Efficient hardware prototype of ECDSA modules for blockchain applications

This paper concentrates on the hardware implementation of efficient and re- configurable elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) that is suitable for verifying transactions in Blockchain related applications. Despite ECDSA architecture being computationally expensive, the usage of a dedicated stand-alone circuit enables speedy execution of arithmetic operations. The prototype put forth supports N-bit elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) group operations, signature generation and verification over a prime field for any elliptic curve. The research proposes new hardware framework for modular multiplication and modular multiplicative inverse which is adopted for group operations involved in ECDSA. Every hardware design offered are simulated using modelsim register transfer logic (RTL) simulator. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of var- ious modules within ECDSA circuit is compared with equivalent existing techniques that is both hardware and software based to highlight the superiority of the suggested work. The results showcased prove that the designs implemented are both area and speed efficient with faster execution and less resource utilization while maintaining the same level of security. The suggested ECDSA structure could replace the software equivalent of digital signatures in hardware blockchain to thwart software attacks and to provide better data protection

Design of programmable hardware security modules for enhancing blockchain based security framework

Globalization of the chip design and manufacturing industry has imposed significant threats to the hardware security of integrated circuits (ICs). It has made ICs more susceptible to various hardware attacks. Blockchain provides a trustworthy and distributed platform to store immutable records related to the evidence of intellectual property (IP) creation, authentication of provenance, and confidential data storage. However, blockchain encounters major security challenges due to its decentralized nature of ledgers that contain sensitive data. The research objective is to design a dedicated programmable hardware security modules scheme to safeguard and maintain sensitive information contained in the blockchain networks in the context of the IC supply chain. Thus, the blockchain framework could rely on the proposed hardware security modules and separate the entire cryptographic operations within the system as stand-alone hardware units. This work put forth a novel approach that could be considered and utilized to enhance blockchain security in real-time. The critical cryptographic components in blockchain secure hash algorithm-256 (SHA-256) and the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm are designed as separate entities to enhance the security of the blockchain framework. Physical unclonable functions are adopted to perform authentication of transactions in the blockchain. Relative comparison of designed modules with existing works clearly depicts the upper hand of the former in terms of performance parameters

An Area Efficient Composed CORDIC Architecture

This article presents a composed architecture for the CORDIC algorithm. CORDIC is a widely used technique to calculate basic trigonometric functions using only additions and shifts. This composed architecture combines an initial coarse stage to approximate sine and cosine functions, and a second stage to finely tune those values while CORDIC operates on rotation mode. Both stages contribute to shorten the algorithmic steps required to fully execute the CORDIC algorithm. For comparison purposes, the Xilinx CORDIC logiCORE IP and previously reported research are used. The proposed architecture aims at reducing hardware resources usage as its key objective