Edge computing is an important tool for smart computing, which brings convenience to data processing as well as security problems. In particular, the security of data storage under edge computing has become an obstacle to its widespread use. To solve the problem, the mechanism combing blockchain with regeneration coding is proposed to improve the security and reliability of stored data under edge computing. Our contribution is as follows. 1) According to the three-tier edge computing architecture and data security storage requirements, we proposed hybrid storage architecture and model specifically adapted to edge computing. 2) Making full use of the data storage advantages of edge network devices and cloud storage servers, we build a global blockchain in the cloud service layer and local blockchain is built on the terminals of the Internet of things. Moreover, the regeneration coding is utilized to further improve the reliability of data storage in blockchains. 3) Our scheme provides a mechanism for periodically validating hash values of data to ensure the integrity of data stored in global blockchain.
The modern intelligent transportation system brings not only new opportunities for vehicular Internet of Things (IoT) services but also new challenges for vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). Apart from enhanced network performance, a practical and reliable security scheme is needed to handle the trust management while preserving user privacy at the same time. The emerging 5G mobile communication system is viewed as a prominent technology for ultra-reliable, low-latency wireless communication services. Furthermore, incorporating software-defined network (SDN) architecture into the 5G-VANET enables global information gathering and network control. Hence, real-time IoT services on transportation monitoring and reporting can be well supported. Both pave the way for an innovative vehicular security scheme. This paper investigates the security and privacy issue in the transportation system and the vehicular IoT environment in SDN-enabled 5G-VANET. Due to the decentralized and immutable characteristics of blockchain, a blockchain-based security framework is designed to support the vehicular IoT services, i.e., real-time cloud-based video report and trust management on vehicular messages. This paper explicitly illustrates the SDN-enabled 5G-VANET model and the scheduling procedures of the blockchain-based framework. The numerical simulation results also show that malicious vehicular nodes or messages can be well detected while the overhead and impact on the network performance are acceptable for large-scale scenarios. Through case studies and theoretical analysis, we demonstrate our design substantially guarantees a secure and trustworthy vehicular IoT environment with user privacy preserved.
Blockchain technology, while commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, stands to bring radical structural change to the arts and creative industries.This paper presents a history, primer, and taxonomy of blockchain use cases in the arts and then explores the implications of blockchain in three regards: the blurring of the for-profit / nonprofit distinction, changes in the ownership structure of art, and potential for new structures of public and private support and related policy changes.These developments raise important questions of governance of a technology which requires expertise in cryptography, coding, and securities law for implementation.Ultimately, blockchain holds the potential to tip the role of the arts toward democratic availability through collective ownership structures or toward further commodification of cultural assets.
Hye-Young Paik, Xiwei Xu, H. M. N. Dilum Bandara, Sung Une Lee · 5 authors
In a blockchain-based system, data and the consensus-based process of recording and updating them over distributed nodes are central to enabling the trustless multi-party transactions. Thus, properly understanding what and how the data are stored and manipulated ultimately determines the degree of utility, performance, and cost of a blockchain-based application. While blockchains enhance the quality of the data by providing a transparent, immutable, and consistent data store, the technology also brings new challenges from a data management perspective. In this paper, we analyse blockchains from the viewpoint of a developer to highlight important concepts and considerations when incorporating a blockchain into a larger software system as a data store. The work aims to increase the level of understanding of blockchain technology as a data store and to promote a methodical approach in applying it to large software systems. First, we identify the common architectural layers of a typical software system with data stores and conceptualise each layer in blockchain terms. Second, we examine the placement and flow of data in blockchain-based applications. Third, we explore data administration aspects for blockchains, especially as a distributed data store. Fourth, we discuss the analytics of blockchain data and trustable data analytics enabled by blockchain. Lastly, we examine the data governance issues in blockchains in terms of privacy and quality assurance.
Ayushi Sharma, Shashwat Tiwari, Nitin Arora, S. C. Sharma
Blockchain is an emerging technology that can radically improve transactions security at banking, supply chain, and other transaction networks. It's estimated that Blockchain will generate $3.1 trillion in new business value by 2030. Essentially, it provides the basis for a dynamic distributed ledger that can be applied to save time when recording transactions between parties, remove costs associated with intermediaries, and reduce risks of fraud and tampering. This book explores the fundamentals and applications of Blockchain technology. Readers will learn about the decentralized peer-to-peer network, distributed ledger, and the trust model that defines Blockchain technology. They will also be introduced to the basic components of Blockchain (transaction, block, block header, and the chain), its operations (hashing, verification, validation, and consensus model), underlying algorithms, and essentials of trust (hard fork and soft fork). Private and public Blockchain networks similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum will be introduced, as will concepts of Smart Contracts, Proof of Work and Proof of Stack, and cryptocurrency including Facebook's Libra will be elucidated. Also, the book will address the relationship between Blockchain technology, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Digital Transformation and Quantum Computing. Readers will understand the inner workings and applications of this disruptive technology and its potential impact on all aspects of the business world and society. A look at the future trends of Blockchain Technology will be presented in the book.
A DAO does not fit well within the current landscape of recognized organizational structures and, rather than shoehorning it into one, states should recognize a new hybrid entity. This Note’s proposed Cryptocorporation form, with rules and protections better suited to the unique qualities of a DAO, could allow for the most appropriate tax treatment of shared profits, limit personal liability, and allow for an appropriate voting structure as articulated in the White Paper. The proposed Cryptocorporation would also protect investors and give the SEC more presumptive jurisdiction over the token-based-stock that is issued and represented exclusively through blockchain tokens. Cryptocorporations can actively attempt to preserve the pseudonymity which exists on a relevant blockchain network, because of the capabilities of electronic communication and the security of blockchain-based recordkeeping. In sum, by borrowing from and building upon the attributes of partnerships, LLCs, and corporations, the concept of the Cryptocorporation has the potential to foster the productive use and development of smart contract technology for decentralized organizations, while mitigating the risks to investors and facilitating a more frictionless secondary market.
This paper draws parallels between the OECD principle on disclosure and transparency and the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance on a blockchain. It provides an overview of the DAO concept based on self-executing smart contracts on a blockchain. The blockchain keeps a record of data and tranasctions in a decentralized and immutable form. The self-executing smart contracts on a blockchain ensure transparency and automation of the decision-making process in a DAO. The paper concludes that a DAO governance structure provides for transparency and enables shareholders to exercise their rights in an informed way. Considering the early stage of development of DAOs, however, caution is needed especially with regards to potential protocol vulnerabilities and legal uncertainties.
И.И. Баринов, Vadim Arasev, Andreas Fackler, Vladimir Komendantskiy · 7 authors
In this paper we introduce POSDAO, a Proof of Stake (POS) algorithm implemented as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). It is designed to provide a decentralized, fair, and energy efficient consensus for public chains. The algorithm works as a set of smart contracts written in Solidity. POSDAO is implemented with a general purpose BFT consensus protocol such as Authority Round (AuRa) with a proposer node and probabilistic finality, or Honey Badger BFT (HBBFT), leaderless and with instant finality. Validators are incentivized to behave in the best interests of a network through a configurable reward structure. The algorithm provides a Sybil control mechanism for managing a set of validators, distributing rewards, and reporting and penalizing malicious validators. The authors provide a reference POSDAO implementation, xDai POSDAO, which uses xDai as a stable transactional coin and a representative ERC677 token (STAKE) as a staking token. The reference implementation functions on an Ethereum 1.0 sidechain and utilizes the AuRa consensus protocol. Assets are bridged between the Ethereum mainnet and the xDai POSDAO network using several instances of the POA TokenBridge.
Evangelos A. Deirmentzoglou, Georgios Papakyriakopoulos, Constantinos Patsakis
Despite common arguments about the prevalence of blockchain technology, in terms of security, privacy, and immutability, in reality, several attacks can be launched against them. This paper provides a systematic literature review on long-range attacks for proof of stake protocols. If successful, these attacks may take over the main chain and partially, or even completely, rewrite the history of transactions that are stored in the blockchain. To this end, we describe how proof of stake protocols work, their fundamental properties, their drawbacks, and their attack surface. After presenting long-range attacks, we discuss possible countermeasures and their applicability.
To improve the security performance of blockchain smart contracts against quantum attacks, a smart contract based on light-weighted quantum blind signature is proposed here. Firstly, a smart contract architecture is built after the discussion of related researches, and information processing and information transmitting for quantum blind signature are analyzed. Secondly, the life cycle and signature rules of quantum blind signature for smart contracts are presented. Thirdly, a quantum blind signature protocol for single signer in light-weighted smart contract is put forward, where its algorithm design and business flow are introduced in detail before the security performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed. Fourthly, based on the former single-person signature algorithm, a more complex multi-person quantum blind signature algorithm is proposed, and its security is also analyzed. Fifthly, related references are compared to verify the proposed method. The proposed quantum signature schemes based on quantum entanglement features can be used in single signer case or more, and will improve the security of blockchain smart contracts against quantum attacks, but with light-weighted structure and no need of any trusted third party or arbitrary institute. Finally, some suggestions for engineering applications and the research results are summarized and the future research is prospected.
Blockchain and smart contracts (i.e., computer code that can be run on blockchain) are increasingly popular for healthcare applications. However, only very few implementations exist because of the complexity of the technologies. Although there are tutorials and reviews to introduce blockchain and smart contracts, a pragmatic comparison of such platforms is needed. In this study, we addressed practical considerations while building a healthcare blockchain and smart contract system, by (1) comparing technical features of platforms, (2) selecting three platforms, (3) constructing blockchain networks, (4) testing the blockchains, and (5) summarizing the experience and time used for implementation by students. We evaluated Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and MultiChain, and confirmed that the selection of a proper platform depends on the requirements of the application. The findings of our study can accelerate the process and reduce the risk of adopting blockchain technology in biomedical and healthcare domain.
Wesley Dingman, Aviel Cohen, Nick Ferrara, Adam Lynch · 7 authors
Rising to popularity in the last decade, blockchain technology has become the preferred platform for the transfer of digital currency.Unfortunately, many of these environments are rife with vulnerabilities exploited by financially motivated attackers.Worse yet, is that a structured analysis and classification of these vulnerabilities is lacking.In this paper, we present the first formal classifications of these vulnerabilities using National Institute of Standards and Technologies Bugs (NIST'S) Framework and propose two new classes: distributed system protocol (DSP) and distributed system resource management (DRM).
The evolution of Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) boosts the amount of IIoT data. Machine learning promotes the progress of data analytics services. In order to facilitate the flow and explore the economic value of IIoT data, it is crucial to consider data packet transactions (DPTs) and data analytics service transactions (DASTs) simultaneously. Centralized data trading platforms emerge to realize transactions of data commodities. However, centralized platforms lack trust and robustness. How to realize DPTs and DASTs in a decentralized way is a challenging issue. In this paper, a new transaction solution based on the smart contract-enabled blockchain technology is proposed, which consists of the DPT smart contract and DAST smart contract. The DPT smart contract is implemented to trade data packets. The DAST smart contract provides a competitive way to trade data analytics services. Both smart contracts are designed to enable entities in IIoT to execute DPTs and DASTs automatically and honestly. Moreover, the transaction disputes between different IIoT entities are solved by the big data center off-chain, and the treatment results will be recorded on the blockchain by the big data center. The DPT smart contract and DAST smart contract are implemented and tested on Remix integrated development environment to achieve DPTs and DASTs. The gas costs of smart contracts are estimated and the security of the proposed solution is analyzed. The performance analysis demonstrates that the proposed solution is secure and feasible.
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Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
As humanitarian organizations are struggling to reach an increasing number of beneficiaries, humanitarian-business partnerships, such as the use of logistics service providers (LSPs), promise to improve effectivity and efficiency of humanitarian assistance. Blockchain-based smart contracts which ensure automation, transparency, and efficiency promise to facilitate partnerships, particularly if trust is low. In this paper, blockchain-based smart contracts are critically examined for their application to humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). We identify various adoption barriers which we categorize into organizational, technological, and environmental. As the use of blockchain-based smart contracts in HSCs is in its early stages, we propose future research propositions and directions that can provide insights into overcoming barriers and challenges of adopting the technology in the humanitarian sector.
Jiannan Li, Mohamad Kassem, Angelo Luigi Camillo Ciribini, Marzia Bolpagni
The complementarity among Building Information Modelling (BIM), distributed ledger technology (DLT), smart contracts, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly acknowledged in industry reports and major national digital transformation initiatives. However, theoretical foundation and empirical evidence to ascertain such a prerogative are still very limited. This paper analyses the interactions between these technologies and proposes an approach that capitalises on their complementarity by linking the physical environment; the digital environment; agreements representing the contract; and the DLT environment. A simulated installation activity is used to verify the conceptual interrelations included in the proposed framework as a proof-of-concept. The simulation reveals how a mini smart contract -for a limited scope such as an installation activity work -can be executed within the proposed approach and how payments can be automated when project delivery is coupled with machine-readable BIM requirements and contract clauses. The paper also discusses the key limitations and challenges facing the adoption of the proposed approach and in particular the diffusion of smart contracts.
The construction industry produces one of the most complex and substantially large structures such as buildings, bridges, dams and tunnels using lengthy, network structured and dynamic supply chains with multiple internal and external suppliers. Long and complex supply chains make it difficult to monitor compliance, provide ultimate assurance of the final product and often lead to increased cost with payment delays. The technology that underpins cryptocurrencies is known as blockchain. However, the capabilities of blockchain can be extended far beyond cryptocurrencies. It enables existing applications to be improved and new applications such as blockchain-powered election, healthcare, identity management, power grids, supply chain, property, smart contracts and so on. This paper aims to compute the stakeholders’ perspective on blockchain and smart contracts in the construction industry. As the primary data collection methodology, an industry engagement workshop in the form of round-table discussions was conducted. Each round-table comprised of both academics and industry participants with different context from the construction industry. The table composition was four industry practitioners and two academics with the responsibility of moderating the discussion for all six groups. There were 57 responses, and 18 unique perspectives were identified. A word cloud was generated by using the frequency of responses to identify the density of each perspective. The key findings of the data analysis highlighted efficiency, trust, fair, security, transparent, accountability, compliance and standardisation were highlighted as the stakeholders’ primary perspective on blockchain and smart contracts based solutions for the construction supply chain. Moreover, meantime highlighted construction industry requirements and drivers of blockchain and smart contracts are reconciled. So, the findings will help in implementing better blockchain solutions to the construction industry in future.<b> </b>
Smart contract applications based on Ethereum blockchain have been widely used in many fields. They are developed by professional developers using specialized programming languages like solidity. It requires high requirements on knowledge of the specialized field and the proficiency in contract programming. Thus, it is hard for normal users to design a usable smart contract based on their own demands. Most current studies about smart contracts focus on the security of coding while lack of friendly tools for users to design the specialized templates of contracts coding. This paper provides a visual and user-defined smart contract designing systems. It makes the development of domain-specific smart contracts simpler and visualization for contract users. The system implements the domain-specific features extraction about the crawled data sets of smart contract programs by TF-IDF and K-means++ clustering algorithm. Then, it achieves the automatic generation of unified basic function codes by Char-RNN (improved by LSTM) based on the domain-specific features. The system adopts Google Blockly and links the generated codes with UI controls. Finally, it provides a set of specialized templates of basic functions for users to design smart contracts by the friendly interface. It reduces the difficulty and costs of contract programming. The paper offers a case study to design contracts by users. The designed contracts were validated on the existing system to implement the food trading and traders' credit evaluation. The experimental results show that the designed smart contracts achieve good integration with the existing system and they can be deployed and compiled successfully.
The development of new technologies has different effects on the existing law. Smart contracts are one of the forms of the new technologies that questions the application of the traditional contract law on commercial transactions using smart contracts. In that context, the enforceability of contractual transactions concluded in the form of smart contracts represent one of the major legal questions. Moreover, the question is whether the existing English contract law needs to be modified in order to secure the enforceability of smart contracts. These issues will be, accordingly examined in this paper with the aim to understand better the relationship of the traditional contract law, on the one side, and, smart contracts, on the other side.
Since 2009, more than 1600 cryptocurrencies have entered into circulation. The rapid development of the cryptocurrency market has raised questions about whether cryptocurrencies will challenge the existing order of traditional financial institutions. Opinion remains divided. Some commentators predict that they will cause massive disruptions to the current financial system. Others claim that they are unlikely to represent the “future of money”. Opponents have expressed concern over the association between cryptocurrencies and serious crimes, resemblance to Ponzi-schemes and the increasing incidence of crypto-scams. Supporters advocate that they offer a revolutionary system of payment, an alternative investment method or an alternative means of raising funds. The legal treatment of cryptocurrencies is, however, one of the most decisive factors that will determine their future. Currently, there is no governmental consensus on how, or if, cryptocurrencies should be regulated. Some governments are issuing outright bans on specific cryptocurrency activity; others are taking positive steps by introducing legislation to legitimize their use; the remainder are undecided whether to act or not. The methodology adopted in this research is a simple SWOT analysis to assess the durability and competitive positioning of cryptocurrencies. This chapter concludes that cryptocurrencies will cause disruptions to the future of money. It is expected that they will become a permanent new institution; however, they will be far more advanced than the current generation, be heavily governed by regulation and are likely to be state-issued.
Nor Azizah Hitam, Amelia Ritahani Ismail, Faisal Saeed
Forecasting accurate future price is very important in financial sector. An optimized Support Vector Machine (SVM) based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is introduced in forecasting the cryptocurrency future price. It is part of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that uses previous experience to forecast future price. Analysts and investors generally combine fundamental and technical analysis prior to decide the best price to execute their trades. Some may use Machine Learning Algorithms to execute their trades. However, forecasting result using basic SVM algorithms does not really promising. On the other hands, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is known as a better algorithm for a static and simple optimization problem. Therefore, PSO is introduced to optimize the algorithms of SVM in cryptocurrency forecasting. The experiment of selected cryptocurrencies is conducted for this classifier. The experimental result demonstrates that an optimized SVM-PSO algorithm can effectively forecast the future price of cryptocurrency thus outperforms the single SVM algorithms.
Carlos Trucíos, Aviral Kumar Tiwari, Faisal Alqahtani
Risk management is an important and helpful process for investors, hedge funds, traders and market makers. One of its key points is the appropriate estimation of risk measures which can improve the investment decisions and trading strategies. The high volatility of cryptocurrencies turns them a really risky investment and consequently, appropriate risk measures estimation is extremely necessary. In this article, we deal with the estimation of two widely used risk measures such as Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall in a cryptocurrency context. To face the presence of outliers and the correlation between cryptocurrencies, we propose a methodology based on vine copulas and robust volatility models. Our procedure is illustrated in a seven-dimensional equal-weight cryptocurrency portfolio and displays good performance.