Blockchain
The Sui Foundation supports university research on blockchain scalability, privacy and artificial intelligence tools
The Sui Foundation has announced the recipients of its fourth cohort of Sui Academic Research Awards, providing funding to 20 research groups from prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley, Yale, NYU, EPFL and National University of Singapore. This initiative aims to advance blockchain technology, smart contract programming, and products based on the Sui platform The Sui Blog.
Zero-knowledge proofs and AI-based tools
Among the funded projects is Fan Zhang’s research at Yale University, which focuses on improving the generation of zero-knowledge (zk-proof) proofs through caching techniques. This method aims to store intermediate results of repetitive calculations, significantly speeding up zk-proof generation and improving efficiency in real-world applications.
Georgia Tech’s Vijay Ganesh is working on AIChain, a tool that uses large language models (LLMs) for static analysis and fuzzing of smart contracts. AIChain aims to automate the detection of security vulnerabilities, thereby improving the security of smart contracts.
Innovative approaches to key custody and consensus protocols
Research by Tushar Jois of the Research Foundation of CUNY explores the use of existing Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes for key storage. This approach leverages the collective security of multiple fixed devices, offering a secure and cost-effective method for storing Web3 keys.
Natacha Crooks at UC Berkeley is developing Autobahn, a new consensus protocol that combines directed acyclic graph (DAG)-based data diffusion with a traditional partially synchronous consensus mechanism. This aims to maintain low latency during normal operation and robustness during network outages.
Smart contract risk management and auditing
Lukasz Szpruch and David Siska from the University of Edinburgh are building automated risk management systems for Sui’s DeFi ecosystem. Their project aims to develop a testable, real-time, data-driven risk management framework by automating protocol parameter settings and stress tests with agent-based simulations.
Diego Garbervetsky at the University of Buenos Aires is working on tools that use predicate abstraction to help auditors explore and validate the behavior of smart contracts. This aims to improve audit efficiency and overall security of smart contracts.
Blockchain scalability and privacy improvements
Ooi Beng Chin at the National University of Singapore is addressing the execution engine bottleneck in modern blockchains by designing native Web3 workloads for parallel execution. This research aims to compare popular apps such as DEXs, NFT marketplaces, and games, providing valuable insights into the scalability and performance of modern blockchains.
Yevgeniy Dodis of New York University is exploring “on-chain cryptography” for private storage, with the goal of ensuring data privacy and availability on blockchains. This research takes advantage of the expertise deriving from the development of secure messaging protocols such as Signal and Zoom.
Future research and applications
Other notable projects include efforts to develop secure post-quantum multi-party computation (MPC) protocols by Aniket Kate of Purdue University and the creation of a decentralized zkLogin solution using biometric identification methods by Jieliang Yin of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The Sui Foundation’s commitment to funding cutting-edge research is expected to significantly advance blockchain technology, making it more scalable, secure and efficient. The next call for proposals expires on 5 July 2024.
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