A shift of paradigm is running over online social platforms: the over-centralization of these platforms is leaving room for decentralized solutions based on blockchain technologies, such as blockchain-based online social networks-BOSNs. Among the many unknown aspects of these techno-social systems, the objective of this study is to propose an analytical framework to assess the impact of the cryptocurrencies linked to a BOSN platform on the evolution of its social network and on the behavior of their users, in terms of production of content and/or its promotion through a voting and rewarding system. The framework has been applied to Steemit, one of the most widespread BOSNs, from which we collected three-year-long high-resolution data on its evolution along with the price of its main cryptocurrencies. On users' activities extracted from these longitudinal data, we applied a time-series correlation analysis and a correlation analysis between the action allocation strategies and the obtained rewards, in the case of most central accounts. The analysis has highlighted pieces of evidence of the influence of the cryptocurrency price on users' actions, particularly on actions that shape the structure of the social networks. Second, we also found highly rewarded users prefer actions related to the promotion of content rather than the creation of high-quality content, exploiting the reward distribution mechanisms implemented by the platform. These findings highlight that the shift of paradigm towards blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies might strengthen the influence of financial and economic factors rather than relational/social aspects on the evolution of these new complex techno-social systems.
Federico Cernera, Massimo La Morgia, Alessandro Mei, Francesco Sassi
In this work, we perform a longitudinal analysis of the BNB Smart Chain and Ethereum blockchain from their inception to March 2022. We study the ecosystem of the tokens and liquidity pools, highlighting analogies and differences between the two blockchains. We discover that about 60% of tokens are active for less than one day. Moreover, we find that 1% of addresses create an anomalous number of tokens (between 20% and 25%). We discover that these tokens are used as disposable tokens to perform a particular type of rug pull, which we call 1-day rug pull. We quantify the presence of this operation on both blockchains discovering its prevalence on the BNB Smart Chain. We estimate that 1-day rug pulls generated $240 million in profits. Finally, we present sniper bots, a new kind of trader bot involved in these activities, and we detect their presence and quantify their activity in the rug pull operations.
Ziqiao Ao, Lin William Cong, Gergely Horváth, Luyao Zhang
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has the potential to disrupt centralized finance by validating peer-to-peer transactions through tamper-proof smart contracts, thus significantly lowering the transaction cost charged by financial intermediaries. However, the actual realization of peer-to-peer transactions and the levels and effects of decentralization are largely unknown. Our research pioneers a blockchain network study that applies social network analysis to measure the level, dynamics, and impacts of decentralization in DeFi token transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. First, we find a significant core-periphery structure in the AAVE token transaction network where the cores include the two largest centralized crypto exchanges. Second, we provide evidence that multiple network features consistently characterize decentralization dynamics. Finally, we document that a more decentralized network significantly predicts a higher return and lower volatility of the decentralized market of AAVE tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. We point out that our approach is seminal for inspiring future extensions related to the facets of application scenarios, research questions, and methodologies on the mechanics of blockchain decentralization.
Objective. In the present work, the bibliographical production referring to smart contracts is reviewed from the business, academic and scientific points of view. The aim is to analyze precisely how the relationship between smart contracts and blockchain occurs to establish a context in both developments. Design/Methodology/Approach. The Scopus database was consulted using the keyword: "smart contract". It was decided to use the SciMAT bibliometric tool for the bibliometric study with the approach based on a joint analysis of words and the h-index to visualize diagrams and thematic areas relatively simply for two periods: 2010-2018 and 2019-2021. Results/Discussion. It was necessary to know the concept of smart contracts for the future of contract law and the digital economy. Some institutions and people will be against considering them as authorized legal alternatives; However, due to the technological advance currently being presented, their development will only be a matter of time. Conclusions. Smart contracts are a technological innovation that, through blockchain technology, carry out transactions safely, quickly and with almost no risk of non-compliance.
The blockchain technology empowers secure, trustless, and privacy-preserving trading with cryptocurrencies. However, existing blockchain-based trading platforms only support trading cryptocurrencies with digital assets (e.g., NFTs). Although several payment service providers have started to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method for tangible goods (e.g., Visa, PayPal), customers still need to trust and hand over their private information to centralized E-commerce platforms (e.g., Amazon, eBay). To enable trustless and privacy-preserving trading between cryptocurrencies and real goods, we propose SPENDER, a smart-contract-based platform for Secure and Privacy-PresErviNg Decentralized P2P E-commeRce. The design of our platform enables various advantageous features and brings unlimited future potential. Moreover, our platform provides a complete paradigm for designing real-world Web3 infrastructures on the blockchain, which broadens the application scope and exploits the intrinsic values of cryptocurrencies. The platform has been built and tested on the Terra ecosystem, and we plan to open-source the code later.
Fernando Parahyba, Eldair F. Dornelles, Fabrícia Roos-Frantz, Rafael Z. Frantz · 8 authors
Integration processes involve Business Constraints and Service Level Agreements that, with current technology, are not monitored or enforced automatically at run-time. This approach leaves the participants with no means of supervising the development of their interactions or of collecting indisputable evidence to ease the resolution of disputes that can potentially emerge. In this paper, to address the issue, we suggest the inclusion of smart contracts in integration processes to supervise and mediate, at run-time, the agreements to which the participants commit. We discuss the requirements that smart contracts for integration processes need to meet and the challenges involved in writing, executing, deploying, and verifying them.
Eldair F. Dornelles, Fernando Parahyba, Rafael Z. Frantz, Fabrícia Roos-Frantz · 8 authors
Several languages have been developed for writing smart contracts for specific domains, such as health, finance, and business processes. However, none of them includes the constructors needed for writing smart contracts used in application integration processes which have their own particularities. Such smart contracts are responsible for monitoring the communication between the process and the applications to guarantee that the rights of the parties involved in the integration process are observed. To cover the gap, this paper discusses a domain-specific language for writing smart contracts in the application integration domain. It provides constructors to write smart contracts with a level of abstraction close to the natural language used in conventional contracts.
Newton Chinyamunjiko, Forbes Makudza, Lucia Mandongwe
Abstract: Purpose: The study sought to uncover the effect of blockchain digital ledger technology (BCDLT) on financial crimes. The study was driven by the need to promote blockchain technology in a bid to enhance financial sanity through elimination of financial delinquency. Research methodology: The study followed a quantitative paradigm using an explanatory research design. The study targeted financial executives, senior staff members at the Zimbabwe stock exchange, bankers and officials from the financial regulators. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Results: The study found out that of the four independent BCDLT antecedents, manual audit costs were insignificant, whereas the other three had strong positive associations with financial crime reduction. Limitations: The study targeted a specific group of financiers; hence the results may not be universal to other excluded categories Contribution: The study significantly guides policy formulation and laws in line with the adoption of the blockchain technology in the global financial system to guard against the possibility of new forms of financial crimes that could emanate from the use of technology. Keywords: 1. Blockchain digital ledger technology 2. Financial crime 3. Financial performance
Michell Boerger, Philipp Lämmel, Nikolay Tcholtchev, Manfred Hauswirth
Climate change has put significant pressure on energy markets. Political decisions such as the plan of the German government to shut down coal power plants by 2038 are shifting electricity production towards renewable and distributed energy resources. The share of these resources will continue to grow significantly in the coming years. This trend changes the ways how energy markets work which mandates fundamental changes in the underlying IT infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based solution which enables an economically viable and grid-serving integration of distributed energy resources into the existing energy system. Our blockchain-based approach targets intraday and day-ahead operating reserve markets, on which energy grid operators and operators of distributed energy resources can trade flexibilities within the schedulable energy production and consumption of their resources. By utilizing these flexibilities as an operating reserve, renewable and climate-friendly technologies can contribute to maintaining the grid stability and security of supply while simultaneously creating economically interesting business models for their operators. We propose to define blockchain-based short-term energy markets by utilizing the concept of general-purpose smart contracts and cryptocurrencies. This enables direct and decentralized trading of energy flexibilities without any intermediary or central instance. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach through an implementation of a prototype of the proposed markets based on the Ethereum blockchain and provide a detailed evaluation of its efficiency and scalability.
In the development of traditional supply-chain finance, the information asymmetry of all parties in the supply chain has become the primary problem hindering its development. Blockchain technology is an effective method to solve the problem of information silos. Based on differential game theory, this paper constructs a game model of supply-chain financial information-sharing behavior based on blockchain technology. Three scenarios of independent decision, the cost-subsidy mechanism of financial institutions, and dealers and collaborative decisions are studied, and the theoretical model is verified through a simulation algorithm. The results show that information sharing in supply-chain finance based on blockchain technology is much higher than that of traditional supply-chain finance, and the use of blockchain technology can promote more sustainable development of supply chains. Blockchain technology can effectively solve the information-silo effect, and the information sharing cost-subsidy mechanism can effectively relieve the cost pressure of information sharing and optimize the supply-chain structure. In addition, the amount of information and benefits shared among the three parties of supply-chain finance based on blockchain technology and the overall benefits show an increasing and stabilized trend over time. This study provides a reference for supply-chain finance members to reasonably choose the optimal strategic behavior.
In an attempt to deepen how the way of working is changing due to the digital transformation, this research aims at understanding the process by which individuals adopt blockchain technology in accountancy. We conducted a meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature on the topic of blockchain technology adoption in the context of accountancy. Drawing from 10 systematically selected qualitative studies, we analyzed the process of blockchain technology adoption in accountancy, with particular reference to the impacts on accounting professionals, in terms of individual attitudes and behaviors, as well as organizations. Our findings contribute to the existing literature in at least two ways. First, our research explores the topic of blockchain adoption in the accountancy domain and stresses the relevance of the use of that emerging technology by accounting professionals and organizations, as well as the main problems that could limit its adoption and use. Second, we provide an overview of the process of blockchain technology adoption with specific reference to the questions of “why” and “how” blockchain is (or is not) adopted by accounting professionals and organizations, in an effort to shed light on a critical issue that has yet to be explored in accountancy.
Rafael Belchior, Limaris Torres, Jonas Pfannschmid, André Vasconcelos · 5 authors
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) provides decentralized and tamper-resistant data storage, replicated among mutually untrusting participants. With the advancement of this technology, different privacy-preserving blockchains have been proposed, such as Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, and Digital Asset’s Canton. These distributed ledgers only provide \emph{partial consistency}, which implies that participants can view the same ledger differently. A \emph{view} represents the states of a blockchain available to a particular stakeholder. The combination of views forms an integrated view that represents a consistent global state shared by all participants. This paper introduces BUNGEE (Blockchain UNifier view GEnErator), the first DLT view generator, to allow capturing DLT snapshots, constructing views, and performing arbitrary operations on those, such as integrating views. Creating and integrating views allows interesting applications, such as stakeholder-centric snapshots for audits, cross-chain analysis, blockchain migration, and data analytics.
Rafael Belchior, Limaris Torres, Jonas Pfannschmid, André Vasconcelos · 5 authors
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) provides decentralized and tamper-resistant data storage, replicated among mutually untrusting participants. With the advancement of this technology, different privacy-preserving blockchains have been proposed, such as Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, and Digital Asset's Canton. These distributed ledgers only provide \emph{partial consistency}, which implies that participants can view the same ledger differently. A \emph{view} represents the states of a blockchain available to a particular stakeholder. The combination of views forms an integrated view that represents a consistent global state shared by all participants. This paper introduces BUNGEE (Blockchain UNifier view GEnErator), the first DLT view generator, to allow capturing DLT snapshots, constructing views, and performing arbitrary operations on those, such as integrating views. Creating and integrating views allows interesting applications, such as stakeholder-centric snapshots for audits, cross-chain analysis, blockchain migration, and data analytics.
The vulnerability of solar power producers to sunshine fluctuations exposes them to the volumetric risk that future electricity generation may deviate from predicted generation. Weather derivatives have recently emerged as a tool for hedging the volumetric risks of these power producers. However, the state-of-the-art instruments have several shortcomings, contributing to their limited application in the industry. Therefore, novel solar radiation-based weather derivative smart contract arrangements on a blockchain marketplace are proposed to address some of the main limitations of traditional instruments. In this regard, the cash flow of solar generators is modelled to assess the weather elements causing its stochasticity. Using this information, novel smart contract arrangements on a blockchain marketplace with solar radiation days as the underlying weather index are developed and analytically valued. Thereafter, a suite of novel smart contract autonomous mechanisms compelling contracting parties to behave rationally and maintain an enduring arrangement is presented. Finally, a trading strategy based on the developed smart contract arrangements is proposed to minimize the power producers’ volatility risk. Results emanating from notional simulations indicate that the proposed approach could be more suitable for hedging the volumetric risks of solar power producers than traditional instruments.
Water is a basic and essential natural resource, and its rational allocation plays a key role in environmental and economic sustainable development. Agriculture consumes a large share of water resources, but the allocation of water rights often deviates from water use in reality. Therefore, an appropriate management method for agricultural water rights trading is needed. In this paper, blockchain technology is applied to address the agricultural water rights trading issue. Firstly, an alliance chain and the practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) consensus mechanism are adopted to support a smart contract and application. Then, a trading platform based on blockchain for agricultural water rights trading is proposed. Finally, the role and function of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in a self-financing irrigation drainage district (SIDD) are clarified. This study provides a secure and stable platform which can reduce the trading confirmation time and support numerous users. The trading process of agricultural water rights is updated to minimize the cost of water rights’ transactions and improve the system’s efficiency.
With the rapid development of e-commerce systems, the centralized service model gradually fails to meet the needs of SMEs. In the existing centralized e-commerce system, users’ transaction data and reputation scores are stored in a centralized cloud server, which has high storage cost, low processing efficiency, and the data is vulnerable to attacks and leaks. However, the existing decentralized e-commerce systems more than its reputation system to store the average credit score evaluation are receiving unfair evaluations against risk. The system of malicious nodes and no disciplinary measures, is not conducive to system development. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a blockchain-based decentralized e-commerce transaction system. The system commodity information is stored in the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and the returned commodity addresses are stored in the blockchain to enhance the service performance. This paper proposes a reputation evaluation model based on multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), which can effectively resist unfair evaluation and collusion attacks, and proposes an incentive mechanism based on reputation value to reward and punish nodes, thus promoting the good circulation of the system. We implement the proposed system based on Ethereum. The experimental results show that the system has a small communication cost, accurately reflects the user’s reputation value, and has good availability and reliability.
The era of mobile information has arrived, and people’s lifestyles have undergone tremendous changes. Ordering takeaways through takeout apps on smartphones is one of them. However, most existing takeaway platforms charge high commissions in the middle. There are many fake reviews in restaurants, the authenticity of restaurant ratings is low, and the recommended dishes have low customer satisfaction. This paper aims to solve this problem by introducing a peer-to-peer architecture based on blockchain smart contracts. The proposed architecture leverages the automation of smart contracts to provide autonomous, commission-free food ordering and delivery services. In addition, the smart contract reward mechanism is used to collect order information and rating information, and a deep learning recommendation model is introduced to analyze the data to recommend restaurants and menus to the client accurately. To demonstrate the usability and efficiency of the proposed method, we conducted a case study using public chain-based technologies. At the same time, comprehensive evaluation experiments are carried out, and the results show the importance of the proposed food delivery system.
Ellie Rennie, Michael Zargham, Joshua Tan, Luke E. Miller · 7 authors
Blockchain governance occurs through a combination of social and technical activities, involving smart contracts, deliberation within a group, and voting. These processes are significant as they demonstrate how governance of distributed infrastructures is evolving. While typologies of blockchain governance can be constructed by gathering on-chain interactions and formal rules, other aspects are more difficult to observe, including governance interactions occurring inside discussion forums. In this article, we discuss a participatory digital ethnography technique, whereby participants and researchers use a bespoke bot to identify governance interactions occurring within project forums (on Discord). The technique is designed to be used in conjunction with the analysis of software for the purpose of mapping and understanding the “governance surface” of different protocols. We describe our tools and methods for understanding automated futures through a case study of the SourceCred community, an organization using, developing, and maintaining open source software called SourceCred. The SourceCred codebase is also used by other decentralized communities for various organizational functions, including reputation and compensation.
Financial industries operate within a framework of strict regulatory requirements, making compliance a top priority. Smart contracts, integral to the operations of FinTech companies, must align with these regulations. Cloud-based platform offers security as a service (SecaaS) to the scalable and cost-effective solution for analyzing, monitoring, and predicting vulnerabilities in smart contracts. This approach allows FinTech firms to concentrate on their core services while benefiting from specialized security tools. The potential consequences of smart contract vulnerabilities, such as financial losses, fraud, or data manipulation, underscore the critical need for proactive prediction and mitigation. By addressing vulnerabilities in advance, FinTech platforms can prevent financial losses and uphold the integrity of their transactions. Given that FinTech platforms handle customer funds, sensitive financial information, and automated transactions, maintaining trust and reliability is paramount. Predicting vulnerabilities plays a pivotal role in building and sustaining trust among users and stakeholders. This study introduces a hybrid artificial intelligence and optimization technique for smart contract vulnerability prediction in FinTech. The modified barnacles mating optimization (MBMO) algorithm is employed for the extraction of complex syntactic and semantic features, enhancing the accuracy of vulnerability predictions. Additionally, the general regressive artificial neural network (GR-ANN) is utilized to predict vulnerabilities, specifically describing vulnerability types in smart contracts deployed in a cloud environment. The evaluation of this framework involves rigorous testing using the ScrawID-real Ethereum smart contract benchmark dataset, demonstrating its capability and accuracy in predicting smart contract vulnerabilities. The study introduces a novel hybrid artificial intelligence and optimization technique aimed at predicting vulnerabilities in cloud-based smart contracts, specifically in the FinTech sector. Utilizing the modified barnacles mating optimization algorithm and the general regressive artificial neural network, this approach enhances the accuracy of vulnerability detection. The paper demonstrates the methods efficacy through rigorous testing with the ScrawID-real Ethereum smart contract benchmark dataset, highlighting its potential to bolster security in FinTech applications.
Vijay Kumar Prasad, P. Keerthi, T. Jeevan Sekhar, R. Pavan Kalyan · 5 authors
The undertaking means to work with quick and secure installment handling of school expenses utilizing block chain innovation. These days understudies were approached to pay school expenses in various techniques, for example, cash, charge card, check and request draft. These sorts of exchanges need a middle to move sum from the trader to recipient. The middle is the bank for this situation. Conventional installment frameworks include focal specialists like the national bank, business banks and government. These strong mediums can handle every one of your activities and have full control of all data through their own frameworks. Much of the time the exchanges might try and come up short. Between making buys, covering bills, enacting cards, etc, 80% of banking communications spin around installments. The typical client interfaces with their bank no less than two times every day for installment related matters, making it the main financial movement that includes different cooperations daily. These issues have driven us take up this task. In this theory, we propose a decentralized school expense exchange techniques utilizing block chain innovation. A block chain is generally a public dispersed record of the record of all exchanges that has been achieved and divided between contributing gatherings and it requires no moderate to move the cash. Every exchange in the public record is confirmable by the member in the framework. Every exchange in block chain contains a list, timestamp and information. Blockchain installment frameworks give more noteworthy security and straightforwardness to the clients and organizations across the world. This is on the grounds that all exchanges should be visible openly and can't be adjusted whenever they are coded into the framework. Blockchain ordinarily is secure once it's in the framework. In this way, there aren't any additional securities that are fundamental for the framework so it's a lot less expensive than the conventional installment framework. In a blockchain installment framework, there aren't any supervisors or workers. There's just a local area of individuals who all together and go by rules on the stage. Hence, costs are decreased and there are lower commission charges.
The introduction of novel technology has oftentimes changed the concept of ownership. Non-fungible tokens are a recent example, as they allow a decentralized way to generate and verify proof of ownership via distributed ledger technology. Despite crucial uncertainties, these tokens have generated great enthusiasm for the future of digital property and its surrounding economy. In this regard, I think there is an untapped opportunity in applying a hypertext approach to augment such highly structured ownership-based associations. To this end, in this work I propose hyperownership, based on the premises that property is the law of lists and ledgers, and that hypertext is an apt method to inquiry such a ledger system. In spite of the significant risks and challenges to realize such a vision, I believe that it has great potential to transform the way with which we interact with digital property.