General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
SL-DRT-25-0295
Direction
DRT
Thesis topic details
Category
Technological challenges
Thesis topics
Identification versus anonymisation from an embedded client operating on a blockchain
Contract
Thèse
Job description
The first worldwide deployment of a blockchain dates back to 2010 with Bitcoin, which introduced a completely digital monetary system and a crypto-currency, bitcoin. Within Bitcoin, all transactions are publicly accessible and traceable, which should generate trust between stakeholders. However, the traceability of transactions, and ultimately of the crypto-currency, does not imply the traceability of users authenticated by an account address, or more precisely by a set of account addresses that are independent of each other. In this context, it can be complex to trace the individuals or legal entities owning the crypto-currency.
Crypto-currency is not the only use case supported by blockchain technology. The deployment of Ethereum in 2014, based on the use of smart contracts, opened up many other uses, in particular the protection of identifying data. In this area, the need for traceability versus furtivity can vary greatly from one use case to another. For example, on a blockchain that records the access of a worker owning an employment certificate to an industrial site, no information enabling the worker to be identified or his activity to be traced should appear. On the other hand, in the case of data collected by IoT sensors and processed by remote Edge devices, traceability of data and processing is desirable.
The thesis proposes to study different techniques for tracing digital assets on a blockchain, for stealthing their owners, and offering the possibility of auditing and identification by an authorised body. The aim is to build embedded devices, Edge or personal possibly embedding artificial intelligence, secured by hardware components, integrating different cryptographic solutions and account, data or identity wallet structures to meet the needs of the different use cases envisaged.
University / doctoral school
Electronique, Electrotechnique, Automatique, Traitement du Signal (EEATS)
Université Grenoble Alpes
Thesis topic location
Site
Grenoble
Requester
Position start date
01/10/2025
Person to be contacted by the applicant
HENNEBERT Christine
christine.hennebert@cea.fr
CEA
DRT/DSYS
CEA-LETI MINATEC Campus
DRT/LETI/DSYS/SSSEC/LSES
17 rue des martyrs
38054 GRENOBLE Cedex 9
0438780949
Tutor / Responsible thesis director
POTOP-BUTUCARU Maria
maria.potop-butucaru@lip6.fr
La Sorbonne Université
UPMC LIP6 NPA
La Sorbonne Université
LIP6, 4 Place Jussieu, BP 169
26-00/115
75005 Paris
01 44 27 87 6
En savoir plus
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christine-Hennebert
https://www.cea.fr/Pages/actualites/ntic/technologies-souveraines-priorite-plan-cybersecurite.aspx
https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/280103-blockchain-et-identification-numerique