publications

2025

1. SP 25

   Security Perceptions of Users in Stablecoins: Advantages and Risks within the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

   Maggie Yongqi Guan, Yaman Yu, Tanusree Sharma, Molly Zhuangtong Huang, Kaihua Qin, Yang Wang, and Kanye Ye Wang

   In 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) 2025

2024

1. ICBC 24

   What Drives the (In) stability of a Stablecoin?

   Yujin Potter, Kornrapat Pongmala, Kaihua Qin, Ariah Klages-Mundt, Philipp Jovanovic, Christine Parlour, Arthur Gervais, and Dawn Song

   In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC) 2024

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{potter2024drives,
     title = {What Drives the (In) stability of a Stablecoin?},
     author = {Potter, Yujin and Pongmala, Kornrapat and Qin, Kaihua and Klages-Mundt, Ariah and Jovanovic, Philipp and Parlour, Christine and Gervais, Arthur and Song, Dawn},
     booktitle = {2024 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)},
     pages = {316--324},
     year = {2024},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

2. Sec 24

   Speculative Denial-of-Service Attacks In Ethereum

   Aviv Yaish, Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, Aviv Zohar, and Arthur Gervais

   In 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24) 2024

   Bib

   @inproceedings{yaish2024speculative,
     title = {Speculative Denial-of-Service Attacks In Ethereum},
     author = {Yaish, Aviv and Qin, Kaihua and Zhou, Liyi and Zohar, Aviv and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)},
     pages = {3531--3548},
     year = {2024}
   }

3. WWW 24

   Blockchain Censorship

   Anton Wahrstätter, Jens Ernstberger, Aviv Yaish, Liyi Zhou, Kaihua Qin, Taro Tsuchiya, Sebastian Steinhorst, Davor Svetinovic, Nicolas Christin, Mikolaj Barczentewicz, and Arthur Gervais

   In Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024 2024

   arXiv

2023

1. Sec 23

   The blockchain imitation game

   Kaihua Qin, Stefanos Chaliasos, Liyi Zhou, Benjamin Livshits, Dawn Song, and Arthur Gervais

   In 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23) 2023

   arXiv Bib Blog

   🏛️ Also presented at the Science of Blockchain Conference 2023 (SBC’23)

   🏆 Best DeFi Papers Award 2023

   @inproceedings{qin2023blockchain,
     title = {The blockchain imitation game},
     author = {Qin, Kaihua and Chaliasos, Stefanos and Zhou, Liyi and Livshits, Benjamin and Song, Dawn and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23)},
     year = {2023},
     pages = {3961--3978},
   }

2. FC 23

   Mitigating decentralized finance liquidations with reversible call options

   Kaihua Qin, Jens Ernstberger, Liyi Zhou, Philipp Jovanovic, and Arthur Gervais

   In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2023

   arXiv
3. WWW 23

   On how zero-knowledge proof blockchain mixers improve, and worsen user privacy

   Zhipeng Wang, Stefanos Chaliasos, Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, Lifeng Gao, Pascal Berrang, Benjamin Livshits, and Arthur Gervais

   In Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 2023

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{wang2023zero,
     title = {On how zero-knowledge proof blockchain mixers improve, and worsen user privacy},
     author = {Wang, Zhipeng and Chaliasos, Stefanos and Qin, Kaihua and Zhou, Liyi and Gao, Lifeng and Berrang, Pascal and Livshits, Benjamin and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023},
     pages = {2022--2032},
     year = {2023}
   }

4. SP 23

   Sok: Decentralized finance (defi) attacks

   Liyi Zhou, Xihan Xiong, Jens Ernstberger, Stefanos Chaliasos, Zhipeng Wang, Ye Wang, Kaihua Qin, Roger Wattenhofer, Dawn Song, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) 2023

   arXiv Bib

   🏛️ Also presented at the Science of Blockchain Conference 2022 (SBC’22)

   @inproceedings{zhou2023sok,
     title = {Sok: Decentralized finance (defi) attacks},
     author = {Zhou, Liyi and Xiong, Xihan and Ernstberger, Jens and Chaliasos, Stefanos and Wang, Zhipeng and Wang, Ye and Qin, Kaihua and Wattenhofer, Roger and Song, Dawn and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)},
     pages = {2444--2461},
     year = {2023},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

2022

1. SP 22

   Quantifying blockchain extractable value: How dark is the forest?

   Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) 2022

   arXiv Bib

   🏛️ Also presented at the Science of Blockchain Conference 2022 (SBC’22) and the Crypto Economics Security Conference 2022 (CESC’22)

   🥇 Normalized Top-100 Security Papers

   🏆 Cybersecurity Award 2023 – Best Practical Paper

   @inproceedings{qin2022quantifying,
     title = {Quantifying blockchain extractable value: How dark is the forest?},
     author = {Qin, Kaihua and Zhou, Liyi and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)},
     pages = {198--214},
     year = {2022},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

2. FC 22

   Speculative multipliers on defi: Quantifying on-chain leverage risks

   Zhipeng Wang, Kaihua Qin, Duc Vu Minh, and Arthur Gervais

   In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2022

   Bib

   @inproceedings{wang2022speculative,
     title = {Speculative multipliers on defi: Quantifying on-chain leverage risks},
     author = {Wang, Zhipeng and Qin, Kaihua and Minh, Duc Vu and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security},
     pages = {38--56},
     year = {2022},
     organization = {Springer}
   }

2021

1. CVC 21

   CeFi vs. DeFi–Comparing Centralized to Decentralized Finance

   Kaihua Qin*, Liyi Zhou*, Yaroslav Afonin, Ludovico Lazzaretti, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2021 Crypto Valley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT) 2021

   arXiv
2. IMC 21

   An empirical study of defi liquidations: Incentives, risks, and instabilities

   Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, Pablo Gamito, Philipp Jovanovic, and Arthur Gervais

   In Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference 2021

   arXiv Bib

   🏛️ Also presented at the Science of Blockchain Conference 2022 (SBC’22)

   @inproceedings{qin2021empirical,
     title = {An empirical study of defi liquidations: Incentives, risks, and instabilities},
     author = {Qin, Kaihua and Zhou, Liyi and Gamito, Pablo and Jovanovic, Philipp and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
     pages = {336--350},
     year = {2021}
   }

3. SP 21

   High-frequency trading on decentralized on-chain exchanges

   Liyi Zhou, Kaihua Qin, Christof Ferreira Torres, Duc V Le, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) 2021

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{zhou2021high,
     title = {High-frequency trading on decentralized on-chain exchanges},
     author = {Zhou, Liyi and Qin, Kaihua and Torres, Christof Ferreira and Le, Duc V and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)},
     pages = {428--445},
     year = {2021},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

4. SP 21

   On the just-in-time discovery of profit-generating transactions in defi protocols

   Liyi Zhou, Kaihua Qin, Antoine Cully, Benjamin Livshits, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) 2021

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{zhou2021just,
     title = {On the just-in-time discovery of profit-generating transactions in defi protocols},
     author = {Zhou, Liyi and Qin, Kaihua and Cully, Antoine and Livshits, Benjamin and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)},
     pages = {919--936},
     year = {2021},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

5. FC 21

   Attacking the defi ecosystem with flash loans for fun and profit

   Kaihua Qin, Liyi Zhou, Benjamin Livshits, and Arthur Gervais

   In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2021

   arXiv Bib Blog

   @inproceedings{qin2021attacking,
     title = {Attacking the defi ecosystem with flash loans for fun and profit},
     author = {Qin, Kaihua and Zhou, Liyi and Livshits, Benjamin and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security},
     pages = {3--32},
     year = {2021},
     organization = {Springer}
   }

2020

1. SB 20

   Filebounty: Fair data exchange

   Simon Janin*, Kaihua Qin*, Akaki Mamageishvili, and Arthur Gervais

   In 2020 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) 2020

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{janin2020filebounty,
     title = {Filebounty: Fair data exchange},
     author = {Janin*, Simon and Qin*, Kaihua and Mamageishvili, Akaki and Gervais, Arthur},
     booktitle = {2020 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS\&PW)},
     pages = {357--366},
     year = {2020},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }

2019

1. CVC 19

   Applying private information retrieval to lightweight bitcoin clients

   Kaihua Qin, Henryk Hadass, Arthur Gervais, and Joel Reardon

   In 2019 Crypto Valley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT) 2019

   arXiv Bib

   @inproceedings{qin2019applying,
     title = {Applying private information retrieval to lightweight bitcoin clients},
     author = {Qin, Kaihua and Hadass, Henryk and Gervais, Arthur and Reardon, Joel},
     booktitle = {2019 Crypto Valley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT)},
     pages = {60--72},
     year = {2019},
     organization = {IEEE}
   }