Ned Smith

Thomas Hardjono, Ned Smith

If blockchain networks are to become the building blocks of the infrastructure for the future digital economy, then several challenges related to the resiliency and survivability of blockchain networks need to be addressed. The survivability of a blockchain network is influenced by the diversity of its nodes. Trustworthy device-level attestations permits nodes in a blockchain network to provide truthful evidence regarding their current configuration, operational state, keying material and other system attributes. In the current work we review the recent developments towards a standard attestation architecture and evidence conveyance protocols. We explore the applicability and benefits of a standard attestation architecture to blockchain networks. Finally, we discuss a number of open challenges related to node attestations that has arisen due to changing model of blockchain network deployments, such as the use virtualization and containerization technologies for nodes in cloud infrastructures.

Thomas Hardjono, Ned Smith

There is a growing interest today in blockchain technology as a possible foundation for the future global financial ecosystem. However, in order for this future financial ecosystem to be truly global, with a high degree of interoperability and stability, a number challenges need to be addressed related to infrastructure security. One key aspect concerns the security and robustness of the systems that participate in the blockchain peer-to-peer networks. In this paper we discuss the notion of the decentralized trusted computing base as an extension of the TCB concept in trusted computing. We explore how a decentralized TCB can be useful to (i) harden individual nodes and systems in the blockchain infrastructure, and (ii) be the basis for secure group-oriented computations making within the P2P network of nodes that make-up the blockchain system.