Secure Convergence of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence: Innovations, Threats, and Future Safeguards

The integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) presents unprecedented opportunities and risks for the security of digital systems. As AI systems process and act upon critical data, the assurance provided by blockchain technologies around data provenance, integrity, and trust becomes vital, especially for security-critical applications. This special issue is dedicated to exploring how combining AI and blockchain can address security and privacy challenges, create robust trust frameworks, and counter evolving threats across industries.

We invite original research, reviews, and case studies that illustrate how blockchain and AI can be collaboratively leveraged to build secure, auditable, and resilient digital ecosystems.

Topics of Interest (but not limited to):

1. Foundational Security Approaches
- Secure AI model lifecycle management using blockchain (secure training, deployment, and updates)
- Blockchain-powered access control for AI systems
- Secure and explainable AI using blockchain
- Blockchain-based data provenance and auditability for AI models
- Federated learning with blockchain for data privacy and security
- Smart contracts for AI governance and compliance

2. AI for Blockchain Security
- Machine learning for real-time threat detection in blockchain networks
- AI-driven malware and ransomware analysis in smart contracts
- Anomaly and fraud detection in blockchain ecosystems using AI
- AI for blockchain consensus optimization and defense

3. Application Security and Privacy
- End-to-end encrypted, AI-powered transactions on blockchain
- Secure decentralized AI marketplaces and platforms
- Blockchain and AI for zero-trust identity management
- Privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML) combined with blockchain
- GDPR-compliant AI+Blockchain solutions (right to be forgotten, data minimization)

4. Emerging Threats, Auditing, and Regulatory Compliance
- Vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and formal verification for AI-blockchain systems
- Adversarial attacks on blockchain-based AI applications and possible defenses
- Secure interoperability frameworks for AI-blockchain ecosystems
- Standardization, certification, and governance for security in cross-domain AI-blockchain integrations

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Blockchain Security, AI Security, Secure AI Model, Blockchain-based Access Control, Federated Learning, Smart Contracts, AI Governance, Explainable AI, Privacy-preserving Machine Learning (PPML), Threat Detection Ransomware, Data Integrity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.