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FastBOC: Toward Efficient Covert Communication Merging Blockchain and Onion Networks

delete2026-05-15
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PRE
AI
X
Xiangbo Yuan
Z
Zhonghua Chen
J
Jialing He
Z
Ziqi Yang
向涛 (Tao Xiang)
祝烈煌 (Liehuang Zhu)
DOI:10.1109/tdsc.2026.3693743delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Covert communication over public blockchains has emerged as a promising approach for secret data transmission. However, existing methods often suffer from high communication costs, low communication efficiency, and the risk of permanent data exposure. To overcome the above challenges, we propose FastBOC, a hybrid covert communication framework that integrates blockchain and onion networks. In FastBOC, the blockchain is employed as a covert signal channel to transmit lightweight signals, while the onion network handles high-capacity secret data transmission. This decoupling significantly reduces communication costs and avoids permanent data exposure on the blockchain. We further design an address-based encoding scheme and a dynamic port activation mechanism to enhance concealment. We implement FastBOC on the Ethereum testnet and conduct experiments to evaluate its concealment, efficiency, and cost. The results demonstrate that FastBOC (1) achieves strong concealment and (2) can transmit 1-Megabyte (MB) data within 20.11 seconds and reduce communication cost by 5–7 orders of magnitude compared to prior blockchain-based covert communication schemes.
Keywords:
Blockchain
covert communication
Ethereum
onion network

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing cover
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing
IF:
7.5
Papers:
2.4K
Citations:
9.6K

Organization

C
chongqing university
Scholars:
1.0W
Papers: 3.9K
Citations: 1
B
beijing institute of technology
Scholars:
5.3W
Papers: 3.9W
Citations: 63
Z
zhejiang university
Scholars:
17.0W
Papers: 11.9W
Citations: 152
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