Unified Proof of Work: Delegating and Solving Customized Computationally Bounded Problems in a Privacy-Preserving Way

Yue Fu, Qingqing Ye, Rong Du, Haibo Hu

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingConference article published in proceeding or bookAcademic researchpeer-review

Abstract

Proof of work (PoW), which was initially introduced for combating junk email spam, is extremely energy-thirsty, but the computed outcomes are of very little relevance to any practical usage. Some existing works tackle this issue by replacing the useless cryptographic puzzles with some pre-determined practical problems. However, the allowable problem types are usually limited and fixed, and some problems are of no significant value. This paper presents a Unified Proof of Work (UPoW) mechanism using flexible problems as puzzles, which features a computation-trading platform where delegators post their problems and PoW executors compute them as a by-product. The proposed UPoW puts known problem types together and frames them as verifiable computation problems using Fully Homomorphic Encryptions (FHE) techniques to replace PoW puzzles. It also secures and preserves the functionality of the delegated problems, which is showcased by delegating a Private Set Intersection (PSI) problem.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWeb and Big Data - 6th International Joint Conference, APWeb-WAIM 2022, Proceedings
EditorsBohan Li, Chuanqi Tao, Lin Yue, Xuming Han, Diego Calvanese, Toshiyuki Amagasa
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages309-317
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9783031252006
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Event6th International Joint Conference on Asia-Pacific Web (APWeb) and Web-Age Information Management (WAIM), APWeb-WAIM 2022 - Nanjing, China
Duration: 25 Nov 202227 Nov 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13423 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference6th International Joint Conference on Asia-Pacific Web (APWeb) and Web-Age Information Management (WAIM), APWeb-WAIM 2022
Country/TerritoryChina
CityNanjing
Period25/11/2227/11/22

Keywords

  • Outsourced cloud computing
  • Proof of work
  • Security

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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