ACM CCS Workshop on
Decentralized Finance and
Security (DeFi'24)
October 18th, 2024 — Salt Lake City, U.S.A.

Keynote -- Modern Blockchains for the Modern Security Engineer

In this talk, I discuss how modern blockchains have fundamentally different characteristics from early ones in terms of cost, latency, throughput, scaling, expressivity, governance, and power consumption. However, the evolution from the old to the modern was slow, full of setbacks, and confusion, and the significant shift in capabilities was easy to miss. Using the Sui blockchain as an example, I present the current technologies for high-performance consensus, transaction processing, execution, and data dissemination.

I argue that modern blockchains are particularly useful as a “consistent core” to engineer large open security protocols, and illustrate this through the design of a new decentralized store, Walrus. In brief, assuming their modern capabilities, modern blockchains can resolve the hard coordination problems present in large security systems in a systematic, performant, and secure manner. They are a tool every security engineer needs to have in their toolbox.

George Danezis

George Danezis

Mysten Labs & University College London

Biography

Prof George Danezis, B.A, M.A (Cantab), Ph.D, FBCS. George Danezis is Professor of Security and Privacy Engineering at the Department of Computer Science, University College London. He co-founded and acts as Chief Scientist at Mysten Labs since 2021. George has conducted research on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) and Decentralized / Distributed Systems Security since 2000. His current research interests focus on secure communications, high-integrity systems to support privacy, blockchains, and decentralization. In the past, he co-founded chainspace.io in 2018, and his team was acquired in 2019 by Facebook Novi to help design the Diem payment system. In 2021, he departed and co-founded MystenLabs, to help build the Sui smart contracts platform and now the Walrus decentralized store.

Programme

Start End Session Title
9:00 9:05 Welcome & opening
9:05 10:00 Keynote Modern Blockchains for the Modern Security Engineer George Danezis
Mysten Labs & University College London
10:00 10:20 Session 1: MEV and Transaction Dynamics (Invited Talk) Demystifying DeFi MEV Activities in Flashbots Bundle In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 165-179. 2023. Best DeFi Papers Award 2023
Zihao Li, Jianfeng Li, Zheyuan He, Xiapu Luo, Ting Wang, Xiaoze Ni, Wenwu Yang, Xi Chen, and Ting Chen
10:20 10:40 MEV Sharing with Dynamic Extraction Rates
Pedro Braga, Georgios Chionas, Piotr Krysta, Stefanos Leonardos, Georgios Piliouras, and Carmine Ventre
10:40 11:00 Break ☕️☕️☕️
11:00 11:30 Sponsor Talks Transient Storage -- Use Cases, Design Patterns and Security Considerations
Julio Aguilar & Valerian Callens
Quantstamp
11:30 11:45 DeFi Protocol Security: Lessons Learned and New Developments
Yajin Zhou
BlockSec & Zhejiang University
11:45 12:00 Web3 Attack and Protection
Blue
SlowMist CTO
12:00 13:30 Lunch 🥪🥪🥪
13:30 13:50 Session 2: Transaction Efficiency and Economic Security Analysis (Invited Talk) Clockwork Finance: Automated Analysis of Economic Security in Smart Contracts In 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 2499-2516. IEEE, 2023. Best DeFi Papers Award 2023
Kushal Babel, Philip Daian, Mahimna Kelkar, and Ari Juels
13:50 14:10 Unpacking Long-Latency Transactions in Ethereum
Chon Kit Lao, Sophie Zhou, Luyao Zhang, Fan Zhang, and Kanye Ye Wang
14:10 14:30 Break ☕️☕️☕️
14:30 14:50 Session 3: Front-Running and Security Challenges (Invited Talk) The Blockchain Imitation Game In 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23), pp. 3961-3978. 2023. Best DeFi Papers Award 2023
Kaihua Qin, Stefanos Chaliasos, Liyi Zhou, Benjamin Livshits, Dawn Song, and Arthur Gervais.
14:50 15:10 SoK: MEV Countermeasures
Sen Yang, Fan Zhang, Ken Huang, Xi Chen, Youwei Yang, Feng Zhu
15:10 15:30 Break ☕️☕️☕️
15:30 15:50 Session 4: Real-World Assets and Economic Mechanisms (Invited Talk) Foundations of Transaction Fee Mechanism Design In Proceedings of the 2023 Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), pp. 3856-3899. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2023. Best DeFi Papers Award 2023
Hao Chung, and Elaine Shi.
15:50 16:10 Exploring the Security Issues of Real World Assets (RWA)
Shijian Chen, Muhui Jiang, Xiapu Luo
16:10 16:15 Closing remarks
16:15 - Social time

Best DeFi Papers Award 2023

About the Award

Best DeFi Papers Award 2023 is presented to authors whose work represents outstanding and groundbreaking research in DeFi.

Practical Research Paper Track

  • The Blockchain Imitation Game In 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23), pp. 3961-3978. 2023.
    Kaihua Qin, Stefanos Chaliasos, Liyi Zhou, Benjamin Livshits, Dawn Song, and Arthur Gervais.
  • Demystifying DeFi MEV Activities in Flashbots Bundle In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 165-179. 2023.
    Zihao Li, Jianfeng Li, Zheyuan He, Xiapu Luo, Ting Wang, Xiaoze Ni, Wenwu Yang, Xi Chen, and Ting Chen

Theoretical Research Paper Track

  • Foundations of Transaction Fee Mechanism Design In Proceedings of the 2023 Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), pp. 3856-3899. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2023.
    Hao Chung, and Elaine Shi.
  • Clockwork Finance: Automated Analysis of Economic Security in Smart Contracts In 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 2499-2516. IEEE, 2023.
    Kushal Babel, Philip Daian, Mahimna Kelkar, and Ari Juels

Sponsors

Gold

Silver

Supporters

Committee

Steering Committee

Program Committee Co-chairs

Program Committee

Call for Papers [+]

Call for Best DeFi Papers Award 2023 [+]

About the Award

Best DeFi Papers Award 2023 is presented to authors whose work represents outstanding and groundbreaking research in all essential aspects of DeFi. The award will be bestowed upon four distinguished papers focused on the following perspectives:

  • Track A: Best Theoretical Research Paper (x2)
  • Track B: Best Practical Research Paper (x2)

The award carries a USDT/DAI/USDC $500 prize for each winning paper and comes with a statue and certificate to commemorate.

Eligibility and Submission

Authors must self-nominate their work for consideration. Eligible papers should address topics within DeFi and must have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, conference, or workshop with proceedings between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

Schedule

  • 1st July: Call for nomination opened
  • 15th July: Call for nomination finished
  • 16th July ~ 20th August: ACM DeFi Security PC Internal Voting Period
  • 25th August: Award recipients are notified

Additional Information

Only authors of the awarded papers will be notified via email. These authors will then be required to present their papers at the ACM CCS Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security 2024 (DeFi'24), which will be held in Salt Lake City on October 18th. Presentations can be given either remotely or on-site.

Additionally, authors of awarded papers will be required to submit a 2-minute video summarizing their research, which will be featured on our website.

Instructions for PC Members (Optional Voting)

As a respected member of the ACM DeFi Security Program Committee, your expertise and judgment are crucial in determining the recipients of this year’s awards. Below, you will find the nominated papers across two tracks. Please review each submission carefully and cast your vote according to the guidelines provided.

Confidentiality

Please keep your vote confidential to maintain the integrity of the selection process.

Voting Criteria

Consider the originality, impact, clarity, and relevance of the research to DeFi in your evaluation.

Voting Process

For each track, please select up to two papers that you believe are most deserving of the award. You can also choose to abstain if you feel that none of the papers meet the award criteria.

Anonymity

This is an anonymous poll. Only invited emails can vote, and only one response is allowed per voter. However, you may edit your response if needed.

Review Process

We will reveal the top two results in each track on the 21st of July. The chairs will then further review these four papers to determine if they are appropriate for the award. If any paper is deemed unsuitable, an email will be sent to all committee members explaining the reasons for its removal.

Call for Sponsorship [+]

We are thrilled to invite you to sponsor our upcoming workshop on the security and privacy aspects of DeFi. This event brings together leading researchers, industry experts, and enthusiasts to discuss the latest developments, challenges, and solutions in the rapidly evolving DeFi landscape.

As a sponsor, you will have the unique opportunity to showcase your brand, products, or services to a highly targeted and engaged audience. Your support will not only contribute to the success of the workshop but also demonstrate your commitment to fostering innovation and promoting best practices in DeFi security and privacy.

We offer three sponsorship tiers to accommodate various levels of involvement and budget:

  • Gold: 2 ETH
  • Silver: 1 ETH
  • Bronze: 0.5 ETH

If you are interested in sponsoring our event, please send email to chairs@defi.security.

Questions?

Send direct queries via email to chairs@defi.security.