Electronic medical records (EMRs) are electronically-stored highly sensitive and private information related to the diagnosis and treatment of patient, and needs to be frequently shared among peers. Sharing of medical records between participants is very challenging because the data might be revealed or tampered during the operational process. To address these challenges, a blockchain-based electronic medical records system is the key solution. In this research, we have discussed how blockchain technology can help in better healthcare data management. We have proposed a blockchain-based records management system for efficient management and sharing of electronic medical records (EMRs). We have implemented a prototype of Electronic Medical Records Management System using permissioned blockchain platform âHyperledgerâ. This system ensures privacy, security and easy accessibility and availability of medical records.
Abstract The blockchain is an emerging technology which has the potential to improve many information systems. In this regard, the applications and the platform they are built on must be able to connect and communicate with each other. However, the current blockchain platforms have several limitations, such as lack of interoperability among different systems. The existing platforms of blockchain applications operate only within their own networks. Even though the underlying technology is similar, it relies on centralized third-party mediators to exchange or retrieve information from other blockchain networks. The current third-party intermediaries establish trust and security by preserving a centralized ledger to track âaccount balancesâ and vouch for a transactionâs authenticity. The inability for independent blockchains to communicate with one another is an inherent problem in the decentralized systems. Lack of appropriate inter-blockchain communication puts a strain on the mainstream adoption of blockchain. It is evident that blockchain technology has the potential to become a suitable solution for some systems if it can scale and is able to cross communicate with other systems. For the multisystem blockchain concept to become a reality, a mechanism is required that would connect and communicate with multiple entitiesâ blockchain systems in a distributed fashion (without any intermediary), while maintaining the property of trust and integrity built by individual blockchains. In this article, we propose a mechanism that provides cross-chain interoperability using transactions.
This paper reviews the background and related studies in the areas of cloud systems, intrusion detection and blockchain applications against cyber attacks. This work aims to discuss collaborative anomaly detection systems for discovering insider and outsider attacks from cloud centres, including the technologies of virtualisation and containerisation, along with trusting intrusion detection and cloud systems using blockchain. Moreover, the ability to detect such malicious attacks is critical for conducting necessary mitigation, at an early stage, to minimise the impact of disruption and restore cloud operations and their live migration processes. This paper presents an overview of cloud architecture and categorises potential state-of-the-art security events based on their occurrence at different cloud deployment models. Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) in the cloud, involving types of classification and common detection approaches, are also described. Collaborative NIDSs for cloud-based blockchain applications are also explained to demonstrate how blockchain can address challenges related to data privacy and trust management. A summary of the research challenges and future research directions in these fields is also explained.
The planning and control of intralogistics systems in line with versatile production systems of smart factories requires new approaches and methods to cope with changing requirements within future factories. The planning of intralogistics can no longer follow a static, sequential approach as in the past since the planning assumptions are going to change in a high frequency. Reasons for these constant changes are amongst others external turbulences like rapidly changing market conditions, decreasing batch sizes down to customer-specific products with a batch size of one and on the other hand internal turbulences (like production and logistic resource breakdowns) affecting the production system. This paper gives an insight into research approaches and results how capabilities of intelligent logistical objects (intelligent bins, autonomous transport systems etc.) can be used to achieve a self-organized, cost and performance optimized intralogistics system with autonomously controlled process execution within versatile production environments. A first consistent method has been developed which has been validated and implemented within a scenario at the pilot factory Werk150 at the ESB Business School (Reutlingen University). Based on the incoming production orders, the method of the Extended Profitability Appraisal (EPA) covering the work system value to define the most effective work system for order fulfilment is applied. To derive the appropriate intralogistics processes, an autonomous control method involving principles of decentralized and target-oriented decision-making (e.g. intelligent bins are interacting with autonomously controlled transport systems to fulfil material orders of assembly workstations) has been developed and applied to achieve a target-optimized process execution. The results of the first stage research using predefined material sources and sinks described in this paper is going to set the basis for the further development of a self-organized and autonomously controlled method for intralogistics systems considering dynamic source and sink relations. By allowing dynamic shifts of production orders in the sense of dynamic source and sink relations the cost and performance aims of the intralogistics system can be directly aligned with the aims of the entire versatile production system in the sense of self-organized and autonomously controlled systems.
We survey the state-of-the-art non-interactive zero-knowledge argument schemes and their applications in confidential transactions and private smart contracts on blockchain. The main goal of this paper is to serve as a reference for blockchain application developers in finding the most suitable scheme for a particular use case. We give an overview and compare the state-of-the-art protocols for confidential transactions and private smart contracts regarding the protection of the transaction graph and amounts, data and functionality. However, our main focus is on state-of-the-art zero-knowledge argument schemes. We briefly describe their backgrounds, proof lengths and computational complexities and discuss their cryptographic security models. Our focus is on seminal, otherwise notable and, especially, implemented methods that are ready to be applied in practice. We also survey the existing implementations of transforming computations into circuit representations required by those methods. We note that the existing schemes have different strengths and drawbacks regarding usability, setup, proof length and proving and verification costs.
Colleen M. Flood, Vanessa MacDonnell, Bryan Thomas, Kumanan Wilson
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges governments face in balancing civil liberties against the exigencies of public health amid the chaos of a public health emergency. Current and emerging pandemic response strategies may engage diverse rights grounded in civil liberties, including mobility rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to liberty and security of the person. As traditionally conceived, the discourses of civil rights and public health rest on opposite assumptions about the burden of proof. In the discourse of civil and political rights of the sort guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the onus rests on government to show that any limitation on rights is justified. By contrast, public health discourse centers on the precautionary principle, which holds that intrusive measures may be takenâlockdowns, for exampleâeven in the absence of complete evidence of the benefits of the intervention or of the nature of the risk. In this article, we argue that the two principles are not so oppositional in practice. In testing for proportionality, courts recognize the need to defer to governments on complex policy matters, especially where the interests of vulnerable populations are at stake. For their part, public health experts have incorporated ideas of proportionality in their evolving understanding of the precautionary principle. Synthesizing these perspectives, we emphasize the importance of policy agility in the COVID-19 response, ensuring that measures taken are continually supported by the best evidence and continually recalibrated to avoid unnecessary interference with civil liberties.
Changli Lu, Zhao Ming, Imran Ahmad Khan, Peerapong Uthansakul
Cap-and-trade regulation provides incentives for manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions, but manufacturersâ insufficient capital can disrupt the implementation of low-carbon emission reduction technologies. To alleviate capital constraints, manufacturers can adopt external financing for low-carbon emission reduction investments. This paper studies the independent financing and financing cooperation behavior in a supply chain in which the manufacturer and retailer first implement low-carbon emission reduction technologies and then organize production and sales in accordance with wholesale price contracts. Through comparing the optimal profits and low-carbon emission reduction levels under the independent financing and financing cooperation mode, we come to the following conclusions: (1) Although financing interest increases the cost of the supply chain, manufacturers prefer to invest in reducing carbon emissions rather than buying carbon quotas. (2) When financing independently, a decentralized decision-making mode (MD) is the best choice for manufacturers. (3) In cooperative financing, when the supply chain adopts a decentralized decision-making mode (SD) in which the retailer determines the financing cost-sharing ratio according to their optimal profit, the profits of the supply chain and its members are significantly improved. (4) When manufacturers and retailers adopt a centralized decision-making model (SC) in cooperative financing, they jointly determine the financing cost-sharing ratio and the level of low-carbon emission reduction. If the financing cost-sharing ratio meets a certain threshold range, the profits of manufacturers and retailers achieve Pareto improvement, indicating that this cooperative financing model is effective.
Bruno Rodrigues, Trendafilov Spasen, Eder J. Scheid, Burkhard Stiller
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks remains as one of the major causes of concerns for service providers around the world. This paper introduces SC-FLARE, a Smart Contract (SC) based cooperative signaling protocol built on top of a Ethereum Proof-of-Authority Blockchain (BC) for the sharing of attack information, the exchange of incentives, and the tracking of reputation in a fully distributed and automated fashion. By making use of BC and SC, SC-FLARE provide the required collaborative platform without the burden to maintain, design, and develop special registries and gossip protocols for a cooperative defense.
Trusted decentralized applications based on distributed ledger technologies provide many potential opportunities to 5G applications and verticals, as well as in fifth generation mobile network (5G) enabling technologies, systems, and services. Apart from the tamper-proof exchange of transactions, distributed ledgers can provide a software environment for the trusted execution of smart contracts. In this article, we explore the security aspects of decentralized applications and, in particular, the security of smart contracts. Distributed ledger characteristics impose distinct requirements on smart contract design, implementation, deployment, and management. We briefly present the approach to the development of secure smart contracts, and highlight key smart contract vulnerabilities and the developer tools supporting smart contract security. We developed a secure, upgradeable modular multi-contract platform. It combines per-contract Smart Contract Tunnels and per-user-based access control to minimize vulnerabilities. The smart contract platform is comprised of service-agnostic, auxiliary, and service-specific smart contracts. It can be therefore easily adapted to different 5G application verticals. For illustration and evaluation, we elaborated on the proposed solution on a case of smart electric charging. During the design and development, state-of-the-art code analysis was applied. Finally, we propose an architecture for the integration of the secure multi-contract platform into a 5G architecture. The integration proposal utilizes hybrid private-public blockchain networks for possible security, scalability, performance, and transaction cost optimization.
Yi Ding, Chenshuo Wang, Qionghui Zhong, Haisheng Li ¡ 6 authors
The close integration of blockchain and smart contract technology has become an important foundation for current trusted applications. High-quality, high-efficiency and high-security codes have become basic requirements for smart contract applications because they are not easy to be modified after being deployed on blockchain. This paper proposes a function-level dynamic monitoring and analysis method for smart contract, and implements a prototype system. The method adds a âshadow stackâ and related data structures to virtual machine of testing blockchain platform by analyzing the principle of function management with original stack, then monitors the bytecode after code instrumentation, records the function calling relationships as well as the relevant metrics of time, instruction number and gas consumption. The prototype system identifies contract inefficient behaviors using visualization and intelligent analysis methods, then forms a smart contract optimization closed loop through iterative improvement. Finally, the paper verified the high feasibility and applicability of the monitoring and analyzing method as well as prototype system's performance through experiments.
This paper discusses the legal risks and regulatory solutions for a peer-to-peer energy trading platform (P2P-ETP) in creating a sustainable energy ecosystem. Part I discusses the conceptual framework of P2P-ETP, which enables consumers to become energy âproducers' and traders. Smart technologies â smart contracts, smart meters, and distributed ledger technology (DLT) â are the main components of this platform. The study examines the legal basis and regulatory framework for these components. Part II analyses the legal uncertainty of the smart contract, such as its enforceability, and the inadequate protection for consumers and their individual rights through price manipulation, violation of rights to privacy, and data breaches. Part III discusses the potential policy implementations and the principles behind a legal and regulatory framework for establishing a trusted peer-to-peer energy trading platform.
The coding and deployment of smart contracts in the construction industry are challenging because of the gap between the generality of existing modeling approaches for such contracts and the pertinence of business logic to construction management. This research proposes a formal model for smart contracts in the context of quality acceptance in the construction industry to reduce the threshold for applying smart contract technology. First, a conceptual scenario of smart contract-based quality acceptance in construction is analyzed. Second, a finite state machine-based model is proposed to formalize smart contracts for quality acceptance. Lastly, a Hyperledger-based case study is performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed formal model. This study contributes to the industrial application of formal modeling approaches for smart contracts in the field of construction.
The commercial real estate (CRE) industry appears to take pride in keeping several aspects of its operations private, such as comparable lease rental rates, property prices, and valuations, to create a possible competitive advantage. However, secrets are hard to keep and may not even be desired in todayâs hyperconnected and digitized world. In response to greater demand for transparency, technology advancements and the disintermediation by startups are gradually making some of this information public. As a result, property-related information is increasingly available in digital and paper form. However, a significant portion of the digitized information is hosted on disparate systems, which results in a lack of transparency and efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies that creates a greater potential for fraudulence.[1] This paper aims to present the Blockchain and smart contract for a specific domain which is real estate. Currently, the real estate business online is at risk of fraudulence. The main objective of this project is to create a platform to maintain transparency in the real estate world so that no fraudulent activities can happen due to false contracts. Goal is to create tamper proof systems and to remove third party reliability for transactions. Consensus algorithms such as Proof of Work and Proof of Authority can be used to achieve consensus in the network. Blockchain uses Proof of work concept to ensure transaction denial thus helping remove denial of services. Proof of authority on the other hand ensures only authorized smart contracts pass the system.
Fakultas Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta Indonesia, Ezra Putranda Setiawan
Cryptocurrency or virtual currency is a kind of investment that is common since 2010. Nowadays, there are more than 2.000 cryptocurrencies around the world. Research about cryptocurrency in Indonesia still focused on the legal or religious status of its investment. This descriptive-quantitative research aim is to describe the return and the risk of cryptocurrency investment. Therefore, we use the descriptive analysis and the GARCH (1,1) model to the return data of 15 cryptocurrencies with the largest market value. Most of these cryptocurrencies can yield a higher return when compared with the return of the foreign exchange and stock market return. Despite this benefit, they exhibit higher risks and volatility clustering or heteroscedasticity. Further research should be done to reveal more properties of their return and performance in portfolio
The paper examines cryptocurrency in the crypto-finance ecosystem and identifies areas in which regulatory intervention is required. Part I focuses on the system and processes of cryptocurrency and identifies the features of this âdecentralisedâ system and the legal and regulatory implications. Part II discusses the perceived benefits and the rise of cryptocurrency to determine whether those benefits fit with regulatory objectives and contribute to the rise of cryptocurrency. Part III discusses the fall of cryptocurrency and some associated factors, particularly a lack of governance. Part IV discusses the need for regulation and governance. Cryptocurrency, blockchain, DLT, tokenization, cryptoasset, exchanges, investor protection
Purpose Cryptocurrency markets are notoriously noisy, but not all markets might behave in the exact same way. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate which one of the cryptocurrency markets contributes the most to the common volatility component inherent in the market. Design/methodology/approach The paper extracts each of the cryptocurrency's markets' latent volatility using a stochastic volatility model and, subsequently, models their dynamics in a fractionally cointegrated vector autoregressive model. The authors use the refinement of Lien and Shrestha (2009, J. Futures Mark) to come up with unique Hasbrouck (1995, J. Finance) information shares. Findings The authorsâ findings indicate that Bitfinex is the leading market for Bitcoin and Ripple, while Bitstamp dominates for Ethereum and Litecoin. Based on the dominant market for each cryptocurrency, the authors find that the volatility of Bitcoin explains most of the volatility among the different cryptocurrencies. Research limitations/implications The authorsâ findings are limited by the availability of the cryptocurrency data. Apart from Bitcoin, the data series for the other cryptocurrencies are not long enough to ensure the precision of the authorsâ estimates. Originality/value To date, only price discovery in cryptocurrencies has been studied and identified. This paper extends the current literature into the realm of volatility discovery. In addition, the authors propose a discrete version for the evolution of a markets fundamental volatility, extending the work of Dias et al. (2018).
Jan 1, 2020¡Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
With the increase in the attention to cryptocurrency, studies on the factors affecting the price fluctuation of cryptocurrency have been actively conducted. Prior researches suggested that policy announcements (i.e., public information) related to cryptocurrency have been found to affect the price volatility in the market in particular. Privileged information, which is hard to be observable unlike public information published by the government or corporations, is hardly homogenously distributed to individual investors. However, it inevitably affects the price in any market. Therefore, this study aims to identify the information asymmetry, which is mainly formed by privileged information, in the cryptocurrency market. Moreover, this study examines whether investment sentiment, which mainly influences transaction behaviors of uninformed traders, has a significant effect on the cryptocurrency market as well. The results contribute to the understanding of the cryptocurrency market in a basis of the existing market theories.
Contracts are obligations that involve multiple parties and stakeholders. Road - Toll collection contracts have certain guidelines and rules for collection of toll tax from vehicles against the use of constructed roads. Representation of such rules for collection of toll taxes using a smart contract, which is a paradigm based on blockchain, will solve some of the drawbacks of current toll collection and management system. The proposed methodology uses the strengths of blockchain to propose a solution to the current toll tax collection system, by ensuring complete transparency between tax payers and collectors and also attempts to curb the malicious collection of taxes from commuters. Blockchain will enable a radical way of approaching transactions as compared to the traditional society approved method where trust is placed on a central third party to carry out transactions. The purpose of this paper is to provide a alternative method of processing toll tax transactions, using ethereum based smart contracts, written in solidity language, to transform traditional desktop applications into blockchain based web application, which perform better, consume lesser resources and are much more secure as compared to the current system.
Distributed ledger technology was expected to spark a technical revolution similar to the internet revolution. After the release of Bitcoin in 2008, many developments have significantly increased the performance of distributed ledger technology. Nevertheless, the first truly scalable ledger has yet to be deployed. All of them have issues with scaling in either the throughput, the number of nodes which can validate transaction or both. The concept behind a distributed ledger is that the integrity of the ledger is a shared responsibility. However, as soon as new technology emerges, also misuse surfaces, especially if there are financial gains involved. The general solution, to prevent such abuse, in distributed ledger technology is through the use of global consensus. If the majority of a network is honest, and we require a majority vote on the validity of a transaction, no malicious transactions will succeed. A downside of requiring a majority vote is that every node eligible to vote must contain full knowledge on all previous transactions. This work argues that the requirement of global consensus is a major limiting factor when it comes to the scalability of current ledgers. The goal of this work is to design a scalable distributed ledger whose security does not rely on global consensus. It proposes a novel algorithm that guarantees security, even under adversarial attack, by up to a third of the network exhibiting byzantine behavior. It does so using Trustchain, a pair-wise ledger designed by the Delft University of Technology, and `Fair Witness Selection Protocol', a newly designed publicly verifiable witness selection algorithm with an indicated message and communication complexity of $O(log^\\star(n))$. A mathematical lower-bound is given on the security level of the algorithm, and the security is reduced to the security of the underlying hash function. Several experiments were executed on the DAS-5 supercomputer to confirm the scalability of this work. These experiments show that the throughput of the network scales linearly, and has been tested up to 2500 nodes (simultaneously acting as validators and clients). To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the only ledger that has no theoretical limits on the number of clients, number of validators, or throughput. A peak-throughput of 7025 tx/s has been observed at a network size of 280 nodes. Furthermore, the total transaction time remained roughly constant at about 15 milliseconds regardless of the network size.
In recent years, under the background that the rapid development of traffic volume makes the current traffic lights far from meeting the urban traffic demand, intelligent traffic lights based on the centralized architecture began to appear. However, in the traffic network with complex structure and private data flow, there are many malicious attacks against the centralized architecture, such as Sybil and ghost car attacks, which undoubtedly brings great security risks to the traditional intelligent traffic lights. Blockchain technology is a popular security framework nowadays. Based on its outstanding characteristics in the distributed architecture and the development of Edge Intelligence (EI) technology, this paper proposes a distributed security architecture scheme based on blockchain technology for the existing intelligent traffic light system. At the same time, based on the model cutting technology proposed by EI, the smart contract is improved to achieve redundant cutting of ledger data in the process of block consensus, which greatly reduces the pressure of blockchain ledger data transmission. In the end of this paper, the superiority of this scheme compared with the traditional intelligent traffic light scheme in communication cost and time cost is demonstrated by simulation experiment.