CRAFT: Composable Randomness Beacons and Output-Independent Abort MPC From Time

Recently, time-based primitives such as time-lock puzzles (TLPs) and verifiable delay functions (VDFs) have received a lot of attention due to their power as building blocks for cryptographic protocols. However, even though exciting improvements on their efficiency and security (e.g. achieving non-malleability) have been made, most of the existing constructions do not offer general composability guarantees and thus have limited applicability. Baum et al. (EUROCRYPT 2021) presented in TARDIS the first (im)possibility results on constructing TLPs with Universally Composable (UC) security and an application to secure two-party computation with output-independent abort (OIA-2PC), where an adversary has to decide to abort before learning the output. While these results establish the feasibility of UC-secure TLPs and applications, they are limited to the two-party scenario and suffer from complexity overheads. In this paper, we introduce the first UC constructions of VDFs and of the related notion of publicly verifiable TLPs (PV-TLPs). We use our new UC VDF to prove a folklore result on VDF-based randomness beacons used in industry and build an improved randomness beacon from our new UC PV-TLPs. We moreover construct the first multiparty computation protocol with punishable output-independent aborts (POIA-MPC), i.e. MPC with OIA and financial punishment for cheating. Our novel POIA-MPC both establishes the feasibility of (non-punishable) OIA-MPC and significantly improves on the efficiency of state-of-the-art OIA-2PC and (non-OIA) MPC with punishable aborts

Digital Techniques for Documenting and Preserving Cultural Heritage

In this unique collection the authors present a wide range of interdisciplinary methods to study, document, and conserve material cultural heritage. The methods used serve as exemplars of best practice with a wide variety of cultural heritage objects having been recorded, examined, and visualised. The objects range in date, scale, materials, and state of preservation and so pose different research questions and challenges for digitization, conservation, and ontological representation of knowledge. Heritage science and specialist digital technologies are presented in a way approachable to non-scientists, while a separate technical section provides details of methods and techniques, alongside examples of notable applications of spatial and spectral documentation of material cultural heritage, with selected literature and identification of future research. This book is an outcome of interdisciplinary research and debates conducted by the participants of the COST Action TD1201, Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage, 2012–16 and is an Open Access publication available under a CC BY-NC-ND licence.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_arc_cdh/1000/thumbnail.jp

Jan Company in Coromandel 1605-1690

Indonesi

Digital Techniques for Documenting and Preserving Cultural Heritage

This book presents interdisciplinary approaches to the examination and documentation of material cultural heritage, using non-invasive spatial and spectral optical technologies

Regulating Habit-Forming Technology

Tech developers, like slot machine designers, strive to maximize the user’s “time on device.” They do so by designing habit-forming products— products that draw consciously on the same behavioral design strategies that the casino industry pioneered. The predictable result is that most tech users spend more time on device than they would like, about five hours of phone time a day, while a substantial minority develop life-changing behavioral problems similar to problem gambling. Other countries have begun to regulate habit-forming tech, and American jurisdictions may soon follow suit. Several state legislatures today are considering bills to regulate “loot boxes,” a highly addictive slot-machine- like mechanic that is common in online video games. The Federal Trade Commission has also announced an investigation into the practice. As public concern mounts, it is surprisingly easy to envision consumer regulation extending beyond video games to other types of apps. Just as tobacco regulations might prohibit brightly colored packaging and fruity flavors, a social media regulation might limit the use of red notification badges or “streaks” that reward users for daily use. It is unclear how much of this regulation could survive First Amendment scrutiny; software, unlike other consumer products, is widely understood as a form of protected “expression.” But it is also unclear whether well-drawn laws to combat compulsive technology use would seriously threaten First Amendment values. At a very low cost to the expressive interests of tech companies, these laws may well enhance the quality and efficacy of online speech by mitigating distraction and promoting deliberation

Chinese Circulations

Chinese merchants have traded with Southeast Asia for centuries, sojourning and sometimes settling, during their voyages. These ventures have taken place by land and by sea, over mountains and across deserts, linking China with vast stretches of Southeast Asia in a broad, mercantile embrace. Chinese Circulations provides an unprecedented overview of this trade, its scope, diversity, and complexity. This collection of twenty groundbreaking essays foregrounds the commodities that have linked China and Southeast Asia over the centuries, including fish, jade, metal, textiles, cotton, rice, opium, timber, books, and edible birds’ nests. Human labor, the Bible, and the coins used in regional trade are among the more unexpected commodities considered. In addition to focusing on a certain time period or geographic area, each of the essays explores a particular commodity or class of commodities, following its trajectory from production, through exchange and distribution, to consumption

Internet payment system--: mechanism, applications & experimentation.

Ka-Lung Chong.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Abstract --- p.iAcknowledgments --- p.iiiChapter 1 --- Introduction & Motivation --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Internet Commerce --- p.3Chapter 1.3 --- Motivation --- p.6Chapter 1.4 --- Related Work --- p.7Chapter 1.4.1 --- Cryptographic Techniques --- p.7Chapter 1.4.2 --- Internet Payment Systems --- p.9Chapter 1.5 --- Contribution --- p.16Chapter 1.6 --- Outline of the Thesis --- p.17Chapter 2 --- A New Payment Model --- p.19Chapter 2.1 --- Model Description --- p.19Chapter 2.2 --- Characteristics of Our Model --- p.22Chapter 2.3 --- Model Architecture --- p.24Chapter 2.4 --- Comparison --- p.30Chapter 2.5 --- System Implementation --- p.30Chapter 2.5.1 --- Acquirer Interface --- p.31Chapter 2.5.2 --- Issuer Interface --- p.32Chapter 2.5.3 --- Merchant Interface --- p.32Chapter 2.5.4 --- Payment Gateway Interface --- p.33Chapter 2.5.5 --- Payment Cancellation Interface --- p.33Chapter 3 --- A E-Commerce Application - TravelNet --- p.35Chapter 3.1 --- System Architecture --- p.35Chapter 3.2 --- System Features --- p.38Chapter 3.3 --- System Snapshots --- p.39Chapter 4 --- Simulation --- p.44Chapter 4.1 --- Objective --- p.44Chapter 4.2 --- Simulation Flow --- p.45Chapter 4.3 --- Assumptions --- p.49Chapter 4.4 --- Simulation of Payment Systems --- p.50Chapter 5 --- Discussion of Security Concerns --- p.54Chapter 5.1 --- Threats to Internet Payment --- p.54Chapter 5.1.1 --- Eavesdropping --- p.55Chapter 5.1.2 --- Masquerading --- p.55Chapter 5.1.3 --- Message Tampering --- p.56Chapter 5.1.4 --- Replaying --- p.56Chapter 5.2 --- Aspects of A Secure Internet Payment System --- p.57Chapter 5.2.1 --- Authentication --- p.57Chapter 5.2.2 --- Confidentiality --- p.57Chapter 5.2.3 --- Integrity --- p.58Chapter 5.2.4 --- Non-Repudiation --- p.58Chapter 5.3 --- Our System Security --- p.58Chapter 5.4 --- TravelNet Application Security --- p.61Chapter 6 --- Discussion of Performance Evaluation --- p.64Chapter 6.1 --- Performance Concerns --- p.64Chapter 6.2 --- Experiments Conducted --- p.65Chapter 6.2.1 --- Description --- p.65Chapter 6.2.2 --- Analysis on the Results --- p.65Chapter 6.3 --- Simulation Analysis --- p.69Chapter 7 --- Conclusion & Future Work --- p.72Chapter A --- Experiment Specification --- p.74Chapter A.1 --- Configuration --- p.74Chapter A.2 --- Experiment Results --- p.74Chapter B --- Simulation Specification --- p.77Chapter B.1 --- Parameter Listing --- p.77Chapter B.2 --- Simulation Results --- p.77Bibliography --- p.8

Going on the Account : Examining Golden Age Pirates as a Distinct Culture Through Artifact Patterning

Pirates of the Golden Age (1650-1726) have become the stuff of legend. The way they looked and acted has been variously recorded through the centuries, slowly morphing them into the pirates of today's fiction. Yet, many of the behaviors that create these images do not preserve in the archaeological environment and are just not good indicators of a pirate. Piracy is an illegal act and as a physical activity, does not survive directly in the archaeological record, making it difficult to study pirates as a distinct maritime culture. This thesis examines the use of artifact patterning to illuminate behavioral differences between pirates and other sailors. A framework for a model reflecting the patterns of artifacts found on pirate shipwrecks is presented. Artifacts from two early eighteenth century British pirate wrecks, Queen Anne's Revenge (1718) and Whydah (1717) were categorized into five groups reflecting behavior onboard the ship, and frequencies for each group within each assemblage were obtained. The same was done for a British Naval vessel, HMS Invincible (1758), and a merchant vessel, the slaver Henrietta Marie (1699) for comparative purposes. There are not enough data at this time to predict a "pirate pattern" for identifying pirates archaeologically, and many uncontrollable factors negatively impact the data that are available, making a study of artifact frequencies difficult. This research does, however, help to reveal avenues of further study for describing this intriguing sub-culture.  M.A

Across Space and Time. Papers from the 41st Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Perth, 25-28 March 2013

This volume presents a selection of the best papers presented at the forty-first annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. The theme for the conference was "Across Space and Time", and the papers explore a multitude of topics related to that concept, including databases, the semantic Web, geographical information systems, data collection and management, and more