Fan Zhang

Assistant Prof, CS, Duke University

Researcher at Chainlink Labs

fanzcs.duke.edu

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About Me

I’m an incoming Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Duke University starting 2021 Fall. I’m currently a security researcher at Chainlink Labs. My research primarily focuses on security/privacy/scalability problems in decentralized systems, especially those enabled by blockchain protocols and trusted execution environments (TEEs). I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University, advised by Prof. Ari Juels. I received my bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University. (Full bio here.)

I devise novel cryptographic protocols, build systems that work for a reason, and reveal interesting facts via empirical measurements. Here are some projects I’ve been working on:

• Decentralized identity: CanDID (Oakland'21)
• Order Fairness in Byzantine Fault Tolerance: Aequitas (Crypto'20)
• Smart contract oracles: DECO (CCS'20), Town Cirer (CCS'16)
• Privacy-preserving protocols for blockchains: CHURP (CCS'19), Ekiden (EuroSP'19), Solidus (CCS'17)
• Trusted hardware and blockchain hybridization: Proof of useful work (Usenix'17), Sealed-glass proofs (EuroSP'17), Tesseract (CCS'19)
• Stealing ML models: Usenix'16
• and more…
• Some of them appeared in the news: Media coverage

Recent News

• Nov 2020: I joined the TPC of PET 2021 and CCS 2021.
• Nov 2020: I presented DECO at CCS'20.
• Oct 2020: I presented CanDID at the annual convention of Chinese Institute of Engineers - Greater New York Chapter.
• Oct 2020: I presented CanDID at Empire Hacking (organized by Trail of Bits).
• Oct 2020: I presented DECO at W3C Credential Community Group (CCG).
• Oct 2020: I joined the TPC of Financial Crypto 2021 and DeFi'21 workshop.
• Sep 2020: CanDID paper is accepted to IEEE S&P 2021!
• Aug 2020: DECO acquisition by ChainLink is announced!
• Jul 2020: CanDID, our latest work on Decentralized Identity (DID) is available online.
• Mar 2020: DECO accepted to CCS 2020!
• Jan 2020: Real World Crypto (RWC) video on DECO is now available online.
• Oct 2019: I visited ETH Zurich and presented “Connecting Blockchains to the Real World”.
• Oct 2019: I presented Paralysis Proofs at ACM AFT 2019 at Zurich, Switzerland.
• Sep 2019: I visited IBM Waston Center and presented DECO (Decenetralized Oracles).
• Sep 2019: Two papers (CHURP, Tesseract) are accepted to ACM CCS'19! See you all in London!
• Aug 2019: “Paralysis Proofs: Secure Access-Structure Updates for Cryptocurrencies and More” is accepted to ACM AFT'19!
• Apr 2019: “Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contract Execution” is accepted to EuroS&P'19!

Media Coverage

• Chainlink acquires DECO protocol from Cornell University by FXStreet on Sep 08, 2020
• Chainlink’s New Acquisition From Cornell University Could Transform Blockchain For Good by Forbes on Aug 08, 2020
• Chainlink Acquires Blockchain Oracle Solution From Cornell University by CoinDesk on Aug 08, 2020
• Chainlink acquires a privacy-preserving oracle protocol from Cornell University by CoinTelegraph on Aug 08, 2020
• Chainlink Acquires DECO from Cornell University by PR Newswire on Aug 08, 2020
• MIT Tech Review China reported on CHURP by MIT Tech Review China on May 08, 2019
• Blockchain smart contracts are finally good for something in the real world by MIT Tech Review on Nov 08, 2018
• Chainlink Acquires Town Crier, a Hardware-Based Oracle by Unhashed on Nov 08, 2018
• Chainlink Blockchain Company Acquires Cornell’s Town Crier to Bolster Native Smart Contract Network by BitcoinExchangeGuide on Nov 08, 2018
• Cornell's Town Crier Acquired By Chainlink To Expand Decentralized Oracle Network by Forbes on Nov 08, 2018
• Big Hitter Crypto Funds Pile Into Privacy-Enhanced Smart Contract Startup Oasis Labs by Forbes on Jul 08, 2018
• Cornell IC3 Researchers Propose Solution to Bitcoin's Multisig "Paralysis" Problem by BitcoinMagazine on Jan 08, 2018
• The Ridiculous Amount of Energy It Takes to Run Bitcoin by IEEE Spectrum on Sep 08, 2017
• Trust Your Oracle? Cornell Launches Tool for Confidential Blockchain Queries by CoinDesk on May 08, 2017
• How Encrypted Weather Data Could Help Corporate Blockchain Dreams Come True by MIT Technology Review on May 08, 2017
• Town Crier Service Delivers Solid Data To Coders by ETHNews on May 08, 2017