Over the last decade, projects working in the area of blockchains and distributed ledger technology (DLT) have developed many cryptographic protocols to market readiness which had existed almost exclusively in the academic research domain before. Quite arguably, significant recent advances in areas like non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs or threshold cryptography are directly or indirectly driven by the application-level requirements (and sometimes funding) coming from that space. The DLT space itself is, however, fractured, with different DLT ecosystems based on different philosophies and assumptions, and projects solving similar problems in very different ways.
The Workshop on Cryptographic Tools for Blockchain is a one-day event affiliated with Eurocrypt 2026 and aims to bring researchers working on cryptographic problems in different DLT ecosystems and related to different platforms together to discuss the latest approaches and results. The workshop will focus on submissions that cover cryptographic tools for DLTs, which includes but is not limited to the areas of non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, threshold cryptography, identity, and multi-party computation, as well as the use of such cryptographic tools in DLT protocols.
Organizers
Isaac Agudo, NICS Lab - UMA — isaac at uma dot es
David Arroyo, CSIC — david dot arroyo at csic dot es
Jesus Diaz, IOG — jesus dot diazvico at iohk dot io
Ivan Visconti, Sapienza University of Rome — visconti at diag dot uniroma1 dot it
Program committee
- Isaac Agudo, NICS Lab - UMA
- David Arroyo, CSIC
- Sandro Coretti-Drayton, IOG
- Jesus Diaz, IOG
- Christian Matt, Primev
- Björn Tackmann, DFINITY
- Ivan Visconti, Sapienza University of Rome
Call for papers
The workshop on cryptographic tools for blockchains aims at discussing cryptographic mechanisms and their use in distributed ledger technologies. The workshop solicits submissions describing current work addressing decentralized cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies, including cryptographic schemes and techniques as well as their applications in blockchain protocols, analytical results, work on systems, and/or position papers.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following techniques and their applications in blockchains:
- Non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs
- Threshold cryptosystems including signatures and encryption
- Verifiable credentials
- Consensus protocols
- Fully homomorphic encryption
- Multi-party computation
- Privacy-preserving smart contracts
- Censorship resistance
- Security of peer-to-peer networks
- Post-quantum cryptography and crypto-agility
- Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Submissions should be written in English, formatted in single-column letter-sized or A4-sized format, and prepared as a PDF file. Submissions have to include: a title, author names and affiliations, and must not exceed eight pages, excluding references. Additional material such as a more detailed description or presentation slides may be added in an optional appendix.
There will not be formal proceedings or other forms of official publications of the accepted papers. Authors are encouraged to submit works already published at or submitted to other venues.
| Schedule | |
|---|---|
| Paper submission | February 27, 2026, 23:59:59 AoE |
| Notification of acceptance | March 27, 2026, 23:59:59 AoE |
| Workshop day | May 10-14 (TBC), 2026 |
Workshop program
The program for the workshop will be posted below.