Consensus-less receiver-anonymous money transfer solution.
Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Renewable contract : Yes
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Other valued qualifications : PhD
Fonction : Temporary scientific engineer
About the research centre or Inria department
The Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique Centre is one of Inria's eight centres and has more than thirty research teams. The Inria Center is a major and recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem: highly innovative PMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education players, laboratories of excellence, technological research institute, etc.
Context
This development project lies partly in the context of the PriCLeSS Proof-of-Concept action (https://project.inria.fr/pricless) led by Davide Frey (WIDE team) and funded by the Cominlabs LabEX (https://cominlabs.inria.fr/) and partly in the context of the SOTERIA H2020 project. The PriCLeSS project establishes a cross-disciplinary partnership to understand the legal challenges and address the technical obstacles associated with data storage in a blockchain context. SOTERIA focuses on the secure management of personal data and on decentralized identity management without relying on classical blockchain technology.
In this context, we are proposing a novel algorithm for asset transfer (cryptocurrency) that has three noteworthy properties, namely consensus-freedom, cost-effectiveness, and quasi-anonymity. Consensus-freedom means the system does not rely on a total order on asset transfers. Cost-effectiveness means that processes only need to store their own asset transfers and some short, constant-size control data. Quasi-anonymity means that no information is leaked on the asset transfers’ receivers and amounts, and that the asset transfers’ senders can be obfuscated with high probability. As far as we know, it is the first asset transfer system that satisfies all these properties at once. To obtain them the article considers new distributed objects such as agreement proofs as well as well-known techniques such as commitment objects, zero-knowledge proofs, and cryptographic accumulators.
Assignment
This engineering position involves implementing the aforementioned asset transfer solutoin. In this task the engineer will be guided by the team who have been working on the algorithm design. The engineer will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other partners from the PriCLeSS and SOTERIA projects.
Main activities
The engineer will follow the following approximate timeline.
- M1: Analysis of the state of the art:
- Analysis of existing Money Transfer implementations.
- Research papers on Money Transfer including the one on the proposed algorithm
- M2: High-level design of the implementation.
- M4: Zero Knowledge-Proof Implementation
- M6: Complete algorithm implementation
- M8: First version of the interface around the algorithm
- M12: Final release of the Money Transfer system.
Skills
Technical:
- Proficiency in Rust or willingness to learn the language and use it.
- At least basic terminal usage: bash or other environments
- Familiarity with git
Non technical:
- Fluent written and spoken English
- French can be a plus
- Ability to work in a team
- Flexibility
- Planning and ability to meet deadlines
Benefits package
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Possibility of teleworking (90 days per year) and flexible organization of working hours
- Partial payment of insurance costs
General Information
- Theme/Domain :
Distributed Systems and middleware
Software engineering (BAP E) - Town/city : Rennes
- Inria Center : Centre Inria de l'Université de Rennes
- Starting date : 2024-07-01
- Duration of contract : 12 months
- Deadline to apply : 2024-05-14
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.
Instruction to apply
Please submit online : your resume, cover letter and letters of recommendation eventually
For more information, please contact davide.frey@inria.fr
Defence Security :
This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy :
As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Contacts
- Inria Team : WIDE
-
Recruiter :
Frey Davide / davide.frey@inria.fr
The keys to success
You are interested in systems programming, blockchain, and distributed systems. You are not afraid to design and implement large pieces of software. You can clearly write documentation in English.
About Inria
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.