In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin emerged as an alternative monetary system that could circumvent political and financial authorities. A practice in libertarian prefigurative politics, Bitcoin demonstrates the capacity for online subgroups to creatively appropriate internet-based technologies to enact alternative futures. Andrew Feenbergâs critical theory of technology clarifies this capacity and outlines the significance of agency in technical action. As technology mediates many social relations, it has a significant role in the reproduction of social power. Technological agency is therefore a crucial site of resistance in which users can form alternative, democratic rationalizations of technology. Yet are such instances of agency intrinsically democratic? In analysing this aspect of Feenbergâs theory, this article argues that Bitcoin represents a âpopular rationalizationâ of technology â a creative appropriation of technology that empowers some groups while lacking the ethical justification necessary to be considered democratic.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have surged in popularity over the last decade. Although Bitcoin does not claim to provide anonymity for its users, it enjoys a public perception of being a `privacy-preserving' financial system. In reality, cryptocurrencies publish users' entire transaction histories in plaintext, albeit under a pseudonym; this is required for transaction validation. Therefore, if a user's pseudonym can be linked to their human identity, the privacy fallout can be significant. Recently, researchers have demonstrated deanonymization attacks that exploit weaknesses in the Bitcoin network's peer-to-peer (P2P) networking protocols. In particular, the P2P network currently forwards content in a structured way that allows observers to deanonymize users. In this work, we redesign the P2P network from first principles with the goal of providing strong, provable anonymity guarantees. We propose a simple networking policy called Dandelion, which achieves nearly-optimal anonymity guarantees at minimal cost to the network's utility. We also provide a practical implementation of Dandelion.
Data is nowadays an invaluable resource, indeed it guides all business decisions in most of the computer-aided human activities. Threats to data integrity are thus of paramount relevance, as tampering with data may maliciously affect crucial business decisions. This issue is especially true in cloud computing environments, where data owners cannot control fundamental data aspects, like the physical storage of data and the control of its accesses. Blockchain has recently emerged as a fascinating technology<br> which, among others, provides compelling properties about data integrity. Using the blockchain to face data integrity threats seems to be a natural choice, but its current limitations of low throughput, high latency, and weak stability hinder the practical feasibility of any blockchain-based solutions.<br> In this paper, by focusing on a case study from the European SUNFISH project, which concerns the design of a secure by-design cloud federation platform for the public sector, we precisely delineate the actual data integrity needs of cloud computing environments and the research questions to be tackled to adopt blockchain-based databases. First, we detail the open research questions and the difficulties inherent in addressing them. Then, we outline a preliminary design of an effective blockchain-based database for cloud computing environments.
Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular since the introduction of bitcoin in 2009. In this paper, we identify factors associated with variations in cryptocurrencies' market values. In the past, researchers argued that the "buzz" surrounding cryptocurrencies in online media explained their price variations. But this observation obfuscates the notion that cryptocurrencies, unlike fiat currencies, are technologies entailing a true innovation potential. By using, for the first time, a unique measure of innovation potential, we find that the latter is in fact the most important factor associated with increases in cryptocurrency returns. By contrast, we find that the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies is negatively associated with returns after controlling for a variety of factors, such as supply growth and liquidity. Also interesting is our finding that a cryptocurrency's association with fraudulent activity is not negatively associated with weekly returns-a result that further qualifies the media's influence on cryptocurrencies. Finally, we find that an increase in supply is positively associated with weekly returns. Taken together, our findings show that cryptocurrencies do not behave like traditional currencies or commodities-unlike what most prior research has assumed-and depict an industry that is much more mature, and much less speculative, than has been implied by previous accounts.
Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed. Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the worldâs first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a remarkable accomplishment, and it indicates that the GCC has learned and applied a number of global VAT and technology lessons. One of the most visible flaws in the EU VAT is its openness to cross-border frauds â both intra-community and extra-community frauds. Missing traders are the problem. This is what the GCC has corrected. The perpetrators of tax fraud are not at all concerned about the specific tax law that they are abusing; they are looking solely at revenue streams, and the probability that they will get caught. As a result, when a fraudster finds a single activity that attacks multiple tax systems, it becomes a favored vector, and we find a nexus of frauds clustered around a unitary fraud operation. The governmentâs perspective is just the opposite of the fraudsterâs. A focus on one kind of tax fraud may well resolve many more kinds of fraud. This appears to be what will happen as the GCC VAT is rolled out after January 1, 2018. The example considered in this paper involves the illicit cigarette trade. By resolving missing trader frauds, the GCC may (unintentionally) make a serious dent in the illicit cigarette trade and the theft of cigarette tax revenues (a manufacturerâs tax), precisely because the operation of the GCC VAT will increase the cigarette fraudsterâs probability of detection. A âtax fraud nexusâ that could easily be replicated in the GCC (if an unmodified EU-style VAT were to be adopted) can be seen in the Danish chocolate frauds. These frauds were examined in the first program of the three part Danish documentary, How Fraudulent Denmark (SĂ„dan Svindles Danmark). The documentary appeared on DR TV January 12 and 25, and February 1, 2016. The fraud vehicle was candy that was re-sold by traders who purchased expired chocolate from the Mars Denmark Company. The primary fraud, re-packaging and then re-selling expired chocolate was carried out in a manner that attacked two tax regimes â the chocolate tax (a manufacturerâs tax) and the VAT (a consumption tax). This scheme funded organized crime; a different scheme examined in the second program of the documentary funded Islamic terrorists. The GCC seems to be very aware of the missing trader fraud discussed in the documentary. Technology innovations that will suppress it are set out in Article 71 of the GCC Framework Agreement. No other VAT Framework or VAT Directive has such a provision. One of the tax-related side benefits from resolving missing trader fraud in the GCC VAT will likely be the suppression of cigarette smuggling, and the recovery of important revenues from the cigarette tax, which has been raised to a 200% levy. If Denmark had a VAT provision similar to Article 71 it would likely solve the VAT and Chocolate Tax frauds considered in the documentary.
Mathieu Chanson, Alexander Bogner, Felix Wortmann, Elgar Fleisch
Giving people ownership of the data they produce becomes more and more important in times of ever-growing capabilities to collect and analyze data of individuals. In light of this challenge, we show how blockchain technology can enable privacy by presenting an odometer fraud prevention system. It records mileage and GPS data of cars and secures that on the blockchain, which strongly hinders odometer fraud. Our users own and control their data while at the same time data integrity is ensured. This facilitates the certification of that data. We discuss the advantages of this approach compared to current systems and also highlight limitations of our architecture and the use of blockchain technology.
Over the last decade, a promising technology has raised global attention: blockchain. Predictions and testimonies to its potential are promising. However, despite this proliferation of material, there continues to be limited empirical analysis of its positioned values and a demonstrated need to understand and overcome the limitations of the technology. This thesis analyses two current applications of blockchain for human rights business practice and argues that in order for its true value to be realized, traditional legal and regulatory functions and systems of accountability must not be substituted with technology. With a literature review supplemented with primary research, I gather qualitative analysis to reveal avenues to be taken into consideration for future applications of the technology in supply chain initiatives as well as current evolutions of blockchainâs current applications.
Lynden Griggs, Rod Thomas, Rouhshi Low, James Scheibner
Electronic conveyancing is here. But how will it evolve with the development of blockchains being touted as one means by which fraud in relation to land can be minimised, if not eliminated? With centralised land registries requiring expensive risk minimisation strategies such as a government-funded assurance fund, or the taking out of private title insurance, can blockchains provide a systemic level of security that can improve the land titles system, and lessen the need for other forms of risk minimisation? Advocates of blockchain technology are high on hyperbole with what it can offer to support smart transaction types in a number of ïŹelds. For others, blockchains have no great advantage when applied to physical assets such as real property, and are limited in their utility.This article seeks to advance the discussion, particularly in the context of land administration. Against a backdrop of fraud occurring in title by registration systems, the authors explain what blockchain technology is, before testing its validity by outlining four common fraud scenarios within land administration, and asking whether blockchain technology would have eliminated the frauds in question. The ïŹndings show that blockchains would have prevented the fraud in two of the scenarios, but not in the remaining two. In addition, the ïŹndings note some of the known unknowns that will need to be resolved prior to any enactment of a blockchain solution. The articles conclusion is that where the process leading to registration is in some way unreliable, blockchains may offer some advantages. However, once the entry of the transaction is registered, blockchains can play no role in testing or checking the veracity of that entry. The authors also consider that, in the context of derivative interests in land, such as easements, mortgages and fee simples, blockchain technology is limited in capacity. Similarly, joint ownership of land is routine, yet the security nuances of blockchains may make joint ownership within a blockchain context difïŹcult. These last two limitations restrict the current applicability of blockchains and make its application questionable for existing, soundly established land administration systems.
The overall market is in front of a new technological change, where blockchain is the most probable technology that will be implemented. There are several markets that need a technology that bring more efficiency, safety and transparency into the market, for instance the real estate market. The real estate market is highly important to the overall economy due to its size and devastating consequences if it collapses. A real estate crisis often affect and creates financial crises which in turn could lead to economic meltdowns both on a micro- but also on a macrolevel. There are inefficiencies within the real estate market that might cause the crises, such as problems with transparency and illiquidity, high transaction costs, personal biases and slow transaction processes. This master thesis examines the potential of an implementation of blockchain technology on the real estate market and how it might affect the inefficiencies within the market. Blockchain is a new and emerging information technology with several markets and areas suitable for an implementation. Earlier researches on the topic are generally focusing on the technology itself or its implication impacts in the financial sector. This master thesis aims to examine the implications to implement blockchain technology on the real estate market and how an implementation would impact the market. To be able to answer the research questions formulated in the thesis, an extensive literature study has been conducted, and additionally, semi-structured interviews as well as a questionnaire have been performed. The research is primarily contributing with an improved knowledge about blockchain technology and its potentials and challenges on the real estate market. One conclusion from the study is that the technology is most likely capable in changing the real estate market fundamentally, which is why the topic needs to be investigated deeper and to develop the technology further for a successful implementation.
Blockchain technology is increasingly being seen as a general purpose technology with far reaching (institutional) effects. However, the ongoing empirical blockchain discussions on these effects are unstructured, due to high complexities. Both practitioners and researchers therefore struggle to get to the core of blockchain technology consequences. We use a Grounded Theory approach to map the ongoing blockchain discussion, which leads to our empirical core category that explains the core of the blockchain discussions: the disintermediation of trust in environments with highly institutionalized values. Blockchain technology is thus often related to trust in our empirical data. However, following the conceptualization of Reliance â Trust and Control by Nooteboom, we show that blockchain technology should be more related to control, instead of trust. Futhermore, we argue that complete control is not always possible in blockchain- systems due to inherent character of decentralized decision making and thus, trust is still a factor in some blockchain environments. We conclude that blockchain technology is a technology that increases control over counterparties in a transaction, but decreases control from a systems-perspective. A transfer of power in the system therefore takes place in blockchain environments. We therefore present our final core category as: power transfer in environments with highly institutionalized values. This strong conceptualization of blockchain technology helps actors understand and discuss the essence of blockchain technology, and provides a much- needed empirical basis for further scientific research. Further development of this conceptualization of trust and control is needed to structure the ongoing blockchain discussions in both scientific literature and practice.
In this paper a novel feedback controller and stability analysis of a blockchain implementation is developed by using a control engineering perspective. The controller output equals the difficulty adjustment in the mining process while the feedback variable is the average block time over a certain time period. The computational power (hash rate) of the miners is considered a disturbance in the model. The developed controller is tested against a simulation model with constant disturbance, step and ramp responses as well as with a high-frequency sinusoidal disturbance. Stability and a fast response is demonstrated in all these cases with a controller which adjusts it's output at every new block. Finally the performance of the controller is implemented and demonstrated on a testnet with a constant hash rate as well as on the mainnet of a public open source blockchain project.
This article proposes a decentralized solution towards capping greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing blockchain-based technology that will allow teams of academics to issue carbon credits as cryptocurrency. Ideally, these "Crypto Carbon Credits" will be issued to individuals and organizations that verifiably cap greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the world. The issued Credits can then be sold to businesses and nations that wish to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. This will have the effect of creating a decentralized emissions market.
Blockchain is considered to be a disruptive innovation of the computing model after mainframe, personal computer, and it has become the necessary technology sustain of information sharing and effective cooperation for supply chain. To research on the problem of trust evaluation among supply chain enterprises, through introducing four factors of transaction satisfaction, product ability, risk probability of information concealment and reward and penalty factor, a trust evaluation model to evaluate enterprises' joint credibility and association credibility under blockchain environment was presented.
Blockchain technologies hold the key to building an inclusive global digital economy that is auditably secure and transparently accountable to the world's citizens. At a time when governments must fight to restore the public's faith in cross-border economic cooperation, blockchains can play a critical role in strengthening economic resilience while ensuring the global economy works to the benefit of all. The G20 must take decisive steps to harness this technology in service of its policy goals across the core focus areas of economic resilience, financial inclusion, taxation, trade and investment, employment, climate, health, sustainable development, and women's empowerment. Failure to do so risks further fragmenting the global economy, undermining public trust in international economic institutions, and pushing the most cutting-edge blockchain developments into dark web deployments that are beyond the reach of government influence. By acting now to embrace blockchains' socially beneficial properties and minimize their potential downside risks, the G20 governments can lay the foundation for a just, prosperous, and truly shared global economy.
This paper aims to identify the business models used by blockchain-based initiatives and\nprojects in the electricity market and identify how they affect it. This research examines the\nmarket trends within the electricity market as well as general socioeconomic and\ntechnological developments.\nThis paper is based on a conceptual analysis of case studies that utilise blockchain\ntechnology in the electricity market and an empirical evaluation of considerations that have\nto be made when implementing a peer-to-peer energy-trading platform. For the conceptual\nanalysis, a four-dimensional business model framework has been defined. To specify the\ndimensions of the business model, categories and characteristics have been identified that\nhave been determined to be characteristic to the 22 analysed case studies. Seven business\nmodel archetypes were subsequently derived from the initial four-dimensional review of the\ncase studies.\nThis paper adds value to both research and practice in three ways. First, it facilitates\ndiscussions about blockchains in the electricity market and their practical use. Second, it\nsheds light on the implications of their use on the electricity market and its participants.\nThird, it highlights what factors need to be considered when implementing a blockchainbased\nP2P energy-trading platform.\nWhile the first energy blockchain project was introduced in 2015, at the time this paper was\nsubmitted it was the first publication that analysed blockchain-based business models in the\nelectricity market. In writing this paper, the author has assumed that readers have only little\nknowledge of blockchain technologies and the opportunities for their application in the\nenergy market.
Industries and old ways of doing business have been reshaped or become entirely obsolete due to the new digitalization trends. The current technology to truly revolutionize and disrupt especially industries that rely on trust, such as the financial sector, is the blockchain technology. The core idea of this technol-ogy is that it is a public, shared and tamperproof ledger that allows people who do not know or even trust in each other to share information in a trustworthy ledger, where any sorts of immaterial infor-mation of value can be stored. This thesis is a literature review that provides a theoretical framework to examine how the blockchain technology affects particularly the financial sector. As this thesis acknowledges, the blockchain technology has the ability to enhance efficiency, increase transparency, reduce risks when less assets are tied up during transactions and reduce expenditures, such as transaction costs in the financial sector. One of the most ambitious application of the blockchain technology is smart contracts, but there are other applications as well that can benefit the financial sec-tor. The technology has great potential to disrupt the current financial system, but since the technology is still in its initial stage of development, it is too early to say what the blockchain technology will exactly enable. The most extreme hypothesis is that the blockchain technology makes banks unnecessary. How-ever, this thesis argues that the financial institutions are more likely to take advantage of the blockchain technology than to become obsolete because of it.
Damiano Di Francesco Maesa, Laura Ricci, Paolo Mori
We defined a distributed access control system on top of blockchain technology. The underlying idea \nis to properly represent the access rights of the subjects in the blockchain in order to easily allow \ntheir enforcement at access request time. By leveraging blockchain advantages we can add new \ndesired properties, such as auditability, to the access control system. To prove the feasibility and \nvalidate the proposed approach we developed a proof of concept implementation and performed \nsome relevant experiments.