This study employs wavelet analysis to examine the contagion between cryptocurrency returns and sovereign bond yields within the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) economies, capturing both the frequency-dependent nature of the relationship and time-varying behavior. We analyze daily data spanning 01/26/2021 to 10/07/2022, with a total observable value of 444. The study selected periods of uncertainty within financial markets, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war because there was a need to understand how securities react during such times to help investors plan accordingly. Our results show a negative correlation between sovereign bond yields and cryptocurrency returns, suggesting that investors can use these asset classes as hedge agents, diversifiers, and safe-haven instruments. These findings provide valuable insights for investors and policymakers, shedding light on the potential interdependencies and diversification benefits between these two asset classes.
Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention from central banks, investors, and governments worldwide. The insufficiency of any method of political guideline and their market is far from "effective", so they want novel regulation methods shortly. From an econometric perspective, the technique underlying the growth of the cryptocurrencies' volatility was observed to demonstrate similarities and differences with other economic time series, e.g., foreign exchange yields. Accurate prediction of cryptocurrency price fluctuations is significant for effectual portfolio management and improves economic models by identifying potential risks and attacks. With the growing use of AI in various fields, its application in financial markets, especially cryptocurrencies and stocks, is an emerging research area. This study presents an Empirical Evaluation of Fuzzy Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory with a Soft Computing-based Decision-Making Model for Predicting Volatility of Cryptocurrencies (FBLSTMSC-DMPVC) technique. The primary focus of the FBLSTMSC-DMPVC technique is to present a robust and intelligent framework for an advanced decision-making model to predict cryptocurrency volatility. Initially, the presented FBLSTMSC-DMPVC method performs the data preprocessing process using Z-score normalization to ensure all features are standardized and scaled. Furthermore, the fuzzy bidirectional long short-term memory (FBLSTM) method predicts cryptocurrency volatility. To enhance the hyperparameters of the FBLSTM technique, the improved carnivorous plant algorithm (ICPA) is employed. A wide range of simulation is accomplished to ensure the impact of the FBLSTMSC-DMPVC technique. The FBLSTMSC-DMPVC technique portrayed a superior MAPE value of 0.7939 for BTC, 0.8633 for ETH, 0.6187 for LTC, and 0.6667 for XRP, demonstrating its performance across various cryptocurrencies.
Nothile C. Masango, Jeffrey O. Agushaka, Mercy C. Amaefule, Olutosin Taiwo · 9 authors
Abstract Data security in mobile environments has become a critical concern, driven by the growing demand for mobile services and the proliferation of data-intensive applications such as online gaming, virtual reality, and augmented reality. These applications generate massive amounts of data, challenging the storage, computational capacity, and battery life of mobile devices. Cloud environments offer a solution through task offloading, but centralized architectures introduce latency and potential vulnerabilities. Edge computing-based cloudlet networks have emerged as a promising alternative, providing localized resources to enhance service quality. However, their proximity to users increases susceptibility to security threats, posing barriers to widespread adoption. This paper presents a novel approach to addressing these challenges by integrating blockchain technology with cloudlet networks, bolstered by an agent-layer concept. The proposed architecture features an agent between mobile devices and cloudlets, utilizing a unique "proof of trust" consensus mechanism. This mechanism evaluates trust and experience based on the number of coins held by nodes, selecting miners for message verification using an elliptic curve cryptography scheme. In cases of dispute, a third miner resolves conflicts, with incorrect verifications resulting in penalties that deter malicious behavior. Experimental results demonstrate that this solution significantly enhances security, mitigates latency, and improves network performance compared to existing methods. These findings highlight the potential of blockchain-integrated cloudlet networks to revolutionize mobile data processing, offering robust security and reliable interactions between mobile devices and cloudlets.
Traditional finance and crypto aren't just different systems-they're different paradigms speaking different languages. Traditional banks measure processes in days, compliance in paperwork, and access in restrictions. Cryptocurrency platforms promise instant transactions but often at the cost of compliance frameworks that traditional institutions require. These systemic limitations in both traditional and cryptocurrency systems highlight the critical need for a unified approach. Using STORE's decentralized cloud computing protocol as an example, this paper emphasizes a different future as it demonstrates the feasibility and impact of automated compliance through the transformative CLEAR framework. Our dual-database architecture achieves authenticated regulatory compliance at global scale, with our implementation achieving 55.6 seconds (verified) for complete end-to-end transactions, with KYC verification (18.84s), document processing (14.24s), and payment settlement (6.55s). This transforms what traditional finance considers a weeks-long journey into a seconds-long verification, without compromising the compliance standards that make global finance possible. It's not just faster-it's fundamentally re-imagined.
David Umoru, Beauty Igbinovia, Anthony Aziegbemin Ekeoba, Georgina Asemota · 5 authors
There has been an increase in curiosity about the relationship between the returns on Bitcoins and returns on exchange rates in the last few years. This is especially important since Bitcoin is becoming more and more well-liked as a substitute for fiat money. This study therefore estimates the dynamic impact of exchange rates and their returns on Bitcoin return and also the value-at-risk (VaR) associated with each exchange rate and Bitcoin. The variance series derived from an estimation of the variations between the current and historical prices of Bitcoin using the exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) model was used to compute data on Bitcoin volatility. Accordingly, return on Bitcoins was modelled as the natural logarithm of the difference between current day Bitcoin price and previous day price. The joint ARMA-FIGARCH models were estimated in this study to model the returns on Bitcoins transactions and currency trading rates based on time series from February 1, 2010 to August 30, 2024. The research findings underscore the presence of a significant dynamic adjustment of Bitcoin returns to exchange rate returns across all countries. This goes to indicate that there is a high possibility of incurring losses when making investments with digital currencies like Bitcoin. The originality of the paper lies on the fact the research assessed the effect of returns on currency exchange rates of rich countries and also estimated the dynamic effect of Bitcoin returns on exchange rates of the selected countries. The study establishes a substantial volatility feedback effect for returns on Bitcoins, whereas for each of the currencies, the incidence of a less significant volatility feedback effect was made evident. Investors in the foreign exchange market who chose to maximize profits at a lower risk, trading with the pound sterling/US dollar rate, the Euro/US dollar rate, the Australian dollar/US dollar rate; Canadian dollar/US dollar rate, Swiss Franc/dollar rate, New Zealand dollar/US dollar rate, and Luxembourg Franc/US dollar rate are profitable options. In policy circles, monitoring volatility dynamics is crucial for promoting forex market stability and investor confidence. This research benefits policy makers and marketers of financial assets in OECD countries.
In May 1991, an editor of the official magazine of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reflected on a tumultuous quarter-century of liberalization within her church. She did so with a feature article previewed on the magazine's cover with the lines, “Framers remember formation of World Church Objectives,” and a picture of four of these framers. Those pictured were all elderly white American men. Ostensibly about a series of church objectives adopted in 1966, the article itself detailed the movement of the RLDS Church toward peace and justice theology, the inclusion of women in the priesthood, and a reframing of the very notion of mission in the church. In doing so, the article's writer included quotes from people involved in these changes. The individuals quoted had once held offices in the Council of Twelve Apostles or the church's First Presidency, the highest-ranking leadership groups in the church. The quotes were all from white American men.1In the 1970s, priesthood in the RLDS Church ranged from local priesthood who preached and presided over weekly meetings to denominational leaders who set church-wide policies. Until the mid-1980s, men filled all priesthood offices. Additionally, the RLDS Church, numbering 220,000 at its sesquicentennial in 1980, was overwhelmingly an American church, peopled by a white supermajority, even though it had a small presence in twenty-nine nations and an even smaller number of Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino, and Indigenous Americans.2 Most senior church leaders in the 1960s and ‘70s were also white American men. These were the individuals who gave new revelations to the church, articulated church policies, and shaped things as mundane as hiring practices. Given this, the small cadre of historians who have investigated the RLDS Church's late twentieth-century liberalization have focused, perhaps understandably, on white American church leaders with graduate seminary degrees. These influential RLDS leaders participated in ecumenicism, taught peace and justice theology, and had transformative, global encounters as they spread the RLDS Church to Asia and Africa in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.3This paper refocuses our attention on a different set of people who also shaped the church's rapid liberalization. These people included Barbara Howard, who wrote the article featured in my introduction. A longtime Saints Herald editor, Howard was also a founding member of a grassroots RLDS feminist consciousness-raising group. As I will argue, RLDS reformers like Howard allied with people across lines of identity, nationality, faith, and privilege, creating networks that helped make the church's liberalization plausible in the first place. Furthermore, the RLDS individuals and organizations that I will highlight in this essay gesture towards a broader story about how the New Left, forged in the fires of the 1960s, found religious denominations, like the RLDS Church, as fertile incubators for the extension of its projects across the global 1970s and 1980s. These were decades in which most scholars saw both liberal religion and the New Left in full decline, if not collapse.4 During these trying decades, the New Left emphasized the importance of grounding massive change in local organizations—in the small and the particular.In mid-twentieth century America, “small was big,” notes historian Daniel Immerwahr. This was particularly true of the New Left, that largely Western social movement advocating for identity-based rights in the 1960s. “Whereas the older leftism centered on trade unions and mass parties,” Immerwahr argues, “the new generation, enamored with ‘participatory democracy’ and ‘the beloved community,’ questioned the very basis for such organizations.”5 The New Left instead reveled in the democratic possibilities of small groups to create revolutionary change. For instance, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse told a New York audience in 1968 that the New Left was “diffused, concentrated in small groups and around local activities, small groups which are highly flexible and autonomous,” forming a “political guerilla force in peace.”6 For activists like Marcuse and his allies in the paradigmatic New Left student group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), smallness seemed an antidote to all social ills.By the early 1970s, influential sages, such as the Gandhian economist E. F. Schumacher, the author of the best-selling 1973 book Small Is Beautiful, promoted the virtues of smallness.7 Politicians joined this chorus, too. Ronald Reagan, hardly a paragon of the New Left, declared in 1975, “It is activity on a small, human scale that creates the fabric of community.”8 The valorization of smallness also had a creative global reach across the 1970s. For example, Filipino community organizers created small, networked student groups to resist Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship, and feminists across the United States and the globe met in small groups they called “consciousness-raising” groups for education, sharing, and political advocacy.I did not choose the latter examples randomly; the community organizing movement and radical feminism had distinct manifestations within the RLDS Church in the 1970s and 1980s. In what follows, I will highlight two individuals who exemplify these movements in the RLDS Church: the RLDS feminist theologian turned Unitarian, Sharon Welch, and the radical Catholic, community organizer, and RLDS NGO employee, Toto Delfin. As I will show, their social movements helped transform the RLDS Church, asking leadership to reimagine hierarchy and cultivate a more participatory understanding of the church. The RLDS Church, in turn, partially embraced these visions, redefining itself as a “Community of Christ” and proclaiming itself a “prophetic people,” not a “people with a prophet.”The RLDS Church's decision to do so asks us to reflect on the sources for rapid change within late-twentieth-century American-based churches. Put another way, did change come from above, below, or beside? More provocatively, the RLDS Church's evolution should also give us pause to ask what we mean by thinking about some religious groups as being successful in late-twentieth-century America. For instance, historians often talk about the success of evangelicals and Pentecostals in the late twentieth century. At the same time, they invoke words like “decline” when they write about liberal or ecumenical Protestants and liberal Jews from the same era. While it may seem less polite to do so with Restoration traditions, many everyday members of these churches point to the success of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the decline of the RLDS Church (Community of Christ). “Success” in these formulations, of course, is based upon the relative number of adherents that either one or the other group has, as well as the size of their endowments.I would like us to consider a slightly different question of and metric for success in this essay. In short, I would like us to think about how particular groups within a denomination can change their group internally. That is, how well do interest groups within their denomination change policies and orientations and exert wider cultural influence? As I will argue, New Left-aligned groups within the RLDS Church in the 1970s and 1980s might have influenced a numerically declining church, but they were astoundingly successful in giving their parent church a new set of orientations and policies. To make this case, I will first turn to Sharon Welch's story and detail the influence of small feminist groups upon the 1970s RLDS Church.In April 1977, twenty-five-year-old Sharon Patton Welch delivered a paper at a conference sponsored by an RLDS feminist consciousness-raising group called AWARE or Awake, Worship, Action, Renewal, and Education. The conference, held in Independence, Missouri, focused on women and the priesthood. Its keynote address featured a feminist theologian from Vanderbilt, where Sharon Patton Welch was a graduate student. For the April conference, Welch boldly proffered a constructive critique of the very idea of priesthood in her church.Welch began by methodically showing her audience problems with the notions of hierarchy in the Melchisedec and Aaronic Priesthoods and clerical Christianity. She argued that it was not just that the RLDS priesthood excluded women; the priesthood itself was based upon a hierarchical worldview, elevating some humans and lowering others. In an act of feminist resourcement, Welch offered a pragmatic intervention that drew upon particular RLDS traditions to counter this hierarchy. “If authority is defined as the ability to evoke skills and creative initiative in others,” she argued, “rather than the right to govern and lead, it seems appropriate that we think of it as emerging out of the social acceptance of one's effort to facilitate the growth of others.”9 This was what made priesthood a possibly transformative, liberating experience. Welch opined that such a system would enable the RLDS Church “to expand its ministry as it is open to the variety within each person, and is no longer restricted by fixed, limited definitions of the talents peculiar to each sex. This type of system discards the safety of defined patterns of service and hierarchical patterns of control. It is an acceptance of the challenge to develop a community characterized by collegiality and trust.”10 While somewhat vague, Welch envisioned a system of authority within the church that could be characterized as an interconnected web of consciousness-raising groups.Radical feminists created consciousness-raising groups in the late 1960s as a means for education, agitation, and, ultimately, they hoped, revolution. Many individuals who identified as radical feminists had felt shut out of New Left and Civil Rights advocacy groups where feminist issues might be marginalized or even ridiculed. In response, radical feminists advocated for forming small, cell-like groups where individuals could come together for face-to-face interactions, listen and validate each other's experiences, and be educated on feminist pedagogy and issues—and thus have their consciousnesses raised. These groups stressed egalitarian processes, too, where no one person was to dominate discussions, and group tasks would be rotated among participants, obviating the need for the specialization of roles or hierarchical leaders. In the 1970s, feminist consciousness-raising groups became places for radical political advocacy, personal growth, and group therapy.11In some ways, 1970s feminist consciousness-raising groups mirrored the best of what Welch had experienced in her church. Born and raised in the tiny farming town of Dimmitt, Texas, Welch attended a small RLDS branch (congregation) mostly composed of her family. In later reminiscences, she emphasized how it affirmed her, giving her great confidence in herself. Her voice was taken seriously, and she grew to believe that her calling in life was to be a scholar and earn a PhD, a degree that no one in her social sphere possessed.12 Welch also reflected that RLDS summer family camps, called by RLDS folks “reunions,” were really “socialist experiments.” “People paid what they could pay and donated their labor,” she noted. The RLDS folks who attended these camps were “farmers, janitors, and truck drivers,” and the vast majority lacked a college education. “The most uneducated worker,” she noted, “might have the insight in a class or prayer meeting that changed people's lives. There was no elitism.” As a child and teen, “it just seemed so natural for me to see people living in cooperative ways”—a stark contrast to the outside world.13Welch was a gifted high school student and left West Texas for Michigan State in a she to the RLDS Church's liberal she in but she did not That when she with RLDS her the and they and it an of feminist possibilities in Welch later that was I of the cultural of religion so in also her with RLDS feminists who became her and like Barbara Howard her to a small, RLDS where all in of priesthood Additionally, Welch was to do that no RLDS women had at the a graduate to she to in but not she and Barbara Howard attended the meeting of an RLDS feminist consciousness-raising group in in group was not the first RLDS feminist consciousness-raising group. A small group of and at had the in and it out to in some of its of these and and the group that would Welch to their meeting at the of in Independence, RLDS women and a to the RLDS Church's the leadership group in the church, composed of the First Presidency, the Council of Twelve and the of The began by This is on of all the women in the church by of their have from full within the church not to ask that another or be filled by one of the many women church but that a true in so that no one who is as and to tasks be for a this time, women of the in the RLDS Church, they held very with of authority within the church's and local Most of these priesthood and an RLDS conference women from in the priesthood. the that did not priesthood were largely filled by men. In the RLDS World a to and more women for but was no hiring 1973 and Given this the of the feminist the RLDS World AWARE women RLDS women from across the church to their At one such conference in AWARE women RLDS if they could their meeting in official conference as other interest like or their In response, AWARE member a longtime and the RLDS Church's a to the group. AWARE women their meeting on paper and in This act AWARE of new and a group of within the 1970s RLDS AWARE feminists to their and each other even if AWARE members had to be more when in official church AWARE met in the of its members in the Its meetings were a with and within the a it held in with many other 1970s feminist consciousness-raising In this way, AWARE women to the church they would be embraced more its two decades of AWARE became a for and AWARE women feminist also local women for the first for of in their advocated for more in church and helped a advocating for women in the RLDS priesthood. AWARE also the conference at which student Sharon Welch the Welch delivered her address in 1977, she was to called to a different As she later the RLDS Church in graduate At that women were not being and it was a the women who were but who were not and who movement being taken on She that “the for me was that more people of Jesus and the of in liberal not Welch to in her became as she began to other religious In Welch became a and taught as an of at the first person with in Restoration to at was not in her another RLDS left the RLDS Church in the early 1980s and was in the United Church of Welch, she a feminist at a in her case, of at AWARE and from in the RLDS Church, the became a college and and the latter a feminist in she that inclusion was not even for the majority in the 1970s RLDS This mirrored among as historian argues, the decline of churches in the 1970s can be to number of but one was that these liberal traditions were not liberal to many New Left activists in the Welch and some of her feminist who left the RLDS church a with it in Welch that was not so a the RLDS but a of what it taught For a time, Welch to to RLDS and feminist In she a to a on RLDS by Herald the official RLDS The official RLDS the in turn, a of Welch's first of and A of Welch even to in to an AWARE where she with the women with she first experienced a consciousness-raising life a of radical within the RLDS Church in the 1970s. While Welch left the RLDS Church, she and her feminist helped create an in which could be in the first place. She also a of RLDS that in which the priesthood itself became more egalitarian and even women to be to the RLDS priesthood in was not the one by the possibilities of grassroots In this the RLDS embraced a global in which community organizing could radical social in the and Welch's in on the of an RLDS NGO that did just to community organizing in the RLDS Church, we turn from the to the where radical who an RLDS NGO a new understanding of in the 1970s and a in the of in that time, as his called had for and its parent for more than in a for an with me that the and a told a I raised my a senior and a Filipino A This of a that from of in community that began a the first of Filipino and some of the Filipino Ferdinand Marcos's During these called the as it in the first of the called out the and The with and even student many joined the Filipino and its the New organizations to create social such as the Council for or in This latter group and from the community organizing movement in the United States by and from American the 1970s, community organizing like the as student activists to as places to create radical democratic from its not or could their and create change. A community could facilitate change but could not the they the people to for their articulated and helped the 1970s, most in the were that gave A community also in this was to local by the 1960s, the had the as a for local political and many of sponsored by Filipino churches or church became of to Marcos's policies and of this in the Born to a farming family in had attended a high school and college that many radical a with a community organizing NGO college in NGO to in the of to and his among the was when allied with local his in their small, upon the just the and would have if had NGO out of the and a for another NGO in met another radical NGO who was a was from a radical family. was one of the a group of who the for its and his had as to in the human for for a of liberal human the the more radical than their were particularly in community organizing to the of human found an to do an RLDS Church RLDS Church itself in the in 1966, four from a tiny church. These of their and family networks the RLDS church. also helped create the church's first NGO in the or This being in the of the First and Marcos's of in Marcos's with the New in the in A small RLDS in the of was in the The all of to their and from the the members of the RLDS and In RLDS Filipino leaders for to their RLDS and the church's the American and Filipino RLDS leaders upon a The would to from the and the of the the of their the RLDS would that the to in the new Furthermore, they would in how to like and this from of for This was successful as it was and As an of this, began to influence the RLDS Church, American thinking that local to in the in that the attention of American such as the early 1970s, his to the a mission of in and the RLDS this mission as its As the RLDS RLDS to the This the the of RLDS leaders and In RLDS the attended a on at the also the projects by in in an employee, was as the of for had not of a community organizing but of and their In the early an that to community organizing and human this to his In interest in community organizing to Toto a of the they created a they called or a that had a life of its in the RLDS and I have the I will just an from our radical of the and his valorization of the local the the could be for a variety of In it the to make liberalization in for the on this focused on in and of the of the global in the a and RLDS and a cultural and radical to participatory human to their This was on a too. the of the New Left and in the decades the 1970s emphasized the denominational leaders the of participatory human to a new of of their denominational for instance, church leaders opined that their denomination to be more from meetings to World became a that or even their to the church. It also some and offices. The and of the of which was one had a on the RLDS In a group of American RLDS leaders a to the church's of that meeting a to the denomination as “Community of The church who this emphasized that the denomination to be than people with a It was a of the and of the movement in the very of the American-based Barbara Herald article quoted at the of this Council of Twelve Apostles think we would be a a we had not the of that and I think be a if we had the might see and in of the 1980s. For example, of denominational for is of what it was in the late and its by a these latter the great of the 1970s and 1980s was a In this, of Christ other in it to if the success of the is by different small groups of people on the of the RLDS Church had created successful within the denomination by the late 1980s. RLDS could point to small things that had to projects the the inclusion of women in the priesthood, a networked with other liberal and peace and justice the what do we make of of liberalization and its as a The words of one of the of the church's liberalization a In Sharon Welch she was not about the of the global justice one that radical and Welch's RLDS American feminists helped cultivate within the RLDS Church in the 1970s and 1980s. she is that global justice by the and of who and to doing all that I can to it one should such a from a who grew in a small on the of a small For people like Welch and her of Christ is an in small
Decentralized smart contracts enable trustless collaboration but suffer from limited privacy and scalability, which hinders broader adoption. Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) based off-chain execution frameworks offer a promising solution to both issues. Although TEE-based frameworks have made significant progress, prior work has yet to fully explore contract interoperability, a critical foundation for building complex real-world decentralized applications. This paper identifies the key challenges impeding such interoperability and presents practical solutions. Based on these insights, we introduce RaceTEE, a novel framework that leverages off-chain TEE-enabled nodes to efficiently execute confidential, long-lived smart contracts with interactions of arbitrary complexity among contracts. We implement a RaceTEE prototype using Intel SGX, integrate it with Ethereum, and release it as open source. Evaluation across diverse use cases demonstrates its practicality and effectiveness.
Albi Isufaj, Caio De Castro Martins, Marc Cavazza, Helmut Prendinger
This paper explores the applicability of Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) and its extension, Time Delay Convergent Cross Mapping (TDCCM), to assess the causal relationships between Bitcoin, the S&P 500 index, and gold. Unlike conventional causality analysis methods, such as Granger causality or transfer entropy, CCM accounts for non-separable, weakly connected dynamic systems, and TDCCM explicitly incorporates time lags during cross-mapping, enabling the detection of complex causal relationships in systems with shared nonlinear behavior. This makes it particularly suitable for financial time series that often exhibit chaotic and nonlinear dynamics, particularly during periods of market instability. We integrate TDCCM with simplex projection and sequential locally weighted global linear map (S-map) algorithms, applying a sliding window approach to identify short time intervals characterized by high levels of nonlinearity and chaoticity. Using this approach, we uncovered a strong causal relationship between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis reveals a bidirectional causal relationship between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index, highlighting their interconnectedness during periods of heightened economic uncertainty. Furthermore, we find a unidirectional causal influence of Bitcoin on gold, reflecting Bitcoin’s evolving role as a macroeconomic indicator and its growing relevance as an alternative store of value. These findings provide insight into the dynamics between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial markets, particularly during periods of global economic disruption. • We use Time Delay Convergent Cross Mapping (TD-CCM) to identify and quantify lagged causal interactions between financial time series (Bitcoin, Gold, and the S&P 500 index), which is a more recent and less explored method for Time Series causality. • We report a comprehensive and replicable methodology to apply TD-CCM to non-linear TS, based on combining the S-Map and Prediction Decay algorithm with a sliding window technique, while validating with surrogate analysis. • We show evidence of strong causal influence from Bitcoin to Gold and bidirectional causality between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 Index during significant economic events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crypto wallets store and protect the private keys needed to sign transactions for crypto currencies; they are secured by multi-factor authentication schemes. However, the loss of a wallet, or a dysfunctional factor of authentication, can be catastrophic, as the keys are then lost as well as the crypto currencies. Such difficult tradeoffs between the protection of the private keys and factors of authentication that are easy to use are also present in public key infrastructures, banking cards, smartphones and smartcards. In this paper, we present protocols based on novel challenge–response pair mechanisms that protect private keys, while using factors of authentication that can be lost or misplaced without negative consequences. Examples of factors that are analyzed include passwords, tokens, wearable devices, biometry, and blockchain-based non-fungible tokens. In normal operations, the terminal device uses all factors of authentication to retrieve an ephemeral key, decrypt the private key, and finally sign a transaction. With our solution, users can download the software stack into multiple terminal devices, turning all of them into backups. We present a zero-knowledge multi-factor authentication scheme allowing the secure recovery of private keys when one of the factors is lost, such as the token. The challenge–response pair mechanisms also enable a novel key pair generation protocol in which private keys can be kept secret by the user, while a Keystore can securely authenticate the user and transmit the public key to a distributed network. The standardized LWE post-quantum cryptographic CRYSTALS Dilithium protocol was selected in the experimental section.
Open access
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
The arrival of Machine Learning (ML) completely changed how we can unlock valuable information from data. Traditional methods, where everything was stored in one place, had big problems with keeping information private, handling large amounts of data, and avoiding unfair advantages. Machine Learning has become a powerful tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to overcome these challenges. We started by learning the basics of Machine Learning, including the different types like supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. We also explored the important steps involved, such as preparing the data, choosing the right model, training it, and then checking its performance. Next, we examined some key challenges in Machine Learning, such as models learning too much from specific examples (overfitting), not learning enough (underfitting), and reflecting biases in the data used. Moving beyond centralized systems, we looked at decentralized Machine Learning and its benefits, like keeping data private, getting answers faster, and using a wider variety of data sources. We then focused on a specific type called federated learning, where models are trained without directly sharing sensitive information. Real-world examples from healthcare and finance were used to show how collaborative Machine Learning can solve important problems while still protecting information security. Finally, we discussed challenges like communication efficiency, dealing with different types of data, and security. We also explored using a Zero Trust framework, which provides an extra layer of protection for collaborative Machine Learning systems. This approach is paving the way for a bright future for this groundbreaking technology.
Purpose The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the value-added tax (VAT) levied in South Africa in respect of non-fungible token (NFT) transactions.Motivation NFTs represent a novel category of tradable digital assets that use blockchain technology. The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has not issued any guidelines on the VAT treatment of NFTs and therefore the VAT treatment is uncertain.Design/Methodology/Approach A doctrinal research methodology, which included a comparative study with other jurisdictions, was employed to critically analyse the VAT levied in respect of NFT transactions.Main findings This article found that an NFT transaction constitutes a “taxable supply” and that it can constitute the “supply” of “goods” or “services”. Although the VAT consequences of NFT transactions that constitute “goods” are easily established, the VAT consequences of NFT transactions that constitute “services” remain uncertain. The classification of whether the services qualify as financial services, electronic services or imported services remain uncertain.Practical implications The findings of this article accordingly suggest that legislative amendments be made to the VAT Act or that guidance be issued by SARS to clarify the VAT consequences of NFT transactions.Novelty/Contribution Academic research on the VAT treatment of NFTs is also limited. This was the first study in South Africa to critically analyse the VAT treatment of NFT transactions.
Abstract With the rapid growth of hyperconnected devices and decentralized data architectures, safeguarding Internet of Things (IoT) transactions is becoming increasingly challenging. Blockchain presents a promising solution, yet its effectiveness depends on the underlying consensus algorithm. Conventional mechanisms, such as Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, are often impractical for resource-constrained IoT environments. To address these limitations, this work introduces a fair and lightweight hybrid consensus algorithm tailored for IoT. The proposed approach minimizes resource demands on the nodes while providing a fair and secure agreement process. Specifically, it utilizes a distributed lottery mechanism to ensure fair block proposals without requiring dedicated hardware. In addition, to enhance trust and establish finality, a reputation-based voting mechanism is incorporated. Finally, we experimentally validated the key features of the proposed consensus algorithm.
Large language models (LLMs), as a new generation of recommendation engines, possess powerful summarization and data analysis capabilities, surpassing traditional recommendation systems in both scope and performance. One promising application is investment recommendation. In this paper, we reveal a novel product bias in LLM investment recommendation, where LLMs exhibit systematic preferences for specific products. Such preferences can subtly influence user investment decisions, potentially leading to inflated valuations of products and financial bubbles, posing risks to both individual investors and market stability. To comprehensively study the product bias, we develop an automated pipeline to create a dataset of 567,000 samples across five asset classes (stocks, mutual funds, cryptocurrencies, savings, and portfolios). With this dataset, we present the bf first study on product bias in LLM investment recommendations. Our findings reveal that LLMs exhibit clear product preferences, such as certain stocks (e.g., `AAPL' from Apple and `MSFT' from Microsoft). Notably, this bias persists even after applying debiasing techniques. We urge AI researchers to take heed of the product bias in LLM investment recommendations and its implications, ensuring fairness and security in the digital space and market.
Stefano De Angelis, Ivan Visconti, Andrea Vitaletti, Marco Zecchini
Blockchains are among the most powerful technologies to realize decentralized information systems. In order to safely enjoy all guarantees provided by a blockchain, one should maintain a full node, therefore maintaining an updated local copy of the ledger. This allows one to locally verify transactions, states of smart contracts, and to compute any information over them. Unfortunately, for obvious practical reasons, a very large part of blockchain-based information systems consists of users relying on clients that access data stored in blockchains only through servers, without verifying what is received. In notable use cases, the user has application-specific queries that can be answered only by very few servers, sometimes all belonging to the same organization. This clearly re-introduces a single point of failure. In this work we present an architecture allowing superlight clients (i.e., clients that do not want to download the involved transactions) to outsource the computation of a query to a (possibly untrusted) server, receiving a trustworthy answer. Our architecture relies on the power of SNARKs and makes them lighter to compute by using data obtained from full nodes and blockchain explorers, possibly leveraging the existence of smart contracts. The viability of our architecture is confirmed by an experimental evaluation on concrete scenarios. Our work paves the road towards blockchain-based information systems that remain decentralized and reliable even when users rely on common superlight clients (e.g., smartphones).
ABSTRACT We investigate why and how businesses and entrepreneurs adopt and implement blockchain technology to improve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of seafood supply chains. We conduct interviews with entrepreneurs and small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) – specifically fishers, aquaculturists and restaurants – using new blockchain platforms to increase the traceability and trackability of seafood in Australia. Drawing on innovation adoption theory, we examine drivers and barriers to trading seafood via these innovative platforms, compared to traditional trading routes – such as through wholesalers. Benefits for seafood buyers included greater freshness, less waste, value‐adding the customer experience and supporting locally sourced products. Benefits for sellers included price security and transparency, and the marketing and branding opportunities that the platforms enabled through social media. Challenges regarded distrust, competition, uncertain product availability and the tangibility of seafood, which – unlike cryptocurrency – requires transport, packaging and processing, meaning potential efficiencies could become constrained by supply chain logistics.
The current education accreditation process poses a significant risk globally to the quality of education due to the increased falsification of academic certificates. Although previous studies have highlighted the potential benefits of blockchain technology in this context, there remains an opportunity towards a thorough investigation into the governance factors that influence the implementation of blockchain technology within the education sector. The accreditation system becomes increasingly important as a result of the emergence of a new learning ecosystem that enables the propagation of academic credits. It fosters an integrative learning approach by facilitating the accumulation of academic credits from a variety of higher education institutions, thereby promoting a learning ecosystem. The fundamental concept is to recognize the existence of a variety of learning pathways and to democratize educationTo this end, we conducted a comprehensive review of existing studies on the governance mechanisms for accreditation in the education sector using Blockchain technology. We identified 63 journal articles using four academic databases (EBScohost, Emerald, insight, Sage Journals, Scopus, Science direct) from 2018 to 2023. The literature appears devoid of proposals for a governance framework even though in the conventional paradigm such a framework is crucial in ensuring authenticity of credentials.
The Zero Trust (ZT) model is pivotal in enhancing the security of distributed systems by emphasizing rigorous identity verification, granular access control (AC), and continuous monitoring. To address the complexity and scalability challenges of modern distributed systems, we propose a blockchain-based dynamic access control scheme (DACS) as a practical solution for implementing ZT principles. This framework dynamically manages access control lists (ACLs) and enforces policies through smart contracts. In the DACS framework, each blockchain node maintains an object list specifying access permissions within its ACL and incorporates a minimum trust metric (TM) threshold to evaluate access requests. The TM assigned to each node reflects its trustworthiness. To further enhance security, the framework includes security awareness, enabling the dynamic assessment of the risk factor (RF), which reflects the operational risk level. The TM of access-requesting nodes is updated at runtime based on their behavior, with penalties imposed for malicious actions according to the prevailing RF. Access control policies are dynamically adjusted, mitigating risks posed by potentially untrustworthy users with valid credentials. Implemented and tested on the Ethereum blockchain, the proposed DACS framework demonstrates its efficiency and effectiveness in securing distributed systems.
This research paper discovers whether Bitcoin provides protection against inflation in Turkey which experienced hyperinflation and financial instability during covid-19. This topic gets attention after global economic fluctuations. Using stationarity tests, GARCH volatility models, and Quantile Regression analysis, the study finds that Bitcoin does not exhibit a consistent negative correlation with inflation. Instead, Bitcoin reacts more to monetary expansion (growth rate) and interest rate changes, behaving similarly to speculative risk assets rather than a stable store of value.The results suggest that Bitcoin is not a reliable inflation hedge but rather a liquidity-sensitive asset influenced by macroeconomic policies. While Bitcoin has seen increased adoption in hyper inflationary economy Turkey, its high volatility limits its effectiveness as a long-term inflation protector. Policy recommendations include strengthening financial regulations, implementing transparent risk disclosures for investors, exploring Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as stable alternatives, and promoting diversified inflation-hedging strategies. The findings provide critical insights for policymakers, investors, and financial institutions regarding Bitcoin’s role in global economic stability and inflation management.
This study examines the validity and application of smart contracts within the Indonesian civil law framework. Smart contracts are block chain-based agreements that are implemented autonomously, eliminating the necessity for intermediaries. Although it provides efficiency and openness, its integration into the Indonesian legal system continues to encounter obstacles, particularly concerning regulations and dispute resolution methods. The legitimacy of an agreement in civil law is governed by Article 1320 of the Civil Code, which stipulates the necessity of mutual consent, legal ability, definite objects, and justifiable grounds. Nonetheless, there exists no regulation that explicitly governs smart contracts, necessitating additional examination of their legal standing.This study employs a normative legal methodology utilizing both conceptual and legislative approaches. The utilized data sources comprise primary legal materials, including the Civil Code and the Indonesian ITE Law, alongside secondary legal materials from books, scholarly publications, and prior study. The investigation aimed to ascertain the validity and legal binding nature of smart contracts inside the Indonesian civil system.The study's findings indicate that while smart contracts theoretically satisfy the components of an agreement as outlined in the Civil Code, issues persist regarding regulation and dispute resolution. Consequently, it is essential to formulate specific legislation or amendments to the ITE Law and Civil Code to facilitate smart contracts. Furthermore, the function of notaries and legal entities in authenticating smart contracts need elucidation to prevent legal ambiguity. In conflict resolution, hybrid methods like block chain-based arbitration may serve as an alternate solution. Consequently, the adoption of smart contracts in Indonesia need enhanced legal certainty to facilitate widespread utilization and ensure protection for the involved parties.
The overall purpose of this research is to consider the considerations and design of many blockchain structures in digital international environments for smooth cross-chain operations. This work investigates the problems and possibilities involving the enhancement of interoperability of blockchains together with various sectors like healthcare, decentralized finance, and individual energy management. In the context of the same, the current study shall employ four different blockchain algorithms where the same interoperability protocols shall be measured based on parameters like efficiency, security, and scalability across the nodes. Outcomes reveal that the proposed framework improved transaction velocity by 35%, cut transaction costs by 20% ad heightened data security by 40% as reviewed to centralized structural styles. This study also demonstrates that cross-chain solutions are effective for scalability as decentralized applications run across different chains. The research shows that despite the fact that major advancements have been observed regarding cross-chain communication, other issues, including consensus synchronization and network protection remain issues that require solutions. Anatomy of these outcomes raises the awareness about the need to adhere to standards, and to build safe approaches to consensus needed to increase the share of holistic blockchain platforms. Cultivating practical awareness of interoperability in blockchain is as important as extending the real-life application of blockchain in a global environment by increasing data exchange, reducing operating expenses, ensuring safe and transparent transactions, and improving data exchange.
The integration of blockchain with Information-Centric Networking (ICN) enhances content distribution efficiency in areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G/6G communications. This integration implies that the network state information of ICN can significantly impact consensus efficiency. However, the Ethereum Casper FFG consensus algorithm overlooks the network heterogeneity among consensus nodes, leading to a potential bottleneck in consensus efficiency, especially when nodes with inferior network quality participate. To address this issue, this paper proposes a multidimensional reputation model based on an ICN-enabled blockchain architecture. The model combines on-chain stake and network contributions to evaluate the reputation of ICN consensus nodes. Furthermore, a reputation-based hybrid consensus mechanism, RepuICN, is introduced, which enhances the network layer of the Casper FFG algorithm. This mechanism selects higher-reputation ICN consensus nodes as proposers for checkpoint blocks, mitigating the impact of network latency fluctuations on block propagation. Additionally, RepuICN improves block propagation efficiency through ICN multicast and caching techniques. Simulation results show that, under identical conditions with a network of 5000 nodes and 2% ICN nodes, RepuICN reduces broadcast latency by 17% for regular blocks and 61.4% for checkpoint blocks and achieves 3.4 times higher transaction throughput than Casper FFG.
In many-task optimization scenarios, surrogate models are valuable for mitigating the computational burden of repeated fitness evaluations across tasks. This study proposes a novel meta-surrogate framework to assist many-task optimization, by leveraging the knowledge transfer strengths and emergent capabilities of large language models (LLMs). We formulate a unified framework for many-task fitness prediction, by defining a universal model with metadata to fit a group of problems. Fitness prediction is performed on metadata and decision variables, enabling efficient knowledge sharing across tasks and adaptability to new tasks. The LLM-based meta-surrogate treats fitness prediction as conditional probability estimation, employing a unified token sequence representation for task metadata, inputs, and outputs. This approach facilitates efficient inter-task knowledge sharing through shared token embeddings and captures complex task dependencies via multi-task model training. Experimental results demonstrate the model's emergent generalization ability, including zero-shot performance on problems with unseen dimensions. When integrated into evolutionary transfer optimization (ETO), our framework supports dual-level knowledge transfer -- at both the surrogate and individual levels -- enhancing optimization efficiency and robustness. This work establishes a novel foundation for applying LLMs in surrogate modeling, offering a versatile solution for many-task optimization.
In the era of big data, information security and privacy protection have become important issues facing today's society. This study proposes a distributed network security architecture based on blockchain to enhance the security of information privacy protection. The proposed architecture consists of three primary levels: equipment layer, network service layer, and application layer. It also integrates smart contracts. In addition, this study also proposes a vulnerability detection method based on improved tree convolutional neural networks. The incorporation of a "continuous binary tree" approach effectively addresses the limitation inherent to conventional tree convolution, wherein the number of nodes is fixed. This refinement enables a more effective capture of the hierarchical structure and semantic nuances inherent to smart contract code. The experiment used multiple datasets, each containing multiple IoT attack types and smart contract vulnerability code snippets. These datasets were evaluated based on a set of criteria, including but not limited to accuracy, recall, F1 scores, gas costs, and execution delays. Experiments have shown that the proposed method performs well in accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores compared to existing state-of-the-art methods, with an accuracy range of 89.62% to 98.36%, significantly better than Oyente (about 75%) and Securify (about 85%). Specifically, the proposed method achieved 96.14% accuracy in detecting reentrant attacks, compared to 78% for Oyente and 82% for Securify. The findings indicate that the architectural design exerts a substantial influence on enhancing network security performance, thereby ensuring the stability of the system by effectively mitigating the variability in response time.
The infusion of technology across various domains, particularly in process-centric and multi-stakeholder sectors, demands transparency, accuracy, and scalability. This paper introduces a blockchain and intelligent contract-based framework for judicial case management, proposing a private-to-public blockchain approach to establish a transparent, decentralized, and robust system. An Integrated Solution for Judicial Case Management using Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts. This paper aims to introduce a multi-blockchain structure for managing judicial cases based on smart contracts, ultimately rendering cases more transparent, distributed, and tenacious. This solution is innovative because it will leverage both private and public blockchains to satisfy the unique requirements of judicial processes, with transparent public access for authorized digital events and transactions occurring on the freely available blockchain and a three-tiered private blockchain structure to address private stakeholder interactions while ensuring that operational consistency, security, and data privacy requirements are met. Leveraging the decentralized and tamper-proof approach of blockchain and cloud computing, the framework aims to increase data security and cut down on administrative burdens. This framework offers a scalable and secure solution for modernizing judicial systems, supporting smart governance's shift towards digital transparency and accountability.