Blockchain is a digital platform to automatically store web-based transactions in the transparent decentralized ledger. Initially, blockchain was introduced for bitcoin exchange, but latterly it is used in cybersecurity because of its security mechanism. We give our complete support in all Blockchain Technology Research Areas. On this page, you can get information on recent research on Blockchain Technologies along with its research ideas!!!

In recent times, due to the increased usage in the digital era, blockchain technology spread its footprints in many research fields as cloud/fog/edge computing, internet of things (IoT), cyber-physical system (CPS), artificial intelligence (AI), and many more.

For many data breaches, the manual error is the major reason. In the case of blockchain, it has no or minimal human intervention for data storage or maintenance. Now, we can see how the blockchain is known for its security mechanism.

How Blockchain can be used in security?

Most importantly, blockchain is used to store sensitive information in the distributed storage system. This creates two main advantages where one is it can avoid single-point failure and the other is it is very difficult for attackers to trace the data. So, many of the business corporates are using this decentralization strategy for protecting their large-scale business records.

Though numerous decentralized storage technologies are available, they don’t have the fullest security system. In the blockchain, it has some unique properties like distributed ledger technologies, cryptographic techniques, and consensus mechanisms to assure security to the maximum attainable point. Also, it is easy to detect online fraudulent activities and track the attackers with IP addresses.  So, it is the best technology to fight against digital data hacks. Further, it also requires some improved technologies for more effective defensive and preventive measures for attacks.

What is consensus protocol in Blockchain?

Blockchain is the series collection of blocks in sequential order. Each has a set of transactions/records. Consensus is the mechanism to ensure that all the network participants agree on the new arrival of the transaction. After this peer’s approval only, the ledger store the transaction info and add on to the chain. All these activities are carried out in a smart contract of the transaction between peers.

The consensus protocol makes all the nodes in the network reach the contract/agreement of transaction. Also, it assures the truthiness and originality of the data that it has no duplicate / modified version in the blockchain. On the other side, peers have the copy content to validate the transaction when someone tries to change the transaction.

On the whole, consensus makes peer nodes accept transaction history in the network which is added in the blockchain in chronological order. Here, we have given the basic needs of the consensus mechanism in the blockchain.

• Agreement Each block is validated and committed by all the available honest fr transparency. After acceptance, the block detail will be recorded in the distributed ledger. Next, it is added to the blockchain.
• Validity In the new block verification process checks whether all the honest nodes have the same transaction. If it is valid, then it is accepted and added to the blockchain.
• Integrity Each honest node should check the reliability of the admitted transactions in which there is no double-spending attack. By achieving integrity, the blocks are hashed to create the chain.
• Termination When the block/transaction arrives, every honest node (i.e., the node that will not change data) will perform one of the actions either accept the transaction or reject the transaction to the blockchain.

Objectives of blockchain consensus protocols

Based on our recent research on multiple consensus protocols in blockchain, we emphasize the following factors which you need to concentrate on designing the consensus algorithm. The three main factors are scalability, security, and decentralization. And, these attributes are high expected in many of the Blockchain Technology Research Areas.

• Scalability: Even if there is a large number of transactions are accepted to add to the blockchain, then the system should have sufficient storage space. It needs to be flexible to accept any number of transactions with increased throughput (high network speed).
• Security: Assure to take effective measures against the malicious activities in the blockchain. For that, it requires advanced distributed consensus mechanisms than the traditional consensus protocols.
• Decentralization: Ensure the distributed network system is like a peer-to-peer network which is related to the synchronization of the node’s geographical features and network patterns.

Five Modules of a Blockchain Consensus Protocol

The most frequently employed consensus algorithms in many blockchain applications are PoS DPoS, PoW PoA, PBFT, and PoET. Further, we have also given you 5 essential modules for blockchain with its purpose and consensus mechanisms.

• Block Proposal
  • Purpose – To prevent Sybil attack, it generate the blocks/transaction with appropriate proofs/evidences
  • Available options
    • Round robin
    • Committee-based
    • Proof of Stake (PoS)
    • Proof of Work (PoW)
    • Proof of Authority (PoA)
    • Proof of elapsed time (PoET)
    • Proof of Retrievability (PoR)
• Message Propagation
  • Purpose – Distribute the transactions in the blocks to the whole network nodes.
  • Available options
    • Block Header Soliciting
    • Dedicated Relay Network (for mining pools)
    • Gossip-based Broadcast
    • Unsolicited Block Push (for block broadcast)
• Verification of Block
  • Purpose – Implement consensus mechanism to validate the blocks by proofs.
  • Available options
    • Proof checking (for proof-of-X block)
    • Digital signature (for committee-based block)
• Block Agreement
  • Purpose – Attaining the smart contract of all the transactions for acceptance of blocks in blockchain.
  • Available options
    • GHOST rule
    • Checkpointing
    • Longest-chain rule
    • BFT and other byzantine contracts

What are the possible malicious attacks for Blockchain?

In the blockchain, the two main attacks that usually occur are record hacking and double-spending attacks. Hacking the record stored in the distributed ledger is referred to as record hacking. Making the payment transaction two times in digital currency is referred to as double-spending. In addition, we have also listed other common attacks in the blockchain system. We help you to identify interesting blockchain technology research areas with expert guidance.

• 51% Attack – Attain the control of the network by compromising majority of nodes i.e., 51% of peer nodes for performing illegal activities over transaction
  • Preventive Measures
    • Blockchain adoption and Detection technologies
• System Hacking – Hacking the whole blockchain network by controlling more number of nodes in the same network.
  • Preventive Measures
    • Improved intrusion detection system and increase the fault-tolerance
• Double Spending – It is a common issue in digital currency transaction where the payment is done twice times.
  • Preventive measures
    • Mining the transaction using consensus algorithm
• Identify theft – Fraudulent activity which someone steal the piece of another person’s personal identity information such as id, private key, password, etc.
  • Preventive Measures
    • Proof-of-Reputation and Proof-of-Identify
• Record Hacking – Unauthorized user makes changes in the ledger or adds some fake records in the ledger. 
  • Preventive Measures
    • Decentralized consensus
• Illegal Activities – Someone attempts to do illegal transactions, illegal transactions manipulation and many more.
  • Preventive Measures
    • Standard set of rules and Detection technologies

Description of Blockchain Security Attacks

Routing attacks

The main routing attack is to block the message passing path and do some malpractice before the process of transaction verification. This type of attack is common for both single-node and entire networks. The tamper attempts to hack the transaction before it is forwarded to miners for contract validation.  Since, the peers/miners are not able to find this tampering.

To execute this attack, it has two sub-attacks: partition attack and delays attack. In a partition attack, the tamper split the network into multiple parts to make their data transmission hard. In a delay attack, the tamper will transmit the own transaction in the network.

Sybil attacks

The main objective of this attack is to make the hacker create more identifiers for the victim for getting control over the network by compromising more nodes. So that, the victim can be easily dominated to stop all their transactions. As a result, the victim has the threat to face a double-spending attack. So, this attack is very hard to identify but has effective measures as follows,

• Identify the user capability
• Validate additional trust features of the user
• Increase the new identity price

Long-range attacks (on PoS networks)

This kind of attack has the objective to focus on networks that use PoS as their consensus mechanism. Since the validation of transactions is based on the coins counts. Further, it is classified into the following 3 types:

• Stake bleeding — It steals the original transaction and creates the duplicate for attackers private blockchain
• Posterior corruption — Tries to corrupt the keys when the rewrite transaction history process is done to affect the chain integrity
• Simple — Just utilize the PoS consensus in the time of ignoring the block timestamps

While performing this attack, the hackers first steal the already used private key and make alternative blockchain history. Further, the hacker can also uplift rewards depending on the verification of PoS. So far, we have discussed blockchain attacks and measures. Now, let’s what is new in blockchain research.

What are the new ideas of blockchain technology?

• Advance Cryptographic Techniques in Blockchain
• Design of New Distributed Consensus Protocols
• Anonymous Transaction in Off/On-line Blockchain
• Developing Blockchain Trust Model

Further, blockchain also has several add-on characteristics which bring new Blockchain Technology Research Areas for active scholars to handpick out-of-the-box research topics. The current research depends on blockchain advancement and competencies in records auditing, records accountability, and attacks prevention measures.

Since, blockchain is still under research to give end-to-end immunity systems against all sorts of security violations such as hacking, data theft, attacks, and more. Here, we have given you significant research ideas that play a major role in increasing the security capabilities of the blockchain system.  

Current Blockchain Technology Research Areas

• Blockchain Trust model for CPS Infrastructures Verification
• Secure Data Distribution in Blockchain Network
• Secure Private Communication in the Distributed Network
• Blockchain-enabled Data Provenance for Various Software
• Effective Blockchain Solution for Human Vulnerabilities in Cyber-attacks
• Decentralized Cloud Storage using Blockchain Technology
• Secure DNS and Blockchain Defensive Techniques for DDoS Attack
• Advance Blockchain Mechanisms for IoT Application Security

Overall, we are here to support you in all the aspects of the research from interested area identification to thesis/dissertation submission. So, make use of this wonderful opportunity to avail the best research and development service from us.