About

Bio

In 2021-2022, I was a postdoc at Chaincode Labs. I co-authored a paper on addressing a long-standing denial-of-service attack on the Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

Previously, I was a postdoc and a PhD student at the University of Luxembourg in the group of Professor Alex Biryukov. I defended my PhD thesis “Security and Privacy of Blockchain Protocols and Applications” in September 2020. I have been closely following the blockchain space since late 2013. My main research interests are privacy and anonymity in Bitcoin and off-chain protocols such as the Lightning Network. Earlier, I was researching secure development practices on the Ethereum platform and domain-specific languages for smart contracts.

In 2017, I started Basic Block Radio (Базовый Блок) – a technology-focused Russian-language podcast about the blockchain space. We recorded more than 100 episodes, covering projects (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos, Chainlink…) and events (Devcon, Consensus, Web3 Summit, Baltic Honeybadger, The Lightning conference…).

I received my MA in applied maths from CMC MSU in 2013. In 2013 – 2016, I was a researcher on code vulnerabilities and static analysis at SmartDec and an author / translator at BitNovosti.

I was on a program committee of: Cryblock-2020 (archived).

For bio in Russian see below.

Publications

2022

C. Shikhelman, S. Tikhomirov. Unjamming Lightning: A Systematic Approach.

2021

A. Biryukov, G. Naumenko, S. Tikhomirov. Analysis and Probing of Parallel Channels in the Lightning Network. Presented at the Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2022 on 3 May 2022 (pre-recorded video, slides, thread).
R. Pickhardt, S. Tikhomirov, A. Biryukov, M. Nowostawski. Security and Privacy of Lightning Network Payments with Uncertain Channel Balances.

2020

S. Tikhomirov. Security and Privacy of Blockchain Protocols and Applications (doctoral thesis). Defended on 17 September 2020 (slides, video).
S. Tikhomirov, R. Pickhardt, A. Biryukov, M. Nowostawski. Probing Channel Balances in the Lightning Network.
S. Tikhomirov, P. Moreno-Sanchez, M. Maffei. A Quantitative Analysis of Security, Anonymity and Scalability for the Lightning Network. Presented at the IEEE Security and Privacy on the Blockchain workshop (affiliated with EuroS&P) on 7 September 2020 (video).

2019

A. Biruykov, S. Tikhomirov. Deanonymization and linkability of cryptocurrency transactions based on network analysis (PDF, slides, video). Presented at the 4th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P) on 17 June 2019.
A. Biruykov, S. Tikhomirov. Security and Privacy of Mobile Wallet Users in Bitcoin, Dash, Monero, and Zcash (PDF). In Pervasive and Mobile Computing, special issue on blockchain technologies.
A. Biruykov, S. Tikhomirov. Transaction Clustering Using Network Traffic Analysis for Bitcoin and Derived Blockchains (PDF, slides). Presented at the 2nd Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems (CryBlock) on 29 April 2019.

2018

S. Tikhomirov, E. Voskresenskaya, I. Ivanitskiy, R. Takhaviev, E. Marchenko and Y. Aleksandrov. SmartCheck: Static Analysis of Ethereum Smart Contracts (PDF, slides, video). Presented at the 1st International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain on 27 May 2018.
A. Biruykov, D. Khovratovich, S. Tikhomirov. Privacy-preserving KYC on Ethereum (PDF, slides, video). Presented at the 1st ERCIM Blockchain Workshop on 9 May 2018.

2017

S. Tikhomirov. Ethereum: State of knowledge and research perspectives (PDF, slides, video). Presented at the 10th International Symposium on Foundations & Practice of Security on 24 October 2017.
A. Biruykov, D. Khovratovich, S. Tikhomirov. Findel: Secure Derivative Contracts for Ethereum (PDF, slides, video). Presented at the 1st Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts on 7 April 2017.

2016

С. Тихомиров, Я. Александров, Е. Марченко, Л. Сафин. Поиск закладок в программном обеспечении (S. Tikhomirov, Y. Alexandrov, E. Marchenko, L. Safin. Finding undocumented features in programs). «Защита информации. Инсайд» №3, 2016 (abstract)

Projects

2020..2021: co-authored a chapter on security and privacy (pull-request) for “Mastering the Lightning Network”.
2020-04-04..05: Lightning Hacksprint April 2020: getroutevia c-lightning plugin - presentation, short interview in the warm-up stream
2019-04-08..09: Bolt-a-thon: Bletz-Vote project

Talks

Most of my talks are on my YouTube channel.

Media appearances

English

2022-06-21: The Lightning Network Will Checkmate the World - Sergei Tikhomirov (Connect The World)
2022-02-16: Sergei Tikhomirov and Lightning privacy (Chaincode Podcast)
2021-07-09: Sergei Tikhomirov on Lightning Network Privacy (Monero Talk)
2020-04-21: Researchers Surface Privacy Vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Lightning Network Payments (Coindesk)
2020-04-17: Researchers Highlight Privacy Issues With Lightning Network (Cointelegraph)
2020-04-16: Wallet balances on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network aren’t private, new report says (Decrypt)
2018-04-27: The Bitcoin boom and blockchain breakthrough (in SnT Annual report 2017)
2017-05-15: Uni.lu: SnT Team Wins Big at Hackathon

Russian

Bio in Russian

В 2021-2022 я работал постдоком в Chaincode Labs.

До этого я был постдоком и аспирантом университета Люксембурга в группе профессора Алекса Бирюкова. Я защитил диссертацию “Security and Privacy of Blockchain Protocols and Applications” в сентябре 2020 года. Я слежу за блокчейн-индустрией с конца 2013 года. Мои научные интересы – приватность и анонимность в Bitcoin и протоколах второго уровня (Lightning Network). Мои ранние работы повящены практикам безопасной разработки на платформе Ethereum и предметно-ориентированные языки для умных контрактов.

В 2017 году я основал подкаст «Базовый Блок» – русскоязычный подкаст о блокчейн-индустрии с фокусом на технологии. Мы записали более 100 выпусков, освещая проекты (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos, Chainlink…) и конференции (Devcon, Consensus, Web3 Summit, Baltic Honeybadger, The Lightning conference…).

Я окончил ВМК МГУ в 2013 году. В 2013 – 2016 годах я занимался исследованиями в области статического анализа кода в SmartDec, а также писал и переводил статьи на Bitnovosti.

См. также: моя рассылка, проект на Github, научные статьи, публичные выступления и слайды к ним, вопросы и ответы на Stack Exchange, книжная полка.

Я участвовал в комитетах конференций: Cryblock-2020 (archived).