Decentralized social networks defined by user actions (e.g., decentralized discussion forums) are expected to be ideal environments for Sybil and false identity attacks (just as in the case of the similar web based systems: YouTube, etc.). In particular, these attacks are a significant impediment for meaningful electronic petition drives (aka. citizen initiatives) since they render impossible the verification of the eligibility of participants. While many electronic social networks strive for guaranteeing the privacy (e.g., by anonymization) of their users, existing systems for petition drives request users to disclose their real identities and are meaningless when users do not follow this request. We describe a framework and investigate techniques for running decentralized census processes that enable observers to independently verify the identity of participants in a social network.
['Song Qin', 'Marius-Calin Silaghi', 'Ihsan Hussien', 'Makoto Yokoo', 'Toshihiro Matsui', 'Katsutoshi Hirayama']
Open census for addressing false identity attacks in agent-based decentralized social networks