CIFRIS24 - an event by De Cifris

Venue: Banca d'Italia, Centro D. Menichella, Largo Guido Carli 1, Frascati (Roma)
Social dinner: September 25th, Satiricus, Via dei Corridori 58, Roma
September 25th, 26th, 27th 2024

FCiR24 - Financial Cryptography in Rome 2024

Joint workshop: Banca d'Italia and De Componendis Cifris.

Organizers

Michela Iezzi (Banca d'Italia, Italy)
Massimiliano Sala (De Componendis Cifris, Italy)

Description

Financial Cryptography in Rome (FCiR) and Data Security covers all aspects of securing transactions and digital value, with a specific focus on commercial and currency contexts. While we hosts cryptographic talks on both fundamental research and real-world applications, we encourage also interdisciplinary works not strictly related to cryptography.

Program

September 27th, workshop session
Main hall, 10:00 - 13:00

Invited speakers:
Carsten Maple, University of Warwick (UK)
Christian Rechberger, Graz University of Technology (Austria)

Session I - September 27th (morning) - Workshop Session

INVITED TALKS

10:00
10:40 		Carsten Maple, University of Warwick (UK)
Keynote: Secure and Private Data Sharing in Financial Institutions
Abstract Financial institutions are increasingly relying on data to inform strategy and operations but are hampered from sharing this information within and beyond their organisation for a range of reasons. This talk will present some of the use cases for information sharing and present recent work in Privacy Enhancing Technologies, including Homomorphic Encryption, that has facilitated such information exchange.
10:40
11:20 		Christian Rechberger, Graz University of Technology (Austria)
Keynote: Progress on Private Computation
Abstract Encrypting all kinds of traffic on the internet is ubiquitous since about a decade, that 'lock icon' in some corner in our browser windows is a symbol of that. The invention and development of public key cryptography in the decades before was a major driver behind this development. The elephant in the room: In order to compute on the transmitted data, it needs to be decrypted, hence forgoing many of the protections at that point. New inventions and developments in cryptography are about to close this gap: Homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation, or zero-knowledge proofs. Huge efficiency improvements have already been achieved, and more improvements are in the pipeline. Open-source solutions are maturing. Commercialization, albeit in its infancy, is in progress. We review some of these developments and sketch the road ahead.
Session II - September 27th (morning) - Workshop Session

CONTRIBUTED TALKS

11:40
12:00 		Giuseppe Galano, Bank of Italy (Italy)
Layer-2 Innovations for Scalable Blockchain Payments
Abstract The work explores Layer-2 innovations designed to enhance the scalability of payments within Bitcoin's distributed ledger technology. By leveraging potential future advancements in blockchain capabilities, more sophisticated second-layer solutions can be envisioned, addressing the challenges of traditional off-chain protocols while maintaining security. The discussion centers on the most promising proposals and their trade-offs.
12:00
12:20 		Amit Chaudhary, Labyrinth Technology (UK)
Decentralized Finance: Labyrinth
Abstract We propose a middleware solution designed to facilitate seamless integration of privacy using zero-knowledge proofs within various multi-chain protocols, encompassing domains such as DeFi, gaming, social networks, DAOs, e-commerce, and the metaverse. Our design achieves two divergent goals: to preserve consumer privacy while achieving finance regulation compliance.
12:20
12:40 		Luigi Bellomarini, Costanza Catalano, Andrea Coletta, Michela Iezzi, Bank of Italy (Italy)
Confidential Knowledge Graphs through Synthetic Augmentation
Abstract Sharing Knowledge Graphs (KGs) between organisations is essential to set up effective business processes in the financial domain, yet this should be done without disclosing privacy-sensitive data. In this work, we show that existing literature offers techniques to anonymize graphs, but does not support the presence of derived knowledge, like in the case of KGs. We investigate poten tial approaches for developing privacy-preserving techniques using synthetically augmented KGs.

ROUND TABLE

12:40
13:00 		Final discussion and round table