Being a critical infrastructure in the world of networks, blockchain is a decentralized transaction and data management technology that was voiced by its implementation in Bitcoin. In recent years, Blockchain has been achieving an ever-growing popularity, along with the upgrades of networking capacity. The reason for the interest in Blockchain is its central attributes that provide security, anonymity and data integrity without any third-party organization in control of the transactions, and therefore it is applied in numerous fields.

As technology advances, critical infrastructures increasingly come to rely on digital control systems and networking. Attacks on critical infrastructure sites are currently a fact of life rather than a potential threat. For example, power stations, chemical plants, telecommunication stations and nuclear facilities have been targeted by cyber criminals, including state-sponsored / affiliated and advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.

Existing critical infrastructure security solutions may have limitations, for example due to the centralized setting (e.g., single point of failure). Hence, there have been attempts to explore the utility of blockchain to enhance the reliability and resilience of the critical infrastructure.

The aim of the ACM International Symposium on Blockchain and Secure Critical Infrastructure is to solicit and present state-of-the-art advances in the design and application of blockchain in secure critical infrastructure applications. Specifically, researchers, experts, and scholars from both industry and academia are strongly encouraged to share their recent studies, investigations, and findings in this forum.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

Blockchain-assisted Federated Learning
Blockchain-assisted Artificial Intelligence Large Model
Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Model Identity Ownership
Blockchain-based Data Trading Mechanism
Blockchain-based Data Elements Trustworthy Circulation
Blockchain Advances in 6G Network
Smart Contract Methods in Intelligent Control System
Technical issues of Blockchain and Secure Critical Infrastructure (architecture, functionality, workflows, availability, scalability, challenges of implementation, etc.)
Security and Privacy in Blockchain and Critical Infrastructure
Attacks on Blockchain and Critical Infrastructure
Blockchain with Industry 4.0
Impact on business models (change of existing business models, emergence of new business models, disruptive business models, etc.)
Blockchain Advance in Secure Smart Grid
The future applications of Blockchain and Secure Critical Infrastructure in different areas (finance, insurance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, energy sector, education, transportation, media production, government sector etc.)

In addition to the technical research achievements, all qualified submissions in relevant subtopics (including novel industrial topics) not discussed above are also welcomed. High quality submissions will be recommended to selected journal special issues (information will be provided).