Jan 1, 2024·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
While the metaverse offers opportunities to bridge the digital divide, it raises concerns regarding data privacy, ethical implications of avatar representation, and diversity and inclusion. This research investigates potential bias in CryptoPunks, one of the most valuable Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and performs multiple analyses to examine systematic differences between the light and dark skin-tone groups. Our results reveal the following: dark skin-tone punks are traded more frequently and valued based on the rarity relatively; the likelihood of owners having an Ethereum Name Service account is lower in the dark skin-tone group. These findings suggest that dark skin-tone punks are more likely to be treated as investment assets, while light skin-tone punks are often held for private values. Our research represents one of the first empirical investigations into various aspects of racial biases in NFTs. The findings provide valuable insights, highlighting the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the metaverse.
Blockchain Technology and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have drawn much interest due to their special qualities, and potential in numerous industries, including Pharma. Recently, medical asset management has grown significantly. This study explores how blockchain and a novel designed framework “TokenPharma” NFTs can transform medical asset ownership in healthcare. It examines cryptographic foundations, decentralized structures, and smart contracts. It addresses patient data security, asset management, and transparent transactions. This paper proposes an NFT-based Pharma marketplace using Solidity smart contracts, Ethereum Virtual Machine, and ERC721 tokens to overcome challenges. The proposed structure is tested by using Remix-IDE, Truffle, Metamask, and the Ethereum Sepolia test network. Various smart contracts, algorithms, events, and functions facilitate NFT token minting, purchase, and sale in the pharmaceutical marketplace. Performance tests using Ethereum SDK, Geth, and Hyperledger Caliper assess the proposal’s effectiveness. Following the data, the average latency for Resell_Token, Buy_Token, and Create_Token was 4.27 seconds, 4.68 seconds, and 5.04 seconds, consecutively. Further, the average throughput for Create_Token, Buy_Token, and Resell_Token was 223.83TPS, 262.7TPS, and 268.76TPS accordingly. Resell_Token has the highest throughput since it needs fewer write operations, although Buy_Token has a higher throughput than Create_Token, according to the performance analysis. The function measured the average CPU utilization, while the memory usage fluctuated between 645 to 780 MB on average. TokenPharma outperforms the state-of-the-art when the given parameters are taken into consideration.
Sadia Hussain, Shahzaib Tahir, Asif Masood, Hasan Tahir
The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an incipient topic within the wider domain of the Internet of Things (IoT). Using this technology intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can be developed, whose main purpose is to ensure more safety, faster travel, reduced energy consumption and improved vehicle upkeep. Devices connected within the IoV transmit a vast amount of data, which leads to additional costs on the communication network along with data security concerns. This research considers the potential uses of blockchain technology for improving communication between independent vehicles. In this paper, a decentralized system is proposed to enhance the security and performance of financial transactions in the network of autonomous cars based on the Ethereum blockchain. Our system is divided into two modules: car registration and message alert generating. New vehicles are allowed on the network using the smart contract that has been written and published on the Ethereum Remix IDE. This is the contract code attached to the Metamask wallet. Another module, the message alert-generating module, allows an administrator to send alert messages to all registered cars via a web-based system to their wallet for an Ethereum gas cost. It ensures the reliability of data transferred between the self-driving cars through the use of blockchain-based systems. The data is, therefore, confirmed and vetted using the proof of work and stake consensus algorithm to bring out the truth. The transaction being made, the system will see to it that the transaction made is of integrity and trustable. By synching all these technologies and means of reaching an agreement, the blockchain secures not only the means of keeping and retaining the information of the kept within self-driving vehicles but also establishes a strong foundation of highest trust and transparency in the interaction between the vehicles on the network. Accordingly, a well-defined and reliable conceptual design for the communication systems of autonomous vehicles has been proposed. Future work and the unresolved issues of using blockchain for autonomous vehicles have also been deliberated over in detail.
This paper considers the "DeFi intermediation chain"-the market structure that underlies the creation and distribution of ETH, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum-to examine how information asymmetry shapes intermediation rents.We argue that using proof-of-stake blockchain technology in DeFi leads to a novel limit to arbitrage, arising from the tension between arbitrageurs' privacy needs and blockchain transparency.Using a new dataset which distinguishes private and public transactions in Ethereum, we find that a 1% increase in private information advantage leads to a 1.4% increase in intermediaries' profit share.We develop a dynamic bargaining model that predicts information market power stems exclusively from participants' private information advantage.Our analysis illustrates how blockchain technology can sustain arbitrage opportunities despite low entry barriers.
As the popularity of cryptocurrencies grows, the threat of phishing scams on trading networks is growing. Detecting unusual transactions within the complex structure of these transaction graphs and imbalanced data between Benign and Scams remains a very important task. In this paper, we present Disentangled Prototypical Graph Convolutional Autoencoder, which is optimized for detecting anomalies in cryptocurrency transactions. Our model redefines the approach to analyzing cryptocurrency transactions by treating them as edges and accounts as nodes within a graph neural network enhanced by autoencoders. The DP-GCAE model differentiates itself from existing models by implementing disentangled representation learning within its autoencoder framework. This innovative approach allows for a more nuanced capture of the complex interactions within Ethereum transaction graphs, significantly enhancing the ability of the model to discern subtle patterns often obscured in imbalanced datasets. Building upon this, the autoencoder employs a triplet network to effectively disentangle and reconstruct the graph. Reconstruction is used as input to Graph Convolutional Network to detect unusual patterns through prototyping. In experiments conducted on real Ethereum transaction data, our proposed DP-GCAE model showed remarkable performance improvements. Compared with existing graph convolution methods, the DP-GCAE model achieved a 37.7 percent point increase in F1 score, validating the effectiveness and importance of incorporating disentangled learning approaches in graph anomaly detection. These advances not only improve the F1-score of identifying phishing scams in cryptocurrency networks, but also provide a powerful framework that can be applied to a variety of graph-based anomaly detection tasks.
The e-commerce market heavily relies on e-coupons, and their digital nature presents challenges in establishing a secure e-coupon infrastructure, which incurs maintenance costs. To address this, we explore using public blockchains for the e-coupon system, providing a highly reliable decentralized infrastructure with no maintenance costs. Storing coupon information on a blockchain ensures tamper resistance and protection against double redemption. However, using public blockchains shifts gas cost responsibility to users, potentially impacting user experience if not managed carefully. This paper focuses on cost-effective management of multiple e-coupons on Ethereum-based chains by minimizing reading and writing to storage. It applies the NFT standard with implicit ownership for creating, transferring, and removing coupons from circulation, utilizing bitmaps for efficient execution of these operations. Coupon information is stored in unused bits of a mapping that associates coupon id with the owner’s address, ensuring more economical transaction for executing e-coupon business logic. Additionally, the findings outlined in this paper hold significance to all platforms that represents services or goods as NFTs, embedding features in a single storage slot.
Blockchain technology is one of the most novel technologies that received attention from academia and practitioners in various industries because of its profound nature and the opportunities that it offers, especially in the digital age. Ethereum, which is the largest decentralized blockchain software, was introduced in 2015 and is best known for its smart contracts that facilitate different utilizations over its blockchain network. Also, it can be used as a cryptocurrency, and historically it has been the 2nd most valuable cryptocurrency following Bitcoin. In order to be able to use Ethereum smart contracts over the blockchain network, a transaction fee or a gas fee is set by the network according to that specific task. This study is aimed to develop Machine Learning (ML) models to predict the Ethereum gas fee by using a comparison of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and the Facebook Prophet Model (FPM). The gas fee prediction modeling was done based on the daily dataset of eight years from 2015 to 2022. The results in this study showed that the FPM model in the scenario of this study resulted in a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.02 and a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 0.05. However, MAE and RMSE values of the LSTM model turned out equal to 0.006 which showed a higher performance and more accuracy compared to the FPM model.
Sofia Cossar, Tara Merk, Jamilya Kamalova, Primavera De Filippi
In 2021, the Proof of Humanity (PoH) project debuted as the first Sybil-resistant registry of“unique and singular” individuals on the Ethereum network. The project offers an economic incentivethrough collaboration with the Universal Basic Income (UBI) smart contract, which distributes $UBIcryptocurrency tokens to registered humans. The PoH registry, equipped with measures to combatfraudulent registrations or bot impersonations, allows users to challenge suspicious profiles. Thesechallenges are adjudicated by Kleros' Humanity Court. Within two years, over 17,000 registrants joinedthe registry. The founding organization, Kleros Cooperative, announced the registry would be gov-erned by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The launch of the PoH DAO, the first in theEthereum ecosystem to implement a 1-person-1-vote liquid democracy system, challenged traditionaltoken-weighted voting mechanisms in DAO governance. Despite gaining recognition and endorsementfrom influential figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the community grappled with irrecon-cilable long-term visions, leading to the adoption of a binding proposal to "fork" by the end of 2022,highlighting underlying challenges within the PoH DAO. In 2022, our team at BlockchainGov conducteda research study to explore the governance dynamics that led to the PoH DAO’s governance crisis andsubsequent decision to “fork.”
Heera Wali, Vishal Kulkarni, Rajashekar Ganiger, Nalini C. Iyer
This study investigates how blockchain technology can be used in the automotive industry and society, with a focus on addressing privacy concerns and compliance issues. The study investigates the application of privacy-preserving methods, including zero-knowledge proofs and anonymous credentials, to protect vehicle data shared with servers and prevent V2X channel spam. The proposed blockchain ecosystem involves collaborations among stakeholders like governmental bodies and automotive industry participants to ensure user privacy, implementation employs Ethereum[5], circom, and ezkl for practical realization, the study demonstrates the potential of blockchain and [7] Zero Knowledge Proofs in overcoming challenges, promoting a more secure digital environment.
The increasing complexity of cloud computing has prompted a greater emphasis on protecting the privacy, integrity, and security of data stored and processed in the cloud. Data privacy is safeguarded through access control, but existing models such as Role Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) rely on a centralized server. If this server is compromised, it poses significant risks to data security. To address this issue, there is a need for Distributed ABAC (DABAC) system for OpenStack services based on blockchain. The unique features of blockchain enables access control systems which ensures data integrity and privacy. Additionally, blockchain offers a level of transparency for both the resource owner and a user. In this work, we propose a smart contract based ABAC system. We implemented the proposed work using an Ethereum blockchain and OpenStack cloud. Furthermore, we evaluated two consensus algorithms for scalability analysis of DABC mechanism. The results demonstrate that DABAC performs better than ABAC in ensuring fine-grade access control with proof of stake consensus algorithm providing better scalability.
Alia Al Sadawi, Eiman ElGhanam, Mohamed S. Hassan, Ahmed Osman
With the increasing investments in on-the-move electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions and wireless charging lanes (WCLs), coordination of the energy requirements of mobile EVs becomes essential to ensure load balancing while maximizing demand coverage. This necessitates the development of online and mobility-aware algorithms for assigning EV-to-charging lanes. In this work, a decentralized, blockchain-based EV assignment and energy allocation system is presented. The objective of system is to coordinate the charging requirements of mobile EVs among the available WCLs within a network of EV chargers in an Internet of Electric Vehicles (IoEVs). This blockchain-based system offers higher security, transparency and immutability over traditional rule-based coordination schemes. It also offers an integrated end-to-end framework that handles user registration, authentication, lane activation and energy reporting. This is in addition to its main functionality of establishing a real-time and load-balanced EV-to-WCL assignment process that addresses the EV energy requirements within constraints of traveling distance and remaining EV energy. The proposed system is tested on the Ethereum blockchain and its security and transparency are both validated accordingly.
Abstract The cryptocurrency market is a complex and rapidly evolving financial landscape in which understanding the inter- and intra-asset dependencies among key financial variables, such as return and liquidity, is crucial. In this study, we analyze daily return and liquidity data for six major cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Binance Coin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin, spanning the period from June 3, 2020, to November 30, 2022. Liquidity is estimated using three low-frequency proxies: the Amihud ratio and the Abdi and Ranaldo (AR) and Corwin and Schultz (CS) estimators. To account for autoregressive and persistent effects, we apply the autoregressive integrated moving average-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARIMA-GARCH) model and subsequently utilize the copula method to examine the interdependent relationships between the return on and liquidity of the six cryptocurrencies. Our analysis reveals strong cross-asset lower-tail dependence in return and significant cross-asset upper-tail dependence in illiquidity measures, with more pronounced dependence observed in specific cryptocurrency pairs, primarily involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. We also observe that returns tend to be higher when liquidity is lower in the cryptocurrency market. Our findings have significant implications for portfolio diversification, asset allocation, risk management, and trading strategy development for investors and traders, as well as regulatory policy-making for regulators. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the cryptocurrency marketplace and can help inform investment decision making and regulatory policies in this emerging financial domain.
Robiah Arifin, Wan Azelee Wan Abu Bakar, Mustafa Man, Evizal Abdul Kadir
The blockchain serves as a distributed database where data is stored across different servers and networks. It encompasses various types, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Hyperledger being notable examples. To safeguard the security of data transactions on the blockchain, it relies on a consensus algorithm. This algorithm facilitates agreement among nodes within the network. There are multiple types of consensus algorithms, each possessing unique specialties and characteristics. This paper drives into the examination of specific Authority Round, here claimed as AuRa_ori consensus algorithm. The AuRa_ori is a specific type of PoA consensus mechanism used primarily in private or permission blockchain networks. It works by having a set of trusted validators take turns in a round-robin fashion to produce new blocks. It is supported by Parity and Ethereum Clients. AuRa_ori assumes that all the authority nodes are synchronised and honest on every transaction process. In AuRa_ori, every transaction process will execute the four phases i.e., assigning of a new leader, proposing a block, commencing agreement and finally, the phase of committing. However, there exist some discrepancies in some of the phases. In response to the scenario, this paper presents a thorough discussion on the vulnerabilities adhered in AuRa phases in transaction execution by focusing on the first phase of assigning a new leader and the third phase, namely the agreement. The vulnerabilities are subjected to the risk of impacting the performance of Transaction Speed Per Second (TPS), Transaction Throughput (TGS), Percentage Decrease (PD) of TPS and Percentage Increase (PI) of TGS. The new improved method, named AuRa_v1 is parallel presented to overcome the vulnerabilities of AuRa_ori at the selected phases. It aims to increase the TPS and to calculate the PD in transaction process using the Ethereum private blockchain systems. The implementation used three set of data scroll certificate. The result showed that the AuRa_v1 able to decrease the TPS almost 30% based on difference number set of data.
This paper aims to apply Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to the prices and trading volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as they affect the non-fungible token subcategories of Collectibles, Metaverse and Art.The findings reveal that an accurate lag structure helps in capturing the lagged effects of shocks allowing the model to represent the intricate interdependencies among Bitcoin, Ethereum and the non-fungible token subcategories as indicated in the Impulse Response Function and Volatility Graph.This assists traders and investors visualize how these events and sudden increases in volatility impact the stability of cryptocurrency prices over time.
Hamra Afzaal, Nazir Ahmad Zafar, Aqsa Tehseen, Shaheen Kousar · 5 authors
In recent years, Beacon Chain known as the core of Ethereum 2.0, has gained considerable attention since its launch. Many validators have staked billions of Ether in the Proof of Stake (PoS) network. It is a mission critical system and its security and stability rely on the justification and finalization of checkpoints. These are essential elements of the Casper FFG consensus algorithm utilized by the Beacon Chain. This process is critical for establishing a trustworthy foundation and finalizing proposed blocks by confirming agreed upon checkpoints. Hence, ensuring the correctness of checkpoints in the Beacon Chain has significant importance because any bug in it can cause serious implications. To address this challenge, we employ formal methods, a popular mathematical approach used for verifying the correctness of such critical systems. In this work, we have done formal verification of the processes of Beacon Chain state initialization, justification and finalization of checkpoints using the Process Analysis Toolkit (PAT) model checker. The adoption of model checking through the PAT model checker presents a novel contribution of our work, as this approach is not previously utilized in the formal verification of Beacon Chain. The presented work is specified through the Communicating Sequential Programs, formal specification language, and the properties are described through Linear Temporal Logic. The PAT model checker takes the specified formal model and properties as input to assess whether the properties are satisfied. The properties are analyzed with respect to the verification time, visited states, total transitions, and memory used. Through this research, we aim to increase confidence in the correctness and reliability of the Beacon Chain.
A concept of the smart contract powered by Ethereum has raised the attention of investors in the crypto-currency market in the light of the distributed account book techniques in the Era of Blockchain 2.0. Based on the digitalization of the financial tools, smart contract adopts the smart validation and execution of the computation protocols extending the blockchain to the application level of use to reinforce the security and transparency of transaction deals. This paper aimed to investigate the principle, functions, ground mechanism of the smart contract, and protection approaches and evaluated the security issues existed in the investment process. Lastly, the paper summarized the Smart Contract design and development, loopholes, and protection approaches in the Smart Contract applications.
Teknolojinin gelişmesi ile iletişim araçlarında başlayan değişim birçok farklı sektöre ve alana yayılmıştır. Bu değişimi yaşayan alanlardan biri de geleneksel oyun kavramı olmuştur. Oyunun oynandığı ortam, konsol, yazılım değişmiş ve dijital oyun kavramı ortaya çıkmıştır. Dijital oyunların sağladığı etkileşimli dünya, sosyalleşme kavramını dahi değiştirmiş ve kavramın anlamı tartışılır noktaya gelmiştir. Ancak teknolojinin ilerlemesi günden güne devam etmektedir. Blokzincir teknolojisinin hayatımıza girmesi, bankacılığı, turizmi, sosyal mecraları etkilediği gibi dijital oyunları da etkilemiştir. Satoshi Nakatomo lakaplı bir yazarın 2008 yılında bir makalesinde bahsetmesiyle, dijital para birimi “Bitcoin” dünyada adını duyurmuştur. Başlangıçta para transferinde aracıyı ortadan kaldıran bir dijital bir para olarak faydalanabileceği düşünülen bu kripto paranın inşasını sağlayan Blokzincir teknolojisi ise birçok alanda değişim yaratmaya başlamıştır. Nakatomo, Blokzincir’i; sürekli büyüyen işlem kayıtlarının listesini çalınma veya değiştirilme gibi tehlikelerden koruyarak tutan dağıtık veri tabanı olarak tanımlamaktadır. Blokzincir teknolojisinin popülerleşmeye başlaması ile birlikte ise NFT(Non-fungible token) kavramı literatürde yer almaya başlamıştır. Bir dijital varlığın benzersiz bir kriptografik anahtarına sahip olan, çoğaltılamayan, sahibi tek olan NFT’ler temellerinde yatan blokzincir teknolojisiyle sanat başta olmak üzere birçok alanda etkisini göstermiştir. Bu alanlardan biri dijital oyunlar olmuş ve NFT oyunlarıyla birlikte play-to-earn oyunları ortaya çıkmıştır. Ethereum akıllı kontratlarıyla üretilen NFT, ne kadar dijital sanat eserleri ile ünlense de günümüzde birçok NFT ve blokzincir tabanlı oyun vardır. Bu oyunları oynayan kullanıcılar token üretebilmekte (mining), oyunların NFT avatarlarına sahip olabilmekte ve en önemlisi bu yolla maddi kazanç sağlayabilmektedirler. Bu bağlamda bir kazanç mekanizmasıyla oynanan oyunlara “Play to Earn” oyunları denir. Oyunlar geliştikçe klanlar oluşmakta ve dijital oyunda bahsettiğimiz etkileşim, sosyalleşme kavramları Discord, Telegram gibi uygulamaların sohbet gruplarında devam etmektedir. Çalışmamızda NFT ve play-to-earn oyunları incelenecek ayrıca bu oyunların dijital oyunlar arasında nasıl bir yere sahip olduğu araştırılacaktır. Oyuncuların, oyunlara olan ilgisinin sebeplerini öğrenmek için Discord, Telegram gibi uygulamaların oyun gruplarında, oyuncuların yorumları toplanacak ve incelenecektir. Elde edilen bu veriler, içerik analizi yöntemiyle incelenerektir. Blokzincir, NFT, Play to Earn gibi teknolojilerin popülerleşmesi ve maddi kazanç sağlanmasıyla bu alandaki oyunlara da gösterilen ilgi artmıştır. Bu bağlamda NFT oyunlarının gelecekte nasıl bir yere sahip olacağı, kalıcı olup olmayacağı gibi sorular merak edilmektedir. NFT tabanlı oyunların detaylarının incelendiği çalışmada, oyunların geleceği de tartışmaya sunulacaktır.