About Us
DISCRYPT (DIStributed CRYptography and Privacy Technologies) is a research group from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona dedicated to the study of decentralized systems, privacy-enhancing technologies, and applied cryptography. Its work focuses on developing secure and privacy-preserving solutions in areas such as blockchain, peer-to-peer networks, anonymous communication, and federated learning. We combine theoretical foundations with practical implementations to advance security and privacy in distributed technologies.
Our expertise
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Latest News
(14 Oct 2025) We attended the 7th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA 2025)
Discrypt group members presented their research at the 7th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA 2025), held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, from October 14-17, 2025. The presentations focused on enhancing Bitcoin Core performance through machine learning-based UTXO set management and analyzing security risks in Ethereum's non-custodial staking mechanisms.
(14 Oct 2025) BCCA 2025: A Risk Analysis of Non-custodial Staking in Ethereum
We presented our research paper, “A Risk Analysis of Non-custodial Staking in Ethereum" at the 2025 Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference (BCCA). The paper examines the security and economic risks faced by Ethereum validators in non-custodial staking settings and quantifies the potential impact of validator key compromises. It also introduces two lightweight Python tools that enable users to generate and validate voluntary exit messages without running a full Ethereum node, improving transparency and safety for everyday stakers.
(25 Sep 2025) We organized the 9th International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology (CBT)
Our team successfully organized the 9th International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology (CBT) in Toulouse, France. The workshop served as a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange insights on recent advances in blockchain systems and privacy-enhancing technologies.
This year’s edition featured an invited keynote by Bart Preneel (held jointly with the DPM workshop), a renowned expert in cryptography and privacy. His talk surveyed the current landscape of privacy technologies, examined the policy debates surrounding their deployment, and explored the potential of blockchain to strengthen privacy-enhancing technologies. He also addressed the persistent tension between privacy protection and governmental demands for exceptional access, drawing on both historical precedents and recent controversies.
The event was highly interactive, fostering lively discussions among speakers and participants on a broad range of topics. These included alternative approaches to building privacy-preserving second-layer solutions, cryptographic designs for lotteries and electronic voting, the practical limits of selfish-mining attacks, the state of the art in self-sovereign identity (SSI) wallet deployment, and novel techniques for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) decompilation.
(25 Sep 2025) We organized the 20th International Workshop on Data Privacy Management (DPM)
Our team organized the 20th International Workshop on Data Privacy Management (DPM) in Toulouse, France. The event provided an essential forum for leading experts to exchange ideas and present the latest research and strategies addressing data privacy challenges.
This year’s edition featured an invited keynote by Bart Preneel (held jointly with the CBT workshop), a renowned expert in cryptography and privacy. His talk surveyed the current landscape of privacy technologies, examined the policy debates surrounding their deployment, and explored the potential of blockchain to strengthen privacy-enhancing technologies. He also addressed the persistent tension between privacy protection and governmental demands for exceptional access, drawing on both historical precedents and recent controversies.
(28-29 May 2025) We attended the Cibersec+ workshop in UdL, Lleida
Discrypt group members gave various talks at the Cibersec+ workshop held at the University of Lleida. The topics presented included wallet fingerprinting, Bitcoin auctions, hardware wallet attacks, Lightning Network testbeds, and secure solutions for fair federated learning.
(14 May 2025) Post-Quantum cryptography talk at BBO Meetup
Jordi Herrera gave a talk (catalan) in the BBO Meetup about the possible impact of a Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer (CRQC) on the Bitcoin system. He identified which parts of the system could be affected and outlined the path, through post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, that could be taken to mitigate potential damage.
