Conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPN) doped with a mercury sensitive dye are able to detect ion concentrations as low as a parts-per-billion within an aqueous environment. Select forms of spirolatam rhodamine dye are capable of selectively undergoing a ring-opening reaction in response to Hg2+ ions. The initial closed form presents as a colorless, non-fluorescent, compound while the opened form results in a colored and highly fluorescent form. The CPNs are also fluorescent, yet at a lower wavelength and can transfer of their energy into the dye molecules via Förster resonance energy transfer. The dye’s reaction with Hg2+ goes unhindered by the presence of CPNs, and their transfer of energy increases the dye molecule’s sensitivity to mercury. The CPNs provide the additional functionality of stabilizing the hydrophophic dye, enabling sensing in aqueous environments. The two fluorescent peaks can be compared, enabling the system to be used as a ratiometric sensor for Hg2+ sensing. The proposed system previously showed great potential reaching publication in 2012 with a “turn-on” mercury selective fluorescence probe. The initial system increased detection sensitivity 10-fold, detecting mercury concentrations as low as 700 parts per trillion. With a proof-of-concept staked work continued with alternate dyes, rhodamine B S2, capable of switching between an on and off state, and rhodamine B 1NI, a derivative of the original dye. Unable to reproduce the results of the initial study, work shifted into isolating the cause of a new fluorescence quenching phenomenon and procedural refinement of the CPN synthesis. Unable to rectify the cause of the quenching phenomenon, work shifted to alternate uses for the CPN system. Preliminary testing of a rhodamine B spirolactam, sensitive to pH changes has shown potential as fluorescent pH probe. Synthesis has begun on a dye that would maximize the overlap between its pKa and the CPNs’ window of pH viability.
Blockchain is a relatively new technology created for Bitcoin’s network to store transaction records happening in it. The system is redundant and distributed, making it difficult for corrupt transactions. Without doubt the greatest use case of this technology is cryptocurrencies, however is wrong to restrict this tool only to the financial area. Many use cases are also being developed for business areas like digital identity and technological areas like IoT and many other areas. Due to the complexity, privacy and bureaucracy of certain processes in many areas a new technology rise called Smart Contracts, computational code programmable to meet certain conditions. These digital contracts act like traditional contracts, with the difference of its automaticity, where the need for a notary and certified people to validate signatures can be erased. So, the point of this thesis is to understand the concept of Blockchain and Smart Contracts and how they can be integrated together in other business and technological areas to improve and increase the efficiency of the organizational processes. After that, to create a demonstration case that show all the potential behind these technologies in a business area.
Blockchain technology is being researched in diverse domains for its ability to provide distributed, decentralized and time-stamped transactions. It is attributed to by its fault-tolerant and zero- downtime characteristics with methods to ensure records of immutable data such that its modification is computationally infeasible. Trust frameworks and reputation models of an online interaction system are responsible for providing enough information (e.g., in the form of trust score) to infer the trustworthiness of interacting entities. The risk of failure or probability of success when interacting with an entity relies on the information provided by the reputation system. Thus, it is crucial to have an accurate, reliable and immutable trust score assigned by the reputation system. The centralized nature of current trust systems, however, leaves the valuable information as such prone to both external and internal attacks. This master's thesis project, therefore, studies the use of blockchain technology as an infrastructure for an online interaction system that can guarantee a reliable and immutable trust score. It proposes a system of smart contracts that specify the logic for interactions and models trust among pseudonymous identities of the system. The contract is deployed on a blockchain network where the trust score of entities are computed, stored and updated. The proposed method and the trust metrics used is evaluated by simulating an interaction graph using an existing dataset. The obtained results then illustrate that the proposed method is resilient against several threat models and distinguishes between honest or malicious participation of entities on the network.
To solve the credibility and supervision lacking problem in the OTC warehouse receipt trading system, a scheme of using smart contract on the blockchain to implement the OTC warehouse receipt trading system is presented. As a distributed ledger, blockchain has the advantages of decentralization, irreversibility and trustworthiness. The warehouse receipt transaction data is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring its safety and credibility. Smart contract is automatically executed code stored on the blockchain, it can directly control the transaction of digital assets. No participant can control and tamper it before the contract is lapsed. In the process of using the Ethereum smart contract to realize warehouse receipt transactions, consensus is reached by the PBFT consensus algorithm, Since the trusted third-party is not needed, the lack of supervision problem is solved. This paper introduces the application of blockchain and smart contract to the OTC warehouse receipt trading system. It includes the design of smart contracts, the verification of smart contracts security. This paper also verifies the feasibility of designing smart contracts by using the instance of listed transactions.
A significant increase in the cash value of Bitcoin in the beginning of 2017 led to growth in people’s interest in cryptocurrency. The uniqueness of this type of money is that the transaction occurs only with the approval of a network of participants, and the funds themselves are beyond the control of any state. At the same time, the Russian government, represented by the Ministry of Finance, did not approve a cryptocurrency until 2018. Despite the large number of studies that reveal the main advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency, as well as the motivation of the participants, the issue of building trust in cryptocurrencies remains relevant. The main goal of this study is to identify the mechanisms of trust building among the participants of the cryptocurrency market. The research information base was based on 15 semi-structured interviews with active participants of the cryptocurrency market. Based on collected data, a typology of cryptocurrency users was made, and ways of managing risks in interacting with the market and insight into the role of the state in this market were examined. Cryptocurrency users can be divided into those who use it for consumption of various goods (including those who are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation) and those who seek to derive financial benefit from the current market situation. Although both groups exist in the same market, they have different expectations: consumers strive to ensure that the cryptocurrency exchange rate remains stable, whereas the other group hopes for a long period of high exchange-rate volatility to increase their own earnings. The position that the local state should take is an important factor of trust for each of the groups represented. Cryptocurrencies are still at an early stage of development. A large group of people on the market is trying to monetize the weaknesses that exist at the moment. Over time, the situation on the cryptocurrency market stabilizes, and it can then move to a qualitatively different stage of development.
Several years after the inception of the most dominant cryptocurrency, bitcoin, the European Central Bank in 2015 indicated the need for establishing legal clarity by relevant authorities through explaining how the current legal framework applies to cryptocurrencies. Three years later, no meaningful step has been taken by any of the European Union (EU) institutions including the parliament. By examining the EU’s legal framework governing payments services, including the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) Regulation, the Electronic Money Directive, the Payment Services Directive and the proposed AML/CTF Directive, this article concludes that (a) because the existing payment services laws apply to payments effected in currencies (legal tenders) and cryptocurrencies are not defined as currencies under the EU law or the laws of member states, they do not cover cryptocurrencies. It also argues that it is impossible to design sui generis payments services law for cryptocurrencies without curbing their essential features, especially decentralization. Lastly, the article proposes centralization and the creation of state cryptocurrency as possible solutions moving forward and examines their strengths and challenges.
It should be recognized that the monetary authorities in all countries of the world were not ready for the emergence and rapid development of digital currencies and their virtual diversity, regardless of the development level of national economy and domestic financial market. Minimization of the threats and risks of crypto-currency spread based only on their smaller issue volume comparing to fiat money is at any rate a shortsighted position. The interpretation of this phenomenon by a central bank has a decisive influence on its policy, which is especially important in the context of financial system globalization. The article provides the analysis of approaches to interpretation of the virtual (digital) currency concepts in central banks of different jurisdictions, as well as a wide range of scientific publications. These data led to the conclusion that it is necessary to develop a common understanding of state regulation in this field at the global level. According to the author, the most reasonable method is the interpretation of digital currencies as an asset, which is due to the inferiority of these financial instruments in terms of money key functions in the classical sense. The author notes the significant progress of central bankers in understanding the nature and capacity of a crypto currency with dominant tendency to strengthen control and supervision over operations with these financial instruments. However, there is also a significant divergence in the development of restrictive, permissive or supportive measures. The article concludes that it is necessary to coordinate the efforts of central banks with governments, other financial bodies and international organizations in this direction in order to adequately and homogeneously react to the development of the crypto currency as a kind of financial innovation without violation of the healthy competition rules in the payment services market and to prevent investors' exposure to excessive risk.
El crecimiento exponencial de los bitcoins ha llevado a la necesidad de la AEAT de potenciar sus herramientas de seguimiento de las transacciones relacionadas con monedas virtuales, y a la Dirección General de Tributos a pronunciarse (aunque de manera escasa) sobre su tributación. En materia de imposición directa, las rentas derivadas de la compraventa y de minado de bitcoins tributarán como rendimientos de actividades económicas en el Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (o, en su caso, como ganancias/pérdidas patrimoniales) o como ingresos en el Impuesto sobre Sociedades. Desde el punto de vista del Impuesto sobre el Valor Añadido, la compraventa de bitcoins se considera una actividad sujeta y exenta, mientras que el minado de bitcoins no tendría la consideración de prestación de servicios onerosa en el sentido de la jurisprudencia del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. En el Impuesto de Actividades Económicas, tales actividades deberán incluirse, como regla general, en el epígrafe 831.9 de la sección primera, «Otros servicios financieros n.c.o.p.» y en materia del Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio, los bitcoins deberán ser declarados por su valor de mercado a 31 de diciembre de cada año. Finalmente, y respecto del modelo 720, el Anteproyecto de Ley de Medidas de Prevención y Lucha contra el Fraude Fiscal contempla expresamente la obligación de informar sobre la tenencia de monedas virtuales situadas en el extranjero.
Distributed ledger technologies replace central counterparties with time-consuming consensus protocols to record the transfer of ownership. This settlement latency slows down cross-market trading and exposes arbitrageurs to price risk. We theoretically derive arbitrage bounds induced by settlement latency. Using Bitcoin orderbook and network data, we estimate average arbitrage bounds of 121 basis points, explaining 91% of the cross-market price differences, and demonstrate that asset flows chase arbitrage opportunities. Controlling for inventory holdings as a measure of trust in exchanges does not affect our main results. Blockchain-based settlement without trusted intermediation thus introduces a non-trivial friction that impedes arbitrage activity.
Innovation in distributed ledger technologies-blockchains and smart contracts-has been lauded as a game-changer for environmental governance and transparency. Here we critically consider how problems related to spatial representation and uncertainty complicate the picture, focusing on two cases. The first regards the impact of uncertainty on the transfer of spatial assets, and the second regards its impact on smart contract code that relies on software oracles that report sensor measurements of the physical world. Cryptogovernance of the environment will require substantial research on both these fronts if it is to become a reality.
On an EU level, the topic of electronic health data is a high priority. Many projects have been developed to realise a standard health data format to share information on a regional, national or EU level. All the projects favour and contribute to the development and improvement of the prerequisites for intra- and cross-border patient mobility. This work presents a new approach for the implementation of disruptive logging: an audit mechanism for cross-border exchange of eHealth data on OpenNCP, providing traceability and liability support within the OpenNCP infrastructure. Relevant parties could be legally obliged to keep a log of all privacy-critical operations performed by OpenNCP users.
Books on Turkish constitutional law tend to be heavily doctrinal, descriptive, and politic ally unengaged, which makes Kemal Gözler’s recent work on the constitutional amendment package of April 2017 somewhat unusual: Elveda Anayasa, which roughly translates as “Farewell Constitution,” was published a month before the referendum took place. Apart from the book’s annex, drawn from Gözler’s earlier work on the differences between parliamentary and presidential systems of government, the book deals with the recent amendments to the Turkish Constitution, and more generally with the legal and political atmosphere preceding the referendum, to expose what Gözler argues was the real motivation behind the proposal: a subtle destruction of the constitutional system’s separation of powers arrangements. The book is divided into five chapters. In Chapter 1, Gözler asserts that the amendments, contrary to what is commonly assumed, do not establish a presidential system of governance. Noting that a presidential system is typically marked by a strict separation of powers, that is, by a clear distinction between the legislative and executive organs of the state, he argues that the amendments, would do the exact opposite: the amended Article 116 now allows the president to dissolve the parliament, and the parliament to dissolve the presidency, both without cause. In both cases, the result is that new elections must be held for both the presidency and the parliament (at 15–16). The idea of each branch being able to dissolve the other, if anything, is reminiscent of a parliamentary system. However, Gözler astutely observes that discussions of systemic/institutional features obfuscate what is really going on: the unification of all three branches of government under an executive presidency. To begin with, while the president has the unconditional right to dissolve the parliament, the parliament can exercise the same power only with a three-fifths majority. Further, under the new system, parliamentary and presidential elections must be held on the same day, a requirement that is likely to result in the coordination of electoral campaigns to prevent a potential scenario in which the president has a different party affiliation than the parliamentary majority. This, for Gözler, is proof of the amendment package’s real motivation: subordinating the parliament to the presidency (at 17–19). As for the judicial branch, the new composition of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the state organ responsible for judicial promotions and demotions, reveals the government’s ambition to subordinate the judiciary to the presidency: of the total thirteen members of the council, four are directly appointed by the president. In addition, the minister of justice, a presidential appointee, heads the council and his undersecretary, a bureaucrat also appointed by the president, is also a member of the council. The remaining seven members are appointed by the parliament, already under the control of the executive (at 19–22), placing the judiciary under the effective control of the president. Gözler concludes this chapter, inspired by the writings of Montesquieu, with a discussion of how the absence of true separation of powers will result in a loss of individual liberties (at 25). While empirical data indeed seems to be on the side of Gözler,1 the author does not explain how and why, as a general matter, a decline in separation of powers arrangements causes a similar decline in individual liberties, especially considering the voluminous scholarship on how authoritarian regimes consciously choose to preserve (at least some) individual liberties, usually in order to deflect national and international criticism.2 Chapter 2, titled “On the Silence of Consti t utional Law Scholars over the Constitutional Amendments” and without going into any “naming and shaming,” categorizes the Turkish constitutional law community into three camps: (i) the rather small number of scholars speaking out against the amendments; (ii) those not disclosing their personal view on the matter; and (iii) those openly advocating the amendments (at 39). Gözler quite confidently and rightly asserts that while the overwhelming majority of Turkish constitutional law scholars were against the amendment package (at 38), the ones who garnered most of the media attention were those speaking in favor of it. The author points to the general decline in free speech, and the cases of recently dismissed academics, including some reputable constitutional law scholars, as reasons for the general silence of the intellectual community over the amendments (at 35–36). Gözler also bemoans how in addition to the silence of scholars, the media paid considerable attention to laypersons unqualified to speak on the amendments (at 41). While one cannot help but agree with the author on how the silence of the legal community indeed decreased the quality of discussions surrounding the amendment package, listening to the opinions of laypersons, too, is valuable, even if only to assess the public legitimacy of the proposals. Nevertheless, it is undeniably true that most of the media gave disproportionate coverage to those supporting the amendment package, while those against it received considerably less airtime. Both sides of the referendum campaign resorted to erroneous claims, and Gözler describes these in detail in Chapter 3. The campaign against the amendments propagated the idea that the amendments would result in the abrogation of both the Republic and the unitary state, the latter of which would be achieved by the creation, through presidential decrees, of a federal state. This latter claim, as Gözler convincingly shows, has no basis because none of the amendments purports—even when read quite expansively—to establish federal units within the country (at 47–48). The author is equally dismissive of the first claim that the amendments would deal a severe blow to the Republic, explaining that democracy, not the Republic, is the victim of the amendments (at 44–46). From the author’s standpoint, this is understandable: Gözler defines “republic” as a concept utterly divorced from democracy, merely denoting the opposite of monarchy and hereditary rule. Here, Gözler fails to take note of the particular meaning associated with the term “republic” in Turkish legal and political discourse, often intertwined with general and substantive notions of democracy and the rule of law, and not merely an antithesis of hereditary rule.3 Read in this second and more expansive sense, contrary to Gözler’s claim, it is not unreasonable to argue that the amendments do deal a blow to the idea of Turkey being a republic. In the second half of the same chapter, the author criticizes what he perceives to be erroneous claims made by the campaign in support of the amendments: he focuses on the misuse of comparative law, specifically the American presidential system, as an aspirational model (at 56–70).4 Gözler shows that the claims of some presidential aides that the amendments would create an executive akin to the US president are untenable for a number of reasons. Some of these include the fact that the Turkish president can appoint justices to the Constitutional Court, judges to the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, and other high-level bureaucrats without the consent of the legislature, whereas in the American system, “the advice and consent of the Senate” serves as a significant check on the president’s power to make similar appointments. Moreover, in the USA, the federal budget must be approved by Congress, whereas under the new constitutional amendments, if the Turkish Parliament fails to approve a budget plan, the preceding year’s budget, adjusted for the new year’s inflation rate, automatically goes into effect, thereby stripping the legislature of a significant control mechanism. The author goes into further detail to show how, contrary to the assertions of the government, the new amendments bear no resemblance to the US system of government, which leaves the reader with deeper insights on the (ab)use of comparative law by politicians in the form of invocations of other polities’ constitutionalist systems in either shallow or inaccurate ways. Chapter 4 of the book deals with the question of whether the constitutional amendments can be described in David Landau’s terms as an instantiation of “abusive constitutionalism.”5 The author is ready to answer this query in the affirmative, chiefly because the amendments go against the two themes central to the idea of constitutionalism: entrenching separation of powers and ensuring fundamental rights and freedoms. Despite all this, Gözler espouses a cautious approach, arguing that only time will conclusively tell whether or not the amendments are truly abusive in nature (at 84, 99). This caution and the author’s belief in the need for a retroactive assessment of the amendments as only way to identify with certainty the abusive nature of the amendments serve to expand on Landau’s thesis, as it emphasizes the difficulty of exposing an abusive constitutionalist endeavor while still in the making, as opposed to identifying abusive constitutionalism ex post facto. Further, the author contributes to Landau’s analysis by broaching the subject of unintended consequences of abusive constitutionalism (at 99–104): according to Gözler, if and when authoritarians fall out of favor, the constitutional space conducive to repressive rule becomes inhabited by others, possibly by opposition forces, which, in turn, could make use of the generous tools of state power to perpetuate the repression, all made possible by the initial abusive constitutionalist undertaking by their predecessors. The final chapter discusses some procedural issues related to the referendum, ultimately concluding that there are valid reasons to call this a constitutional plebiscite rather than a referendum. According to Gözler, a constitutional plebiscite diverges from a referendum in two major ways: (i) plebiscites typically take place under antidemocratic conditions, and (ii) plebiscites usually turn into a vote of confidence for a single, charismatic person in power, as opposed to voting on a legal text (at 108). Given that the referendum took place under emergency rule, and there were numerous reported incidents of violence against campaigners opposed to the amendments, as well as statements by incumbent politicians equating the opposition forces to terrorists, the author concludes that the context in which the referendum was held was not entirely free and fair (at 115–122). Further, the author draws our attention to a particular violation of the Turkish Constitution that occurred during the parliamentary deliberations on the proposed amendments: in direct contravention to art icle 175 of the Constitution, which stipulates that all votes on constitutional amendments (including those votes on whether to put the amendments to a referendum) shall be secret, some Members of Parliament (MPs) from the governing party voted openly—a violation that is well-documented through many photographs, some of which are printed in the book (at 127–129). Gözler rightly asks if it is reasonable to demand from society at large to follow the law and the Constitution in a political setting where MPs, who take an oath to uphold the Constitution prior to assuming office, violate the rules themselves. Overall, the book serves as a courageous intervention, as it provides a concise and accessible summary of the procedural and substantive irregularities of the recent constitutional amendments that were put to referendum in a setting where most scholars are—understandably—hesitant to be expressly critical of politically high-stake matters such as this amendment package. The book provides at once a testament, one hopes, to a shift in the tone of Turkish constitutional law scholarship from one that is prosaic and distanced to a more lively and politically engaged way of writing, as well as an opportunity to develop our thinking on key issues such as abusive constitutionalism and constitutional referenda—topics with which comparative constitutional law scholars continue to struggle. As the author quotes, in 1748, the famous French lawyer Montesquieu, commenting on the need for separation among the three branches of government, wrote: “Among the Turks, where the three powers are united in the person of the sultan, an atrocious despotism reigns” (at 22). While Gözler quite pessimistic ally writes “[i]t is feared that what Montesquieu wrote of the ‘Turkish land’ in 1748 is about to become true in 2016’s Turkey” (at 23), one hopes—now with the passing of the amendments with less optimism—that the near future will somehow prove the author wrong.
No measurement system is perfect, and two varieties of error compete to frustrate their designers and operators. Random errors produce measurement-to-measurement to variation, while systematic errors result in consistently-incorrect results. The interplay between these two phenomena has been the subject of research for many years, particularly within the area of stochastic resonance, which focusses upon cases where the signal-to-noise ratio of a nonlinear system can increase with the addition of noise to its input signal. While it has been demonstrated many times that noise can overcome systematic deficiencies in a measurement system, there remain open questions on how to take advantage of this in practical systems, what information can be extracted, and whether such ‘randomised’ systems are useful in other settings. In this thesis, we consider this general theme in the context of two main settings: the adversarial, and the nonadversarial. In both cases, there is a significant advantage to be gained from the use of techniques that are adapted to the problem domain, in contrast to previous ad-hoc approaches that have failed to take advantage of the structures of the problems at hand. The first part of this thesis considers the elimination of static nonlinearity from noisy measurements. We start with the phenomenon of ‘classical’ stochastic resonance, showing how input noise can be used to linearise the response of a nonlinear system. This phenomenon has been observed in the past, however we demonstrate that the use of nonlinear signal processing allows the linearisation to take place with far smaller levels of noise. We then investigate several approaches to the implementation of this technique, with the aim of supporting real-time operation in embedded systems and vlsi. The remainder of the thesis concerns the use of randomness in measurements made as part of adversarial systems. This can be split into two situations: that where the operation of a system requires that measurement be difficult, and that where measurement must be straightforward. We first discuss the Kish key distribution system, a proposed classical alternative to quantum key distribution. This system claims to derive its security from the second law of thermodynamics, however these claims have been the subject of controversy. We examine the claims in detail, and show that the use of random signals does not render implausible the measurement of the system state. Finally, we describe a number of approaches to the topical problems of key distribution and identity verification. We show how various forms of multi-path probing can be treated as a form of random sampling; much like in the first section, this randomness allows for the characterisation of systematic errors, in this case the consistent changes introduced by an attacker. We then compute bounds on the probability that an attacker achieves a deception against a user taking part in this sampling process. The first approach that we consider uses an anonymising system such as Tor or a mixnet; if all users make anonymous requests to a service in lock-step, then a malicious service cannot guarantee a self-consistent set of responses to anyone without providing the malicious response to all users. This allows the development of a statistically guaranteed consensus, and thus permits auditors to assure themselves that they have examined the same data as has been provided to other users. This provides an attractive alternative to blockchain technology, avoiding the complexity of the proof-of-work and proof-of-stake-based systems that dominate the landscape today. We have developed a second approach that allows the random-sampling approach to be used with the existing public-key infrastructure. By demonstrating that the entities chosen to carry out the verification of an identity holder are selected at random from a substantial number of independent entities, relying parties can be confident that small numbers of compromised verifiers cannot unilaterally issue certificates for identities that they do not hold. This provides a basis for the development of highly robust distributed certificate issuance systems that do not share the current ‘weakest-link’ nature of the existing public-key infrastructure. \nUltimately, these systems all hold in common the use of randomness in their measurement conditions in order to characterise systematic effects. While this phenomenon has been acknowledged, its potential to characterise real systems has until now not been realised. We demonstrate that randomness, whether natural and unavoidable or artificially introduced, can ironically render far more predictable the behaviour of many systems, and in more realistic situations than have been seen in the literature to date.
Open access
Distributed Sensor Networks and Detection Algorithms
Food wastage is an issue that people take it lightly, somehow this issue can lead to bad behavior and unfriendly environment. In Malaysia, people go on a food wasting spree without remorse. It influences the greater part of our lives and will influence us for quite a long time to come. People need to understand what happens if they keep on being irresponsible and ignorance towards food that they wasted, and only then will they get a better understanding of what is at stake and start to manage their waste better. This research is to analyze the issues that the government has been faced with food wastage effects the authority that must be solved. Other than that, from this research is to observe the behavior of people in a certain area which Bukit Antarabangsa has been chosen as the place for me to do my case study on food wastage issue. This behavior might be influenced by some social factors as social proof and diffusion of responsibility. From the questionnaire that has been distributed, it can analyze what is the factors that lead people to wasting food. And from the result from observation and questionnaire that has been taken and what food do people usually people throw away, the researcher will create awareness by using advertising as a platform. In another way, is to educate Malaysian people to be more responsible in preventing on food wastage practice.
Cryptocurrencies represent an alternative method of managing todays financial world. Operating in the block chain network, these alternative methods of finance provide disintermediation in a digital world where all users are anonymous. The existence of cryptocurrencies has been a threat to current financial institutions, and governments are trying to figure out how to manage their usability in everyday life. \n \nThe author has decided to pursue this topic to answer the question; What is the viability of cryptocurrency in relation to the response of financial institutions and governments? Research into the response of The United States, European Union, Switzerland, China, and South Korea provides sufficient information due to their status as leading regions in investment and daily trading of cryptocurrencies. The basis for answering the question will be supported by expert analysis and economic theory. Data of historical price, value, and other statistics will show the effect that the large stakeholders have had on the cryptocurrency markets. \n \nThe analysis provided will utilize the SWOT and PESTLE methodology in order to provide a well-rounded conclusion. The response that governments and financial institutions have made indicate that cryptocurrencies need to be supervised and controlled by authorities due to their nature as an anonymous peer-to-peer network method of making transactions. \n \nWhat the author concluded from research and analysis is that cryptocurrencies are viable in today as a source of investment when classified as an asset, commodity, or service. They will remain viable if governments have regulated it according to their guidelines. What the response of financial institutions have shown is that cryptocurrencies cannot challenge the current legal tenders and therefore cannot become new standard for currencies. Lastly, the author finds that cryptocurrencies will have to concede central aspects of their core identity such as anonymity to be implemented into legal framework.
On February 6, 2017, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (“BSP”) issued the Guidelines for Virtual Currency Exchanges (BSP Circular No. 944, or “Circular”), providing the rules and regulations governing operations of Virtual Currency (“VC”) Exchanges in the Philippines. The Circular is incorporated as Section 4512N of the Manual of Regulations for Non-Bank Financial Institutions (“MORNBFI”). This article provides an overview of the Circular.
Bitcoin and blockchain are two new and innovative technologies that may be confusing. This purpose of this paper is to differentiate these two new technologies and explain their functionalities. The concept of Bitcoin “mining” will be addressed, as well as the impact it has had on the hardware market. Finally, the benefits and concerns of implementing blockchain and Bitcoin will be provided. Despite the concerns, both blockchain and Bitcoin provide a plethora of possible new technological advanced, both in the terms of digital currencies as well as other avenues.
Open access
4 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques