Blockchain Papers

Mark Fenwick, Paulius Jurčys

No abstract is available for this record.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Samoshin

No abstract is available for this record.

Evelyne Bischof, Alex Botezatu, Sergey Jakimov, Ilya Suharenko · 9 authors

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) launched on a blockchain and governed by a smart contract promises to bring self-organization to a new technological level. Crisis management has no standard decentralized solution within DAO yet. A central authority is a natural component due to compliance reasons in certain domains, for example, special-purpose financing, in which the DAO governance model could be reasonably applied. More generally, a centralized DAO representative could streamline implementing DAO decisions that involve interactions with legacy systems. The article presents a perspective of modern technologies for organizing a foundation for special-purpose financing and considers longevity as a model example of the purpose.

Paul P. Momtaz

This paper examines the efficiency of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market through a search- theoretical lens. Search intensity associated with the process of identifying valuable startups is increasing in market granularity. Blockchain technology increases market granularity because asset tokenization lowers entry barriers. Lower-end entrants, however, increase aggregate search intensity but may lack search skills. The resulting search-related inefficiency creates a niche for intermediaries or institutional investors that specialize on search. Consistent with the theory, specialized crypto funds increase ICO market efficiency by reducing search frictions, inter alia, by shortening the time-to-funding and increasing the funding amount. At the same time, crypto funds extract sizable economic rents for their intermediation services. Overall, the study relates to the general trade-off between centralization and decentralization in entrepreneurial finance. It suggests that market frictions specific to early-stage crowdfunding of entrepreneurship may prevent “perfectly” Decentralized Finance (DeFi) markets from functioning efficiently.

Paul P. Momtaz

This paper examines the efficiency of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market through a search- theoretical lens. Search intensity associated with the process of identifying valuable startups is increasing in market granularity. Blockchain technology increases market granularity because asset tokenization lowers entry barriers. Lower-end entrants, however, increase aggregate search intensity but may lack search skills. The resulting search-related inefficiency creates a niche for intermediaries or institutional investors that specialize on search. Consistent with the theory, specialized crypto funds increase ICO market efficiency by reducing search frictions, inter alia, by shortening the time-to-funding and increasing the funding amount. At the same time, crypto funds extract sizable economic rents for their intermediation services. Overall, the study relates to the general trade-off between centralization and decentralization in entrepreneurial finance. It suggests that market frictions specific to early-stage crowdfunding of entrepreneurship may prevent “perfectly” Decentralized Finance (DeFi) markets from functioning efficiently.

Douglas J. Cumming, Niclas Dombrowski, Wolfgang Drobetz, Paul P. Momtaz

No abstract is available for this record.

Philip Treleaven, Alfie Greenwood, Hirsh Pithadia, Jiahua Xu

No abstract is available for this record.

Peterson K Ozili

Purpose This paper analyzes global interest in Internet information about decentralized finance (DeFi), embedded finance (EmFi), open finance (OpFi), ocean finance (OcFi) and sustainable finance (SuFi) and the relationship among them. Design/methodology/approach The paper used a comparative methodology based on regression and correlation analyses to assess global interest in Internet information about DeFi, EmFi, OpFi, OcFi and SuFi. Findings The findings reveal that global interest in Internet information about EmFi was more popular in Asian and European countries. Global web search for Internet information about OcFi decreased during the financial crisis while global web search for Internet information about OpFi and EmFi increased during financial crisis years. Global web search for Internet information about DeFi, SuFi and EmFi increased during the pandemic years. There is a significant and positive correlation between interest in DeFi, EmFi, OcFi and SuFi. Also, there is a significant and negative correlation between interest in EmFi and interest in OpFi. The regression coefficient matrix shows that OpFi, EmFi, OcFi, DeFi and SuFi are significantly related. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper that analyses the association between interest in DeFi, EmFi, OpFi, OcFi and SuFi. Thus, this study addressed an important knowledge gap in the literature by exploring people’s interest in Internet information about DeFi, EmFi, OpFi, OcFi and SuFi.

Abdullah Ayub Khan, Asif Ali Wagan, Asif Ali Laghari, Abdul Rehman Gilal · 6 authors

Owing to the sensitive nature of healthcare data, the aforementioned approach to transferring patient data to central servers creates serious security and privacy issues. In addition, blockchain distributed ledger technology has introduced immutable storage and decentralized data management capability, which handles a large number of distributed nodes of E-Healthcare transactions via a serverless network, but in a limited manner because of blockchain-enabled resources. In this scenario, the medical industries are concerned about constituting an innovation in health information preservation and exchanging service delivery protocols without the connectivity of an untrusted third-party infrastructure. In this study, we proposed a blockchain hyperledger fabric-enabled consortium architecture called BIoMT, which provides security, integrity, transparency, and provenance to health-related transactions and exchanges sensitive clinical information in a serverless peer-to-peer (P2P) secure network environment. A consensus is designed and created to reduce the rate of blockchain resource constraints on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). The privacy of individual health transactions before sharing is protected using the NuCypher Re-Encryption mechanism, which increases security and provides medical ledger integrity and transparency. Smart contracts are created and deployed to automate device registration, exchange transactions, and ledger preservation in immutable storage (filecoin) after cross verification and validation. The experimental results show that the proposed BIoMT reduces the computational cost by 26.13%, and the robust medical node generation increases to 60.37%. Thus, only 31.79% and 74.21% of IoMT-related information and serverless P2P network usage are maintained and saved, respectively.

Canghai Wu, Jie Xiong, Huanliang Xiong, Yingding Zhao · 5 authors

A smart contract, in form, is represented as a piece of computer program code involving related commercial transactions and algorithms. Essentially, this is the computerization of the pre-agreed contract between the participants. This special contract agreement is automatically verified and executed once preset conditions are triggered. Smart contracts are not only used in the field of financial transactions, but also include many aspects of social life. Although smart contract technology has unique advantages, it is still in the early stages of development, and many problems remain to be solved. First, this article briefly summarizes the development process of blockchain, and then focuses on the research progress of blockchain 2.0-smart contracts. Second, the related concepts of smart contracts are presented, and the working mechanism of smart contracts and the difficulties faced by smart contracts are elaborated. Finally, in response to these problems and dilemmas, the corresponding solutions and ideas are summarized, and the future challenges and development trends of smart contracts are analyzed and judged.

Vittorio Capocasale, Guido Perboli

In the evolving context of distributed ledger technologies, the standardization of smart contracts is necessary. Smart contracts are tamper-proof computer programs. Due to their security and flexibility, it is possible to exploit smart contracts in a wide variety of use cases. In particular, it could be possible to automate legally recognized contracts by leveraging smart contracts. To this extent, some standards regarding the proper management of smart contracts are surging. However, there are still many technological misconceptions regarding smart contracts. This study describes smart contracts from multiple perspectives and identifies and clarifies some of the most common misconceptions regarding smart contracts. This study also provides some guidelines and insights on the proper management of smart contracts. This study can be a valuable resource for future standards on smart contracts.

Kose John, Leonid Kogan, Fahad Saleh

We explain the mechanics of smart contracts. We then highlight the benefits of smart contracts, such as overcoming commitment problems. We also discuss limitations, such as the difficulty for smart contracts to access information external to the blockchain and the difficulty of integrating smart contract code with traditional legal enforcement. We further highlight how the absence of a trusted intermediary inflates implementation costs for blockchain applications. We conclude with a discussion of the most prominent smart contract applications in decentralized finance: token issuance (e.g., initial coin offerings, nonfungible tokens), decentralized exchanges, and protocols for loanable funds. Our survey covers both institutional details and relevant literature.

Darcy W E Allen, Chris Berg, Aaron M. Lane

A cryptocurrency token airdrop is a novel means of distributing rights over a blockchain project to a community of users and owners for free. The market value of these airdrop giveaways is often upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. This paper considers why projects might choose this unusual and costly means of token distribution. It considers a diverse selection of high-profile airdrops as case studies between 2014 and 2022. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the rationales and mechanisms of Web3 token airdrops. We find that two primary rationales for airdrops are marketing (to attract new users and to maintain a community) and decentralisation of ownership and control of a project (building community, providing regulatory protection, and enhancing security). Additional rationales include creating liquid public markets and taxation treatment of token distribution. The paper contributes to an understanding of business practice and strategy in the emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.

Akanksha Jalan, Roman Matkovskyy, Andrew Urquhart, Larisa Yarovaya

No abstract is available for this record.

Mei Luo, Shuangchen Yu

Abstract This study compares and contrasts US and international accounting and financial reporting practices for cryptocurrency. We analyze the financial statements of 40 global companies that have exposure to cryptocurrencies, including cryptocurrency purchases, mining, payments, trading, and investments in ICOs and early-stage blockchain ventures. We document inconsistency between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as well as distortions that can mislead users in assessing asset value, liquidity, profitability, and cash-generating abilities across firms. In particular, firms receiving cryptocurrencies in revenue-generating activities account for cryptocurrencies as intangibles using different measurement bases and classify the associated cash inflows differently. Some firms place cryptocurrencies in the usual long-term location of intangibles, while others consider intangibles as liquid, short-term assets. Limited guidance about crypto-assets from both IFRS and GAAP lets companies choose which existing standard to apply and how to apply it. Understanding the financial and valuation implications of these new virtual assets is vital for future accounting research and professional practice.

R. Velmurugan, J. Sudarvel, Ravi Thirumalaisamy

Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) are reshaping how value is created, exchanged, and governed, and this chapter positions them as more than speculative instruments by reading them as an emerging financial infrastructure. In an ideal digital economy, programmable money supports low-friction transactions, broad participation, and transparent rules, while users retain control without surrendering trust to dominant intermediaries. Yet that ideal remains unevenly realized: markets still absorb extreme volatility, smart contracts still fail under adversarial conditions, and regulatory responses still oscillate between accommodation and restriction, leaving innovation and consumer protection in tension. Prior scholarship has mapped the monetary properties of Bitcoin as a scarcity-driven “digital store of value,” and it has framed Ethereum as the computational base layer that makes smart contracts—and therefore DeFi—possible. Studies on decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, automated market makers, and liquidity incentives have shown how 328 intermediated functions can be replicated through code, but they have also documented exploit patterns, oracle manipulation, governance capture, and composability risks that propagate across protocols. What remains underdeveloped is an integrated account that connects asset design, protocol architecture, and institutional constraints into a single explanatory model. To address this gap, the study advances a sociotechnical framework that links blockchain trust primitives with financial intermediation theory. By tracing how cryptocurrencies supply liquidity and collateral to DeFi, while DeFi amplifies token utility and systemic exposure, the chapter clarifies the conditions under which decentralized finance can mature into a resilient, inclusive financial ecosystem.

Franklin Allen, Xian Gu, Julapa Jagtiani

Fintech and decentralized finance have penetrated all areas of the financial system and have improved financial inclusion in the last decade. In this paper, we review the recent literature on fintech, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). There are important implications from the rise of fintech and the introduction of stablecoins and CBDCs in recent years. We provide an overview of China's experience in fintech, focusing on payments, digital banking, fintech lending, and the recent progress on its CBDC pilots (e-CNY). We also discuss important considerations in designing effective cryptocurrency regulations. Cryptocurrency regulations could promote growth of innovations through enhanced public confidence in this market. The e-CNY could become mainstream in the global market through effective regulations, which provide incentives and protection to market participants. A key factor to success for digital currencies has been their widespread adoption. If the Chinese e-CNY were to become a mainstream currency, the introduction of CBDC could potentially offer solutions to existing problems inherent in traditional financial systems.

Jiajun Zhou, Chenkai Hu, Jianlei Chi, Jiajing Wu · 6 authors

Blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization, traceability and tamper-proof, which creates a reliable decentralized trust mechanism, further accelerating the development of blockchain finance. However, the anonymization of blockchain hinders market regulation, resulting in increasing illegal activities such as money laundering, gambling and phishing fraud on blockchain financial platforms. Thus, financial security has become a top priority in the blockchain ecosystem, calling for effective market regulation. In this paper, we consider identifying Ethereum accounts from a graph classification perspective, and propose an end-to-end graph neural network framework named Ethident, to characterize the behavior patterns of accounts and further achieve account de-anonymization. Specifically, we first construct an Account Interaction Graph (AIG) using raw Ethereum data. Then we design a hierarchical graph attention encoder named HGATE as the backbone of our framework, which can effectively characterize the node-level account features and subgraph-level behavior patterns. For alleviating account label scarcity, we further introduce contrastive self-supervision mechanism as regularization to jointly train our framework. Comprehensive experiments on Ethereum datasets demonstrate that our framework achieves superior performance in account identification, yielding 1.13% ~ 4.93% relative improvement over previous state-of-the-art. Furthermore, detailed analyses illustrate the effectiveness of Ethident in identifying and understanding the behavior of known participants in Ethereum (e.g. exchanges, miners, etc.), as well as that of the lawbreakers (e.g. phishing scammers, hackers, etc.), which may aid in risk assessment and market regulation.

Fernando Álvarez, David Argente, Diana Van Patten

A currency's essential feature is to be a medium of exchange. We leverage a quasi-natural experiment-El Salvador as the rst country to make bitcoin legal tender-to study a cryptocurrency's potential to be used in daily transactions. The government also launched and provided incentives to download and use a digital wallet named Chivo, which shares features with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and allows users to trade bitcoin and dollars. Were Chivo Wallet and bitcoin actually adopted after this "big push"? Conducting a representative face-to-face survey and relying on blockchain data to obtain all Chivo transactions, we document how usage of digital payments and bitcoin is low, concentrated, and has been decreasing over time. We nd that privacy concerns are key barriers to adoption, which speaks to a policy debate on crypto and CBDCs that has had anonymity at its core. We also estimate the technology's adoption cost and its network externalities.

Roee Sarel, Hadar Yoana Jabotinsky, Israel Klein

Distributed Ledger Technology ("DLT") - the technology underlying cryptocurrencies - has been identified by many as a game-changer for data storage. Although DLT can solve acute problems of trust and coordination whenever entities (e.g., firms, traders, or even countries) rely on a shared database, it has mostly failed to reach mass adoption outside the context of cryptocurrencies. A prime reason for this failure is the extreme state of regulation, which was largely absent for many years but is now pouring down via uncoordinated regulatory initiatives by different countries. Both of these extremes - under-regulation and over-regulation - are consistent with traditional concepts from law and economics. Specifically, whenever DLT implements a "public blockchain" - where there is no screening of who joins the network - both the technology and its regulation constitute what economists call "non-excludable goods". For these types of goods, two classical incentive problems emerge: (i) over-regulation, due to the "tragedy of the commons", and (ii) under-regulation, due to the "free-rider problem". We argue that these problems are best solved using some form of global regulation. Comparing alternative paths to such regulation, including (i) centralized regulation, (ii) decentralized regulation, and (iii) international administrative law, we analyze how global regulation of DLT could be implemented using a mixture of 'on-chain' (embedded in the technology itself), and 'off-chain' measures. Our Article is the first to analyze why global regulation of DLT makes sense from a law and economics perspective and is the first to provide concrete suggestions on how to implement such regulation.

Jagger S. Bellagarda, Adnan M. Abu‐Mahfouz

In recent times, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) have become two of the most discussed sectors in Information Technology, with each having made a major impact. This has generated space for further innovation to occur in the convergence of the two technologies. In this paper, we gather, analyse, and present a detailed review of the convergence of AI and DLT in a vice versa manner. We review how AI is impacts DLT by focusing on AI-based consensus algorithms, smart contract security, selfish mining, decentralized coordination, DLT fairness, non-fungible tokens, decentralized finance, decentralized exchanges, decentralized autonomous organizations, and blockchain oracles. In terms of the impact DLT has on AI, the areas covered include AI data privacy, explainable AI, smart contract-based AIs, parachains, decentralized neural networks, Internet of Things, 5G technology and data markets, and sharing. Furthermore, we identify research gaps and discuss open research challenges in developing future directions.

Tim Schloesser, Karsten Schulz

No abstract is available for this record.

Sridhar Reddy Yerram, Dileep Reddy Goda, Ravikiran Mahadasa, Suman Reddy Mallipeddi · 8 authors

Amid the digital revolution, this study explores how blockchain technology can improve financial security. The primary goals are to examine how blockchain technology reduces cyber threats in the financial industry, evaluate regulatory factors that should be considered before adopting blockchain, and investigate the prospects for blockchain going forward. A review process based on secondary data is utilized, referencing academic articles, reports, and regulatory documents. Significant discoveries show that blockchain provides creative ways to reduce cyber threats, improve transparency, and foster financial transaction confidence. Nevertheless, issues, including adoption obstacles, regulatory uncertainties, and technological restrictions, must be resolved to reach their full potential. The policy implications indicate that stakeholders must collaborate, do continuous research, and establish clear regulatory frameworks to promote responsible blockchain adoption in the finance industry. Blockchain technology can transform financial security and encourage creativity in the digital world.

Iqra Khalil, Omer Aziz, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Adnan Abid

The concept of decentralization has gained a lot of focus when it comes to Blockchain. The Blockchain technology is a decentralized peer to peer distributed ledger. Many industries have been using Distributed Ledgers (DTL) before the blockchain technology. But the state of the art technology has overshadow the use of all DTLs due to its immutable nature. With the use of this technology new horizons of innovation has been explored. Bitcoin, the first cyrptocurrency, has used the blockchain technology which has received extensive attentions. In this paper, we have addressed the mechanism of the blockchain technology and a detailed tutorial of how to implement it practically. Specifically we have focused on the practical implementation of how to create a blockchain, mine a block and create a cryptocurrency. Secondly, there is detailed discussion on major platform i.e. bitcoin in which blockchain has been explored a lot. Finally towards the end, the Proof of Work Consensus algorithm is elaborated in detail. Our goal is to help readers easily understand the mechanism along with the important features of the blockchain without having to read all the blockchain specifications and application or the state-of-the-art papers that generally describe the system.