IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems
Online ISSN : 1745-1361
Print ISSN : 0916-8532
Special Section on Blockchain Systems and Applications
A Proof of Work Based on Key Recovery Problem of Cascade Block Ciphers with ASIC Resistance
Takaki ASANUMATakanori ISOBE
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2022 Volume E105.D Issue 2 Pages 248-255

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Abstract

Hashcash, which is a Proof of Work (PoW) of bitcoin, is based on a preimage problem of hash functions of SHA-2 and RIPEMD. As these hash functions employ the Merkle-Damgard (MD) construction, a preimage can be found with negligible memory. Since such calculations can be accelerated by dedicated ASICs, it has a potential risk of a so-called 51% attack. To address this issue, we propose a new PoW scheme based on the key recovery problem of cascade block ciphers. By choosing the appropriate parameters, e.g., block sizes and key sizes of underlying block ciphers, we can make this problem a memory-hard problem such that it requires a lot of memory to efficiently solve it. Besides, we can independently adjust the required time complexity and memory complexity, according to requirements by target applications and progress of computational power.

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© 2022 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
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