A Review of Blockchain-based Privacy Computing Research

Blockchain technology offers unique advantages in terms of decentralization, transparency, and de-anonymization. However, it also poses challenges to user anonymity and data privacy protection. Consequently, researchers have employed advanced cryptographic primitives to enhance the privacy and anonymity of blockchain-based privacy payments, as well as to extend privacy payment methods to more general forms of privacy computing. Nevertheless, relying on high-level cryptographic primitives and emerging technologies, these solutions have proven challenging for academic and industrial personnel to understand and apply. Therefore, we introduce the principle mechanisms of zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption and their typical algorithms, analyze and summarize recent research in blockchain privacy computing across several dimensions, and briefly present their potential applications.