Cryptography for Second Layer Blockchain Protocols
Blockchain technologies distribute trust over a large number of parties, thereby offering a secure and trustworthy alternative to the prevailing centralized platforms. Unfortunately, due to their inherent distributed nature, state of the art blockchains face major limitations in terms of scalability, confidentiality and functionality. Despite a decade of progress, they are not ready to power large-scale applications.
The goal of the ERC project CRYPTOLAYER is to address these shortcomings by building a network of second-layer protocols that rely on the blockchain solely for security. While second-layer solutions are already widely deployed, they often lack rigorous theoretical foundations, posing serious security risks. Additionally, they focus primarily on scalability, neglecting advanced features needed for diverse decentralized applications. The CRYPTOLAYER project will address these shortcomings by building solid foundations for second-layer protocols using the concepts of modern cryptography. We will propose novel protocols that enhance scalability, confidentiality and functionality. Moreover, since secure protocol design is highly involved and error-prone, we will build a formal framework for their rigorous security analysis. CRYPTOLAYER will thus contribute to the ongoing development of building trustworthy decentralized applications competitive with centralized platforms.
