Blockchain Papers

Elena Sinelnikova-Muryleva

No abstract is available for this record.

Dirk Andreas Zetzsche, Jannik Woxholth

No abstract is available for this record.

Julien Hatin, E. Bertin, Baptiste Hemery, Nour El Madhoun

Blockchain technology has gained increasing attention from research and industry over the recent years. This interest is mainly due to its core property that allows users to perform transactions without a Trusted Third Party (TTP), while offering a transparent and fully protected tracking of these transactions. However, there is a lack of reference models to describe and compare various Blockchain technologies, leading to some confusion between different kinds of solutions. We propose in this paper a reference model aiming to assess and compare different kind of Blockchain-based ecosystems, including Decentralized Applications (DApp).

Daniel Liebau

No abstract is available for this record.

Maike Rafael, Jorge Renato Verschoore, Jefferson Marlon Monticelli

Bitcoin is a social movement, which promises free and decentralized money, absent from the traditional regulatory institutions, but it can be challenging for financial industry regulators and other players in the financial markets. Thus, our study aims to analyze how the institutional voids manifest in the bitcoin institutionalization process as a currency. We adopt the institutional theory, from the perspective of institutional voids, in order to observe the concepts in emerging markets that show the difficulty or the beginning of the institutionalization of bitcoin as a currency. The institutional theory provides an opportunity to understand the reasons for using particular practices, actions, or manifestations. Our method is based on a qualitative exploratory approach with semi-structured interviews to understand how financial market experts perceive this phenomenon. Our results show that it is possible to identify how institutional voids manifest themselves, reinforcing the debate on whether bitcoin is, in fact, a currency.

Marvin Hanisch, Vasileios Theodosiadis, Filipe Teixeira

Digital technologies are changing the business world at a rapid pace, bringing new challenges and opportunities for companies. This is especially true for blockchain technologies, which are increasingly being used to manage interorganizational transactions. Blockchains are distributed ledger technologies where data is replicated, shared, and synchronized over a network of computers without central servers. The main advantages of blockchains over standard contracts are that they are particularly secure, easily scalable, and comparatively inexpensive. At the same time, blockchains also present managers with a number of challenges in terms of network participation rules, control mechanisms, technology choices, and legal affairs. In this book chapter, we discuss these aspects and provide practical guidance for decision-makers. This discussion makes it easier for managers to determine whether and under what conditions blockchains offer an advantage for their business.

Joseph Lee, Vere Marie Khan

Abstract In this article, we explore the application of blockchain, a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT), in the field of energy trading. Specifically, we focus on crude oil trade. We argue that the application of blockchain technology and supplementary smart contracts supports responsible sourcing in complex supply chains and helps reduce information asymmetry in both the physical trade and paper trade of energy commodities markets. In order to apply blockchain technology to the energy market, we begin with a discussion on the architecture of blockchain and the different types of blockchain that might be applied in this sector. Further to this, we examine the current oil trading markets, particularly their relevant components, as part of the discussion on blockchain application. Subsequently, we look at how the various types of blockchain may be applied to the markets and examine their advantages and disadvantages. In conclusion, we look at the legal issues that may arise from such application, the potential solutions, and the potential impact of blockchain technology on the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals in the future and how a green fintech application can be developed.

Zlate Dodevski, Sonja Filiposka, Anastas Mishev, Vladimir Trajkovik

Sensitivity of the health-related data and the focus on compliance and security has traditionally emphasized the need for centralized approach while implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. These one-institutional architectural designs are leading to fragmented and scattered pieces of valuable data across various data warehouses and silos. Interoperability challenges arise due to the absence of unified data management and exchange mechanisms making the social need for fundamental design changes bigger. The capability of a distributed ledger technology and blockchain to offer immutable, decentralized and cryptographically secured record of transactions throughout a peer-to-peer network can facilitate better collaboration and increased interoperability in the field of health and insurance information exchange processes. The paper examines different approaches and application of blockchain technology and identifies which implementations of components are more suitable and beneficial for the specific eco-system analyzed in the paper. This paper presents alternative way of dealing with information exchange across multiple stakeholders by justifying the use of decentralized approach, distributed access and solution how to comprehensively track and assemble health related data. We propose an architectural design and overview of a specific use case with focus on information exchange processes between health insurance providers and health care organizations, by using blockchain as an underlying technology. The architectural overview and data flows, backed up by sequence diagrams from specific use cases offered in this paper, can serve as a guide to the blockchain technology adoption and initial setup.

David Fox

No abstract is available for this record.

Е.А. Мосакова

Е.А

Raja Nabeel‐Ud‐Din Jalal, Simona Leonelli

No abstract is available for this record.

Jingqiao Xu

A blockchain is a distributed ledger in which participants who do not fully trust each other agree on the ledger’s content by running a consensus algorithm. It has been more popular and mature in recent years. Smart contracts on the blockchain system are usually redundantly executed by a large number of nodes for the purpose of verification, which can result in a large waste of computation. The waste is especially significant when the smart contracts are heavy-duty. The problem of reducing the computation has attracted a lot of interest from both the research community and the industry. In this creative component, we present a game theoretic design for efficient execution of heavy-duty smart contracts, and develop a simulator to implement the design and evaluate its performance in a large-scale blockchain system that simulates Ethereum. The simulator is built based on BlockSim, an emerging general-purpose blockchain simulator, but has enhanced it with detailed simulation of the heavy-duty smart contract protocol. The simulation results demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of our design.

Abdullah Mohammed Ayedh, Abdelghani Echchabi, Fatima Abdul Hamid, Supiah Salleh

No abstract is available for this record.

Deoksang Lee, Minseok Song

Health information exchange (HIE) refers to the integrated management and secure sharing of health information among healthcare entities. HIE improves healthcare quality and streamline healthcare administrative work. These advantages have propelled health-care stakeholders to implement HIE. However, challenged by issues such as security, privacy, and costs, HIE is not widespread. Recent studies have suggested blockchain-based HIE for solving security and privacy issues. Unfortunately, existing blockchain-based HIE studies do not consider the privacy issues caused by analyzing senders and receivers of transactions in the blockchain. In this work, we suggest MEXchange, a novel blockchain-based privacypreserving HIE that prevents the privacy issue by obscuring the sender and concealing receiver addresses. We propose smart contracts and workflow that use ring signature and stealth address for blockchainbased HIE. Software components and implementation of MEXchange on the Ethereum private network are discussed. We evaluate MEXchange quantitatively by measuring the transaction latency and throughput of exchanging. Also, we evaluate MEXchange qualitatively using the requirements of the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Moreover, we proceed threat modeling based on STRIDE. Finally, we compare MEXchange with Ancile, FHIRChain, Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing (IHE XDS), and MedRec. The MEXchange lowers barriers to the application of blockchain-based HIE systems by mitigating privacy and security issues among healthcare stakeholders.

Bianca Linis, Sébastien Praicheux

The financial crisis of 2007/08 had shattered the global financial system and led – besides a flood of regulations – to a wide range of new concepts and business models. One of these new concepts was “Bitcoin”, a private digital monetary system, which is characterized by decentralization, transparency and immutability. To date the underlying Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has evolved and offers an extensive range of possibilities, particularly in the financial industry. So far, an EU-wide legal basis for Blockchain or DLT applications and services is missing. France and the Principality of Liechtenstein took a step forward and adopted national laws trying to offer legal certainty in this field. This article aims to provide a comparison of the two acts and underline the similarities and differences.

Tomader Abduaziz Almeshal, Areej Alhogail

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is increasingly being applied in both industrial and academic contexts. Cryptocurrency is a major application of blockchain in the financial sector, but the technology is expected to disrupt other industries. In fact, it has influenced many businesses and reshaped private and public sector activities. Therefore, there is growing interest in blockchain-based solutions, and applications have evolved in finance, insurance, logistics, government, education, and healthcare. Applications built on blockchains benefit from fair access, transparency, and immutability; these properties have attracted business owners and practitioners to explore blockchain opportunities beyond cryptocurrency, motivating them to investigate how they can benefit from the technology and also to evaluate its compatibility with their strategic orientation. Suitability evaluation (or applicability evaluation) has always been a crucial step for the successful adaptation of any innovative technology, including blockchain. Hence, this paper investigates how the current literature has addressed blockchain suitability evaluation for business cases beyond cryptocurrency. A scoping review is presented that examines the evaluation models and frameworks that have been developed to assist decision-makers regarding blockchain adoption. The results indicate that blockchain evaluation methodologies have utilized varied approaches and serve diverse objectives, which are applicable for different technology adoption stages. Through this scoping review, blockchain evaluation initiatives are classified into five categories, and a critical analysis is offered of the evaluation models under each category. As such, this scoping review overviews existing methodologies for blockchain evaluation approaches with a focus on context, identified assessments factors, assessment process, and evaluation dimensions.

Elcelina Carvalho Silva, Miguel Mira da Silva

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be used via peer-to-peer networks to execute secure electronic transactions without the need for a central control authority. The goals of this review are to identify how blockchain-based cryptocurrency is affecting the financial system, and to analyse the motivation for establishing cryptocurrency regulation, legislation, law and standards. The research methodology used to conduct this research was the systematic literature review. We conclude that the regulation of cryptocurrency requires the interaction of multiple stakeholders in order to incorporate financial, legal, technological and civil society dimensions. Coordination between several dimensions is necessary since each dimension has specific requirements associated with cryptocurrency usage, and each also has drivers that could involve different stakeholders with potentially competing interests. Most of these drivers are related to the financial, social, legal and technological aspects of regulation, and vice-versa.

Ibrahim E. Sancak

Abstract This chapter introduces the fundamentals of portfolio and financial consumer protection from frauds in the cryptoasset space. Cryptoassets pose new risks to portfolios and financial consumers: idiosyncratic risks stemming from their unique features and systematic risks arising from transitioning from centralized to decentralized finance. Market experience indicates that these risks threaten every portfolio and financial consumer holding cryptoassets. In the consumer protection framework, cryptoasset risks are higher than traditional asset risks. Cryptoassets fall outside the regulatory domain in many jurisdictions. Moreover, their decentralized nature, technological attributes, and the momentum of financial technology cause asymmetric technology, disarming system-based portfolio and consumer protection mechanisms against frauds and abuses. Hence, the idiosyncratic and systematic risks of cryptoassets highlight the importance of developing more vigilant self-protection mechanisms.

Ben Chester Cheong, Harry Kishen

No abstract is available for this record.

Murdoch J. Gabbay, Arvid Jakobsson, Kristina Sojakova

Once you have invented digital money, you may need a ledger to track who owns what -- and an interface to that ledger so that users of your money can transact. On the Tezos blockchain this implies: a smart contract (distributed program), storing in its state a ledger to map owner addresses to token quantities, and standardised entrypoints to transact on accounts. A bank does a similar job -- it maps account numbers to account quantities and permits users to transact -- but in return the bank demands trust, it incurs expense to maintain a centralised server and staff, it uses a proprietary interface ... and it may speculate using your money and/or display rent-seeking behaviour. A blockchain ledger is by design decentralised, inexpensive, open, and it won't just bet your tokens on risky derivatives (unless you ask). The FA1.2 standard is an open standard for ledger-keeping smart contracts on the Tezos blockchain. Several FA1.2 implementations already exist. Or do they? Is the standard sensible and complete? Are the implementations correct? And what are they implementations \emph{of}? The FA1.2 standard is written in English, a specification language favoured by wet human brains but notorious for its incompleteness and ambiguity when rendered into dry and unforgiving code. In this paper we report on a formalisation of the FA1.2 standard as a Coq specification, and on a formal verification of three FA1.2-compliant smart contracts with respect to that specification. Errors were found and ambiguities were resolved; but also, there now exists a \emph{mathematically precise} and battle-tested specification of the FA1.2 ledger standard. We will describe FA1.2 itself, outline the structure of the Coq theories -- which in itself captures some non-trivial and novel design decisions of the development -- and review the detailed verification of the implementations.

Gabriel de Sousa Matsumura, Luciana Brasil Rebelo dos Santos, Arlindo Flávio da Conceição, Nandamudi L. Vijaykumar

Smart Contracts (SCs) are programs stored in a Blockchain to ensure agreements between two or more parties. Due to the unchangeable essence of Blockchain, failures or errors in SCs become perpetual once published. The reliability of SCs is essential to avoid financial losses. So, SCs must be checked to ensure the absence of errors. Hence, many studies addressed new methods and tools for zero-bug software in SCs. This paper conducted a systematic literature mapping identifying initiatives and tools to analyze SCs and how to deal with the identified vulnerabilities. Besides, this work identifies gaps that may lead to research topics for future work.

Geoffrey Goodell, Hazem Danny Al-Nakib, Paolo Tasca

Objective : to present the new approach to perform monetary transactions with digital currency. Methods : abstract-logical, analytical methods. Results : in recent years, electronic retail payment mechanisms, especially e-commerce and card payments at the point of sale, have increasingly replaced cash in many developed countries. As a result, societies are losing a critical public retail payment option, and retail consumers are losing important rights associated with using cash. To address this concern, we propose an approach to digital currency that would allow people without banking relationships to transact electronically and privately, including both e-commerce purchases and point-of-sale purchases that are required to be cashless. The article shows the advantages of cash payments compared to non-cash ones and defines the possibility to transform these advantages into the central bank digital currencies. The disputable issues of commercial banks development under the spread of digital currencies are discussed. The architecture of digital currencies is described, including distributed ledgers technology. It was shown that, for the digital currency to function effectively, it is necessary to include the privacy of end-users into its architecture; measures to achieve that are determined. Scientific novelty : the approached proposed in the article should be used to develop the digital currencies infrastructure. It should be government-backed, privately-operated and ensure that every transaction is registered by a bank or money services business, relying upon non-custodial wallets backed by privacy-enhancing technology, such as blind signatures or zero-knowledge proofs, to ensure that transaction counterparties are not revealed. This approach can also facilitate more efficient and transparent clearing, settlement, and management of systemic risk. We argue that our system can restore and preserve the salient features of cash, including privacy, owner-custodianship, fungibility, and accessibility, while also preserving fractional reserve banking and the existing two-tiered banking system. Practical significance : the proposed approach can be applied in the practical organization of perform monetary transactions using digital currencies. The article was first published in English language by Future Internet. For more information please contact the editorial office. For original publication: Goodell G., Al-Nakib H. D., Tasca P. A Digital Currency Architecture for Privacy and Owner-Custodianship, Future Internet, 2021, 13, 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13050130 Publication URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/13/5/130

Ірина Володимирівна Антошина, I. В. Антошина, Ирина Владимировна Антошина, Iryna V. Antoshyna · 13 authors

The development of digital technologies is forcing lawyers to analyze phenomena that have recently looked fantastic. This means that a phenomenon like smart contracts has ceased to be a theoretical idea of improving commodity monetary transactions and now needs a legal justification. In this article, we have analyzed smart contracts in terms of their belonging to digital technologies and the legal field, that is, how they can be equated with legal agreements, if they are their analogues, what application can it find given the legislation in the field of civil (contractual) law. The purpose of our study was to establish a link between smart contacts and their legal regulation, with the feature of smart contract implementation perspectives. The methodology used are systemic and formal-legal methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. The results found highlight that a smart contract is a computer code that is entered into a blockchain network to execute a transaction, the usual expression of which is an agreement between the parties. From a legal point of view, smart contracts are only a part of ordinary agreements (contracts) under the practice of international and national law.

Andrea Stazi

No abstract is available for this record.