# Blockchain-based Secure Client Selection in Federated Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05611 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.05611/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 31 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 May 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Deep Learning with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00133/) (2016)
- [Membership Inference Attacks against Machine Learning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05820/) (2016)
- [The Future of Digital Health with Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08119/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning for Mobile Keyboard Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.03604/) (2018)
- [Federated Optimization: Distributed Machine Learning for On-Device Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02527/) (2016)
- [ML-Leaks: Model and Data Independent Membership Inference Attacks and Defenses on Machine Learning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01246/) (2018)
- [Applied Federated Learning: Improving Google Keyboard Query Suggestions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02903/) (2018)
- [Blockchained On-Device Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.03949/) (2018)
- [Reliable Federated Learning for Mobile Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.06837/) (2019)
- [When Federated Learning Meets Blockchain: A New Distributed Learning Paradigm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.09338/) (2020)
- [A Dispersed Federated Learning Framework for 6G-Enabled Autonomous Driving Cars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09641/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Active Membership Inference Attack under Local Differential Privacy in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12685/) (2023)
- [Analysis of Privacy Leakage in Federated Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04784/) (2024)
- [AdRo-FL: Informed and Secure Client Selection for Federated Learning in the Presence of Adversarial Aggregator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17805/) (2025)
- [OASIS: Offsetting Active Reconstruction Attacks in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13739/) (2023)
- [Theoretically Unmasking Inference Attacks Against LDP-Protected Clients in Federated Vision Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17292/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Despite the great potential of Federated Learning (FL) in large-scale distributed learning, the current system is still subject to several privacy issues due to the fact that local models trained by clients are exposed to the central server. Consequently, secure aggregation protocols for FL have been developed to conceal the local models from the server. However, we show that, by manipulating the client selection process, the server can circumvent the secure aggregation to learn the local models of a victim client, indicating that secure aggregation alone is inadequate for privacy protection. To tackle this issue, we leverage blockchain technology to propose a verifiable client selection protocol. Owing to the immutability and transparency of blockchain, our proposed protocol enforces a random selection of clients, making the server unable to control the selection process at its discretion. We present security proofs showing that our protocol is secure against this attack. Additionally, we conduct several experiments on an Ethereum-like blockchain to demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of our solution.