Blockchain Papers

서주연

No abstract is available for this record.

Daniel J. Marcus

Data breaches are an increasingly common part of consumers’ lives. No institution is immune to the possibility of an attack. Each breach inevitably risks the release of consumers’ personally identifiable information and the strong possibility of identity theft. Unfortunately, current solutions for handling these incidents are woefully inadequate. Private litigation like consumer class actions and shareholder lawsuits each face substantive legal and procedural barriers. States have their own data security and breach notification laws, but there is currently no unifying piece of legislation or strong enforcement mechanism. This Note argues that proactive solutions are required. First, a national data security law—setting minimum data security standards, regulating the use and storage of personal information, and expanding the enforcement role of the Federal Trade Commission—is imperative to protect consumers’ data. Second, a proactive solution requires reconsidering how to minimize the problem by going to its source: the collection of personally identifiable information in the first place. This Note suggests regulating companies’ collection of Social Security numbers, and, eventually, using a system based on distributed ledger technology to replace the ubiquity of Social Security numbers.

Joanie Arsenault, Myriam Ertz

À la fin de l’année 2017, le cours du Bitcoin a frôlé la barre symbolique des 20 000 dollars américains,créant ainsi un intérêt grandissant de la part des milieux d’affaires, des médias, des preneurs de décision, et du grandpublic. La communauté scientifique n’est pas en reste puisque des courants de recherche entiers sur le sujet sontapparus dans des disciplines aussi variées que la finance, l’économie, le marketing, l’éthique, l’informatique ou encorele droit. L’intérêt du duo cryptomonnaies – chaîne de blocs, en général, et du Bitcoin, en particulier –, s’est toutefoislimité à l’examen des aspects techniques, des capacités transactionnelles et des implications pour le commerce et lafinance. Très peu d’études se sont penchées sur l’examen des conséquences de ces systèmes d’échange décentraliséset pair-à-pair, tels que le Bitcoin et la chaîne de blocs, sur les configurations actuelles de la gouvernance mondiale.Cet article a pour objectif de faire un compte rendu commenté de l’ouvrage collectif Bitcoin and Beyond : Cryptocurrencies,Blockchains, and Global Governance. Dans cet ouvrage, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn met à contribution plusieursauteurs afin de mettre en lumière la manière dont la chaîne de blocs déborde du strict cadre économique et financierpour s’intégrer dans la gestion des sphères politique, légale et juridique. Ce faisant, l’ouvrage lève le voile sur denombreuses implications des cryptomonnaies et de la chaîne de blocs pour la gouvernance mondiale, souventméconnues et très peu étudiées dans la littérature, mais d’importance capitale dans un monde de plus en plusmondialisé.

Romulo Benites de Souza Luciano

Resumo Este artigo apresenta uma nova tecnologia de informação chamada Smart Contract (SC) como proposta para automação da gestão de contratos no processo de comercialização do gás natural. O centro decisor, ao avaliar essa opção, deve estimar com antecedência seu impacto para o futuro. A proposta de utilização da SC encontra fundamentos para implementação no contexto atual do mercado de gás natural brasileiro, englobando os principais players desse comércio, isto é, governo, organização e consumidor. Este artigo propõe uma abordagem exploratória sobre a SC, pois busca-se um melhor entendimento sobre seus atributos, haja vista que não há estudos anteriores com aplicação do SC ao peculiar mercado de gás brasileiro. A metodologia é qualitativa porque trata-se de aspectos subjetivos na utilização da tecnologia de informação. Foi com auxílio de questionário satisfatoriamente respondido por dois especialistas que contribuíram para o processo de compreensão da viabilidade do uso do SC. Apresento dois possíveis cenários na utilização da SC para fomentar a discussão considerando o status quo do mercado de gás brasileiro. A técnica de coleta de dados sobre os construtos foi feita através da pesquisa documental da emergente literatura sobre Smart Contract, Blockchain e o atual mercado de gás natural no Brasil.

문병효

No abstract is available for this record.

Gonca Atıcı

Abstract As world economy evolved over years, barter which is a primitive transaction system left its place to money system. Commodity and bimetallic systems of money resolved the problems, especially the requirement of double coincidence of wants and eased the trade within parties. Chronologically, paper system of money followed the commodity system and implemented via two methods. In the first method, convertible paper money is converted into gold and silver by the authority that issued paper money. In the second method that is still valid today, fiat money is accepted by parties because of its being a legal tender. Money supply definitions keep changing as new liquid assets emerge day by day. Especially after the post global financial crisis, central banks have a more critical function for the world economies. Keeping all these developments aside, surrounded by fintech trends, financial system has confronted with a new instrument bitcoin that is first introduced in 2009. Though there are still too many consideration about this new financial instrument, number of bitcoins has growing since 2009 and has reached almost 17 million as of September 2018. Some economists consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a threat especially for central banks’ emission power. In this study we try to shed light to bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology with regard to their evolvement and whether they pose a threat or provide an opportunity to the financial system.

Davide Calvaresi, Alevtina Dubovitskaya, Diego Retaggi, Aldo Franco Dragoni · 5 authors

Some recent trends in distributed intelligent systems rely extensively on agent-based approaches. The so-called Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are taking over the management of sensitive data on behalf of their producers and users (e.g., medical records, financial investment, energy market). Therefore, trusted interactions are needed more than ever, while accountability and transparency among the agents seem crucial characteristics to be achieved. To do so, recent trends advocate the use of blockchain technologies (BCT) in MAS. The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that can execute programmable transaction logic, and provides a shared, immutable, and transparent append-only register of all the actions happening in the network. Although a few theoretical approaches have already been proposed, the quest for such a system consolidating BCT and MAS to guarantee privacy, scalability, transparency, and efficiency continues. This paper presents a reconciling system including BCT within the dynamics of a MAS. Such a system aims at (i) building a solid ground for trusted interactions and (ii) enabling more characterizing feature-based and trustworthy ways of computing agent reputation. The system has been tested in four scenarios with different configurations (regular executions and involving down-agents or malicious behaviors). Finally, the paper summarizes and discusses the experience gained, argues about the strategic choice of binding MAS and BCT, and presents some future challenges.

Eric Swanson, Tim Brown

THE PROBLEM Conflict of interest (COI) is a subject of intense interest, to the extent that an entire issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association was devoted to this subject last year.1 In 2014, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons created a task force to address this problem.2 Conflict of interest was the lead story of a recent issue of Plastic Surgery News.2 Remarkably, about half of U.S. physicians, and 61% of surgeons, received payments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries in 2015, amounting to $2.4 billion, including 136 plastic surgeons who received >$10,000 each.3 Before the early 1980s, there was little intersection between medicine and industry. Collaboration between the medical profession and the corporate world has increased.4 The link between commercial funding and study conclusions is undeniable in plastic surgery.5,6 When industry-supported Continuing Medical Education programs are conducted at resort hotels and upscale restaurants, the boundary between education and industry marketing is blurred.7 At meetings, plastic surgeons often declare, “I have no relevant conflict of interest” or “I have no conflicts that would affect the content of my presentation.” Luce laments that sometimes the duration of the disclosure slide presentation could be measured in nanoseconds, as reported in Plastic Surgery News.2 The speaker usually decides whether a conflict is relevant. Presenters sometimes comment, wryly, “I have no conflict of interest, unfortunately,” recognizing, and trivializing, the financial benefit of a COI. Some speakers display a long list of conflicts and suggest that because they have so many, they are at least “equal opportunity conflicters.” Some investigators believe that if they previously received money but no longer receive payments, they are no longer conflicted. Is there an expiry date for financial conflicts? Although some journals specify a 3-year period before submission, full disclosure is preferred, allowing the reader to decide on the merits.8 DEFINITION Luce6 defines COI: “Conflicts in ethically problematic situations are those in which the practitioner participates in clinical investigation of new devices/technology, publishes that experience, and, in parallel, is paid a consultant’s fee by the manufacturer.” Fineberg9 believes that a COI exists when a reasonable person would interpret the financial circumstances as sufficient to influence a physician’s judgment. When the reasonable person standard is used, the “appearance of” a COI is redundant.9 Proof of patient harm is not a requisite for COI; there are no “potential” COIs.10 INDUSTRY PAYMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently introduced dollar ranges for reporting financial conflicts.2 However, no data are available regarding a monetary threshold for a COI.11 Using Open Payments data, a 2016 study found that receipt of industry-sponsored meals, even just a single meal, was associated with an increase in the rate of prescribing the promoted brand-name drug.12 The more money doctors receive, on average, the more brand-name medications they prescribe.13 The evidence shows that even small gifts induce unconscious feelings of gratitude and reciprocity. Gifts to physicians can perpetuate a mindset of entitlement.14 INDIRECT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Incentives that are not directly financial but have financial implications such as career advancement may also represent potent COIs.15 Academic COIs may contribute to the disturbing prevalence of research irreproducibility.15 Preset convictions can cause investigators to overlook or selectively interpret data. The investigator who is so certain that the concept is correct may, even subconsciously, alter the eligibility criteria, or the number of subjects, to fit the data to the hypothesis, and reach the desired level of significance, a practice known as p hacking.16 A t test may be conducted on a tiny number of patients using data that are not normally distributed. The sample size may be kept small to ensure that adverse outcomes do not reach statistical significance. INDUSTRY PAYMENTS TO PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND JOURNALS Many professional societies, including plastic surgery societies, accept large payments from industry (ie, >$1 million annually). A key recommendation of a 2009 consensus report was a preliminary reduction in industry support to <25% of the operating budget of the professional medical association, with an ultimate goal of complete freedom from industry funding.17 Companies partner with our societies and fund journal supplements, compromising the separation of science and advertising. Industry involvement may extend to writing the manuscript, called “writing support.” Many medical journals derive a substantial proportion of their operating revenue from advertising.18 Sponsored supplements are typically written to support the marketing goals of the sponsor,18 and lack counterpoint discussions written by nonconflicted plastic surgeons. Brand names are featured in the titles. Editors may argue that supplements are treated with the same degree of scrutiny as regular publications,19 but the potential for inappropriate influence cannot be excluded. Publication bias is a well-known problem.5 Researchers who are consultants, hold stock options, or receive royalties from companies, are much more likely to report positive results.5,20 Not surprisingly, industry is notoriously reluctant to publish negative findings.5,21 Some trial protocols include a provision for review of the manuscript by the funder before submission for publication, and the right to delay or even veto its publication.5,22 The timeline is pertinent. Plastic surgeons reporting on new products (eg, breast implants, implantable mesh, cryolipolysis, radiofrequency) may hold changing, often increasing, ownership stakes in successive publications, begging the question, when was this investment decision made and did it influence the research? EXAMPLES OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN PLASTIC SURGERY Breast Implants The promotion of shaped, textured breast implants reflects the quid pro quo between the industry and surgeons.23 The highly praised gummy bear implant was always an inferior product. Shaped implants malrotate in 42% of patients.24 These devices are firm, may have palpable edges, can cause double capsules and seromas25 and are much more costly than smooth round alternatives. Most importantly, textured implants are linked to breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.26 Hidalgo and Weinstein27 and others28,29 report no aesthetic advantage. Yet for decades now, textured, shaped implants have been promoted as superior to less expensive alternatives. Hall-Findlay30 writes: “We listen to the manufacturer’s claims and then years later we find that we have been misled – both by the manufacturers themselves and by those surgeons who are burdened by a conflict of interest.” A study of nano-textured and micro-textured breast implants was recently published in a corporate-funded journal supplement.31 The authors report a complication rate of 0.3%, with 1 hematoma, no cases of implant malposition, no pain, no rippling, no ruptures, no redness, and no capsular contractures among 4,103 breast augmentations. The reoperation rate was <1%. The lead author reported no COI regarding this study, but accepted a position on the company’s medical advisory board immediately after submitting the article.31 Implantable Mesh The problem is not limited to breast implants. The COI regarding acellular dermal matrix is well documented.32 A recent article advocating the off-label use of implantable mesh in breast surgery was published by 2 authors who have a financial stake in the company that manufactures the mesh.33 A third author is a paid consultant and speaker. Galatea Surgical, a subsidiary of Tepha Inc. (Lexington, Ma.) financed the study, including medical writing, and referenced supplemental publications.33 Galatea is a corporate sponsor of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.34 The authors report that 100% of participating surgeons preferred to use mesh in all patients and the 1-year result was satisfactory in 100% of women.33 Such publications encourage plastic surgeons to adopt commercially driven practice patterns. A recent Continuing Medical Education article suggests that mesh support represents a paradigm shift.35 However, a nonconflicted analysis of mesh, and of the dated internal bra concept, finds no advantage.36 Radiofrequency Treatments A recent corporate-funded supplemental article, written by surgeons who are also shareholders, claims that radiofrequency-assisted liposuction (BodyTite, InMode Corp., Toronto, Canada) provides effective soft-tissue contraction, even creating an “internal brachioplasty scar.”37 This claim is based on a greater reduction in linear measurements than area measurements after radiofrequency-assisted liposuction compared with standard liposuction, a finding that is impossible to reconcile with basic geometry (the difference in area measurements must exceed linear changes).38 The authors offer a favorable return on investment analysis to justify the $205,000 purchase price, based on a $7,000 treatment fee.37 Conflicted author/investors frequently publish photographs that are not standardized in an effort to demonstrate a therapeutic benefit.33,36,39,40 A recent corporate-funded study on facial radiofrequency treatments with micro-needles was co-authored by a shareholder.39 The authors magnified the preoperative photograph of a nasolabial crease 58% to make it appear larger before treatment.40 Statistical errors included using a t test to compare nonparametric data, citing a P value of 1.00 for a comparison of nonidentical data, and a maximum range within 1 SD of the mean.40 DISCOUNTS TO INVESTIGATORS New transparency regulations help to inform the public about payments made to physicians.41 Unfortunately, it is not difficult to sidestep such reporting requirements. A well-known investigator may be given a device (eg, an ultrasonic liposuction machine) at a heavily discounted price. A breast implant manufacturer may provide its researchers with complimentary or discounted implants. There are many ways to reimburse surgeons indirectly. These considerations are substitutes for reportable cash payments, and they undermine the integrity of our research. COMPANY OFFICERS Investigators who are not only passive investors but company officers and shareholders42 have a financial obligation to the company. A fiduciary responsibility makes it impossible to remain objective.43 CLEARANCE BY U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION When a device receives clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it is labeled with a stamp of authority that is reassuring to the public. This label also serves as a powerful marketing tool. Unfortunately, the approval process is not protected from commercial influence. For example, Coolsculpting (Allergan plc, Dublin, Ireland) gained Food and Drug Administration clearance for treatment of the thighs based on studies performed by investigators that received major financial reimbursement.44 The company itself was allowed to conduct vital ultrasound and photographic imaging.44 The lead investigator was at one time a Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. (Pleasanton, Calif.) paid consultant and shareholder.44 Zeltiq was purchased in 2017 by Allergan plc (Dublin, Ireland) for $2.48 billion.45 HONEST REPORTING Corporate-funded studies consistently report unusually low complication rates, speedy recoveries, high rates of patient satisfaction, high “conversion rates,” and even the prospects for cross-selling.46 These sales-oriented characteristics undermine hard-won gains in honest reporting and the recognition of the importance of evidence-based medicine in our scientific journals. Adoption of unsound treatments and devices based on biased studies can have harmful long-term ramifications through a “rippling effect.”5 Biased studies may be referenced in practice guidelines.5 Physician disillusionment, especially after the purchase of an expensive yet underperforming device, may be a factor in physician burnout. CONSULTANTS Although physicians may consider themselves to be ethical professionals, many doctors remain unaware of the subconscious bias that industry relationships create.47 The practice of doctors accepting payments from companies has gone on for decades without a critical review. Are plastic surgeons truly acting as consultants, or is “consultant” a euphemism for receipt of a payment to shape one’s opinion in favor of the product and confer loyalty? Industry payments, which may be viewed as kickbacks, have created serious legal difficulties for physicians.2 Lopez et al.20 found that self-reported COIs have declined in recent years, but the proportion of consultantships has increased. In proposing an end to industry influence and regaining the public trust, a committee formed by the Institute of Medicine finds that continuing medical education “has become far too reliant on industry funding,” which “tends to promote a narrow focus on products.”48 The committee recommends restricting consultantships to the provision of objective technical advice paid at fair market value, documented in written contracts. Moreover, companies “should not involve physicians and patients in marketing projects that are presented as clinical research.”48 RECOMMENDATIONS The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors disclosure form insists that contributors disclose relevant financial relationships.49 In 2010, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies published a code for interactions with companies, with a provision that prohibits society officers and journal editors from accepting any compensation from industry.50 To facilitate transparency of disclosure, Congress passed the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires commercial companies to report any “transfer of value” to any physician, with a $10 threshold.51 In October 2010, ProPublica introduced Dollars for Docs, a central search engine for physician payments.41 Luce6 proposes that plastic surgeons with conflicts be excused as manuscript discussants and reviewers. Lichter50 recommends that a presentation with a COI should be balanced by a nonconflicted counterpoint discussant. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has adopted a requirement for disclosure of financial conflicts in dollar ranges (ie, $100–$1,000, $1,001–$5,000, $5,001–$10,000, etc.).2 These are reasonable first steps. Device evaluation does not necessarily require industry funding, as evidenced by the research efforts of investigators without financial conflicts.25,27 Publication of independent research in a highly respected peer-reviewed journal and the accolades that come with it provide more than adequate compensation, and potential for practice building and career advancement. It is impossible to reconcile corporate sponsorship with unbiased research. Physician investigators should consider declining any paid consultancies and all forms of indirect corporate reimbursement. Study design and implementation, and manuscript preparation should not be outsourced. RELINQUISHING INDUSTRY FINANCIAL SUPPORT Asking attendees to visit the exhibits, “without which none of this [i.e., the meeting] would be possible” is a familiar refrain at meetings. The physician-industry complex has gone on for so long that plastic surgeons may find it difficult to imagine an arms-length relationship. Without industry sponsorship, plastic surgeons can expect to pay more to attend meetings and Continuing Medical Education activities, but the prices of devices and implants are likely to fall as companies are relieved of the tremendous financial burden6 of payments to physicians and societies. The net overall financial effect to physicians is zero, but medical integrity is restored. Relinquishing industry financial support represents a bold step, but recent examples of the influence of financial conflicts underscore the magnitude of the problem. As reported by Rohrich et al.,52 when Goldwyn stepped down as the longtime former editor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, he worried most about commercial influence and keeping the specialty “pure.” He cautioned the incoming managing editor that he would need a strong sense of ethics because “you’ll need them in this business.” Goldwyn,53 quoting his father, wrote: “It is amazing how easy it is to be truthful if one wants to be.” CONCLUSIONS It is impossible for investigators to function as highly paid consultants and remain unbiased. Disclosure, including the amount of money paid, allows the audience to determine the importance of the conflict. Separation of commerce and science in our journal publications is vital so that scientific publications do not become marketing tools. Plastic surgeons must be better advocates for our patients and their pocketbooks. Part of the privilege of caring for patients is to be mindful of their finances and their health.14 Most importantly, our societies need to reconsider corporate partnership. Editors are already aware of the professional positions of reviewers and the need to protect the article that upsets the apple cart. As Descartes famously observed, “doubt is the origin of wisdom.”54 Progress is only made possible by challenging the status quo.

Anı Bulut

Developments in internet-based payment platforms employing the blockchain technology known as “cryptocurrencies” contributed their integration in the official payment systems. Because of the growing interest in cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to review existing cryptocurrency research literature and determine areas for future studies. This study gives an up to date summary of accessible literature on cryptocurrencies according to their subject of issues, theories, methods, and findings and provides direction for future research. A systematic literature review was carried out to examine accessible academic and reliable publications between 2010 and 2018. Based on results research limitations for individual, organizational, ecosystemic and discourse approaches are identified and the study concluded that there are still insufficient and uncovered issues related to the cryptocurrencies notably from a legal and regulatory point of view.

Irina Mitrofanova

Introduction: currently, the whole world is experiencing tremendous changes in connection with the transition to the information society. This work is devoted to the challenges faced by contract law. The aim of this work is to study the theoretical and practical problems of the legal regulation of "smart" contracts. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is the dialectical method of cognition, which assumes the comprehensiveness, objectivity and interconnectedness of the studied phenomena; the general scientific methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, hypothesis, analogy, etc.); the comparative law and functional methods. As a result of the study, the main problems arising in the legislative regulation of "smart" contracts were grouped. The technical ones include: the problem of describing the conditions in the artificial language, obtaining the data from the real world by the system, the reliability of the input data, the system errors, the speed of transaction processing, the inability to maintain the complete confidentiality of the operations. The legal problems include: the complexity of the contract verification by a lawyer, the lack of control of transactions by the state and tax authorities, the possibility of illegal transactions, the complexity of proving the fact of the contract, the definition of the applicable law, remedies. The legislation of some foreign countries, which is also under development, is analyzed. The analysis of the draft law "On Digital Financial Assets" shows that the document does not satisfy the requests for the legal regulation of the digital economy. In the definition, there is no indication that a "smart" contract is written in the artificial language, the turnover of the crypto currency is significantly limited. It is concluded that a "smart" contract is now rational to use as part of a paper contract for simple transactions with the measurable conditions. The draft law "On Digital Financial Assets" needs the significant improvement to simplify the turnover of digital assets and the development of the institution of "smart" contracts.

Aschalew Degoma Durie

The objective of the study was to examine financing rural industrialization and employment creation practices and possibilities in Ethiopia. In this context, rural industrialization refers to encouraging small to large industries to be established in rural areas. As rural industrialization is a new concept at a policy level let alone to the practice on the ground in Ethiopia, a full-fledged data regarding the rural industrialization and the rural financing practice is inadequate. However, attempts were made to see at least the trends in agricultural commercialization, off farm practices, the government’s policy, the financial institutions practices, and above all how other countries approached rural industrialization and financing such industries. Hence, relevant data were collected from CSA, NBE, DHS, World Bank, and Ethiopian Investment Commission and the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The major finding of the study indicates rural industrialization process is at conception stage and financing the rural strategy is still poorly developed despite the immense economic and social implications. Hence, a combination of centralized financing rural industrialization through commercial banks and a decentralized financing rural industrialization through microfinance institutions is recommended for the country to get better depth and breadth of rural industrialization.

Igor Kotsiuba, Artem Velykzhanin, Oleg Biloborodov, Inna Skarga-Bandurova · 7 authors

Smart Grids is an emerging technology promising significant changes in the economy and the social sphere. One among many challenges in their development and distribution is security. Considering recent hackers attacks on energy grids and taking into account the distributed structure of these systems the use of traditional means of computer protection and the search for a crime figure becomes more difficult or impossible. In this article, we introduce some application areas of smart grid forensic science, discuss the opportunities, and outline the open issues in the topic. We summarized challenges for forensic in Smart Grids in connection with a Blockchain and proposed a decentralized transaction platform based on Blockchain tailored to the energy sector with all the latest technology such as advanced metering infrastructure, distributed generation, etc.

Anshu Shukla, Swarup Kumar Mohalik, Ramamurthy Badrinath

Intelligent Cyber-physical systems can be modelled as multi-agent systems with planning capability to impart adaptivity for changing contexts. In such multi-agent systems, the protocol for plan execution must result in the proper completion and ordering of actions in spite of their distributed execution. However, in untrusted scenarios, there is a possibility of agents not respecting the protocol either due to faults or due to malicious reasons thereby resulting in plan failure. In order to prevent such situations, we propose to implement the execution of agents through smart contracts. This points to a generic architecture seamlessly integrating intelligent planning-based CPS and smart-contracts.

Won-jun Lee, Taeki Min, Seongtae Hong

No abstract is available for this record.

Cristina Poncibò, Larry A. DiMatteo

Abstract: Smart contracts provide a quandary for contract law remedies. The self-enforcing nature of smart contracts implies that there is little possibility for breach and thus, little need or opportunity to apply contract law remedies. This article explores if this is really the case. It concludes that contract law remains applicable to smart contracts relating to the enforceability of its terms based on legality, public policy, and contracts policing doctrines. In such cases, post hoc judicial or arbitral claims remain likely and the dispute resolution bodies would seek to apply contract remedies. In order to diminish instances of litigation or arbitration the smart contract should include self-remedying or internal measures (remedies). The article divides internal measures into proactive and reactive measures. These measures should be considered in the drafting of a smart contract in order to diminish resort to contract remedies. In the end, contract law and contract remedies will remain important as default law. In addition, like smart contracts, some of contract law rules are immutable and cannot be made obsolete by blockchain technology.

J. D. Preece, John M. Easton

This paper addresses the problem of uploading large quantities of sensitive industrial data to a public distributed network by proposing a new framework. The framework combines the existing technologies of the distributed web and distributed ledger to provide a mechanism of encrypting data and choosing whom to share the data with. The framework is designed to work with existing platforms; the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and the Ethereum blockchain platforms are used as examples within this paper, though it is stated that similar platforms are capable of providing the requirements for the framework to operate. The framework uses the concept of the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange (DHKE), and is implemented in three different mechanisms of the DHKE: one-step Elliptical-Curve Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange (ECDH); two-step ECDH; and Supersingular Isogeny Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange (SIDH). The paper discusses the security of each along with individual advantages and disadvantages, and concludes that the SIDH is the most appropriate implementation for future use due to it being post-quantum secure.

Oscar Borgogno

Abstract: The success of smart contracts based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) springs from their potential to secure contract performance when traditional legal enforcement remedies are not practical or too costly. EU policymakers and regulators have struggled for years to facilitate the enforcement of consumer rights while reducing transaction costs for businesses. The article argues that smart contracts can be a viable tool to address such a challenge. By virtue of their self-executing and tamper-proof character, smart contracts are suited to substantially reduce transaction costs in B2C relationships. So far, several legal scholars have raised concerns regarding both smart contracts inability to reflect relational aspects of contract governance and the augmented complexity generated by the translation of an agreement into computer code. Building upon the extant literature on the topic, the article explains why these problems can be overcome when it comes to consumer rights that are standardized and easily verifiable. Thus, smart contracts will likely prove suitable for specific industries, such as the transport sector. The article concludes that policy makers and regulators shall take the lead by testing, with a sector-specific approach, smart contracts ability to improve the consumer protection toolbox.

Chao Li, Balaji Palanisamy

In the age of Big Data, enabling task scheduling while protecting users' privacy is critical for various decentralized applications in blockchain-based smart contract platforms. Such a privacy-preserving task scheduler requires the task input data to be secretly maintained until a prescribed task execution time and be automatically recorded into the blockchain to enabling the execution of the task at the execution time, even if the user goes offline. While straight-forward centralized approaches provide a basic solution to the problem, unfortunately they are limited to a single point of trust and involve a single point of control. This paper presents decentralized techniques for supporting privacy-preserving task scheduling using smart contracts in Ethereum blockchain networks. We design a privacy-preserving task scheduling protocol that is managed by a manager smart contract. The protocol requires a user to schedule a task by deploying a proxy smart contract maintaining the non-sensitive information of the task while creating decentralized secret trust and selecting trustees from the network to maintain the sensitive information of the task. With security techniques including secret sharing and layered encryption as well as security deposit paid by trustees as economic deterrence, the protocol can protect the sensitive information against possible attacks including some trustees destroying the sensitive information (drop attack) or secretly releasing the sensitive information before the execution time (release-ahead attack). We demonstrate the attack-resilience of the proposed protocol through rigorous analysis.Our implementation and experimental evaluation on the Ethereum official test network demonstrate the low monetary cost and the low time overhead associated with the proposed approach.

Xiaoyang Zhu, Youakim Badr

The Internet of Things aims at connecting everything, ranging from individuals, organizations, and companies to things in the physical and virtual world. The digital identity has always been considered as the keystone for all online services and the foundation for building security mechanisms such as authentication and authorization. However, the current literature still lacks a comprehensive study on the digital identity management for the Internet of Things (IoT). In this paper, we firstly identify the requirements of building identity management systems for IoT, which comprises scalability, interoperability, mobility, security and privacy. Then, we trace the identity problem back to the origin in philosophy, analyze the Internet digital identity management solutions in the context of IoT and investigate recent surging blockchain sovereign identity solutions. Finally, we point out the promising future research trends in building IoT identity management systems and elaborate challenges of building a complete identity management system for the IoT, including access control, privacy preserving, trust and performance respectively.

Joshua Ssebunnya, S. Kangere, James Mugisha, Sumaiyah Docrat · 7 authors

BACKGROUND: In spite of the pronounced adverse economic consequences of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders on households in most low- and middle-income countries, service coverage and financial protection for these families is very limited. The aim of this study was to generate potential strategies for sustainably financing mental health care in Uganda in an effort to move towards increased financial protection and service coverage for these families. METHODS: The process of identifying potential strategies for sustainably financing mental health care in Uganda was guided by an analytical framework developed by the Emerging Mental health systems in low and middle income countries (EMERALD project). Data were collected through a situational analysis (public health burden assessment, health system assessment, macro fiscal assessment) and eight key informant interviews with selected stakeholders from sectors including health, finance and civil society. The situational analysis provided contextualization for the strategies, and was complimented by views from key informant interviews. RESULTS: Findings indicate that the following strategies have the greatest potential for moving towards more equitable and sustainable mental health financing in the Uganda context: implementing National Health Insurance Scheme; shifting to Results Based Financing; decentralizing mental health services that can be provided at community level; and continued advocacy with decision makers with evidence through research. CONCLUSION: Although several options were identified for sustainably financing mental health care in Uganda, the National Health Insurance Scheme seemed the most viable option. However, for the scheme to be effective, there is need for scale up to community health facilities and implementation in a manner that explicitly includes community level facilities.

Huan Zhou, Cees de Laat, Zhiming Zhao

Cloud Service Level Agreement (SLA) is challengeable due to lacking a trustworthy platform. This paper presents a witness model to credibly enforce the cloud service level agreement. Through introducing the witness role and using the blockchain based smart contract, we solve the trust issues about who can detect the service violation, how the violation is confirmed and the compensation is guaranteed. In this model, a verifiable consensus sortition algorithm proposed by us is firstly leveraged to select independent witnesses to form a witness committee. They are responsible for a specific service level agreement and get paid by monitoring and detecting service violation. Through carefully designing the witness' payoff function in the agreement, we further leverage game theory to analyze and prove that it is not the witness itself is trustworthy. Instead, the witness has to tell the truth because of its greedy nature, which is the desire to maximize its own revenue. As long as the service violation is confirmed by the witness committee, the compensation is automatically transferred to the customer by the smart contract. Finally, we implement a proof-of-concept prototype with the smart contract of Ethereum blockchain. It demonstrates the feasibility of our model.

Giovanni Ciatto, Stefano Mariani, Andrea Omicini

Blockchain technologies are rapidly gaining attention in the multi-agent systems (MAS) community to face critical issues such as trust, secured communications, and data consistency. In particular, the notion of smart contract can be exploited to deploy trustworthy computations automatically executed by the network in a consistent way. MAS coordination - modelling and engineering of agents interaction in a MAS - thus represents an appealing application field for smart contracts, potentially enabling fully-decentralised, trustworthy coordination. Along this line, we focus on the Ethereum blockchain technology, map it onto LINDA tuple-based coordination model, and discuss two proof-of-concept implementations of LINDA on Ethereum. We hence demonstrate conceptual and technical feasibility of blockchain-based coordination in MAS, while emphasising issues of applying the blockchain beyond accountability and identity management.

Mehmet Levent Erdaş, Abdullah Emre Çağlar

This study investigates the asymmetric causal relations between Bitcoin and gold, Brent oil, US dollar, S&P 500 and BIST 100 Indexes for the weekly data of the period between November 2013 and July 2018 via by Hatemi-J (2012) test. The results indicate only a causal link going from the Bitcoin price to S&P 500 Index. Consequently, a change in Bitcoin prices appears to influence the investors’ decisions on the S&P 500 Index. Therefore, it can be said that the investors in S&P 500 Index have closely followed the new macro-financial developments in the market and have been active on the S&P 500 market. However, the presence of a causality relation between Bitcoin price and other variables cannot be determined. Thus, it is supposed that Bitcoin may exist in association with the commodity market and other global indicators in the future, along with the recognition of the Bitcoin currency by countries, its being accepted as a means of exchange and its increased reliability.

Anil Gaihre, Yan Luo, Hang Liu

The pseudonymous nature of Bitcoin has sparked the twin rivaling researches in Bitcoin community, that is, either protecting or attacking anonymity. In spite of this intense battle, the answer to a primary question is absent – Do Bitcoin users themselves care about anonymity? This paper demystifies this doubt via analyzing the Bitcoin transaction graphs with the following three contributions: 1). We outline three representative metrics that can signify whether users concern about anonymity. 2). We examine the collective trend of anonymity concerns from a macroscope. 3). We pay particular attention on critical addresses in a microscope to unveil their anonymity concerns.This paper arrives at both expected conclusions and unexpected surprises. In particular, the expected ones are: rich addresses concern more about anonymity than poor ones. Miner addresses start caring about anonymity when exchange rate soars. Stock addresses never hide their intent of jump-and-dump. The surprises are: the majority of the users show weak concerns on anonymity. One can easily find both hot and cold wallet addresses owned by big organizations.