Abstract
This article examines information leakage when trading in distributed ledgers. We show how the lack of time priority in the period between the publication of a transaction and its validation by miners or designated participants can expose a transaction’s footprint to the market, resulting in potential front-running and manipulation. We propose a cryptographic approach for solving information leakage problems in distributed ledgers that relies on using a hash (or fingerprint) to secure time priority, followed by a second communication that reveals more features of the underlying market transaction—in effect using a transaction’s fingerprint to hide its footprint. Solving the information leakage problem greatly expands the potential applications of private distributed ledger technology to include trading.
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