Towards Usable Blockchain Interfaces – Secure and Usable Transactions for Cryptocurrencies

Over the past years, cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum) and their underlying technology, Blockchain, have experienced increased interest and a steadily growing user base. However, sending transactions to long alphanumeric addresses bears a high risk for human error and potential manipulation. In such a decentralized system, mistakes are especially harmful as wrongly executed transaction are impossible to recover. Furthermore, previous research has shown that even comparison of digital “fingerprints” is prone to errors.

The goal of this thesis is to investigate how a more usable, a more secure system can be developed that still incorporates the benefits of decentral blockchain systems.

Tasks

• Review of related literature

• Analyze existing strategies (e.g. online forums, wallets)

• Design and Development of a prototype that addresses the analyzed problems

• Design and conduct user study

Preferred Qualifications

• Web Development Experience

• Independent thinking and creative problem solving

• Knowledge in the area of human computer interaction

• Interest in designing and conducting user studies

• Interest in crypto currencies (optional)

Related Work

• https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3025733

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574013718301217

• https://scss.tcd.ie/publications/theses/diss/2017/TCD-SCSS-DISSERTATION-2017-016.pdf

• https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/194/what-happens-if-i-mistype-the-address-when-making-a-payment

• https://blockstack.org/technology