Київський національний економічний університет імені Вадима Гетьмана, Михайло ОРЄХОВ, Т.В. Орєхова, Донецький національний університет імені Василя Стуса
The paper analyzes the role of digital currencies in the global financial system, the peculiarities of their use. The paper pays attention to the characteristics of the historical preconditions for the emergence of electronic payments and, as a consequence, digital currencies. The paper analyzes the features of the emergence and functioning of major global cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ripple and Ethereum. The advantages of cryptocurrencies, the authors of the study include unlimited opportunities for transactions, no borders, transaction speed. Among the disadvantages of cryptocurrencies is the lack of a proper level of knowledge, which leads to the spread of fraud. The paper presents the volume and share of bitcoin trade in different markets during the period from January 2013 to January 2018. The results of the study allow us to conclude that the modern cryptocurrency market, despite the fact that the evolution of electronic money is in its infancy, and cash is still the most important form of payment for retail transactions, is highly competitive and fragmented.
Bitcoin is a well known cryptocurrency that has existed for over a decade. We examine the historical cross-market dynamic relationships among four important Bitcoin cryptocurrency markets at a pivotal point in cryptocurrency acceptance among markets and the public. We pay particular attention to cross-market relations during the introduction of a new, competing Bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, and the subsequent demise of the once-prominent Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. Our findings show that Bitfinex's introduction led to a shifting of trading activity from the once popular Mt. Gox exchange to other exchanges. Mt. Gox's loss of trading activity caused price distortions in all Bitcoin markets under study. In addition, cross-market relationships became less efficient while Mt. Gox experienced its death throes. Our study provides evidence that (1) Bitcoin markets are susceptible to volume losses to rival exchanges, (2) shifting trading activity is also associated with price distortions mainly originating from the suffering exchange, and (3) Bitcoin cross-market dynamics are resilient and, ultimately, self-healing from shocks, strengthening Bitcoin's long-term viability.
The blockchain is a technology that was initially designed as an alternative to the banking system aimed to decentralize money circulation. It has become apparent that the invention has a vast potential to improve various industries and fields of human activities. The blockchain industry generated a variety of ideas of how to use this technology: to crowdfund business with Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), to tokenize and manage assets online, to improve public administration and state-owned registries, or even to use it for electronic voting. Multiple applications of this technology became possible since the industry started experimenting with overlay technologies on blockchains, for example, Colored Coins, known as tokens on Bitcoin; Namecoin, a blockchain as a decentralized infrastructure for Top-Level Domain “.bit,” but the significant step forward happened when Ethereum proposed their concept of smart contracts on blockchain. There are several platforms that offer users the ability to design their own private and public distributed ledgers (Hyperledger, Azure). It is not easy to mention all of the projects in the field of blockchain industry; however, at this stage, it has become clear that the technology (along with some other innovations, like Artificial Intelligence) is penetrating spheres that are traditionally highly regulated and centralized with a high level of human participation: securities and exchanges, public registries (notary, real estate, business entities and other registries), public finances, elections, etc. This discussion is devoted to the issues of regulations for the activities that arise from the blockchain.
Understanding the complexities of blockchain governance is urgent. The aim of this paper is to draw on other theories of governance to provide insight into the design of blockchain governance mechanisms. We define blockchain governance as the processes by which stakeholders (those who are affected by and can affect the network) exercise bargaining power over the network. Major considerations include the definition of stakeholders, how the consensus mechanism distributes endogenous bargaining power between those stakeholders, the interaction of exogenous governance mechanisms and institutional frameworks, and the needs for bootstrapping networks. We propose that on-chain governance models can only be partial because of the existence of implicit contracts that embed expectations of return among diverse stakeholders.
Jan 1, 2020·Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Blockchain has been heralded as a technology that can transform entire sectors, including the public sector where blockchain applications are believed to bring a wide range of benefits. The public sector is lagging behind, however, in its actual adoption of blockchain technology, and our understanding of the factors that explain the slow adoption rate, is lacking. Based on seven case studies of blockchain projects at various adoption stages, this research contributes to our understanding of what factors influence blockchain adoption in the public sector. We use an extended TOE framework that includes an inter-organizational perspective. The findings show that adoption is influenced by the hype around—and resistance to—blockchain technology; by top management support, by (perceptions of) the regulatory environment; as well as by trust between blockchain partners, which is both an antecedent as well as a consequence of blockchain adoption.
Cryptocurrencies have been in the center of interest of both scientific and professional public for over ten years. Due to the volatile exchange rate against convertible currencies, investors predominantly use cryptocurrencies as an instrument of speculative investment, while their use in the payments is at a negligible level. On June 18, 2019, the Internet giant Facebook announced the creation of a consortium of financial and technology companies aimed at establishing a global cryptocurrency with stable value called Libra. It is planned to create an open blockchain through a new programming language, which will serve development teams in the future for creation of smart contracts. The subject of research in the paper will be the potential operational performances of Libra concept. The basis for the research will be a white paper published by Facebook and knowledge about the functioning of other cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin. The aim of the paper is to highlight the expected economic and security implications of Libra concept.
Contract production and transaction are very common and important since it can greatly reduce future uncertainty and is well-organized by buyers, sellers, and trusted third parties (TTPs). However, current commodity trading systems (such as spot, futures, and forward contract) are still traditional centralized structures, which means that there may always be concerned about the single point of failure and data corruption. Besides, even though there already exists fragmentary decentralized applications (DApps) for the marketplace, order management, resale, delivery, financing, and insurance, they are not integrated for operating contract production and transaction comprehensively. In this work, a blockchain-enabled integrated marketing platform (BeIMP) is proposed for contract production and transactions. BeIMP is a consortium blockchain (CsBc) framework that enables better safety, efficiency, and interoperability among stakeholders. BeIMP can directly match producers and consumers and reduce the problem of intermediaries' improper market operation. BeIMP has a three-tier risk diversification mechanism. First, both parties can know the quantity and price according to the contract specification (CSpec) in advance to avoid future uncertainty. Second, the buyers can resell the established order if they need, thereby diversifying the risk. Third, the concept of insurance is introduced to reduce force majeure and other systemic risks. BeIMP can also help producers get the loan from the financial institution (FI) if they need fund for production. We implement and demonstrate the prototype in contract farming (CF) first and discuss its generalizability to other scenarios. Experiment results show that the smart contract (SC) function is stable enough and the proof of authority (PoA) has the advantage in throughput and can give users a better experience.
Alexander Bechtel, Agata Ferreira, Jonas Groß, Philipp Sandner
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) hasDistributed ledger technologies (DLTs) the potential to address long-standing industrial challenges, remove frictions, build trust, and unlock new value across businesses and industries. It enables decentralization, the immutability of data, transparency, and the automation of business processes. Thereby, it creates a multitude of use cases ranging from energy and manufacturing to mobility and logistics. However, a digitized economy based on DLT can flourish only if it does not merely enable the exchange of assets, goods, and services but also the exchange of money. In other words, there is a need for a payment solution that is compatible with DLT-based decentralized networks and enables transactions denominated in euro. This is particulary relevant in the currently evolving geopolitical environment.
Die Distributed-Ledger-Technologie (DLT) ist ein neues und sich schnell entwickelndes Gebiet. Ihre dezentralisierten und kryptographisch geschützten Strukturen ermöglichen die sichere Übertragung, Speicherung und Validierung von Daten ohne den Einsatz eines Intermediärs. Dies verleiht ihr ein transformatives Potenzial. Industrie und Regierungen haben seinen Wert erkannt, müssen jedoch die bestehenden Strukturen anpassen. Dazu gehört auch das traditionelle Zivilrecht. Die hier vorgestellte interdisziplinäre Forschung befasst sich mit einer spezifischen Reihe von Bemühungen in diesem Bereich. Sie untersucht Bestimmungen des ersten umfassenden zivilrechtlichen Rahmens für DLT-Systeme, des Gesetzes vom 3. Oktober 2019 über Token und VT-Dienstleister (Token- und VT-Dienstleister-Gesetz; TVTG) LGBl-Nr. 2019.301, LR-Nr.: 950.6. Dies geschieht sowohl aus rechtlicher als auch aus wirtschaftlicher Sicht, um ein umfassenderes Verständnis der Implikationen und Herausforderungen der Einführung des Zivilrechts in DLT-Systeme zu gewinnen. Der angewandte theoretische Rahmen ist der der Transaktionskostentheorie. Ziel dieser Bestimmungen ist es, einen rechtlichen Rahmen für DLT-Systeme zu schaffen, der eine zivilrechtliche Grundlage für Token, die Darstellung von Rechten in Token und die Übertragung dieser Token umfasst, Art. 1 Abs. 1 lit. a TVTG. Die Analyse zeigt, dass der Gesetzgeber eine umfassende Definition des Begriffs "Token" vorsieht, die die Inklusion einer grossen Vielfalt von Rechten wie Eigentumsrechte an materiellen Gegenständen, Gesellschaftsrechte, Wertrechte und mehr ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus gelingt es ihm, eine Disparität zwischen den Verfügungen über Rechte in der analogen und der digitalen Welt zu vermeiden, die, wenn sie nicht vermieden wird, zu erheblicher Rechtsunsicherheit führen würde. Dies hat auch ökonomische Auswirkungen. DLT-Systeme senken die Transaktionskosten, am offensichtlichsten durch den Ersatz von Intermediären durch verschlüsselte dezentrale Datenspeicherung und Konsensmechanismen. Das TVTG senkt Transaktionskosten, indem es die Zuordnung von Rechten zwischen der "realen" Welt und digitalen Systemen klärt und damit effiziente und zuverlässige Transaktionen ermöglicht, weleche rechtliches double spending vermeiden. Dies bildet eine wichtige Brücke zwischen dem traditionellen Zivilrecht und DLT-Systemen und fördert die volle Ausschöpfung des Potentials von DLT-Systemen, indem es Rechtssicherheit bietet. Die hier vorgestellte Forschung deckt nur einen kleinen Teil der Fragen ab, die sich im Zusammenhang mit der Anpassung etablierter Rechtssysteme an diese neue Technologie stellen. Der TVTG dient somit als Diskussionspunkt, der die nachfolgende Forschung und Gesetzgebung stark beeinflussen könnte.
Natalia Dashkevich, Steve Counsell, Giuseppe Destefanis
Blockchain is a novel technology capturing the attention of Central Banks and a technology with significant disruptive potential. However, a gap in research effort between practitioners and academics seems to have emerged. This paper analyses and maps that gap by exploring trends in peer-reviewed research contributions through thematic categorisation of academic literature on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) use-cases for services, operations and functions performed by central banks. Furthermore, this paper provides summaries of opportunities and challenges for central banks arising from blockchain adaptation to each of those use-cases. To achieve this goal, we utilise a Systematic Mapping Study approach. The paper presents an in-depth assessment of statistical and thematic analysis of research maturity and the types of researchers, with specific emphasis on types of central bank use-cases considered for blockchain adaptation. Our work contributes to an understanding of where the most or least attention is directed, allowing for identification of gaps and opportunities for both academics, practitioners and combinations of each. Results show that the research topic is a comparatively new domain. It confirms the gap between depth and volume of the research provision from industry and academia, with industry leading the trend. Our study also found that the most research-intensive use-cases are those for: 1) Central Bank issued Digital Currency (CBDC), 2) Regulatory Compliance and 3) Payment Clearing and Settlement Systems (PCS) operated by central banks; a comparatively low engagement was found in the areas of 4) Assets Transfer/Ownership and 5) Audit Trail.