Research Group for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts

Welcome to the Heinz Nixdorf Research Group for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) in Bochum!

The research of our group focuses on the security and privacy of distributed applications as they can be found in the context of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. Such blockchain applications are particularly security-critical because they are concerned with the distribution of financial assets. As a consequence, security breaches can cause devastating financial losses and attackers are highly incentivized to target these applications.

In our research, we are interested in improving the security and privacy of such blockchain applications in a principled manner. To this end, we use methods from programming languages, formal verification, and applied cryptography to study the foundations of existing systems and applications, analyze their security, and develop new, secure, and privacy-preserving solutions.

Our current projects are centered around the following topics

• Secure cross-currency execution
• Foundations of secure off-chain protocols
• Sound verification of smart contracts

You can find more details on some of our projects here. If you are interested in working with us, please reach out!

We thank the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation for funding this research group for a duration of 5 years.