Trial lecture
“Security Challenges in Bitcoin-like Systems”
Time and place: June 3, 2025 11:15. Python (2269), Ole-Johan Dahls hus.
Main research findings
The explosive advent of blockchain technology has transformed industries and academia across various domains. However, the rapid extension of blockchain systems brings significant challenges. These include a lack of systemization and educational material, standardized architectures, unified terminology, and comprehensive cross-system comparisons. Additionally, analysis of the transactional workload characteristics and generation of synthetic workloads remains underexplored.
In my PhD thesis, I address the above challenges through two major contributions. First, I provide a systematic and comprehensive study of four prominent blockchain systems: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and IOTA. This survey establishes an in-depth understanding of their design principles and contributes towards the systematization of the blockchain area. Second, I conduct a detailed analysis of transaction features in the workload of three UTXO-based systems: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. From this analysis, I provide the first synthetic workload generator for UTXO-based transactions and release it as an open source. This tool enables a scalable and customizable testing of new blockchain protocols.
Consequently, these contributions advance the understanding of blockchain in various aspects, from definitions, architecture, and design to UTXO-based transactional behavior. Our findings facilitate more efficient, scalable, and secure blockchain design by researchers and engineers.
Adjudication committee
- Associate Professor Miguel Matos, University of Lisbon, Portugal
- Assistant Professor Toktam Ramezanifarkhani, Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, Norway
- Professor Paulo Ferreira, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
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Professor Roman Vitenberg, University of Oslo, Norway
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Professor Hein Meling, University of Stavanger, Norway
Chair of defence
- Professor Carsten Griwodz, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat