Modern power systems depend on cyber-physical systems to link physical devices and control technologies. A major concern in the implementation of smart power networks is to minimize the risk of data privacy violation (e.g., by adversaries using data poisoning and inference attacks). In this article, we propose a privacy-preserving framework to achieve both privacy and security in smart power networks. The framework includes two main modules: a two-level privacy module and an anomaly detection module. In the two-level privacy module, an enhanced-proof-of-work-technique-based blockchain is designed to verify data integrity and mitigate data poisoning attacks, and a variational autoencoder is simultaneously applied for transforming data into an encoded format for preventing inference attacks. In the anomaly detection module, a long short-term memory deep learning technique is used for training and validating the outputs of the two-level privacy module using two public datasets. The results highlight that the proposed framework can efficiently protect data of smart power networks and discover abnormal behaviors, in comparison to several state-of-the-art techniques.
A U Mentsiev, V S Magomadov, M Z Ashakhanova, A U Mentsiev · 5 authors
Abstract This research gives a brief insight into one of the most widely used technologies known as Blockchain. The paper lays the groundwork of how Blockchain functions and how it has quickly become a network with millions of users throughout the world. This study discusses the most important use of Blockchain technology, which is the enhancement of the cyber-security industry. Blockchain has revolutionized the cyber-security industry by introducing a system which is not bound to any four walls and is widely distributed all around the world, seeking refuge on millions of user servers. This decentralized system helps Blockchain defend cyber networks against security threats and attacks such as malware, phishing attacks, and DDoS.
The review covers the WTO report “Can Blockchain revolutionize international trade?” The report studies the multifaceted effects of Blockchain on international trade and its multiple applications. Digitalization of the cross-border transactions as the key effect would be particularly beneficial for the most paper-intensive processes, including trade finance, trade facilitation, trade in services, intellectual property and public procurement. The significant positive and transformative effect of Blockchain on international trade goes without saying, but the author warns against being too enthusiastic on the prospects of the full-size trade digitalization. As this requires enhanced trust between parties of the cross-border transactions, as well as international cooperation and joint efforts to build Blockchain ecosystems, and tackle legal and policy issues.
Andrey Litvin, С. В. Коренев, Ekaterina Gennadevna Knyazeva, V. Litvin
A blockchain technology representing a tool for data storage and transmission is briefly described in this review. Current trends of its development are also shown as well as currently known specific features and advantages of using the blockchain technology in medicine. The possibilities and prospects of applying the blockchain for solving some tasks in healthcare are analyzed. In addition, shortcomings and problems associated with the employment of this technology in medicine are also highlighted.
The growth of crypto industry develops vigorous, especially in recent years, moving from a universally controlled electronic cash system society to complete financial freedom. Given all the failures, the phenomenon, though treated controversially by politicians and financial authorities all around the world, slowly moves towards standardization. The global law-making chaos is temporary. People, private individuals or corporations, on the contrary, have firm confidence in a chance to handle personal money without all-seeing intermediators who track their total spending. People are ready to battle for the currency, which does not require the owner’s identity or a central server and overt control of banks and governments over the monetary transactions. The crypto industry matured at an incredible pace offers this possibility and firmly takes roots in a global society. The phenomenon of cryptocurrency affects social aspects, starting various debates about the phenomenon itself, cultural changes caused by it, political-economic decisions, bans, or even revolutions all over the world. Money reveals what kind of society we are giving us power and confidence and then society gives different meanings to faceless money. The fashion for crypto entered the artistic layers. Crypto money evokes the phenomenon of social exchange, which leads to the effect of social subjects’ interaction, and the allocation of power inside a social structure. The aim of the study is to discuss these aspects. The analysis of articles, news portals, and social media posts related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies proofs the manifestation of the stated aspects. All the aspects of the phenomenon that take an active part in our lives today will undoubtedly leave a significant trace in history. The particular observable behaviour, such as successful moneymaking, encourage novices to started imitating experts because the interaction between the individual and the situation determines the outcome.
The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud services with edge technologies has enabled the development of many new types of edge services, which leverage blockchain features for cross-organizational, traceable and verifiable records. However, developing such edge services with blockchain features requires not only knowledge about complex blockchain technologies but also how blockchain technologies coexist with edge computing service models and architectures and deployments. In the context of edge service development, coupling edge systems, software models for edge services and blockchain technologies is complex. Thus, a strong collaboration and knowledge sharing for edge systems and blockchain technologies will help addressing many concerns of the developer. However, there is a lack of frameworks for sharing knowledge about blockchain software artefacts and deployments for edge services. In this paper, we present various types of information linking blockchain performance with service deployments at different levels. We represent and associate benchmarked performance information of blockchain operation and blockchain infrastructural services with common edge service interactions and resource deployments. Based on that, we develop a service offering blockchain knowledge to the developer seeking relevant blockchain operation information for their development decisions. We will present a prototype of our framework with benchmarked information obtained from experiments with Ethereum and Hyperledger.
Mikhail Gorodnichev, E. G. Kukharenko, T. U. Salutina, Marina Moseva · 5 authors
Abstract This article is devoted to the development of an information system for conducting financial transactions on a cryptocurrency exchange based on blockchain technology. The paper provides a brief overview of the underlying technology, the advantages and disadvantages are identified, the design of the information system and user interface is carried out.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Economic and Technological Systems Analysis
Advanced Computational Techniques in Science and Engineering
La irrupción de bitcoin en los medios de comunicación en 2017 tuvo un gran impacto entre los profanos de las nuevas tecnologías, muchos de los cuales desconocían hasta entonces la existencia de las criptomonedas. Superado aquel momento, se ha analizado el fenómeno de las criptomonedas desde múltiples vertientes y, lógicamente, también desde la fiscalidad. Que las criptomonedas no estén reguladas por ningún Estado o autoridad bancaria puede inducir al error de que se encuentran fuera de la legalidad y que no están obligadas a tributar. La realidad es bien distinta, aunque en España no existe una legislación específica, las actividades relacionadas con las criptomonedas están perfectamente reguladas y sujetas a tributación. Además, la Agencia Tributaria española está en alerta ante este supuesto nuevo medio de pago que fácilmente puede ser usado para cometer fraude fiscal. Con este trabajo se pretenden aclarar los principales aspectos fiscales de bitcoin y, por extensión, del resto de criptomonedas.
Temidayo Abayomi-Zannu, Isaac Odun-Ayo, T. F. Barka
Abstract Voting is fundamental to any consensus-based society and is one of the most critical functions of democracy. Mobile voting (m-voting) was utilized as a means for voters to easily and conveniently cast their votes using their mobile devices which have been the most adopted means of communication but has a major problem which is safely securing the casted votes and avoiding any form of tampering. In this paper, we propose an m-voting framework that utilizes blockchain technology to securely store the casted votes and multi-factor authentication to authenticate the voters before they cast their votes while also providing an easily accessible, secure and transparent m-voting system.
Alex Kaplunovich, Karuna Pande Joshi, Yelena Yesha
While adopting Blockchain technologies to automate their enterprise functionality, organizations are recognizing the challenges of scalability and manual configuration that the state of art present. Scalability of Hyperledger Fabric is an open challenge recognized by the research community. We have automated many of the configuration steps of installing Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain on AWS infrastructure and have benchmarked the scalability of that system. We have used the UCR (University of California Riverside) Time Series Archive with 128 timeseries datasets containing over 191,177 rows of data totaling 76,453,742 numbers. Using an automated Serverless approach, we have loaded this dataset, by chunks, into different AWS instances, triggering the load by SQS messaging. In this paper, we present the results of this benchmarking study and describe the approach we took to automate the Hyperledger Fabric processes using serverless Lambda functions and SQS triggering. We will also discuss what is needed to make the Blockchain technology more robust and scalable.
Statistical analysis of health data is an essential task in healthcare. However, existing healthcare systems are incompatible with this critical need due to privacy restrictions. A recently emerged technology called Blockchain has shown great promise for mitigating this incompatibility. In this work, we aim to improve existing secure statistical analysis protocols by leveraging the blockchain technology. We propose a novel method that enables researchers to perform statistical analysis on health data in a privacy-preserving, secure, and precise manner.
A U Mentsiev, Э Р Гузуева, S M Yunaeva, M V Engel · 5 authors
Abstract The modern economy is gradually developing and shifting into a virtual economic system. The new digital economy serves as the new model of economic development and redesigns businesses based on utilizing information in b2b relationships. New information and network technologies are becoming significant factors of a globalizing economy and contribute to the rapid transition of the economy from a real economy bound by boundaries to a network one connected by the internet, ensuring digital economy development and innovative business process formation. With the blockchain technology coming into play, the digital economy is set to take a step forward in globalizing the economy. This research explores how the blockchain technology has transformed the digital economy and how this technology can be exploited to make the digital economy an extra mile.
As a tool for human technological advancement, the peer-review system acts as a gateway for ensuring academic paper qualities. However, the system has proven to be slow and expensive. Also, biasedness remains an unsolved problem. Such issues could become a major bottleneck, which can adversely impact research progress and dissemination of knowledge. This paper aims to propose a double-blind paper review system to preserve the authors and reviewers anonymity. This system also addresses issues concerning the reviewers payment, inconsistent review metrics, and biased reviews. The proposed solution utilizes the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). The blockchain smart contracts provide a base for financial transactions between paper publishers and the reviewers. Hence, we introduce AcadCoin, a novel cryptocurrency used for supporting said financial transactions. Also, the Hyperledger blockchain provides user access control to achieve double-blindness in reviews. Along with the Hyperledger blockchain, the IPFS is used to store the paper documents, review documents and open metrics documents to reduce the storage requirement of the blockchain. A broad system architecture is constructed to combine the blockchain and the file storage system. This system architecture distributes nodes of the system to related parties. Finally, the blockchain network is implemented and tested using the Hyperledger Composer Playground environment.
Nadiya Dubrovina, Erika Neubauerová, Michal Fabuš, Оксана Тулай
Nowadays the problems of optimal taxation and tax distribution are closely connected with growth of decentralization and democracy in the world, especially in EU and other countries, such as USA, Canada, etc. Many economists and analysts studied the problems of co-operation between central and local administration in the realization of the state programmes and efficiency of public services on different levels (central, regional or local). Due to the theoretical and empirical evidence it was clear that some functions of public administration on the central level are not carried out efficiently and some competences of public administration can be transferred to the local levels. Thus, the problems of competences and public finance distribution between central level (state) and other levels (regional or local) are the main aspects to discuss in the theories of fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization. In the theory of fiscal federalism the problem of taxes allocation between different levels of government is considered to be one of important tools for realization of stabilization and allocation functions of public finance. It should be noted that one of the theoretical and research problems is how to evaluate the measure for financial decentralization. There are different approaches to this problem in modern research such as qualitative (for example, grouping countries based on some qualitative criteria or experts’ evaluation of reforms focuse on financial decentralization) or quantitative ( a set of different ratios, geometric mean of different indicators, aggregated index, etc.). The purpose of the research is to obtain the aggregated indicators for evaluation of public finance distribution on central and local levels and to analyze the balance between these indicators for EU countries. For our research we used the idea of aggregated indicator to evaluate the measure of dependence upon central government expenditure and measure of local autonomy development. Due to the methodology for calculation of aggregated index proposed by Helwig the value of the aggregated index is varied from 0 to 1, or from minimal possible level to maximum possible level of the generalized characteristics described by the original set of indicators. Thus, if measure of public finance dependence upon central government Int_C is more closed to 1, then central government plays a greater role in expenditure for public finance. If measure of local autonomy Int_L is more closed to 1, then local government has more opportunities in their revenue and expenditure. It should be noted that for the balanced position of the country on the plot the values of the Int_C and Int_L should be equal to or lie on 45 degree line. If the bundles lie upper 45 degree line it means that level of local autonomy is more expressed, and vice versa, if the bundles lie lower 45 degree line it means that level of local autonomy is less expressed. The aggregated indices Int_C and Int_L were calculated for EU countries during the period of 2002–2017 and it makes possible to evaluate the features of national fiscal policy in balance between distribution of funds for central and local levels.
The topicality of the topic is connected with the growing role of culture in the state administration of Russia. According to the forecast of the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2030, culture is a priority area of state support to ensure the maximum possible access of citizens to cultural values and education in the sphere culture, as well as the preservation of works of culture and art. Museums, as objects of storage and demonstration of cultural values, are an integral part of cultural policy. The state policy in the museum area consists of financial support, provision of professional staff, improvement of the legal and regulatory framework, coordination of the activities of federal and regional authorities in relation to museums. Museums are a complex and specific area of public policy and governance, as each institution has different values in importance, different possibilities of self-financing. Therefore, it is impossible to apply the same criteria to all state museums that determine its effectiveness. The article examines the main models of state cultural and museum policy in the field of protection, disposal and use of cultural monuments, reveals the specifics of the legislative framework and organizational and economic support. The conclusions are drawn that the combination of centralized and decentralized management of the museum sphere, the elimination of the contradictions of the legal and legal framework in the museum and cultural sphere, the creation of a mutually beneficial mechanism of public-private partnerships will provide the most effective model of cultural and museum policy for the protection of cultural monuments.
This paper presents the implementation of a traffic violation management system. A vehicle tracking system uses the GPS, GSM and a microcontroller to detect speed violations on roads. Any violation is sent to a central database.Payments can be performed off-line; without involving a third party during payment, or on-line; contacting an intermediate server for each payment. In this paper, we focus on using online payment without third party by using a new technology called blockchain for the authentication and authorization purposes in case of traffic violations payment. The contribution of this paper is providing a model of electronic payment for traffic violations to enhance two importantfactors; trust and security of the e- payment system. Blockchain as a shared ledger holds a many set of entities thatfaithfully records a series of transactions combined together by using a smart contract platform for embedding scripts that run across the network and enables adding new entries to that ledger. Blockchain technology is used in this paper for securing traffic violations management. Using the Blockchain guarantees highly secured traffic violations payment as no hacker can change the balance in driver's wallet or a vehicle property papers in a network around the world without the requirement for a central management, as all transactions are recorded in all copies distributed among all parties in the network, where each party has the same copy of the ledger. The proposed model should reduce the response times of violation requests and payment at any time and from any place.
Andrea Jonathan Pagano, Francesco Romagnoli, Emanuele Vannucci
Abstract Risk insurance for disasters plays a relevant part in the implementation of risk reduction strategies during the pre-disaster phase. This is essential to support risk management towards decreasing the marginal risk allowing policy holders to transfer risk to avoid considerable financial loads from the costs incurred during the recovery phase in a post-disaster phase. There is evidence that the introduction of an integrated risk insurance strategy for community resilience planning is still lacking. Thus, this undermines the possibility to have proper optimized holistic risk management; on the one hand this strengthens pre-disaster risk mitigation measures, mostly relying on mitigative infrastructural solutions, and on the other hand it better defines risk prevention strategies mostly connected to land planning and urban development. This paper will show how insurance markets can play a key role towards mitigating the economic consequences of natural and climate change disasters, and how essential it is to better quantify the beneficial effects and costs of engineer-based mitigative solutions. In this context, the legal framework into which the actuarial quantitative model can be implemented will support the creation of an integrated multidisciplinary approach with potential implementation on a novel platform capable of collecting and processing information from different sources and dimensions such as blockchain technology. The scientific community is, in fact, increasingly interested in implementing blockchain technology to overcome problems linked to the contractual dimension of natural disaster risk insurance which can be interpreted as a sort of smart contracting. Through a study that involved four distinct areas, namely: law, environmental engineering, insurance and IT, this paper proposes a specific multidisciplinary methodology to achieve the drafting and implementation of a digital insurance contract on a blockchain platform against natural hazards. This paper proposes the basis to advance a quantitative concept to optimize the impact of catastrophe risk insurance onto the community resilience; in fact providing a key synergy for definition of pre-disaster conditions.
Uzma Amin, M. J. Hossain, Edstan Fernandez, Khizir Mahmud · 5 authors
The following topics are dealt with: power engineering computing; power grids; optimisation; distributed power generation; learning (artificial intelligence); power markets; neural nets; demand side management; evolutionary computation; power generation economics.
Introduction. The rapid development of information technology is transforming the modern economic system. This is especially true of changes in the area of calculations and payments, as it is directly linked to economic development and the well-being of the population. Today, with the global economy volatile, changing public sentiment, distrust of financial institutions and interest in cryptocurrencies or virtual money is increasing. Governments and central banks of different countries are often very conflicted about the use of these innovations. Therefore, studying the cryptocurrency market and regulating it as a tool for making payments and payments will reduce the risk of cash flow loss to existing institutions and will have an impact on the financial system. Methods. The following methods are used during the study: analysis and synthesis; abstract and logical (theoretical generalizations and formulation of conclusions); methods of induction and deduction, comparative method and system-structural method have been applied in the study of the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies in different countries, to determine the main approaches to such regulation. Results. The nature, history of the phenomenon, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency are examined in the article. Features of creation and production of this currency are revealed. The cryptocurrency market is growing rapidly, and the state, which has not adapted the tax code to the current challenges of the digital economy, is underperforming budget revenues, as cryptocurrencies are outside the legal jurisdiction. Today, there are over 2,000 different cryptocurrencies, so it is necessary to develop common standards for the regulation of cryptocurrencies. The legal regulation of electronic currency in different countries is analysed and the prospects of using cryptocurrency in Ukraine are investigated. Discussions. Due to technology improvements, legislation and improved infrastructure, cryptocurrency will play a significant role in people's daily lives, reducing cash flow and thus stabilizing inflation and the monetary system as a whole.
This paper introduces a novel digital ticketing platform using blockchain technology. Taking in a number of considerations by observing legacy ticketing systems and existing attempts at digital ticketing, we make use of IBM's Hyperledger Fabric framework to design an architecture that distributes the tickets across all participating organisations. We note the potential benefits this platform has. Governing organisations maintain their right to set the rules of the platform and access the data to generate statistics. Vending organisations share access to the same underlying tickets whilst preserving competition. The platform offers passengers a variety of ways to pay for and access their tickets, using a combination of legacy and modern methods. Furthermore, we note the platform has the potential to eradicate paper ticketing and surplus voucher cards.
During the past 20 years, substantial efforts were made to improve irrigation Management-Operation & Maintenance (MOM) through introduction of participatory irrigation management (PIM). PIM proved generally successful on small and medium schemes but it has yielded limited results on large schemes. Stakeholder engagement in irrigation system shapes hydrosocial territories: (1) by reducing tension between stakeholders, (2) by redirecting regional planning and strategy, (3) by highlighting water crises, (4) by decentralizing water responsibilities and (5) by integrating values and beliefs from different stakeholders (Sandra Ricart, et.al, 2018). Privatization started to become politically fashionable in the late 1980. In this context privatization means off-loading government ownership or responsibility for operation into the private sector, either to the farmers themselves or to an intermediate private subcontractor. But is it just a means of off-loading responsibility from a government line management system that can't cope, or is it really to benefit the farmers? (Adrian Laycock, 2011). Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) is an autonomous authority. The BMDA does not require external finance and sustainable finance to operate the irrigation project. There are around 16,000 deep tube wells and surface lift pumps covering around 0.6 million hectares (round the year) under BMDA management. BMDA is managed by a board chaired by an appointee of the government. There are three other members representatives from farmers including other relevant department's representatives. BMDA has introduced innovative concept for prepayment for water; this was started using a system of using electronic prepaid meters. There are no formal WUOs established instead keeps a very close liaison with the farmers and the communities through their field offices, this approach appears to be effective. The chief executive of a successful irrigation project should have a clear idea about people, land and water.
The reformation of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia system, which was marked by the change from centralized to decentralized system, had an impact on the trend of regional expansion. But, from the end of 2014 the government implemented a moratorium on the formation of new autonomous regions with the reason to focus on resolving the problem of the size of the budget deficit before lifting the moratorium. The purpose of this study is to analyze the driving factors of the formation of new autonomous regions in Indonesia during the reformation era and its impact on state finance. This study is a policy study by collecting data and then analyzing it into a conclusion and recommendation. This type of study is a literature study with the method used is descriptive qualitative method. The results of the study show that since the reform era, the formation of a new autonomous region has been very massive. If calculated on average from 1999 to 2014, each year the new regions increase by 13 regions per year. The formation of the new autonomous regions requires considerable preparation and costs, starting from the initial formation to the implementation. In addition, in general the new autonomous regions show higher fiscal dependencies than the old regions. Thus, it can be stated that the establishment of the new autonomous regions has caused pressure on the state finances due to the large amount of funds that must be transferred to new regions.
Abstract In the current paper the issues of the workload relocation in the fog- and edge-computing environments are in-question. The workload relocation problem is closely connected to the scheduling problems, yet, outside the cloud there is almost unlimited number of nodes to place the computational tasks. So the search space for the optimization problem grows, and the time of the workload relocation degrades. We emphasize the techniques to limit the set of candidate nodes for the tasks distribution. In the paper two approaches are proposed and considered in terms of time consumption. The simple models are developed with the following simulation. Also the distributed-ledger-based modifications of the techniques are proposed and examined.