Blockchain Papers

Mirza Kamrul Bashar Shuhan, Tariqul Islam, Enam Ahmed Shuvo, Faisal Haque Bappy · 6 authors

Over the past two decades, the popularity of messaging systems has increased both in enterprise and consumer level. Many of these systems used secure protocols like end-to-end encryption to ensure strong security features such as “future secrecy” for one-to-one communication. However, the majority of them rely on centralized servers owned by big IT companies, which allows them to use their users’ personal data. Also it allows the government to track and regulate their citizens’ activities, which poses significant threats to “digital freedom”. Also, these systems have failed to achieve security attributes like confidentiality, integrity, privacy, and future secrecy for group communications. In this paper, we present a novel blockchain-based secure messaging system named Quarks that overcomes the security pitfalls of the existing systems and eliminates the centralized control. We have analyzed our design of the system with security models and definitions from existing literature to demonstrate the system’s reliability and usability. We have developed a Proof of Concept (PoC) of the Quarks system leveraging Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and conducted load testing on that. We noticed that our PoC system achieves all the desired attributes that are prevalent in a traditional centralized messaging scheme despite the limited capacity of the development and testing environment. Therefore, this assures us the applicability of such systems in near future if scaled up properly.

Janki Velani, Dr. Suchita Patel

cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses ryptography for security and operates independently of a entral bank. Its decentralized nature allows for secure and transparent transactions, making it an appealing alternative to traditional fiat currencies. Cryptocurrencies uses block chain technology, which is a distributed ledger that records all transactions on a network of computers. Bit coin was the first cryptocurrency to gain widespread attention, but today there are thousands of different crypto currencies with varying degrees of popularity and acceptance. Despite their potential benefits, cryptocurrencies are subject to volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and security risks, which have led to debates about their future role in the global economy. In this paper we are going to discuss different fraud prospects in cryptocurrency investment faces by users. Here we are listed possible scams happened in past and possibilities in future with cryptocurrency fund. Even we tried to discuss recent available detection & prevention methods for such scams. With the help of our future research perspective we are planning to provide technique to prevent such different scams and saving our valuable money.

An Min, Qiyuan Fan, Hao Yu, Bo An · 12 authors

Blockchain, as the basis for cryptocurrencies, has recently garnered significant attention. It is a type of immutable distributed ledger technology with key features including decentralization, anti-tampering, transparency, anonymity, and contract-autonomy. These attributes enable transactions to be conducted credibly within a decentralized environment. Such features are instrumental in enhancing services and driving the advancement of blockchain-based applications. The proliferation of blockchain-based applications across various sectors such as financial services, reputation systems, Internet of Things (IoT), among others is evident. However, there remain numerous challenges associated with blockchain technology such as scalability and security that require resolution. This article presents a comprehensive overview of blockchain technology and its applications. It begins by outlining the evolution of blockchain before providing an architectural overview and systematically reviewing the research and application of blockchain technology in diverse fields (including federated learning, reinforcement learning, cloud edge computing, intelligent transportation, power systems, and IoT) from both academic research and industry perspectives. Additionally highlighted are technical challenges alongside recent developments. Finally concluded are some challenges and future directions pertaining to the application of blockchain technology as well as broader perspectives for further study. Received: 24 July 2023 | Revised: 15 September 2023 | Accepted: 10 October 2023 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. Author Contribution Statement Min An: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Writing — original draft, Writing — review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Qiyuan Fan: Methodology, Resources, Supervision. Hao Yu: Methodology. Bo An: Conceptualization, Software, Data curation. Nannan Wu: Conceptualization, Data curation, Visualization, Project administration. Haiyang Zhao: Methodology, Validation, Resources. Xinhao Wan: Validation, Investigation. Jiaxuan Li: Validation, Investigation. Rui Wang: Validation, Investigation. Jingyu Zhen: Software, Formal analysis. Qinyan Zou: Software, Formal analysis. Bin Zhao: Software, Formal analysis.

G. Ragu, S. Ramamoorthy

Digital forensics has intelligently evolved into cloud forensics, which protects against cybercrime. However, centralized evidence gathering and maintenance reduces the credibility of digital evidence. This article suggests a unique digital forensic architecture for the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud combining rapidly expanding Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Blockchain technologies to address this serious issue. Blockchain helps to store the gathered evidence, which means it is shared among many peers in the proposed forensic architecture. The Secure-Ring-Verification-based Authentication (SRVA) technique is recommended to ensure security from suspicious accounts. The Harmony Search Optimization (HSO) technique helps to produce secret keys that strengthen the cloud environment. Depending on their level of sensitivity, all information is encrypted and kept on a cloud server. Sensitive Aware Deep Elliptic Curve Cryptography (SAD-ECC) method was used for encryption. In the cloud, a piece of information is saved, and the SDN manager creates the blocks and stores the history of that piece of data as metadata. Utilizing Secure Hashing Algorithm-3 (SHA-3), a Merkle Hash Tree is constructed for each block. The proposed technology uses Fuzzy-based Smart Contracts (FSCs) to enable clients to trail their data. At last, evidence analysis is made possible by creating a Logical-Graph of Evidence (LGoE) using data collected through Blockchain. The network simulator-3.26 and java (for cloud and Blockchain) environment are used for experiments. A thorough investigation shows that the suggested forensic architecture exhibits favorable response, evidence insertion, and verification times.

Warodom Werapun, Tanakorn Karode, Jakapan Suaboot, Tanwa Arpornthip · 5 authors

Smart contracts refer to small programs that run in a decentralized blockchain infrastructure. The blockchain system is trustless, and the determination of common variables is done by consensus between peers. Developing applications that require generating random variables becomes significantly challenging—for instance, lotteries, games, and random assignments. Many random number generators (RNGs) for smart contracts have been developed for the decentralized environment. The methods can be classified into three categories: on-chain RNG, Verifiable Random Function (VRF), and the Commit–reveal scheme. Although the existing methods offer different strengths and weaknesses, none achieves the three important requirements for an ideal RNG solution: security, applicability, and cost efficiency. This paper proposes a novel RNG approach called Native VRF, which offers application development simplicity and cost efficiency while maintaining strong RNG security properties. Experimental results show that Native VRF has the same security properties as the widely used RNG methods, i.e., Randao and Chainlink VRF. On top of that, our work offers a much simpler setup process and lower hardware resources and developer expertise requirements. Most importantly, the proposed Native VRF is compatible with all Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) blockchains, contributing to the overall growth of the blockchain ecosystem.

Anton Wahrstätter, Matthew D. Solomon, Ben DiFrancesco, Vitalik Buterin · 5 authors

Stealth addresses represent an approach to enhancing privacy within public and distributed blockchains, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. Stealth address protocols employ a distinct, randomly generated address for the recipient, thereby concealing interactions between entities. In this study, we introduce BaseSAP, an autonomous base-layer protocol for embedding stealth addresses within the application layer of programmable blockchains. BaseSAP expands upon previous research to develop a modular protocol for executing unlinkable transactions on public blockchains. BaseSAP allows for the development of additional stealth address layers using different cryptographic algorithms on top of the primary implementation, capitalizing on its modularity. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed protocol, we present simulations of an advanced Secp256k1-based dual-key stealth address protocol. This protocol is developed on top of BaseSAP and deployed on the Ethereum test network as the first prototype implementation. Furthermore, we provide cost analyses and underscore potential security ramifications and attack vectors that could affect the privacy of stealth addresses. Our study highlights the flexibility of the BaseSAP protocol and provides insights into the broader implications of stealth address technology in the realm of blockchain privacy.

Razan Alajlan, Norah Alhumam, Mounir Frikha

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a pervasive technology with various applications ranging from smart homes and cities to industrial automation and healthcare. However, the increasing adoption of IoT devices has also raised significant concerns about cybersecurity and privacy. Blockchain, as a distributed and immutable ledger technology, has been proposed as a potential solution to enhance the security and privacy of IoT systems. Blockchain-based IoT systems offer several benefits, such as decentralization, transparency, and data integrity. However, they also pose unique cybersecurity challenges that need to be addressed for their secure and reliable deployment. In this paper, we review the existing literature and highlight the key challenges in cybersecurity for blockchain-based IoT systems. We categorize these challenges into three main areas: (i) IoT device security, (ii) blockchain security, and (iii) integration of IoT devices with blockchain (network security). Through an in-depth analysis, we present the current state of research and discuss potential solutions for each challenge. Additionally, we contribute by identifying future research directions to address these challenges and enhance the cybersecurity of blockchain-based IoT systems.

Tao Feng, Yufeng Liu

In the blockchain network, the communication delay between different nodes is a great threat to the distributed ledger consistency of each miner. Blockchain is the core technology of Bitcoin. At present, some research has proven the security of the PoW protocol when the number of delay rounds is small, but in complex asynchronous networks, the research is insufficient on the security of the PoW protocol when the number of delay rounds is large. This paper improves the proposed blockchain main chain record model under the PoW protocol and then proposes the TOD model, which makes the main chain record in the model more close to the actual situation and reduces the errors caused by the establishment of the model in the analysis process. By comparing the differences between the TOD model and the original model, it is verified that the improved model has a higher success rate of attack when the probability of mining the delayable block increases. Then, the long delay attack is improved on the balance attack in this paper, which makes the adversary control part of the computing power and improves the success rate of the adversary attack within a certain limit.

Frederik Temmermans, Sabrina Caldwell, Symeon Papadopoulos, Fernando Pereira · 5 authors

Advances in media content manipulation and artificially generated content pose new challenges to the assessment of media authenticity. While automated detection methods can provide meaningful insights and decision support in some scenarios, they cannot provide trustworthy and comprehensive information about the origin and provenance of media assets. Therefore, a longer-term approach should rather focus on secure and interoperable annotations related to the creation and provenance of media. In October 2020, the JPEG Committee initiated a standardization exploration named "JPEG Fake Media" to address these needs. Subsequently, since many of the requirements, for example related to secure annotation and identification of media assets, are also relevant to achieve interoperability in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) an additional exploration was initiated, specifically focused on standardization needs for NFTs. In April 2022 a first Call for Proposals on JPEG Fake Media was issued. Based on the responses to the call, a new standardization project named JPEG Trust was initiated to specify an interoperable framework for establishing trust in media production, distribution, and consumption. This paper presents the journey of JPEG to leverage formal methods of standardization in this context, starting from the initial JPEG Fake Media exploration, followed by the subsequent consideration of NFT use cases and requirements, through to the commencement of the new JPEG Trust international standard.

Müberra Beyza ODABAŞI, Merve Cengiz Toklu

Gelişen teknolojinin sağladığı olanaklar sayesinde internet kullanımıyla gerçekleştirilen işlemlerde artış olmuş ve bu da verilerde artışa neden olmuştur. Bu durum işletmeler için verilerin güvenli bir şekilde saklanması, paylaşılması, kontrolünün sağlaması ve yönetilmesine yönelik yeni teknoloji ihtiyacı doğurmuştur. Bu kapsamda faydalanılabilecek güncel teknolojilerden birisi de blok zinciri (Blockchain) yapısıdır. Blok zinciri yapısı birçok alanda kullanılabilecek bir teknoloji olup günümüzde en popüler kullanım alanı kripto paralar üzerinde olmaktadır. Bu çalışmada önemli alt kripto para birimlerinden biri olan Polkadot kripto para birimi için tahminleme işlemi yapılması amaçlanmıştır. Yapılan çalışmada 20.08.2020 ve 27.02.2023 tarihleri arasındaki veriler kullanılmış olup, bu verilere göre çıktı değer olarak günlük ortalama Polkadot değerinin tahmin edilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Girdi değerleri için kümeler iki farklı şekilde oluşturulmuştur. İlk girdi değerlerinde; Polkadot YouTube arama sayısı, Polkadot Google arama sayısı ve Polkadot hacmi kullanılmıştır. İkinci girdi değerlerinde ise ilk girdi değerlerinden farklı olarak alt kripto paraların lideri Ethereum eklenmiştir. İki farklı girdi yapısından oluşan bu çalışmada Polkadot para birimi günlük ortalama değerlerinin tahminlenebilmesi için yapay sinir ağlarında çok katmanlı algılayıcılar ile derin öğrenme yöntemlerinden olan uzun kısa süreli bellek yapısı kullanılarak tahminleme çalışması yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar incelendiğinde elde edilen yapay sinir ağlarında 4 girdi kümesinden oluşan değerlerin 0,93 korelasyon katsayısı ile daha iyi sonuç verdiği belirlenmiştir.

Venkata K. V. V. Bathalapalli, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos, Vasanth Iyer · 5 authors

This work presents a sustainable cybersecurity solution using Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF), Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and Tangle Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for sustainable device and data security. Security-by-Design (SbD) or Hardware- Assisted Security (HAS) solutions have gained much prominence due to the requirement of tamper-proof storage for hardwareassisted cryptography solutions. Designing complex security mechanisms can impact their efficiency as IoT applications are more decentralized. In the proposed architecture, we presented a novel TPM-enabled PUF-based security mechanism with effective integration of PUF with TPM. The proposed mechanism is based on the process of sealing the PUF key in the TPM, which cannot be accessed outside the TPM and can only be unsealed by the TPM itself. A specified NV-index is assigned to each IoT node for sealing the PUF key to TPM using the Media Access Control (MAC) address. Access to the TPM's Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM) is defined by the TPM's Enhanced Authorization policies as specified by the Trust Computing Group (TCG). The proposed architecture uses Tangle for sustainable data security and storage in decentralized IoT systems through a Masked Authentication Messaging (MAM) scheme for efficient and secure access control to Tangle. We validated the proposed approach through experimental analysis and implementation, which substantiates the potential of the presented PUFchain 4.0 for decentralized IoT-driven security solutions.

Viktor Yakovlev, V. Salman

A generalized scheme of remote electronic voice based on homomorphic encryption is considered. Two methods of protecting the voting system from the threat from the voter, consisting in incorrect filling of the ballot by the voter, are investigated. Both methods are based on the algorithms of “zero-knowledge proof”. Evaluations of the complexity of calculations in the formation of proof of the correctness of filling in the ballot by the voter and Evaluations of the complexity of verification of the proof by the controlling party are obtained. A comparative analysis of the complexity of the implementation of both methods has shown that the method based on the proof based on the equality of logarithms has less complexity of calculations on the voter's side compared to the method based on the mixing of votes. At the same time, the second method (the method of mixing votes) requires 1.67 times less calculations in the blockchain, which becomes a significant factor in choosing the second method in favor of a large number of voters.

Prof. Afsha Akkalot, Parth Vijaykumar Lashkare, Hemant Patel, Dharmendrasingh Rajpurohit

Abstract: The emergence of blockchain technology has paved the way for the development of secured e-voting systems that are transparent, immutable, and tamper-proof. In this survey report, we examine the current trends and future prospects of using blockchain technology for e-voting. We begin by exploring the key features of blockchain technology, including distributed ledger, cryptographic security, and decentralized consensus mechanisms. Next, we discuss the benefits of using blockchain technology for e-voting, including voter anonymity, transparent voting process, and immutable voting records. To gain a better understanding of the current state of the field, we conducted a survey of recent literature on blockchain-based evoting systems. The survey covers research articles, white papers, and conference proceedings published in the last five years. We analysed the data using statistical software and present our findings on the most commonly used consensus algorithms, cryptographic techniques, and blockchain architectures in e-voting systems. Our survey also highlights the challenges facing the adoption of blockchain-based e-voting systems, including scalability, usability, and regulatory issues. We conclude by discussing the future prospects of blockchain-based e-voting systems and identifying the areas that require further research and development. Overall, this survey report provides valuable insights into the current trends and future prospects of using blockchain technology for e-voting, and will be useful for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working in this field.

Feng Yu, Jiahui Peng, Xianxian Li, Chunpei Li · 5 authors

With the proliferation of the Internet, particularly the rise of social media, digital images have gradually become an important part of life, and trading platforms have emerged for buying and selling images. However, traditional image trading service providers may disclose users' private information for profit. Additionally, many image trading platforms disregard the fairness of a transaction and the issue of copyright protection after an image is sold. This neglect harms the interests of users and affects their enthusiasm for trading. A secure way to safely transact images is needed. We proposed a copyright-preserving and fair image trading scheme based on blockchain, which combines amplifying locality-sensitive hashing with searchable symmetric encryption to achieve safe image retrieval on blockchain and ensure the credibility of the image retrieval process. Additionally, we use digital fingerprint and watermark technologies to realize the copyright protection of images and use smart contracts to achieve fair transaction processes. The experimental results show that our scheme can protect image copyrights and realize a fair trading process while ensuring efficiency.

Authors unavailable

The maintenance of any confidential records pertaining to education, health, or finance has seen a dramatic rise in the use of advanced technologies.However, because of their uncertainties, current sophisticated technologies have some problems.In terms of anonymity, attack-free security, transparency, dependability, and flexibility, these technologies have some shortcomings.Consequently, a blockchain application can be created to handle the events of a department or college.Decentralization improves the usability and upkeep of this application without adding to the costs incurred by hosting a centralised application on a leased third-party server.This programme does not rely on any third-party storage software because it stores the documents effectively using the IPFS file system.This method allows for seamless communication between students and teachers without the interference of outside programmes like WhatsApp or Google Classroom.

Peilin Zheng, Xiapu Luo, Zibin Zheng

Supporting the most popular cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin platform allows its transactions to be programmable via its scripts. Defects in Bitcoin scripts will make users lose their bitcoins. However, there are few studies on the defects of Bitcoin scripts. In this paper, we conduct the first systematic investigation on the defects of Bitcoin scripts through three steps, including defect definition, defect detection, and exploitation tracing. First, we define six typical defects of scripts in Bitcoin history, namely unbinded-txid, simple-key, useless-sig, uncertain-sig, impossible-key, and never-true. Three are inspired by the community, and three are new from us. Second, we develop a tool to discover Bitcoin scripts with any of typical defects based on symbolic execution and enhanced by historical exact scripts. By analyzing all Bitcoin transactions from Oct. 2009 to Aug. 2022, we find that 383,544 transaction outputs are paid to the Bitcoin scripts with defects. The total amount of them is 3,115.43 BTC, which is around 60 million dollars at present. Third, in order to trace the exploitation of the defects, we instrument the Bitcoin VM to record the traces of the real-world spending transactions of the buggy scripts. We find that 84,130 output scripts are exploited. The implementation and non-harmful datasets are released.

Jinhua Fu, Wenhui Zhou, Suzhi Zhang

As one of the most widely used federated chains, hyperledger fabric uses many cryptographic algorithms to ensure the security of information on the chain, but the ECDSA cryptographic algorithm used in the fabric system has backdoor security risks. In this paper, the authors adopt SM2 algorithm to replace the corresponding ECDSA algorithm for blockchain design based on fabric platform. Firstly, they optimize the part of SM2 signature algorithm process with inverse operation and effectively reduce the time complexity by reducing the inverse operation in the whole process, and the experimental results show that the improved SM2 algorithm improves the signature and verification efficiency by about 5.7%. Secondly, by adding SM2 algorithm template and interface to the BCCSP module of fabric platform to realize the shift value of SM2 algorithm and compare the performance with the native fabric system, the network startup time is reduced by about 29%. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the improved SM2 algorithm, and also the performance of the optimized fabric system is improved.

R. A. Zamare, Pramey Deshmukh, Chinmay Gulhane, Mohd Meeran Iqbal · 6 authors

The use of E-Voting systems has become popular in these recent years due to the ability of Blockchain environment to provide a more efficient and convenient voting process. Earlier, the security and integrity of e-voting systems has been very concerning, as they are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and manipulation. On the contrary, Blockchain technology provides a decentralized and distributed platform that can ensure the integrity and immutability of data. This research paper proposes an e-voting system based on blockchain technology. The proposed system aims to provide a secure, transparent, and tamper-proof voting process. The system utilizes smart contracts, which automates the voting processes and ensures the accuracy of the results. The system also provides transparency and accuracy, allowing voters to verify their vote and ensuring that the results are accurate and trustworthy. The proposed system will be tested and evaluated to determine its effectiveness and feasibility. The evaluation will focus on the security, scalability, and usability of the system. The security evaluation will test the system's ability to prevent attacks and ensure the confidentiality of the votes. The scalability evaluation will test the system's ability to handle a large number of voters and transactions. The usability evaluation will test the ease of use and accessibility of the system for all types of voters

Yongjun Ren, Zhiying Lv, Naixue Xiong, Jin Wang

As a new type of digital living space that blends virtual and reality, Metaverse combines many emerging technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on VR technology and stores and protects users’ digital content and digital assets through blockchain technology. However, different virtual environments are often highly heterogeneous in terms of underlying architecture and software implementation technology, which leads to many challenges in scalability and interoperability for blockchains serving the Metaverse. Cross-chain technology is an essential technology to realize the scalability and interoperability of blockchain. However, the current cross-chain technologies all have their own merits and demerits, and there is no cross-chain solution that can be fully applied to any scenario. To this end, in the blockchain-based Metaverse, this article proposes a cross-chain transaction scheme based on improved hash timelock, HCNCT. By combining the notary mechanism, this scheme uses a group of notaries to supervise and participate in cross-chain transactions, effectively solving the problem that malicious users create a large number of time-out transactions to block the transaction channel, which exists in the traditional hash timelock method. Besides, this article uses the verifiable secret sharing method in the notary group, which can effectively prevent the centralization problem of the notary mechanism. Moreover, this article discusses the process of key processing, cross-chain transaction and transaction verification of the scheme, and designs the user credibility evaluation mechanism, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of malicious default of users. Compared with existing solutions, our solution has the advantage of effectively addressing time-out transaction attacks and centralization issues while guaranteeing security. The experiments also verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Wenjie Tang, Wenzhong Yang, Xiaodan Tian, Shaoqi Yuan

With the development of science and technology, the traditional centralized ballot management will lead to the risk of an opaque voting process and tampering of back-end data, and it can no longer meet the requirements of e-voting transparency and anonymity, while the distributed blockchain technology, with its features of being transparent and tamper-proof, can well solve the problems in traditional e-voting and make the ballot firmly in the hands of users. To make each node reach consensus, each node can access the complete shared ledger, and malicious nodes can analyze the transaction information in the ledger to obtain users’ voting information, which makes anonymity impossible to guarantee. We propose a blockchain technology-based voting record synchronization model and an anonymous authentication model, using zk-SNARK and Merkle tree technology, that achieve user authentication and anonymous voting. In this scheme, the user’s random identity address is inserted into the Merkle tree, and when voting, it is only necessary to prove that the user’s identity address is in the tree to complete anonymous voting without revealing the user’s real identity. This scheme meets the basic requirements of electronic voting and ensures the reliability and security of voting.

Summiya A. Pathan, C. Noorullah Shariff

Summary Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency system that uses a distributed data structure called blockchain, a log that lists all transaction details accomplished with the currency. The bitcoin network delivers a promising infrastructure for one who makes use of e‐currency in e‐commerce. However, the transaction of bitcoin is highly suffered with some scalability issues that could not be overwhelmed with the prior methodologies. Hence, a novel scalability blockchain tumbling framework is proposed to tackle the scalability issues in which a rake interior blockchain etiquette is designed to increase the number of bitcoin transactions in which peer faction algorithm groups blocks that reduces propagation delay and ravenous algorithm ensure higher credibility of transaction with tamper resistant. However, transaction size of the record is high hence, to manage transaction record a novel batch payment into one transaction approach is utilized to limit the size of the transaction records by initiating a precise block using block summing‐up and chagrin algorithms that collects all trust information about blocks. Thus the proposed framework attains 550 bitcoin transaction within 2 min and latency of proposed model is reduced below 60 s.

SOUVIK DAS, DR. VAISHALI SHENDE, JITANSHU TIWARI, Suyash Singh · 5 authors

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that provide unique ownership and authenticity of digital media such as art, music, and collectibles.NFT Marketplace is a blockchain-based platform that enables the creation, trading, and collecting of NFTs.The platform leverages blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity and ownership of NFTs, providing a secure and transparent way to transact digital assets.In this major project report, we explore the NFT Marketplace and its underlying blockchain technology.We provide an overview of the platform's features, including the ability to tokenize any digital asset, create customizable smart contracts, and sell NFTs with low fees and instant trades.We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the platform, including its ease of use, potential for fraud, and scalability challenges.The Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have revolutionized the digital realm, redefining the concept of ownership and trade of unique digital assets.NFTs represent one-of-a-kind tokens, each verifiably and indelibly linked to a specific digital or physical asset, encompassing diverse forms of content, including video, audio, and images.These unique tokens have paved the way for creators to monetize their digital creations while providing collectors with an innovative means to invest, trade, and showcase their multimedia NFT collections.Central to the NFT ecosystem are NFT marketplaces, digital platforms designed to facilitate the creation, sale, and management of NFTs in various multimedia formats.These marketplaces have proliferated, providing creators with the means to mint NFTs, buyers with the opportunity to acquire them, and collectors with platforms to curate and trade their diverse NFT portfolios.We explore the multifaceted world of NFT marketplaces, focusing on their pivotal role in the creation, sale, and management of video, audio, and image NFTs.We analyze the economic implications, including pricing strategies and royalties, while addressing environmental sustainability concerns associated with NFTs.Challenges and opportunities encountered within this dynamic ecosystem are critically examined, including scalability, intellectual property rights, and the emergence of decentralized NFT marketplaces.Through in-depth case studies, we offer insights into the unique features and innovative approaches adopted by leading NFT marketplaces, shedding light on the transformative potential of this digital metaverse.This report serves as a valuable resource for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of NFT marketplaces catering to video, audio, and image NFTs, emphasizing the profound impact these tokens have on the creation, trade, and experience of digital content across various media formats.Navigating this dynamic digital frontier necessitates a nuanced perspective, and our survey aims to provide a holistic view of this rapidly evolving landscape.

Helena Stublić, Matea Bilogrivić, Goran Zlodi

In the last few years, blockchain technology and NFTs have been the subject of much research in different sectors ranging from informatics, to medicine, to economics. Although it is most often associated with cryptocurrencies, due to its features of immutability and durability, this technology has found its place in various fields, including GLAM institutions. This article will review the literature from 2017 to 2022 dealing with blockchain and NFTs in the heritage sector. Topics covered, proposed models, and projects will be highlighted. Archives are currently leading the research into the use of blockchain technology and have already developed models such as TrustChain. However, libraries, museums, and galleries are also beginning to show an interest in the new technology and its potential benefits. Therefore, we also approached the GLAM sector as a whole, to emphasize the importance of the joint development on the advancement of shared approaches and protocols in utilizing blockchain technology to enhance the trustworthy management and preservation of digital resources. This is particularly important because GLAM institutions care for a shared heritage and serve a common audience. In the second part of the article we will discuss the proposed uses of the technology and highlight still unexplored topics that should be elaborated in further research. The aim of this paper is to make a synthesis of previous research and bring the potential of blockchain technology and NFTs closer to experts in the heritage field, given that they are still quite unknown.

Jiaqi Wu, Yujuan Zhou, Yuhao Zhang, Dingxiang Zheng · 6 authors

Blockchain or distributed ledger technology has attracted great interest from companies in the energy industry. The combination of blockchain and energy is undoubtedly one of the most striking technological innovations in recent years. A typical application area of blockchain in the energy industry is trading and credit. Stakeholders use blockchain technology to promote distributed or wholesale energy transactions and create virtual grids. Consumers can trade between their own devices and resources, with their neighbors and with the grid. The whole process can be automated through smart contracts. In this article, we will discuss some use cases related to the application of blockchain in the energy field.