### Proof-of-Stake Protocols for Privacy-Aware Blockchains

Chaya Ganesh, Claudio Orlandi, and Daniel Tschudi

##### Abstract

Proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols are emerging as one of the most promising alternative to the wasteful proof-of-work (PoW) protocols for consensus in Blockchains (or distributed ledgers). However, current PoS protocols inherently disclose both the identity and the wealth of the stakeholders, and thus seem incompatible with privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies (such as ZCash, Monero, etc.). In this paper we initiate the formal study for PoS protocols with privacy properties. Our results include: - A (theoretical) feasibility result showing that it is possible to construct a general class of private PoS (PPoS) protocols; and to add privacy to a wide class of PoS protocols, - A privacy-preserving version of a popular PoS protocol, Ouroboros Praos. Towards our result, we define the notion of anonymous verifiable random function, which we believe is of independent interest.

Note: proof of AVRF anonymity

Available format(s)
Category
Cryptographic protocols
Publication info
A minor revision of an IACR publication in EUROCRYPT 2019
Keywords
blockchainprivacyproof of stake
Contact author(s)
tschudi @ cs au dk
chaya ganesh @ gmail com
orlandi @ cs au dk
History
2019-05-09: last of 3 revisions
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2018/1105

CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2018/1105,
author = {Chaya Ganesh and Claudio Orlandi and Daniel Tschudi},
title = {Proof-of-Stake Protocols for Privacy-Aware Blockchains},
howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2018/1105},
year = {2018},
note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/1105}},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/1105}
}

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