Researcher to lead blockchain network privacy project

A Waterloo Engineering expert in cryptography will head a collaborative project between the Open Application Network (OAN) and the University of Waterloo to investigate ways of ensuring privacy of open applications on blockchain networks.

Guang Gong, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the

Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, was named lead researcher of the Open Application Privacy Partnership in an announcement made at the end of November.

The partnership project will focus on the development of cryptographic techniques to enable private interactions between user data and applications operating on the data.

The OAN will contribute $300,000 with an additional $250,000 CAD in engineering and research capabilities over the first three years of the project. The OAN will support Gong in applying for matching funds through federal and provincial funding.

Guang Gong, a Waterloo electrical and computer engineering professor, is leading a project that will investigate ways of ensuring the privacy of open applications on blockchain networks. 

“This partnership reinforces our commitment to leading the industry in building open application architecture and enabling new capabilities such as the ability for developers to build privacy guarantees into open apps,” said Matt Spoke, co-founder and CEO of OAN.

Gong, whose research is focused on security and privacy in the Internet of Things, blockchain and machine learning systems, brings more than 25 years of experience in applied and theoretical cryptography to the research project.

She has written two books and more than 250 publications in communication systems security and applied cryptography.

"When applying blockchain technologies to various application environments — for example, health, transportation, asset, and big data management, etc. — the privacy of blockchain becomes an inevitable key requirement,” said Gong, a University Research Chair.

The project is also supported by an NSERC Strategic Project Grant to investigate privacy-preserving logic in blockchain systems.

A diverse group of Waterloo researchers is involved in a range of academic and industry-driven projects to advance blockchain research.