Call for Papers

 
Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2026

Thirtieth International Conference
2–6 March 2026
St. Kitts Marriott Resort
St. Kitts

Important Dates

Submission Grace Period

• At the chairs' discretion, we may announce a four-day extension to the paper deadline.

Contact

• fc26chair@ifca.ai

Topics

• Access control, authorization and trust management
• Anonymity and privacy enhancing technologies
• Applied cryptography
• Attacks, attack techniques, and attack case studies
• Auctions and incentive design
• Authentication, identity management and biometrics
• Behavioral aspects of security and privacy
• Blockchain applications
• Blockchain protocols, proof-of-work, -stake, -burn
• Censorship circumvention and resistance
• Central bank digital currency (CBDC)
• Certification and audits
• Cloud computing and data outsourcing security
• Cryptographic protocols
• Data security and privacy
• Decentralized finance (DeFi)
• Digital cash and payment systems
• Digital rights management
• Distributed consensus protocols
• Economic and monetary aspects of cryptocurrencies
• Economics of security and privacy
• Electronic crime and underground markets
• Electronic payments and ticketing systems
• Empirical studies, real-world measurements and metrics
• Forensics, monitoring and transaction graph analysis
• Fraud detection and management
• Game theory for security, privacy, and blockchain
• Language-based security and formal verification
• Legal and regulatory issues of blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and electronic payments
• Machine learning and AI security
• Malware and software security
• Mobile payments
• Network and distributed system security
• Phishing and social engineering
• Scalability and interoperability of cryptocurrencies
• Security of banking, financial services, and electronic commerce
• Security of peer-to-peer networks
• Smart contracts and financial instruments
• Smartcards, secure tokens, and secure hardware
• Surveillance and tracking
• System security
• Trusted execution environments (TEE), their security and applications
• Usability and security
• Web security
• Zero-knowledge proofs

Remember! The "crypto" in financial cryptography covers more than just your digital cash—it's also the secret sauce behind keeping your spy-level messages safe!

Submission

Contributions are sought in the following categories:

1. Research papers
   1. regular papers (15 pages + references and appendices)
   2. short papers (8 pages + references; no appendices)
   3. systematization of knowledge (SoK) papers (20 pages + references and appendices)
2. Workshop proposals (2 pages)
3. Tutorial proposals (2 pages)
4. Posters (1 page)

Research paper submissions must be uploaded through the conference submission website.

Click here to submit a paper

Workshop and tutorial proposals should be sent by email to fc26workshops@ifca.ai, and posters by email to fc26chair@ifca.ai, and should not be anonymized. For more details, see the corresponding sections below.

General Information

For each accepted paper/poster the conference requires at least one registration at the general or academic rate, and paper authors must sign the IFCA copyright form when submitting the final version. Alternatively, individual papers can be published as fully open access—the publisher charges authors a fee for this.

Format

Papers must be formatted in standard LNCS format (templates) and submitted as PDF files. Submissions in other formats will be rejected. All papers must be submitted electronically according to the instructions and forms found here and at the submission site.

Anonymous Submission

Regular and short research paper submissions as well as SoKs must be anonymized with no author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, or obvious references. Failure to properly anonymize submitted papers is grounds for a desk rejection without review. It is acceptable (but by no means required) for submitted papers to be published online in non-anonymous form (e.g., on authors' websites or archives like the Cryptology ePrint Archive or arXiv.org). Program committee members will be instructed not to actively seek to de-anonymize papers.

Original Submissions

Authors may submit only work that does not substantially overlap with work that is currently submitted or has been accepted for publication to any other peer-reviewed conference/workshop with proceedings or a journal. We consider double submission serious research fraud and will treat it as such. Note that it is acceptable for papers to appear in non-peer-reviewed formats (for example, as technical reports or in online archives such as ePrint). In case of doubt contact the program chairs for any clarifications.

Ethics and Etiquette

Authors are required to read and follow this information on ethics and etiquette.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must report in the submission site any conflicts with program committee members. A conflict exists if an author has the same affiliation as a committee member, has ever acted as their PhD supervisor or been supervised by them, has a close personal relationship with them, or if they have been co-authors on a paper within the past two years. PC chairs are not allowed to submit papers where they appear as (co-)authors.

PC members will not be able to review, read the reviews of, or participate in discussions of papers they are conflicted with. The review process for papers conflicted with both PC chairs will be managed by another PC member designated as the "conflict chair".

Evaluation Criteria

Regular Research Papers

Research papers should describe novel, previously unpublished scientific contributions to the field, and they will be subject to rigorous peer review. Accepted submissions will be included in the conference proceedings to be published in the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Submissions are limited to 15 pages in standard LNCS format excluding references and appendices. A total page restriction may apply for the printed proceedings version. Committee members are not required to read the appendices, so the full papers should be intelligible without them.

Short Papers

Short papers are also subject to peer review; however, the intention is to encourage authors to introduce work in progress, novel applications, and corporate/industrial experiences. Short papers will be evaluated with a focus on novelty and potential for sparking participants' interest and future research avenues. Short paper submissions are limited to 8 pages in standard LNCS format, excluding references. The title for short papers must begin with the text "Short Paper:". Accepted submissions will be included in the conference proceedings. The authors of some submissions not accepted as regular research papers may be offered the option of acceptance as a short paper.

Systematization of Knowledge Papers

We also solicit Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) papers. To be suitable for publication, SoK articles must provide an added value beyond a literature review, such as novel insights, identification of research gaps, or challenges to commonly held assumptions. SoK paper submissions are limited to 20 pages in standard LNCS format excluding references and appendices. Accepted submissions will be included in the conference proceedings. A total page restriction may apply for the printed proceedings version. Committee members are not required to read the appendices, so the full papers should be intelligible without them. The paper title for systematization of knowledge papers must begin with the text "SoK:".

Workshop Proposals

Proposals for workshops to be held in connection with the conference are solicited. A workshop can be a full day or half day in length.

Workshop proposals should include:

1. Title
2. (Draft) Call for papers
3. Brief summary and justification, including how it would fit into the greater FC scope
4. (Tentative) Program Committee and its chair(s)
5. One-paragraph biographies for key organizers, the expected (or previous, if the workshop has been held in previous years) number of submissions, participants and acceptance rates

Workshop proposals must not be anonymous and should be sent to fc26workshops@ifca.ai. Proposals received after the submission deadline will be considered on a rolling basis for any remaining slots.

Tutorials

Proposals for tutorials to be given in connection with the conference are solicited. A tutorial can be a full day or half day in length.

Tutorial proposals should include:

1. Title
2. Description
3. Name(s) of presenter(s)
4. Brief biographies for all presenters
5. Information about previous tutorials given by the presenter(s)

Tutorial proposals must not be anonymous and should be sent to fc26workshops@ifca.ai (the same address as for workshop proposals). Proposals received after the submission deadline will be considered on a rolling basis for any remaining slots.

Posters

The poster session is the perfect venue to share a provocative opinion, interesting established or preliminary work, or a cool idea that will spark discussion. Poster presenters will benefit from a multi-hour session to discuss their work, get exposure, and receive feedback from attendees.

Poster submissions should be a 1-page abstract (in the same LNCS format) describing the poster. Please keep in mind that the poster deadline is later than the main paper notification deadline. Poster proposals must not be anonymous and should be sent to fc26chair@ifca.ai.

Rump Session

The conference will also include the popular "rump session" held on one of the evenings in an informal, social atmosphere. The rump session is a program of short (5 minutes), informal presentations on works in progress, off-the-cuff ideas, and any other matters pertinent to the conference. Any conference attendee is welcome to submit a presentation to the Rump Session Chair (to be announced at the conference). This submission should consist of a talk title, the name of the presenter, and, if desired, a very brief abstract. Submissions may be sent via e-mail or submitted in person in the morning on the day of the session.

Program Chairs

Program Committee

This conference is organized annually by the International Financial Cryptography Association.