The spread of the coronavirus has devalued stock indices, lowered commodity prices such as oil, and chaos in financial markets around the world. Fiat currencies have plummeted as central banks injected too much money into affected economies, and an unprecedented recession has hit the world that central banks and financial institutions are unable to cope with. Bitcoin is a virtual currency whose production is the result of a time-consuming computational activity called exploration. This internati
The article analyses legislative initiatives aimed at regulating the use of blockchain in corporate governance. The tokenisation equity opens up new opportunities for companies to attract investment. As a result, many traditional companies are interested in converting traditional securities into security tokens. Countries aspiring to lead the blockchain industry are seeking to establish a legal framework for security tokens and a blockchain-based registration system for them. The use of blockchain brings with it not only the digital transformation of companies, but also the emergence of a new type of organization - decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Existing legal forms are not appropriate for the DAO, which requires the creation of a new type of legal entity. Changes to corporate law that address these trends will eliminate legal risk and drive digital transformation of companies
This research aims to improve and integrate hospital's healthcare applications with Blockchain and smart contracts technologies to provide huge and secure storage that is immutable. This application will be able to record the patients' medical history like appointments, medical tests, etc.; As a matter of fact, these resources should be recorded to be securely retrieved, modified, and stored by an authorized party only. The utilization of these critical resources will increase the validity for participants with a high level of liability, where building a scheduling appointment system using the blockchain-based on a smart contract will enhance patients' privacy and provides a safer method to keep data away from altering through an unofficial use. COVID-19 Coronavirus is a global disaster that requires a reliable and stable network-based application with a giant and secure platform to hold a huge number of people and settings. The simulated outcomes of the developed system were significant and extremely noteworthy according to immutability and correctness.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are electronically-stored health information in a digital format. EHRs are typically shared among healthcare stakeholders and face power failure, data misuse, lack of privacy, security, and audit trail. On the other hand, blockchain is the revolutionary invention of the twentieth century that offers a distributed and decentralized setting to communicate among nodes in a list of networks without a central authority. It can address the limitations of EHRs management and provide a safer, secured, and decentralized environment for exchanging EHRs data. Three categories of blockchain-based potential solutions have been proposed by researchers to handle EHRs: conceptual, prototype, and implemented. This study focused on a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to find and analyze articles submitted either conceptual or implemented to manage EHRs using blockchain. The study examined 99 papers that were collected from various publication categories. The deep technical analysis focused on evaluating articles based on privacy, security, scalability, accessibility, cost, consensus algorithms, and the type of blockchain used. The SLR found that blockchain technology promises to provide decentralization, security, and privacy that traditional EHRs often lack. Moreover, results obtained from the detailed studies would provide potential researchers with the type of blockchain for future research. Finally, future research directions, in the end, would direct enthusiasm to combine new blockchain-based systems to manage EHRs properly.
Shaimaa Alghamdi, Sara Alqethami, Tahani Alsubait, Hosam Alhakami
In recent years, many investors have used cryptocurrencies, prompting specialists to find out the factors that affect cryptocurrencies’ prices. Therefore, one of the most popular methods that have been used to predict cryptocurrency prices is sentiment analysis. It is a widespread technique utilized by many researchers on social media platforms, particularly on Twitter. Thus, to determine the relationship between investors’ sentiment and the volatility of cryptocurrency prices, this study forecasts the cryptocurrency prices using the Long-Term-Short-Memory (LSTM) deep learning algorithm. In addition, Twitter users’ sentiments using Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Naive Bayes (NB) machine learning approaches are analyzed. As a result, in the classification of the bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) datasets of investors’ sentiments into (Positive, Negative, and Neutral), the SVM algorithm outperformed the NB algorithm with an accuracy of 93.95% and 95.59%, respectively. Furthermore, the forecasting regression model achieves an error rate of 0.2545 for MAE, 0.2528 for MSE, and 0.5028 for RMSE.
This paper studies when entrepreneurs disclose qualitative or soft firm information to raise external capital through token offerings. By using transaction-level blockchain data and real-time disclosure for a sample of 3,009 token offerings, this study demonstrates three main results. First, successful entrepreneurs report more soft information in the pre-announcement period when information asymmetry is high. Second, among all information items disseminated to investors, corporate strategy is the most value-relevant type of content. Third, during fundraising campaigns, soft information disclosure becomes costly because it increases the risk of creating investor disagreement. Consistent with theory, this study shows that a low-disclosure practice induces more investments when information asymmetry decreases.
The Sandbox metaverse LAND non-fungible token (NFT) prices increased by than 300 times (in USD) between December 2019 and January 2022, but when measured in its native utility token (SAND), the increase is only 3 times. Depending on how prices are denominated, investment returns and effective transaction prices vary. We analyze more than 71,000 transactions and find that users are willing to pay 3-4% more when transactions are settled in SAND, and 30% less when settled in wETH (a smart contract version of ETH) when compared to ETH, so unit of account matters. Our results contribute to the discussions of blockchain-based, virtual economy management and the digitalization of money (Brunnermeier et al., 2019).
The combination of 6G and blockchain can revolutionize innovative applications in future wireless networks. Various applications in 6G require a high level of security and privacy that blockchain can award them. In addition, the complex infrastructure of 6G and the different terms and conditions of different applications need to be guaranteed, where a smart contract can be a good solution. In this paper, we studied the role of smart contract blockchain in 6G network services and applications. Smart contracts have a disruptive effect on 6G network infrastructure and applications. The integration and interoperation of blockchain and 6G is an important and foreseeable development in computational wireless communication networks.
This paper aimed to assess the effect of the cryptocurrency market on firms’ market value, especially on the sectoral level, in Africa. To reach the study’s main goal, the authors adopted the Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSEs) and Panel Double-Clustered Standard Errors (PDCSEs). Using firm-level data, the results of this study can be summarized as follows: (a) The cryptocurrency market hurts the firm market value in Africa. (b) The firms operating across different sectors respond disproportionally to the cryptocurrency market. For instance, the sectors that offer low returns in Africa (industrial, energy, financial) negatively respond to the cryptocurrency market, while the sectors that offer high returns (real estate and information technology) are not significantly affected. (c) The cryptocurrency market has a perverse effect on less experienced and highly indebted firms. (d) The consistent policies of governments to ban cryptocurrency do not work efficiently.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and payment system that leverages blockchain technology to disintermediate financial transactions. Drawing on a netnography of the early Bitcoin community from the technology’s formation in 2008 through to the disappearance of its founder in 2011, this paper demonstrates the contours of Bitcoin as an accounting regime. We propose that Bitcoin constitutes a new technology built upon social practices infused with accounting language to inscribe economic value in a particular regime of verification and validation. These practices are shaped by social relations and fuse accounting and programming logic to create a new Bitcoin mindset. While Bitcoin purports to replace trust-in-persons with trust-in-systems, we demonstrate that the actual power of Bitcoin as an accounting regime depends on the human interactions underpinning the system. We also offer a critical perspective on Bitcoin by examining the potential consequences of a payment system that mobilizes accounting practices in service of an ideology that rejects any form of oversight.
There is a lot of hope that blockchain technology may be used to standardize money transactions and increase access to banking. It is believed that regulators and industry professionals have looked into the possibility of using blockchain technology to modernize and even replace the infrastructure that currently supports international payments and remittances, such as correspondent banking, in order to ensure that transactions can be verified and recorded using blockchain technology in a distributed ledger. The purpose of this study was to analyze how blockchain technology has helped to include previously underserved populations in the mainstream financial system, and to remark on the best practices and lessons learned from sustainable development. Using a systematic literature review, the study discovered the many ways in which blockchain technology can facilitate digital financial inclusion, including its application in financial transactions, its utility as a tool for increasing financial savings, its use in the provision of credit, and its application in the provision of insurance. According to the findings, even though the global goals do not specifically target financial inclusion, providing access to financial services for the majority of the population is a critical enabler for several of the global goals. Therefore, the study concluded that sustainable development can be ensured on many fronts if the technology behind blockchains can be successfully used to improve financial inclusion. If governments, especially in developing countries, are serious about increasing citizens’ access to financial services, they must prioritize blockchain investment.
The IS discourse on the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the financial services has grown at a tremendous pace in recent years. Yet, little has been said about the related implications for the costly and highly regulated process of compliance reporting. Working with a group of representatives from industry and regulatory authorities, we employ the design science research methodology (DSR) in the design, development, and evaluation of an artefact, enabling the automated collection and enrichment of transactional data. Our findings indicate that DLT may facilitate the automation of key compliance processes through the implementation of a "pull-model", in which regulators can access compliance data in near real-time to stage aggregate exposures at the supranational level. Generalizing our preliminary results, we present four propositions on the implications of DLT in compliance. The findings contribute new practical insights on the topic of compliance to the growing IS discourse on DLT.
Social goods are difficult to study because of selection bias, as available data typically focus on successful products. The non-fungible token (NFT) market offers a rare exception, as the blockchain records every launch, success, and failure. Using comprehensive NFT data from 2021–2024, we study preference-driven herding in primary markets. Launch outcomes are sharply bimodal, demand accelerates as sellouts approach, and early participation shocks persist for months. These patterns are consistent with preference-driven coordination rather than purely informational herding. We provide further evidence consistent with social-goods models, including substantial primary-market underpricing that is exploited by scalpers.
Abstract:\n\n \n\nSo far, blockchain has been well acknowledged for its potential uses in the financial and banking industries. As a decentralized and distributed technology, blockchain, on the other hand, may be used as a powerful tool for a wide range of everyday applications. Among the many applications sectors where blockchain is expected to have a significant influence, finance and banking is one of the most important. In the contemporary financial and banking systems, it produces a broad variety of options and possibilities. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible uses of blockchain technology in present financial and banking systems, as well as to emphasize the most critical needs for such systems, such as trust less and transparent financial and banking systems. In addition, this article outlines the hurdles and roadblocks that must be overcome before blockchain technology can be successfully used in financial and banking institutions. In addition, we present the smart contract for blockchain-based financial and banking systems, which is critical for setting pre-defined agreements among multiple customers.
Decentralized Finance, commonly known as DeFi, represents a financial system constructed on blockchain technology, with the goal of replicating conventional financial services without relying on central authorities such as banks or intermediaries. It is an expanding network of financial applications and services founded on blockchain technology. In contrast to traditional finance, which depends on centralized institutions like banks, DeFi utilizes peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to enable financial transactions. Conventional financial systems often marginalize individuals and communities, particularly in developing nations or underserved groups, due to restricted access, elevated transaction fees, and strict regulations. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) appears as a promising alternative, harnessing blockchain technology to create a financial ecosystem characterized by transparency, the removal of intermediaries, and enhanced accessibility. This paper examines the potential of DeFi to promote financial inclusion and empower economies. DeFi has seen increasing popularity in India, with a rising enthusiasm for blockchain-based financial services. Nevertheless, regulatory ambiguities have resulted in a degree of caution. Indian regulators are assessing frameworks to mitigate potential risks while fostering innovation within the DeFi sector. As the regulatory environment continues to change, the growth and acceptance of DeFi in India are expected to be shaped by governmental policies and partnerships within the industry.
Olawole Akomolafe, Babajide Oluwaseun Olaogun, Michael Olumuyiwa Adesuyi, Victor Ukara Ndukwe · 5 authors
Efficient and transparent supplier payment systems are essential for maintaining trust, optimizing cash flow, and ensuring regulatory compliance in global trade. Traditional payment workflows, often reliant on manual processes, multiple intermediaries, and disparate systems, face challenges including delays, reconciliation errors, foreign exchange (FX) exposure, and limited visibility. To address these limitations, this study proposes a Smart Contract Automation Model for Supplier Payment Systems, integrating blockchain-based automation with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and banking infrastructures to enhance operational efficiency, reliability, and transparency. The proposed model leverages smart contracts to automate conditional payments, enforce compliance, and streamline reconciliation processes. Payments are executed automatically when predefined conditions are met, such as delivery confirmation, invoice validation, or adherence to regulatory requirements. Escrow mechanisms and embedded dispute resolution protocols further ensure accuracy and mitigate financial and operational risks. By automating transactional workflows, the model reduces manual intervention, minimizes errors, and accelerates settlement cycles across multi-supplier, multi-currency payment networks. Performance benchmarking forms a core component of the framework, enabling organizations to quantitatively assess efficiency, cost-effectiveness, reliability, and transparency. Key metrics include transaction speed, settlement time, fee savings, transaction success rate, auditability, and compliance adherence. Benchmarking methodologies involve baseline comparisons with traditional payment processes, scenario-based stress testing, and simulation of high-volume, multi-currency transactions. These insights facilitate continuous optimization, support strategic decision-making, and enhance stakeholder confidence in the supplier payment ecosystem. This also outlines a phased implementation roadmap, emphasizing pilot deployment, technical integration, and stakeholder engagement. Future extensions include AI/ML-driven predictive monitoring, cross-chain interoperability, and integration of ESG and regulatory compliance metrics. The Smart Contract Automation Model offers a robust solution for modernizing supplier payment systems. By combining automated execution, real-time monitoring, and performance benchmarking, it enhances transparency, operational efficiency, and risk management, providing a scalable and auditable framework for global trade settlements.
As a foundational technology of the information age, blockchain is an important technology pushing society towards using decentralized systems and peer-to-peer interactions. The emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is a prominent phenomenon of this era, which aims to revolutionize the ownership and trading of certain assets regarding their characteristics, such as being unique, devoted to special collections, and so on. The development of NFTs as a new asset class is accelerating, and they are expected to become an integral part of the human digital life experience. Throughout the paper, we introduce Dynamic Non-Fungible Tokens (dNFTs) as a new type of NFTs, which could be a paradigm-shifting experience for digital asset ownership. We establish a framework to lighten the future of using dynamic NFTs in different areas and a better understanding of the challenges and prospects in the journey of evolving this technology.
In the last few years, the technological future becoming apparent by the introduction of smart contracts into mainstream technology, specifically in the development of Web3 and the metaverse. Smart contracts will play a vital role in the decentralization and autonomy of the day-to-day tasks that must be completed. Several literature reviews, considered secondary sources, highlight the current state of testing methods for smart contracts made for Blockchain applications. In this paper, we present the results from a systematic mapping study to give structure to the information found from primary sources. Systematic mapping is a well-known method to identify and categorize research papers in a field with an increasing amount of literature. For this systematic mapping, we searched for studies between 2017 and present-day (March 2022) and were able to find 303 results, from which 47 were selected, by specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, to be relevant to this study. A concept map was created from the information gathered from primary sources to the attributes such as research type, contribution type, blockchain network, smart contract language, development process, testing methods, and testing environment. We also categorized the trends and demographics found in the selected papers based on publication year, author’s country, and more. The results of this systematic mapping showed that this field is very new and quickly increasing with new research. The researchers that are interested in this field could use the results found to create opportunities for their future work.
With the development of the times, the existing social security system can no longer meet people’s needs in terms of providing transparent, distributed sharing, tamper-proof, traceable, consensus trust and trustworthy services. Furthermore, they are centralized and subject to a single point of control and failure. In this context, we propose a consortium blockchain-based solution to establish and improve social security informatization to meet the above challenges. In this article, we present specific business situations for three important social security services. Namely, apply for social insurance, apply for social assistance and social benefits online. Our proposed solution also provides a multi-party trust and data sharing mechanism, and also demonstrates the integration of blockchain and Interplanetary File System (IPFS) storage systems to facilitate the security of approval documents, photos and videos related to the processing of social security services Accessibility and traceability. It also introduces the implementation and testing details of the algorithm in the smart contract, and expounds how to apply it in the automatic approval of social security business to reduce the workload of existing manual review. Finally, by comparing with the existing system, it is discussed that our solution has great advantages in promoting the online processing of social security business, and the safe access and traceability of approval documents, photos and videos.