Hashing and Cryptocurrency Research

CPSC 525 Research Homework: Hashing and Cryptocurrency

Topic. For this assignment, you are to write a well-researched, well-edited paper, at least 3

double-spaced pages long, not including references. The topic is as follows:

Digital currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) are becoming increasingly popular as forms of

exchange. Such currencies are known as cryptocurrencies, due to their dependence on

cryptographic techniques to make the generation and transfer of funds secure without relying

on a centralized bank. Specifically, virtually all cryptocurrencies rely on the existence of

secure hash functions, which we have discussed in class, to create a secure medium of

exchange. Your assignment is to select and research a currently active cryptocurrency, and in

your paper describe in detail how secure hashing is used to verify transactions and/or mine

new coins for this currency.

Since we have not covered cryptocurrency in the lectures, to write this paper you will need to do

some independent reading to obtain a basic understanding of the concepts of cryptocurrency and

blockchain technology. To help you choose a digital currency, you can find a listing of current

cryptocurrencies on Wikipedia or any other online source.

Structure and Content. Your paper should be organized to flow logically and be written in the

form of coherent, single-topic paragraphs. As a guideline, you should strive to write the paper in

such a way that one of your peers who has taken this course can read it from start to finish and

gain a concrete understanding of the currency you chose and how it uses hashing.

At a minimum, your paper needs to include the following elements:

- A basic overview of your chosen cryptocurrency, including facts such as when the currency was introduced, who developed it, the current price and market cap, and most

importantly, an overview of the structure and principles of operation of the currency’s

blockchain.

- A description of the secure hash algorithm or algorithms used in your chosen cryptocurrency. You do not need to describe the algorithm at byte-level detail, but you

should be able to give a fairly detailed overview of its operation, including the hash

function type, number of rounds, digest size, and whether it works by combining multiple

other hash functions. You also need to describe what security guarantees the hash

algorithm is intended to provide.

- A description of how secure hashing supports the secure transaction and/or mining functions of the currency. You should clearly explain where in the transaction process

hashing is used (possibly more than one place), what type of data is hashed, and how the

security of the currency depends on the security of the hash function. To make this clear,

you may wish to discuss how the use of an insecure hash function might enable some

type of fraudulent transactions.

Citations. All facts and claims presented should be backed up by citations of appropriate

sources. As sources, publications in refereed research journals or conferences are preferable to

online news articles. However, since cryptocurrencies are such a new area, I will be somewhat

lenient about this.

The paper should be formatted in either IEEE or APA reference styles. See the following link for

a description of the IEEE reference format: https://ieee-

dataport.org/sites/default/files/analysis/27/IEEE%20Citation%20Guidelines.pdf

Grade. I will primarily judge the quality of your paper by whether it expresses a clear and

detailed understanding of your chosen cryptocurrency and its use of hashing. More broadly, the

following criteria will factor into your grade:

- On-topic - Correct spelling, grammar and usage - Objective, scholarly tone - Organization and clarity - Sufficient detail - Depth of analysis - Support of claims with factual sources and sound reasoning

The paper will be graded on a 30-point scale. As indicated in the syllabus, it will count for 10%

of the final course grade.

Research hint. An excellent website for searching for cryptography research papers and

downloading their PDFs is http://eprint.iacr.org/ . However, this is only a preprint archive, which

means that the papers hosted there are not the “official” published versions. For your citations,

you should make your best effort to cite the peer-reviewed published version of any paper. You

will probably want to use Google Scholar for this.

Final note. If you have any concerns or have questions about the topic or your choice of

cryptocurrency, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will also gladly read your drafts and give

feedback before the deadline.