Proof-of-Work as Anonymous Micropayment: Rewarding a Tor Relay

Alex Biryukov; Ivan Pustogarov

Paper 2014/1011

Proof-of-Work as Anonymous Micropayment: Rewarding a Tor Relay

Alex Biryukov and Ivan Pustogarov

Abstract

In this paper we propose a new micropayments scheme which can be used to reward Tor relay operators. Tor clients do not pay Tor relays with electronic cash directly but submit proof of work shares which the relays can resubmit to a crypto-currency mining pool. Relays credit users who submit shares with tickets that can later be used to purchase improved service. Both shares and tickets when sent over Tor circuits are anonymous. The analysis of the crypto-currencies market prices shows that the proposed scheme can compensate significant part of Tor relay operator's expenses.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Cryptographic protocols
Publication info: Published elsewhere. Major revision. 19th Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference 2015
Keywords: Tor Proof of Work Crypto-currency Micropayment Mining pools
Contact author(s): ivan pustogarov @ uni lu
History: 2015-02-06: revised; 2014-12-26: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2014/1011
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2014/1011,
      author = {Alex Biryukov and Ivan Pustogarov},
      title = {Proof-of-Work as Anonymous Micropayment: Rewarding a Tor Relay},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2014/1011},
      year = {2014},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/1011}
}