Greetings!

Since the last research update, IC3 researchers presented three conference papers, released an Ethereum scaling solution to testnet, began using digital currency for global payments, and more! Eight papers by IC3 authors will be presented at ACM CCS '20 in the next few days.
Mahimna Kelkar presented his work on fair transaction ordering at an IC3 webinar hosted by Chainlink on October 15th. Full paper: ePrint
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Eight papers by IC3 authors will be presented at ACM CCS '20 (November 9-12)
November 10th, 2:30-3:30 PM, Session 2E
Karl Wüst, Sinisa Matetic, Silvan Egli, Kari Kostiainen, Srdjan Capkun (all ETH Zürich)

Michael Mirkin (Technion), Yan Ji (Cornell Tech), Jonathan Pang (Cornell University), Ariah Klages-Mundt (Cornell University), Ittay Eyal (Technion), Ari Juels (Cornell Tech)

November 11th, 12:45-1:45 PM, Session 3C
Ittai Abraham (VMware Research), Kartik Nayak (Duke University), Ling Ren (UIUC), Nibesh Shrestha (Rochester Institute of Technology)

November 11th, 2:30-3:30 PM, Session 4D
Avishay Yanai (Bar-Ilan University), Ittai Abraham (VMware Research), Benny Pinkas (VMware Research, Bar Ilan University)

November 12th, 2:30-3:45 PM, Session 6A 
Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias (Novi and IST Austria), Dahlia Malkhi (Novi), Alexander Spiegelman (Novi)

Ran Canetti (Boston University), Rosario Gennaro (City College, CUNY), Steven Goldfeder (Cornell Tech), Nikolaos Makriyannis (Fireblocks), Udi Peled (Fireblocks)

November 12th, 2:30-3:45 PM, Session 6D
Fan Zhang (Cornell); Sai Krishna Deepak Maram (Cornell Tech), Harjasleen Malvai (Cornell University), Steven Goldfeder (Cornell Tech), Ari Juels (Jacobs Institute, Cornell Tech)

November 12th, 2:30-3:45 PM, Session 6E
Jiaheng Zhang (UC Berkeley), Zhiyong Fang (Texas A&M University), Yupeng Zhang (Texas A&M University), Dawn Song (UC Berkeley)
Three papers by IC3 authors were presented at ACM AFT '20 (October 21-23):
Ariah Klages-Mundt (Cornell), Dominik Harz (Imperial College London), Lewis Gudgeon (Imperial College London), Jun-You Liu (Cornell), Andreea Minca (Cornell)
Roi Bar Zur (Technion), Ittay Eyal (Technion, VMware), Aviv Tamar (Technion)
Benjamin Y Chan (Cornell) and Elaine Shi (CMU/ Cornell)
NEW RESEARCH
Summary: The authors design a novel scheme called Two-Factor Encryption (2FE) that draws inspiration from two-factor authentication and turns file encryption and decryption into an interactive process where two user devices, like a laptop and a smartphone, must interact. 2FE provides strong confidentiality and availability guarantees, as it withstands compromised cloud storage, one stolen or compromised user device at a time, and various human errors. 2FE achieves this by leveraging secret sharing with additional techniques such as oblivious pseudorandom functions and zero-knowledge proofs. 2FE could be adapted for use in cryptocurrency wallets. 
Anders P. K. Dalskov (Aarhus University), Daniele Lain, Enis Ulqinaku, Kari Kostiainen, Srdjan Capkun (All ETH Zürich)

Summary: The authors investigate platforms where enclaves can utilize a dynamic hardware TCB. They propose new security properties that are relevant for such systems, namely, platform wide attestation and platform awareness, which allow a remote verifier to verify the current state and to define how the enclave reacts upon a change in connected peripherals. They also present a prototype.
Moritz Schneider, Aritra Dhar, Ivan Puddu, Kari Kostiainen, Srdjan Capkun (All ETH Zürich)

Summary: The authors show that they can sort n numbers in a circuit of size o(n log n) if the elements have short comparison keys. Their result is optimal for every key length assuming the Li-Li network coding conjecture.
Gilad Asharov (Bar-Ilan University), Wei-Kai Lin (Cornell), Elaine Shi (CMU/Cornell)
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTS
IC3 partner Novi introduced their new research page, which brings together information about their multidisciplinary research team, mission, and research publications. In their first research blog post, Evan Cheng (Novi Research Director) mentioned contributing solutions to the barriers identified in IC3’s Seven Grand Challenges to widespread blockchain adoption as a shared ambition.
IC3 partner J.P. Morgan began using their digital currency, JPM Coin, commercially to send global payments. See more on Twitter.
Arbitrum Rollup Testnet is live! Co-founded by IC3 postdoc Steven Goldfeder, Arbitrum is a Rollup system running on top of Ethereum that is optimized for general smart contracts with security, throughput, and censorship resistance.
Streamlet, a streamlined consensus protocol created by IC3 Chief Scientist, Elaine Shi, and IC3 Student Benjamin Chan, is now taught as part of the Stanford CS 251 course. 

IC3 Partner Cypherium launched their public mainnet on October 31st! You can view their code on Github.
IC3 partner Chainlink introduces the Smart Contract Research Forum (SCRF), a community for researchers and industry leaders to share research and solicit thoughtful peer review. Launching soon, SCRF bridges academic circles and the blockchain industry. Join Dr. Ari Juels, Dr. Andrew Miller, Dr. Ed Felten, Dr. Steven Goldfeder, and other research leaders in the forum to solve the problems facing all decentralized technologies. 
To join the waitlist, email join@smartcontractresearch.org.
To join the grant review and/or paper review teams, email team@smartcontractresearch.org.


IC3 Alumni Leftaris Kokoris-Kogias is launching his new Secure, Private, and Decentralized Systems (SPiDerS) Lab at IST Austria next September and is recruiting PhD students. Learn more on the Kokoris Group website.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR IC3 STUDENTS
Post Doctorate Opportunities
The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute is accepting applications for Runway Startup Postdocs. Runway postdocs receive funding and support to develop an entrepreneurial idea into a startup over the 12-24 month program. Postdocs receive research funding, a salary, and academic and business mentorship as they develop entrepreneurial skills and build a startup.

ETH Zürich is hiring Assistant Professors (Tenure Track) of Computer Science – Security, Software Engineering and Programming Languages. IC3 Faculty member Srdjan Čapkun is a faculty member at ETH Zürich.

The Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative has created a Technology Law & Policy Fellowship. This postdoc will work with IC3 Faculty member James Grimmelmann and pursue legal and policy approaches to a range of urgent topics including but not limited to privacy and surveillance, platform governance, transparency, content moderation, algorithmic discrimination, digital political economy, information control and freedom, fundamental rights, digital inequality, network regulation, and security. It is open to candidates who hold JD, LLM, or JSD degrees, or a Ph.D. in a closely related field.
Please send any new research or presentations to sarahallen@cornell.edu to be included in the next research update.
 
Best wishes, 
Sarah Allen
IC3 Community Manager
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