the dynamics of two popular types of Algorithmic Stablecoins (AS): Rebase and Seigniorage Shares, and formalizes their economics using Terra and Ampleforth as examples.

• Additionally, the paper showcases a very interesting framework to determine whether a stablecoin is a rational Ponzi scheme, i.e. its economics are based on Ponzi-like behaviors.

3. “Partially Anonymous Rollups” by Olivier Bégassat, Alexandre Belling, and Nicolas Liochon

TLDR:

• Rollups have become an immensely popular construct to scale blockchain applications today, as evidenced by the number of applications deploying Rollup versions.

• Generally speaking, blockchain rollups fall into two different categories: optimistic or zero-knowledge.

• This paper discusses an alternative construct called Partially Anonymous Rollups, which may offer interesting trade-offs related to privacy and transactional throughput.

4. “Diablo: A Benchmark Suite for Blockchains” by Vincent Gramoli, Rachid Guerraoui, Andrei Lebedev, Chris Natoli, and Gauthier Voron

TLDR:

• As mentioned previously, we are witnessing immense growth in the number of L1s available for application developers to pick from.

• Since there has also been some convergence on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), it can be challenging to fully assess their trade-offs.

• This paper showcases a schema called Diablo which can be used to benchmark the client of various competing L1 blockchains.

5. “Unjamming Lightning: A Systematic Approach” by Clara Shikhelman and Sergei Tikhomirov

TLDR:

• There are many issues that may impact the adoption of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network as a payment network.

• Amongst these exploits are so-called channel jamming attacks, which is a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack.

• This paper introduces a solution to channel jamming via a system that combines unconditional fees, which are mandatory, as well as a peer reputation system.

6. “TAP: Transparent and Privacy-Preserving Data Services” by Daniël Reijsbergen, Aung Maw, Zheng Yang, Tien Tuan Anh Dinh, and Jianying Zhou

TLDR:

• There exists a naturally conflicting relationship between transparency and data privacy. Some applications require transparency for their core use case at the expense of user privacy. This is the case with many social media networks today.

• This paper discusses a data sharing schema called TAP: Transparent and Privacy-Preserving Data Services which aims to address this conflicting nature.

Research collected and curated by @cipherix.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, business, investment, or tax advice.

The Smart Contract Research Forum’s (SCRF) bold mission is to advance web3 through actionable research and knowledge-sharing. To this end, SCRF connects researchers and builders, sponsors projects, and constructs collaborative forums. SCRF’s community is an active, international network of academics, industry architects, and blockchain advocates.

1. “SurferMonkey: A Decentralized Anonymous Blockchain Intercommunication System via Zero Knowledge Proofs” by Miguel Díaz Montiel, Rachid Guerraoui, and Pierre-Louis Roman

TLDR:

• Over the course of 2022, we have witnessed an explosion of new Layer 1 protocols competing for market share in the smart contract ecosystem. The standardization of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has contributed to this trend since it has decreased switching costs for application developers.

• As applications become increasingly cross-chain, the need for better interoperability solutions is now salient. The current approach using so-called bridges has many drawbacks, especially related to security as evidenced by the number of hacks that bridges have faced.

• This paper discusses an alternative cross-chain interoperability schema called SurferMonkey. Unlike public relayers, SurferMonkey uses Zero-Knowledge Proofs to intermediate cross-chain messages.

2. “Rational Ponzi Games in Algorithmic Stablecoin (Conceptual version)” by Shange Fu, Qin Wang, Jiangshan Yu, and Shiping Chen

TLDR:

• The collapse of TerraUSD highlighted the challenges of designing Algorithmic Stablecoins (AS) that continuously keep parity with a fiat currency.

• This paper discusses the dynamics of two popular types of Algorithmic Stablecoins (AS): Rebase and Seigniorage Shares, and formalizes their economics using Terra and Ampleforth as examples.

• Additionally, the paper showcases a very interesting framework to determine whether a stablecoin is a rational Ponzi scheme, i.e. its economics are based on Ponzi-like behaviors.

3. “Partially Anonymous Rollups” by Olivier Bégassat, Alexandre Belling, and Nicolas Liochon

TLDR:

• Rollups have become an immensely popular construct to scale blockchain applications today, as evidenced by the number of applications deploying Rollup versions.

• Generally speaking, blockchain rollups fall into two different categories: optimistic or zero-knowledge.

• This paper discusses an alternative construct called Partially Anonymous Rollups, which may offer interesting trade-offs related to privacy and transactional throughput.

4. “Diablo: A Benchmark Suite for Blockchains” by Vincent Gramoli, Rachid Guerraoui, Andrei Lebedev, Chris Natoli, and Gauthier Voron

TLDR:

• As mentioned previously, we are witnessing immense growth in the number of L1s available for application developers to pick from.

• Since there has also been some convergence on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), it can be challenging to fully assess their trade-offs.

• This paper showcases a schema called Diablo which can be used to benchmark the client of various competing L1 blockchains.

5. “Unjamming Lightning: A Systematic Approach” by Clara Shikhelman and Sergei Tikhomirov

TLDR:

• There are many issues that may impact the adoption of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network as a payment network.

• Amongst these exploits are so-called channel jamming attacks, which is a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack.

• This paper introduces a solution to channel jamming via a system that combines unconditional fees, which are mandatory, as well as a peer reputation system.

6. “TAP: Transparent and Privacy-Preserving Data Services” by Daniël Reijsbergen, Aung Maw, Zheng Yang, Tien Tuan Anh Dinh, and Jianying Zhou

TLDR:

• There exists a naturally conflicting relationship between transparency and data privacy. Some applications require transparency for their core use case at the expense of user privacy. This is the case with many social media networks today.

• This paper discusses a data sharing schema called TAP: Transparent and Privacy-Preserving Data Services which aims to address this conflicting nature.

Research collected and curated by @cipherix.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, business, investment, or tax advice.

The Smart Contract Research Forum’s (SCRF) bold mission is to advance web3 through actionable research and knowledge-sharing. To this end, SCRF connects researchers and builders, sponsors projects, and constructs collaborative forums. SCRF’s community is an active, international network of academics, industry architects, and blockchain advocates.