Blockchain Papers

Rune Tevasvold Aune, Maureen O’Hara, Ouziel Slama

No abstract is available for this record.

Justin Macinante

In spite of the apparent lack of success of international emission trading under the Kyoto Protocol, numerous jurisdictions are implementing mitigation mechanisms that put a price on carbon, whether by taxing activities that cause release of carbon to the atmosphere, or by creating markets through which the cost of atmospheric release of carbon is internalised to the relevant activities by way of emission trading schemes. These diverse and heterogeneous mechanisms – in particular the emission trading schemes – might achieve greater efficiency, larger scale, and other benefits, were they to be connected. Against this background, this paper sets out a proposal for a conceptual model for the networking of emission trading schemes, built on the architecture of distributed ledger technology. In this way, it is argued, the interconnection of these emission trading schemes might be achieved flexibly, cost effectively and efficiently, while taking account of the requirements for cooperative approaches, evidenced in the Paris Agreement. The purpose of the paper is to stimulate, and provide a starting point for, more detailed, intensive discussion of what the technical requirements might be of some such scheme.

Adrian Jackson, Ashley Lloyd, Justin Macinante, Markus HHwener

No abstract is available for this record.

Benno Ferrarini, Julie A. Maupin, Marthe Hinojales

No abstract is available for this record.

Paul Fremantle, Benjamin Aziz, Tom Kirkham

The Internet of Things has a number of well-publicised security flaws, resulting in numerous recent attacks.In this paper we lay out a framework for looking at how distributed ledgers and Blockchain technology can be used to enhance the security, privacy and manageability of IoT devices and networks.A significant concern is the inability to process blockchains on small devices.We propose an architecture for IoT security and privacy based on blockchains that addresses this and other issues.We look at related work and propose areas of further research.

Patrick Schueffel

The Blockchain technology will soon be ten years of age. What does not sound a lot in absolute terms is a substantial age in a fast-paced and ever changing technological environment. Large unnoticed by the majority of authors on distributed ledger technologies two alternative technologies have recently emerged: Tangle, and Hashgraph. This article provides an introduction to the three main alternative distributed ledger technologies, Blockchain, Tangle and Hashgraph and yields a high-level comparison.

Victoria L. Lemieux, Manu Sporny

Distributed cryptographic ledgers, such as the blockchain, are now being used in recordkeeping. However, they lack a key feature of more traditional recordkeeping systems needed to establish the authenticity of records and enable reliance on them for trustworthy recordkeeping. The missing feature is known in archival science as the archival bond -- the mutual relationship that exists among documents by virtue of the actions in which they participate. In this paper, we propose a novel data model and syntax using core web principles that can be used to address this shortcoming in distributed ledgers as recordkeeping systems.

Allan Third, John Domingue

Searching for information in distributed ledgers is currently not an easy task, as information relating to an entity may be scattered throughout the ledger with no index. As distributed ledger technologies become more established, they will increasingly be used to represent real world transactions involving many parties and the search requirements will grow. An index providing the ability to search using domain specific terms across multiple ledgers will greatly enhance to power, usability and scope of these systems.

Evangelos Benos, Rod Garratt, Pedro Gurrola-Pérez

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a database architecture which enables the keeping and sharing of records in a distributed and decentralized way, while ensuring its integrity through the use of consensus-based validation protocols and cryptographic signatures. In principle, DLT has the potential to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of securities settlement, the ultimate step of every security transaction. In this paper, we first examine to what extent DLT could add value and change securities settlement. We then characterize the innovation process in the post-trade industry and finally, we describe the economics of a hypothetical DLT-based security settlement industry. Our main conclusions are that: i) DLT has the potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs in securities settlement, but the technology is still evolving and it is uncertain at this point what form, if any, a DLT-based solution for securities settlement will ultimately take, ii) technological innovation in the post-trade industry is more likely to achieve its potential with some degree of co-ordination which could be facilitated by the relevant authorities, and iii) if DLT-based securities settlement becomes a reality, then it is likely to be concentrated among few providers which, in the absence of regulation, could result in inefficient monopoly pricing or efficient price discrimination with service providers capturing much of the market surplus.

Luis Ibáñez, Elena Simperl, Fabien Gandon, Henry Story

The web was originally conceived as decentralized and universal, but during its popularization, its big value was built on centralized servers and nonuniversal access. A key element to redecentralize the web is to be able to generate trustable, secure, and accountable updates among autonomous participants without a central server. The authors believe that the marriage between distributed ledgers and linked data can provide this functionality and unlock the web's true potential. As a first step toward it, the authors propose a minimal vocabulary to describe and link distributed ledgers.

Roman Beck, Christoph Müller-Bloch

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is perceived as groundbreaking. However, blockchain presents incumbent organizations with significant challenges. How should they respond to the advent of this innovative technology, and how can they build the capabilities that are necessary to successfully engage with blockchain? In this case study, we analyze how an incumbent bank deals with the radical innovation of blockchain. We find that blockchain as an innovation is unique, because its transaction cost-lowering nature requires cooperation not only on an intra-organizational, but also on an inter-organizational level to fully leverage the technology. We develop a framework illustrating how the process of discovering, incubating, and accelerating with blockchain can look like. Our research is one of the first case studies in the area; shedding light on the organizational challenges of incumbents as they engage with blockchain. The paper provides a blueprint for business executives in their endeavor of embracing blockchain technology.

Dirk Andreas Zetzsche, Ross P. Buckley, Douglas W. Arner

No abstract is available for this record.

Hossein Kakavand, Nicolette Kost De Sevres, Bart Chilton

No abstract is available for this record.

José Parra-Moyano, Omri Ross

The know-your-customer (KYC) due diligence process is outdated and generates costs of up to USD 500 million per year per bank. We propose a new system, based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that reduces the costs of the core KYC verification process for financial institutions and improves the customer experience. In the proposed system, the core KYC verification process is only conducted once for each customer, regardless of the number of financial institutions with which the customer intends to work. Thanks to DLT, the result of the core KYC verification can be securely shared by customers with all the financial institutions that they intend to work with. This system allows for efficiency gains, cost reduction, improved customer experience, and increased transparency throughout the process of onboarding a customer.

Arjun Singh, Arun Pratap Srivastava, Pushpa Choudhary, Harikesh Pandey · 5 authors

The fourth industrial revolution, which will alter the globe, is commonly referred to as Blockchain technology. Blockchain technology provides a decentralized, distributed, and central authority-free environment. Since Bitcoin launched Blockchain, research has been continuing on non-financial use cases to extend their applicability. Healthcare is an industry with a significant influence on the Blockchain. Healthcare has penetrated the enthusiasm for the changing nature of Blockchain technology. Blockchain is frequently viewed as the most necessary and optimal healthcare technology to handle sophisticated and complex security and interoperability concerns. More significantly, the “value” and trust-based system’s smart contract mechanism can offer automatic action and reaction. Healthcare, on the other hand, is a complex system. In this paper, we introduce the blockchain and its properties, as well as the significance of the blockchain in healthcare. It also provides blockchain administration, adjudication of claims, interoperability, and application. While in several situations, we observed blockchain technology, the use of blockchain in health care was highly addressed in this paper and the reason why blockchain should be utilized. We introduce the advantages of blockchain as well. Furthermore, we examined the difficulties and prospects for the future and how they may be implemented in more healthcare industries. The paper also discusses the current level of Blockchain application development for healthcare and its limits and topics for further research. This paper aims to demonstrate how Blockchain technologies may be utilized in healthcare and what problems this technology may face in the future and what the Blockchain’s prospects are.

Michèle Finck

This article examines data protection on blockchains and other forms of distributed ledger technology. Whereas the General Data Protection Regulation was fashioned for centralised methods of data collection, storage and processing, blockchains decentralise each of these processes. We engage with the resulting tensions in the below analysis.

Hanna Hałaburda

Most of the suggested benefits of blockchain technologies do not come from elements unique to the blockchain.

Juho Lindman, Virpi Kristiina Tuunainen, Matti Rossi

Blockchain technologies offer new open source-based opportunities for developing new types of digital platforms and services. While research on the topic is emerging, it has this far been predominantly focused to technical and legal issues. To broaden our understanding of blockchain technology based services and platforms, we build on earlier literature on payments and payment platforms and propose a research agenda divided into three focal areas of 1) organizational issues; 2) issues related to the competitive environment; and 3) technology design issues. We discuss several salient themes within each of these areas, and derive a set of research question for each theme, highlighting the need to address both risks and opportunities for users, as well as different types of stakeholder organizations. With this research agenda, we contribute to the discussion on future avenues for Information Systems research on blockchain technology based platforms and services.

Authors unavailable

In recent decades, the ad hoc network for vehicles has been a core network technology to provide comfort and security to drivers in vehicle environments. However, emerging applications and services require major changes in underlying network models and computing that require new road network planning. Meanwhile, blockchain widely known as one of the disruptive technologies has emerged in recent years, is experiencing rapid development and has the potential to revolutionize intelligent transport systems. Blockchain can be used to build an intelligent, secure, distributed and autonomous transport system. It allows better utilization of the infrastructure and resources of intelligent transport systems, particularly effective for crowdsourcing technology. In this paper, we proposes a vehicle network architecture based on blockchain in the smart city (Block-VN). Block-VN is a reliable and secure architecture that operates in a distributed way to build the new distributed transport management system. We are considering a new network system of vehicles, Block-VN, above them. In addition, we examine how the network of vehicles evolves with paradigms focused on networking and vehicular information. Finally, we discuss service scenarios and design principles for Block-VN.

Witold Nowiński, Miklós Kozma

Objective: The main purpose of the paper is to show that blockchain technology may disrupt the existing business models and to explore how this may occur. Research Design & Methods: This is a theory development paper which relies on a literature review and desk re-search. The discussion of the reviewed sources leads to the formulation of three re-search propositions. Findings: The paper provides a short overview of key literature on business models and business model innovation, indicating, among others, that new technologies may be one of the drivers of business model innovation. This study also provides an overview of blockchain technology and a range of its business applications showing how it can disrupt business models. It is shown that blockchain technology may affect many dimensions of business models. We propose that there are three crucial ways in which blockchain technology can affect and disrupt business models: by authenticating traded goods, via disintermediation and via lowering transaction costs. Implications & Recommendations: This study shows that blockchain technology may affect diverse dimensions of business models in diverse industries. It is recommended that mangers should follow developments in this field in order to prepare for possible disruptions in their industries. Contribution & Value Added: This study provides an analysis of the possible impact of blockchain technology on business model innovation. Blockchain technology is gaining momentum with more and more diverse applications, as well as increasing numbers of actors involved in its applications. This paper contributes to our understanding of the possible applications of blockchain technology to businesses, and in particular to its impact on business models.

Florian Glaser

Technological innovation and consequential decentralisation are driving forces in the ongoing evolution and increasing openness of digital infrastructures and services. One of the most discussed and allegedly disruptive innovations is the distributed database technology referred to as blockchain. Although it is still in its technological infancy, experimental adoption and customization seem to be in full progress in various potential fields of application ranging from decentralized grids for computation and storage to global financial services. However, the technology and its path of development still entail a lot of common unknowns for practitioners and researchers alike. Especially regarding the question how the technology could amend or be incorporated into the existing landscape of digital services, processes and infrastructures. Hence, in this article we develop an ontology that (1) clearly delineates common terminology, core concepts and components, their relationships as well as innovative features of blockchain technology. It further (2) connects these insights with implications for relevant types of digital market models. Our framework is of high theoretical and practical value as it provides researchers and practitioners a common basis for communication and means for guided analysis of blockchain applicability.

Kentaroh Toyoda, P. Takis Mathiopoulos, Iwao Sasase, Tomoaki Ohtsuki

For more than a decade now, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been quite effective in providing anti-counterfeits measures in the supply chain. However, the genuineness of RFID tags cannot be guaranteed in the post supply chain, since these tags can be rather easily cloned in the public space. In this paper, we propose a novel product ownership management system (POMS) of RFID-attached products for anti-counterfeits that can be used in the post supply chain. For this purpose, we leverage the idea of Bitcoin's blockchain that anyone can check the proof of possession of balance. With the proposed POMS, a customer can reject the purchase of counterfeits even with genuine RFID tag information, if the seller does not possess their ownership. We have implemented a proof-of-concept experimental system employing a blockchain-based decentralized application platform, Ethereum, and evaluated its cost performance. Results have shown that, typically, the cost of managing the ownership of a product with up to six transfers is less than U.S. $1.

Alevtina Dubovitskaya, Zhigang Xu, Samuel Ryu, Michael Schumacher · 5 authors

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are critical, highly sensitive private information in healthcare, and need to be frequently shared among peers. Blockchain provides a shared, immutable and transparent history of all the transactions to build applications with trust, accountability and transparency. This provides a unique opportunity to develop a secure and trustable EMR data management and sharing system using blockchain. In this paper, we present our perspectives on blockchain based healthcare data management, in particular, for EMR data sharing between healthcare providers and for research studies. We propose a framework on managing and sharing EMR data for cancer patient care. In collaboration with Stony Brook University Hospital, we implemented our framework in a prototype that ensures privacy, security, availability, and fine-grained access control over EMR data. The proposed work can significantly reduce the turnaround time for EMR sharing, improve decision making for medical care, and reduce the overall cost.

Daniel E. O’Leary

Summary This paper investigates alternative configurations of different blockchain architectures that can be used for gathering and processing transactions in a range of different settings, including accounting, auditing, supply chain and other types of transaction information. Although there has been substantial focus on the peer‐to‐peer and public versions of blockchain, this paper focuses primarily on cloud‐based and private configuration versions of blockchains and investigates use configurations, advantages and limitations as firms bring blockchain‐based market mechanisms into their organizations. In addition, this paper investigates some emerging issues associated with blockchain use in consortium settings. Finally, this paper relates some proposed uses of blockchain for transaction processing to other technologies, such as data warehouses and databases.