How Do Smart Contracts Benefit Security Protocols?

Smart contracts have recently been adopted by many security protocols. However, existing studies lack satisfactory theoretical support on how contracts benefit security protocols. This paper aims to give a systematic analysis of smart contract (SC)-based security protocols to fulfill the gap of unclear arguments and statements. We firstly investigate textitstate of the art studies and establish a formalized model of smart contract protocols with well-defined syntax and assumptions. Then, we apply our formal framework to two concrete instructions to explore corresponding advantages and desirable properties. Through our analysis, we abstract three generic properties (textitnon-repudiation, non-equivocation, and non-frameability) and accordingly identify two patterns. (1) a smart contract can be as an autonomous subscriber to assist the trusted third party (TTP); (2) a smart contract can replace traditional TTP. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide in-depth discussions of SC-based security protocols from a strictly theoretical perspective.