Blockchain Meets Covert Communication: A Survey

Zhuo Chen, Liehuang Zhu, Peng Jiang, Can Zhang, Feng Gao, Jialing He, Dawei Xu, Yan Zhang

Abstract: Covert communication enables covert information transmission in an undetectable way to prevent the exposure of communication behaviors. Blockchain-based covert communication breaks through the limitations on concealment, reliability and anti-traceability, and has shown promising application prospects in both sensitive data transmission and botnets. Although there are studies on blockchain-based covert communication, it still lacks a systematic investigation. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study on channel building and survey its core technologies by information embedding, transaction filtering, and transaction obfuscation. We also summarize evaluation metrics to better analyze blockchain-based covert channels. Privacy aspects are also discussed. Finally, we suggest seven future directions to stir research efforts into this area.