This article contextualizes the rise of cryptocurrency within the historical relationship between money and the state. It begins by asking two simple yet critical questions: What is money and where did it come from? Armed with the answers, the article proceeds by taking a fresh look at cryptocurrency through the lens of the credit theory of money. It finds that cryptocurrency, by using new technologies and incentive-based design, attempts to overcome the previous geographic limitations that hindered broad adoption of private currencies. Even with these innovations, cryptocurrency appeared unlikely to challenge the supremacy of sovereign money until Facebook announced the Libra project. Policymakers around the world instantly recognized the threat and opportunity Libra posed given Facebook’s scale. Facebook may not be a sovereign entity, but its power rivals that of most countries. Libra compelled a flurry of new proposals in the U.S. to address the fragmented nature of cryptocurrency regulation. In choosing next steps, Congress and regulators must be careful to ensure that regulatory clarity does not come at the expense of sovereign authority.
Nektarios Aslanidis, Aurelio F. Bariviera, Alejandro Pérez-Laborda
This paper studies the dynamic market linkages among cryptocurrencies during August 2015 - July 2020 and finds a substantial increase in market linkages for both returns and volatilities. We use different methodologies to check the different aspects of market linkages. Financial and regulatory implications are discussed.
Maha Kadadha, Rabeb Mizouni, Shakti Singh, Hadi Otrok · 5 authors
In this paper, a fully distributed auction-blockchain-based crowdsourcing framework is proposed-ABCrowd. In a typical crowdsourcing framework, independent workers compete to be allocated requesters' tasks. These workers advertise their costs to the centralized platform, which then decides the final allocation of tasks. While performing the allocation, centralized platforms face two main challenges: 1) how to ensure trusted execution for the allocation of tasks, and 2) how to motivate workers to declare their truthful costs. To address these challenges, ABCrowd proposes to run the crowdsourcing platform entirely on Ethereum Blockchain while incorporating auctions. Blockchain and smart contracts guarantee trusted execution for the allocation through autonomous and transparent on-Chain execution. ABCrowd uses the Repeated-Single-Minded Bidder (R-SMB) auction mechanism, which motivates workers to bid truthfully before allocating them and calculating their payments. R-SMB is an approximation of the optimized off-Chain Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism in terms of maximized profit. It entails repeating the Single-Minded Bidder (SMB) auction mechanism to meet the allocation requirement of crowdsourcing applications. ABCrowd is implemented and evaluated using Solidity on a private Ethereum Blockchain, where a real publicly available dataset is used. The proposed on-Chain R-SMB auction mechanism is compared to the off-Chain VCG mechanism, where the results show that R-SMB provides similar performance to VCG in terms of the average number of allocated tasks. Furthermore, R-SMB outperforms VCG in workers' travelled distance and requesters' costs, at a low execution cost.
The rise of blockchain technology has injected new vitality into the energy market. At present, blockchain projects for distributed photovoltaic power generation and carbon trading are rapidly emerging, but due to the barrier of two markets and the independent operation of such projects in two chains, the two market values cannot be two-way circulation, which is not conducive to the expansion of power trading business and the scale of carbon market. This paper proposed a joint operation mechanism of cross-chain trading, combined distributed photovoltaic power generation market and the carbon market by the blockchain technology. The novelty is to construct two chains which includes the mainchain and sidechain that enables the two markets to share data and circulate value, and to design a two-way anchoring method that achieves equating between carbon trading and electricity trading by cryptocurrency. The simulation studies took the improved IEEE 33 system as an example to simulate transactions on the Ethereum platform, and technically verify the feasibility of cross-chain transactions in these two markets, and use Ether as the settlement currency.
Ahed Abugabah, Nishara Nizamuddin, Ahmad Ali AlZubi
The healthcare sector is one of the most rapidly growing sectors globally. With the ever-growing technology, patient care, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation, there is an increased need for healthcare sectors to collaborate with all stakeholders - both within the healthcare ecosystem and in concurring industries. In recent times, telemedicine has proven to provide high quality, affordable, and predominantly adapted healthcare services. However, telemedicine suffers from several risks in implementation, such as data breach, restricted access across medical fraternity, incorrect diagnosis and prescription, fraud, and abuse. In this work, introduce blockchain-based framework that would unlock the future of the healthcare sector and improved services. Our proposed solution utilizing Ethereum smart contracts to develop a transparent, tamper-proof telemedicine healthcare framework, and ensure the integrity of sensitive patient data eliminating a central administrator. Moreover, the smart contract regulates the interaction between all the parties involved in the network and keeps the patient meticulously informed about the transactions in the network.
Ralf-Christian Härting, Alexander Sprengel, Katja Wottle, Julia Rettenmaier
Meanwhile the rapidly advancing digitisation affects almost all areas of society and business. This development is based in particular on the omni-present use of digital information technology. One of these technologies awarded with special potential related to business is the distributed ledger technology. The objective of this study is to investigate influences on the potentials of blockchain technology, being one distributed ledger technology, in the area of supply chain management. An empirical, qualitative data collection attained through expert interviews forms the data basis. The conceptual model is derived by using Grounded Theory Methodology to evaluate the interviews. Important influencing factors (trust, efficiency, costs, control, privacy, scalability) for the potential of blockchain technology in supply chain management and moderating effects (use case, knowledge, collaboration, regulations) form the conceptual model in order to deduce recommendations for business.
Alexander J. M. Milne, Arnold Beckmann, Pardeep Kumar
Cyber Physical Trust Systems (CPTS) are Cyber Physical Systems and Internet of Things enriched with trust as an explicit, measurable, testable and verifiable system component. In this paper, we propose to use blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, as the trust enabling system component for CPTS. We propose two schemes for CPTSs driven by blockchain in relation to two typical network model cases. We show that our proposed approach achieves the security properties, such as device identification, authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation, and provides protection against popular attacks, such as replay and spoofing. We provide formal proofs of those properties using the Tamarin Prover tool. We describe results of a proof-of-concept which implements a CPTS driven by blockchain for physical asset management and present a performance analysis of our implementation. We identify use cases in which CPTSs driven by blockchain find applications.
The use of blockchain technology is one of the most promising areas in the development of the digital economy. The high potential of its applicability, obvious benefits from reducing the number of transactions and cutting costs mean that the implementation of blockchain technology is inevitable in social and labor relations (SLR). The impediment to this process is the absence of an established institutional environment that would determine uniform characteristics of the technology, language, ontology, and principles of using distributed ledgers. The purpose of this study is to develop recommendations for establishing framework standards for the application of blockchain technology in SLR. The ecosystem approach, practical analysis and institutional synthesis are used as research methods. As a result, the study proposes a set of areas for standardization of the application of distributed ledger technology in SLR. The pool of basic standardization areas includes institutional, technological, relational (stakeholder) conditions as well as conditions for ensuring security. Analysis of the national project (program) “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” identified areas for developing standards for the use of blockchain technology in SLR. In addition, the study described serious risks and obstacles to the implementation of digital technologies in this sphere of economic relations.
Adedayo O. Aderibole, Aamna Aljarwan, Muhammad Habib ur Rehman, Hatem Zeineldin · 8 authors
Blockchain technology is showing a significant potential to disrupt a number of information technology domains. One of the especially interesting areas for blockchain applications is smart grid. A number of early papers have been published in this area, however, there is no systematic analysis of the impact of blockchain technology on decentralization of smart grids. In this paper, we analyze the standard NIST conceptual model of smart grid domains with respect to the three critical blockchain features: decentralization, trust and incentive. We integrate our findings in order to produce a fully decentralized blockchain-enabled smart grid considering NIST conceptual model. The results of this paper should help smart grid developers and researchers to obtain a conceptual reference of the overall applicability of blockchain technology in smart grid domains and sub-domains. In addition this research will help to identify and guide smart grid blockchain development and research initiatives.
Providing transparency and trust among participants and stakeholders and ensuring an efficient operation are current supply chain challenges. These challenges are difficult to resolve because the records of supply chains may be exposed to alterations by participants. Blockchain technology has been identified as a promising solution to resolve these challenges. In this paper, we introduce blockchain and survey recent blockchain frameworks that address some of the supply chain challenges. We describe the components and operation of these blockchain frameworks. We identify the objectives and motivation in each of the surveyed use cases and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each adopted framework. We analyze how the reported blockchain frameworks address different supply chain challenges. We present a comparative summary of existing literature on blockchain for supply chain. We also summarize the properties of a blockchain framework for its successful adoption in future supply chains and discuss several remaining challenges and opportunities.
Blockchain-Based Healthcare System (HS-BC) is an electronic medical record (EMR) data-sharing system, which significantly facilitates the storage, access, and sharing of EMR data, and provides patients with timely and effective medical diagnosis and treatment. However, due to the high openness of the blockchain, security and privacy still are major concerns in HS-BC. In this paper, we propose an attribute-based signature scheme with attribute revocation to protect the privacy of the user's identity in HS-BC. Under the premise of using attributes to identify users and protect their identity, the user combines the attribute master-key and the attribute update-key to calculate the attribute signing key, where the attribute master-key is related to the user identity and attribute set, and the attribute update-key is related to the attribute revocation. Through making use of the KUNodes algorithm, attribute revocation can effectively achieve. The designed attribute-based signature scheme requires relatively few pairing operations and does not rely on a central authority. Besides, we formally conducted a security analysis and proved that the proposed scheme is unforgeable, collusion resistant and privacy-preserving. Finally, we evaluate the proposed attribute-based signature scheme in terms of storage and efficiency. Comparison and experimental results show that it is feasible.
The innovation of ubiquitous and pervasive computing helps service-oriented organizations in the realization of a virtual coalition. The virtual coalition is a set of IoT domains i.e., smart homes and smart hospitals that are linked together through communication lines to share resources. Such virtual coalitions need secure cross-domain permission delegation and access control mechanisms. In existing approaches, permission delegation and access control are performed at the resource owner domain or by a single trusted third party. This single trusted third party may fail to work or compromise. Therefore, it will collapse either the whole system or the security of the system. We propose xDBAuth, a decentralized Blockchain (BC) based permission delegation and access control framework for the Internet of Things (IoT). Also, we proposed a hierarchy of local and global smart contracts that perform permission delegation and access control for both internal and external user/IoT devices. Additionally, the proposed framework preserves an external user’s privacy by allowing them to get authentication in their parent IoT domains. During authentication, Proof-of-Authenticity/Integrity (PoAI) mechanism is used to find and retrieve user/IoT device platform hashes stored on local BC. After successful authentication, BC authorizes the user/IoT device based on the validation of delegation policies stored on BC. We implemented the proposed framework using Node.js. The results show that the proposed xDBAuth is a lightweight framework with less computational overhead. xDBAuth produces high throughput in an environment having a large number of concurrent requests.
Background: This study aimed to explore the process of establishing a non-governmental and nonprofit hospital, as a corporate infantry, and a model for the establishment of autonomous and corporate hospitals. Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative case study. The data were collected by interviewing the founders of Moheb Mehr Hospital, staff and some university officials and charity organizations. The data analysis was conducted based on grounded theory principles and data were coded in three stages of open, axial and selective coding. Results: The primary factors behind the establishment of Moheb Hospital were the low level of physicianschr('39') fees and the physicians’ dual practice in the public and private sectors. The existence of unused spaces at Hashemi-Nejad Hospital and the possibility of contracting supplementary insurance were the secondary factors. The reaction included welcoming from hospital physicians and opposition from the government and the Ministry of Health. A good patient access was created due to the lower charges, in comparison to the private sector, and having contract with the supplementary insurance. The negative comments from the government and the Ministry were gradually adjusted. Conclusion: The decentralization initiatives of the public sector in hospitals should be considered as a bottom-up process. Instead of turning government hospitals into independent or corporate, it is better to re-establish them in an autonomous or corporate form. Also, before any decentralization action, financial and managerial stability must be created in the organizations. Morevoer, employee benefits must be preserved. Instead of receiving government funding, it is better to use the capacity of the endowment and receive bank loans.
The HighGear protocol (Eurocrypt 2018) is the fastest currently known approach to preprocessing for the SPDZ Multi-Party Computation scheme. Its backbone is formed by an Ideal Lattice-based Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption Scheme and accompanying Zero-Knowledge proofs. Unfortunately, due to certain characteristics of HighGear such current implementations limit the security parameters in a number of places. This is mainly due to memory and bandwidth consumption constraints. In this work we present a new approach to the ZKPoKs for the SPDZ Multi-Party Computation scheme. We rigorously formalize the original approach of HighGear and show how to improve upon it using a different proof strategy. This allows us to increase the security of the underlying protocols, whilst simultaneously also increasing the performance in terms of memory and bandwidth consumption as well as overall throughput of the SPDZ offline phase.
Bitcoinin julkaisu merkitsi samalla lohkoketjusovellusten syntymää. Johtuen muun muassa julkisen todennettavuuden tarpeesta, lohkoketjussa säilytettävä tieto on tyypillisesti läpinäkyvää, joka voi olla ongelmallista yksityisyyden kannalta. Yksityisyyden parantamiseksi on kehitetty menetelmiä, jotka hämärtävät lohkoketjun tietojen läpinäkyvyyttä säilyttäen niiden eheyden ja todennettavuuden. Lupaava kryptografinen menetelmä tähän tarkoitukseen on nollatietotodistus, joka mahdollistaa väitteen todistamisen siten, että ainoa todistuksessa paljastuva tieto on väitteen totuusarvo. \n \nNollatietotodistuksiin perehtyminen aloitetaan niiden teoreettisesta perustasta. Lohkoketjujen kannalta tärkeitä vaatimuksia nollatietotodistuksille ovat ei-interaktiivisuus ja ytimekkyys, ja nämä ehdot täyttäviä todistusrakenteita kutsutaan yleisesti nimellä zk-SNARK. Fiat-Shamir muunnos on käyttökelpoinen menetelmä ei-interaktiivisen nollatietotodistuksen muodostamiseen tapauksissa, joissa ytimekkyys ei ole tärkeää. Nollatietotodistusten käyttöä tutkitaan erityisesti yksityisyyden ja käyttökelpoisuuden kannalta kolmessa lohkoketjusovelluksessa, jotka ovat Zcash, Ethereum ja Monero.
Dilution is the loss experienced by incumbent owners upon the creation of new ownership units (such as shares or tokens). Although a number of ad hoc patches to the U.S. tax code typically provide incumbents with some form of tax allowance for their loss, there appears to be no unified theory of accounting for dilution – for tax or any other purposes. When additions to one’s balance from newly created units are viewed as an income realization event, whereas dilution is not, net income is systematically overstated. The resulting over-taxation could be a serious hurdle to the adoption of proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies, which rely on token creation by incumbent owners as an integral part of network maintenance. In this short article we quantify the potential for over-taxation — defined herein as the excess of taxable income under a strict realization approach over true economic income — for a real-world taxpayer holding cryptocurrency tokens.
Our example taxpayer is a Tezos staker — a token holder who acquires new Tezos cryptocurrency tokens by participating in the maintenance of the Tezos network. We present the pros and cons of different methods of accounting for dilution when the cryptocurrency’s aggregate network value, the taxpayer’s ownership balance, and the rate at which dilution happens are all time-varying. We conclude that the acquisition of those tokens should not be an income realization event, although any of the methods we propose would be preferable to an approach of strict realization that ignores dilution entirely. Tax policy aside, the methods we develop to quantify the economic value lost to dilution are independently interesting to investors and other finance and accounting practitioners.