Blockchain Papers

Cécile Pierrot, Benjamin Wesolowski

No abstract is available for this record.

Huige Li, Fangguo Zhang, Jiejie He, Haibo Tian

At present, the cloud storage used in searchable symmetric encryption schemes (SSE) is provided in a private way, which cannot be seen as a true cloud. Moreover, the cloud server is thought to be credible, because it always returns the search result to the user, even they are not correct. In order to really resist this malicious adversary and accelerate the usage of the data, it is necessary to store the data on a public chain, which can be seen as a decentralized system. As the increasing amount of the data, the search problem becomes more and more intractable, because there does not exist any effective solution at present. In this paper, we begin by pointing out the importance of storing the data in a public chain. We then innovatively construct a model of SSE using blockchain(SSE-using-BC) and give its security definition to ensure the privacy of the data and improve the search efficiency. According to the size of data, we consider two different cases and propose two corresponding schemes. Lastly, the security and performance analyses show that our scheme is feasible and secure.

Hissu Hyvärinen, Marten Risius, Gustav Friis

No abstract is available for this record.

Iris M. Barsan

Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) – a term intentionally mirroring Initial Public Offerings (IPO) – seem to be the new hype of the virtual currency community leading to an all-time high of the bitcoin of almost 5,000$ this year1. There is indeed a frenzy developing around ICOs reaching a record high of $1.7 billion in 20172 sparking an increasing interest from regulators on the American and Asian continents. Thus, ICOs have become a venture capital-raising tool for start-ups developing projects and applications on the blockchain and trying to escape the constraints of regulation. Regulation however seems to chatch up with ICOs. This paper analyzes ICOs from a legal perspective with a particular focus on European and French law.

Haoyan Wu, Zhijie Li, Brian King, Zina Ben Miled · 6 authors

Supply chains (SC) span many geographies, modes and industries and involve several phases where data flows in both directions from suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, to customers. This data flow is necessary to support critical business decisions that may impact product cost and market share. Current SC information systems are unable to provide validated, pseudo real-time shipment tracking during the distribution phase. This information is available from a single source, often the carrier, and is shared with other stakeholders on an as-needed basis. This paper introduces an independent, crowd-validated, online shipment tracking framework that complements current enterprise-based SC management solutions. The proposed framework consists of a set of private distributed ledgers and a single blockchain public ledger. Each private ledger allows the private sharing of custody events among the trading partners in a given shipment. Privacy is necessary, for example, when trading high-end products or chemical and pharmaceutical products. The second type of ledger is a blockchain public ledger. It consists of the hash code of each private event in addition to monitoring events. The latter provide an independently validated immutable record of the pseudo real-time geolocation status of the shipment from a large number of sources using commuters-sourcing.

Pietro Danzi, Anders E. Kalør, Čedomir Stefanović, Petar Popovski

Blockchain is a technology uniquely suited to support massive number of transactions and smart contracts within the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, thanks to the decentralized accounting mechanism. In a blockchain network, the states of the accounts are stored and updated by the validator nodes, interconnected in a peer-to-peer fashion. IoT devices are characterized by relatively low computing capabilities and low power consumption, as well as sporadic and low-bandwidth wireless connectivity. An IoT device connects to one or more validator nodes to observe or modify the state of the accounts. In order to interact with the most recent state of accounts, a device needs to be synchronized with the blockchain copy stored by the validator nodes. In this work, we describe general architectures and synchronization protocols that enable synchronization of the IoT endpoints to the blockchain, with different communication costs and security levels. We model and analytically characterize the traffic generated by the synchronization protocols, and also investigate the power consumption and synchronization trade-off via numerical simulations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that rigorously models the role of wireless connectivity in blockchain-powered IoT systems.

Raul Baraldi Fernandes Alves, Silvia Titotto

Ao longo dos ltimos anos, a tecnologia da informao contribuiu significativamente para a evoluo dos mercados financeiros, sem, no entanto, revolucionar a forma como as instituies financeiras interagem uma com as outras. Isso pode comear a mudar, uma vez que alguns participantes do mercado financeito esto prevendo que as novas tecnologias de armazenamento de dados, como o blockchain e outras tecnologias de registros distribudos ( distributed ledger technologies ), podero ser a fonte de uma revoluo iminente. Este trabalho analisa as principais caractersticas das chamadas DLTs ( distributed ledger technologies ), a sua relevncia para a Internet of Things, os indicativos do seu potencial de adoo pelas instituies financeiras e como o uso dessas tecnologias podem afetar alguns servios do mercado financeiro.

Martijn Dijkstra

In response to greater demand for transparency, technology advancements and the disintermediation by startups are gradually making some of the information public. As a result, property-related information is increasingly available in digital and paper form. However, a significant portion of the digitized information is hosted on disparate systems, which results in a lack of transparency and efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies that creates a greater potential for fraud. Blockchain technology could enable the commercial real estate industry to address these inefficiencies and inaccuracies.<br/><br/>This research focusses on exploring the different possibilities for integrating blockchain technology in the real estate management process. By analyzing the current real estate management process and gaining knowledge about the implementation of blockchain technology, the objective of this research is exploring in which phases of the real estate management process the process can benefit from the use of blockchain technology.<br/><br/>The research findings contribute to the knowledge of opportunities for broad implementation of blockchain technology in the real estate management process by providing a scientific based research document. It provides a broad overview of different opportunities and constraints for using blockchain technology in the process. It increases awareness for the disruption this technology might bring. This research provides scientific arguments for possibilities of implementing blockchain technology in the real estate management process and will function as a trigger for continuation of research into this topic.<br/><br/>

Marı́a Jesús Lobo-Castañón, Susana Barreda-García, Rebeca Miranda‐Castro, Noemı́ de-los-Santos-Álvarez

Salmonella represents one of the major causes of foodborne diseases in humans, in addition to provoking important economic losses in the agri-food sector worldwide. Therefore, the surveillance and control of this human pathogenic bacterium in foodstuffs and biological fluids are necessary in order to prevent and diagnose the disease. Molecular methods based on the detection of DNA sequences specific to pathogenic species are an appealing alternative to traditional culture-based methods that require 5 to 6 days to obtain a definitive result. Among them, and because of its easy miniaturization, electrochemical genosensors are a suitable option for decentralized genetic testing [1-2]; however, they often require a set of sample pretreatment steps before genetic DNA analysis, thus making their implementation at the point of need more difficult.   Herein, we report the integration of a nucleic acid-based sensor and an isothermal DNA amplification technique, helicase-dependent amplification or HDA, onto indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces for the detection of a DNA sequence specific for the typA gene of Salmonella. DNA amplification process occurs at 65 ºC with short oligonucleotides flanking the target sequence, which act as primers. The reversed primer is covalently bound to the ITO surface through a thiol group present at its 5’ terminus, whereas forward fluorescein-tagged primer is incorporated in solution. As a result of the isothermal elongation step, fluorescein-tagged DNA duplexes are attached to the ITO surface and their enzymatic labelling is achieved via Fab fragments directed against fluorescein, conjugated with the redox enzyme alkaline phosphatase. Then, α-naphthyl phosphate is enzymatically dephosphorylated into an electroactive derivate α-naphthol whose amount, directly related to the Salmonella present in the sample, is measured by differential pulse voltammetry. This developed integrated sensing platform allows the detection of Salmonella down to 10 genomes in just over 2 hours [3], the same detection limit as that achieved by real-time PCR but without need of high-end benchtop instrumentation. Furthermore, the sensing layer built onto ITO surfaces maintains its performance even after 9 months storage, and possesses a great potential to be extended to the in-situ, fast and reliable detection of other pathogens.   References: [1] D. Mabey, R.W. Peeling, A. Ustianowski and M.D. Perkins, Nat. Rev Microbiol., 2004, 2, 231-240. [2] A.S. Patterson, K. Hsieh, H.T. Soh and K.W. Plaxco, Trends Biotechnol., 2013, 31, 704-712. [3] S. Barreda-García, R. Miranda-Castro, N. de-los-Santos-Álvarez, A.J. Miranda-Ordieres, M.J. Lobo-Castañón, Chem. Comm., 2017, 53, 9721-9724.   Acknowledgments: This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2015-63567-R), the Principado de Asturias government (FC-15-GRUPIN14-025), and co-financed by FEDER funds.

Shuba Olena А., Honcharova Yuliia Yu., Bulygina Anastasia V.

The article is aimed at researching bitcoin, the digital currency. It has been found that Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, that is, the virtual money, which has no material equivalent. The history of creation and development of cryptocurrency was reviewed. There is a reduction in volatility, which guarantees the security of currency, as well as the increase in currency volume and the inability to estimate the profitability of bitcoins. The dynamics of the value of digital currency in US dollars over recent years has been analyzed. Improvement of attitude of many countries to the considered cryptocurrency, in particular the USA, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Israel and Scandinavian countries has been identified. The reasons of Ukraine’s interest in Bitcoin have been considered. Possibilities of creation of cryptocurrency on the territory of Ukraine have been analyzed, i.e. cost of electricity for mining, the legal status of mining firms, and the attitude of the National Bank of Ukraine to the digital currency. It has been concluded that the recognition of Bitcoin by the world countries in the future will allow it to be granted the status of world-wide currency.

Natalia G. Vovchenko, А. В. Андреева, A.S. Orobinskiy, Y.M. Filippov

Modern economy is developing in a process able format, gradually turning into a virtual economic system. Digital economy serves as the new paradigm of economic development and reformats business relationship on the basis of the use of information.New information and network technologies are becoming major factors of globalizing economy production and contribute to rapid transition of economic agents from real sector to a network one, ensuring digital economy development and innovative business processes formation.The blockchain technology implements competitive advantages of financial contracts based on reduction of the costs on economic agents' interaction, provision of information transparency and effective control over operational risks. The blockchain technology contributes to financial security of the modernization operations of business processes and high organized centralized structures of the blockchain technology.The blockchain application for financial transactions allows providing high quality of the contracts implementation between the digital economy's economic agents.

Mychailo Tarasiuk, Dmytro Babin

With the rise of the modern technologies and wide implementation of digital systems, establishment of cashless economy is perspective trend in Ukraine. In contrast to the traditional kinds of money, which can be considered as a payment facility in online deals too, smart currencies have advanced level of security from cybercrime. These factors induce new “e-money” epoch and “cryptocurrency” term is extensively discussed. The aim of the article is to justify the perspectives of using cryptocurrencies for payment operations guided by historic aspect of research. The study is based on the use of historic and analysis and synthesis methods of research. The principles of cryptocurrency functioning and the essence of “blockchain” technology are analyzed. Formed the potential possibilities of blockchain bank integration. Previous conditions of origin and main stages of cryptocurrency development are determined. The essence of digital currency is revealed and Its main kinds are described. The history of development and functioning of cryptocurrency is divided into seven periods. Its proved, that cryptocurrency is not a full-fledged money but highly liquid asset, which perspectives on a worlds capital market are undeniable.

Sara Hourani

No abstract is available for this record.

Christos-Spyridon Karavas, Konstantinos Arvanitis, George Papadakis

Energy management systems are essential and indispensable for the secure and optimal operation of autonomous polygeneration microgrids which include distributed energy technologies and multiple electrical loads. In this paper, a multi-agent decentralized energy management system was designed. In particular, the devices of the microgrid under study were controlled as interactive agents. The energy management problem was formulated here through the application of game theory, in order to model the set of strategies between two players/agents, as a non-cooperative power control game or a cooperative one, according to the level of the energy produced by the renewable energy sources and the energy stored in the battery bank, for the purpose of accomplishing optimal energy management and control of the microgrid operation. The Nash equilibrium was used to compromise the possible diverging goals of the agents by maximizing their preferences. The proposed energy management system was then compared with a multi-agent decentralized energy management system where all the agents were assumed to be cooperative and employed agent coordination through Fuzzy Cognitive Maps. The results obtained from this comparison, demonstrate that the application of game theory based control, in autonomous polygeneration microgrids, can ensure operational and financial benefits over known energy management approaches incorporating distributed intelligence.

Sheng Cheng, Bo Zeng, Yanyu Huang

Abstract In the context of current energy Internet, the emergence of a large number of energy productive consumers will create a new business model. In the decentralized electricity market, the cost of traditional centralized solution construction, management and maintenance is too high, and it is difficult to support the collection, transmission, reception, storage and analysis of massive data. To provide a solution to this phenomenon, we apply the blockchain technology to this distributed electricity market to achieve peer to peer transactions in the power systems. The blockchain technology which is very popular nowadays will be used in power system to establish a credible direct transaction between devices. At first, this article analyzes the future direction of the development of power systems, studies the characteristics of decentralized power systems and summarizes the main issues in the development process. Then, we analyze the basic characteristics of blockchain and put forward a new transaction framework in consideration of problems existing in current energy market. The transaction framework is based on the blockchain technology in the distributed electricity market and includes the pricing method, the power transaction system architecture, various modules of the trading system and the details of the whole transaction system runtime. This framework provides a viable solution for increasingly complex energy transactions.

Ignacio De León, Ravi Gupta

Analogous to the emergence of the internet, the introduction of blockchain technology augurs disruptive change to the music industry. Though in its infancy, the technology presents interesting policy issues related to registering and monetizing intellectual property, policing piracy, and creating and executing more flexible contracts between and among members in the music supply chain, among others. This paper assesses the ability of the distributed ledger technology to steer the industry toward a distributed model and its potential to drastically alter the entire music supply chain. It initiates a conversation about policy implications and how policymakers might address the issues related to adopting blockchain technology, including designing policies that support an environment that enables the well-deserved compensation of artists.

Muhammad Reza Rizky Fauzi, Surya Michrandi Nasution, Marisa W. Paryasto

The present study discusses the workings of blockchain bitcoin in the transactions sector, on the development of today's emerging computers in the financial sector of blockchain bitcoin traction. In this case the author analyzes how the transaction is running, as well as how blockchain bitcoin is doing work in transactions on the system to make transactions. Transaction is a data structure that encodes the transfer of values between users with in a bitcoin system. Every transaction is a public entry in this bitcoin blockchain. And become a large transaction bookkeeping global.

Raja Sakti Arief Daulay, Surya Michrandi Nasution, Marisa W. Paryasto

The implementation research and analyze address blockchain on this bitcoin will have the results that refers to making address bitcoin a safe and boost security of address the bitcoin. The working mechanism of blockchain in making address bitcoin which is already in the blockchain system.

Michael Mainelli, Matthew Leitch

This project was commissioned by DasCoin in the summer of 2017. Z/Yen’s Long Finance project team reviewed the limited literature on the topic to produce four discussion papers that described the issues and explored some potential ways of addressing them. On 4 October 2017, Long Finance held a symposium to explore the discussion papers in the ornate Main Reception Room at Chartered Accountants’ Hall in London. The 28 participants had wide ranging backgrounds and interests. They included representatives from regulators, professional associations, external audit firms, technology companies, and academia. This report includes the background information chapters on Auditing Distributed Ledgers, Auditing Distributed Data, Auditing Distributed 'Smarts', and Auditing Consortium Blockchain Systems, along with a brief summary of the symposium discussions. The final chapter makes suggestions for the audit profession to address.

Nikolay Teslya, Igor Ryabchikov

The development of robotics, the Internet of Things concept, big data processing techniques, automation, and distributed digital ledgers leads to the fourth industrial revolution. One of the main issues of new industry is interaction between the "smart factory" components both internally and with other factories based on the Internet of Things. This interaction should provide trust between the participants of the Internet of Things; control over the distribution of resources (such as maintenance time, energy, etc.) and finished products. The paper describes one of the possible ways of integrating Internet of Things and blockchain technologies to solve these issues. For this purpose, an architecture has been developed that combines Smart-M3 information sharing platform and blockchain platform. One of the main features of the proposed architecture is the use of smart contracts for processing and storing information related to the interaction between smart space components.

Ross C. Phillips, Denise Gorse

Financial price bubbles have previously been linked with the epidemic-like spread of an investment idea; such bubbles are commonly seen in cryptocurrency prices. This paper aims to predict such bubbles for a number of cryptocurrencies using a hidden Markov model previously utilised to detect influenza epidemic outbreaks, based in this case on the behaviour of novel online social media indicators. To validate the methodology further, a trading strategy is built and tested on historical data. The resulting trading strategy outperforms a buy and hold strategy. The work demonstrates both the broader utility of epidemic-detecting hidden Markov models in the identification of bubble-like behaviour in time series, and that social media can provide valuable predictive information pertaining to cryptocurrency price movements.

Volker Brühl

The phenomenon of virtual currencies has to be distinguished from the underlying distributed ledger technologies. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies need to be subject to strict financial regulation and supervision to ensure investor protection. At the same time, distributed ledger technologies will shape the future of the financial services in many respects. The disruptive potential is illustrated for selected financial products and processes.

Ramiro Daniel Camino, Radu State, Leandro Montero, Petko Valtchev

Banks and financial institutions around the world must comply with several policies for the prevention of money laundering and in order to combat the financing of terrorism. Nowadays, there is a raise in the popularity of novel financial technologies such as digital currencies, social trading platforms and distributed ledger payments, but there is a lack of approaches to enforce the aforementioned regulations accordingly. Software tools are developed to detect suspicious transactions usually based on knowledge from experts in the domain, but as new criminal tactics emerge, detection mechanisms must be updated. Suspicious activity examples are scarce or nonexistent, hindering the use of supervised machine learning methods. In this paper, we describe a methodology for analyzing financial information without the use of ground truth. A user suspicion ranking is generated in order to facilitate human expert validation using an ensemble of anomaly detection algorithms. We apply our procedure over two case studies: one related to bank fund movements from a private company and the other concerning Ripple network transactions. We illustrate how both examples share interesting similarities and that the resulting user ranking leads to suspicious findings, showing that anomaly detection is a must in both traditional and modern payment systems.

Alexander Grech, Anthony F. Camilleri

Every individual undergoes a series of educational programs and acquires skills and pedagogical certifications throughout his/her life from various educational and skill development organisations across the world, including the companies they work for. It is imperative that there is a comprehensive record of these certifications that can be authentically verified by those wanting to employ the individual for these respective skills accredited through certifications. In this chapter, the authors explore the utility of blockchain technology-led digitization, automation of trust, and disintermediation in education sector. They examine some of the prominent use cases and challenges faced by blockchain technology. They also look at the current state of blockchain technology-enabled applications in related domains and its implications for the education sector in India along with a real-life illustration with implementation using AuxCert on Auxledger, a permissioned blockchain platform from Auxesis group.