PhD dissertation ideas

1

Hi, I stand before committing to a topic of my Ph.D. dissertation. I’m interested in everything encompassing blockchains: p2p, applied cryptography, cryptocurrencies, Defi, zkSNARKs, programming languages, distributed systems, game theory, etc. Although I have more experience in software engineering, computer science and theory have become extremely appealing to me. I like thinking, designing, and formalizing, as well as hacking. My first supervisor suggests me to work on government/i-voting/notarising/ontology, the second one on information-centric networking. But, as I’ve listed above, these are not the topics that fascinate me the most. Fortunately, my supervisors give me free rein in choosing my dissertation topic.

I know that they are far more experienced scientists, but I’m also aware that they have their own interests, not necessarily aligned with mine. I don’t mind helping them with their research, but I want my dissertation to fascinate me.

Projects/papers I like:

  • Ethereum: a secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger
  • DIZK: A Distributed Zero Knowledge Proof System
  • ZEXE: Enabling Decentralized Private Computation
  • LEO: A Programming Language for Formally Verified, Zero-Knowledge Applications
  • IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System

What I love about these projects is that they align perfectly with my interests and are a perfect mix of both theory and practice, science and engineering.

Also, I like everything from cs251 Stanford course.

You should be aware that I’m not an expert in cryptography; therefore, I won’t be able to e.g. improve on zkSNARKs. My current work was rather in applications of blockchain, not the technology itself. But I would like to change my direction.

I’m asking you to correct my (possibly biased) beliefs and suggest some topics that would align with my and (if possible) my supervisors’ interests.

2

There r hundreds of topics as u said, MEV or any front running &Extracted Value in general there is Consensus Extracted Value also with a lot of resources, EIP-1559 (although has been studied a lot, I think maybe a master thesis where survey & deep thorough study is a major part; ie not very promising for a PhD level results I think)
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  • The move to Eth2 is rich with a variety of topics, if u explore all u’ll probably find something that suits u to conduct research in.
    .
    -However, and since ur supervisors seem to prefer government oriented topics, I may suggest a competitive study of cryptocurrencies in governmental applications with an Ethereum model. This is not like a title exactly; I mean u study El-Selvador appliement to Bitcoin, Ethiopia NFT for students learning ( Cardano won, but Ethereum had a proposal)
    Then u suggest ur Ethereum comparative models for both, and maybe present both cases if Eth1 or Eth2?
    .
    -I’ve been also thinking of making NFTs for a digital copy of countries historical treasures, whether for each country as an added value & digital Archiving of whatever might decay or get distracted with time.
    -Could be something global thru Uniseco for example; however I think this is application level, unless u can think of issues Cryptographic or what so ever inside it to suffice for a PhD fulifillment