Carla Ferraro, Melissa Wheeler, Jason Pallant, Samuel Wilson · 5 authors
Web3 technology is described as trustless in that interactions and transactions do not require trusted third parties and instead rely on smart contracts and the immutability of the decentralized blockchain. Thus, in contrast to earlier iterations of the web, Web3 users are asked to trust the technology itself rather than the human intermediaries. On its face , this shift to a trustless web calls into question the traditional conceptions of and requirements for trust. However, in this article, we caution against claims that advocate distrusting Web3 on the basis that, despite how quickly Web3 technology is advancing, the psychological processes through which people perceive and make sense of the social world remain fundamentally unchanged. Drawing on the psychology of trust and the evolution of web technologies and associated objects of trust, we argue that Web3 is not so trustless after all. We also highlight opportunities for brands to build trust in Web3 technology, including key considerations in leveraging opportunities and directions for further research. Overall, this article provides critical guidance to brand managers, policy advisors, and academics seeking to understand, build, and trust Web3 technology.
Ikram Nur Muharam, Iis Tussyadiah, Albert Nsom Kimbu
Blockchain could disrupt traditional accommodation services by enabling safe, decentralised direct connections between guests and hosts. However, how users will accept and use blockchain-based services in tourism and hospitality remains unascertained. This study explores users’ perceptions of a blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation system and sets a theoretical basis to conceptualise the drivers of the acceptability of such a system. By using a grounded theory approach involving theoretical sampling and three steps of coding and constant comparison procedures, this study revealed that users were drawn to the system because it delivers desirable characteristics that are absent from existing services, such as further reduction of transaction fees, instant transaction settlement, wider income distribution, data integrity, algorithm autonomy, and smart protocol. Personal and social contexts were also found to influence users’ preferences for blockchain type and system ownership models. By offering key predictors and a theoretical model of user acceptance of a blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation system, hence taking a bottom-up approach to complement the highly top-down extant literature, this paper allows stakeholders exploring the use of blockchain technology in the tourism and hospitality sectors to have a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.
Usually whenever we take a subscription from any OTT platform we often use it only for 5-10% of time we subscribe for, but we end up paying for the whole lot of time. Also, often users keep sharing their subscriptions with their friends and a single screen subscription ends up running on multiple devices. It causes losses to service providers. So, a more smooth and efficient subscription system is needed and it would benefit both the parties - Customers and Service Providers. Since Ethereum has been an open source development platform, the industry has taken advantage of decentralized application or DApp where by the application is based on Smart Contract, a set of programming written code becomes the law of in agreement.
Service provisioning is of paramount importance as we are now heading for a world of integrated services giving rise to the next generation of service ecosystems. The huge number of service offerings that will be available for customers in future scenarios require a novel approach to service registry and discovery that lets customers choose those offerings that best match their preferences. One way to achieve this is to introduce the provider’s reputation, i.e., a quality indicator of the provisioned service, as an additional search criterion. Now, with blockchain technology in our hands, automated regulation of service-level agreements (SLAs) that capture the mutual agreements between all involved parties has regained momentum. In this article, we report our full-fledged work on the conception, design, and construction of a platform for SLA-minded service provisioning called PenChain. With our work, we demonstrate that penalty-aware SLAs of general services – if represented in a machine-readable logic and assisted by distributed ledger technology – are programmatically enforceable. We devise algorithms for ranking services in a search result taking into account the digitized values of the SLAs. We offer scenario-based evaluation of PenChain in the field of precision agriculture and the domain of automotive manufacturing. Furthermore, we examine the scalability and the data security of PenChain for precision agriculture.
The rapid development and globalization of modern tourism have brought more and more tourists and tourist attractions, bringing opportunities to the tourism industry. However, challenges also come with it, including the cost of travelers’ trust, the satisfaction of personalized tourism needs, and the supervision and management of tourist attractions. In order to solve these problems and improve the tourism experience, this paper designs a blockchain-based smart tourism platform. First, by adopting blockchain technology, a decentralized database is established to reduce the cost of trust for travelers. Secondly, through the blockchain-based smart tourism platform, travelers can customize personalized travel routes and itineraries according to their preferences and needs. The platform uses the data interaction function of blockchain to visually display various resources and services of tourist attractions, and travelers can choose according to their own preferences to enhance the personalized experience of tourism. Third, the smart tourism platform based on the blockchain can provide the reliability and transparency of data information, and through the decentralized nature of blockchain, the relevant data of tourist attractions can be recorded and stored, and cannot be tampered with, ensuring the authenticity and credibility of the data. Regulatory authorities can easily access and review these data, and more effectively control and supervise scenic spots. Finally, this paper combines DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) and PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) consensus algorithms to improve the on-chain consensus efficiency of blockchain-based smart tourism platforms. The consensus algorithm is the core mechanism to ensure the normal operation and consistency of the blockchain system, and improve the throughput and performance of the system by introducing DPOS and PBFT algorithms.
Purpose The existing literature offers various perspectives on integrating cryptocurrencies into investment portfolios; yet, there is a gap in understanding the behaviours, attitudes and cross-investment links of individual investors. This study, grounded in the modern portfolio theory and the random walk theory, aims to add empirical insights that are specific to the UK context. It explores four hypotheses related to the influence of socio-demographics, digital adoption, cross-investment behaviours and financial attitudes on cryptocurrency owners. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a logistic regression model with secondary data from the Financial Lives Survey 2020 to assess the factors impacting cryptocurrency ownership. A total of 29 variables are used, categorized into four groups aligned with the hypotheses. Additionally, hierarchical clustering analysis was conducted to further explore the cross-investment links. Findings The study reveals a significant lack of diversification among UK cryptocurrency investors, a pronounced inclination towards high-risk investments such as peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, and parallels with gambling behaviours, including financial dissatisfaction and a propensity for risk-taking. It highlights the influence of demographic traits, risk tolerance, technological literacy and emotional attitudes on cryptocurrency investment decisions. Originality/value This study provides valuable insights into cryptocurrency regulation and retail investor protection, underscoring the necessity for tailored financial education and a holistic regulatory approach for investment products with comparable risk levels, with the aim of minimizing regulatory arbitrage. It significantly enhances our understanding of the unique dynamics of cryptocurrency investments within the evolving financial landscape.
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) have been widely endorsed in various areas and by numerous entities. With the promises of decentralisation, taking out the middlepersons and cost-efficiency, DLT-implementations seem desirable in various fields, from finance and copyright to health. However, all pros come with cons. DLTs’ architecture may by nature run counter to some data protection principles; this could limit or even halt innovation. Moreover, there is a tendency for (re)centralisation contesting the very nature of DLTs and risking having centralised systems serving the economic interests of the few big players, instead of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the many. Last, contemporary forms of DLTs, allowing for smart contracting, appear to challenge traditional contract laws. This contribution aims to address the above challenges. It argues that data protection laws, dynamically interpreted, could raise security thresholds and promote the development of user-friendly and decentralised DLTs, thus avoiding (re)centralisation; and that, while smart contracting appears suitable in various situations, it can be avoided where traditional legal contracts can better satisfy the individual needs and desires of the parties. Finally, the concluding section recommends that regulators wait for scientific advances in the field and carefully balance the fundamental rights and freedoms at stake before introducing DLTs in the public sphere. Keywords: Distributed Ledger Technologies | Decentralisation | Pseudonymisation | Smart Contracts
Abstract Over the last half-century, consumer research has often depicted scarcity as a dominant factor increasing price. But should we assume that scarcity’s upward pressure on price remains intact, in a world where novel forms of digital products proliferate? In this article, we propose that blockchain-encrypted digital goods, in particular, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), offer good reason to revisit this assumption. In this context, we argue and find that social value can outweigh intrinsic value as a determinant of willingness-to-pay. As a result, when scarcity threatens access to high levels of social value, its effect on price can be negative rather than positive—an inversion of a pattern typically observed for offline collectibles. Secondary data taken from the NFT platform Opensea and a set of experimental studies support this social value-based lens. Given these findings, we propose a research agenda to ground future work in this area. We also suggest that NFTs offer a laboratory in which past theories related to social value, scarcity, and price can be reconsidered and future theories developed, hopefully allowing consumer researchers to lead knowledge development in these domains over the next 50 years.
Federico Ast, William R. George, Jamilya Kamalova, Abeer Sharma · 5 authors
Decentralized justice is a novel approach to online dispute resolution based on blockchain, crowdsourcing and game theory for adjudicating claims in a neutral and efficient way. Since the launch of the first decentralized justice platform in 2018, the field has attracted wide interest both from practitioners and academics in Web3 and dispute resolution. The decentralized justice approach is based on the ideas of decentralization, economic incentives and a claim to fairness in its decisions. At the current stage of development, decentralized justice is facing a number of technical, market, legal and ethical challenges for further development. This paper provides a review of the short history of decentralized justice, addresses a number of recurrent topics and lays down a path for future exploration.
Financial markets are undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Technological advances have brought major improvements to the operations of financial services. While these advances promote improved accessibility and convenience, traditional finance shortcomings like lack of transparency and moral hazard frictions continue to plague centralized platforms, imposing societal costs. In this paper, we argue how these shortcomings and frictions are being mitigated by the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. We delve into the workings of smart contracts, the backbone of DeFi transactions, with an emphasis on those underpinning token exchange and lending services. We highlight the pros and cons of the novel form of decentralized governance introduced via the ownership of governance tokens. Despite its potential, the current DeFi infrastructure introduces operational risks to users, which we segment into five primary categories: consensus mechanisms, protocol, oracle, frontrunning, and systemic risks. We conclude by emphasizing the need for future research to focus on the scalability of existing blockchains, the improved design and interoperability of DeFi protocols, and the rigorous auditing of smart contracts.
In this paper, we propose a fully decentralized and smart contract-based insurance protocol. We identify various issues in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) insurance context and propose a solution to overcome these shortcomings. We introduce an economic model that allows for risk transfer without any external dependencies or centralized intermediaries. In particular, our proposal does not need any sort of subjective claim assessment, community voting or external data providers (oracles). Moreover, it solves the problem of over-insurance and proposes various ways to mitigate the capital inefficiencies usually seen with DeFi collateral. The work takes inspiration from peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance and collateralized debt obligations (CDO). We formally describe the protocol, assess its efficiency and key properties and present a reference implementation. Finally, we address limitations, extensions and ideas for further research.
Abstract The blockchain, a decentralized ledger system, has been considered a revolutionary technology to transform businesses, including the financial markets. As peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is also known for decentralization in the sense that individuals borrow from and lend to each other directly, bypassing traditional banks, we explore the possibility and benefits of blockchains in P2P lending. We first provide an economic analysis of existing P2P lending problems, including herding and platform-borrower collusion, with and without the blockchain mechanism. We note that, compared with the existing markets, blockchain-backed P2P lending is highly effective in privacy preservation and borrower quality distinction. Since the role of intermediaries is eliminated in the blockchain world, the chance of platform-borrower collusion is also minimized. Moreover, we show that borrowers and lenders can expect additional surplus when the origination fee in traditional P2P lending is replaced with a smaller tokenization cost and when borrowers present a more accurate financial incentive in a smart contract. With the smart contract, borrowers are allowed to propose optimal interest rates based on their creditworthiness and capacity of repayment while detailed personal information is not required. Additionally, we demonstrate that small investors’ surplus can be further enhanced due to the elimination of herding.
Blockchain technology (BCT) enables the automated execution of smart contracts in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. BCT-based P2P platforms allow the sharing, exchange and trade of energy among consumers or prosumers as peers, fostering the decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization of the energy industry. On the other hand, BCT-based P2P energy trading relies on the collection, storage and processing of a large amount of user data, posing interdisciplinary challenges, including user anonymity, privacy, the governance of BCT systems and the role of energy market players. First, this paper seeks to review the state of the art of European data protection law and regulations by focusing on BCT compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018. Second, it explores both the potentials and the challenges of BCT-based P2P energy trading from a legal–economic perspective. To do so, the paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach which intertwines both law and economics, by reviewing the recent literature on BCT and P2P energy trading. Findings have revealed that the deployment of BCT-based P2P energy trading is still in its pilot stage because of technology immaturity, data protection uncertainty, incomplete disintermediation and the lack of both user awareness and collaboration among market players. Drawing on the review, the paper also proposes a selection of solutions to foster the implementation of BCT-based P2P energy trading.
Aim . The presented study aims to assess the impact of modern development trends on the sharing economy. Tasks. The authors analyze the development of the sharing economy across different periods; formulate and test hypotheses about the impact of technological and social trends on the development of the sharing economy; substantiate the division of the examined period into four stages; describe the revealed patterns using single factor regression models. Methods. The study includes four stages: data selection and processing, trend elimination and division of the analyzed stage into periods, verification of the formulated hypotheses for each of the periods, and quality control of the obtained models. The information basis of the study includes a list of thematic indexes calculated by the Indxx agency (USA). Results. During the identification of periods of development of the sharing economy, the influence of global events on the dynamics of the sharing economy is determined, which is confirmed by the dynamics of the values of the sharing economy index during the pandemic and postpandemic period. Testing of the hypothesis shows that the most significant factor for the development of the sharing economy is the development of fintech and decentralized finance. That said, in the period from October 2018 to December 2019, there is a correlation between the development of the sharing economy and companies whose activity is focused on generation Y. Conclusions. The revealed patterns confirm the leading role of digital technologies in the development of the sharing economy.
Decentralized Finance, or DeFi, is a financial ecosystem built on blockchain technology, aiming to recreate traditional financial services without the need for central authorities like banks or intermediaries. It is a growing ecosystem of financial applications and services built on blockchain technology. Unlike traditional finance, which relies on centralized institutions like banks, DeFi leverages peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to facilitate financial transactions. Traditional financial systems often leave individuals and communities, particularly those in developing economies or marginalized groups, excluded due to limited access, high transaction costs, and stringent regulations. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) emerges as a potential solution, leveraging blockchain technology to offer an alternative financial ecosystem built on transparency, disintermediation, and accessibility. This paper investigates the potential of DeFi in fostering financial inclusion and economic empowerment. DeFi has gained traction in India, with a growing interest in blockchain-based financial services. However, regulatory uncertainties have led to some cautiousness. Indian regulators are exploring frameworks to address potential risks while encouraging innovation in the DeFi space. As the regulatory landscape evolves, the adoption and development of DeFi in India are likely to be influenced by government policies and industry collaborations
Shuchih Ernest Chang, Erik Chiaway Chang, Yijou Chen
The ideas of the sharing economy have facilitated innovative business applications, such as Uber and Airbnb. As an example of a sharing economy application, ridesharing services take advantage of underutilized resources to create economic value. However, the unruly design of ridesharing systems may make urban traffic more congested and cause other technology-organization-environment issues. This study explores the application of blockchain and smart contract technologies to enhance ridesharing services by harvesting the blockchain benefits of transaction traceability, process transparency, system automation and disintermediation. After presenting system design and implementation details for building and deploying a blockchain-based system to support the reengineered ridesharing service with required business functions, we conduct functionality/performance tests and theory-based comparative analysis to confirm its feasibility and applicability. The results reveal that our system with blockchain-enabled benefits is superior to incumbent ridesharing systems. Moreover, while prior research rarely reports the design and implementation details of blockchain-based systems to support sharing economy services, this paper primarily contributes to extant literature by not only proposing a layered system architecture adapting blockchain and smart contracts into the desired ridesharing service but also demonstrating the design and implementation details, covering the development tools, the deployment environment and the deployed smart contracts.
Existing NFTs confront restrictions of one-time incentive and product isolation. Creators cannot obtain benefits once having sold their NFT products due to the lack of relationships across different NFTs, which results in controversial profit sharing. This paper proposes a referable NFT solution to extend the incentive sustainability of NFTs. We construct the referable NFT (rNFT) network to increase exposure and enhance the referring relationship of inclusive items. We introduce the DAG topology to generate directed edges between each pair of NFTs with corresponding weights and labels for advanced usage. We accordingly implement and propose the scheme under Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) standards, indexed in EIP-5521. Further, we provide the mathematical formation to analyze the utility for each rNFT participant. The discussion gives general guidance among multi-dimensional parameters. The solution, as a result, shape the recognition of potential values hidden in isolated NFTs and raise the interest of communities toward the discovery of NFT derivatives. To our knowledge, this is the first study to build a referable NFT network, explicitly showing the virtual connections among NFTs.