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Decentralized Systems and Network Services Research Group

Under the term "Decentralized Systems and Network Services" we understand distributed and networked technical systems that span over more than one administrative domain. Hence, their operation depends on more than one party. Our research focuses on:

  • Blockchains, broadcast and consensus algorithms and smart contracts
  • P2P-networks and network monitoring
  • Decentralized messaging at the example of Matrix
  • Identity Management and Access Control Systems
  • Secure and privacy-aware computing in partially trustworthy environments.

 

News | News Archive

SACMAT 2025
2025-07-08: Publication „Mitigation of Transaction Exclusion in Ethereum”

We presented our publication “A Policy-Based Mitigation of Transaction Exclusion in Ethereum” at this year’s ACM Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies in Stony Brook, New York, USA. In this work, we demonstrate how users can register desired policies in Ethereum, which are then enforced at the protocol level. Furthermore, we propose a concrete policy that makes transaction censorship economically unattractive.

Pittsburgh at night
2025-06-07: Publication “Eventually Consistent Access Control”

We could present our publication “To the Best of Knowledge and Belief: On Eventually Consistent Access Control” on this year's ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (CODASPY) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the example of decentralized communication systems like Matrix, we showed that traditional conceptual models of access control are insufficient, and present “Eventually Consistent Access Control” as alternative. The article is freely available as Open Access under CC-BY.

Robin beim Vorstellen des Papiers
2025-04-18: Publication “Price Oracle Accuracy Across Blockchains”

We presented our new publication "Price Oracle Accuracy Across Blockchains: A Measurement and Analysis" at this year's "Workshop on Cryptoasset Analytics". Using the example of Chainlink, the paper examines how accurately price data from centralized trading venues is mapped on different blockchain systems and which trade-offs result from configurations of heartbeat and threshold.

PaPoC 2025
2025-04-10: Publication “Proof-Carrying CRDTs”

We have presented our new publication “Proof-Carrying CRDTs allow Succinct Non-Interactive Byzantine Update Validation” on this year's Workshop on Principles and Practice of Consistency for Distributed Data. In this work,  Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) are combined first-time with non-interactive cryptographic proofs, as they are known from the zero-knowledge field. The article is freely available as Open Acces under CC-BY.