2nd Workshop on Blockchain Technologies of 27th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN)
July 30 -August 2, 2018, Hangzhou,China
http://icccn.org/icccn18/
ICCCN is one of the leading international conferences for presenting novel ideas and fundamental advances in the fields of computer communications and networks. ICCCN serves to foster communication among researchers and practitioners with a common interest in improving computer communications and networking through scientific and technological innovation.
***Key Dates***
Paper submission deadline April 15, 2018 **FIRM
Paper Submission link at EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bt2018
Notification April 28th
Camera ready copy due May 10, 2017.
More information on submissions: http://icccn.org/icccn18/call-for-papers/
Introduction to the workshop:
This year’s ICCCN conference focuses on new and original research results in the areas of design, implementation, and applications of computer communications and networks.
The digital age has seen enormous change in how we create, communicate and keep recorded information.
Recently, blockchain technology has dominated discussion of technological innovation. There is as yet no universally agreed definition of blockchain technology, but it is often described as a distributed ledger that maintains a continually growing list of publicly accessible records cryptographically secured from tampering and revision. The blockchain’s key technical features include:
* Tracking of transition from one state to another, e.g., the ownership status of digital currency
* A distributed operating model, comprised of computers, called “nodes”, in the network that arrive at an agreement about the validity of transactions (i.e., a distributed “consensus mechanism”).
* Use of cryptographic hashes in the processing of transactions, which enables transparency without exposing content.
* Packaging of transactions into blocks (from which comes the name “blockchain”) chained in chronological order and distributed across every full node.
* More controversially, a cryptographic token like Bitcoin or Ether that represents actual value and is integral to incentivizing miners to participate in validating transactions and/or that is used to represent an asset.
Although these are the key features of blockchain technology, there are non-trivial variations among blockchain platforms (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Hyperledge and others). These include underlying code, use of tokens, consensus mechanisms, whether permissionless or permissioned, whether public or private, and application layers, all of which will have implications for network operation, privacy, security and trust . This makes any generalizations about the technology a challenging proposition.
Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, which introduced the archetypal blockchain, innovation and investment in this technology has moved at a rapid pace. Actual and proposed applications for blockchain technology are wide ranging, encompassing cryptocurrency, payment systems, clearing and settlement, securities trading, supply chain management, identity management, notarial services, the Internet of Things, land transfer and registration, health recordkeeping, voting, intellectual property management, and beyond. Some see no limit to the uses to which blockchain technology can be put to help solve societal and business problems. There are even predictions that the impact of this technology will be as far reaching as the Internet.
While blockchain technology does seem poised to be transformative in many respects, it still faces many challenges with respect to scalability, privacy, security, trust and sustainability.
With some uses of blockchain technology reaching higher levels of maturity and implementation, the need to design protocols and build systems that can operate efficiently at high speeds and levels of throughput, whilst at the same time preserving trust, security, privacy and sustainability remains an open challenge.
The goal of this workshop, therefore, is to bring together researchers, practitioners and solution developers from diverse disciplines, especially those focused on blockchain technology. The workshop seeks novel contributions on algorithm and system design, implementation, evaluations and standards. Research topics covered will include, but not be restricted to the following:
*Scalability and scalable services for blockchain systems
*Anonymity, deanonymization and privacy in blockchain systems
*Provenance and trust in blockchain systems
*Measurement and simulation studies of blockchain systems
*Trust models and trust management in blockchain systems
*New forms of blockchains and consensus mechanisms and their impact upon trust
*Cyber-infrastructures for blockchain systems
*Digital preservation of blockchain records for long-term authenticity
* Software quality and code verification in smart contracts and blockhchains
* Blockchain standards initiatives
* Incentive analysis, mechanism design, and game theory for blockchain systems
* Novel blockchain applications using smart contracts
* Application of analytics to blockchain, including text-mining, data-mining, sentiment analysis, network analysis for privacy, security and trust assessment
Program Co-Chairs:
- Chen Feng, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, British Columbia
- Victoria Lemieux, Associate Professor, Archival Science, iSchool, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Program Committee Members:
Dr. Henry Kim, Associated Professor, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada (hkim@schulich.yorku.ca)
Dr. Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro, Professor, Institut Mines-Telecom, Universite Paris-Saclay (Joaquin.garcia_alfaro@telecom-sudparis.eu)
Dr. Jordi Herrera Joancomarti, Associate Professor, Department of Information and Communications Engineering, Universitat Automoma de Barcelona (jordi.herrera@uab.cat)
Dr. Di Niu, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (dniu@ualberta.ca)
Dr. Qingqi Pei, Professor, School of Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an, China (qqpei@mail.xidian.edu.cn)
Dr. Qiang Tang, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States (qiang@njit.edu)