Stealth and Beyond: Attribute-Driven Accountability in Bitcoin Transactions

Alberto Maria Mongardini; Daniele Friolo; Giuseppe Ateniese

Paper 2024/1789

Stealth and Beyond: Attribute-Driven Accountability in Bitcoin Transactions

Alberto Maria Mongardini

, Sapienza University of Rome

Daniele Friolo

, Sapienza University of Rome

Giuseppe Ateniese

, George Mason University

Abstract

Bitcoin enables decentralized, pseudonymous transactions, but balancing privacy with accountability remains a challenge. This paper introduces a novel dual accountability mechanism that enforces both sender and recipient compliance in Bitcoin transactions. Senders are restricted to spending Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) that meet specific criteria, while recipients must satisfy legal and ethical requirements before receiving funds. We enhance stealth addresses by integrating compliance attributes, preserving privacy while ensuring policy adherence. Our solution introduces a new cryptographic primitive, Identity-Based Matchmaking Signatures (IB-MSS), which supports streamlined auditing. Our approach is fully compatible with existing Bitcoin infrastructure and does not require changes to the core protocol, preserving both privacy and decentralization while enabling transaction auditing and compliance.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Public-key cryptography
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: Digital Signatures Bitcoin Accountability Anonimity
Contact author(s): mongardini @ di uniroma1 it
friolo @ di uniroma1 it
ateniese @ gmu edu
History: 2024-11-04: revised; 2024-11-01: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2024/1789
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2024/1789,
      author = {Alberto Maria Mongardini and Daniele Friolo and Giuseppe Ateniese},
      title = {Stealth and Beyond: Attribute-Driven Accountability in Bitcoin Transactions},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2024/1789},
      year = {2024},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1789}
}