Perils of Parallelism
Presented our work on Perils of Parallelism at the IC3 camp
🧑🎓️Sarisht Wadhwa
Postdoctoral Researcher | Mechanism Design for Blockchains
About Me
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, hosted by Prof. Ke Wu, where I research secure mechanism designs for blockchains and more. Previously, I finished my doctorate in Computer Science at Duke University, advised by Prof. Kartik Nayak and Prof. Fan Zhang in May 2026. My research is at the intersection of cryptography, algorithmic game theory, and blockchain systems, with a focus on designing incentive-compatible mechanisms for decentralized applications. I work on problems related to censorship resistance, transaction fee markets, and multi-proposer execution in modern blockchains. My recent projects include an Auction-Based Inclusion List Design (AUCIL), a censorship-resistant sealed-bid auction platform, a fee-mechanism design which captures the execution uncertainty of transactions, and an analysis of how censorship resistance is necessarily a trade-off with throughput of the system. Broadly, I am motivated by understanding how cryptography and mechanism design can jointly overcome strategic manipulation in DeFi systems. Outside of research, I enjoy fantasy novels and anime, and am learning to play Indian flute.
Interests
- Blockchains
- Game Theory
- Consensus
- Security
Education
PhD Computer Science
Duke University
Integrated B. Tech. and M. Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
📰 News
- Jun 2026 — Excited to join the University of Michigan as a postdoc, hosted by Prof. Ke Wu.
- Jun 2026 — Talk at IC3 Camp on Perils of Parallelism.
- May 2026 — Graduated and received my PhD! Deeply grateful to my advisors Prof. Kartik Nayak and Prof. Fan Zhang for their invaluable mentorship, guidance, and unwavering support throughout this journey.
- May 2026 — Perils of Parallelism accepted at SBC 2026.
- May 2026 — Perils of Parallelism accepted at USENIX Security 2026.
- May 2026 — Talked about Perils of Parallelism at the Designing Defi Workshop 2026.
- Apr 2026 — Talk at the University of Michigan on Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement.
- Apr 2026 — Censorship Resistance vs Throughput in Multi-Proposer BFT Protocols accepted at CCS 2026.
- Apr 2026 — Talk at Yale Applied Cryptography Lab on Perils of Parallelism.
- Mar 2026 — Defended my PhD thesis.
- Dec 2025 — Talk at CCE on Perils of Parallelism.
- Nov 2025 — Joining the Program Committees for CCS 2026 and EC 2026.
- Aug 2025 — Talk on AUCIL at MEV-SBC 2025.
- Jul 2025 — Won first prize (among eight projects) at the IC3 Summer Camp 2025.
- Jun 2024 — Received an Ethereum Research Grant to improve Ethereum’s censorship resistance.
📚 My Research
My research aims to understand and mitigate the security challenges introduced by strategic privileged players (e.g., block proposers) in decentralized systems. My projects explore both application-specific solutions for incentive manipulation and application-agnostic schemes for Miner’s Extractable Value (MEV) reduction. Overall, my goal is to develop principled methods to achieve accountable decentralized protocols, particularly in the presence of adversarial incentive manipulation attacks.
Please reach out to collaborate 😃
Recent Publications
(2026).
Perils of Parallelism: Transaction Fee Mechanisms under Execution Uncertainty.
35th USENIX Security Symposium.
(2026).
Censorship Resistance vs Throughput in Multi-Proposer BFT Protocols.
Proceedings of the ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2026.
(2025).
AUCIL: An Inclusion List Design for Rational Parties.
Cryptology ePrint Archive.
(2025).
Censorship-Resistant Sealed-Bid Auctions on Blockchains.
Cryptology ePrint Archive.
(2025).
Differentially Private aggregate hints in mev-share.
arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.14284.
Recent & Upcoming Talks
Perils of Parallelism
Presented Perils of Parallelism at the Designing DeFi (D²) workshop.
Security of Blockchains
Talked about the security of blockchains, based on our papers, Data Independent OPE(CCS 24) and recent work on secure auction platforms.
Perils of Parallelism
How parallel and contingent execution breaks transaction fee mechanism incentives — rational padding attacks, an impossibility between protecting users vs. schedulers, and fee mechanisms that achieve the trade-off, with implications for chains like Sui and Monad.
Perils of Parallelism
Talked about Perils of creating a TFM aware of parallel execution
Security of Blockchains with Strategic Players
Talk about treating players as strategic in Blockchains, with results from Data Independent Ordering and an Inclusion List design for censorship resistance.
AUCIL- An Inclusion List for Rational Parties
Talk about a new Inclusion List design - AUCIL
Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement
Limitations of and solutions for data-independent order policy enforcement.
Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement
Talk about our recent work on Data Independent Order Policy Enforecement, primarily focusing on our new solution-AnimaguSwap.
AnimaguSwap
Talk about a new AMM design, AnimaguSwap — based on our paper Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement.
AnimaguSwap
Presented a solution for data-independent order policy enforcement using game theory based on our paper- Data Independent Order Policy Enforcement.
He-HTLC: Revisiting Incentives in HTLC
Incentive attacks against HTLCs and a mitigation, He-HTLC.
He-HTLC: Revisiting Incentives in HTLC
Incentive attacks against HTLCs and a mitigation, He-HTLC.
He-HTLC: Revisiting Incentives in HTLC
Lightning talk on Incentive attacks against HTLCs and a mitigation, He-HTLC.