Call for Papers
ACM CoNEXT Workshop on Blockchain-Network Synergy: Addressing Network-Centric Challenges in Decentralized Systems (BlockNetSys 2025)
Co-located with ACM CoNEXT 2025, Hong Kong, China
Statement of Interest
As the Internet continues to evolve toward hyper-distributed, even decentralized, and trustless infrastructure, blockchain technologies are emerging as a foundational component to enable secure, verifiable, and autonomous interactions between decentralized systems. Meanwhile, the decentralization revolution faces a critical bottleneck: network-layer limitations. While blockchain promises trustless coordination, its practical deployment is constrained by fundamental networking challenges:
- The latency-throughput paradox: Blockchain’s security relies on global state synchronization, yet network propagation delays inherently limit transaction throughput (e.g., Bitcoin’s 7TPS vs. Visa’s 24,000TPS).
- Topology-awareness gap: Current P2P overlays operate agnostically to physical network topology, causing inefficient broadcast storms and unnecessary cross-continental traffic.
- Consensus-network mismatch: BFT protocols like PBFT assume synchronous networks, while real-world deployments face asymmetric latencies and intermittent connectivity.
- Verifiability-cost tradeoff: Zero-knowledge proofs enable privacy but generate 10- 100x more network payload (IEEE S&P’23 measurements)
BlockNetSys will pioneer network-aware blockchain design by:
- Developing network-optimized consensus protocols leveraging programmable data planes;
- Redesigning topology-sensitive P2P overlays using network coordinates;
- Creating hybrid trust models that balance decentralization with network realities.
The Aim of this Workshop
We seek to bring together researchers from networking, distributed systems, and blockchain communities to discuss opportunities and challenges in addressing the network-centric challenges in blockchains and decentralized systems.
This workshop is particularly relevant to the CoNEXT community, where emphasis on systems design, real-world deployments, and forward-looking architecture aligns closely with the emerging vision of decentralized intelligent network infrastructure.
We invite original papers (4–6 pages) that address network-layer challenges in blockchain systems and networks. We also explore the blockchain-empowered architecture, systems, and protocols for networking, decentralized systems, and trusted infrastructures.
Topics of interest
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Network-accelerated consensus protocols (e.g., in-network ordering)
- TEE-assisted network functions for blockchain validation
- Low-latency state synchronization algorithms
- Network-aware sharding and geo-partitioning
- Bandwidth-efficient fraud-proof dissemination
- DoS-resistant P2P network designs
- Anonymous routing for blockchain peers
- Network-layer detection of eclipse/sybil attacks
- Programmable switch applications in blockchain
- IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) protocol optimizations
- Edge-native blockchain deployments
- Blockchain-powered AI training orchestration
- Trust-aware data routing and verifiable network telemetry
- Token-based incentive mechanisms for network resource sharing
- Decentralized identity, naming, and access control for network services
- Smart contract-based networking and systems
- Blockchain-assisted federated learning and decentralized machine learning
- Zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic systems for privacy-preserving networking
- Blockchains and software engineering for edge-cloud networking
- Lightweight blockchain systems for embedded and IoT networks
- Consensus protocols tailored for distributed networks
- Cross-chain technologies for distributed Networks and Systems
Special Emphasis: We particularly encourage:
- Measurement studies of blockchain network traffic
- Network stack modifications for blockchain workloads
- Hardware/software co-designs that reduce networking overhead
Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be original, unpublished work, and not under consideration at another conference or journal. Submitted papers must be at most six (6) pages long, excluding references and appendices, in two-column 10pt ACM format . Authors of accepted submissions are expected to present and discuss their work at the workshop. All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and the review process will be double-blind. Per the anonymity guidelines, please prepare your paper in a way that preserves the anonymity of the authors. No information will be shared with third parties.
Please submit your paper via https://blocknetsys2025.hotcrp.com/
Important Dates
- Paper Submission: July 28th, 2025
- Paper Acceptance Notification: September 12nd, 2025
- Camera-ready Due: September 21st, 2025
- Program Available Online: October 15th, 2025
TPC Chairs
- Huawei Huang, Professor, Sun Yat-sen University, China
- Dusit Niyato, Professor, NTU, Singapore
- Yi Sun, Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- Hironori Washizaki, Professor, Waseda University, Japan
Operation Committee
- Jianwen Yuan, Sun Yat-sen University, China
PC Members
- Akila Sanjaya Siriweera, The University of Aizu
- Jiasong Tang, Osaka Metropolitan University
- Jialong Li, Waseda University
- Yijun Lu, Waseda University
- Nikhil Kumar Rajput, University of Delhi
- Zihang Wang, Waseda University
- Qianqian Pan, Waseda University
- Seonah Lee, Gyeongsang National University
- Zehao Wang, Concordia University
- Zeyang Ma, Concordia University
- Huaqian Cai, Peking University
- Xiang Jing, Peking University
- Huansheng Ning, University of Science and Technology Beijing
- Stephen S. Yau, Arizona State University
- Julie A. McCann, Imperial College
- Yang Liu, Alibaba Group Holding Limited
- Xiaoqing Wang, Alibaba Group Holding Limited
- Yuming Deng, Alibaba Group Holding Limited
- Ping Yang, State University of New York
- Guanhua Yan, State University of New York
- Shiyong Lu, Wayne State University
- Hyong S. Kim, Carnegie Mellon University
- Yongfeng Huang, Tsinghua University
- Qinglin Zhao, Macau University of Science and Technology
- Yun Ma, Tsinghua University
- Juanjuan Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Somnath Panja, Indian Statistical Institute
- Chenhao Wu, Waseda University
- Yuyin Ma, Xinjiang University
- Wenhao Yan, Sophia University
- Zhenke Chen, Softusing Co. Ltd.
- Jiong Dong, Xuchang University
- Jianjin Zhao, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
- Jianyang Ding, Jiangnan University
- Tingting Xiao, Hangzhou Normal University
- Xueyan Zhang, Huawei Canada
- Xiaoyuan Yu, Macau University of Science and Technology
- Chenpei Huang, University of Houston
- Pengpeng Qiao, Institute of Science Tokyo