More than 500,000 people experience homelessness in America each day. Local and federal solutions to the problem have had limited success because of the fragmentation of services and lack of valid and timely information. Billions of dollars spent to provide reliable, timely, and actionable information in health care have exposed the difficulty of establishing such a system using the prevalent information technology solutions. However, relying on successful examples of the use of blockchain to help refugee populations and poor farmers internationally, we have partnered to propose an innovative solution to this problem using the case of people experiencing homelessness in Austin, Texas. This paper aims to describe one of the first applications of blockchain technology for addressing homelessness in the United States by creating a digital identity for people experiencing homelessness and engaging emergency medical services and clinical providers. The authors argue that a lack of documentation to prove personal identity and the inability to access own records are major hurdles for empowering persons experiencing homelessness to be resilient and overcome the life challenges they face. Furthermore, it is argued that this lack of information causes misdiagnosis, duplication, and fragmentation in service delivery, which can be potentially addressed by blockchain technology. Further planning for creating a program on the ground with additional funding will demonstrate the results of using blockchain technology to establish digital identity for persons experiencing homelessness.
Recently, the world has seen the emergence of new phenomenal technology named crypto currency (Bitcoin) which is attracted to several international networkers across the globe. Yet, the Bitcoin was the online currency which is replaced the hard currency in a business online transaction and was accepted only by internet users so far. Though, this invisible currency was not allowed or even accepted in Arab world society because of religious circumstances or governmental consent. In this study, we tried to analyze the real challenges and necessitates that face the Bitcoin in the Arabian region. Therefore, the outcomes have been found that Islamic business rules somehow have restricted the using of the Bitcoin process in financial transactions. Furthermore, the lowest and highest service cost of internet represent the key consequences behind lessen of using Bitcoin. According to Google trends Data from 2013 to 2019, many Arabian-individuals did not know or even unfamiliar with the use of Bitcoin. Keywords: key words, Bitcoin; Arabic countries; Islamic; Internet services DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-6-18 Publication date :March 31 st 2019
Yu‐Jin Kwon, Hyoungshick Kim, Jinwoo Shin, Yongdae Kim
Bitcoin has become the most popular cryptocurrency based on a peer-to-peer network. In Aug. 2017, Bitcoin was split into the original Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Since then, miners have had a choice between BTC and BCH mining because they have compatible proof-of-work algorithms. Therefore, they can freely choose which coin to mine for higher profit, where the profitability depends on both the coin price and mining difficulty. Some miners can immediately switch the coin to mine only when mining difficulty changes because the difficulty changes are more predictable than that for the coin price, and we call this behavior fickle mining. In this paper, we study the effects of fickle mining by modeling a game between two coins. To do this, we consider both fickle miners and some factions (e.g., BITMAIN for BCH mining) that stick to mining one coin to maintain that chain. In this model, we show that fickle mining leads to a Nash equilibrium in which only a faction sticking to its coin mining remains as a loyal miner to the less valued coin (e.g., BCH), where loyal miners refer to those who conduct mining even after coin mining difficulty increases. This situation would cause severe centralization, weakening the security of the coin system. To determine which equilibrium the competing coin systems (e.g., BTC vs. BCH) are moving toward, we traced the historical changes of mining power for BTC and BCH and found that BCH often lacked loyal miners until Nov. 13, 2017, when the difficulty adjustment algorithm of BCH mining was changed. However, the change in difficulty adjustment algorithm of BCH mining led to a state close to the stable coexistence of BTC and BCH. We also demonstrate that the lack of BCH loyal miners may still be reached when a fraction of miners automatically and repeatedly switches to the most profitable coin to mine (i.e., automatic mining). According to our analysis, as of Dec. 2018, loyal miners to BCH would leave if more than about 5% of the total mining capacity for BTC and BCH has engaged in the automatic mining. In addition, we analyze the recent “hash war” between Bitcoin ABC and SV, which confirms our theoretical analysis. Finally, we note that our results can be applied to any competing cryptocurrency systems in which the same hardware (e.g., ASICs or GPUs) can be used for mining. Therefore, our study brings new and important angles in competitive coin markets: a coin can intentionally weaken the security and decentralization level of the other rival coin when mining hardware is shared between them, allowing for automatic mining.
In recent years, we have seen a great deal of both academic and practical interest in the topic of vulnerabilities in smart contracts, particularly those developed for the Ethereum blockchain. While most of the work has focused on detecting *vulnerable* contracts, in this paper, we focus on finding how many of these vulnerable contracts have actually been *exploited*. We survey the 23,327 vulnerable contracts reported by six recent academic projects and find that, despite the amounts at stake, only 1.98% of them have been exploited since deployment. This corresponds to at most 8,487 ETH (~1.7 million USD), or only 0.27% of the 3 million ETH (600 million USD) at stake. We explain these results by demonstrating that the funds are very concentrated in a small number of contracts which are *not exploitable* in practice.
Donncha Kavanagh, Gianluca Miscione, Paul J. Ennis
The global financial crisis and the contemporaneous emergence of the digital currency Bitcoin invite us to think about money and how it often functions almost imperceptibly in society. In this article, we show that Bitcoin is a ‘new object of concern’ that also compels us to reimagine ethnography in a digital age. We present a method, which we term ethno-resonance, that is both a reaction to the conditions presented by the Bitcoin phenomenon and a way of maintaining critical distance from its cyberlibertarian politics. We explicate six aspects of the method, framed around answers to what, why, how, who, when and where questions. Applied to cryptocurrencies, the method leads us to depict Bitcoin as a game, and we analyse the game’s dynamics through mapping the interplay between four foundational myths that animate, complicate and sustain the game. More broadly, this contributes to our understanding of the nature of money and alternative currencies.
innovations in peer-to-peer software protocols 3 commonly known as blockchain technology.These protocols make it possible for individuals to safely and securely complete transactions in digital information of some value, also known as "cryptocurrency," 4 without the need for either a central authority 5 to act as a third party or government-enforced rule of law. 6 But what happens when code fails to protect the basic rights that our existing laws have always sought to protect?Bitcoin-a cryptocurrency that is one form of blockchain information-continues to dominate the daily headlines, primarily due to its wild fluctuations in market price. 7 The all-time-high market price reached in 2017 correlates, unsurprisingly, with the record number of transactions 8 and wallet users 9 achieved.But the meteoric rise in price occurred without much public discussion of blockchain's technological innovation outside of a relatively small group of COINREPORT (July 27, 2016), https://coinreport.net/into-the-ether-ethereum/[https://perma.cc/GB9X-K53K].3. Protocols, in this sense, are the rules written into the code that govern how the software may be used.See PEDRO FRANCO, UNDERSTANDING BITCOIN:
Mehrnoosh Mirtaheri, Sami Abu-El-Haija, Fred Morstatter, Greg Ver Steeg · 5 authors
Interest surrounding cryptocurrencies, digital or virtual currencies that are used as a medium for financial transactions, has grown tremendously in recent years. The anonymity surrounding these currencies makes investors particularly susceptible to fraud---such as ``pump and dump'' scams---where the goal is to artificially inflate the perceived worth of a currency, luring victims into investing before the fraudsters can sell their holdings. Because of the speed and relative anonymity offered by social platforms such as Twitter and Telegram, social media has become a preferred platform for scammers who wish to spread false hype about the cryptocurrency they are trying to pump. In this work we propose and evaluate a computational approach that can automatically identify pump and dump scams as they unfold by combining information across social media platforms. We also develop a multi-modal approach for predicting whether a particular pump attempt will succeed or not. Finally, we analyze the prevalence of bots in cryptocurrency related tweets, and observe a significant increase in bot activity during the pump attempts.
The use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum in performing online transactions has been on the rise in the world. Africa as a continent is not left out in the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This paper explores the prospects and challenges of developing a cryptocurrency in Rwanda which we denote Rwandacoin. In addition, the paper discusses the potentials of Rwandacoin easing intercountry trading in East Africa.
In this paper, we present an analysis of the mining process of two popular assets, Bitcoin and gold. The analysis highlights that Bitcoin, more specifically its underlying technology, is a “safe haven” that allows facing the modern environmental challenges better than gold. Our analysis emphasizes that crypto-currencies systems have a social and economic impact much smaller than that of the traditional financial systems. We present an analysis of the several stages needed to produce an ounce of gold and an artificial agent-based market model simulating the Bitcoin mining process and allowing the quantification of Bitcoin mining costs. In this market model, miners validate the Bitcoin transactions using the proof of work as the consensus mechanism, get a reward in Bitcoins, sell a fraction of them to cover their expenses, and stay competitive in the market by buying and divesting hardware units and adjusting their expenses by turning off/on their machines according to the signals provided by a technical analysis indicator, the so-called relative strength index.
A vast digital eco-system of entrepreneurship and exchange has sprung up with Bitcoin’s digital infrastructure at its core. We explore the worldwide spread of infrastructure necessary to maintain and grow Bitcoin as a system (Bitcoin nodes) and infrastructure enabling the use of bitcoins for everyday economic transactions (Bitcoin merchants). Specifically, we investigate the role of legal, criminal, financial and social determinants of the adoption of Bitcoin infrastructure. We offer some support for the view that the adoption of cryptocurrency infrastructure is driven by perceived failings of traditional financial systems, in that the spread of Bitcoin infrastructure is associated with low trust in banks and the financial system among inhabitants of a region, and with the occurrence of country-level inflation crises. On the other hand, our findings also suggest that active support for Bitcoin is higher in locations with well-developed banking services. Finally, we find support for the view that bitcoin adoption is also partly driven by cryptocurrencies’ usefulness in engaging in illicit trade.
The phenomenon of transnational crimes such as money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing remains a persistent problem for the international community and for individual states. Though existing efforts to combat transnational crimes are by no means perfect, the recent iteration of financial technology – cryptocurrencies – presents a potential alternative means for circumventing the regulatory measures that inhibit transnational crimes. Most features of traditional banking facilities are absent in cryptocurrencies: transactions therein are considered to be relatively anonymous, cryptocurrencies are also decentralized, and their use lacks any formal oversight. Thus, cryptocurrencies could be considered a further complication to the already challenging problem faced by regulatory and enforcement agencies in striving to combat transnational crimes. To date, the degree to which cryptocurrencies remain susceptible to exploitation for criminal purposes is still the subject of much debate. Therefore, this thesis will contribute to this ongoing conversation by examining the extent to which the use of cryptocurrencies facilitates transnational crimes and in turn circumvent the existing global anti-money laundering (AML) regime. Using a New Legal Realism theoretical lens, this thesis interrogates how the complex international AML framework could be interpreted, in the first instance, to apply to cryptocurrency-facilitated money laundering. This thesis also provides an overview of cryptocurrencies using Bitcoin as a case study. Given the emerging nature of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, as the first fully developed and widely used cryptocurrency network, is used to highlight the operating systems of cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, this work draws from the criminological discipline to explain the attractiveness of cryptocurrencies for money laundering to facilitate transnational crime. Relying on a number of criminological theories, this thesis demonstrates the importance of regulating cryptocurrencies while the problem of its illicit use is still at a nascent stage. In this case cryptocurrencies, in the absence of cohesive regulation, could become attractive to criminals seeking alternative avenues to launder the proceeds of their crimes. Thus, this thesis contributes original insights to the discussion of new techniques for facilitating transnational crimes by demonstrating through interpretation, how cryptocurrencies could be brought within the application of the existing AML regime as it is.
For many, the appeal of bitcoin is in its detachment from government regulation. \nHowever, the Coffee bonding theory, which initially arose in the context of foreign \nstocks, suggests certain benefits of regulation for bitcoin, including increased \nlegitimacy. By invoking the Coffee bonding theory, this Article offers another \nperspective on the regulation of bitcoin.
Portuguese abstract: O artigo destina-se à análise da possibilidade de aplicação do crime de lavagem de dinheiro a práticas de comercialização e utilização do sistema Bitcoin no Brasil. Para tanto, leva-se em conta a legislação vigente, aspectos específicos da tecnologia e o atual entendimento de órgãos reguladores sobre o tema. English abstract: The article aims to analyze the possibility of applying the money laundering law in commercial practices and in the use of the Bitcoin system in Brazil. To this end, it takes into account the current legislation, specific aspects of the technology and the current understanding of regulatory bodies on the subject.
The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how public blockchains offer a greater degree of censorship resistance over traditional web-based information broadcasting mechanisms, and a comparison of existing options. Public blockchains present a means to mitigate censorship from nation states through both a broadcasting and data storage mechanism. They are costly to attack and difficult to remove from the public due to their distributed and accessible nature. A recent incident in China proved the worth of public blockchains by forcing the distribution of a censored letter describing harassment by Peking University into an Ethereum transaction by an anonymous individual or party. The Chinese government censored the letter on popular centralized services such as WeChat, but was unable to censor it once posted to the Ethereum blockchain. Through the demonstration of the letter’s presence on Ethereum as well as the act of placing it on other public blockchains, this research highlights the importance of how public blockchains will continue to be a vessel for the protection of information well into the future.
The purpose of this study is to perform a systematic literature review on Bitcoin and unveil its upsides, downside and divergent views from previous studies. The paper presents a systematic literature review of key studies published on Bitcoin between 2008 and 2019. The focus is given to three topics: benefits of Bitcoin; its shortcomings; and divergent views presented by previous cryptocurrency scholars in details. The results indicate that Bitcoin offers four key benefits—its acceptance as a digital currency, effective portfolio diversifier, hedging capabilities and higher security. Literature review revealed five major shortcomings of Bitcoin—weak substitute for traditional currency, higher volatility, idiosyncratic risks, uncertain regulatory impact and its exogenous supply. Finally, the review reveals three major areas wherein cryptocurrency scholars found to have divergent view—acceptance of its hedging capabilities across regions and portfolios, consensus on Bitcoin as highly secured and safe asset and, general acceptance of Bitcoin as a substitute of traditional currencies.
An analyse of bolivar/bitcoin trading activity indicates that Bitcoin trading in Venezuela is more a reflection of a survival technique rather than an investment strategy with the median transactions price significantly smaller than the medians in the Argentine peso, the Brazilian real and the UK pound. A large number of very small trades point to the practice of exchanging only as many bitcoins as is necessary for immediate use, with inflation as high as 3-4%/day. An analysis of the size of transactions in bitcoins also points to much smaller bitcoin transactions in the bolivar compared to the peso, real and pound. While Bitcoin transactions in the real and the pound indicate a range of trading opportunities from small to large transactions, peso/bitcoin transactions indicate a currency that may be at the start of a journey not dissimilar to the bolivar as transactions start to get smaller in 2018. This analysis supports the anecdotal evidence that bolivar/bitcoin trading is used as a survival technique in a country with a failing economy and worthless fiat currency
Blockchain is a relatively new technology originally created to store Bitcoin’s transaction records. The system is highly redundant and distributed, making it very difficult for fraudulent financial transactions. While cryptocurrencies might be the most well-known use case of blockchain technology, it is wrong to assume that this technology is restricted to the financial area. Indeed, many blockchain use cases are being developed today in different areas. Due to the complexity of certain processes, a new technology associated to blockchain has appeared – smart contracts. These digital contracts act like traditional contracts, with the major difference being their automaticity. In this article, we aim to discuss how blockchain and smart contracts may be used together in order to improve organizational operations. More specifically, we demonstrate how these technologies might be used to develop a solution that avoids certain types of fraud in the area of vehicle insurance.