SBIR Phase I: Hardware Acceleration for Verifiable Delay Functions for use in Distributed Ledger Technology

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛影响是设计和开发用于执行加密操作的定制处理器。本研究将开发算法并在硬件上实现以提高其速度。这项研究的结果将是一个密码加速器的设计，可以制造和使用的区块链行业。这些改进将加速区块链在日常金融应用中的实用性，促进低成本的开放式金融网络。这些网络可以降低金融服务成本，改善普惠金融。SBIR第一阶段项目旨在提高b区块链共识协议的吞吐量并降低成本。通过使用专用的密码加速器，将有可能使许多新颖的密码技术变得实用。这些技术包括可验证延迟函数（VDF）、RSA累加器和简洁的非交互式知识论证（snark）。特别是，该处理器将专注于提高生成VDF证明的效率。vdf和相关的加密技术在改进区块链协议的可伸缩性和安全性方面大有希望，但是目前在标准处理器上速度太慢，无法提供所需的改进。这些技术将使区块链能够扩展到当前事务吞吐量的数十倍甚至数百倍。此外，这些技术将同时大大减少大多数现代区块链的计算和能源需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to design and develop a custom processor for performing cryptographic operations. This research will develop algorithms and implement them in hardware to improve their speed. The result of this research will be a design for a cryptographic accelerator that can be manufactured and used by the blockchain industry. These improvements will accelerate the practicality of blockchain for daily financial use, promoting low-cost open financial networks. These networks can reduce the cost of financial services and enable improved financial inclusion.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to increase the throughput, and reduce the cost, of blockchain consensus protocols. Through the use of a purpose-built cryptographic accelerator it will be possible to make many novel cryptographic techniques practical. These techniques include Verifiable Delay Functions (VDF), RSA Accumulators, and Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (SNARKs). In particular, this processor will focus on improving the efficiency of generating VDF proofs. VDFs and related cryptographic techniques hold great promise for improving the scalability and security of blockchain protocols, but are currently too slow on standard processors to provide the desired improvements. These techniques will enable the blockchain to be scaled to tens or even hundreds of times its current transaction throughput. Furthermore, these techniques will simultaneously reduce the computational and energy requirements of most modern blockchains dramatically.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.