About
SBA Research is a research center for Information Security funded partly by the national initiative for COMET
Competence
Centers for Excellent Technologies. Within a network of more than 70 companies, 15 Austrian and international
universities
and research institutions, and many additional international research partners we jointly work on research
challenges
ranging from organizational to technical security to strengthen Europe’s Cybersecurity capabilities
Decentralized Systems Group
The Decentralized Systems Group at SBA Research focuses on fundamental and applied research in the field of
blockchain
and distributed ledger technologies. Current projects explore,
consensus mechanism,
self-sovereign identities,
and cross-chain interoperability
mechanisms.
To industry partners we offer technical workshops, feasibility studies, project consulting, and contract
research.
A Glance Beyond the Hype
Following the introduction of Bitcoin and the swift rise of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and distributed
ledger technologies have received global attention not least from governments, industry and research institutions.
While cryptocurrencies as distributed, trustless and self-governing systems aim to provide an alternative to traditional fiat
currency structures, the underlying technologies have shown applicability to a wide range of domains beyond
financial services.
As such, we have witnessed first deployments of blockchain-based application prototypes
facilitating,
inter alia, transparent record keeping, auditable supply chain management and machine-to-machine communication
of autonomous (IoT) agents.
However, a closer analysis of the current state of the technical concepts, implementations and tool support
reveals these systems are bleeding edge technology and mainstream adoption is a long way ahead.
Furthermore, there exists no one blockchain to be used as golden hammer for all use cases and problems,
while secure and efficient inter-chain communication has yet to be developed.
Hence, thorough analysis of requirements, applicability and technical feasibility are of vital importance
when deciding upon whether to replace/extend existing systems by/with blockchain-based solutions. Thereby, the core question
is not whether "blockchain" is applicable but which of the existing approaches is most suitable.
Research
Preprints
PDF
User-perceived privacy in blockchain
Simin Ghesmati, Walid Fdhila, Edgar Weippl
PDF
ETHDKG: Distributed Key Generation with Ethereum Smart Contracts
Philipp Schindler, Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, and Edgar Weippl
Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2019/985.
Publications
PDF
Opportunistic Algorithmic Double-Spending: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Fork
Nicholas Stifter, Aljosha Judmayer, Philipp Schindler, and Edgar Weippl
European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS) 2022.
PDF
Challenges and Opportunities of Blockchain for Auditable Processes in the Healthcare Sector
Walid Fdhila, Nicholas Stifter, Aljosha Judmayer
Business Process Management: Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, and Central and Eastern Europe Forum: BPM 2022
PDF
How much is the fork? Fast Probability and Profitability Calculation during Temporary Forks
Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, Philipp Schindler, and Edgar Weippl
Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022
PDF
Estimating (Miner) Extractable Value is Hard, Let’s Go Shopping!
Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, Philipp Schindler, and Edgar Weippl
3rd Workshop on Coordination of Decentralized Finance (CoDecFin) 2022
PDF
Methods for decentralized identities: Evaluation and insights
Walid Fdhila, Nicholas Stifter, Kristian Kostal, Cihan Saglam, Markus Sabadello
Business Process Management: Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation Forum: BPM 2021
PDF
Unnecessary input heuristics and payjoin transactions
Simin Ghesmati, Andreas Kern, Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, Edgar Weippl
HCI International 2021-Posters: 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021
PDF
RandRunner: Distributed Randomness fromTrapdoor VDFs with Strong Uniqueness
Philipp Schindler, Aljosha Judmayer, Markus Hittmeir, Nicholas Stifter, Edgar Weippl
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2021
PDF
Studying Bitcoin privacy attacks and their Impact on Bitcoin-based Identity Methods
Simin Ghesmati, Walid Fdhila, Edgar Weippl
International Conference on Business Process Management
PDF
SoK: How private is Bitcoin? Classification and Evaluation of Bitcoin Privacy Techniques
Simin Ghesmati, Walid Fdhila, Edgar Weippl
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
PDF
Usability of Cryptocurrency Wallets Providing CoinJoin Transactions
Simin Ghesmati, Walid Fdhila, Edgar Weippl
Usable Security and Privacy (USEC) Symposium 2022
PDF
Pay to Win: Cheap, Cross-Chain Bribing Attacks on PoW Cryptocurrencies
Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, Alexei Zamyatin, Itay Tsabary, Ittay Eyal, Peter Gazi, Sarah Meiklejohn,
and Edgar Weippl
5th Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts. In Association with Financial Cryptography 2021
PDF
SoK: Algorithmic Incentive Manipulation Attacks on Permissionless PoW Cryptocurrencies
Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, Alexei Zamyatin, Itay Tsabary, Ittay Eyal, Peter Gazi, Sarah Meiklejohn,
and Edgar Weippl
5th Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts. In Association with Financial Cryptography 2021
PDF
HydRand: Efficient Continuous Distributed Randomness
Philipp Schindler, Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, and Edgar Weippl
Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), 2020.
PDF
A Deep Dive into Bitcoin Mining Pools: An Empirical Analysis of Mining Shares
Matteo Romiti, Aljosha Judmayer, Alexei Zamyatin, and Bernhard Haslhofer
The 2019 Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2019
PDF
XCLAIM: Trustless, Interoperable, Cryptocurrency-Backed Assets
Alexei Zamyatin and Dominik Harz and Joshua Lind and Panayiotis Panayiotou and Arthur Gervais and William J.
Knottenbelt
Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), May 2019.
PDF
Distributed Key Generation with Ethereum Smart Contracts
Philipp Schindler, Aljosha Judmayer, Nicholas Stifter, and Edgar Weippl
CIW'19: 1st Cryptocurrency Implementers' Workshop 2019
PDF
Echoes of the Past: Recovering Blockchain Metrics From Merged Mining
Nicholas Stifter and Philipp Schindler and Aljosha Judmayer and Alexei Zamyatin and Andreas Kern and Edgar
Weippl
Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2019
PDF
Uncle Traps: Harvesting Rewards in a Queue-based Ethereum Mining Pool
Werner S, Pritz P, Zamyatin A, Knottenbelt W
2th EAI International Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools (VALUETOOLS), 2019
PDF
Pitchforks in Cryptocurrencies: Enforcing rule changes through offensive forking- and consensus
techniques (Short Paper)
Aljosha Judmayer and Nicholas Stifter and Philipp Schindler and Edgar Weippl
CBT'18: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology
PDF
Proof-of-Blackouts? How Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrencies Could Affect Power Grids
Ullrich Johanna and Stifter Nicholas and Judmayer Aljosha and Dabrowski Adrian and Edgar Weippl
International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses 2018
PDF
Committing to Quantum Resistance: A Slow Defence for Bitcoin against a Fast Quantum Computing Attack
Stewart I, Illie D, Zamyatin A, Werner S, Torshizi M, Knottenbelt W
Royal Society Open Science 2018/5/180410; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180410, Published 20 June 2018
PDF
(Short Paper) A Wild Velvet Fork Appears! Inclusive Blockchain Protocol Changes in Practice (2018)
Zamyatin Alexei, Stifter Nicholas, Judmayer Aljosha, Schindler Philipp, Weippl Edgar, Knottenbelt William
5th Workshop on Bitcoin and Blockchain Research at Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2018
PDF
Merged Mining: Curse or Cure? (2017)
Aljosha Judmayer and Alexei Zamyatin and Nicholas Stifter and Artemios G. Voyiatzis and Edgar R. Weippl
CBT'17: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology
PDF
Swimming with Fishes and Sharks: Beneath the Surface of Queue-based Ethereum Mining Pools (2017)
Alexei Zamyatin and K. Wolter and S. Werner and C.E.A. Mulligan and P.G. Harrison and W.J. Knottenbelt
25th IEEE International Symposium on the Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and
Telecommunication
Systems (MASCOTS 2017)
Link
Blocks and Chains: Introduction to Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and Their Consensus Mechanisms (2017)
Aljosha Judmayer and Nicholas Stifter and Katharina Krombholz and Edgar R. Weippl
Synthesis Lectures on Information Security, Privacy, and Trust
Link
Condensed Cryptographic Currencies Crash Course (C5) (2016)
Aljosha Judmayer and Edgar R. Weippl
2016 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security
PDF
Cryptographic Currencies Crash Course (C4): Tutorial (2016)
Aljosha Judmayer and Edgar R. Weippl
25th International Conference on World Wide Web (WWW 2016)
Link
Für bare Münze? NutzerInnenerfahrungen mit Sicherheit und Datenschutz bei Bitcoin (2016)
Katharina Krombholz and Aljosha Judmayer and Matthias Gusenbauer and Edgar R. Weippl
Sicherheit 2016: Sicherheit, Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit, Beiträge der 8. Jahrestagung des Fachbereichs
Sicherheit
der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.
PDF
The Other Side of the Coin: User Experiences with Bitcoin Security and Privacy (2016)
Katharina Krombholz and Aljosha Judmayer and Matthias Gusenbauer and Edgar R. Weippl
International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC)
Articles
Link
Bitcoin – Cryptocurrencies and Alternative Applications
Aljosha Judmayer and Alexei Zamyatin and Nicholas Stifter and Edgar Weippl
ERCIM News 110 (2017)
Link
A Holistic Approach to Smart Contract Security
Nicholas Stifter and Aljosha Judmayer and Edgar Weippl
ERCIM News 110 (2017)
Blocks & Chains Bibliography
We also actively maintain an archive, containing publications and various online resources in the field of
cryptocurrencies
and distributed ledger technologies, commonly referred to as "blockchains" in the
Blocks & Chains Bibliography.