Bitcoin is the world’s leading cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization briefly exceeding $300 billion. This hints at Bitcoin’s \namorphous nature: is this a monetary or a corporate measure? Hard values become explicit in the processing of transactions and \nthe digital mining of Bitcoins. Electricity is a primary input cost. Bitcoins earned are often used to circumvent local currency \ncontrols and acquire US dollars. For the period August 2010 to February 2018, we examine the components of Bitcoin mining \nrevenues, their statistical contribution to daily changes, and to its variance. We provide evidence that Bitcoin transaction processing \nis capacity constrained.
For the successful development of the astrophysics and, accordingly, for obtaining more complete knowledge of the Universe, it is extremely important to combine and comprehensively analyze information of various types (e.g., about charged cosmic particles, gamma rays, neutrinos, etc.) obtained by using divers large-scale experimental setups located throughout the world. It is obvious that all kinds of activities must be performed continually across all stages of the data life cycle to help support effective data management, in particular, the collection and storage of data, its processing and analysis, refining the physical model, making preparations for publication, and data reprocessing taking refinement into account. In this paper we present a general approach to construction and the architecture of a system to be able to collect, store, and provide users' access to astrophysical data. We also suggest a new approach to the construction of a metadata registry based on the blockchain technology.
In the Bitcoin system, miners are incentivized to join the system and validate transactions through fees paid by the users. A simple "pay your bid" auction has been employed to determine the transaction fees. Recently, Lavi, Sattath and Zohar [LSZ17] proposed an alternative fee design, called the monopolistic price (MP) mechanism, aimed at improving the revenue for the miners. Although MP is not strictly incentive compatible (IC), they studied how close to IC the mechanism is for iid distributions, and conjectured that it is nearly IC asymptotically based on extensive simulations and some analysis. In this paper, we prove that the MP mechanism is nearly incentive compatible for any iid distribution as the number of users grows large. This holds true with respect to other attacks such as splitting bids. We also prove a conjecture in [LSZ17] that MP dominates the RSOP auction in revenue (originally defined in Goldberg et al. [GHKSW06] for digital goods). These results lend support to MP as a Bitcoin fee design candidate. Additionally, we explore some possible intrinsic correlations between incentive compatibility and revenue in general.
Ahsan Manzoor, Madhusanka Liyanage, An Braeken, Salil S. Kanhere · 5 authors
Data is central to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Most of the current IoT systems are using centralized cloud-based data sharing systems, which will be difficult to scale up to meet the demands of future IoT systems. Involvement of such third-party service provider requires also trust from both sensor owner and sensor data user. Moreover, the fees need to be paid for their services. To tackle both the scalability and trust issues and to automatize the payments, this paper presents a blockchain based proxy re-encryption scheme. The system stores the IoT data in a distributed cloud after encryption. To share the collected IoT data, the system establishes runtime dynamic smart contracts between the sensor and data user without the involvement of a trusted third party. It also uses a very efficient proxy re-encryption scheme which allows that the data is only visible by the owner and the person present in the smart contract. This novel combination of smart contracts with proxy re-encryption provides an efficient, fast and secure platform for storing, trading and managing of sensor data. The proposed system is implemented in an Ethereum based testbed to analyze the performance and the security properties.
We relate the concepts used in decentralized ledger technology to studies of episodic memory in the mammalian brain. Specifically, we introduce the standard concepts of linked list, hash functions, and sharding, from computer science. We argue that these concepts may be more relevant to studies of the neural mechanisms of memory than has been previously appreciated. In turn, we also highlight that certain phenomena studied in the brain, namely metacognition, reality monitoring, and how perceptual conscious experiences come about, may inspire development in blockchain technology too, specifically regarding probabilistic consensus protocols.
The paper analyzes the advantages of using the blockchain technology in the supply chain management. It is determined that the blockchain will simplify the procedure of the government control over the supply chain and contribute to the implementation of the state policy aiming to reduce the level of counterfeit products and improve the quality of goods entering the retail network, which will have a direct impact on the socio-economic development of the regions. The subject of research is the organizational and technological mechanism of the interaction between business entities in the process of introduction and application of the blockchain technology for supply chain management. The purpose of the paper was to find out how to use the blockchain in logistics in the most effective way. The paper presents the summary of works of Russian and foreign economists and identifies the main areas of existing and prospective blockchain studies, formulates the principles for the promotion of the blockchain technology in logistics and identifies factors that impede the active use of the blockchaining by Russian and foreign businessmen. The necessity of the DLT/blockchain legalization in economic activities and determining the responsibility for including incomplete and/or unreliable information in a distributed ledger is substantiated.
The subject of the research is the tax burden of organizations engaged in new types of activities using digital information and communication technologies. The purpose of the research was to determine the specific features of the crypto economy to be taken into account in the development of measures for the tax regulation of organizations in the digital economy. It was established that the transformation of approaches to information exchange allowing economic agents to make transactions on the basis of digital platforms not linked to the geographical borders of states makes legal entities and individuals more reluctant to delegate some of the powers to the state as an institution of power. The paper classifies foreign practices of direct taxation of incomes from purchase and sale of crypto-currency, which made it possible to identify prospects for the development of tax regulation in Russia. The conceptual scenarios of taxation of cryptoproducts are analyzed and it is concluded that in creating a cryptocurrency the deferred recognition of the object of taxation is advisable in order to reduce the tax risks of users.
Open access
Legal and Policy Issues
Economic and Technological Developments in Russia
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
The paper focuses on the definition of the legal status of the cryptocurrency in the framework of the current Russian legislation. The subject of the research is the principal scientific and practical approaches to determining the object of civil rights and the object of acquisitive crimes in terms of their adaptability to cryptocurrencies. The purposes of the work were the search for a universal algorithm for resolving civil disputes related to the turnover of the crypto currency, and the qualification of the virtual currency theft (fraud). By using historical, comparative legal and dialectical methods as well as the content analysis method parallels between cryptocurrencies and individual objects of civil rights (a thing, property rights, other property) were drawn, and a number of options for qualifying the actions related to the non-repayable withdrawal of the cryptocurrency were proposed. Finally, the paper analyzes the draft laws prepared by the RF Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and presents the author’s vision of the prospects for legalizing the cryptocurrency as an object of civil rights.
In the Bitcoin system, miners are incentivized to join the system and validate transactions through fees paid by the users. A simple "pay your bid" auction has been employed to determine the transaction fees. Recently, Lavi, Sattath and Zohar [Lavi et al., 2019] proposed an alternative fee design, called the monopolistic price (MP) mechanism, aimed at improving the revenue for the miners. Although MP is not strictly incentive compatible (IC), they studied how close to IC the mechanism is for iid distributions, and conjectured that it is nearly IC asymptotically based on extensive simulations and some analysis. In this paper, we prove that the MP mechanism is nearly incentive compatible for any iid distribution as the number of users grows large. This holds true with respect to other attacks such as splitting bids. We also prove a conjecture in [Lavi et al., 2019] that MP dominates the RSOP auction in revenue (originally defined in [Goldberg et al., 2006] for digital goods). These results lend support to MP as a Bitcoin fee design candidate. Additionally, we explore some possible intrinsic correlations between incentive compatibility and revenue in general.
This research aims to identify how Bitcoin-related news publications and\nonline discourse are expressed in Bitcoin exchange movements of price and\nvolume. Being inherently digital, all Bitcoin-related fundamental data (from\nexchanges, as well as transactional data directly from the blockchain) is\navailable online, something that is not true for traditional businesses or\ncurrencies traded on exchanges. This makes Bitcoin an interesting subject for\nsuch research, as it enables the mapping of sentiment to fundamental events\nthat might otherwise be inaccessible. Furthermore, Bitcoin discussion largely\ntakes place on online forums and chat channels. In stock trading, the value of\nsentiment data in trading decisions has been demonstrated numerous times [1]\n[2] [3], and this research aims to determine whether there is value in such\ndata for Bitcoin trading models. To achieve this, data over the year 2015 has\nbeen collected from Bitcointalk.org, (the biggest Bitcoin forum in post\nvolume), established news sources such as Bloomberg and the Wall Street\nJournal, the complete /r/btc and /r/Bitcoin subreddits, and the bitcoin-otc and\nbitcoin-dev IRC channels. By analyzing this data on sentiment and volume, we\nfind weak to moderate correlations between forum, news, and Reddit sentiment\nand movements in price and volume from 1 to 5 days after the sentiment was\nexpressed. A Granger causality test confirms the predictive causality of the\nsentiment on the daily percentage price and volume movements, and at the same\ntime underscores the predictive causality of market movements on sentiment\nexpressions in online communities\n
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) implies new technical challenges such as managing a universally vast number of IoT devices. Despite the fact that there are already a variety of secure management frameworks for IoT, they are based on centralized models, which limits their applicability in scenarios with a large number of IoT devices. In order to overcome those limitations, we have developed a distributed IoT management system based on blockchain. In this paper, we compare the performance of our solution with the existing access management solutions in IoT. We study the delays and the throughput rate associated with the systems and analyze different configurations of our solution to maximize its scalability. The objective of this paper is to find out whether our solution can scale as well as the existing management systems in IoT.
Energy storage units (ESUs) enable several attractive features of modern smart grids such as enhanced grid resilience, effective demand response, and reduced bills. However, uncoordinated charging of ESUs stresses the power system and can lead to a blackout. On the other hand, existing charging coordination mechanisms suffer from several limitations. First, the need for a central charging coordinator (CC) presents a single point of failure that jeopardizes the effectiveness of the charging coordination. Second, a transparent charging coordination mechanism does not exist where users are not aware whether the CC is honest or not in coordination charging requests among them in a fair way. Third, existing mechanisms overlook the privacy concerns of the involved customers. To address these limitations, in this paper, we leverage the blockchain and smart contracts to build a decentralized charging coordination mechanism without the need for a centralized charging coordinator. First ESUs should use tokens for anonymously authenticate themselves to the blockchain. Then each ESU sends a charging request that contains its State-of-Charge (SoC), Time-to-complete-charge (TCC) and amount of required charging to the smart contract address on the blockchain. The smart contract will then run the charging coordination mechanism in a self-executed manner such that ESUs with the highest priorities are charged in the present time slot while charging requests of lower priority ESUs are deferred to future time slots. In this way, each ESU can make sure that charging schedules are computed correctly. Finally, we have implemented the proposed mechanism on the Ethereum test-bed blockchain, and our analysis shows that execution cost can be acceptable in terms of gas consumption while enabling decentralized charging coordination with increased transparency, reliability, and privacy preserving.
Blockchain-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) systems have received extensive attention from academia and industry. Most previous constructions face the risk of leaking sensitive information since the servers can obtain plaintext data from the devices. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a decentralized outsourcing computation (DOC) scheme, where the servers can perform fully homomorphic computations on encrypted data from the data owner according to the request of the data owner. In this process, the servers cannot obtain any plaintext data, and dishonest servers can be detected by the data owner. Then, we apply the DOC scheme in the IoT scenario to achieve a confidential blockchain-enabled IoT system, called BeeKeeper 2.0. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work in which servers of a blockchain-enabled IoT system can perform any-degree homomorphic multiplications and any number of additions on encrypted data from devices according to the requests of the devices without obtaining any plaintext data of the devices. Finally, we provide a detailed performance evaluation for the BeeKeeper 2.0 system by deploying it on Hyperledger Fabric and using Hyperledger Caliper for performance testing. According to our tests, the time consumed between the request stage and recover stage is no more than 3.3 s, which theoretically satisfies the production needs.
As cities become more digitally governed, centralized infrastructures face growing risks across identity, safety, and data domains. This chapter reframes blockchain as a foundational trust protocol for urban resilience, emphasizing its core features: immutability, decentralization, transparency, and consensus, as tools to address systemic privacy and security challenges. It explores blockchain's role in securing digital identities, logging infrastructure events, and enabling auditable governance. Real-world deployments in land registries, voting, procurement, and incident response, especially in Asia and Europe are analyzed. Privacy-preserving techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized identity are also examined. The chapter highlights integration hurdles such as interoperability, regulatory gaps, and ethical tensions, while outlining emerging trends like Blockchain 4.0, quantum-safe cryptography, and DAO-led civic participation. It offers a roadmap for decentralized citizen-centric governance in smart cities.
Ashar Ahmad, Muhammad Saad, Mostafa Bassiouni, Aziz Mohaisen
Audit logs serve as a critical component in the enterprise business systems that are used for auditing, storing, and tracking changes made to the data. However, audit logs are vulnerable to a series of attacks, which enable adversaries to tamper data and corresponding audit logs. In this paper, we present BlockAudit: a scalable and tamper-proof system that leverages the design properties of audit logs and security guarantees of blockchains to enable secure and trustworthy audit logs. Towards that, we construct the design schema of BlockAudit, and outline its operational procedures. We implement our design on Hyperledger and evaluate its performance in terms of latency, network size, and payload size. Our results show that conventional audit logs can seamlessly transition into BlockAudit to achieve higher security, integrity, and fault tolerance.
BACKGROUND: Decentralization is promoted as a strategy to improve health system performance by bringing decision-making closer to service delivery. Some studies have investigated if decentralization actually improves the health system. However, few have explored the conditions that enable it to be effective. To determine these conditions, we have analyzed the perspectives of decision-makers in the Philippines where devolution, one form of decentralization, was introduced 25 years ago. METHODS: Drawing from the "decision space" approach, we interviewed 27 decision-makers with an average of 23.6 years of working across different levels of the Philippine government health sector and representing various local settings. Qualitative analysis followed the "Framework Method." Conditions that either enable or hinder the effectiveness of decentralization were identified by exploring decision-making in five health sector functions. RESULTS: These conditions include: for planning, having a multi-stakeholder approach and monitoring implementation; for financing and budget allocation, capacities to raise revenues at local levels and pooling of funds at central level; for resource management, having a central level capable of augmenting resource needs at local levels and a good working relationship between the local health officer and the elected local official; for program implementation and service delivery, promoting innovation at local levels while maintaining fidelity to national objectives; and for monitoring and data management, a central level capable of ensuring that data collection from local levels is performed in a timely and accurate manner. CONCLUSIONS: The Philippine experience suggests that decentralization is a long and complex journey and not an automatic solution for enhancing service delivery. The role of the central decision-maker (e.g. Ministry of Health) remains important to assist local levels unable to perform their functions well. It is policy-relevant to analyze the conditions that make decentralization work and the optimal combination of decentralized and centralized functions that enhance the health system.
Shifa Zhang, Anne Kim, Dianbo Liu, Sandeep C. Nuckchady · 13 authors
Artificial Intelligence (AI) incorporating genetic and medical information have been applied in disease risk prediction, unveiling disease mechanism, and advancing therapeutics. However, AI training relies on highly sensitive and private data which significantly limit their applications and robustness evaluation. Moreover, the data access management after sharing across organization heavily relies on legal restriction, and there is no guarantee in preventing data leaking after sharing. Here, we present Genie, a secure AI platform which allows AI models to be trained on medical data securely. The platform combines the security of Intel Software Guarded eXtensions (SGX), transparency of blockchain technology, and verifiability of open algorithms and source codes. Genie shares insights of genetic and medical data without exposing anyone's raw data. All data is instantly encrypted upon upload and contributed to the models that the user chooses. The usage of the model and the value generated from the genetic and health data will be tracked via a blockchain, giving the data transparent and immutable ownership.
Over the past few years, the importance of improving the product distribution structure has increased worldwide. Therefore, distribution prices are now disclosed and product information is shared with consumers. However, distribution channels are complex and supply chain management (SCM) is autonomously executed in each company. For this reason, it has been frequently pointed out that the distribution process is not transparent and the distribution margin is high. In this paper, we propose a system that guarantees the transparency of the product distribution structure by applying blockchain and smart contracts to the price-tracking portion of supply chain management systems. This approach allows companies to track their trades by enhancing transparency in the SCM, thereby discouraging companies from pursuing excessive profits. In addition, companies can cut management costs by automatically storing distribution details in a blockchain network and managing information more securely.
Permissioned Blockchain has become quite popular with enterprises forming consortium since it prioritizes trust over privacy. One of the popular platforms for distributed ledger solution,Hyperledger Fabric, requires a transaction to beendorsedor approved by a group of special members known as endorsers before undergoing validation. To endorse a transaction, an endorser mentions its identity along with the signature so that it can be verified later. However, for certain transactions, difference in opinion may exist among endorsers. Disclosing the identity of an endorser may lead to conflict within the consortium. In such cases, an endorsement policy which not only allows an endorser to support a transaction discreetly, but at the same time takes into account the decision of the majority is preferred. Thus we propose an Anonymous Endorsement System which uses a threshold endorsement policy in order to address the issue. To realize at-out-of-nendorsement policy, using any of the existing threshold ring signature for our endorsement system would have violated the privacy of endorsers as either the identity or the secret key of the endorsers get revealed to the party who recombines the signature after collecting each signature share. All these factors motivated us to design a new ring signature scheme, calledFabric’s Constant-Sized Linkable Ring Signature(FCsLRS) withTransaction-Orientedlinkability for hiding identity of the endorsers. We have implemented the signature scheme in Golang and analyzed its security and performance by varying the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) modulus size. Feasibility of implementation is supported by experimental analysis. Signature and tag generation time is quite fast and remains constant irrespective of change in message length or endorsement set size for a given RSA modulus value, assuming all the endorsers generates their signature in parallel. Each verifier is required to count and check individual valid ring signature. If the aggregate is above the threshold value, stated by the endorsement policy, then it confirms that the transaction is valid. This increases the verification time depending on the threshold value, but has very little effect on the scalability since generally$t<\!\!\!<n$. Lastly, we also discuss the integration of the scheme on v1.2 Hyperledger Fabric.
Since its introduction in 2008, the value and popularity of Bitcoin have risen exponentially. Despite being 10 years old, the concept of crypto currency is fairly new in South Africa. The increase in the value of Bitcoin, together with extensive media coverage, has led to the creation of a Bitcoin economic system with many South Africans jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon. This study aims to identify the determinants affecting end-user adoption of Bitcoin in South Africa and to determine the main use of the crypto currency by South Africans. A research model was developed utilising constructs from the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behaviour. The model was then tested empirically by utilising two survey-based questionnaires, one for current users of Bitcoin and one for non-users. For users, perceived usefulness and access to facilitating conditions were the primary determinants influencing their decision to adopt the crypto currency while lack of trust and social influences were the primary reasons non-users chose not to adopt Bitcoin.
Blockchains or distributed ledgers are an emerging technology that has drawn considerable interest from energy supply firms, startups, technology developers, financial institutions, national governments and the academic community. Numerous sources coming from these backgrounds identify blockchains as having the potential to bring significant benefits and innovation. Blockchains promise transparent, tamper-proof and secure systems that can enable novel business solutions, especially when combined with smart contracts. This work provides a comprehensive overview of fundamental principles that underpin blockchain technologies, such as system architectures and distributed consensus algorithms. Next, we focus on blockchain solutions for the energy industry and inform the state-of-the-art by thoroughly reviewing the literature and current business cases. To our knowledge, this is one of the first academic, peer-reviewed works to provide a systematic review of blockchain activities and initiatives in the energy sector. Our study reviews 140 blockchain research projects and startups from which we construct a map of the potential and relevance of blockchains for energy applications. These initiatives were systematically classified into different groups according to the field of activity, implementation platform and consensus strategy used. 1 Opportunities, potential challenges and limitations for a number of use cases are discussed, ranging from emerging peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, to decentralised marketplaces, electric vehicle charging and e-mobility. For each of these use cases, our contribution is twofold: first, in identifying the technical challenges that blockchain technology can solve for that application as well as its potential drawbacks, and second in briefly presenting the research and industrial projects and startups that are currently applying blockchain technology to that area. The paper ends with a discussion of challenges and market barriers the technology needs to overcome to get past the hype phase, prove its commercial viability and finally be adopted in the mainstream.
The rise of blockchain technologies has given a boost to social good projects, which are trying to exploit various characteristic features of blockchains: the quick and inexpensive transfer of cryptocurrency, the transparency of transactions, the ability to tokenize any kind of assets, and the increase in trustworthiness due to decentralization. However, the swift pace of innovation in blockchain technologies, and the hype that has surrounded their "disruptive potential", make it difficult to understand whether these technologies are applied correctly, and what one should expect when trying to apply them to social good projects. This paper addresses these issues, by systematically analysing a collection of 120 blockchain-enabled social good projects. Focussing on measurable and objective aspects, we try to answer various relevant questions: which features of blockchains are most commonly used? Do projects have success in fund raising? Are they making appropriate choices on the blockchain architecture? How many projects are released to the public, and how many are eventually abandoned?