The Initiative for CryptoCurrencies & Contracts (IC3)

We’re excited to announce a strategic partnership between IC3 and Goethe University Frankfurt, an affiliate of ATHENE Center - Europe’s largest center for applied cybersecurity research. This collaboration strengthens transatlantic academic ties and will focus on key areas relating to crypto and blockchains including: - Cryptography and trusted hardware - AI security - Privacy-enhancing technologies - web3 infrastructure development and interfaces with web2 - Policy development for responsible technology governance By combining IC3’s expertise with Goethe University and ATHENE’s applied research capabilities, this partnership aims to accelerate breakthrough research and develop practical solutions for emerging digital threats across Europe and North America. “This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to advancing cutting-edge research in cybersecurity and AI," said Cornell Tech Professor Ari Juels, Co-Director of IC3. "By connecting European and North American research communities, we’re strengthening transatlantic scientific cooperation and exploring global security challenges together. The combination of ATHENE’s applied research expertise and IC3’s innovation ecosystem creates exceptional opportunities in areas like cryptography, blockchain security, and responsible AI.” Read more about the partnership here: https://lnkd.in/eM-Dghjd

One of the biggest questions in crypto has always been: What is it actually used for? The inaugural edition of USECASE Magazine answers just that. From the meteoric rise of stablecoins to zero-knowledge proofs rooted in academic research, this issue features an in-depth interview with Zcash cofounder and IC3 fellow Ian Miers, plus a comic adaptation of Prof. Ari Juels’ The Oracle. Only 1,000 copies of USECASE issue 01 have been printed. Go here to request yours: https://www.usecase.xyz/

A new International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigation sheds light on the lavish lifestyle and complex network behind Forsage, the global crypto Ponzi/pyramid scheme that stole an estimated $340 million from investors between 2020 and 2022. ICIJ piece: https://lnkd.in/eJYda5Vu Researchers at IC3 analyzed Forsage in real time, uncovering how its smart contracts were engineered to funnel funds to a small set of top users. While a few individuals profited, including $1.2M to the contract owner, 88% of participants ultimately lost money. In 2023, a federal grand jury concluded that Forsage was a “textbook” pyramid and Ponzi scheme and charged four individuals with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The case remains pending. IC3’s full research report is available here: https://lnkd.in/euQKpKHN

For institutions to move onchain, privacy isn’t optional. Chainlink Labs’ integration of IC3’s Town Crier and DECO (the first zk-TLS protocol) into the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) marks a major step forward for institutional adoption of public blockchains. Privacy-preserving oracles like DECO and Town Crier are key to enabling secure data sharing and verification on public blockchains. Originating at IC3, these technologies are a culmination of years of research led by Prof. Ari Juels (Cornell Tech) and Prof. Fan Zhang (Yale). They also demonstrate how academic breakthroughs can become real-world infrastructure, bridging the gap between university labs and production-grade systems. A huge congrats to all of the researchers involved in Town Crier and DECO. A major milestone not only for Chainlink, but for the industry at large. Go here to watch Sergey Nazarov's SmartCon keynote: https://lnkd.in/ej6nyefC

It was a packed house at Cornell Tech’s Future Proof guest lecture series that kicked off earlier this week! Michael Jordan, General Partner at DBA, sat down with IC3’s EIR and Senior Advisor, Neil DeSilva, to discuss how venture capital is helping shape the ~$4 trillion blockchain industry. More than 100 entrepreneurs, technologists, and students attended the event. "Everything happens on the internet first now, and then the world follows. Because of that, what you see first in crypto is what you’re going to see in all markets,” Michael Jordan explained, highlighting how investors are approaching the space. As a seasoned executive who comes from traditional finance, Neil shed light on institutions that are ready to integrate emerging technologies like AI and blockchain into their offerings. “New York City's next chapter is being written at this very moment by the builders who are scaling and institutionalizing frontier technologies like AI and blockchain. The institutions are ready and primed for transformation,” he said. IC3 is a proud supporter of Future Proof, and we’re already looking forward to the next event! #blockchain #crypto #ai #finance #cornell #lecture #academia 

IC3 is thrilled to support the launch of Future Proof — a new guest lecture series at Cornell Tech exploring the innovations and ideas shaping the next decade. The inaugural event will feature a candid conversation between Michael Jordan, Co-Founder and General Partner at DBA, and Neil DeSilva, EIR and Senior Advisor at IC3. Together, they’ll discuss “Reshaping Crypto Venture Capital” where they unpack the $15B crypto VC landscape and its role in a $4T industry. 📍 Cornell Tech, Tata Innovation Center 🗓️ Monday, Oct 27 | 6–7pm ET, reception to follow 🔗 RSVP (space is limited): https://lnkd.in/eHsS7YkJ We hope to see you there!

Secret-ballot crypto voting—e.g., in DAOs—is a great idea. But our research has uncovered a privacy gotcha. We show that in token-weighted votes, tallies alone can leak ballot contents. Why and what can be done about it? Read on for a little explanatory brainteaser and a research summary that includes a remedy. A toy brainteaser: Everyone in a DAO holds 10 tokens, except Alice, who holds 11. Vote tally: YES, 1201; NO, 570. What did Alice vote? Our work shows how to extract individual votes from real DAO tallies. The fix? Add controlled noise to preserve privacy while maintaining transparency. In our example above, if the tally were YES, 1206 (+/- 20); NO, 573 (+/-20), Alice's ballot would remain private. A deeper research question: How should privacy be measured? We introduce B-privacy, a new metric that measures privacy in terms of the cost to bribe voters and buy an election. Stronger privacy = costlier bribery. We prove that controlled noise raises B-privacy and confirm this experimentally across a range of DAOs. Paper: "B-Privacy: Defining and Enforcing Privacy in Weighted Voting." Co-first-authored by Sam Breckenridge and Dani Vilardell, with Andrés Fábrega, Amy Zhao, Patrick McCorry (Arbitrum Foundation), Raf Solari (Tally), and yours truly. We are working to build the next generation of secure, open-source, secret-ballot voting platforms for crypto. B-privacy and noising will be a key piece. Paper link: https://lnkd.in/dZhKYK-Q.

🚨 New IC3 Research 🚨 Token-weighted voting is the norm in many DAOs, but it comes with a hidden risk: even when ballots are secret, voter choices can often be inferred from tallies. Why does this matter? Because tally leakage isn’t just theoretical, it can: - Enable bribery attacks - Damage reputations - Undermine governance integrity By analyzing 3,844 proposals across 31 DAOs, the authors Samuel Breckenridge, Dani Vilardell, Andrés Fábrega, Amy Zhao, Patrick McCorry, Rafael Solari, and Prof. Ari Juels showed just how vulnerable current systems are. Their proposed solution? B-privacy — a new metric that measures the cost of bribery under different tally scenarios. By adding “noise” to tallies, B-privacy has the ability to make bribery attacks more expensive. However, the presence of large token holders (“whales”) can limit its effectiveness. Overall, this is the first systematic guidance for weighted voting systems that goes beyond ballot secrecy, offering measurable ways to strengthen DAO security and integrity. Go here to access the full research: https://lnkd.in/eGaG_w97

Mark your calendars: Tuesday, Sept 16 at 10am ET! IC3 researchers James Austgen and Dani Vilardell will talk about Take My Ape, a proof of concept that lets anyone temporarily own a Bored Ape NFT at a fraction of the cost of purchasing one outright. This project, built in partnership with Oasis, expands on their Liquefaction research — a wallet platform that challenges industry notions of digital asset ownership and control in Web3. Link to join the Spaces: https://lnkd.in/eAaevmfW