Using Ethereum Registration Authorities to establish Trust for Ethereum Private Sidechains

Abstract

Ethereum Private Sidechains are permissioned Ethereum blockchains which allow authorised participants to interact privately using Smart Contracts. Permissioned blockchains are appropriate for use in scenarios in which the list of blockchain participants and the code and state of contracts on the blockchain must be kept secret. Ethereum Registration Authorities are a system of Smart Contracts which can be used to resolve bootstrap information based on domain names to allow Ethereum Private Sidechains to be established between parties which have not previously interacted. This paper presents the architecture, design, and gas usage of a reference implementation for the Ethereum Registration Authority system. It analyses the security properties of the system and shows that it is secure, decentralized, and censorship resistant. The reference implementation gas usage is analysed and shown to be independent of the length of domain name and number of entries in the Smart Contracts.