Secure Off-Chain Payment Protocol From Ciphertext Unlinkable Autonomous Path Proxy Re-Encryption in Blockchain
Summary
This paper describes a security problem in blockchain payment channels (like the Lightning Network, which allows faster transactions by bundling multiple payments together): malicious intermediate nodes can intercept funds by reading payment conditions sent in plaintext. The authors propose a solution using a new encryption method called CUAP-PRE (ciphertext unlinkable autonomous path proxy re-encryption, which encrypts payment instructions so intermediate nodes can't see or trace them) combined with an improved payment protocol that lets the final receiver control decryption rights in reverse order to unlock the funds.
Solution / Mitigation
The proposed solution is a secure off-chain payment protocol (SOCP) built on the new CUAP-PRE cryptographic primitive. According to the source, this protocol prevents malicious nodes by: (1) enabling the delegator to designate all trusted delegatees, (2) using ciphertext unlinkability to resist inference attacks and path tracing to ensure anonymity, and (3) implementing an enhanced multi-hop Hash Time-Lock Contract where the receiver at the end of the payment path can control decryption rights in a reversed multi-hop delegation manner to unlock the corresponding bitcoins on hold.
Classification
Original source: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11494865
First tracked: May 8, 2026 at 08:01 PM
Classified by LLM (prompt v3) · confidence: 95%