Abstract The security core of blockchain technology relies on digital signature schemes. However, existing schemes face numerous challenges when applied on a large scale, such as complex key management, reliance on certificate infrastructure, potential key escrow risks, and lack of resistance to quantum computing capabilities. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel enhanced certificateless identity-based digital signature scheme. This scheme ingeniously integrates certificateless cryptosystem and lattice cryptography, aiming to simultaneously achieve identity-friendly public key management, effectively mitigate the key escrow problem, and lay theoretical foundation for post-quantum security. This paper first presents the formal definition and detailed construction of the scheme. Then, under the random oracle model, the security of its existence being unforgeable is reduced to the computational difficulty of the short integer solution problem on the lattice. The performance evaluation of the system shows that, compared with the traditional scheme based on bilinear pairing, this scheme significantly improves security while maintaining reasonable computational overhead. Experimental results show that at the 128-bit security level, the signing time is 4.8 ms and the verification time is 2.1 ms. Finally, this paper elaborates in detail on the application model of this scheme in secure blockchain transactions, demonstrates how it simplifies the transaction process by using human-readable identity identifiers, and through its anti-quantum and decentralized trust characteristics, provides a powerful cryptographic primitive for building the next generation of secure, efficient and user-friendly blockchain systems.

Abstract Many higher education institutions have adopted Arduino-based platforms for Embedded Systems (ES) education due to their rapid prototyping capabilities. However, it remains unclear whether this adoption is driven primarily by pedagogical ease or perceived alignment with engineering practice. This study investigates student acceptance of Arduino during a transition from PIC microcontrollers by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with Perceived Industry Relevance (PIR). A total of 29 diploma-level engineering students with prior PIC experience participated in a four-hour workshop using the Wokwi simulation environment. Data were analysed using non-parametric methods, and 12 cases were excluded due to Insufficient Effort Responding (IER), resulting in an analytical sample of n = 17. Spearman correlation analysis indicates that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) shows the strongest association with Attitude Toward Use (AT). Perceived Usefulness (PU) demonstrates significant positive associations with PEOU, PIR, AT, and Behavioral Intention (BI), while PIR does not show significant associations with AT or BI. These findings suggest that, within this sample, student acceptance of Arduino is more closely associated with PEOU and PU than with PIR. This pilot study contributes to ongoing research on technology acceptance in ES education during transitions from low-level to higher-level development environments. The findings highlight the potential importance of usability factors in shaping student acceptance, while also indicating that PIR may play a more limited role in AT and BI formation at early stages of exposure.