Nibesh Shrestha

Nibesh Shrestha

Ph.D. in Computer Science
Email: nibeshrestha2 (at) gmail (dot) com
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About Me

I am a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Santa Barbara, hosted by Prof. Dahlia Malkhi. My research focused on developing scalable solutions for distributed consensus, distributed key generation, randomness beacons, and related areas in secure distributed systems.

Until July 2026, I served as an Applied Researcher at Supra, where I worked on developing efficient and scalable solutions for BFT consensus and distributed key generation. In July, 2023 I received my PhD in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Kartik Nayak (Duke University) and Prof. Pengcheng Shi (RIT). My doctoral thesis is available here. Prior to that, I completed my B.E. in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk, Nepal, in 2013.

Erdòs Number: 3 (thanks to Ittai!)

Check my CV.

Publications

    default ordering--alphabetical
    Otherwise, by contribution order. (* denotes equal contribution)

Preprints

    Efficient Distributed Key Generation for Blockchains
    In submission
    Paper
    Aniket Kate, Pratyay Mukherjee, Hamza Saleem, Pratik Sarkar, Nibesh Shrestha, and David Yang
    Adopted by Supra

2026

    Hydrangea: Optimistic Two-Round Partial Synchrony with Improved Fault Resilience
    Usenix Security Symposium (Usenix SEC), 2026
    Paper
    Nibesh Shrestha, Aniket Kate, Kartik Nayak
    [Also at SBC'26]
    Adopted by Supra and Espresso systems

    The Pipes Model for Latency Analysis
    IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), 2026
    Paper
    Andrew Lewis-Pye, Kartik Nayak, Nibesh Shrestha

    Angelfish: Leader, DAG, or Anywhere in Between
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2026
    Paper
    Qianyu Yu, Giuliano Losa, Nibesh Shrestha, and Xuechao Wang

    Towards Improving Throughput and Scalability of DAG-based BFT
    European Conference on Computer Systems (EuroSys), 2026
    Paper
    Nibesh Shrestha, and Aniket Kate

    Low-Latency Dynamically Available Total Order Broadcast
    Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC), 2026
    Paper
    Sravya Yandamuri, Nibesh Shrestha, Luca Zanolini, and Kartik Nayak

2025

    Optimistic, Signature-free Reliable Broadcast and Its Applications
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2025
    Paper | Slides
    Nibesh Shrestha*, Qianyu Yu*, Aniket Kate, Giuliano Losa, Kartik Nayak, and Xuechao Wang
    Distinguished Paper Award: link

    Sailfish: Towards Improving the Latency of DAG-based BFT
    IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), 2025
    Paper | Slides
    Nibesh Shrestha, Aniket Kate, and Kartik Nayak
    Adopted by Espresso Systems

    Communication and Round Efficient Parallel Broadcast Protocols
    Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC), 2025
    Paper
    Nibesh Shrestha, Ittai Abraham, and Kartik Nayak

2024

    Moonshot: Optimizing Chain-Based Rotating Leader BFT via Optimistic Proposals
    International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 2024
    Paper
    Isaac Doidge, Raghavendra Ramesh, Nibesh Shrestha, and Joshua Tobkin
    Used in production by Supra

    Synchronous Distributed Key Generation without Broadcasts
    IACR Communications in Cryptology (CiC), 2024
    Paper
    Nibesh Shrestha, Adithya Bhat, Aniket Kate, and Kartik Nayak

2023

    OptRand:Optimistically Responsive Distributed Random Beacons
    Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2023
    Paper
    Adithya Bhat*, Nibesh Shrestha*, Aniket Kate, and Kartik Nayak

2021

    Optimal Good-case Latency for Rotating Leader Synchronous BFT
    Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS), 2021
    Paper
    Ittai Abraham, Kartik Nayak, and Nibesh Shrestha
    Best Paper Award: link

    Making synchronous BFT protocols secure in the presence of mobile sluggish faults
    Brief Announcement, Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), 2021
    Paper
    Justin Kim, Vandan Mehta, Kartik Nayak, and Nibesh Shrestha

    RandPiper--Reconfiguration-Friendly Random Beacons with Quadratic Communication
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2021
    Paper
    Adithya Bhat*, Nibesh Shrestha*, Aniket Kate, and Kartik Nayak.

2020

    On the Optimality of Optimistic Responsiveness
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2020
    Paper
    Nibesh Shrestha, Ittai Abraham, Ling Ren, and Kartik Nayak.

Techreports

    Revisiting hBFT: Speculative Byzantine Fault Tolerance with Minimum Cost
    Manuscript
    Nibesh Shrestha, Mohan Kumar, and SiSi Duan.

Selected Talks

    Sailfish: Towards Improving Latency of DAG-based BFT
    IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), 2025

    OptRand: Optimististically Responsive Distributed Randomness
    Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS), 2023

    Synchronous Distributed Key Generation without Broadcasts
    Crypto Economics Security Conference (CESC), 2022

    Optimal Good-case Latency for Rotating Leader Synchronous BFT
    Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS), 2021

    RandPiper--Reconfiguration-Friendly Random Beacons with Quadratic Communication
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2021

    On the Optimality of Optimistic Responsiveness
    ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2020

    On the Optimality of Optimistic Responsiveness
    Workshop on Foundations of Computer Security. June 2020 Boston, MA, USA.

Research Visits

    Summer 2021 -- Duke University, Durham NC

    Summer 2020 -- Duke University, Durham NC

Academic Service

    Program committee - FC'25

    External reviewer - Eurocrypt'25, IEEE S&P'25, CCS'23, CCS'22, IEEE S&P'22, FC'22, CCS'21, FC'21, JPDC'20, PerCom'20