some stuff on blocks.
like the reorg.
or block chaining.

it might not look so hard, but really it is.

yes they are good questions. but they are more sociological, then Computer Science.
and OP is studying Computer Science

How to audit a 3rd party bitcoin bank have the bitcoin they claim to have.
make it 100% sure, without any possible cheating method
make it 100% safe, not allowing the auditor take away the bitcoins.

No problem. It is not just about my research. Maybe there are people from other fields than Computer Science willing and able to research.


Yeah that is a pretty interesting part. You mean the "Processing Power"-democracy and its robustness, security and implications? Maybe a researcher could abstract into Blockchain-based systems in general. Or describe scenarios and possible outcomes if there is a conflict between two or more "miner"-groups about the bitcoin protocol. Or research, how much of a democracy it will really be (in case of mass adoption of Bitcoin), meaning, is there not going to be a "elite" of few big miners that have all the power?

Good stuff so far, keep it up!

if you want to introduce some new ideas, you can look into merging blocks. currently, just the longest blockchain wins if there is more than one new block. you can investigate into a "merging" block, that collects and resolves all transactions from the >2 previous blocks. I.e. this wouldn't discard too many transactions. I don't know how to handle the newly created bitcoins and also, TX fees of the previous conflicting blocks probably would also be part of this merging block…

Alternative algorithms for determining the "best" block chain would be a good research topic, I think.

Model or simulate either a 'natural' block-chain splits (X% of the network gets disconnected for time T) or attacks (attacker with 51+% of hashing rate double-spends a transaction by surprising the network with a N-length better block chain).

Then see what the behavior is like under different potential algorithms for determining the best chain-- the one we have now (most difficulty always wins) or some variant (like more recent blocks are given greater weight).

And think really hard about potential attacks, especially mixed-mode attacks (what if the attacker can mount a Sybil attack on one of the big mining pools?  Or can DOS one or more of the big mining pools? etc)

I wish the research on cryptocurrency projects will be discussed. Looking on how one achieve the best in the new year on researching a good project. To avoid investing in scams and failing projects, more also not to deprive a good project,crowd-funding.

I SUGGEST TO GO FURTHER MORE TO WRITE ABOUT DAPPS ON THE BLOCKCHAIN, There is no specific place for that but the better is to look back to previous project which succeed . the good thing about the digital world is that you may find the open source for every project .

Everybody is interested in smart contracts and is becoming very popular now.

A bitcoin related thesis would be really cool. Let us know how it goes when it's all done or don't forget to message me at least, I'm studying comp sci. as well.