The unstoppably increasing number of the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous agents, and massive distributed web ecosystems have made data acquisition a complicated, risk-prone, and a very sensitive process. Regulation Web data collection is a fixed pipeline that is strictly regulated by established rules and legal limits, and reactive policy audits to operate in traditional forms of governance. Nevertheless, the contemporary digital ecosystem requires a decentralized system of governance that could identify unpredictable streams of data, the shifting web framework, loosely distributed computing individuals, and shifting conditions of regulation. This paper will present Governance-of-Things (GoT), an emerging conceptual and architectural design that will address these issues and show how to smoothly integrate ethical intelligence, regulatory and laws compliance, semantic awareness, and integrity assurance within autonomous systems of web data acquisition. GoT suggests a view where governance follows a first-class computation i.e. embedded, adaptive, intelligent and context-aware. In contrast to traditional approaches of governing IoT, GoT regards any acquisition agent as ethics-regulated, compliance-aware, and self-regulating. Agents do not simply pull information, they negotiate access rights, authenticate provenance, reason about risk, and implement multi-jurisdictional policies all by themselves. The framework combines dynamic enforcement of policies, federated governance, semantic classification pipelines, AI-enhanced agent frameworks built on Java and distributed analytics to create an ecosystem, producing an automated acquisition that is compatible with responsible, transparent, and audit-friendly behaviours. Fairness, legality, transparency, explainability and accountability are the principles of ethical autonomy which are expounded in the paper. GoT has the aspect of federated ethical rule orchestration where the governance layers among organizations in various stakeholders share without necessarily providing the raw information. The system incorporates automation using structural integrity that guarantees cryptographic validation and review trails that are not tampered with. The given adaptive monitoring model promotes the constant policy updating, data flows redirection and the detection of threats. Furthermore, GoT involves semantic intelligence so that data classification, contextual labeling, entity recognition, and domain mapping take place before storing or processing data- therein avoiding compliance violation at its early phases. GoT architecturally has a multi-layer stack that is organized and includes Perception Layer, Autonomous Agent Layer, Governance Core, Distributed Analytics Layer, and Compliance Ledger Layer. The primitives of computational governance are embedded in each layer, making it highly modular and allowing run-time updates of rules and cooperating across agents. Java frameworks boosted with AI facilitate interoperability with legacy enterprise systems and with current base systems. Using experimental simulation, it was found that GoT enhances compliance accuracy, governance throughput, policy adaptation latency and decision explainability on varying scenarios of acquisitions. This article is in the pre-2021 academic style, has extensive literature review, methodological description, architectural schematics, theoretical framework, and profound results discussion. It ends by establishing GoT as an innovative paradigm which is able to influence the future of web data governance, autonomous systems, and distributed analytics
Sarah A. Flanery, Kamalesh Mohanasundar, Christiana Chamon, Srujan Kotikela · 5 authors
With the natural evolution of the web, the need for decentralization has rendered the current centralized education system out of date. The student does not "own" their credentials, as the only way their accomplishments are directly linked to their person and considered valuable is by verification through a stamp of an expensive, prestigious institution. However, going to a university is no longer the only way to acquire an education; open-source learning material is widely available and accessible through the internet. However, our society does not deem these methods of education as verifiable if they do not include a degree or certificate. Additionally, a valid certificate for the vast majority of open-source courses costs a few hundred dollars to obtain. The centralized nature of education inadvertently places students in underprivileged communities at a disadvantage in comparison to students in economically advantaged communities, thus a decentralized approach to education would eliminate the vast majority of such discrepancies. In the present paper, we integrate Decentralized Identity (DID) with Web 3.0 to upload credentials linked directly to the user. Each credential is appended to an Ethereum blockchain that, by design, cannot be altered once uploaded. We include DID document based access controls to display the candidate's upload and verification history. Finally, we utilize TLS protocols to provide a secure connection to the internet for ensuring non-fungibility of credentials and authentication of users.
Jannik Lucas Sommer, Magnus Mølgaard Lund, Nicola Cibin, Michele Albano
The frequency of software supply chain attacks has reached unprecedented levels, primarily due to the increasing reliance on huge numbers of software and hardware dependencies, and the inherent vulnerabilities they harbor. Currently, vendors providing these software and hardware components share security advisories to centralized databases or post them on proprietary websites, which security engineers have to search manually to find vulnerabilities relevant for their systems. Furthermore, the security advisories often do not follow a standard machine-readable format, which results in the engineers having to manually analyze the documents. In this paper, SENTINEL, a novel solution for automating dissemination and discovery of security advisories leveraging Web3 technologies, is presented. In particular, the Ethereum blockchain is used by vendors to notify asset owners of novel vulnerabilities in their systems in a reliable and accountable manner. Evaluation tests conducted on the Ethereum Sepolia Testnet confirm that our proposal is a functional and functioning solution for securely disseminating and discovering security advisories utilizing a fully decentralized infrastructure. SENTINEL’s source code is released as open source software on GitHub.
Aleksandr Kormiltsyn, Vimal Dwivedi, Chibuzor Udokwu, Alex Norta
Integrating personal health records (PHRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) facilitates the provision of novel services to individuals, researchers, and healthcare practitioners. Simultaneously, integrating healthcare data leads to complexities arising from the structural and semantic heterogeneity within the data. The subject of healthcare data evokes strong emotions due to concerns surrounding privacy breaches. Blockchain technology is employed to address the issue of patient data privacy in inter-organizational processes, as it facilitates patient data ownership and promotes transparency in its usage. At the same time, blockchain technology creates new challenges for e-healthcare systems, such as data privacy, observability, and online enforceability. This article proposes designing and formalizing automatic conflict resolution techniques in decentralized e-healthcare systems. The present study expounds upon our concepts by employing a running case study centered around preventive and personalized healthcare domains. Plain Language Summary: This paper suggests using blockchain technology for privacy concerns in integrating personal health records and electronic health records in decentralized e-healthcare systems. This report focuses on designing automatic conflict resolution techniques to ensure patient data ownership, transparency, and privacy in inter-organizational processes. This paper proposes designing automatic conflict resolution techniques in decentralized e-healthcare systems, which can improve inter-organizational processes in healthcare. Using blockchain technology to integrate personal and electronic health records can ensure patient data ownership and promote transparency in data usage, addressing privacy concerns in healthcare systems. This paper emphasizes the importance of data privacy and protection in healthcare systems, highlighting the need for compliance with laws and regulations. The research results, including the proof-of-concept prototype, can provide practical insights into implementing conflict resolution techniques in decentralized e-healthcare systems.
Federated Learning is susceptible to various kinds of attacks like Data Poisoning, Model Poisoning and Man in the Middle attack. We perceive Federated Learning as a hierarchical structure, a federation of nodes with validators as the head. The process of validation is done through consensus by employing Novelty Detection and Snowball protocol, to identify valuable and relevant updates while filtering out potentially malicious or irrelevant updates, thus preventing Model Poisoning attacks. The opinion of the validators is recorded in blockchain and trust score is calculated. In case of lack of consensus, trust score is used to determine the impact of validators on the global model. A hyperparameter is introduced to guide the model generation process, either to rely on consensus or on trust score. This approach ensures transparency and reliability in the aggregation process and allows the global model to benefit from insights of most trusted nodes. In the training phase, the combination of IPFS , PGP encryption provides : a) secure and decentralized storage b) mitigates single point of failure making this system reliable and c) resilient against man in the middle attack. The system is realized by implementing in python and Foundry for smart contract development. Global Model is tested against data poisoning by flipping the labels and by introducing malicious nodes. Results found to be similar to that of Flower.
I took a close look at what a blockchain-based compliance layer might actually do for U.S. payment systems using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) as the key ingredient. The study lays out a conceptual model, grounded in current research, and then walks through different architectural options so you can see the trade-offs. The big takeaway? ZKPs appear capable of meeting core U.S. AML and KYC obligations without forcing people to hand over more personal details than necessary. Frankly, that's kind of the point: keep compliance intact, but avoid needless data exposure. The analysis also suggests that a ZKP-enabled layer could smooth regulatory workflows, cut down on operational risk and costs, and perhaps most importantly drastically reduce how much sensitive information gets shared across payment networks. It's promising, if a bit early-stage, but worth paying attention to.
Umer Majeed, Sheikh Salman Hassan, Zhu Han, Choong Seon Hong
In the rapidly evolving landscape of Web3 and blockchain technologies, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have emerged as innovative structures that operate autonomously through blockchain and smart contracts, eliminating the need for centralized control. The federated learning (FL) process, akin to an information flow under structured transparency, involves local models (LMs) as inputs and the global model (GM) as the output for each global iteration. The lack of transparency and security in traditional FL systems can be attributed to the centralized validation of LMs and GM updates. In this paper, we propose DAO-FL, a smart contract-based framework that leverages the power of DAOs to address these FL challenges. DAO-FL introduces the concept of DAO Membership Tokens (DAOMTs) as a governance tool within a DAO. DAOMTs play a crucial role within the DAO, facilitating members’ enrollment and expulsion. Our framework incorporates a Validation-DAO for decentralized input verification (DIV) of the FL process, ensuring reliable and transparent validation of LMs. Additionally, DAO-FL employs a multi-signatures approach facilitated by an Orchestrator-DAO to achieve decentralized GM updates, and thus decentralized output verification (DOV) of the FL process. We present a comprehensive system architecture, detailed execution workflow, implementation specifications, and qualitative evaluation for DAO-FL. Evaluation under threat models highlights DAO-FL’s out-performance against traditional centralized-FL, effectively countering input and output attacks. DAO-FL excels in scenarios where DIV and DOV are crucial, offering enhanced transparency and trust. In conclusion, DAOFL provides a compelling solution for FL, reinforcing the integrity of the FL ecosystem through decentralized decision making and validation mechanisms.
Redactable Signature Schemes and Zero-Knowledge Proofs are two radically different approaches to enable privacy. This paper analyses their merits and drawbacks when applied to decentralized identity system. Redactable Signatures, though competitively quick and compact, are not as expressive as zero-knowledge proofs and do not provide the same level of privacy. On the other hand, zero-knowledge proofs can be much faster but some protocols require a trusted set-up. We conclude that given the benefits and drawbacks, redactable signatures are more appropriate at an earlier stage and zero-knowledge proofs are more appropriate at a later stage for decentralized identity systems
The security of computerized systems depends on mechanisms for controlling access. For the enrichment and reinforcement of such systems, a combination of attribute-based access control and blockchain technologies may be deployed. On the other hand, attribute-based encryption may be used to enable secure data management and safeguard access policies. In this research, we have presented innovative blockchain-enabled attribute-based access control. Our architecture is the first to integrate different aspects to accomplish many security aspects as well as give partial and total revocation at the same time. The experimental findings and analysis, done utilizing the blockchain of the Ethereum network, proved the superior performance of the suggested method compared to prior research works.
In blockchain space, access control is a crucial aspect of smart contract development, as it guarantees that only authorized users can execute specific functions within a contract. The growing interest in employing smart contracts for access control mechanisms stems from their ability to provide reliable, secure and efficient enforcement of access control policies. However, Solidity, the most popular smart contract language, was not designed explicitly for writing access control policies, unlike specialized languages such as Alfa or XACML. The differences between these languages leads to a difficulty for those who wish to use smart contracts as access control mechanisms but lack the knowledge of Solidity or the ability to evaluate their code's security. To bridge this gap, we introduce ASAC, an Alfa to Solidity transpiler that translates Alfa policies into secure Solidity contracts. Our transpiler leverages the ANTLR (ANother Tool for Language Recognition) parser generator and translate complex Alfa policies into smart contracts. We showcase the effectiveness of our transpiler through a set of case studies and offer an evaluation of its performance.
Blockchain and other decentralized databases, known as distributed ledgers, are designed to store information online where all trusted network members can update the data with transparency. The dynamics of ledger's development can be mathematically represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). One essential property of a properly functioning shared ledger is that all network members holding a copy of the ledger agree on a sequence of information added to the ledger, which is referred to as consensus and is known to be related to a structural property of DAG called one-endedness. In this paper, we consider a model of distributed ledger with sequential stochastic arrivals that mimic attachment rules from the IOTA cryptocurrency. We first prove that the number of leaves in the random DAG is bounded by a constant infinitely often through the identification of a suitable martingale, and then prove that a sequence of specific events happens infinitely often. Combining those results we establish that, as time goes to infinity, the IOTA DAG is almost surely one-ended.
Smart contracts are self-executing programs that run on blockchain platforms. While smart contracts offer a range of benefits, such as immutability and transparency, they are not immune to vulnerabilities. Malicious actors can exploit smart contract vulnerabilities to execute unintended actions or access sensitive data[1]. One approach to mitigating smart contract vulnerabilities is formal verification. Formal verification is a method of verifying the correctness of software using mathematical techniques. It involves mathematically proving that a program conforms to a set of specifications. Formal verification can help detect and eliminate vulnerabilities in smart contracts before they are deployed on the blockchain. KEVM (K Framework-based EVM) is a framework that allows for formal verification of smart contracts on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). KEVM uses the K Framework, a formal semantics framework, to specify the behavior of the EVM. With KEVM, smart contract developers can verify the correctness of their contracts before deployment, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities. In this paper, we have studied smart contract vulnerabilities such as Over usage of Gas, Signature Replay attack, and misuse of fallback function. We have also written the formal specification for these vulnerabilities and executed it using KEVM.
Despite many efforts to increase access to financial services, 1,4 billion people still are unbanked. One significant barrier to decreasing this number is the lack of official personal documents (e.g., government-issued identification or utility bills) to comply with the necessary KYC/AML regulation. Innovative schemes can recognize one by using inputs like the personal trail generated when one uses the phone or engages in some digital activity. This paper proposes a formal language-based approach for modeling financial inclusion services and for representing in a structured way the existing KYC/AML compliance rules from different countries. Currently, those rules are written in an unstructured format using natural language and spread in regulatory documents from these jurisdictions. Our proposed language is a core building block of a computational trust and risk engine model, also discussed in this paper. Our approach supports the use of traditional and innovative recognition schemes, helping to overcome the barrier for those who cannot comply with conventional KYC/AML requirements. Moreover, it can also be used to power the risk calculation of computational trust and risk engines. Finally, the proposal is generic enough to be applied to both traditional and decentralized finance.
Mariia Bakhtina, K. Leung, Raimundas Matulevičius, Ahmed Awad · 5 authors
X-Road is an open-source solution that acts as a data exchange layer and enables secure data exchange between organisations. X-Road serves as the backbone of digital infrastructure in the public sector (e.g., enabling Estonia’s digital public services) and private sector (e.g., enabling clients’ data exchange in the Japanese energy sector). An approach and architecture were recently proposed for the X-Road data exchange systems to move from public key infrastructure (PKI) with centralised certification authorities to decentralised PKI (DPKI). In this paper, we develop a proof of concept for the designed DPKI-based architecture that leverages distributed ledger-based identifiers and verifiable credentials to establish trust between information systems using Hyperledger Indy and Hyperledger Aries. We evaluate the proof of concept implementation against the design and functional requirements. The results show that the proposed system architecture is technically feasible and satisfies the identified design goals and functional requirements. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first open-access system prototype for an organisation’s identity management following self-sovereign identity principles. The presented proof of concept proves that DPKI helps to address some of the scalability issues of PKI, improve control over identity and mitigate replay attacks and a single point of failure in the X-Road system.
During the past years a concept that has emerged in the Blockchain space is tokenization, which is the process of transforming ownerships and rights of assets owned by an individual into a digital form. Thanks to tokenization, internet services can now leverage access control systems that do not grant access based on identity (who you are) but rather on ownership (what you own). These types of systems can be classified as Ownership Based Access Control (OBAC) systems. The aim of this project is to prove the viability and compatibility with the current authorization paradigm of these kind of systems by implementing an access control enforcement service for digital resources based on the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The results show that OBAC is feasible and can be integrated with the existing industry-standard protocols for authorization. It has been proved that, by using OBAC users no longer have to disclose their identity when accessing a service, resulting in improved privacy. Furthermore, access to a digital service becomes transferable and tradeable if its access is based on ownership of a NFT.
Background: Longitudinal personal health record (PHR) provides a foundation for managing patients' health care, but we do not have such a system in the U.S. except for the patients in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Such a gap exists mainly in the rest of the U.S. by the fact that patients' electronic health records are scattered across multiple health care facilities and often not shared due to privacy, security, and business interests concerns from both patients and health care organizations. In addition, patients have ethical concerns related to consent. To patients, data security, privacy, and consent are based on trustfulness, rather than patients' engagement in ensuring only authorized people can view their PHRs with patient-managed granularity. Resolving these challenges is an important step in making longitudinal PHR useful for patient care. Objective: This research aims to design and implement a blockchain-enabled sharing platform prototype for PHR with desired patient-controlled data security, privacy, and consent granularity. Methods: Built upon our prior work of a blockchain-enabled access control (BAC) model, we design a blockchain-enabled sharing platform for PHR with patient-controlled security, privacy, and consent granularity. We further implement the construct by building a prototypical platform among a patient and two typical health care organizations. Health organizations that hold the patient's electronic health records can join the platform with trust based on the validation from the patient. The mutual trust can be established through a rigorous validation process by both the patient and the built-in Hyperledger Fabric blockchain consensus mechanism. Results: We proposed a system trusted by patients and health care providers and constructed a Web-based PHR sharing platform with patient-controlled security, privacy, and consent granularity. We analyzed the system scalability in three aspects and showed millisecond range of performance when simultaneously changing access permissions on hundreds of PHRs. Consent, security and privacy of the model are ensured by the merits of the BAC model. We discovered the current blockchain model limits the system scalability due to using a non-graphical database. A new graphical database is suggested for future improvements. Conclusions: In this research, we report a solution to electronically sharing and managing patients' electronic health records originating from multiple organizations, focusing on privacy, security, and granularity control of consent in the U.S. Specifically, the system protects data security and privacy, and provides auditability, scalability, distributedness, patient consent autonomy, and zero-trust capabilities. The prototypical instantiation of the designed model suggested the feasibility of combining emerging blockchain technology with next generation access control model to tackle a longstanding longitudinal PHR problem.
Over the years, Cloud Computing has become rapidly embraced due to its flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, it also presents a number of security challenges, especially with regards to access control. Conventional access control methods, like Role-based Access Control, have limitations in terms of centralized control, lack of transparency, and susceptibility to cyber-attacks. As a result, there is a need for more efficient, transparent, and secure Access Control mechanisms in Cloud Computing environments. In this Research paper, we put forward a non-centralized and tamper-proof Access Control mechanism that uses smart contract blockchain technology to address these limitations. Our model leverages the Ethereum platform's smart contract feature to stockpile access control programs and enable secure verification of user’s access requests. The smart contract blockchain is immutable, transparent, and decentralized, which makes it resistant to tampering and provides a high degree of transparency in the access control process. Our proposed model has several advantages over traditional access control mechanisms. Firstly, it provides an effective and automated approach to manage access control policies. With our model, access control policies can be easily updated and enforced through smart contracts, which eliminates the need for manual updates and reduces the risk of errors. Secondly, it provides a high degree of transparency in the access control process, which allows users to verify the legitimacy of their access requests and ensures that access control policies are being enforced fairly. Finally, it offers a heightened level of security, as the Smart Contract Blockchain is resistant to tampering and it offers a platform for Access Control that is both secure and non-centralized. To assess the efficacy of our model for Access Control management, we performed a series of experiments in a simulated Cloud Computing environment. The findings revealed that our model offers a superior and secure approach for managing access control programs compared to conventional methods. To conclude, our study suggests a secure and non-centralized access control solution by utilizing blockchain technology through smart contracts, to address the limitations of conventional Access Control methods in Cloud Computing environments. Our model provides a more efficient, transparent, and secure way to manage Access Control program to maintain the authenticity and confidentiality of Cloud services.
Nilesh P. Sable, Rahul Ganpatrao Sonkamble, Vijay U. Rathod, Swati Shirke · 6 authors
Web3 is the next evolution of the internet, which uses blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs to return ownership and authority to the consumers. The potential of Web3 is highlighted by the creation of decentralized applications (dApps), which are more secure, transparent, and tamper-proof than their centralized counterparts, allowing for new business models that were previously impossible on the traditional internet.Web3 also focuses on user privacy, where users have more control over their personal data and can choose to share only what they want. The emergence of Web3 represents an exciting new frontier in blockchain technology, and its focus on decentralization, user privacy, and trustless systems has the potential to transform the way we interact with the internet.Web3 authentication is required for enhanced security, increased privacy, and simplified user interface. Traditional login procedures and an authorization flow using web3 authentication work together seamlessly. However, there are several challenges associated with Web3, including scalability and regulatory issues. Chain Authentication and Authorization (CAA) is a multi-layer security mechanism that allows users to choose the security layer that suits them, just like a heavy iron chain, where the user and CAA developers act as blacksmith and form their security protocol that suits them. CAA is a solution to the challenges associated with Web3 authentication and authorization, and it focuses on creating a secure and decentralized authentication and authorization system that is scalable, flexible, and user-friendly.
Kelsey Merrill, Zachary Newman, Santiago Torres-Arias, Karen Sollins
Software repositories, used for wide-scale open software distribution, are a significant vector for security attacks. Software signing provides authenticity, mitigating many such attacks. Developer-managed signing keys pose usability challenges, but certificate-based systems introduce privacy problems. This work, Speranza, uses certificates to verify software authenticity but still provides anonymity to signers using zero-knowledge identity co-commitments. In Speranza, a signer uses an automated certificate authority (CA) to create a private identity-bound signature and proof of authorization. Verifiers check that a signer was authorized to publish a package without learning the signer's identity. The package repository privately records each package's authorized signers, but publishes only commitments to identities in a public map. Then, when issuing certificates, the CA issues the certificate to a distinct commitment to the same identity. The signer then creates a zero-knowledge proof that these are identity co-commitments. We implemented a proof-of-concept for Speranza. We find that costs to maintainers (signing) and end users (verifying) are small (< 1 ms), even for a repository with millions of packages. Techniques inspired by recent key transparency systems reduce the bandwidth for serving authorization policies to 2 KiB. Server costs in this system are negligible. Our evaluation finds that Speranza is practical on the scale of the largest software repositories. We also emphasize practicality and deployability in this project. By building on existing technology and employing relatively simple and well-established cryptographic techniques, Speranza can be deployed for wide-scale use with only a few hundred lines of code and minimal changes to existing infrastructure. Speranza is a practical way to bring privacy and authenticity together for more trustworthy open-source software.
Jaime Fúster de la Fuente, Álvaro Pendás-Recondo, Leon Wong, Paul Harvey
Operation and management of telecommunication networks are increasingly difficult with the demands and behaviors of users exceeding the capacity of network engineers to keep pace. This has led to increased automation of the network, enabled by various forms of intelligent software. One such proposal from the ITU-T Focus Group on Autonomous Networks (standardization group) is an architecture to achieve self-driven automation (i.e. autonomy) of network operation, whereby technology from different operators and third parties is self-assembled and deployed in production networks. This raises questions and challenges regarding transparency, auditability, and trust while maintaining interoperability.This work presents an initial study of a distributed and decentralized marketplace to bring transparent and auditable trust to the proposed architecture without sacrificing interoperable functionality. We demonstrated this by our proof of concept implementation of both the proposed architecture and marketplace based on the combination of Ethereum and IPFS.
We identify a subtle security issue that impacts mechanism design in scenarios in which agents can absolutely commit to strategies. Absolute commitments allow the strategy of an agent to depend on the commitments made by the other agents. This changes fundamental game-theoretic assumptions by inducing a meta-game in which agents choose which strategies they commit to. We say that a game that is unaffected by such commitments is Stackelberg resilient and show that computing it is intractible in general, although it can be computed efficiently for two-player games of perfect information. We show the intuitive, but technically non-trivial result, that, if a game is resilient when some number of players have the capacity to make commitments, it is also resilient when these commitments are available to fewer players. We demonstrate the non-triviality of Stackelberg resilience by analyzing two escrow mechanisms from the literature. These mechanisms have the same intended functionality, but we show that only one is Stackelberg resilient. Our model is particularly relevant in Web3 scenarios, where these absolute commitments can be realized by the automated and irrevocable nature of smart contracts. Our work highlights an important issue in ensuring the secure design of Web3. In particular, our work suggests that smart contracts already deployed on major blockchains may be susceptible to these attacks.
John Domingue, Allan Third, María-Esther Vidal, Philipp D. Rohde · 7 authors
Knowledge Graphs have become a foundation for sharing data on the web and building intelligent services across many sectors and also within some of the most successful corporations in the world. The over centralisation of data on the web, however, has been raised as a concern by a number of prominent researchers in the field. For example, at the beginning of 2022 a €2.7B civil lawsuit was launched against Meta on the basis that it has abused its market dominance to impose unfair terms and conditions on UK users in order to exploit their personal data. Data centralisation can lead to a number of problems including: lock-in/siloing effects, lack of user control over their personal data, limited incentives and opportunities for interoperability and openness, and the resulting detrimental effects on privacy and innovation. A number of diverse approaches and technologies exist for decentralising data, such as federated querying and distributed ledgers. The main question is, though, what does decentralisation really mean for web data and Knowledge Graphs? What are the main issues and tradeoffs involved? These questions and others are addressed in this workshop.
We are witnessing how numerous trends, including decentralization and the growing role of technology, permeate the way companies are organized, intersecting with the phenomenon of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO).This technologybased organization carries a pattern known as a zero-trust policy, aiming to eliminate the need for trust in an organization.It appears to oppose the existing research on trust in management and its usefulness to organizations.That brings the question of whether DAOs represent a change from a trend defined by a standard trust theory.This conceptual paper answers by looking at the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations phenomenon through the existing knowledge on trust, specifically through Dirks & Ferrin's trust theory, and compares the concept with the traditional organization.The investigation suggests that DAOs only partially eliminate or transform the need for trust compared to traditional organizations;the need for trust is still present and may even grow in future concept development.