What is an economic platform? I address this question by focusing on the case of cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The research draws on interviews with platform actors, fieldwork in one exchange, and computational text analysis of the terms of service of all cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. I argue that cryptocurrency exchange platforms go beyond market processes by fulfilling a variety of functions including banking, infrastructure development, gift-giving, barter, money making, payment system operation, software production, security providing, and centralized extra-blockchain accounting. I propose the concept of âstackâ to describe such a process of socio-digital economization that takes place in these data money exchanges. Demonstrating that it is inadequate to describe platforms as mere digital infrastructures, devices, places or markets, I argue that cryptocurrency exchange platforms can best be understood as economization stacks that weave multiple layers and types of interaction, and facilitate an empirically observable range of variegated economic activities.
The current e-commerce operation model has network defects such as network chaos and uneven network distribution, which affect economic development and progress. In response to the above problems, this article introduces the artificial intelligence system, optimizes and analyzes the structure of e-commerce websites, and combines the Internet economy with online website theory through independent screening and analysis of the artificial intelligence system. The concept of blockchain technology is introduced, and the characteristics of blockchain are analyzed through theory and data using quantitative analysis methods, and the problem of cross-border electronic payment is solved based on blockchain. Based on the analysis of artificial intelligence, an optimized online website innovation plan was obtained. Finally, the online website resource allocation variables are simulated, and the simulation method is used to test the scheme. The simulation test simulates the process of resource allocation, optimizes the use of innovative models, and hires professional financial personnel to observe records. The test verifies the effectiveness of the structure optimization of the e-commerce platform realized in this paper.
Pablo G. Bringas, Iker Pastor-LĂłpez, Giuseppe Psaila
Abstract Background BlockChain technology was invented to support bitcoin , currently the most popular virtual currency. Objectives The purpose of this paper is to investigate contemporary BlockChain platforms in financial services. Methods/Approach An unstructured literature review has been used. Results BlockChain in financial services is mostly associated with bitcoin exchange. However, this is a partial view of both BlockChain technology and its possible adoption for financial services: in fact, many BlockChain platforms are now available and many different financial services can be effectively supported by BlockChain platforms, even though they are not based on virtual-money exchange. Furthermore, people are attracted by the concept of smart contract , i.e., a contract that is automatically executed by computer technology, without human intervention. Conclusions The contribution of this paper is twofold: first of all, we introduce the four BlockChain platforms that are now most popular, discussing how they support the smart contract concept; second, we identify some typical categories of financial services, matching each of them with the platform that provides the best support for each category.
João Paulo de Brito Gonçalves, Roberta Lima Gomes, Rodolfo da Silva Villaça, Esteban Municio · 5 authors
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are used in contracts between two parts, which can be, as an example, between service providers or between customers and service providers. SLA clauses represent key aspects in the relationship between them. In order to enforce service reliability and SLA compliance, a continuous monitoring of Quality of Service metrics is required. Since policy breach is usually subject to expensive penalties, using external entities acting as trustful references is a common practice in order to avoid frequent legal disputes, external entities are usually required to verify it. However, coordination between different actors to agree in one transaction is difficult, because it can open up possibilities for multiple fraud attempts. We argue that this can be done more efficiently using Smart Contracts, programs that are executed in a blockchain. Such data is stored in a distributed structure without the need of an external entity to ensure data integrity and reliability. Smart contracts can also makes easy the charging or possibly compensating SLA violations. In this paper we propose a solution empowered by smart contracts in order to simplify, and to automate the process of SLA validation, i.e, verify if the contract is being respected. We perform some experiments and evaluate a proof of concept using data from a real network infrastructure in Brazil.
<em>The birth of "smart contracts" has based on developments in the emerging field of Blockchain application: computerized transaction protocols that autonomously execute the terms of a contract. With a lot of advantages which I will analyze below, Smart contracts are really offering the promise of increased commercial efficiency, lower transaction and legal costs, and anonymous transacting.</em>
Giuseppe Martino Di Giuda, Paolo Ettore Giana, Giulia Pattini
The research aims to implement Blockchain in Smart Contract in the design phase to reduce the financial exposition of SMEs. The adoption of Smart Contract, streamlining and accelerating the payments, shows up as a potential revolution of the traditional contractual framework. However, due to the increasing fragmentation and project complexity, the AECO sector is accused of slowness in accommodating and propagating new technologies. The Smart Contract can embed a Blockchain protocol that executes the predefined and agreed clauses by the contracting parties automatically and autonomously. It is a smooth and predictable data-driven process in which, at the after each clause, the payment is automatically issued, ensuring the shortening of payments. In the construction sector, the transaction delay represents a relevant problem that is responsible for disputes and economic disadvantages for the SMEs. Therefore, the paper investigates the process of digitalization starting from Smart Contract. The research is applied to the design phase developed in a BIM environment, pointing out both the advantages and the limitations, especially in the actual legislation. The Smart Contract features allow the entire supply chain to be protected against insolvencies due to late payments, improving process efficiency, and reducing payout times. From the results obtained in this research, the approach could be applied to a real case study and extended to the overall construction process.
Scarce and niche in the literature just a few years ago, the blockchain topic is now the main subject in conference papers and books. However, the hype generated by the technology and its potential implications for real-world applications is flawed by many misconceptions about how it works and how it is implemented, creating faulty thinking or overly optimistic expectations. Too often, characteristics such as immutability, transparency, and censorship resistance, which mainly belong to the bitcoin blockchain, are sought in regular blockchains, whose potential is barely comparable. Furthermore, critical aspects such as oracles and their role in smart contracts receive few literature contributions, leaving results and theoretical implications highly questionable. This literature review of the latest papers in the field aims to give clarity to the blockchain oracle problem by discussing its effects in some of the most promising real-world applications. The analysis supports the view that the more trusted a system is, the less the oracle problem impacts.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain applications begin to transform both companies and company law. At Member State level, for example, the German government has recently commissioned a study to examine the suitability and need for reform of company law in view of blockchain applications. The European Commission also takes a close look at the intersection of blockchain and company law, and is currently considering âadditional company law measures to facilitate cross-border expansion and scale-up by SMEsâ. At the same time, the High-Level Forum on Capital Markets Union is discussing company law measures to make internal company processes more efficient with the help of distributed ledger technologies. Digitalization is likely to trigger further reform steps under company law, and blockchain and distributed ledger technologies represent fundamental challenges for this field of law. The present paper therefore tries to shed some light on the intersection of blockchain and corporate law. A brief explanation of the technology lays the ground for measuring the potential for its use in company law practice.
Abstract With the development of Internet finance, existing financial platforms have gradually formed a large-scale, dynamic operating environment. How to ensure information security and realize personal credit evaluation is an urgent problem to be solved in the development of Internet financial platforms. The rise of blockchain technology has provided new solutions for the management of Internet financial platforms and information security. In view of the shortcomings of the current Internet financial credit evaluation, this article discusses the key standards of personal credit evaluation. With the help of blockchain, decision tree, and other technologies, this paper designs the credit evaluation process and establishes personal credit evaluation technology. Experiments and analyses show that this technology can effectively improve the transparency of personal credit information in Internet finance. This technology is used to study credit risk assessment factors and provide new solutions for the intelligent transformation and upgrading of Internet finance.
The present research article shall outline how blockchain technology could be combined with insurance solutions against political risks. Through the definitions and the characterization of the key concepts of traditional insurance law and blockchain technology using case examples of specific political risks, it will be shown, how the insurance coverage of political risks could be achieved through smart insurance contracts in the future.
Flash Loan, as an emerging service in the decentralized finance ecosystem, allows traders to request a non-collateral loan as long as the debt is repaid within the transaction. While providing convenience, it brings considerable challenges that Flash Loan allows speculative traders to leverage vulnerability of deployed protocols with vast capital and few risks and responsibilities. Most recently, attackers have gained over $15M profits from Eminence Finance via exploiting Flash Loans to repeatedly swap tokens (i.e., EMN and DAI). To be aware of foxy actions, we should understand what is the behavior running with the Flash Loan by traders. In this work, we propose ThunderStorm, a 3-phase transaction-based analysis framework, to systematically study Flash Loan on the Ethereum. Specifically, ThunderStorm first identifies Flash Loan transactions by applying observed transaction patterns, and then understands the semantics of the transactions based on primitive behaviors, and finally recovers the intentions of transactions according to advanced behaviors. To perform the evaluation, we apply ThunderStorm to existing transactions and investigate 11 well-known platforms. As the result, 22,244 transactions are determined to launch Flash Loan(s), and those Flash Loan transactions are further classified into 7 categories. Lastly, the measurement of financial behaviors based on Flash Loans is present to help further understand and explore the speculative usage of Flash Loan. The evaluation results demonstrate the capability of the proposed system.
Neoliberalism initially invoked the authority of competitive markets as the ideal epistemic mechanism for socio-economic coordination. Yet, the rise of neoliberal âmarket societyâ in Western advanced economies since the 1970s has been underpinned by a normative political theory that advocates the reconfiguration of society and politics around the authority of economic theory and knowledge in both production, but especially finance. Conversely, the reform-era development of Chinaâs âsocialist market economyâ has been underpinned by an insistence on retaining centralized political power over the allocation of financial capital. This article argues that the rise of digital algorithmic technologies constitutes one means by which these contrasting politico-economic visions are being more closely reconciled. It investigates the ways in which Chinaâs ongoing construction of an explicitly authoritarian capitalism is being facilitated by the deployment of complementary financial technologies that enable the Chinese Communist Party to embrace the micro-level epistemic coordinative function of markets without relinquishing macro-level political power and juridical sovereignty over these markets. Following a comparative historiography of the praxis of âneoliberalâ and âneostatistâ political theory in contemporary capitalism, two case studies of blockchain-enabled currency and big-data driven credit scoring in China illustrate the emergent Fintech foundations of Chinese authoritarian capitalism. The findings contribute to our understanding of how markets are being reshaped by new algorithmic technologies, as well as illuminate some of ideological contradictions in existing conceptions of markets as (neo)liberal institutions at the centre of capitalist political economy.
Ajay Kumar Shrestha, Julita Vassileva, Ralph Deters
We propose a new platform for user modelling with blockchains that allows users to share data without losing control and ownership of it and applied it to the domain of travel booking. Our platform provides solution to three important problems: ensuring privacy and user control, and incentives for sharing. It tracks who shared what, with whom, when, by what means and for what purposes in a verifiable fashion. The paper presents a case study of applying the framework for a hotel reservation system as one of the enterprise nodes of Multichain which collects usersâ profile data and allows users to receive rewards while sharing their data with other travel service providers according to their privacy preferences expressed in smart contracts. The user data from the repository is converted into an open data format and shared via stream in the blockchain so that other nodes can efficiently process and use the data. The smart contract verifies and executes the agreed terms of use of the data and transfers digital tokens as a reward to the user. The smart contract imposes double deposit collateral to ensure that all participants act honestly. The paper also presents a performance evaluation of the platform by analyzing latency and memory consumption with selected three test-scenarios and measuring the transaction cost for smart contracts deployment. The results show that the node responded quickly in all our cases with a befitting transaction cost.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain as an intangible resource for open and distance learning (ODL) to attain and sustain competitive advantage by creating a more learner centric learning ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach Research design included review of the literature, desk research and case analyses to conduct this study so that the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain, a technological innovation, for ODL could be explored adequately. Findings The findings of the paper reveal that ODL must not miss out on the opportunity of harnessing the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain in its quest of attaining and sustain competitiveness vis-a-vis conventional system of learning. Results of this study sufficiently hint at the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL. Practical implications Results of this study sufficiently indicate the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL which in turn make them significant for decision-makers and policymakers engaged in developing ODL. Findings hint that ODL needs to make efforts to harness the strategic potentialities of blockchain for attaining and sustaining competitiveness which would also be helpful for ODL to contribute towards achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper attempts to provide a strategic viewpoint to the use of this technological innovation as a significant intangible resource discussing primarily the strategic perspectives of blockchain helpful in the further development of ODL. Originality/value Although uses of blockchain-enabled applications in ODL are relatively new, the growth is very fast. The present paper offers originality and value by filling the gap created by the inadequacies of studies focusing on the idiosyncratic characteristics including but not limited to decentralization and security of blockchain. Findings suggest that blockchain offers huge potentialities in terms of benefits for entire ODL ecosystem comprising different stakeholders such as institutions, learners, educators, etc.
Blockchain is an open distributed database that carries out transactions on an open decentralized ledger. It is a technology that will probably be the source of a huge digital change especially in the financial sector. The application of this technology has started to take its first steps recently and its importance is undeniable in an emerging and expanding field such as Islamic finance. In this context, the purpose of this article is to study the integration of the blockchain and one of its important components, namely the smart contract in the management of the compulsory Islamic charity the zakat. To do this, we have developed a funding model linking all the stakeholders in question and the diversities of blockchain technology. We were thus able to conclude huge benefits and technical contributions in this context which encourages Islamic financial institutions to develop more models likely to support this technology without ignoring the compliance with the Islamic jurisprudence rules.
Since Friedrich Kessler wrote âContracts of Adhesion-Some Thoughts About Freedom of Contractâ in 1943, condemning narrow adherence to the principle of âfreedom to contractâ in the face of large scale enterprisesâ growing preference for standard form contracts, Courts have balanced their desire to uphold contracts while protecting weaker parties from adhesion. Today, they face similar challenges with the rise of code-driven smart contracts and blockchain governance. Similar to Kesslerâs world, where standard-form contracts were a tool for âexcluding or controlling the âirrational factorâ in litigationâ such as uncertain outcomes of judicial interpretation, automated smart contracts aim to put themselves outside the control of both contractual parties and the courts, thus removing any ability to breach or tamper with the original terms. Smart contract advocates contend that removing the judiciary as the governing body over contract law and imposing contractual performance via decentralized blockchain governance improves efficiency and certainty.
But, how much can one really write a contract that completely circumvents the potential for legal intervention or judicial enforcement? Will smart contracts finally achieve the complete separation between private and public law that advocates of âfreedom to contractâ originally claimed, or does the common law legal systemâs deep-rooted belief in the rule of law and due process prevent the judiciary from being excluded from contract enforcement regardless the medium? And is there a risk that, as smart contract sceptics posit, smart contract platforms and blockchain governance create a new feudal order with a âpotentially illegitimate exercise of powerâ and ânormatively suspectâ wealth distributions?
The short answer, as this paper will demonstrate, is that as long as smart contracts meet the traditional requirements of a contract, they cannot fall outside the establish legal systemâs purview. The only thing a smart contract truly adds to traditional contracts is automated execution that is enforced by the blockchainâs consensus mechanism; this may provide some efficiency to the legal system by streamlining basic performance but it cannot be the only form of governance over smart contracts. While there may be procedural challenges to undoing or enforcing specific performance under smart contracts because of their decentralized features, any substantive problems that could occur within a smart contract are imminently addressable with and must be subjected to the principles and remedies found in traditional contract law. Finally, I will conclude with current developments in smart contracts which point to a potential for them to become an integral part of our legal system going forward. Overall, I will argue that smart contracts, if carefully drafted to consider potential pitfalls and the future needs of contracting parties to amend or enforce, can hold the potential to provide efficiencies and greater legal certainty to contracting parties. This is achieved, not through circumventing the legal system, but by working with it to automate simple performance enforcement and deferring more complex contractual breakdowns to the judiciary.
The building workers sector is one of the most challenging for Human Resources (HR) management. In this work we propose a solution relying on the Blockchain technology and present the design of a Blockchain-Oriented Software system conceived for managing the building workers sector with a focus on workers' safety and guided by sustainable and Agile Methodologies in software design. The proposed approach takes advantage of different features of the Blockchain technology and provides transparency for labour inspectors, grants data integrity and immutability, relies in tamper proof time stamps for any recorded activity, allows the implementation of Smart Contracts where clauses are automatically respected without the need of a trusted control authority, acknowledges the legal requirements in the field, including the possibility of creating the Operational Safety Plans, which construction companies have to provide and finally implements the creation of vacant job positions which workers can find and apply to. In order to achieve these goals we adopt the Blockchain-Oriented Software Engineering (BOSE) methodology to design Blockchain software applications and apply an Agile methodology centered on Blockchain Software development, (called ABCDE) for the design and development of the decentralized application. Such methodology allows to center the software development around the actors of the system in the specific domain, such as Building Workers, Construction Companies, Labour Inspectors and so on. In addition we rely on the software sustainability analysis, based on the five dimensions of sustainability, to evaluate the approach and to avoid mistakes in the system development. We design system elements with specific diagrams and we divided our system in the on-chain and the out-of-chain components. The implementation of the system, done by using Ethereum and the ERC721 standard, allows us to improve some aspect of the design, to know the deployment and usage costs, and to evaluate the effect of the user interface. Finally, we discuss about the effects of our system and its sustainability, and provide a comparison of our system with a similar per aims but centralized system.
Kazi Masudul Alam, J.M. Ashfiqur Rahman, Anisha Tasnim, Aysha Akther
Bangladesh is a small country with a large population. Its increasingly developing economy further makes land a lucrative source of fixed capital. On the other hand, land titling is a cumbersome and lengthy process, where different government bodies process different sets of documents, and bureaucratic loopholes encourage fraudulent activities by organized people. As a result, the current model suffers from good governance. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain-based solution that offers data synchronization and transparency, ease of access, immutable records management, a faster and cheaper solution. Considering the technological knowledge and capacity of the people and the government, we introduced a phase by phase Blockchain adoption model that starts with a public Blockchain ledger and later gradually incorporates two levels of Hybrid Blockchain. We provide detailed smart contracts design of the public Blockchain and implement a prototype system using Ethereum. Our experimental setup uses local and live Ethereum test networks to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system. Our analysis shows that the proposed model reduces the number of required travels, the overall cost of information processing as well as provide easy access to vital information. As a result, Blockchain adoption can improve the land title digitization effort of Bangladesh.
Blockchain has received considerable attention recently, due to its promises of verifiable, permanent, and decentralized data handling. In 2017-2020, blockchain (and associated technologies such as smart contracts) has progressed beyond cryptocurrencies, and has been hailed as a disruptive technology for a score of industries. This study adds to the growing body of research on blockchain adoption and blockchain-driven innovation in various fields, including transport, finance, and education. However, the impact of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) on the management of science has not been systematically studied so far. This paper aims to fill the gap by studying the experience of adoption of blockchain-based solutions in academia in 2017-2020. The research is based upon a critical review of projects, relevant literature, and qualitative research: interviews (N = 24) and focus groups (N = 4) with startup founders, scholars, university executives, librarians, and IT experts from the European Union (EU), the United States of America (USA), Russia, and Belarus. Key challenges and barriers to blockchain adoption in academia are delineated: usability and security issues, legal concerns, conflict of values, and a critique of political dimensions of blockchain governance.
This chapter argues that blockchain technology enables start-ups and small and medium-sized companies to raise funds from a multitude of investors on a peer-to-peer basis without the involvement of an intermediary. It discusses the phenomenon of initial coin offerings (ICO), illustrates with concrete examples, and reviews the legal framework governing ICOs. Using the potential of distributed ledger technologies, ICOs have emerged as a novel mechanism for financing entrepreneurial ventures. One of the main challenges related to the legal regulation of ICOs is the functional diversity of the tokens issued in crowdfunding campaigns. Tokens can be linked to different types of rights, such as membership rights or property rights. A key aspect regarding the financial market regulations of ICOs is whether the tokens qualify as securities. A fundamental problem for the said qualification lies in the different definitions, depending on the applicable jurisdictions.
The rise of the crypto-asset market has opened up a number of questions on their benefits and risks. As a new form of virtual property, cryptocurrencies and tokens of investment nature are characterized by specific technological infrastructure. In order to understand the regulatory perspective of the crypto-asset market, it is necessary to briefly present the issues related to digital assets infrastructure and the forms of crypto-assets, which blur the line between financial products and virtual property. Cryptoassets represent a form of fintech innovation that could materially affect the financial landscape (notably payments, investments and capital raising), may have impact on the financial sector and therefore may create conditions for regulatory arbitrage where regulated participants operate in a highly regulated environment. The Paper aims to identify the basic issues of the crypto-assets regulatory framework and the extent of applicable regulatory approaches. Comparative regulatory practices of selected countries, as well as the global regulatory perspective of this market, serve as a guide to assess the existing regulatory framework and regulatory challenges, in order to assess urging issues which the regulators in Western Balkan countries are facing. Regulators are confronted with a dilemma: how to promote financial innovation while preserving financial stability and protecting investors. That is why many regulators have adopted a regulatory stance in regulating distributed ledger (blockchain) technologies and tend to formulate regulatory strategies which are risk based, phased and adaptive. Regulatory responses vary from a complete ban on issuing or trading crypto-assets, warnings and principles-based regulation, to extending existing rules on the capital markets and payment systems to specific intermediaries which are licensed almost as financial institutions per se. A tendency towards developing a new set of legislation specifically aiming to register and/or license providers of services connected to virtual property based on cryptography may be observed, and a proposal for an EU regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets is a clear example.