The traditional voting process, whether paper-based or electronic, is often criticized for its lack of transparency, susceptibility to fraud, and dependence on centralized authorities. Blockchain technology, particularly in the Web3 ecosystem, provides a decentralized, secure, and tamper-proof solution for digital voting. This paper explores how blockchain can enhance election integrity by leveraging decentralized applications (DApps), smart contracts, and cryptographic security. The proposed system employs Ethereum-based smart contracts to automate vote casting and tallying while ensuring voter privacy through zero-knowledge proofs. Decentralized Identity (DID) is integrated for secure authentication, preventing double voting and identity fraud. The paper discusses system architecture, security considerations, scalability challenges, and real-world applications of blockchain voting, highlighting how Web3 can transform democratic elections.
This paper provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of the economics and dynamics behind arbitrages between centralized and decentralized exchanges (CEX-DEX) on Ethereum. We refine heuristics to identify arbitrage transactions from on-chain data and introduce a robust empirical framework to estimate arbitrage revenue without knowing traders' actual behaviors on CEX. Leveraging an extensive dataset spanning 19 months from August 2023 to March 2025, we estimate a total of 233.8M USD extracted by 19 major CEX-DEX searchers from 7,203,560 identified CEX-DEX arbitrages. Our analysis reveals increasing centralization trends as three searchers captured three-quarters of both volume and extracted value. We also demonstrate that searchers' profitability is tied to their integration level with block builders and uncover exclusive searcher-builder relationships and their market impact. Finally, we correct the previously underestimated profitability of block builders who vertically integrate with a searcher. These insights illuminate the darkest corner of the MEV landscape and highlight the critical implications of CEX-DEX arbitrages for Ethereum's decentralization.
With the explosive expansion of digital payment systems, financial fraud has now become one of the most serious threats facing economic stability in many sectors. This paper presents a critical analysis of how methods for causal inference could contribute to improvement of fraud detection by revealing underlying patterns rather than correlations. The paper presents a theoretical model that integrates machine learning and causal analysis methods to improve the differentiation between legitimate and fraudulent transactions. Through the detection of interaction networks and behavioural patterns, the methodology attains a higher level of accuracy in identifying sophisticated fraud schemes than a traditional rule-based system. The results propose that causality methods do not just mitigate false positives in financial industries but they also present actionable risk controls for the application domain of e-commerce, healthcare and digital transaction processing. The research serves to enhance financial security efforts by designing a more thorough methodology which is also flexible enough to evolve in response to advances in fraud techniques. Next steps include generalizing causal models to cover new threats in decentralized finance and cross-border payments.
Henrique Hepp, Murilo V. G. da Silva, Leandro M. Zatesko
The complexity class of the problems that can be solved by a quantum algorithm in a non-adaptive collapse-free model is called naCQP. This class was introduced in 2016 by Aaronson et al. intended to be a slightly larger class than BQP: larger enough to include important NP-intermediate candidate problems, but likely not to include NP-complete problems. Aaronson et al. (2016) showed that there is an oracle A for which NPA ⊈ naCQPA; and Hepp et al. (2025) showed that relative to an oracle A chosen uniformly at random, (UP ∩ coUP)A ⊈ naCQPA with probability 1, being UP ∩ coUP a subclass of NP. Amongst the NP-intermediate candidate problems in naCQP is the entire class SZK, of the problems that admit a statistical zero-knowledge interactive proof system. The relation between QSZK, which is the class of the problems that admit a quantum zero-knowledge interactive proof system, and naCQP is unknown, with some believing that there is an oracle A for which QSZKA ⊈ naCQPA. A promise problem complete for QSZK is the trace distance distinguishability of mixed quantum states. We show that this problem, when restricted to pure quantum states, is in naCQP.
The breakneck pace of digital transformation in sectors around the world have driven developments in cybersecurity, AI and cloud technology. But with great progress comes great responsibility, and with generating such evolution it gives rise to lots of issues when it comes to data privacy, system to system connectivity, leveraging knowledge and infrastructure scalability. This paper provides an integrated solution that can be harnessed to secure, operate and make digital ecosystems more agile, by amalgamating present day practices and technologies that many organizations face in their current environments across security, operation and agility when it comes to digitalization. It covers proactive cybersecurity approaches like DevSecOps and Zero Trust Architecture, AI based intelligent threat analysis and real-time automation, and cloud-native and edge computing models for scalable and resilient infrastructure. The study at the same time showcases advancements in data processing and encryption, legal compliance, providing enterprises with a roadmap toward safer, AI-infused and cloud supported infrastructure. By bringing these columns together, the research offers strategic recommendations for businesses wishing to future-proof their digital business as they negotiate an ever more volatile and risk-filled technology environment.
Open access
Economic and Technological Systems Analysis
Advanced Research in Systems and Signal Processing
This paper investigated this timeless problem of tax evasion with the use of cryptocurrencies in a post-blockchain reality, in terms of legal grey zones and regulatory frameworks in various jurisdictions. Tax evaders have taken advantage of the legal grey areas, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and privacy-based tools in order to hide their transactions despite the blockchain being transparent. The study used a qualitative multinational comparative research approach in which the authors have used document research and interviews with experts to examine enforcement processes in different jurisdictions including the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia and Nigeria. Conclusions were that effective statutory frameworks, high technological means of enforcement and stringent penalties were found to impact on the compliance rates positively as can be seen in Germany and Japan. Conversely, in other countries, there were high cases of non-compliance due to weakly disunity of regulation and little technological capacity, e.g., Nigeria and Canada. The introduction of DeFi became another problem since it eliminated centralized intermediaries and made the traditional tax pay reporting system more complicated. Moreover, the paper has highlighted that enforcement tactics should give due attention to enable them to balance between surveillance and privacy safeguards to keep the citizens trusty and willingly follow the law. The solution policy proposals involved integration of legal and legislative frameworks across countries globally, the integration of automated reporting solutions and investment in compliance solutions that preserve privacy. Future study on taxpayer conduct, technological breakthroughs and inter-jurisdictional cooperation to come up with resilient tax governance systems should be a matter of priority. This study added to the argument about an effective and fair establishment as an economy, as well as tax frameworks, goes digital.
The cases reported concern the assignment of claims to third-party litigators, limitation periods, and the consequences of the competition law concept of a ‘single economic unit’ with regard to the jurisdiction of national courts under the Brussels I bis Regulation. For example, in ASG 2, the Court of Justice was asked whether EU law requires that collective redress, in some form, be available in the Member States, but allowed the Member States a rather wide margin of discretion on the matter. Another example was Heureka, in which the Court of Justice ruled that EU law precludes national rules on the limitation of follow-on damages actions if they do not provide for the limitation period to be suspended, at the very least, until one year after the date on which the public enforcement decision finding an infringement has become final. As the case law develops, we gain legal foreseeability in private enforcement of competition law that will, in turn, further increase incentives to seek compensation for harm caused by infringements. This survey reports developments in private enforcement of EU competition law in the years 2024 and 2025, up until 31 May of the latter year. As there have been no news in EU regulation during this period, the report focuses on case law developments. Private enforcement of competition law takes the form of civil litigation. As a consequence, it falls under the jurisdictions of national courts and will only find its way to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) through references for a preliminary ruling. For the purposes of this report, this also means there have been many cases before national courts that will be interesting but cannot be covered here. To offer just two examples, the infamous trucks cartel1 and the Booking.com infringement2 have both given rise to an array of damages claims across European jurisdictions.3 The CJEU case law to be reported mainly concerns three core aspects that will each be covered in one of the sections below. First, whether national law can preclude or restrict the possibility for victims of an infringement of competition law to assign their damages claim to a provider of legal services (a ‘third-party litigator’). This is an issue of fundamental importance to the business model of certain providers active in the private enforcement of competition law. Second, several cases referred to the Court of Justice have concerned limitation periods that apply to damages claims, whether or not the rule on limitation periods in the 2014 Competition Damages Directive4 is temporally applicable in the proceedings. A new case on this issue is reported below. Third, issues related to jurisdiction and other procedural the is an that both and and to the victims of the and core issues that have been further I will a for a preliminary which is before the Court of the of on damages the a and will be The and of for a of victims of an infringement of competition law is a business in the The business model on the of victims to assign their to claim damages to a will the claims and a of the damages if The case reported ASG concerned whether a national limitation of this was with EU law. As in in this it is that damages claims for an infringement of competition law and some form of collective and have that victims of the infringement have to The for will be for to with for each be a rather of actions by providers of legal services in for the collective of victims can to the of for and to This preliminary by a the in the of a for damages for harm caused by an infringement of The infringement in a of for by a of during the period to The victims of the in and The was The victims their to damages in of the infringement of competition law to a third-party ASG which in the proceedings. its to the national the the of a it was under law to assign to damages in a of for the purposes of a for this not been for harm caused by an infringement of competition law. the under the by the victims to the be the was also concerned whether an of law was with EU law. The referred to the Court of Justice for a preliminary was in whether EU law precludes national law victims of an infringement of competition law to assign their to damages to a provider of legal The Court of Justice that EU law the possibility of actions for the of compensation but not for Member States to a for The Court of Justice to the referred under the EU law of the national its in to that As I will this is a to ASG with some this for the the issues in the case whether law collective that an to a for whether the for an it or to the to The Court that the of claims the and economic in actions for in the Court not in that it was to the of if victims to their claims the Court of Justice ruled that EU law an of national which the of victims of an infringement of competition law their to compensation to a provider of legal that a only if national law not provide for other possibility of the claims of victims that the of to and the of an for damages was or The Court of Justice not been asked whether EU law requires that collective redress, in some form, be available in the Member ASG is an The Court a to the the Member States a rather wide margin of The of only claims to the there no in national law that claims for certain in the that a for the to with First, the Court of Justice very that the national not it to other of EU law the of the Court the to also the to in of the in its it not the of the national the of in its it is that it have been the Court of Justice to that actions for the of damages rather and under and that it they be available in follow-on the of the actions on EU law not be actions under national law. the Court of Justice has actions with a and the be in it rather that the of will for actions for the of damages to be available in actions if they available in follow-on actions for damages by of an infringement of competition law. The of also to the if actions for the of damages available for other actions under that the actions have a and the of the 2014 Competition Damages there have been several cases in which the Court of Justice has been to the of national limitation periods with the rules of the with or and of EU law. several the core issue has been at in the rules in the temporally in other to the EU law before the 2014 Competition Damages to EU law under that This has been an issue in to of the which its rules on limitation of damages issues in the case law have been the a that on which date the applicable national limitation period can to and under limitation periods be or A new to this of the case law. This one of many cases of its in the of is also a by in the of in of The Court of Justice has not its in the latter this the legal issues will be covered in of the cases on limitation periods in competition damages actions is in which the Court of Justice ruled that and the of preclude a limitation period to if the was of the of the not possibility of or that period during before the national competition As we will the and in Heureka, the that its by its services to the of services This by the of to to The before the of the 2014 Competition Damages on and after the of the for the of the rules of the national law on that claim was under the applicable limitation rules of the at with regard to the period to The limitation period was three and to the the or have of the harm and the of the to of the a limitation period of The the asked the Court of Justice whether EU and in of the and the of preclude a national limitation period applicable to actions for damages for an infringement of competition which to the or be to have that it harm and the of the to compensation for the and which is not during public enforcement it was not whether the 2014 Competition Damages be applicable in the the Court of Justice the a issue a of the of and that the Court that the of the to compensation for harm caused by an infringement of competition law be or if the limitation periods applicable to actions to before the infringement to an and the not or not have been to the for its for The Court an two to the by the national The of the was that a limitation period not to before the infringement has to an The Court of Justice that a was in to it for the to its of in to the of an the of and the the the Court and there is an to the of the The Court with in that the that a limitation period not to before the infringement has to an an to their The of the was that limitation periods cannot to before the or be to the for its for The at the Court of Justice of an infringement of competition the of the that harm and that and the of the the Court with the of a decision the infringement at issue in the EU if the decision was under This was a decision has it has not been and can on the decision to their for damages the the Court also it is in some that gain the at an it be for the in the damages to that the the at an in the case that limitation periods in actions for competition damages cannot to until be the of the infringement of competition law and of the for an for damages with the for the a in of the 2014 Competition Damages As a of in Heureka, there is very the and for damages actions by of an infringement of EU competition at damages actions a decision it is that the is not or it is whether it is the Court of Justice is law in a which very the rules in the the Court is the of the rules in the to law This is not but it is The of the is that it and legal the and to be but consequences for the the Court a in not to across the rules and of for rules that by the EU of this the and the case law is also new and very that will apply under the 2014 Competition Damages they have been on a of law. For a rule of on a can be to the of of the that a certain an infringement of competition a decision on the is will have This the Court to the possibility for the to that the at an The case concerns the but in the has been national public enforcement of competition law. in has that the core of the case is at a will have of the which that to an for for the purposes of follow-on the claim the can on a decision that is of legal the of the the a be on the date the national decision has become we that in the decision not to be final. that it the of legal and the of follow-on in the of to for the national decision to be this is to the of the in Heureka, the of the was not whether the decision was but whether it the infringement to the of The legal by the be by rules on the or of limitation periods in damages actions during public enforcement proceedings. This to the legal Heureka, the Court of Justice also whether and the of for the limitation period to be or during this the Court that the or of limitation periods for the of in to to their actions for the Court also it was not to to or limitation periods during an of the the decision by the be by the if it not of the Court provide an example of a to the rule in of the 2014 Competition Damages that the at the one year after the infringement decision has become or is or national infringement under the and the of do not the limitation period to to be until the the decision this I to the of in that national be a for the a As I for the purposes of the I that the by the form a for the national limitation period until the national decision has become final. The of rules in the 2014 Competition Damages on the of its rules or the of its of the not apply that not apply to that have to an before the national rules rules not apply to damages claims which a national was to other the of rules on the infringement has and on the national rules the of other rules on and the Court ruled that a and not be with but also that an for damages which is after the of the national it national law the of if the national limitation period not before the of the for of the The consequences of this further in the Court of Justice the national limitation period by that the national the of rules on limitation periods, that have the the national its of the claim by this and that the infringement not on the Court further that it its that the limitation period not have to on that As a consequence, of the 2014 Competition Damages was in temporally applicable to and to be that the Court that it was for the national to the rule in to the Court of case law on the of rules in the of the limitation period, through the of to the of the rule in I to that it is a in to the and of the in Heureka, which the for on the of this has with the on in and will the The private enforcement of competition law in issues of jurisdiction and that can be the case law of the Court of Justice on and several a of a economic has for to their the in The Court has a in its case but in the cases reported they also some to their in a case the Court has not its preliminary is also The issues at in cases to the concept of the the the of of the Brussels I bis in to the competition law concept of a economic to the rule on jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis in to the concept of a ‘single economic and to to a a economic issues will be covered in For damages claims, of the Brussels I bis jurisdiction to courts for the the or a of or a of trucks the the The was the in the that the the been by the trucks with to the decision in the was the The was the Court of and the legal issue in its concerned The on of the Brussels I bis and it and its a economic its be covered by the concept of the the the of harm by that economic only its in other Member States in to have harm and the not to have The claim on a of the economic its the Court of Justice that in it that of the Brussels I bis jurisdiction to Member States on the of whether the by an infringement of competition law is in that Member that not consequences can be will be and that consequences of harm the by the Court of Justice that there was no in its case law for the of the economic by the The Court further that the of the was at with the of the Brussels I bis an of the of and of the rules and that victims of an infringement of competition law other the Court that the concept of a economic not be to jurisdiction in the by the The that the Court of Justice have been in its of the economic to private enforcement of competition it is not to will be and the by the in this case was a to the claims a of and this can be in but at the of the the rule is that jurisdiction is at the or of the jurisdiction is under the rules of the Brussels I bis and case but jurisdiction is not it be to that is a of the of the latter an is several of the Brussels I bis jurisdiction to courts for the one of is the claims that it is to and to the of This is in damages claim several and the is a of or a of that form a economic the of competition law. the core issue was whether a national its in an for damages a and its and for an infringement of competition by on the of the and in case law. The in the in and its in the The in was a to on the The competition that its on the but not it that been in the infringement or a the decision by the competition an for damages and before a in the jurisdiction to claims its that and and for harm caused to by the infringement by the competition there was in the to whether the courts jurisdiction in of to whether of the Brussels I bis preclude courts on the a or or of the of the that the competition a a the in to their jurisdiction This issue its way to the the Court of the and was referred to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. For to be applicable it was the Court to whether there was a of a that it was to the actions in to the of The Court further that the whether the of law and with regard to the claims the and that the not been before it with an to the in on case law its in the Court that the of whether the of law and with regard to the claims the be several in a and infringement of competition law that been by the the by the Court that this also the a economic and of the the of competition law and and for the harm the Court of Justice that it was not in to have jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis for and several to have been in a the whether the in and the for the which was was The was also concerned with the for the of a and that the Court of Justice that the not only in public enforcement but also in private enforcement of competition law and that the concept of an was the in both the Court that to its jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis a national not a of the or of the but to the for regard to a that in the the Court that the to that a by the its cannot be a in to its The do the Court if the on the of the and an to the to the not or or of the of its or that that be the Court of Justice ruled that of the Brussels I bis not preclude the for the of of a in to its on the that a or or of the of a that has competition it a that that the not of the possibility of that that not or or of the of that or that that be the of this the for jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis by the Court of Justice in is The of its is that if the the of the the of competition and the has jurisdiction to actions at one of the in there also be a possibility for the to the but this requires this the to this is an in private enforcement in which is to the of both and The of the and with regard to the infringement is a in the of this and the in be the and through EU for actions by across EU jurisdictions also be an is several at a certain which only have jurisdiction to actions one of an to the claims the at that one that the in the The through which jurisdiction is for is referred to the in the that it for the before the at two and of the Court of Justice is to further on of the Brussels I bis and in to the a to the with the is no in the cases but has an on the The in the two a of in several that have been of and both follow-on The case a a in and and related and The case a decision by the competition on a in and covered several European jurisdictions and several at economic the of competition law. both cases only one the of that was in the actions was a has competition cannot an for damages of its to on the and several of a economic have the of that and do have the and legal and there is a the economic of that and the of the infringement by the the to of the Brussels I bis the to the that there several they can be in a national jurisdiction for one of that claims that it is to and to the of that regard it not that the in the infringement in and at but it that they in an infringement that been by the and that the was on their in that The in the that the national not have the the no of The that not be and that there was no jurisdiction under that rule if there that the only the for its the that a not be concerns that the be but only if it or or of to the As to whether the was in this the by the that harm the was not through an on EU that the of by a which or or of the of a not apply in damages and that the in one of the not have a it was only a and the the that the Court of Justice has not been given to rule on if under the to compensation for harm caused by an infringement of EU competition law to harm in but not that the in the be or for a of jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis the the the of the by to the of the Court of Justice in the in the and of not to on the in a way to offer and the of a to be of the of the a the it that the was a of the which was for the infringement of competition law. The in turn, in that in to a to the the of the the of a the on whether its was in an economic which a to the of the infringement for which its of the been in the of the by the to the of of the Brussels I bis Regulation. whether the claims the and the the of of the Brussels I bis for the national to have jurisdiction of and whether that have in a infringement of the EU of a the claims and of the with which they each form an that of a the economic of the and the of the infringement by the be but that it not for the to have to the the that the of of the Brussels I bis there that the which they of the of law which have an infringement of the of in EU that it cannot be a that the to the that the of foreseeability not be that be to that they be in the jurisdiction of and not preclude this of the that with the that a in the of the can be an but that an to was to be the Court of Justice will the For it the in of the in it to its on the of by a which or or of the of a not apply in damages it is that the Court will not the of the referred the but rather in to a the not to be with the and the Court of Justice was asked to whether a to be to a economic which an of competition law. The in the two trucks the in The to that the been by the trucks with to the decision in the was the The an for damages with the and that the to was to be to the in The national the in with the but the was with a to the of the in The that this was a in and that the the it and its of a economic the of competition law. The issue of whether the be through its its way to the the Court of and to the Court of its the Court of Justice under its case law and in its in a economic a the of and legal that can be for an if by legal the Court an the of has no legal of its an for damages cannot be the but be a legal the Court of Justice the of and of is a under the to in of the EU of fundamental that the Court find no or in EU law for the that a an for damages one legal an and have the to legal the the the Court of Justice the to a by of the the if it been to have and it not be that legal a economic to on each The Court of Justice the of EU on and on the of The Court that related to the of be by the but that EU certain to the and that can be if the is The Court also that it be to to their a of the if the to the related to in Member the Court of Justice ruled that a cannot be with a to a if the two of the economic The of is that under the case law on a economic under competition to a of their a the of which is or the its this not can the the of for the has been that will have consequences for the of and this cannot be through to the concept of a economic The Court that of competition law by of the and the and it that the and of an of the of which cannot be with to the concept of a economic this case was a and the that there to on the concept of a ‘single economic unit’ the Court will is an of an of damages under the 2014 Competition Damages under the case law of the Court of The on by a of national law and EU which the Court is to in the referred This for a preliminary was by the Court of Justice on and no is The before the of and it is damages in to the trucks in which the compensation for to the The concerns the of in the 2014 Competition Damages and in the of on the damages The also concerns to on which date harm has by of an infringement of competition law. the the has been at a of the date for damages was to the under national the claim The that be the date harm the of the will be to on the date which to on the damages in the proceedings. will be interesting to this there is no EU case law on issues in the of competition damages For the purposes of an for damages a Member the Court of Justice has that on an is the date harm was This was in a competition damages which that the Court it in competition of the 2014 Competition damages be the the harm until the compensation is is this is rather and a through be is very to private enforcement in the EU to case law on actions for private enforcement is by there can be concerns this and whether it be issues under in the and Justice and a report and the for third-party in ASG 2, reported the Court of Justice the of the Member States a rather wide margin of discretion on whether or not to claims for competition damages to be to a third-party I have that the of which was not in the to other on the legal in the Member at will be interesting to the further of EU in to third-party law on the of rules in the 2014 Competition Damages also to The case law has on the of certain rules and on to the of rules also and and of EU law. Heureka, and through we a of limitation which is to be after the rather of the Court in and will also be very interesting to the on we a on that in is also very that we on jurisdiction under of the Brussels I bis in of the concept of an in competition in This case law further to their procedural if the Court of Justice is also it in the reported cases and that not but that for the of both be As we to gain legal foreseeability in private enforcement of competition we will also increase incentives to seek in turn, further case law the Court of very for with an in the
Secure Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMSs) ae crucial for law enforcement agencies, because traditional systems are prone to tampering and unauthorised access. Blockchain technology, particularly private blockchains, offers a solution by providing a centralised and tamper-proof system. This study proposes a private blockchain using Proof of Work (PoW) to securely manage digital evidence. Miners are assigned specific nonce ranges to accelerate the mining process, called collaborative mining, to enhance the scalability challenges in DEMSs. Transaction data includes digital evidence to generate a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Miners use NFTs to solve the puzzle according to the assigned difficulty level d, so as to generate a hash using SHA-256 and add it to the ledger. Users can verify the integrity and authenticity of records by re-generating the hash and comparing it with the one stored in the ledger. Our results show that the data was verified with 100% precision. The mining time was 2.5 s, and the nonce iterations were as high as 80×103 for d=5. This approach improves the scalability and integrity of digital evidence management by reducing the overall mining time.
The cryptographic protocol developments are transforming digital trust is the capacity to verify without revealing any underlying information. Traditional authentication and authorization systems are usually prone to leakage of sensitive data, resulting in compromise of privacy and low scalability in distributed systems. The root of these problems is eliminated through the so-called zero-knowledge techniques that allow demonstrating to one party ownership of some information without exposing it. This paper explores the origin and development of zero-knowledge protocols in light of its efficiency, trustless design, and privacy focus to illustrate why the application is worth the hype. Particular attention is paid to such structures as zk-SNARKs, zk-STARKs, and bulletproofs, as well as their application to constructing transparent, scalable systems. Blockchain aptitudes used anywhere in confidentiality of transactions, decentralized identity systems allow a self-sovereign identity without exaggerating personal information, and the healthcare and finance industries enjoy the ability to share information securely without any effect on compliance aspects. The next discussion points are implementations, the scalability issue, cryptographic assumptions, and integration issues. This survey outlines evaluations of deployments from 2021 to 2025 to determine the following top benefits, barriers, and trends in building systems that safeguard privacy without compromising their performance or trust to the client. Future requirement conclusions provide some insights about future requirements in terms of efficient construction of proofs, standardizations, and ease of usability to expand the adoption of infrastructures built on zero-knowledge into a constantly more integrated digital world.
An address is indicated as an identifier of the user on the blockchain, and is defined by a hash value of the ECDSA verification key. A vanity address is an address that embeds custom characters such as a name. To generate a vanity address, a classical try-and-error method is employed, and thus the number of characters to be embedded is limited. In this paper, we focus on the functionality of identity-based signatures (IBS) where any strings can be employed as a verification key, and explore whether IBS can be used for generating a vanity address. We attach importance to the fact that it is not realistic to replace ECDSA with key recovery, which is currently employed for issuing transactions in Ethereum, to an IBS scheme. Even if this replacement is possible, it is not a reasonable price for the ease of the vanity address generation. Thus, we pay attention to a generic construction of IBS from signatures, and construct an IBS scheme from ECDSA with key recovery. Though we cannot directly generate a vanity address due to the key recovery functionality of the underlying ECDSA, we can connect any string with an address due to the functionality of IBS that can give additional meaning to the address. We implement our system by Solidity, and demonstrate that the gas cost is almost same as that of the ECDSA signature verification.
We consider the online algorithmic challenge that is faced by blockchains that have multidimensional block constraints and serve quasi-patient bidders. We first provide online approximation algorithms for the important special cases of small transactions or a small number of dimensions; this solves open problems left by [Babaioff and Nisan, EC 2025]. Second, we study multidimensional variants of Ethereum's EIP-1559 protocol. We show that if the block builders manage to approximately optimize each block's welfare myopically, then an approximation to the global offline optimal welfare is obtained. On the other hand, we show that, unlike in the single-dimensional case, EIP-1559 by itself does not guarantee any good approximation.
Felix Quinque, Alan Aboudib, Szymon Fonau, Rodrigo Lopez Portillo Alcocer · 6 authors
In August 2024, Bittensor's Subnet 9 (SN9) demonstrated that a distributed network of incentivized, permissionless actors could each pretrain large language models (LLMs) ranging from 700 million to 14 billion parameters, while surpassing established baselines. While that work validated blockchain-based decentralized pretraining as viable, it contained core issues: (i) every miner had to fit an entire model locally, and (ii) "winner-takes-all" rewards encouraged model hoarding. Here we introduce IOTA (Incentivized Orchestrated Training Architecture), an architecture that addresses these limitations by transforming SN9's previously isolated competitors into a single cooperating unit that can scale arbitrarily while still rewarding each contributor fairly. Key preliminary results: (1) Data- and Pipeline-parallel SWARM architecture - An orchestrator distributes model layers across heterogeneous miners and streams activations between them, enabling model sizes to scale with the number of participants rather than being constrained by the VRAM of a single machine; (2) Granular, continuous incentives - Validators measure each miner's contribution and allocate token emissions proportionally; (3) Activation compression - We used model-bottlenecks to cut communication bandwidths of activations by up to 128x, vastly improving training speed; (4) Butterfly All-Reduce - Miners average disjoint parameter slices in O(1) bandwidth, offering linear scalability, redundancy and built-in collusion detection; (5) CLASP (Contribution Loss Assessment via Sampling of Pathways) - A fair attribution scheme assigns credit to miners proportional to their marginal utility and detects exploits, even when contributions are interdependent across the pipeline.
K Sujit, Komala Chowdenahally Ramaswamy, Siva Ramkumar M, Jayant Giri · 5 authors
Research and development in the vehicle industry have emphasized the potential for advancing electric transportation that is highly efficient, secure, and sustainable. The electric vehicle (EV), powered by renewable energy sources and equipped with high-efficiency electric motors and controls, offers a practical, dependable, and ecologically friendly urban transportation system. EVs operate using a battery that is equipped onboard. Practical and dependable system operation relies heavily on managing and monitoring batteries. Nevertheless, the market for electric vehicles has experienced a decline in growth due to their limited lifespan and high price. To enhance the system's efficiency and lifespan, substantially improving the battery management aspect is imperative. In this research, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning (ML), and Blockchain (BC) technologies are used to develop an energy-efficient EV battery management system (BMS). The IoT sensors are attached to the electric vehicles to collect data such as the charging level, the distance that must be driven, and the position of the electric vehicles. This information was saved and processed by a database, then inputted to the LightGBM classifier to determine the cost of charging. After that, it was processed by the power scheduling approach (PSA) to determine the space and time of charging that is closest to a particular electric vehicle and the charging site. At last, this information is saved in blocks to prevent electric vehicles from being misrouted and ensure that pricing transactions between users and charging stations are conducted securely using BC. The results demonstrate that the research model provided enhanced EV-BMS with an accuracy rate of 96.52% and that it retains a communication overhead that is 12% lower compared to the other models.
Cryptocurrencies, introduced by Nakamoto (2008), have emerged as transformative financial instruments. In India, retail investors are increasingly drawn to crypto assets, despite persistent regulatory uncertainty (Reserve Bank of India, 2019). Research suggests that perceived high returns (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2016) and technological appeal (Narayanan et al., 2016) drive adoption, while lack of clarity in regulation (OECD, 2020) and low financial literacy (Lusardi & Mitchell, 2014) act as key deterrents. This study examines the influence of demographic factors, awareness, and regulatory perceptions on adoption behavior among 120 Indian retail investors. Using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and Pearson correlation, the study finds a significant association between awareness and adoption, with regulatory concerns and fraud fears cited as major barriers. The findings underscore the urgent need for a structured regulatory framework and targeted investor education.
Blockchain technologies had a significant impact on many sectors of contemporary society, with virtual currencies being the most prominent example. The introduction of the Ethereum blockchain and its native support for smart contracts, self-enforcing programs that enable trustworthy digital interactions, has broadened the possible adoption contexts. These programs possess unique characteristics, such as code immutability and autonomous execution, which necessitate innovative testing methodologies. Despite their growing adoption, current testing practices and tools for smart contracts lag behind those available for traditional software systems, raising concerns about the reliability of decentralized applications. This dissertation addresses these challenges through three core research objectives. First, it advances mutation testing for Ethereum smart contracts by introducing a practical framework and tool that support Solidity-specific test adequacy assessment and incremental mutation analysis during development. This enables developers to systematically evaluate and improve the fault-detection capabilities of their test suites based on metrics that go beyond simple code coverage. Second, it explores how smart contract auditing practices can benefit from mutation testing by integrating live mutant inspection into code reviews and automating the generation of missing test cases. This contribution enhances the auditors’ ability to identify weaknesses in the test suite and provide actionable feedback to clients. Third, it supports smart contract maintenance activities by proposing a novel capture-replay testing framework and tool for upgradeable contracts. The approach harnesses historical blockchain transactions as tests, allowing developers to detect behavioral inconsistencies introduced by upgrades without the need to manually reconstruct testing scenarios. Through these contributions, the thesis aims to advance the state of smart contract quality assurance, offering both practical frameworks and theoretical insights that enhance the reliability of blockchain-based systems.
The advancement of digital technology has led to the emergence of virtual currencies, notably cryptocurrency, which are increasingly used as a means of payment in electronic commerce (e-commerce) transactions. Although gaining popularity among businesses and the public, the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method is not yet legally recognized in Indonesia. Law Number 7 of 2011 on Currency stipulates that the Rupiah is the only legal tender within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. This study aims to examine the legality of cryptocurrency in e-commerce transactions and the legal protection available for businesses that use it. The research employs a normative juridical method with statutory and conceptual approaches. The findings indicate that although cryptocurrency has been acknowledged as a tradable commodity on futures exchanges through Bappebti regulations, it is not recognized as an official payment instrument. This creates legal uncertainty and potential legal risks for business actors. Therefore, more specific and integrated regulation is urgently needed to legally govern the use of cryptocurrency in Indonesia, in order to ensure legal certainty, consumer protection, and prevent misuse in digital economic activities.
James Kinjanzi Sirite, Prof. David Minja, Jane Njoroge
Purpose: This study examined the effect of revenue decentralization on healthcare service delivery in Turkana County, Kenya. Materials and Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach, the research collected data from 271 respondents, including county health and finance officials, hospital administrators, and community health representatives. Findings: The findings reveal that revenue decentralization significantly improves healthcare service delivery, with a one-unit increase in revenue decentralization leading to a 0.49-unit improvement in healthcare outcomes. However, delays in budget disbursement (averaging 5.11 months) and reliance on external revenue sources (36.9% tax autonomy) highlight challenges in financial sustainability and resource allocation. Qualitative responses underscore both the benefits of increased autonomy and access to funding, as well as the drawbacks of concentrated financing and disparities in rural healthcare access. The study concludes that optimizing tax autonomy mechanisms, strengthening intergovernmental grants, and improving financial management are critical to enhancing the positive effects of revenue decentralization. These findings contribute to the broader discourse on fiscal decentralization and its potential to address healthcare inequities in marginalized regions. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: To improve healthcare in Turkana County, enhance revenue decentralization by refining tax autonomy, increasing equitable intergovernmental grants, and addressing rural disparities. Implement 'nomadic health vouchers' using 15% of decentralized revenues and 'fiscal health compacts' to reduce budget delays. Ensure autonomy, accountability via blockchain, and drought-responsive budgets work together to boost accessibility and patient support, transforming fiscal policy into a tool for healthcare justice, especially for mothers and herders facing long waits and travel for care.
Preet Deepankumar Vyas, Devang Dhorada, Kevin Bhanderi, Akshaybhai J. Patel · 9 authors
In order to protect the ocean ecosystem, the pursuit of sustainable and self-powered photodetectors is critical for revolutionizing underwater optical communication (UOC) used for environmental hazard sensing. This step enables energy-efficient and real-time detection of marine ecosystem threats such as chemical contamination, oil spill, and eutrophication. Although layered metal dichalcogenides (LMDCs) with exceptional optoelectronic properties and chemical stability are the most suitable materials, their integration into UOC technology remains largely unexplored. To address this, the present study demonstrates and evaluates seawater-immersed photoelectrochemical photodetectors (PEC-PDs) based on SnSe<sub>2</sub>, an emerging member from the LMDC family. Direct vapor transport-grown SnSe<sub>2</sub> is well characterized in its thin-film form by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and PL spectroscopy, followed by utilization as photoelectrodes in the PEC-PD devices. Fabricated PEC-PDs exhibit a responsivity of 505.74 ± 4.65 μA/W at zero bias and 10.34 ± 0.16 mA/W at 0.4 V bias; they outperform conventional Na<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub>-based devices by 21-fold and 82-fold, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report presenting an SnSe<sub>2</sub>-based PEC-PD utilizing seawater electrolyte and its performance evaluation. A proof-of-concept UOC demonstration of the present study paves the way toward the next-generation green optoelectronic devices for self-sustainable marine technologies.
Olawale C. Olawore, Taiwo R. Aiki, Oluwatobi J. Banjo, Victor O. Okoh · 5 authors
The global financial system is now undergoing considerable instability, raising critical issues about the durability of reserve currencies. This research examines the probability of the euro surpassing the United States dollar as the predominant reserve currency, particularly in the context of heightened economic volatility and the emergence of new rivals, such as the Chinese yuan, striving for more significance in the global market. The research specifically examines the possibility of the euro surpassing the United States dollar. This research employs a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the competitiveness, credibility, and limitations of predominant reserve currencies. It does this by integrating actual reserve data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) with theoretical concepts derived from dominant stability theory, network effects, and institutional trust. The data indicates that the dollar's supremacy has been progressively declining, from over 70% of global reserves in 2000 to around 58% by mid-2024. Robust legal frameworks, monetary credibility, and comprehensive financial markets collectively enhance the prosperity of the euro, which constitutes almost twenty. (20%,) percent of the total. The Eurozone, meanwhile, persists in facing challenges such as the lack of a fiscal union and the disunity of political leadership within the bloc. The Chinese yuan accounts for only four (4%) percent of world foreign currency reserves, notwithstanding programs like the Belt and Road and enhanced central bank swap lines promoting its utilization. China's persistent objective of sustaining a depreciated yuan to bolster its international economic competitiveness presents a considerable obstacle. Because the yuan cannot be converted into other currencies and there is uncertainty over its value over the long term, foreign central banks are unable to maintain considerable reserves of the yuan. The continued existence of concerns over capital restrictions, decreased financial transparency, and political participation has led to widespread pessimism regarding the yuan's potential to continue functioning as a reserve currency despite these factors. Based on what the study found, it seems unlikely that there will ever be a single currency that is the most important one in the world. This suggests that there is a multipolar system in which the euro, the yuan, and digital currencies like the e-CNY and the digital euro all function together in a framework for international monetary policy that is becoming more decentralized and strategically split. These changes have big effects that might change not just how the world is run, but also the trade strategy and macroeconomic policy that are already in place. These changes also make life harder for civilizations that are in other regions of the planet.
This research examines the dynamic interaction between conventional financial assets, namely the US dollar, the S&P 500 index, gold and crude oil, and ten major green cryptocurrencies, focusing on their spillover linkages and hedging capacities during major global economic and geopolitical shocks. The study analyses daily data to uncover spillover effects using the innovative Quantile-Vector Autoregressive methodology developed by Cunado et al. (2023) . Results indicate that green cryptocurrencies significantly interact with other examined instruments. Algorand, Cardano, IOTA, TRON and Powerledger demonstrate the largest interactive effects, with the latter standing out as a consistent transmitter of influence across both crises, demonstrating that this sub-class of cryptocurrency is exhibiting elevated maturity. Traditional assets predominantly act as receivers of such risk dynamics from more speculative asset classes, with gold identified as an effective absorber of spillovers, especially in bear markets. Conversely, the US dollar and crude oil are identified as large transmitters of spillover impacts, a result found to be particularly influential in periods of geopolitical conflict. The study further reveals that green cryptocurrencies promoting trust, innovation, and renewable energy are more effectively connected with traditional investments than those focusing on financial services or business accessibility, presenting diversification opportunities during crises.
This study aims to analyze the impact of the U.S. Federal Reserve System’s monetary policy on major cryptocurrencies. Specifically, it explores whether the effects differ between volatile cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the stablecoin Tether. To this end, we utilize an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, analyzing monthly data from January 2019 to April 2025. The empirical results indicate that the responses of volatile and stable cryptocurrencies to the Fed’s monetary policy differ. In the long term, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum tend to react positively to the Fed’s monetary policy changes, whereas Tether’s prices experience a negative impact. We recommend novel policy implications in this study based on these empirical findings.
Smart contracts play a pivotal role in blockchain ecosystems, and fuzzing remains a critical approach to securing them. However, existing smart contract fuzzers often optimize either seed generation or mutation scheduling in isolation and rely on narrow, fragmented feedback signals, leaving multi-transaction reasoning and stagnation recovery under-explored. In this work, we propose aLarge Language Models(LLMs)-based Multi-feedback Smart Contract Fuzzing framework (LLAMA). Key components of the proposed LLAMA include: (i) a hierarchical prompting strategy that guides LLMs to generate structurally valid, context-aware multi-transaction initial seeds, together with a lightweight pre-fuzzing phase that validates and prioritizes high-potential LLM-generated candidates; (ii) a multi-feedback-guided evolutionary optimization module that jointly optimizes seed selection and mutation scheduling by a group of constraints for driving an LLM-bootstrapped bandit scheduler. (iii) an LLM-guided hybrid fuzzing module that integrates evolutionary fuzzing with a dual-channel recovery mechanism, which concurrently employs asynchronous coverage-stagnation- based LLM reseeding and selective symbolic execution to resolve complex path constraints. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that LLAMA outperforms state-of-the-art fuzzers in both coverage and vulnerability detection. Specifically, it achieves 92% instruction coverage on small contracts and 81% on large contracts, while detecting 132 out of 148 known vulnerabilities across diverse categories. Ablation studies further evidence that the proposed multi-feedback and hybrid recovery strategies have strong impact on LLAMA’s performance. The results explain LLAMA’s effectiveness, adaptability, and practicality in complex smart contract scenarios.
Uobičajeno, ljudi se odlučuju na štednju u kreditnim institucijama poput oročene, dječje ili stambene štednje. Također, postoje opcije ulaganja u mirovinske ili investicijske fondove. Ipak, svaki od navedenih oblika ovisi o centraliziranom entitetu koji upravlja novcem štediša. Korištenjem sustava implementiranog u radu, štednja ili obročno financiranje se može ostvariti eliminirajući potrebu za povjerenjem u centralizirane entitete, tako da sve funkcionira na predefinirani decentralizirani način. Predstavljeno rješenje, temeljeno na sustavu ulančanih blokova, pruža alternativni pristup implementaciji određenih aspekata postojećeg financijskog sustava, nudeći veću fleksibilnost, uz niz prednosti, ali i određene izazove.
Love Opeyemi David, Marumo Kgomo, Clinton Aigbavboa
Introduction The traditional procurement system in the construction industry has been plagued by inefficiencies, often serving as a significant obstacle to project delivery. Thus, this study examines the dynamics of adopting smart contracts for project procurement for optimal project success and delivery, with insights and recommendations from the South African Construction Industry. Method The study employed a quantitative research approach utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics of Mean Item Score (MIS) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for data analysis, based on a purposive sampling technique. Results The MIS results for the benefit, legal &amp; regulatory constraints, and best practices of smart contracts range between 3.73 - 4.41 values, while the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) values were higher than the recommended 0.6 value for the EFA and Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.969 across the indicators. Discussion The study's findings revealed two categorized benefits of adopting smart contracts: administrative and operational efficiency of project procurement and procurement optimization; two components of legal and regulatory constraints: Transactional and legal encumbrance to smart contract implementation and legal gaps and ambiguity and two best practices: smart contract reliability practices for project procurement and consistent stakeholders’ engagement for smart contract protocol standardization. The study concludes that Smart contracts can transform global project procurement within the construction industry. The study recommends the development of a green paper on smart contract adoption and integrating smart contracts into standard forms of construction contracts.