ShadowBlock: Efficient Dynamic Anonymous Blocklisting and Its Cross-chain Application

TL;DR

ShadowBlock tackles privacy-preserving, dynamic blocklisting by combining PRF-based anonymous tags with a cryptographic RSA accumulator to publish a compact, verifiable blocklist. It introduces aggregation of zero-knowledge non-membership proofs and accumulator-based updates to achieve real-time performance and scalable proof management, including incremental proof updates and batch verification. The approach is evaluated against existing schemes and shows superior dynamics, reduced client and verifier overhead, and lower on-chain storage, while enabling cross-chain identity management through DID-enabled architectures. The work demonstrates practical impact for privacy-preserving moderation in large-scale, multi-chain environments with strong security guarantees.

Abstract

Online harassment, incitement to violence, racist behavior, and other harmful content on social media can damage social harmony and even break the law. Traditional blocklisting technologies can block malicious users, but this comes at the expense of identity privacy. The anonymous blocklisting has emerged as an effective mechanism to restrict the abuse of freedom of speech while protecting user identity privacy. However, the state-of-the-art anonymous blocklisting schemes suffer from either poor dynamism or low efficiency. In this paper, we propose $\mathsf{ShadowBlock}$, an efficient dynamic anonymous blocklisting scheme. Specifically, we utilize the pseudorandom function and cryptographic accumulator to construct the public blocklisting, enabling users to prove they are not on the blocklisting in an anonymous manner. To improve verification efficiency, we design an aggregation zero-knowledge proof mechanism that converts multiple verification operations into a single one. In addition, we leverage the accumulator's property to achieve efficient updates of the blocklisting, i.e., the original proof can be reused with minimal updates rather than regenerating the entire proof. Experiments show that $\mathsf{ShadowBlock}$ has better dynamics and efficiency than the existing schemes. Finally, the discussion on applications indicates that $\mathsf{ShadowBlock}$ also holds significant value and has broad prospects in emerging fields such as cross-chain identity management.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: A taxonomy of blocklisting techniques. Non-anonymous approaches rely on linkable identifiers or globally visible states, while anonymous blocklisting enforces exclusion without revealing identities
• Figure 2: System model
• Figure 3: Blocklist structure
• Figure 4: Running time comparison
• Figure 5: Size comparsion

Theorems & Definitions (9)

• Definition 1: Blocklistability
• Definition 2: Anonymity
• Definition 3: Non-frameability
• Theorem 1: Blocklistability
• proof : Proof
• Theorem 2: Anonymity
• proof : Proof
• Theorem 3: Non-frameability
• proof : Proof