Agariadne Dwinggo Samala, Soha Rawas, Zamzami Zainuddin, Natalie-Jane Howard ¡ 5 authors
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) possess transformative potential in the educational sector, facilitating digital content creation, ownership, and exchange while fostering advancements in personalized learning, certification, and resource sharing. Despite their promise, the integration of NFTs in education remains in its early stages, with existing research largely concentrating on technical and economic perspectives. This study presents a systematic review of NFTs in education, employing a bibliometric approach combined with a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) standards, focusing on blockchain-based credentialing, learning innovations, and associated technological and ethical challenges. Key trends, opportunities, and obstacles in NFT adoption within educational frameworks are identified by an analysis of 49 articles published between 2019 and 2023 from the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. Prominent applications include blockchain-based credential verification and decentralized learning platforms. Despite NFTs' considerable potential to enhance access to educational resources and secure credential verification, significant challenges such as technological scalability, environmental impact, and regulatory uncertainties persist. Recommendations are offered for adopting energy-efficient blockchain technologies and developing robust regulatory frameworks to mitigate these challenges. Future research should prioritize sustainable technological development and critically examine the long-term implications of NFTs for educational equity in the evolving digital landscape.
Ahmad Musamih, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Mohamed L. Seghier ¡ 7 authors
Claustrophobia is a widespread mental health issue that affects a significant portion of the population. Traditional approaches, such as exposure therapies, have shown efficacy but are limited by their inability to provide immersive and controlled environments for effective therapy. These methods often struggle to replicate the intensity and authenticity of claustrophobic scenarios and face challenges in data security and patient engagement. In this paper, we propose a blockchain and Non-Fungible Token (NFT)-based metaverse to create a decentralized, transparent, immersive, and secure platform for claustrophobia exposure therapy. Our approach integrates blockchain technology for decentralized data management and NFTs for incentivizing patient participation, offering a unique enhancement to traditional therapy methods. We develop four blockchain smart contracts to manage registration, access control, NFT management, progress monitoring, and incentives distribution. Our system architecture, sequence diagrams, and algorithms are presented to demonstrate the functionality of our solution. We validate our approach through functionality testing, cost evaluation, and security analysis. Specifically, we measure the gas consumption of the smart contracts, analyze transaction costs, and assess system security against vulnerabilities. Additionally, we leverage existing literature to support the effectiveness of NFTs as incentives and the role of blockchain in enhancing data security and participation. The results show improvements in therapy engagement and data security, validating the practical implications of integrating blockchain and metaverse technologies in mental health therapy. We discuss the practical implications, challenges, and limitations of our solution, along with guidelines for generalization. The source code is publicly available on GitHub.
D. Stamatakis, Dimitrios G. Kogias, Pericles Papadopoulos, Panagiotis Karkazis ¡ 5 authors
The advancement and acceptance of new technologies often hinges on the level of understanding and trust among potential users. Blockchain technology, despite its broad applications across diverse sectors, is often met with skepticism due to a general lack of understanding and incidents of illicit activities in the cryptocurrency domain. This study aims to demystify blockchain technology by providing an in-depth examination of its application in a novel blockchain-based card game, centered around renewable energy and sustainable resource management. This paper introduces a serious game that uses blockchain to enhance user interaction, ownership, and gameplay, demonstrating the technologyâs potential to revolutionize the gaming industry. Notable aspects of the game, such as ownership of virtual assets, transparent transaction histories, trustless game mechanics, user-driven content creation, gasless transactions, and mechanisms for in-game asset trading and cross-platform asset reuse are analyzed. The paper discusses how these features, not only provide a richer gaming experience but also serve as effective tools for raising awareness about sustainable energy and resource management, thereby bridging the gap between entertainment and education. The case study offers valuable insights into how blockchain can create dynamic, secure, and participatory virtual environments, shifting the paradigm of traditional online gaming.
Ahmethan Turan, Mehmet ya, Ertan lmaz, M. Munir Syam AR
Objective: Cryptocurrency trading has become widespread in recent years with developing technology and ease of use. As this is similar to gambling and pathological trading, this can produce an addiction. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between use of cryptocurrencies and ADHD symptoms, quality of life and sleep quality among university students. Methods: In total 921 university students were included in this study. All participants answered the sociodemographic data form, Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Scale (ASRS), 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) using the online questionnaire method. Cryptocurrency users additionally responded to Problematic Cryptocurrency Trading Scale (PCTS). Results: In the cryptocurrency usersâ ASRS scores were significantly higher (p<0.001), all SF-36 scores were significantly lower (for mental health subscale p=0.034, for other subscales p<0.001) in except SF-36 bodily pain scores, PSQI global scores (p<0.001) and subscales scores were found to be significantly higher (for sleep latency subscale p=0.013, for sleep disturbances subscale p=0.041, for other subscales p<0.001). Among those who cryptocurrency user, positive significant relationship was found between male gender, gambling, smoking and psychiatric history and PCTS scores (p=0.017, p=0.002, p=0.029, p=0.011 respectively). Conclusion: Cryptocurrency users have shown more ADHD symptoms, lower sleep quality and lower quality of life than non-users. Cryptocurrency use is common among university students and it should not be overlooked that it can evolve into behavioral addiction.
Asif Ali Wagan, Abdullah Ayub Khan, YenâLin Chen, Lip Yee Por ¡ 6 authors
Game-based learning in schools and colleges, with the help of AI-enabled augmented intelligence techniques, is reported to improve childrenâs neurodevelopment, intellectual sensing, and specific learning abilities, according to US officials. There is currently a huge transformation from traditional assisted learning to augmented reality-enabled computer-based learning. Globally, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of game-based augmented learning in most schools and colleges. A few problems arise that create concern, such as the emerging effects of gaming on institutional premises, the disordering of childrenâs involvement after game-learning, the rate of learning and attendance, adaptation, and teachersâ experience. To address these individual aspects, we proposed a blockchain Ethereum-enabled, secure AI-based augmented game learning environment, called B-AIQoE, in which protected on-chain and off-chain channels are designed to handle all the transactions and exchanges among students before analysis in terms of color transition, redundancy, unethical transmission, and related vulnerabilities. On the other hand, the proposed system examines and analyzes the Quality of experience (QoE) and improves accessibility as it receives feedback from the students and teachers. For the purpose of automating game-based transactions, three different aspects are discussed, such as verifying and validating student-teacher registration, creating content for game-based learning and privacy, and updating studentsâ records and exchanges. Finally, this paper separates, analyzes, and discusses a list of emerging challenges and limitations and their possible solutions involved in creating the proposed system.
YuâJin Kwon, Do-Hyun Kim, Yunmok Son, Eugene Y. Vasserman ¡ 5 authors
In the Bitcoin system, participants are rewarded for solving cryptographic puzzles. In order to receive more consistent rewards over time, some participants organize mining pools and split the rewards from the pool in proportion to each participant's contribution. However, several attacks threaten the ability to participate in pools. The block withholding (BWH) attack makes the pool reward system unfair by letting malicious participants receive unearned wages while only pretending to contribute work. When two pools launch BWH attacks against each other, they encounter the miner's dilemma: in a Nash equilibrium, the revenue of both pools is diminished. In another attack called selfish mining, an attacker can unfairly earn extra rewards by deliberately generating forks. In this paper, we propose a novel attack called a fork after withholding (FAW) attack. FAW is not just another attack. The reward for an FAW attacker is always equal to or greater than that for a BWH attacker, and it is usable up to four times more often per pool than in BWH attack. When considering multiple pools - the current state of the Bitcoin network - the extra reward for an FAW attack is about 56% more than that for a BWH attack. Furthermore, when two pools execute FAW attacks on each other, the miner's dilemma may not hold: under certain circumstances, the larger pool can consistently win. More importantly, an FAW attack, while using intentional forks, does not suffer from practicality issues, unlike selfish mining. We also discuss partial countermeasures against the FAW attack, but finding a cheap and efficient countermeasure remains an open problem. As a result, we expect to see FAW attacks among mining pools.