Blockchain Papers

Dmytro Piatkivskyi, Mariusz Nowostawski

No abstract is available for this record.

Anton N. Didenko, Ross P. Buckley

No abstract is available for this record.

Johan Älvebrink, Maria Jansson

Internet of Things (IoT) means that physical objects will be able to interact and communicate via embedded systems. This will lead to a distributed network of devices that can communicate with both humans and each other. One application area is in improving supply chain management. The goal in supply chains is to move a product or a service from the producer to the customer as efficient as possible. Implementation of IoT will have many benefits but it also raises security issues that can affect integrity, security and privacy for both individuals and companies. In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin and more importantly, blockchain. Blockchain is a ledger of facts, data is not stored in only one network with a common processor, but it is distributed among all the clients on the network. This technology may be a solution to some problems that IoT are facing. This paper looks into up to date research of blockchain and IoT with the purpose to study blockchain as a potential solution to secure IoT data management within supply chains. Both blockchain and IoT are relatively new research areas with little existing research, which support our use of a qualitative inductive method. Semi-structured interviews, which will be further explained in the methodology section, have been conducted with people working within the fields of blockchain, IoT and supply chain. The result indicates that blockchain can be used to secure data management within any given supply chain that uses IoT technology, but blockchain should be seen as a tool, and not as a complete solution. Many of the security issues within IoT are related to the devices and blockchain will not be able to provide a solution to these problems. Blockchain can however be used for handling information, securing identities, traceability of goods, transactions being made without human interaction, automated storage management and time stamped actions to name some examples. There are still barriers to make these benefits work in reality but there is a lot of research currently on-going, trying to make it happen.

Thomas C. Winter

In our current society both the demand for electricity is increasing and the demand for electrical energy as energy carrier is increasing. Renewable sources will play an important role in future energy generation due to societal developments. These distributed energy resources introduce new challenges to our current electrical power system. One of these challenges imposed on our current electrical power system is the introduction of a new grid user, the prosumer, who consumes and produces electrical energy. Another challenge is the intermittent nature of renewable sources such as solar and wind energy. During the past year Blockchain gained momentum as a technology mainly through the evolving industry of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. Application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system could oer solutions to some of these challenges that the future electrical power system will face. The main goal of this thesis is to identify the opportunities, advantages and technical challenges of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system. First, as part of the literature study the Blockchain has been studied and the operation of the Blockchain has been analyzed. The Blockchain has been dened as a collective of technologies that can be described as a database, which is distributed among a peer to peer network, combined with securitization elements relying on multiple cryptographic technologies. Second, the opportunities where the Blockchain could be applied in the current electrical power system were identied. In order to study the application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system four case studies have been introduced. These case studies dierentiate themselves in the level of adoption of the Blockchain and the functionality which could be provided to the electrical power system. Ranging from a local peer to peer trading infrastructure to the entire market being operated via the Blockchain with advanced features such as the control of power ows. Third, the various advantages of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system have been explored based on the proposed case studies. A distinction has been made between advantages which are inherently linked to the characteristics of the Blockchain and the provided functionality to the electrical power system. Fourth, the challenges of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system have been analyzed and discussed. Based on the dierent case studies a segregation has been made between challenges attributable to the characteristics of the Blockchain and challenges specically linked to the implementation of the case studies. Last, the practical application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system of the dierent case studies have been discussed. Explanation is given how the dierent case studies could be implemented within the electrical power system and what the role will be of dierent parties currently involved within the electrical power system.<br/>

Lars Aasland, Eirik Skei Lerfald

Denne avhandlingens mål er å analysere om medieoppmerksomhet er en drivende faktor i etterspørselen etter Bitcoin, og på så måte avkastning på Bitcoin. Et nyttig verktøy i denne analysen er å kategorisere Bitcoin. De to hovedspørsmålene som da vil bli besvart er:\n(i) Hva slags finansielt aktivum kan Bitcoin kategoriseres som?\n(ii) Hvordan påvirker medieoppmerksomhet Bitcoin?\nDette er gjort ved å først presentere et teoretisk rammeverk for prisdannelse hvor investorers interesse er forklart i en variable for medieoppmerksomhet. Ved å bygge videre på dette rammeverket blir Bitcoins funksjonalitet som en valuta i samfunnet i dag analysert og sammenlignet ved bruk av det tradisjonelle rammeverket for penger vi kjenner til. Dette er videre analysert ved hjelp av volatilitetsprosessene til Bitcoin og andre finansielle aktivum. Funnene fra denne analysen tyder på at Bitcoin ikke kan klassifiseres sammen med tradisjonelle finansielle aktivum, og på så måte er et spekulativt finansielt aktivum som står på egenhånd. Videre blir det funnet at medieoppmerksomhet gjør Bitcoin mer attraktiv for investorer og er en driver av etterspørsel. Denne spekulative driveren av etterspørsel sammenfaller godt med kategoriseringen av Bitcoin som et spekulativt aktivum.

Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Yonghui Wang, Suxia Cui, Sarhan M. Musa

Originally developed as the accounting method for the virtual currency Bitcoin, Blockchains are appearing in a variety of commercial applications today. Blockchain technology is a type of distributed digital ledger that uses encryption to make entries permanent and tamper-proof and can be programmed to record financial transactions. It is used for secure transfer of money, assets, and information via a computer network such as the Internet without requiring a third-party intermediary. It is now being adopted across financial and non-financial sectors. As a catalyst for change, the Blockchain technology is going to change the business world and financial matters in major ways. This paper provides an introduction to Blockchain.

R. Rajesh

Over the years we have seen the colossal development of internet before our eyes. We have also witnessed the growth of Google, Facebook and many others. As a unique technology Bitcoin, also is being built on top of the internet. Bitcoin is now a new currency that people are starting to talk about, the money of the future. Bitcoin is also just a big experiment, with no guarantees and we might be wasting our time exploring its concepts and ideas. It is at the crossroads of technology, philosophy, politics and everything, exploring the ways and means of settling into the financial system. Bitcoin was created to provide an alternative to the banking system.This paper discusses about Bitcoin, its genesis, opportunities, risk and possibilities, regulation in India, price in India.

R. Eberle

At least since the first Bitcoin futures were launched in December 2017, quantitative risk management on Bitcoin is no longer indispensable. This paper provides methodology and fundamental findings on approximations of intraday bitcoin returns through both symmetric and non-symmetric probability distributions. Different time frequencies of Bitcoin returns were analysed, and their non-Normal behaviour is shown. Their exchange rates versus the US Dollar, between April 14, 2017 until August 7, 2017, were considered by fitting parametric distributions to them. The nonnormality changes with the size of the timesteps, where standard heavy-tailed distributions give good fits of the data. These results are a first attempt to characterize intraday risk of the Bitcoin.

Justin R. Henning

With innovation always comes unknowns. Blockchain technology and crypto–assets are no different. Often times, innovators are so worried about getting their product to market or scaling at mass that they overlook the legal ramifications of their innovations. As Mark Zuckerberg infamously said, “move fast and break things.” Facebook was in no way alone in this style of innovation. However, with respect to crypto–assets, the SEC has stepped in and is attempting to prevent the “break things” aspect. One of the major issues relating to crypto–assets is that many people still do not understand what they are, or how the underlying technology works. At the moment, we do not know what to classify crypto– assets as: property, commodities, or something else . If the SEC determines that crypto–assets are investment contracts, the regulation that follows is at risk of putting stranglehold on the underlying innovation and technology. It becomes an issue of balancing consumer protection and innovation for society. SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. laid out a pronged test to determine whether a transaction is an investment contract, subjecting it to securities laws. This note examines the Howey Test to explain why two popular crypto–assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are unlikely to satisfy the Howey Test, and briefly addresses the need for clarity in this area. }

G.D. Starita

The present research engages with theoretical notions related to anarchy, currency systems and the intersubjectivity of money to develop a critical analysis of the individual attitudes and motivations relevant to the usage of Bitcoin for what concerns users in Rovereto, Italy. Through the use of ethnography, this research explores the reasons behind the spread of use of Bitcoin in the area of Rovereto and how those reasons may be connected to the way the Bitcoin network was designed and the socio-political set of values of its creators. New theoretical paradigms and a re-interpretation of old theoretical notions is proposed, in order to overcome the lack of literature and fieldwork material related to the subject of cryptocurrency users, for what concerns anthropological research. General reflections on the impact of new technologies such as cryptocurrencies on individuals are also produced, in connection with the material collected on the field in Rovereto.

Zacharias Edholm

Bitcoin – en volatil hedge? : En kvantitativ studie av Bitcoins hedgingegenskaper gentemot OMXS30

George Ritzer, Petar Jandrić, Sarah Hayes

In the year that George Ritzer publishes the ninth edition of The McDonaldization of Society, moving his famous theory firmly Into the Digital Age, critical educator Petar Jandrić and sociologist Sarah Hayes invited George to a dialogue on the digital transformation of McDonaldization and its critical application to Higher Education. In this article, George first traces for us the origins of his theory that has endured for four decades. A key dimension of McDonaldization is the ‘iron cage’ of control, via rationalization. Once contained within physical sites of bricks and mortar, now, we encounter a ‘velvet cage’ in sites of digital consumption, at the hands of non-human technologies, that threaten human labor and autonomy. Whilst the concept of the McUniversity is not without some critique, this interview provides compelling reasons to open new dialogue about McDonaldization in augmented settings such as Higher Education. With the rise of prosuming machines such as blockchain and bitcoin, that can both produce and consume without intervention from human ‘prosumers’, universities cannot afford to ignore the challenges of prosumer capitalism, which George concludes, will explode into unprecedented and unpredictable directions in the years to come.

Mohsin Mahmood, Martin Nikolai Nilssen

This master thesis investigates Bitcoin liquidity in a market microstructure setting and has\nbeen divided into two parts. In the first part we examine whether there is any correlation\nbetween the results generated by three liquidity measurement techniques (The Rolls, ILLIQ\nand Coefficient of elasticity) and the actual market microstructure spread. We find that only\nILLIQ shows a moderate, statistically significant correlation with the spread.\nThe second part investigates whether selected primary and secondary variables affect the\nspread and whether their relationship is in line with existing financial research and our\nintuition. This part also examines whether there is any weekly cyclicality in Bitcoin liquidity,\nand if occurrence of events affects Bitcoin liquidity or not. We find that the primary and\nsecondary variables have a significant impact on the bid ask spread, and that the nature of the\nrelationship is in line with empirical research and our intuition. Interestingly, we find that\nvariables which are not directly related to the market microstructure have a relatively higher\nimpact on the spread in comparison to variables that are directly related. We also find that\nBitcoin liquidity does not have any cyclical, weekly trends and only a few of the events have\nany sort of significant impact on liquidity.

M. V. Grenaderova, А. Е. Соловьева

No abstract is available for this record.

Johan Kirsten

No abstract is available for this record.

Mikael Nagy

The almost meteoric rise of Bitcoin has brought with it an investment boom in cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrency markets however, are not functioning entirely as one would expect. Markets seem to have mispriced assets on a scale that would not happen in the stock market. Perhaps the most notable of these phenomena is the KimChi Premium or the relative overvaluing of bitcoins in Korea when compared to international markets \n \nThe aim of the study will be to establish whether or not the KimChi premium exists, what is the scale of the premium and give some clues to why the premium has come about. \n \nThe first chapter is an introduction to the subject, where the subject is outlined. \n \nThen chapters 2-4 will explain the key ideas and concepts to understand the phenomena being examined as well as giving a backdrop against which the KimChi premium can be assessed. The chapters 2,3 and 4 seek to explain the price setting mechanisms, foreign exchange policy and Bitcoin as a larger phenomenon respectively. \n \nChapters 5-6 are the research and conclusion chapters where the data collected is assessed and analyzed and conclusions are drawn.

Nicolas Werle, Liina Lehtonen

Since its initial inception, cryptocurrency has hit the world with both intrigue and skepticism. It was acting as an alternative form of currency that people could use that required no regulative authority to back it. As such, people had the option to make purchases in anonymous manners, leading to what most would consider unethical behaviours, and ultimately resulted in cryptocurrency gaining a poor reputation. However, specific trends in society have helped cryptocurrency growth to continue. A societal loss of trust in the traditional banking system and the positive perception towards the blockchain technology, which is a peer-to-peer system that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, operate on are two such trends. Furthermore, recent years have witnessed exponential increases in the prices of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. This has led to widespread stories of people getting rich through cryptocurrency ownership, having been “wise-enough” to buy in on the cryptocurrency trend early enough to reap in the rewards of such as decision. And as a result, leading to more people wanting to be the next big success story and buying in on the cryptocurrency trend. This growing trend has also gained the attention of several multi-national companies, such as Expedia, Subway and Microsoft, who have begun accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Even though specific cases have seen this strategy implemented successfully, the volatility of cryptocurrency still poses a risk that has hindered the ability of cryptocurrency to become a widespread payment option. Given the current trend surrounding cryptocurrency, this thesis serves the purpose is to investigate another alternative option for cryptocurrency use. That option being the potential for cryptocurrency to be used as an alternative payment option in the online gambling industry. Where it has been used as a payment option in other areas, it would be interesting to identify whether there is potential for the cryptocurrency to be adopted and used in this particular industry as well. In order to investigate this phenomenon from both the consumer and industry point-of-views, this thesis used a mixed-methods study, which consisted of a qualitative study and quantitative study. Our qualitative study focused on the industry side of the phenomena. To carry it out, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with managers of a large online gambling company in order to gain deeper knowledge on their perspectives regarding their perceptions towards how cryptocurrency adoption would affect the online gambling industry. Based on the information gained from the interviews, specific themes were identified and further analyzed through a thematic analysis. Those themes included blockchain in online gambling, holding cryptocurrency, regulation and the reputation of cryptocurrency. Our results indicated that managers did not believe the industry was ready to adopt cryptocurrency due to specific regulatory factors, but that it had future potential, mainly regarding its association to blockchain. Our quantitative study focused on interpreting the perceptions of online gamblers regarding cryptocurrency use in online gambling. Specifically, identifying what would motivate them to use cryptocurrency in online gambling and if they were willing to accept it as a payment option. Based on the results obtained through a survey we distributed, we used linear regression to identify if online gamblers were willing to accept cryptocurrency. The resulting outcome was a moderate level of rejection towards cryptocurrency acceptance. The linear regression model also allowed us to interpret which predictor variables held the greatest level of importance towards predicting cryptocurrency acceptance. Those specific variables included cryptocurrency anonymity, usability, ownership, and belief in the future of cryptocurrency. When comparing the results from both studies through triangulation, we were able to conclude that both consumers and the industry were not ready to fully accept cryptocurrency usage in online gambling. However, both sides indicated positive outlooks towards its future potential as a payment method.

Steven F. Ziegler

The Department of Justice recently prosecuted a teenager from Manassas, Virginia, for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The Department revealed that the teen had posted instructions on social media explaining how to use the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to support terrorist operations. United States law enforcement and intelligence organizations are increasingly concerned, and rightfully so, with how they are going to address the growing problems presented by terrorist and criminal use of cryptocurrency to launder money and otherwise support illicit operations. These organizations are specifically troubled by how difficult it is to monitor cryptocurrency systems, which largely stems from the fact that many cryptocurrencies are constructed on Block Chain technology. Block Chain technology, in the context of cryptocurrency, is a Distributed Ledger System that stores data in registers among many different computer systems using cryptography as a complimentary security protocol. The transfer of cryptocurrency using this decentralized system does not require an intermediary, such a bank or other financial institution, which increases its potential application for financing of illicit activities. These unique aspects of this game-changing technology make it very difficult for investigators to gather the information they need under the current law. Regulations and policy guidance built on the old authorities have left new companies fumbling through the dark, trying to abide by vague, strict, unfair, unforgiving, and expensive regulatory recordkeeping and reporting regimes. The outdated law that federal agencies depend upon for their authority not only ties their hands from coming up with new and innovative ways to address the obstacles posed by this new technology but also negatively affects the technology industry itself by stifling innovation. This paper asserts that new and inventive legislation, not just revised regulation, is required to address this crucial area of concern for national security while also balancing the importance of fostering and encouraging innovation in this groundbreaking technology. This paper recommends that Congress legislate now to create a collaborative environment where private entities are incentivized to voluntarily share information with federal agencies in order to address this growing concern. The legislation should solidify, in law, protections and immunities for the private entities that participate while also establishing a realistic but attractive incentive structure. This sort of legislation is not a wholly new concept, as Congress has successfully passed similar legislation in the past to create an information-sharing environment for the various cyber threats postured to damage the government and private industry equally. Ultimately, Congress should choose to reinvigorate the forward-thinking provisions found in the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 by particularizing its information-sharing scheme to cryptocurrency specific financial information and restructuring the Act’s immunity and incentives schemes. This will provide the industry with the flexibility it needs to grow and develop while providing law enforcement the information it requires to protect the security and the people of the United States.

John Maynard Smith

The old school -which consists largely of middle-aged and elderly men- tend to claim that bitcoin is a "bubble", and seize on every downturn in the price of bitcoin as evidence that the bubble has burst or is about to burst. The bubble only gets fatter, and all of the anti-crypto arguments -notably the argument that currencies need themselves to possess, or to be based on something with "intrinsic" value, and cryptocurrencies lack intrinsic value- are fallacious. Here we propose that there are deep mathematical reasons why the conservatives are mistaken, and why cryptocurrencies will increasingly replace their traditional counterparts.

George Allayannis, Aaron Fernstrom, Anastasiya Luzgina

No abstract is available for this record.

Erlend Solberg Thorsrud

The interest has grown around Bitcoin as a trustless and decentralized digital payment service. Along with the increase in users and transactions, Bitcoin suffers from challenges regarding scalability. Many solutions have been proposed over the years, but Bitcoin is still struggling with finding the solution that suits everyone. Lightning Network as one of the most promising solutions, will be in the scope of this thesis, along with why such a solution is needed.\n\nBy investigating Bitcoin, scalability challenges and proposed solutions, we evaluated Bitcoin s future. We explore challenges such as propagation time, block size and energy consumption. Increasing the block size, changing the consensus algorithm and off-chain payments are discussed. The Lightning Network as an off-chain solution is investigated further in-depth. Challenges and consequences of implementing the Lightning Network are discussed. Furthermore, this thesis discusses whether the Lightning Network is the solution Bitcoin needs or not.

Caitlin Lustig

In this thesis, I expand on the concept of algorithmic authority, a concept that I introduced in earlier work to understand the role of algorithms in daily life. Algorithmic authority is the legitimate power of algorithms to direct human action and to impact which information is considered true. In contrast to much other work on algorithms in sociotechnical systems, I argue for more precise use of the word “algorithm”, as well as for the importance of studying algorithmic systems that do consist of “black box algorithms”. Through a study of the users of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, I explore what it means to trust in algorithmic authority in an open source, decentralized system and contrast it with the authority of centralized and corporate software. My study utilizes data from my survey, interviews, and observation of the broader Bitcoin community. I examine the tensions between members of the Bitcoin community who would prefer to integrate Bitcoin into institutions and those that saw it as a radical use of algorithmic authority. I describe how my participants preferred algorithmic authority to the authority of conventional institutions that they saw as untrustworthy. However, they acknowledged the need for mediating algorithmic authority with human judgment. I examine these tensions between how they would like Bitcoin to be used and how it is being used, and what those tensions can tell us about algorithmic authority. Lastly, I suggest future research directions for examining a wider range of algorithms and better understanding the Bitcoin community.

Joline Göttfert

Denna uppsats har två delsyften. Det första delsyftet är att ge en beskrivning av vad bitcoin är och hur tekniken bakom bitcoin fungerar. Det andra delsyftet är att redogöra för hur bitcoin ska värderas. Genom en selektiv litteraturöversikt med avseende på värderingsmodeller för bitcoin har det andra delsyftet besvarats. I litteraturen har tre olika ansatser till att värdera bitcoin återfunnits och denna uppsats presenterar respektive värderingsansats för bitcoin och de resultat som har framkommit av tidigare studiers empiriska test. I den första modellen har bitcoin klassificerats och värderats som ett betalningsmedel. Ansatsen för den andra modellen är att värdera bitcoin som en finansiell tillgång. Utgångspunkten för den tredje modellen är att bitcoin är ett nätverk och ska värderas utifrån den aspekten med hjälp av Metcalfe’s lag. Sammanfattningsvis kan alla tre modeller förklara bitcoins prisbildning till en viss del. Slutsatsen är att bitcoin i högre grad kan klassificeras och värderas som en finansiell tillgång, eller som ett nätverk, än som ett fungerande betalningsmedel.

G Raghunandan

Bitcoin is an arrangement expected to support the trading of noteworthy worth between parties. Bitcoins dislike traditional portion structures, which moves holds named in sovereign money related structures, Bitcoin has its own particular metric for an esteem called Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a complicated arrangement, and its utilization incorporates a mix of cryptography, circled figuring's, and inspiration driven lead. What's more, late enhancements prescribe that Bitcoin activities may incorporate dangers whose nature and degree are near nothing if by any methods, got on. In light of these considerations, the inspiration driving this paper is to give the basic establishment on the pricing aspects to appreciate crucial Bitcoin activities and chronicle a game plan of observational regularities related to Bitcoin utilize.