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Certified Bitcoins

  • Giuseppe Ateniese
  • Antonio Faonio
  • Bernardo Magri
  • Breno de Medeiros
Conference paper
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 8479)

Abstract

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer (p2p) electronic cash system that uses a distributed timestamp service to record transactions in a public ledger (called the Blockchain). A critical component of Bitcoin’s success is the decentralized nature of its architecture, which does not require or even support the establishment of trusted authorities. Yet the absence of certification creates obstacles to its wider acceptance in e-commerce and official uses. We propose a certification system for Bitcoin that offers: a) an opt-in guarantee to send and receive bitcoins only to/ from certified users; b) control of creation of bitcoins addresses (certified users) by trusted authorities. Our proposal may encourage the adoption of Bitcoin in different scenarios that require an officially recognized currency, such as tax payments—often an integral part of e-commerce transactions.

Keywords

Hash Function Signature Scheme Random Oracle Model Honest Party Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Giuseppe Ateniese
    • 1
    • 2
  • Antonio Faonio
    • 1
  • Bernardo Magri
    • 1
  • Breno de Medeiros
    • 3
  1. 1.Sapienza - University of RomeItaly
  2. 2.Johns Hopkins UniversityUSA
  3. 3.Google, Inc.USA

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