Security and Privacy in Distributed and Trustless Systems

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Distributed and trustless systems are becoming a foundational paradigm for modern data-driven applications, enabling large-scale collaboration without relying on centralized authorities or fully trusted intermediaries. Such systems, including blockchain networks, federated learning frameworks, decentralized AI, and multi-agent platforms, introduce new opportunities for secure data sharing and autonomous coordination, while simultaneously raising critical challenges in data security and privacy protection.

This Topic aims to explore recent advances in security- and privacy-preserving techniques for distributed and trustless environments. We invite contributions that investigate theoretical foundations, algorithmic designs, system architectures, and practical deployments addressing threats such as data leakage, inference attacks, malicious participants, and trust misalignment. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, cryptographic protocols, secure and verifiable computation, privacy-preserving machine learning, decentralized data governance, and trustworthy AI systems. By bringing together interdisciplinary research from security, distributed systems, and artificial intelligence, this Topic seeks to provide a comprehensive view of emerging challenges and solutions for building secure, privacy-aware, and trustworthy distributed systems.

Dr. Bruce Gu
Dr. Longxiang Gao
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Applied Sciences applsci	2.5	5.5	2011	16 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Future Internet futureinternet	3.6	8.3	2009	16.1 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Information information	2.9	6.5	2010	20.9 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Algorithms algorithms	2.1	4.5	2008	19.2 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Computers computers	4.2	7.5	2012	17.5 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Blockchains blockchains	-	-	2023	15.0 days *	CHF 1000	Submit
Cryptography cryptography	2.1	5.0	2017	19.3 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Network network	3.1	6.5	2021	23.9 Days	CHF 1200	Submit

* Median value for all MDPI journals in the second half of 2025.

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