Blockchains : A Handbook on Fundamentals, Platforms and Applications

This handbook is a selection of foundational aspects, security analysis and applications of blockchains that consists of four parts. The first part fundamentals, introduces the concept of blockchain with adequate motivation and examples. This includes the basic building blocks such as distributed computing and systems, cryptography and security aspects, incentive mechanisms and game theoretic concepts. A brief history of the tools are discussed as well. Consensus algorithms form the basic backbone of blockchain protocols are presented in details. Various cryptographic tools like hash functions, digital signatures and commitment schemes are also introduced. Advanced cryptographic techniques such as zero knowledge protocols, secret sharing, verifiable random functions that are used for privacy-preserving and secure design are discussed as well. Throughout the first part, not only are the are the tools introduced, but also why they are required and how these tools can be used in blockchain design and implementation. Special reference is drawn to applications.
The second part of this handbook consists of popular blockchain designs and platforms. The authors discuss the architecture of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, Monero, Tendermint and Algorand, and the authors plan to include recent research on various versions and flavours of the design. For example, they discuss both Proof of Stake and Proof of Work versions of Ethereum.
The final part of this handbook discusses various security and privacy issues of Blockchain. It discusses the vulnerability and limitations of proof of work and proof of stake blockchains, and hybrid blockchains. The last part of this handbook also presents applications of blockchain. A list of research challenges and directions of future work are included in this handbook. This resourceful reference targets students and researchers, who are starting to explore blockchain. Professionals working in blockchain security and applications will also find this handbook to be a valuable reference.

Sushmita Ruj is Senior Lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW, Sydney. She is also affiliated with UNSW Institute for Cyber Security (IFCYBER). Her research interests are in applied cryptography, blockchains, cybersecurity and data privacy. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and delivered over 90 technical lectures around the world. Before joining UNSW, she was a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO's Data61, an Associate Professor at Indian Statistical Institute and an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, IIT, Indore. She worked at Lund University Sweden and University of Ottawa, Canada. She was a visiting researcher/faculty at NTU, Singapore, KDDI R&D Labs, Japan, INRIA, France, Kyushu University, Japan and intern at Microsoft Research Labs, India. She was a member of the "Blockchain For Cybersecurity" working group of the National Blockchain Roadmap of Australia and the Blockchain working group founded by the Reserve Bankof India. Sushmita serves on the Editorial board of Elsevier Journal of Information Security and Applications (JISA) and Pervasive and Mobile Computing (PMC). She served as a Program Co-Chair for ACISP 2021 and Indocrypt 2019. She won best paper awards at ISPA 2007, IEEE PIMRC 2011 and IEEE ANTS 17. She received Samsung GRO award, NetApp Faculty Fellowship, Cisco University Research Grant, grant from IBM Research and lead a Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) project which is a NSW iAWARD'22 Merit Winner. Sushmita is a Senior member of ACM and IEEE. She received her B.E. degree from Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, India and master's and Ph.D. from Indian Statistical Institute, India, all in Computer Science.
Salil Kanhere is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW Sydney. He is also affiliated with CISRO's Data61, the Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) and the UNSW Institute forCyber Security (IFCYBER). His research interests span the Internet of Things, cyberphyiscal systems, cybersecurity, blockchain and machine learning. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and is leading several government and industry funded research projects on these topics. He received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (2020) and the Humboldt Research Fellowship (2014), both from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and ACM, an ACM Distinguished Speaker and an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor. He has held visiting positions at I2R Singapore, Technical University Darmstadt, University of Zurich and Graz University of Technology. He serves as the Editor in Chief of the Ad Hoc Networks journal and as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions On Network and Service Management, Computer Communications, and Pervasive and Mobile Computing. He regularly serves on the organising committee of several IEEE/ACM international conferences. Salil co-authored a book titled Blockchain for Cyberphysical Systems published by Artech House in 2020.
Mauro Conti is Full Professor at the University of Padua, Italy. He is also affiliated with TU Delft and University of Washington, Seattle. He obtained his Ph.D. from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2009. After his Ph.D., he was a Post-Doc Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2011 he joined as Assistant Professor at the University of Padua, where he became Associate Professor in 2015, and Full Professor in 2018. He has been Visiting Researcher at GMU, UCLA, UCI, TU Darmstadt, UF, and FIU. He has been awarded with a Marie Curie Fellowship (2012) by the European Commission, and with a Fellowship by the German DAAD (2013). His research is also funded by companies, including Cisco, Intel, and Huawei. His main research interest is in the area of Security and Privacy. In this area, he published more than 550 papers in topmost international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He is Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, Area Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, and has been Associate Editor for several journals, including IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, and IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. He was Program Chair for TRUST 2015, ICISS 2016, WiSec 2017, ACNS 2020, CANS 2021, CSS 2021, WiMob 2023 and ESORICS 2023, and General Chair for SecureComm 2012, SACMAT 2013, NSS 2021 and ACNS 2022. He is Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the AAIA, Senior Member of the ACM, and Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe.