Objective – This study proposes a conceptual framework of Zakat based management model using blockchain technology with its transparent, secure, auditable, and efficient system in order to enhance the trust in zakat agencies. Design/methodology – This study is based on literature and theoretical reviews. This study took BAZNAS as the model of the Indonesian zakat agency to use Blockchain-based zakat payment on which zakat payers can track the fund allocated to the beneficiaries directly. Results – This research demonstrates the importance of Blockchain and smart contract technologies in zakat management by developing a model that combines zakat management agencies with the components of Blockchain and smart contract technologies. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model can contribute to the sustainability and efficiency of zakat agencies and is in line with the poverty eradication effort in Indonesia.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the advantages by examining the effect decentralized blockchain applications on accounting information systems. The blockchain as an Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) offers new possibilities to recording and backing up sensitive and confidential data of accounting information systems. The blockchain is designed in a structure that allows transactions to be monitored and controlled in real-time. By this way, the question of how to operate the real-time accounting system, as a new paradigm with blockchain technology, and how to apply in the field of taxation have emerged simultaneously. To achieve the aim of the study, a descriptive approach was adopted to explore the basics of blockchain technology and the most important accounting practices (such as accounting entries, taxation). For that purpose, the relevant literature on blockchain accounting system were reviewed and the blockchain reports of the big four companies were examined. As a result, the potential advantages of real-time blockchain accounting system were categorized according to four focus points: transparency and trust; disintermediation;smart contracts; continuous audit.
Mohamed Allouche, Mihai Mitrea, Alexandre Moreaux, Sang‐Kyun Kim
Formally known as ISO/IEC 23093, Internet of Media Things (IoMT) is an emerging paradigm ensuring interoperability among media-centric applications and services designed and deployed for the interpretation, representation or analysis of multimedia content collected by media devices such as cameras or microphones. Under this framework, the present paper establishes the proof of concept for the automation of IoMT specified Smart Contract generation. The advanced modus operandi enables media devices and their content to be seamlessly protected against payment counterfeiting, malicious control, access, interception and/or redirection. To this aim, a comprehensive architectural and experimental framework is conceived, designed, and demonstrated. While the methodological approach is blockchain agnostic, the experimental results are obtained on a 3-node, EEA (Enterprise Ethereum Alliance)-compliant private blockchain.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
In 2008, the world was introduced to Blockchain. In 2009, the first open-source Blockchainbased cyber currency was introduced as Bitcoin. By 2025, studies indicate that Blockchain-based enterprise-wide application revenue will reach nearly $20 billion. Therefore, this study proposes to build on the success of Thailand's National Single Window (THAINSW) gateway document interchange architecture (DIA) and further expand its availability to a much larger network of e-Government participants using Blockchain architecture. Therefore, the authors set how to investigate how and where Blockchain technology could be implemented in order to support of Thailand's 4.0 and digital economy visions. In addition to the qualitative analysis of the literature, the authors used input from a panel of 25 Thai experts to develop a foundation for the analysis based on Sathosi Nakamoto’s seven Blockchain disciplines. This analysis was enhanced from the authors’ own experiences in real-world Blockchain implementations. Results revealed that Blockchain is a highly innovative approach to secure transaction execution, information storage, performing functions, and establishing trust in an open architectural environment.Blockchain has the potential to increase good governance, increase transparency and privacy, and reduce the chance of corruption.
Siddhartha Sen, Sripati Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Karforma
In recent years, the most cutting edges and promising technology emerged is Blockchain. It has huge potential to impact various industries. The append-only distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the consensus mechanism of Blockchain can also change the dimension of E-Governance. The Electronic Property Record (EPR) systems of government have challenges like data security, integrity, secure storage of data and automated service delivery. In this paper, we discuss how Smart Contract based Blockchain technology can effectively be used to address the challenges of EPR System over the existing available systems. We propose a Smart Contract based permissioned blockchain framework which is an innovative approach, especially in the Electronic Property Registration domain of E-Governance in India. The objective of our proposed framework is firstly to implement Smart Contract solving the security problems like confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and secondly to ensure secure storage of electronic records by defining access rules for the stakeholders of the proposed framework. Moreover, we address the issues of single-point-of-failure, data inter-operability between the organizations involved for sharing and verification of property information among various stakeholders.
Cryptocurrency is a virtual forex wherein transactions are proven and information maintained by way of a decentralized gadget using cryptography, instead of by way of a centralized authority. It is a digital cash which takes the form of tokens or cash and secured by means of cryptography, it isn't feasible to counterfeit or double - spend. The purpose of the existing study was to examine the nature, sorts and usefulness of Cryptocurrencies and to examine about the awareness of Cryptocurrency among the various buyers. The research has been undertaken to examine the views of the respondents on their know-how on Cryptocurrency and also about the pros and cons, demanding situations of Cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is in a completely unique role as a forerunner in a likely trans-formative technology to lengthy status financial structures with the aid of its very nature, it could fill gaps in contemporary monetary technology and be capable to help conventional banking problems with the aid of being a peer-to-peer gadget.
Blockchain is a mainstream technology in which many untrustworthy nodes work together to maintain a distributed ledger with advantages such as decentralization, traceability, and tamper-proof. The network layer communication mechanism in its architecture is the core of the networking method, message propagation, and data verification among blockchain nodes, which is the basis to ensure blockchain’s performance and key features. When blocks are propagated in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks with gossip protocol, the high propagation delay of the protocol itself reduces the propagation speed of the blocks, which is prone to the chain forking phenomenon and causes double payment attacks. To accelerate the propagation speed and reduce the fork probability, this paper proposes a blockchain network propagation mechanism based on proactive network provider participation for P2P (P4P) architecture. This mechanism first obtains the information of network topology and link status in a region based on the internet service provider (ISP), then it calculates the shortest path and link overhead of peer nodes using P4P technology, prioritizes the nodes with good local bandwidth conditions for transmission, realizes the optimization of node connections, improves the quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) of blockchain networks, and enables blockchain nodes to exchange blocks and transactions through the secure propagation path. Simulation experiments show that the proposed propagation mechanism outperforms the original propagation mechanism of the blockchain network in terms of system overhead, rate of data success transmission, routing hops, and propagation delay.
Marianne Bechara, Wouter Bossu, Yan Liu, Arthur Rossi
Fintech presents unique opportunities for central banks. The rapid changes in technology that are transforming the financial system will allow central banks to enhance the execution of various of their core functions, such as currency issuance and payment systems. But some aspects of fintech pose major challenges. Central banks have always been at the cutting edge of financial technology and innovation. In the past, the invention of the banknote, the processing of payments through debits and credits in book-entry accounts, and the successive transitions of interbank payment systems from the telegraph to internet protocols were all transformative innovations. Today, central banks are facing new and unprecedented challenges: distributed ledger technology, new data analytics (artificial intelligence [AI] and machine learning), and cloud computing, along with a wider spread of mobile access and increased internet speed and bandwidth. The purpose of this note is to discuss the authors’ preliminary views on how, from a legal perspective, central banks can best deal with the impact of fintech on their governance. These preliminary views are based on a review of central banks’ reaction thus far to the challenges posed by fintech to the legal foundations of their governance.
Ever since Bitcoin was introduced in 2008, Central Banks and regulators have watched carefully and cautiously over the development of cryptocurrencies. This development took a significant leap in 2019 when Facebook and the People’s Bank of China almost simultaneously announced their Libra project and Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) respectively, instantaneously creating a rivalry. This paper anchors on China’s DCEP, examines its potential benefits and risks to monetary policies, transaction security, and customer protection, in comparison with conventional fiat currency and privately issued cryptocurrencies. The structural design of the DCEP is also reviewed to understand how these features guard against the issues identified. Overall, while making a few recommendations on constructing a fully prepared legal framework, this paper recognizes the DCEP as a promising step forward as it combines the security offered by blockchain and cryptography technology and the stability supported by the Central Bank.
Zusammenfassung Die Distributed Ledger- bzw. Blockchain-Technologie führt zu einer zunehmenden Dezentralisierung von Finanzdienstleistungen, die weitgehend ohne die Einschaltung von Finanzintermediären angeboten werden können. Dazu trägt wesentlich die „Tokenisierung“ von Vermögensgegenständen, Zahlungsmitteln und Rechten bei, die verschlüsselt als Kryptowerte in verteilten Transaktionsregistern digital abgebildet werden können. Dieser Beitrag erläutert die Grundlagen und Anwendungsfelder dezentraler Finanzdienstleistungen mit Kryptowerten, die mittelfristig die gesamte Architektur des Finanzsektors verändern könnten.
Blockchain technology is a disruptive innovation with the potential to replace existing business models that rely on centralized systems and third parties for trust. Even if there are a lot of application areas, blockchain used primarily for cryptocurrencies. Satoshi Nakamoto implemented the first blockchain application and invented the world’s first digital currency which is named as Bitcoin in 2008. Fundementally Bitcoin relies on cryptographic “proof of work” mechanism, digital signatures, and peer to peer distributed networking layer in order to provide a distributed ledger holding transactions. In 2014, a second generation of blockchains allow to program and execute them over distributed networks such as Ethereum project. The code to program any asset stored in blockchain’s peer-to-peer network is called as "smart contract" and smart contracts gives a powerful tool to developers for decentralized applications. There are various types of tokens that anyone can built on top of Ethereum and by combining smart contracts and new tokens, this paved the way of possibility to build a wide range of decentralized projects. One of the disruptive blockchain based innovation impacting intellectual property is called non-fungible-tokens or NFTs firstly introcuced in late 2017 on Ethereum network. This research contends that blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which are cryptographically unique, scarce, non-replicable digital assets created through smart contracts and provably digital collectible assets. Our objective is to give NFT taxonomy, review NFT platforms and discuss technical challenges as well as recent advances in tackling the challenges. Moreover, this paper also aims to point out the future directions for NFT technology.
Purpose-Our health and social lives and financial markets have been significantly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the coronavirus' overall economic impacts are not yet known, a financial market reaction to the pandemic is observed. Studies show that the pandemic has strong impact on stock markets and cryptocurrency markets and also increases uncertainty. Cryptocurrency known as virtual money is one of the most important developments of digitalization. Cryptocurrencies discussed during the past few years and, in particular, a new investor portfolio, are highly popular. Cryptocurrency markets began to pickup with the arrival of bitcoin. These markets have started to be demand like stock markets. The purpose of this study is to establish the elements influencing individual financial investment decisions both on the cryptocurrency market and in the stock markets, with the performance of cryptocurrencies growing positively in conjunction with the pandemic in 2020. Methodology-While making financial decisions, individuals want to know how the market is carried over and they act accordingly. For this reason, both stock and crypto money markets have been examined in order to see the behaviour of individuals. The objective of this research is to establish the elements that influence individual financial investment decisions on both cryptocurrency and equity markets, since cryptocurrencies have a positive increase in performance parallel to the globally lower pandemic interest rates in 2020.In the study, it was collected with the data by survey technique. The survey examined investor behaviour in financial markets based on individual investor demographics on 428 individual investors. Findings-The study, which was collected with the participation of 428 individual investors with the survey technique, shows that the majority of crypto money users are between the ages of 25-34 according to gender, age and education level and are university graduates. When the data of the survey applied to determine the investment tendencies of individual investors are evaluated, it has been observed that the investors are mostly willing to invest in foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies arouse considerable curiosity due to their high return performance. However, participants believed that cryptocurrency market is riskier than stock markets. In our article, the level of perception about how cryptocurrencies are an investment tool is also not clear, and it has been revealed that investors primarily obtain information about this market through social media channels. Conclusion-In the financial sector, where competition is intense, financial decisions taken by investors are of great importance. Increased pandemic risk factor has led to ambiguities in investment decision-making. Global uncertainty continues despite the development of the vaccine. Corruption in cryptocurrency exchange, often mentioned in recent days, led individuals to research and to learn more about themselves in this area, who are investing in this industry or planing to do so. Our survey on investor behaviour in financial markets, which was carried out with the participation of 428 people over the social platform, was also prepared to be more on crypto money. According to the survey, developments regarding cryptocurrencies showed that the State had to regulate. The recent news about corruption reveals that cryptocurrency markets will continue to be precepted negatively for some time, but it shows that incidents are rapidly forgotten.
Safe-haven assets conserve their value or grow against another asset or portfolioduring market turmoil. Indonesian stock market, represented by the Jakarta composite index (JKSE), plunged in price because of COVID-19, pushing investors to look for safe-havens. The cryptocurrency began to be perceived as a store of value as indicated by the transaction volume increase; hence it was expected to be a safe haven asset. However, cryptocurrency’s high price volatility cast doubts on its store of value effectiveness, prompting inspection for its safe haven property as well. This research aimed to predict the assets' risk and return plus investigate whether cryptocurrency is safe haven assets against the Indonesian stock market during COVID- 19. Daily closing prices of JKSE, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple were used, then the GARCH model was implemented in the forecasting. DCC-GARCH model, followed by dummy variable regression, will be applied to the return data to evaluate the safe haven property. The prediction projected Bitcoin as the most profitable asset andRipple as the riskiest. The analysis and robustness test suggested that none of these cryptocurrencies were safe haven assets during the whole observation. This indicates that investors who intend to seek safe haven investments were advised against investing in these cryptocurrencies.
Carlos Castro-Iragorri, Julián Antonio Ramírez, Velez, Sebastian
We provide an overview of decentralized protocols like Compound and Aave that offer collateralized loans for cryptoasset investors. Compound and Aave are two of the most important application in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Using publicly available information on rates, supply and borrow activity, and accounts we analyze different elements of the protocols. In particular, we estimate ex-post margins that give a comprehensive account of the cost of financial intermediation. We find that ex-post margins considering all markets are 1% and lower for stablecoin markets. In addition, we estimate quarterly indicators regarding solvency, asset quality, earnings and market risk similar to the ones used in traditional banking. This provides a first look at the use of these metrics and a comparison between the similarities and challenges to our understanding of financial intermediation in these protocols based on tools used for traditional banking.
Banking systems have been using a centralised network over several years. Any attack on the centralised unit would risk a whole lot of banking data. To avoid this, Blockchain is an approach, which is more appropriate to hold the large data in a safe manner as it is a decentralised network. The purpose of this paper is to provide better understanding about using blockchain for the banking sector by outlining the opportunities, benefits and challenges of this technology. We propose a technique of banking using blockchain which would make things simpler, safer and transparent. Also, at some point in time, we can even put restrictions to limit the transaction amount, day limit, credit limit or other restrictions depending upon the banking rules. Through these restrictions, attempts towards hacking or misuse could be prevented. This work would benefit the banking sectors and modify the direction of Finance.
Next to artificial intelligence and big data, blockchains have emerged as one of the most oft-cited technologies associated with the digital economy. Leading technology companies have recently contributed to making the technology used more widely by developing integrated blockchain offerings. The emergence of such services yet strikingly clashes with the original stated goal of the technology to remove any form of central political authority, such as the one companies behind these new services can represent. How should we then understand the embrace of blockchains by companies that this technology was notably supposed to displace? Using the concept of infrastructure from Science and Technology Studies, we argue that these companies are not merely adopting the technology but actively promoting a new assemblage of socio-technical devices to reassert their authority over how information is exchanged online. Based on a comparative analysis of the technical documentation of Ethereum and Amazon Web Services (AWS) blockchain services, we highlight how actors contributing to building digital infrastructures regulate their users' behavior by affording them different capacities and constraints. We moreover show how by pursuing its commercial interest, AWS supported a corporate form of governance historically promoted by the United States to oversee the digital economy.
Block chain is a distributed ledger that offers secure and immutable storage. E–governance allows exchange of information between government and citizens or organizations through latest information and communication technologies. The E governance services facilitate efficient and fast access of services; on the other hand it raises potential risks of breaching into privacy and Security. Blockchain based e-governance system offers secure and transparent services without intermediary. This paper investigates the scope and challenges of adopting blockchain technology as a platform for E-Governance.
This paper presents a theoretical and empirical outlook on different aspects of various cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology including the evolution of digital tokens and how they widely affect the financial markets, organizations, banks, governments via analyzing the characteristics and current history of cryptocurrencies alongside with blockchain technology. The choice of this topic was motivated by the fact that the virtual money concept and blockchain technology are utterly new phenomena. This new technology is completely decentralized making the subject worthy of scientific research.The paper solely focuses on analyzing how cryptocurrencies currently affect the financial markets and the future trends of these virtual tokens in the global economy. The study is keen to further examine the impact of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on international fund transfers. Literature review and case study with up-to-date data has been included in the analysis. The following results have been obtained: cryptocurrencies offer a wide range of features such as faster, cheaper and more secure cross-border money transfers that can also provide anonymity. Most crypto tokens are highly volatile due to their nature and various other factors. Cryptocurrencies could provide more beneficial options for users on cross border transfers compared to traditional methods of fund transfers. Cryptocurrencies might have the potential to replace paper money and gain mainstream recognition throughout the world. The study sheds light onto current and future trends of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. It is outlined for the crypto, financial, economic field.
Alexandre San Pedro Siqueira, Arlindo Flávio da Conceição, Vladimir Rocha
This article presents the potential use of the Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI), combining with Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), to improve the privacy and control of health data. The paper presents the SSI technology, lists the prominent use cases of decentralized identities in the health area, and discusses an effective blockchain-based architecture. The main contributions of the article are: (i) mapping SSI general and abstract concepts, e.g., issuers and holders, to the health domain concepts, e.g., physicians and patients; (ii) creating a correspondence between the SSI interactions, e.g., issue and verify a credential, and the US standardized set of health use cases; (iii) presenting and instantiating an architecture to deal with the use cases mentioned, effectively organizing the data in a user-centric way, that uses well-known SSI and Blockchain technologies.
In recent years, Blockchain technology has evolved from its original application in cryptocurrency and can now be used for applications such as Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts automatically Execute transactions without the need for a central authority however there are very few use cases of the technology, particularly amongst UK AEC Design SMEs. This paper uses a hybrid method approach which combines questionnaires with semi-structured interviews to create a framework which showcases how a Smart Contract invoicing process could work for Design SMEs. This could create an automated invoicing process which is more efficient and reduces the risk of late payment.
Canadian securities regulators recently advanced a novel jurisdictional claim over crypto-asset trading platforms (CTPs) that trade Bitcoin and other decentralized commodity crypto-assets (DCAs) which are not securities or derivatives on their own. The regulator asserted that a platform user’s “contractual right” to delayed delivery of a DCA creates either a security or a derivative - a position that no other international securities regulator has yet taken. This jurisdictional claim is a positive development in the evolution of crypto-asset regulation in Canada, but it is also incomplete. Third-party intermediaries, and custodial services, are a centralized point of risk transmission and investor transaction volume. As such, the regulator’s measures will bring certainty, stability, and credibility to a historically vulnerable segment of an industry surging in investor interest. Nevertheless, jurisdictional uncertainties, regulatory gaps and standards deficits remain in crypto assets, which could lead to investor harm and financial system instability.
This article illustrates numerous crypto regulatory uncertainties including intermediated blockchain proof of stake validation rewards (crypto staking); decentralized finance (DeFi) passive income “yield farming” and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Also, user controlled DCA and stablecoin wallets, and non-custodial DCA investment advice are currently unregulated with no standards, certifications, or safeguards. Nascent DeFi applications like peer-to-peer exchanges, lending protocols, smart contract-based prediction and derivatives markets, synthetic investments and lotteries also currently operate outside of meaningful supervision or standards, and in many cases without an intermediary due to automated smart contracts on a decentralized programmable blockchain. Ultimately, a legislative solution which brings DeFi under the supervision of the securities regulator for applications that resemble capital markets regulated products and services, aligned with consistent international standards and coordination with other financial market agencies, is necessary to fully support innovation in crypto assets while ensuring financial system stability and investor protection.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in promoting the national economy and providing employment opportunities. E-commerce platforms may facilitate transactions between these enterprises. However, transactions on the e-commerce platform are non-face-to-face, strongly virtual, and variable, resulting in SMEs often facing moral hazards and opportunistic behaviors. Blockchain is a distributed ledger consisting of an encryption algorithm, consensus mechanism, and smart contracts, having the characteristics of authenticity, security, transparency, and unforgeability. Thus, the problems faced by SMEs can be resolved by combining e-commerce platforms and blockchain technology. In this study, we first provide a conceptual framework for blockchain-supported e-commerce platforms for SMEs. Second, based on this conceptual framework, we build a total business architecture. Finally, we propose three key applications to illustrate how the platform facilitates SMEs in solving financing and trading problems. This study provides significant guidance for the operation and management of blockchain-supported e-commerce platforms for these enterprises.
Blockchain is a method of storing data that makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to edit, hack, or update the system. As time passes, blockchain technology becomes more popular, and blockchain-based applications, also known as DApps, which will be used in this article, are becoming more widely recognised. We will construct a chat application based on a decentralised network in this article to eliminate its absolute reliance on centralised players. On a peer-to-peer network like Ethereum, the actual message and data will be kept. To offer decentralised storage and efficient lookup, we will employ a blockchain and distributed hash table (DHT). which will describe what we will do, which is a trendy issue among academics and trades. Except for the fact that DApps are important, we currently have a limited grasp of DApps and nature. To close the data gap, this paper presents a file for the most comprehensive blockchain-based DApps analysis to date, which includes 995 Ethereum DApps data and 29,846,075 dealings logs above them. We usually do a descriptive investigation of Dapp preferences, characterise patterns of how Dapps use good contracts to gain access to fundamental blockchain, and evaluate the results issues with the post and misuse of DApps In support of the findings, we propose a large number of Results for DApp users to choose the best DApps. Dapp developers must work harder in order to create more efficient DApps, and vendors must likewise support them.