Paper 2024/1789 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2024/1789 ↗
Stealth and Beyond: Attribute-Driven Accountability in Bitcoin Transactions
Abstract
Bitcoin enables decentralized, pseudonymous transactions, but balancing privacy with accountability remains a challenge. This paper introduces a novel dual accountability mechanism that enforces both sender and recipient compliance in Bitcoin transactions. Senders are restricted to spending Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) that meet specific criteria, while recipients must satisfy legal and ethical requirements before receiving funds. We enhance stealth addresses by integrating compliance attributes, preserving privacy while ensuring policy adherence. Our solution introduces a new cryptographic primitive, Identity-Based Matchmaking Stealth Signatures (IB-MSS), which supports streamlined auditing. Our approach is fully compatible with existing Bitcoin infrastructure and does not require changes to the core protocol, preserving both privacy and decentralization while enabling transaction auditing and compliance.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
PDF- Category
- Public-key cryptography
- Publication info
- Preprint.
- History
- 2026-01-20: last updated
- 2024-11-01: published
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2024/1789
- License
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2024/1789,
author = {Alberto Maria Mongardini and Daniele Friolo and Giuseppe Ateniese},
title = {Stealth and Beyond: Attribute-Driven Accountability in Bitcoin Transactions},
howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2024/1789},
year = {2024},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1789}
}