Send Message to the Future? Blockchain-based Time Machines for Decentralized Reveal of Locked Information

2024-01-11

AI Summary

To address the secure and trustworthy release of conditional information—such as electronic voting results—under specific spatiotemporal constraints, this paper proposes the first decentralized conditional information release system supporting *reveal verifiability*. Methodologically, it integrates time-release encryption with verifiable secret sharing to design a high-precision, trustless timing-based decryption mechanism, formally verified for security using Tamarin. Blockchain-based smart contracts enable cross-scenario key validation and globally distributed deployment. Contributions include: (1) the first reveal-verifiable secret sharing scheme; (2) a practical, formally verified time-release cryptosystem; and (3) empirical validation within a real-election-data-driven e-voting system, demonstrating significant improvements in security, fairness, and auditability of the voting process.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Humans and AI: Voting

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web
• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data

Abstract

Conditional information reveal systems automate the release of information upon meeting specific predefined conditions, such as time or location. This paper introduces a breakthrough in the understanding, design, and application of conditional information reveal systems that are highly secure and decentralized. By designing a new practical timed-release cryptography system and a secret sharing scheme with reveal-verifiability, a novel data sharing system is devised on the blockchain that"sends messages in the future"with highly accurate decryption times. Notably, the proposed secret sharing scheme applies to other applications requiring verifiability of revealed secret shares. This paper provides a complete evaluation portfolio of this pioneering paradigm, including analytical results, a validation of its robustness in the Tamarin Prover and a performance evaluation of a real-world, open-source system prototype deployed across the globe. Using real-world election data, we also demonstrate the applicability of this innovative system in e-voting, illustrating its capacity to secure and ensure fair electronic voting processes.

Problem

• Blockchain Technology
• Secure Information Disclosure
• Electronic Voting Integrity

Innovation

• Blockchain Technology
• Conditional Information Disclosure
• Cryptography and Secret Sharing