Blockchain Papers

Yongge Wang, Qutaibah Malluhi

Although smart contracts are Turing complete, it is a misconception that they can fulfill all routine contracts.

Yoon-Chow Yeong

Despite cryptocurrency is deemed as a core evolution to the field of financial technologies, its legal status remains debatable over the globe. While the Malaysian government has launched cryptocurrency regulations in 2019, it is expected cryptocurrency will still be around in the near future. However, there is a lack of cryptocurrency acceptance study in Malaysia context. The primary goal of this study is to propose a research model that combines cryptocurrency variables with the constructs embedded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology2 (UTAUT2) to investigate the influencing factors of cryptocurrency acceptance in a developing country context.

Jodie Moll, Ogan Yigitbasioglu

No abstract is available for this record.

Nathalie Brender, Marion Gauthier, Jean‐Henry Morin, Arbër Salihi

In today’s debate on the potential disruptive effects of blockchain, audit and control professions are rarely in the spotlight although applications such as smart contracts and distributed ledgers could significantly impact them. We conducted a study based on the grounded theory to understand how auditors in Switzerland anticipate the impacts of blockchain on their activities. Based on our findings, three hypotheses have emerged. First, the potential effect of blockchain on the profession is not fully anticipated. Second, the profession will go through a paradigm shift in two ways: become more IT oriented and forward looking. Finally, the profile of the auditors will change.

Akihiko Noda

This study examines whether the market efficiencies of major cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple) change over time based on the adaptive market hypothesis (AMH) of Lo (2004). In particular, we measure the degree of market efficiency using Ito et al.'s (2014, 2016, 2017) generalized least squares-based time-varying model. The empirical results show that (1) the degree of market efficiency varies with time in cryptocurrency markets, (2) the market efficiency level of Bitcoin is higher than that of the other markets over most periods, and (3) the market efficiency of cryptocurrencies has evolved. We conclude that the results support the AMH for the established cryptocurrency market.

Md. Nazmus Saadat, Syed Abdul Halim, Husna Osman, Rasheed Mohammad Nassr · 5 authors

<p class="Abstract"><span>Initially, blockchain is only used as a foundation of cryptocurrency, but today, we can see the rise of this new emerging technology are being implemented in many industries. In the future, most technologies around the world are expected to use blockchain as an efficient way to make online transactions. One of the areas that blockchain technologies can be applied is crowdfunding platforms. The most common problem with current crowdfunding scene in around the world including is that the campaigns are not regulated and some of the crowd-funding campaign turned out to be fraud. Besides, the completion of some projects also was significantly delayed. This project aims to solve these problems by applying Ethereum smart contracts to the crowdfunding site to that the contracts will be fully automatically executed, thus preventing frauds and ensuring that the projects can be delivered within duration given.</span></p>

Alex Murray, Scott Kuban, Matthew Josefy, Jon E. Anderson

This paper explores blockchain technology’s potential to alter contracting both in the market and within organizations. We identify and discuss how blockchain reduces certain types of transaction costs while introducing additional costs that have not been present in traditional contracts. Blockchain technology also presents a new method to mitigate or avoid certain types of agency costs that stem from contracting with agents inside the firm. Through this theoretical discussion, our paper proposes several avenues for future research on how blockchain may alter contracting.

Ahmed Zouhair, Noah Kasraie

Bitcoin is one of the original cryptocurrencies. It was introduced by an anonymous author who goes by the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto (Nakamoto, n.d.). His genius proposal was based on the premise of user anonymity and decentralization (Barber, Boyen, Shi, Uzun, 2012). Bitcoin started out as a payment system among a small group of enthused users and was then mass-adopted. Most users employ it for legal activities such as investments and purchases, while some use it for illegal activities, products, and services like gambling, money laundering, tax evasion, kidnap ransoms, drugs, and prostitution (Kristoufek, 2015). In regard to reasons for using Bitcoin, studies have shown that the majority of Bitcoin owners view it as an investment rather than a currency for purchases or other financial transactions (Henry, Huynh, & Nicholls, 2018; Glaser, Zimmermann, Haferkorn, Weber & Siering, 2014). The purpose of this study was to determine what attracts and motivates consumers to own Bitcoin cryptocurrency and to fill a gap in the academic literature. The findings indicate that there is a strong relationship between owning Bitcoin and a desire for financial profit. This study concludes that the main motivation is of course profit which was driven by both finances and innovative technology led Bitcoin users to mining and installing Bitcoin clients, and then investing and trading afterwards.

Eder J. Scheid, Bruno Rodrigues, Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville, Burkhard Stiller

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are documents that specify what Service Providers (SP) are delivering to customers. They contain information about the service, such as target performance level or monthly availability, and penalties for the violations of the SLA. The information about the penalties is essential because if the SP does not deliver what is defined, the customer must be compensated accordingly. However, the current compensation process is cumbersome and complex because of the amount of involved manual effort. To address this issue, it is proposed in this paper an approach based on blockchain and Smart Contracts (SC) to automate the compensation process while enabling dynamic payments during the SLA lifetime. The proposed approach was evaluated in an use case that simulates the management of a Quality of Service SLA between an SP and a customer. Based on the performed evaluation, parts of the SLA management process were successfully automated using a decentralized solution, and the payment of the compensation occurred without the intervention of a third party.

Mansi Borole, Abhishek Nilange, Karan Velhal, Twinkle Joshi

Blockchain has a great potential in distributed shared peer to peer ledger like spreadsheets that record any transaction. A copy of ledger is shared between all stakeholders. Blockchain plays an important role for secure decentralization and brings more transparency to the system. Traditionally, within the society, people have created trust through intermediaries. They use these third party entities because they trust that they will store and protect their goods and send the right amount when they request it, and to the right person. In Government sector, there is a critical need to have more transparency in transactions and so this system has been designed as an effective mechanism to avoid the corruption. Blockchain technology provides the transparency so that actors present in this use case can track the flow of any transaction. Any transaction pertaining to DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) is recorded. Blockchain replaces the need for intermediaries by redirecting the trust to decentralized systems.

Paolo Biancone, Silvana Secinaro, Mohamad Kamal

Focus on a concrete project, share the results, contain the risk. These are some of the precepts of Islamic finance. But they are also the cornerstones of crowdfunding. This is why this form of financing is cutting out its space. With an extra pillar: no interests. The resources are still limited, but the Muslim crowdfunding ecosystem is diversifying: from the most basic reward based on social lending, with an eye to the Fintech. FinTech refers to technofinance or financial technology, that is to say, the supply of services and financial products provided through the most modern technologies made available to ICT. The services provided by FinTech are essentially those of traditional finance: therefore, from simple transactions to payments, to brokering and risk management, typical and exclusive of this sector are the activities linked to electronic currencies such as for example, the Bitcoin.

Markos Zachariadis, Garrick Hileman, Susan Scott

No abstract is available for this record.

Daniel Liebau, Patrick Scheuffel

The volume of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) had risen steeply with an all-time high market capitalisation of close to 1 Trillion USD in December 2017. Since then, the digital asset market has slumped, retreating to approximately 200 Billion USD by mid-2018. Stakeholders of the crypto industry have pondered the reasons for this retrenchment and are increasingly focusing on the notion that many ICOs could be scams. A recent industry study even went as far to claim that 80% of all ICOs are indeed scams. In this paper, we investigate the question whether these scams are as common as claimed. We do so by first defining what a scam is and secondly, by drawing on empirical data to assess the number of cases fitting such a definition. Building on Principal Agent Theory and based on the statistical analysis of our empirical data set we attempt to establish the current state of affairs with regards to scams in the cryptocurrency world. The results of our study divert from salient beliefs.

Antoon Spithoven

:I analyze cryptocurrency ecosystems with Elinor Ostrom’s meta-framework for self-governance. I conclude that Bitcoin falls short in its self-governing ambitions, while cryptocurrency software protocols and blockchain technologies have potentialities within “permissioned” peer-to-peer private or hybrid networks. However, regulation and supervision by trusted third parties are required.

Alex Norta, Benjamin Leiding, Alexi Lane

Transferring money and gaining access to credit across international borders, is still complicated, time consuming and expensive. Existing money transfer systems suffer furthermore from long lines, exchange rate losses, counter-party risks, bureaucracy and extensive paperwork. An estimate two billion adults are unbanked and with no, or limited access to financial services. Providing workable financial services to this population is often tagged as a key step towards eliminating world poverty and bootstrapping local economies. The Everex application focuses on easing the financial inclusion problem by applying blockchain technology for cross-border remittance, online payment, currency exchange and micro lending, without the volatility issues of existing, non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Finally, the Everex wallet facilitates a fiat-to-cryptocurrency gateway that eases access to cryptocurrencies, thereby enabling our users to instantly buy and sell tokens without having to visit an exchange. This paper fills the gap in the state of the art by presenting a blockchain-based capital transfer system that aims to lower financial inclusion barriers and provide financial services to the unbanked. We present the advantages of the system, outline the requirements and goals, as well as the architecture of the Everex financial ecosystem.

Christopher D. Clack, Ciaran McGonagle

High-value derivatives contracts require substantial legal protection and\noften utilise standardised legal documentation provided by the International\nSwaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). Smart Derivatives Contracts aim to\nautomate many aspects of high-value contracts, including automation of the\nprovisions of the ISDA legal documentation. Here we investigate how the ISDA\nMaster Agreement may affect the automation of payments and deliveries: we\nprovide a framework for understanding how high-value derivatives contracts are\nstructured at different levels, in terms of both the legal documentation and\nthe workflow; we explain issues relating to how the smart contract code\nprocesses payments-related and deliveries-related events; and we discuss the\nextent to which these are amenable to automation.\n

Mimi Zou, Grace Y. S. Cheng, Marta Soria Heredia

The term 'trustlessness' has given rise to a common misperception of smart contracts reducing or even eliminating the need for trust. At first glance, smart contracts appear to do away with the need for trust in the counterparty. Since performance is automatic, smart contracts enable the promisee to obtain what has been promised to them, without the need to depend on interpersonal trust vis-a-vis the counterparty or a system of contract law to enforce the promise. However, if we take into account the social, economic, and political contexts in which smart contracts operate, do they override the need for trust? In other words, are they really 'trustless'? We argue that a new set of trust concerns arise in the context of smart contracts, especially when they run on blockchains.

Mirko Zichichi, Michele Contu, Stefano Ferretti, Gabriele D'Angelo

Crowdfunding has become a popular form of collective funding, in which small donations or investments, made by groups of people, support the development of new projects in exchange of free products or different types of recognition. Social network sites, on the other hand, promote user cooperation and currently are at the basis of any individuals cyber-interactions. In this paper, we present LikeStarter, a blockchain-based decentralized platform that combines social interactions with crowdfunding mechanisms, allowing any user to raise funds while becoming popular in the social network. Being built over the Ethereum blockchain, LikeStarter is structured as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), that fosters crowdfunding without the intervention of any central authority, and recognizes the active role of donors, enabling them to support artists or projects, while making profits.

Laurie Hughes, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Santosh K. Misra, Nripendra P. Rana · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Christopher S. Henry, Kim P. Huynh, Gradon Nicholls

This article provides an update of the results of the 2017 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey (BTCOS) conducted by the Bank of Canada from December 12 to 15, 2017. The BTCOS was previously conducted in November and December 2016 and the results were reported in Henry, Huynh, and Nicholls (2017, forthcoming). The 2017 survey took place in an interesting time, as Bitcoin prices were increasing and reached an all-time high on December 17, 2017. During this period, the level of awareness of Bitcoin increased from 64 percent in the 2016 BTCOS to 85 percent in the 2017 BTCOS, while ownership rose from 2.9 to 5.0 percent respectively. The main reason cited by survey participants for owning Bitcoin changed from transactional purposes in 2016 to investment purposes in 2017. Further, only about half of Bitcoin owners were found to regularly use Bitcoin to buy goods or services or to send money to other people. <b>TOPICS:</b>Currency, portfolio construction, wealth management

Juvvadi

This paper examines how smart contracts can enhance accounts payable in supply chain finance by automating the three-way match.The conventional system relies on the manual verification of purchase orders, goods receipts, and invoices; hence, it usually causes delays and errors and is expensive.This paper has created a set of conceptual frameworks where blockchain technology is used to automate such processes.The outcomes are great improvements.The processing time is also cut down to approximately 1.5 or 2 days using smart contracts, compared with the manual systems of about 8-14 days.The per 1000 transactions cost is reduced to approximately 650 from 2000 by a wide margin of almost 40-70%.The error rate also reduces drastically from 9.5% to 1.3%, which is primarily through automated validation and elimination of manual data entry.Real-time data capture enhances transparency and accelerates reporting on finances.Certain issues are still there, including the reliability of the data, scaling of the system, and absence of clear legal and accounting standards.The analysis demonstrates that smart contracts can benefit the efficiency, accuracy, and control in the accounts payable process significantly.

Matla Garcia Chavolla

Many individuals (including governments) envision living in a future world where physical currency is a thing of the past. Many countries have made great strides in their efforts to go cashless. At the same time, there is increasing awareness among citizens of the decreasing amount of privacy in their lives. The potential hazards cashless societies pose to financial privacy may incentivize citizens to hold some of their money in independent cryptocurrencies. This article argues that in order for governments in cashless societies to keep firm control over their money supply, they should enact stronger privacy law protections for its citizens in order to decrease the real or perceived loss of (financial) privacy. This paper compares the privacy laws that exist today in both the United States and the European Union and suggests combining elements of both legal systems in order create a more privacy-friendly legal framework that can enable governments to complete against independent cryptocurrencies.

Sibel Yılmaz Türkmen, Serap ERÖZEL DURBİLMEZ

Blockchain ilk defa 2009 yılında ortaya çıkan bir alt yapı teknolojisi olsa da finans dünyası tarafından keşfedilip araştırılmaya başlanması 2014 yılının ilk aylarını bulmuştur. Bugün gelinen noktada, mevcut ekonomik ve iş modellerini bozma gücüyle radikal bir inovasyon olduğunu ispatlamış, yeni ve heyecan verici bir teknoloji olduğu söylenebilir. Finans sektöründen enerji piyasalarına, tedarik zinciri süreçlerine, fikri mülkiyet yönetimine, kamu sektörüne ve bunlar gibi çok çeşitli alanlara verimlilik artışı sağlama potansiyeline sahiptir. Blockchain teknolojisi sağladığı tam otomatik, şeffaf, güvenli ve minimum aracı alt yapısı ile pek çok sektörün ve devletin ilgisini çekmektedir. Yapılan bu çalışmada Blockchain’in taşıdığı potansiyelin daha iyi anlaşılabilmesi için uygulama alanlarına genel bir bakış ile Türkiye’nin bu teknolojiye olan yaklaşımı incelenmiştir. Çalışmada ek olarak Türkiye’deki emeklilik yatırım fon piyasasının işleyişinde kullanılacak özel bir Blockchain ağ yapısı tavsiye edilmiştir. Yapılan araştırma ve incelemeler sonucunda Blockchain kullanımının pek çok sektör için avantajlı, hatta on sene içerisinde hayati öneme sahip olacağı söylenebilir.

Arif GÜMÜŞ, Hakan Erkuş

Blockchain teknolojisi, resmi kurumların katkısı olmadan bir ağa bağlı bilgisayarlar aracılığı ile çeşitli onaylama ve doğrulama işlemlerinin gerçekleştirildiği bir sistemdir. 21. yy’da ortaya çıkan blockchain teknolojisi ve kripto paraların hızla yatırım aracına dönüştüğü görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada blockchain teknolojisinin kullanımı sonucu ortaya çıkan kripto paralar, paranın tarihinden yola çıkılarak incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Kripto paralar sahip olduğu gücü insanların güveninden alırken, geleneksel para gücünü kendisini piyasaya süren devletten almaktadır. Bu çalışmada kripto paraların güçlü ve zayıf yönleri anlatılarak gelecekte geleneksel para birimi gibi kullanılıp kullanılamayacağı incelenmiştir. Kripto paraların bir para birimi olmaktan çok bir yatırım aracı olarak kullanıldığı görülmektedir. İnsanların bu paralara güveni devam ettiği sürece kripto paraların varlığını koruyacağı, değerinde artış ve azalışlar olacağı gözlemlenmiş, güvenin yok olması durumunda ise etkinliklerini devam ettiremeyeceği tespit edilmiştir.