Recently, technology startups have leveraged the potential of blockchain-based technologies to govern institutions or interpersonal trust by enforcing signed treaties among different individuals in a decentralized environment. However, it is going to be hard enough convincing that the blockchain technology could completely replace the trust among trading partners in the sharing economy as sharing services always operate in a highly dynamic environment. With the rapid expanding of the rental market, the sharing economy faces more and more severe challenges in the form of regulatory uncertainty and concerns about abuses. This paper proposes an enhanced decentralized sharing economy service using the service level agreement (SLA), which documents the services the provider will furnish and defines the service standards the provider is obligated to meet. The SLA specifications are defined as the smart contract, which facilitates multi-user collaboration and automates the process with no involvement of the third party. To demonstrate the usability of the proposed solution in the sharing economy, a notebook sharing case study is implemented using the Hyperledger Fabric. The functionalities of the smart contract are tested using the Hyperledger Composer. Moreover, the efficiency of the designed approach is demonstrated through a series of experimental tests using different performance metrics.
Ride-sharing is a service that enables drivers to share trips with other riders, contributing to appealing benefits of shared travel cost and reducing traffic congestion. However, the majority of existing ride-sharing services rely on a central third party to organize the service, which make them subject to a single point of failure and privacy disclosure concerns by both internal and external attackers. Moreover, they are vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) and Sybil attacks launched by malicious users and external attackers. Besides, high service fees are paid to the ride-sharing service provider. In this paper, we propose a decentralized ride-sharing service based on public Blockchain, named B-Ride. B-Ride enables drivers to offer ride-sharing services without relying on a trusted third party. Both riders and drivers can learn whether they can share rides while preserving their trip data, including pick-up/drop-off location, departure/arrival date and travel price. However, malicious users exploit the anonymity provided by the public blockchain to submit multiple ride requests or offers, while not committing to any of them, in order to find a better offer or to make the system unreliable. B-Ride solves this problem by introducing a time-locked deposit protocol for a ride-sharing by leveraging smart contract and zero-knowledge set membership proof. In a nutshell, both a driver and a rider have to show their good will and commitment by sending a deposit to the blockchain. Later, a driver has to prove to the blockchain on the agreed pick-up time that he/she arrived at the pick-up location on time. To preserve rider/driver privacy by hiding the exact pick-up location, the proof is performed using zero-knowledge set membership proof. Moreover, to ensure fair payment, a pay-as-you-drive methodology is introduced based on the elapsed distance of the driver and rider. In addition, we introduce a reputation model to rate drivers based on their past behaviour without involving any third-parties to allow riders to select them based on their history on the system. Finally, we implement our protocol and deploy it in a test net of Ethereum. The experimental results show the applicability of our protocol atop existing real-world blockchains.
Ride-sharing is a service that enables drivers to share their trips with\nother riders, contributing to appealing benefits of shared travel costs.\nHowever, the majority of existing platforms rely on a central third party,\nwhich make them subject to a single point of failure and privacy disclosure\nissues. Moreover, they are vulnerable to DDoS and Sybil attacks due to\nmalicious users involvement. Besides, high fees should be paid to the service\nprovider. In this paper, we propose a decentralized ride-sharing service based\non public Blockchain, named B-Ride. Both riders and drivers can find rides\nmatch while preserving their trip data, including pick-up/drop-off location,\nand departure/arrival date. However, under the anonymity of the public\nblockchain, a malicious user may submit multiple ride requests or offers, while\nnot committing to any of them, to discover better offer or to make the system\nunreliable. B-Ride solves this problem by introducing a time-locked deposit\nprotocol for a ride-sharing by leveraging smart contract and zero-knowledge set\nmembership proof. In a nutshell, both a driver and a rider have to show their\ncommitment by sending a deposit to the blockchain. Later, a driver has to prove\nto the blockchain on the agreed departure time that he has arrived at the\npick-up location. To preserve rider/driver location privacy by hiding the exact\npick-up location, the proof is done using zero-knowledge set membership\nprotocol. Moreover, to ensure a fair payment, a pay-as-you-drive methodology is\nintroduced based on the elapsed distance of the driver and the rider. Also, we\nintroduce a reputation-based trust model to rate drivers based on their past\ntrips to allow riders to select them based on their history on the system.\nFinally, we implement B-Ride in a test net of Ethereum. The experiment results\nshow the applicability of our protocol atop the existing real-world blockchain.\n
Josep Lluís Ferrer Gomila, M. Francisca Hinarejos, Andreu Pere Isern-Deyà
Electronically signing contracts is fundamental for e-commerce transactions. The main property that contract signing protocols must achieve is fairness of the exchange. The solutions presented to date are divided into two major types: those that have a trusted third party (TTP) to achieve fairness and those that do not. In the literature, we find more than 40 published proposals, but none of these proposed protocols has become a recognized or de facto standard in the market. Blockchain has provided a new way to address classic problems such as double spending, as well as problems such as fairness. In this article, we present a protocol for contract signing based on blockchain. Our proposed protocol does not require a conventional TTP, and it does not present the disadvantages of solutions without a TTP (computational and/or communication cost). The protocol satisfies the necessary security requirements: fairness, timeliness and non-repudiation. We demonstrate the feasibility of the protocol with a cost analysis and a proof of concept implementation. In addition, we show how Ethereum can be integrated in our solution as an alternative platform to the use of Bitcoin. Finally, we show how our proposal improves previous solutions for contract signing based on blockchain in terms of cost, efficiency and security.
Blockchain's properties in addressing trust in highly decentralized environments can make it an enabler for novel sharing economy services. In this paper, we demonstrate the practicality of blockchain-based Secure IoT as a Service (SIoTaaS), where an IoT device can be rented from a service provider, securely and in a privacy-preserving fashion. Our framework allows the simultaneous operations of distinct providers of IoT-based sharing economy services at a large scale. Multiple parties can securely share text and multimedia in the context of location and point-of-interest sharing, perform financial transactions by hiding true identity of parties involved in various online transactions, perform user and IoT registration, transfer value transactions via Ethereum tokens between providers and consumers, as well as raw IoT data payload. This can turn smart room IoT devices, such as smart locks, light bulbs, air conditioning and fans into rentable business entities within a secure sharing economy platform. We will demonstrate such a proof of concept IoT sharing economy framework, which is specifically designed to support the temporary IoT needs of very large numbers of users, such as Hajj pilgrims concentrating for a short period of time at a single area in Saudi Arabia.
Niclas Kannengießer, Sebastian Lins, Tobias Dehling, Ali Sunyaev
When developing peer-to-peer applications on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), a crucial decision is the selection of a suitable DLT design (e.g., Ethereum) because it is hard to change the underlying DLT design post hoc. To facilitate the selection of suitable DLT designs, we review DLT characteristics and identify trade-offs between them. Furthermore, we assess how DLT designs account for these trade-offs and we develop archetypes for DLT designs that cater to specific quality requirements. The main purpose of our article is to introduce scientific and practical audiences to the intricacies of DLT designs and to support development of viable applications on DLT.
istributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain, and their headline-catching applications in cryptoassets and initial coin offerings (ICOs), have attracted extraordinary global attention. Alongside Bitcoin's spectacular rise and fall in the past few years, there has been an explosion of ICOs, a tokenization of assets, and fund-raising projects utilizing digital tokens issued and operated on blockchains.
In Blockchain networks involving multiple applications, the quality of service of an application is affected by the transaction ordering. We study a setting where each application is represented by a node, which might attempt to prioritize its own transactions through including them early in blocks added to the blockchain. A fair block proposal of a node follows a random selection of the transactions among the set of pending transactions the node is aware of. On the contrary, a dishonest node includes more of its transactions at the expense of transactions of other applications. In this work, we propose a toolbox of techniques to enforce such a fair block selection. First, we design an accurate statistical testing for the honesty of a proposal and explain it. Next, we describe a reputation system, documenting honesty of nodes to encourage fairness. Our last technique enforces fair block selection through concise commitments on the set of pending transactions known to a node.
Chris Elsden, Tom Feltwell, Shaun Lawson, John Vines
This paper presents a qualitative study of the recent integration of a UK-based, digital-first mobile banking app - Monzo - with the web automation service IFTTT (If This Then That). Through analysis of 113 unique IFTTT 'recipes' shared by Monzo users on public community forums, we illustrate the potentially diverse functions of these recipes, and how they are achieved through different kinds of automation. Beyond achieving more convenient and efficient financial management, we note many playful and expressive applications of conditionality and automation that far extend traditional functions of banking applications and infrastructure. We use these findings to map opportunities, challenges and areas of future research in the development of 'programmable money' and related financial technologies. Specifically, we present design implications for the extension of native digital banking applications; novel uses of banking data; the applicability of blockchains and smart contracts; and future forms of financial autonomy.
Produzierende Unternehmen stehen unter großem Veränderungsdruck, der durch wachsende Produktkomplexität, steigende Kundenanforderungen und digitale Geschäftsmodelle induziert wird. Vorherrschende Trends wie Industrie 4.0 und Digitalisierung müssen genutzt werden, um nicht nur die Produktion effizienter zu gestalten, sondern auch innovative Geschäftsmodelle zu entwickeln. Diese gewährleisten, dass Unternehmen neue Märkte erschließen und neue Kunden gewinnen. Die von Unternehmen in der Vergangenheit fokussierten produktzentrierten Geschäftsmodelle werden durch die Digitalisierung in nutzerzentrierte Geschäftsmodelle transformiert. Zudem ist gerade eine Veränderung im Verhalten der Kunden zu beobachten, die sich zunehmend gezielt für Produkte mit höherem Leistungsumfang in Bezug auf digitale Fähigkeiten entscheiden, sodass sich die Digitalisierung ebenfalls in den Produkten wiederfindet. Dauerhafte Wettbewerbsfähigkeit bedarf folglich erweiterter digitaler Leistungen in Produkten.
Crowdfunding has become a popular form of collective funding, in which small donations or investments, made by groups of people, support the development of new projects in exchange of free products or different types of recognition. Social network sites, on the other hand, promote user cooperation and currently are at the basis of any individuals cyber-interactions. In this paper, we present LikeStarter, a blockchain-based decentralized platform that combines social interactions with crowdfunding mechanisms, allowing any user to raise funds while becoming popular in the social network. Being built over the Ethereum blockchain, LikeStarter is structured as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), that fosters crowdfunding without the intervention of any central authority, and recognizes the active role of donors, enabling them to support artists or projects, while making profits.
The blockchain web platform, most famous for its use in support of Bitcoin, is a sophisticated and unique technology, which many believe is the next disruptive technology that will span across a vast range of industries. Scholars identified more than ten features of this technology that makes it, like no other: open-ledger, encrypted, everlasting, accessible to all, enables peer to peer transactions, fast, global, trustworthy, decentralized, consensus mechanisms, and irreversible. By embracing all of these features, blockchain technology offers an alternative tool to traditional multi-player economic models for conducting transactions without the necessity of relying on third parties.
This article addresses the misperception of blockchain, perceiving it, similarly to the common understanding of the Internet, as an open platform, accessible to the public, with free entry and most important, in the public domain. Hardly anyone thought to consider protected intellectual property (IP) rights in regard to this technology, that was coined democratic. However, this concept, that there is only one public domain blockchain platform that serves all or that blockchain platforms are free from any IP rights is false. This article alleges, for the first time, that unlike the common perception, not only is blockchain technology patentable, but the U.S. Patent Office granted patents in blockchain platforms and keeps on examining inventions of new and different types of blockchain technologies.
This false assumptions may be based on misunderstanding the technology of different types of blockchain platforms or on the legend about the unknown figure, entity or artificial intelligence (AI) system, named Satoshi Nakamoto, who mysteriously created the technology and donated this platform technology, in 2009, without identifying him/her/itself, for the benefit of society.
Additionally, this paper innovatively takes a step further and investigates, the implications of patent law concerning blockchain technology, in order to unveil the emerging risks of patent infringements, which users are unaware of while naively using blockchain platforms. By understanding the peer-to-peer multi-player structure of these platforms, one can evaluate the threat the inevitable patent infringements may cause. This article further argues that this threat will become more crucial and weighty with the rising popularity of blockchain platforms. Finally, this research not only points out unexpected legal and economic risks, but also proposes a simple solution to mitigate this potential patent minefield.
This document outlines our approach to conducting a rapid realist review to identify evidence for potential impacts on people and society of peer-to-peer energy trading (and of distributed ledger technology used in this context). Our motivation for the study is to help anticipate who might stand to win or lose (and how and why), inform policy/regulation to help maximize benefits and minimize harm, and identify research gaps. While our focus is in the energy sector, we also plan to draw on evidence (where relevant) from examples of sharing economy models in non-energy sectors. We have already developed and engaged around a provisional programme theory (presented as a set of Context-Mechanism-Outcome statements), which we will develop as the review progresses. We set out where and how we will seek to identify evidence (through online searching, reference checking and calling for evidence). In line with our exploratory and iterative approach, we propose broad inclusion criteria. We will assess evidence quality subjectively on the basis of relevance and rigour for each Context-Mechanism-Outcome group, not at document level. Synthesis will be achieved through developing our programme theory and connecting evidence to it. We will disseminate findings through an academic paper (or papers), one or more policy briefings (with associated engagement events), one or more public blogs, and materials will be openly shared on an ongoing basis through an Open Science Framework page.
Raheleh Hassannia, Ali Vatankhah Barenji, Zhi Li, Habib Alipour
The purpose of the study is to design and develop a recommended system based on agent and web technologies, which utilizes a hybrid recommendation filtering for the smart tourism industry. A hybrid recommendation system based on agent technology is designed by considering the online communication with other sectors in the tourism industry, such as the tourism supply chain, agency etc. However, online communication between the sectors via agents is designed and developed based on the contract net protocol. Furthermore, the design system is developed on the java agent development framework and implemented as a web application. Case study-based results considering two scenarios involving 100 customers illustrated that the proposed web application improves the rate of the recommendation for the customers. In the first scenario without disturbances, this rate was improved by 20% and the second scenario with disturbances yielded a 30% rate of acceptable recommendation. In addition, based on the second scenario, real time data communication on the system occurred, thus the proposed system supported real time data communication.
Blockchain has been around for over a decade, however, the technology does not seem to have been adopted after a long time being in existence. The goal of this thesis was to get to study what are the barriers of the blockchain adoption. Furthermore, the thesis also indicated one use case that seems to stand out from the rest, smart contract, by implementing one specific example for demonstration purpose. \n The thesis went through an in-depth concept of blockchain technology, studied the most well-known use cases being, including cryptocurrency, initial coin offering and smart contract and figured out their limitations particularly and blockchain’s generally. Finally, one example of Ethereum smart contract was implemented to indicate how this particular use case could fit what is needed nowadays. \n As a result, the studies showed that blockchain is promising and can be applied through developing decentralized applications by smart contracts but the use cases must be chosen very carefully due to the problems of privacy and data protection. Otherwise, the main obstacle for the adoption is the lack of serious regulations, resulting the lack of trust, therefore, as long as blockchain-related businesses are not clearly regulated, the mass adoption is probably still far away since no one gets fully protected in the game, neither the companies nor the customers.
Jan 1, 2019·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Pascal Mehrwald, Theresa Treffers, Maximilian Titze, Isabell M. Welpe
Combining blockchain technology and smart contracts has the potential to facilitate disintermediation and realize true peer-to-peer transactions provided that sufficient trust is build. An advanced research model of blockchain-mediated trust is conceptualized by incorporating extant trust building concepts. The conceptualized model helps to advance future empirical trust research in connection with blockchain technology in the sharing economy by suggesting moderating and mediating effects on trust in online settings.