Publications

Bibliometrics can be found in Google Scholar.

2026

Perils of Parallelism: Transaction Fee Mechanisms under Execution Uncertainty. Sarisht Wadhwa (Duke University), Aviv Yaish (Yale University, IC3, Complexity Science Hub Vienna), Fan Zhang (Yale University, IC3), Kartik Nayak (Duke University). In submission.
Resources
ePrint
Geographical Centralization Resilience in Ethereum's Block-Building Paradigms. Sen Yang, Burak Öz, Fei Wu, Fan Zhang. ACM SIGMETRICS 2026.
Resources
arXiv Demo Blog Post (by Sen)
Blockspace Under Pressure: An Analysis of Spam MEV on High-Throughput Blockchains. Wenhao Wang, Aditya Saraf, Lioba Heimbach, Kushal Babel, Fan Zhang. In submission.
Resources
arXiv
Cirrus: Performant and Accountable Distributed SNARK. Wenhao Wang (Yale University), Fangyan Shi (Tsinghua University), Dani Vilardell (Cornell University), Fan Zhang (Yale University). NDSS 2026.
Resources
NDSS ePrint NDSS Talk (by Wenhao) Code
Boost+: Equitable, Incentive-Compatible Block Building. Mengqian Zhang, Sen Yang (Yale University), Kartik Nayak (Duke University), Fan Zhang (Yale University). In submission.
Publicity
- Invited talk at DeCenter Seminar, Princeton, NJ. PPTX
Resources
arXiv
Censorship Resistance vs Throughput in Multi-Proposer BFT Protocols. Fatima Elsheimy, Ioannis Kaklamanis, Sarisht Wadhwa, Charalampos Papamanthou, Fan Zhang. In submission.
Highlights
- Awarded Ethereum Academic Grant
Resources
ePrint

2025

Verifiable Aggregate Receipts with Applications to User Engagement Auditing. Ioannis Kaklamanis, Wenhao Wang (Yale University, IC3), Harjasleen Malvai (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IC3), Fan Zhang (Yale University, IC3). In submission.
Publicity
- Colloquium talk at Duke CS Colloquium, Durham, NC.
- Keynote at Shape Rotator.
Resources
ePrint Talk at NESD (by Giannis) Project Website

RediSwap: MEV Redistribution Mechanism for CFMMs. Mengqian Zhang, Sen Yang, Fan Zhang. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security (DeFi ‘25).

Resources

arXiv ACM DL

@inproceedings{10.1145/3733815.3764044,
    author = {Zhang, Mengqian and Yang, Sen and Zhang, Fan},
    title = {RediSwap: MEV Redistribution Mechanism for CFMMs},
    year = {2025},
    isbn = {9798400719042},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    address = {New York, NY, USA},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3733815.3764044},
    doi = {10.1145/3733815.3764044},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security},
    pages = {27–36},
    numpages = {10},
    keywords = {Decentralized Finance, MEV Redistribution, Mechanism Design},
    series = {DeFi '25}
}

AGORA: Open More and Trust Less in Binary Verification Service. Hongbo Chen, Quan Zhou, Sen Yang, Xing Han, Fan Zhang, Danfeng Zhang, Xiaofeng Wang. OOPSLA 2025.

Resources

arXiv ACM DL

@article{10.1145/3763099,
    author = {Chen, Hongbo and Zhou, Quan and Yang, Sen and Dang, Sixuan and Han, Xing and Zhang, Danfeng and Zhang, Fan and Wang, XiaoFeng},
    title = {Agora: Trust Less and Open More in Verification for Confidential Computing},
    year = {2025},
    issue_date = {October 2025},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    address = {New York, NY, USA},
    volume = {9},
    number = {OOPSLA2},
    url = {https://doi-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/10.1145/3763099},
    doi = {10.1145/3763099},
    journal = {Proc. ACM Program. Lang.},
    month = oct,
    articleno = {321},
    numpages = {28},
    keywords = {Program verification, confidential computing, smart contract, static analysis, trusted computing base}
}

Qelect: Lattice-based Single Secret Leader Election Made Practical. Yunhao Wang, Fan Zhang (Yale University). USENIX Security 2025.

Resources

ePrint USENIX Code

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/uss/WangZ25,
author       = {Yunhao Wang and
                Fan Zhang},
editor       = {Lujo Bauer and
                Giancarlo Pellegrino},
title        = {Qelect: Lattice-based Single Secret Leader Election Made Practical},
booktitle    = {34th {USENIX} Security Symposium, {USENIX} Security 2025, Seattle,
                WA, USA, August 13-15, 2025},
pages        = {8461--8480},
publisher    = {{USENIX} Association},
year         = {2025},
url          = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity25/presentation/wang-yunhao},
timestamp    = {Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:17:35 +0100},
biburl       = {https://dblp.org/rec/conf/uss/WangZ25.bib},
bibsource    = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org}
}

ZIPNet: Low-bandwidth anonymous broadcast from (dis)Trusted Execution Environments. Michael Rosenberg, Maurice Shih, Zhenyu Zhao, Rui Wang, Ian Miers, and Fan Zhang. 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2025).

Highlights

Used in Flashnet built by Flashbots

Publicity

Invited talk at NoConsensus.wtf 2025 @ SBC, Berkeley, CA.

Resources

ePrint Code

@article{DBLP:journals/popets/RosenbergSZWMZ25,
author       = {Michael Rosenberg and
                Maurice Shih and
                Zhenyu Zhao and
                Rui Wang and
                Ian Miers and
                Fan Zhang},
title        = {ZIPNet: Low-bandwidth anonymous broadcast from (dis)Trusted Execution
                Environments},
journal      = {Proc. Priv. Enhancing Technol.},
volume       = {2025},
number       = {2},
pages        = {211--225},
year         = {2025},
url          = {https://doi.org/10.56553/popets-2025-0058},
doi          = {10.56553/POPETS-2025-0058},
timestamp    = {Mon, 12 May 2025 17:34:54 +0200},
biburl       = {https://dblp.org/rec/journals/popets/RosenbergSZWMZ25.bib},
bibsource    = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org}
}

Decentralization of Ethereum's Builder Market. Sen Yang, Kartik Nayak, Fan Zhang. IEEE S&P'25.
Highlights
- Featured in Built to Centralize: How Ethereum’s Winner-Take-All Design Creates a Centralization Crisis and Kills Innovation by Wisdom of DeFi by EigenPhi on Nov 14, 2024.
Publicity
- Guest lecture at Berkeley DeFi MOOC.
- Invited talk at CBER Crafting the Cryptoeconomy Conference. PPTX
- Invited talk at Decentralized Science (DeSci) Seminar, University of Sydney (Remote).
- Invited talk at Science of Blockchain Conference 2024 (SBC'24), New York, NY. Video
- Invited talk at IC3 Blockchain Camp, New York, NY.
- Invited talk at EC24 Workshop on Blockchains and Decentralized Finance.
Resources
arXiv Code
```
@inproceedings{yangDecentralizationEthereumsBuilder2025,
  title = {Decentralization of {{Ethereum}}'s {{Builder Market}}},
  author = {Yang, Sen and Nayak, Kartik and Zhang, Fan},
  date = {2025-05-01},
  pages = {1512--1530},
  publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
  doi = {10.1109/SP61157.2025.00157},
  url = {https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/sp/2025/223600b456/26hiUkhZyfK},
  urldate = {2025-06-19},
  eventtitle = {2025 {{IEEE Symposium}} on {{Security}} and {{Privacy}} ({{SP}})},
  isbn = {979-8-3315-2236-0},
  langid = {english}
}
```
Insecurity Through Obscurity: Veiled Vulnerabilities in Closed-Source Contracts. Sen Yang, Kaihua Qin, Aviv Yaish,Fan Zhang. In submission.
Highlights
- Featured in Shape Rotator Hackathon.
Resources
arXiv Blog Post (by Sen)
Prooφ: A ZKP Market Mechanism. Wenhao Wang, Lulu Zhou, Aviv Yaish, Fan Zhang, Ben Fisch, Benjamin Livshits. Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2025 (FC25).
Resources
arXiv Wenhao's talk at ZK Summit 11
- Presented at ZK Summit 11 (Athens), Tokenomics'24 (Hong Kong), FC'25 (Japan), TLDR'25, IC3 Blockchain Camp'25
Anonymous Self-Credentials and their Application to Single-Sign-On. Jayamine Alupotha, Mariarosaria Barbaraci (University of Bern), Ioannis Kaklamanis (Yale University), Abhimanyu Rawat (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Christian Cachin (University of Bern), Fan Zhang (Yale University). In submission.
Resources
ePrint
AUCIL: An Inclusion List Design for Rational Parties. Sarisht Wadhwa (Duke University), Julian Ma, Thomas Thiery, Barnabe Monnot, Luca Zanolini (Ethereum Foundation), Fan Zhang (Yale University), Kartik Nayak (Duke University). In submission.
Resources
ePrint Sarisht's talk at MEV-SBC'25
CRATE: Cross-Rollup Atomic Transaction Execution. Ioannis Kaklamanis, Fan Zhang (Yale University). In submission.
Resources
arXiv

2024

SoK: MEV Countermeasures. Sen Yang, Fan Zhang, Ken Huang, Xi Chen, Youwei Yang, Feng Zhu. Proceedings of the Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security (DeFi ‘24).
Resources
arXiv ACM DL
Unpacking Long-Latency Transactions in Ethereum. Chon Kit Lao, Sophie Zhou, Luyao Zhang, Fan Zhang, Kanye Ye Wang. Proceedings of the Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security (DeFi ‘24).
Resources
ACM DL
(Book Chapter) Web3: Blockchain, the New Economy, and the Self-Sovereign Internet. Ken Huang, DistributedApps.ai, Youwei Yang, Bit Mining Limited, Fan Zhang, Yale University, Xi Chen, New York University, Feng Zhu, Harvard Business School. Cambridge Press.
Resources
- Order from Cambridge
CrudiTEE: A Stick-and-Carrot Approach to Building Trustworthy Cryptocurrency Wallets with TEEs. Lulu Zhou, Zeyu Liu, Fan Zhang, Michael K. Reiter. Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2024).
Resources
arXiv Code
Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement: Limitations and Solutions. Sarisht Wadhwa, Luca Zanolini, Francesco D’Amato, Aditya Asgaonkar, Kartik Nayak, and Fan Zhang. In ACM CCS'24.
Resources
ePrint
Sprints: Intermittent Blockchain PoW Mining. Michael Mirkin, Lulu Zhou, Ittal Eyal, Fan Zhang. USENIX Security'24.
Resources
ePrint USENIX

2023

The Locality of Memory Checking. Weijie Wang, Yujie Lu, Charalampos Papamanthou, and Fan Zhang. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'23).
Resources
ePrint ACM DL
Fed-CBS: A Heterogeneity-Aware Client Sampling Mechanism for Federated Learning via Class-Imbalance Reduction. Zhang, Jianyi and Li, Ang and Tang, Minxue and Sun, Jingwei and Chen, Xiang and Zhang, Fan and Chen, Changyou and Chen, Yiran and Li, Hai. Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 202:41354-41381, 2023.
MISO: Legacy-compatible Privacy-preserving Single Sign-on using Trusted Execution Environments. Xu, Rongwu and Yang, Sen and Zhang, Fan and Fang, Zhixuan. 2023 IEEE 8th European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P'23).
Resources
arXiv IEEE Xplore
He-HTLC: Revisiting Incentives in HTLC. Sarisht Wadhwa, Jannis Stoeter, Fan Zhang, Kartik Nayak. Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS'23).
Publicity
- Invited talk at IC3 Blockchain Camp, Ithaca, NY.
- Invited talk at a16z, New York, NY.
Resources
ePrint Blog post at Decentralized Thoughts

2022

zkBridge: Trustless Cross-chain Bridges Made Practical. Tiancheng Xie, Jiaheng Zhang, Zerui Cheng, Fan Zhang, Yupeng Zhang, Yongzheng Jia, Dan Boneh, and Dawn Song. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'22).
Highlights
- zkBridge is implemented by Polyhedra Network.
Publicity
- Invited talk at IC3 Blockchain Camp, New York, NY.
- Invited talk at 1st ACE Symposium on Privacy, Accountability, Verification, and Economics of Blockchain Systems, New Haven, CT.
Resources
arXiv ACM DL
Empirical Analysis of EIP-1559: Transaction Fees, Waiting Time, and Consensus Security. Y. Liu, Y. Lu, K. Nayak, F. Zhang, L. Zhang, Y. Zhao. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS).
Highlights
- Cited in State of the Network by Coin Metrics on Jan 19, 2022.
- Cited in Vitalik’s tweet on Jan 17, 2022.
Resources
arXiv ACM DL

2021

CanDID: Can-Do Decentralized Identity with Legacy Compatibility, Sybil-Resistance, and Accountability. D. Maram, H. Malvai, F. Zhang, N. Jean-Louis, A. Frolov, T. Kell, T. Lobban, C. Moy, A. Juels, and A. Miller. IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P'21).
Publicity
- Invited talk at The West Lake Forum on Network Security, Online.
- Invited talk at Annual Convention of Chinese Institute of Engineers - Greater New York Chapter.
- Invited talk at Empire Hacking (organized by Trail of Bits).
Resources
ePrint

2020

Design Choices for Central Bank Digital Currency: Policy and Technical Considerations. S. Allen, S. Čapkun, I. Eyal, G. Fanti, B. Ford, J. Grimmelmann, A. Juels, K. Kostiainen, S. Meiklejohn, A. Miller, E. Prasad, K. Wüst, and F. Zhang (Authors are ordered alphabetically). NBER Working Paper No. 27634.
Resources
NBER Working Paper
The Ekiden Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts. F. Zhang, W. He, R. Cheng, J. Kos, N. Hynes, N. Johnson, A. Juels, A. Miller, and D. Song. IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine (Volume: 18, Issue: 3, May-June 2020).
Resources
IEEE Xplore
DECO: Liberating Web Data Using Decentralized Oracles for TLS. F. Zhang, SKD Maram, H. Malvai, S. Goldfeder, and A. Juels. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS).
Highlights
- Licensed to Chainlink.
- Featured in Chainlink’s New Acquisition From Cornell University Could Transform Blockchain For Good by Forbes on Aug 29, 2020.
- Featured in Chainlink Acquires Blockchain Oracle Solution From Cornell University by CoinDesk on Aug 29, 2020.
- Featured in Chainlink acquires a privacy-preserving oracle protocol from Cornell University by CoinTelegraph on Aug 29, 2020.
- Featured in Chainlink Acquires DECO from Cornell University by PR Newswire on Aug 29, 2020.
- Featured in Chainlink acquires DECO protocol from Cornell University by FXStreet on Sep 1, 2020.
Publicity
- Invited talk at W3C Credential Community Group (CCG).
- Invited talk at Stanford Blockchain Conference (SBC'20), Stanford University.
- Invited talk at Real World Crypto (RWC'20), New York City.
Resources
Demo Site arXiv ACM DL
Order-Fairness for Byzantine Consensus. M. Kelkar, F. Zhang, S. Goldfeder, and A. Juels. The Annual International Cryptology Conference (CRYPTO'20).
Resources
ePrint

2019

CHURP: Dynamic-Committee Proactive Secret Sharing. SKD Maram*, F. Zhang*, L. Wang, A. Low, Y. Zhang, A. Juels, and D. Song (*indicates equal contribution). ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'19).
Highlights
- Featured in a MIT Tech Review China report by MIT Tech Review China on May 27, 2019.
Publicity
- Invited talk at ACM CCS'19, London, UK.
- Invited talk at IC3 Bootcamp, Ithaca, NY.
Resources
Demo Site ePrint ACM DL Code
Tesseract: Real-Time Cryptocurrency Exchange using Trusted Hardware. I. Bentov, Y. Ji, F. Zhang, Y. Li, X. Zhao, L. Breidenbach, P. Daian, and A. Juels. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'19).
Resources
ePrint ACM DL

Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts. R. Cheng, F. Zhang, J. Kos, W. He, N. Hynes, N. M. Johnson, A. Juels, A. Miller, and D. Song. IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P'19).

Highlights

Implemented by Oasis Labs.
Featured in Big Hitter Crypto Funds Pile Into Privacy-Enhanced Smart Contract Startup Oasis Labs by Forbes on Jul 9, 2018.

Resources

arXiv IEEE Xplore

@inproceedings{chengEkiden2019,
  title = {Ekiden: {{A Platform}} for {{Confidentiality-Preserving}}, {{Trustworthy}}, and {{Performant Smart Contracts}}},
  shorttitle = {Ekiden},
  booktitle = {2019 {{IEEE European Symposium}} on {{Security}} and {{Privacy}} ({{EuroS}}\&{{P}})},
  author = {Cheng, Raymond and Zhang, Fan and Kos, Jernej and He, Warren and Hynes, Nicholas and Johnson, Noah and Juels, Ari and Miller, Andrew and Song, Dawn},
  date = {2019-06},
  pages = {185--200},
  doi = {10.1109/EuroSP.2019.00023},
  eventtitle = {2019 {{IEEE European Symposium}} on {{Security}} and {{Privacy}} ({{EuroS}}\&{{P}})},
  keywords = {blockchain,Blockchain,confidentiality preserving smart contracts,Cryptography,Hardware,smart contracts,Smart contracts,trusted hardware},
}

Paralysis Proofs: Secure Dynamic Access Structures for Cryptocurrency Custody and More. F. Zhang, P. Daian, I. Bentov, I. Miers, and A. Juels. ACM Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT'19).
Highlights
- Featured in Cornell IC3 Researchers Propose Solution to Bitcoin’s Multisig “Paralysis” Problem by BitcoinMagazine on Jan 19, 2018.
Resources
ACM DL ePrint

2017

REM: Resource-Efficient Mining for Blockchains. F. Zhang, I. Eyal, R. Escriva, A. Juels, and R. van Renesse. USENIX Security Symposium (Security'17).
Highlights
- Featured in The Ridiculous Amount of Energy It Takes to Run Bitcoin by IEEE Spectrum on Sep 28, 2017.
Publicity
- Invited talk at USENIX Security'17, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Resources
USENIX
Sealed-Glass Proofs: Using Transparent Enclaves to Prove and Sell Knowledge. F. Tramèr, F. Zhang, H. Lin, Jean-Pierre Hubaux, A. Juels, and E. Shi. IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P'17).
Resources
ePrint IEEE Xplore
Solidus: Confidential Distributed Ledger Transactions via PVORM. E. Cecchetti, F. Zhang, Y. Ji, A. E. Kosba, A. Juels, and E. Shi. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'17).
Resources
ePrint ACM DL

2016

Stealing Machine Learning Models via Prediction APIs. F. Tramèr, F. Zhang, A. Juels, M. K. Reiter, and T. Ristenpart. USENIX Security Symposium (Security'16).
Resources
USENIX
Town Crier: An Authenticated Data Feed for Smart Contracts. F. Zhang, E. Cecchetti, K. Croman, A. Juels, and E. Shi. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'16).
Highlights
- Licensed to ChainLink.
- Featured in Blockchain smart contracts are finally good for something in the real world by MIT Tech Review on Nov 19, 2018.
- Featured in Cornell’s Town Crier Acquired By Chainlink To Expand Decentralized Oracle Network by Forbes on Nov 1, 2018.
- Featured in Chainlink Blockchain Company Acquires Cornell’s Town Crier to Bolster Native Smart Contract Network by BitcoinExchangeGuide on Nov 2, 2018.
- Featured in Chainlink Acquires Town Crier, a Hardware-Based Oracle by Unhashed on Nov 3, 2018.
- Featured in Trust Your Oracle? Cornell Launches Tool for Confidential Blockchain Queries by CoinDesk on May 17, 2017.
- Featured in How Encrypted Weather Data Could Help Corporate Blockchain Dreams Come True by MIT Technology Review on May 11, 2017.
- Featured in Town Crier Service Delivers Solid Data To Coders by ETHNews on May 11, 2017.
Publicity
- Invited talk at Silicon Valley Ethereum Meetup, Santa Clara, CA.
- Invited talk at IC3 Retreat, San Francisco, CA.
- Invited talk at CCS'16, Vienna, Austria.
- Invited talk at IC3 Retreat, New York City.
Resources
Demo Site ePrint ACM DL Code

2015

PlateClick: Bootstrapping Food Preferences Through an Adaptive Visual Interface. L. Yang, Y. Cui, F. Zhang, J. P. Pollak, S. Belongie, and D. Estrin. ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM'15).
Resources
ACM DL