Open-access distributed systems such as peer-to-peer systems are particularly vulnerable to sybil attacks, where a malicious user creates multiple fake identities (called sybil nodes). Without a trusted central authority that can tie identities to real ...
SybilLimit: A Near-Optimal Social Network Defense against Sybil Attacks
Decentralized distributed systems such as peer-to-peer systems are particularly vulnerable to sybil attacks, where a malicious user pretends to have multiple identities (called sybil nodes). Without a trusted central authority, defending against sybil attacks is quite challenging. Among the small number of decentralized approaches, our recent SybilGuard protocol [H. Yu et al., 2006] leverages a key insight on social networks to bound the number of sybil nodes accepted. Although its direction is promising, SybilGuard can allow a large number of sybil nodes to be accepted. Furthermore, SybilGuard assumes that social networks are fast mixing, which has never been confirmed in the real world. This paper presents the novel SybilLimit protocol that leverages the same insight as SybilGuard but offers dramatically improved and near-optimal guarantees. The number of sybil nodes accepted is reduced by a factor of ominus(radicn), or around 200 times in our experiments for a million-node system. We further prove that SybilLimit's guarantee is at most a log n factor away from optimal, when considering approaches based on fast-mixing social networks. Finally, based on three large-scale real-world social networks, we provide the first evidence that real-world social networks are indeed fast mixing. This validates the fundamental assumption behind SybilLimit's and SybilGuard's approach.
An analysis of social network-based Sybil defenses | Request PDF
Request PDF | An analysis of social network-based Sybil defenses | Recently, there has been much excitement in the research community over using social networks to mitigate multiple identity, or Sybil, attacks. A... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
An analysis of social network-based Sybil defenses
Recently, there has been much excitement in the research community over using social networks to mitigate multiple identity, or Sybil, attacks. A number of schemes have been proposed, but they differ greatly in the algorithms they use and in the ...
(PDF) Canal: Scaling Social Network-Based Sybil Tolerance Schemes
PDF | There has been a flurry of research on leveraging social networks to defend against multiple identity, or Sybil, attacks. A series of recent works... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Sybil Detection using Graph Neural Networks
Online social networks have become a central part of modern digital life, connecting billions of users worldwide. However, their open nature and vast scale make them vulnerable to various security threats, with Sybil attacks being a prevalent and challenging attack to detect. In Sybil attacks, malicious entities create fake accounts to manipulate the network, spread misinformation, or gain undue influence. Thus, detecting Sybil accounts is crucial for maintaining the integrity and trustworthiness of social networks. Effective Sybil detection can prevent the spread of fake news, protect users from scams, and ensure a fair distribution of resources and influence within the network. However, as attackers become more sophisticated, traditional detection methods increasingly fail to perform their task.
MeritRank: Sybil Tolerant Reputation for Merit-based Tokenomics*
Decentralized reputation systems are emerging as promising mechanisms to enhance the effectiveness of token-based economies. Unlike traditional monetary incentives, these systems reward participants based on the actual value of their contributions to the network. However, the advantages and challenges associated with such systems remain largely unexplored. In this work, we investigate the inherent trade-offs in designing a decentralized reputation system that is simultaneously generalizable, trustless, and Sybil-resistant. Specifically, “generalizable” means that the system can assess various types of contributions across different contexts, “trustless” indicates that it functions without the need for a central authority to oversee reputations, and “Sybil-resistant” refers to its ability to withstand manipulations by fake identities, i.e., Sybil attacks.
The Algorithm, Apparently Chronological
A German court has explicitly named Mastodon and Bluesky as positive examples of social networks that could retain hosting protection. It gets Bluesky’s feeds wrong, but its reasoning about user control might be more useful than it realises.
Secure Scuttlebutt Consortium
A distributed and secure peer to peer social network - Secure Scuttlebutt Consortium
The Heart of Spritely: Distributed Objects and Capability Security
This paper is the second in a three-part series outlining Spritely's thinking and design. The first paper, Spritely: New Foundations for Networked Communities, explains the problems which face contemporary social network design. This paper details the core technical toolbox provided by Spritely Goblins and how it supplies the necessary features to feasibly build out Spritely's broader vision. The third paper in the series, Spritely for Secure Applications and Communities, ties the first two papers together by showing how the architecture for user-facing software fulfills the vision of the first paper and can be built on top of ideas from this paper.
(PDF) HonestPeer: An Enhanced EigenTrust Algorithm for Reputation Management in P2P Systems
PDF | The visible success of the Peer to Peer (P2P) paradigm is associated with many challenges in finding trustworthy peers as reliable communication... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
OpenRank (Karma3) — Onchain Atlas
Karma3 Labs' decentralized reputation-compute protocol that ran EigenTrust over onchain and social graphs to power verifiable rankings, feeds, and sybil-resistant airdrops — technically validated but shut down in 2026 for lack of a business model.
Secure Scuttlebutt
Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) is a peer-to peer communication protocol, mesh network, and self-hosted social media ecosystem.[3][4] Each user hosts their own content and the content of the peers they follow, which provides fault tolerance and eventual consistency.[5] Messages are digitally signed and added to an append-only list of messages published by an author.[6] SSB is primarily used for implementing distributed social networks, and utilizes cryptography to assure that content remains unforged as it is propagated through the network.[7][8]
Tailscale | Secure Connectivity for AI, IoT & Multi-Cloud
The connectivity platform for devs, IT, and security teams. Zero Trust identity-based access that deploys in minutes and scales to every resource. Start free.
Pirate Social — A Distributed Social Network
Pirate Social is a distributed social network connecting Bluesky, RSS, and YouTube, hosted on your own free website with integrated CMS.
Bastyon: First Fully Decentralized Social Network on Blockchain
A Revolutionary anti-censorship decentralized publishing and social platform. Based on the blockchain technology, it runs on a set of computers around the world, not controlled by any single entity. Self-policed by users with good reputation where nobody records your keystrokes, viewing habits or searches.
