research-article

General State Channel Networks

Authors:

Stefan Dziembowski,

Sebastian Faust,

Kristina HostákováAuthors Info & Claims

CCS '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

Pages 949 - 966

https://doi.org/10.1145/3243734.3243856

Published: 15 October 2018 Publication History

Abstract

One of the fundamental challenges that hinder further adaption of decentralized cryptocurrencies is scalability. Because current cryptocurrencies require that all transactions are processed and stored on a distributed ledger -- the so-called blockchain -- transaction throughput is inherently limited. An important proposal to significantly improve scalability are off-chain protocols, where the massive amount of transactions is executed without requiring the costly interaction with the blockchain. Examples of off-chain protocols include payment channels and networks, which are currently deployed by popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. A further extension of payment networks envisioned for cryptocurrencies are so-called state channel networks. In contrast to payment networks that only support off-chain payments between users, state channel networks allow execution of arbitrary complex smart contracts. The main contribution of this work is to give the first full specification for general state channel networks. Moreover, we provide formal security definitions and prove the security of our construction against powerful adversaries. An additional benefit of our construction is the use of channel virtualization, which further reduces latency and costs in complex channel networks.

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Cited By

Luo XXue KSun QLu J(2025)CrossChannel: Efficient and Scalable Cross-Chain Transactions Through Cross-and-Off-Blockchain Micropayment ChannelIEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing10.1109/TDSC.2024.341182022:1(649-663)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TDSC.2024.3411820
Coretti S(2025)Layer-2 ProtocolEncyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy10.1007/978-3-030-71522-9_1805(1403-1407)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71522-9_1805
Yun JLu YLiu XGuan J(2024)Bio-Rollup: a new privacy protection solution for biometrics based on two-layer scalability-focused blockchainPeerJ Computer Science10.7717/peerj-cs.226810(e2268)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.2268
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Index Terms

General State Channel Networks
1. Security and privacy
  1. Cryptography

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cover image ACM Conferences

CCS '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

October 2018

2359 pages

ISBN:9781450356930

DOI:10.1145/3243734

General Chairs:
David Lie
University of Toronto
,
Mohammad Mannan
Concordia University
,
Program Chairs:
Michael Backes
CISPA Helmholtz Center i.G.
,
XiaoFeng Wang
Indiana University

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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SIGSAC: ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit, and Control

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Published: 15 October 2018

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SIGSAC

CCS '18: 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

October 15 - 19, 2018

Toronto, Canada

Acceptance Rates

CCS '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 134 of 809 submissions, 17%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,261 of 6,999 submissions, 18%

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CCS '25

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ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

October 13 - 17, 2025

Taipei , Taiwan

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TDSC.2024.3411820
Coretti S(2025)Layer-2 ProtocolEncyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy10.1007/978-3-030-71522-9_1805(1403-1407)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71522-9_1805
Yun JLu YLiu XGuan J(2024)Bio-Rollup: a new privacy protection solution for biometrics based on two-layer scalability-focused blockchainPeerJ Computer Science10.7717/peerj-cs.226810(e2268)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.2268
Saif MMigliorini SSpoto F(2024)A Survey on Data Availability in Layer 2 Blockchain Rollups: Open Challenges and Future ImprovementsFuture Internet10.3390/fi1609031516:9(315)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090315
Aumayr LAvarikioti ZMaffei MMazumdar SLuo BLiao XXu JKirda ELie D(2024)Securing Lightning Channels against Rational MinersProceedings of the 2024 on ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security10.1145/3658644.3670373(393-407)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2024
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Weintraub BKumble SNita-Rotaru CRoos SLuo BLiao XXu JKirda ELie D(2024)Payout Races and Congested Channels: A Formal Analysis of Security in the Lightning NetworkProceedings of the 2024 on ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security10.1145/3658644.3670315(2562-2576)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2024
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Xu MGuo YLiu CHu QYu DXiong ZNiyato DCheng X(2024)Exploring Blockchain Technology through a Modular Lens: A SurveyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/365728856:9(1-39)Online publication date: 11-Apr-2024
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Camilo GRebello Gde Souza LCampista MCosta L(2024)ProfitPilot: Enabling Rebalancing in Payment Channel Networks Through Profitable Cycle CreationIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management10.1109/TNSM.2024.336125021:3(3167-3178)Online publication date: Jun-2024
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Zhang XQian C(2024)Toward Aggregated Payment Channel NetworksIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2024.342300032:5(4333-4348)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
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Faisal TDi Francesco Maesa DSastry NMangiante S(2024)JITRA: Just-In-Time Resource Allocation Through the Distributed Ledgers for 5G and BeyondIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2023.331823932:2(1201-1211)Online publication date: Apr-2024
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