To address the construction industry’s fragmented resources and to facilitate its service-oriented transformation, a new service paradigm of a construction service trading platform (CSTP) enables the sharing and trading of distributed construction services. However, the current platform with centralized management cannot provide an online trading environment with information security and transaction transparency without the involvement of a trusted third party. Existing approaches to selecting services for complex tasks also ignore security and transparency, even though these are critical to the platform. This study selected services for complex tasks securely and transparently, and made three contributions. First, an innovative blockchain-based construction service trading platform (B-CSTP) is proposed, which can provide a secure and transparent trading environment. Second, smart contract–based task decomposition and service composition (TDSC) was established, in which three main functions were designed to implement the service selection approach for the complex task. Third, an Ethereum-based system was established to demonstrate the proposed B-CSTP and smart contracts for TDSC. A survey of construction professionals was established to evaluate the framework of the proposed B-CSTP, and experiments were conducted to evaluate the designed functions of the smart contract for TDSC. The results show that the proposed B-CSTP and the designed function of smart contracts are feasible. The survey reveals that 80% and 70% of survey participants had positive attitudes toward its security and transparency, respectively. Furthermore, the experiment results show that the design functions of smart contracts were effective and reasonable in selecting services. This study contributes to the new service paradigm and the problem of selecting services by combining blockchain and smart contract technology. This study expands the application scenarios for blockchain in CSTP and makes significant advances in using smart contracts for TDSC.
Ramachandra Rao Kurada, Karteeka Pavan Kanadam, Y Ramu, N Silpa · 6 authors
The reinforced significance of blockchain technology is due to its foul-proof security of decentralized self-triggering applications. The major concern is towards maintaining transaction record keeping as unhampered in the peer-to-peer infrastructure and finally moldings them into digital assets. Blockchain concept is in the form of a distributed peer-to-peer network and is first applied in the design of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. After it was established as a successful model, all the business sectors started the working framework for their customized applications. Universally, the suite of blockchain is still in an embryonic stage and is evolving as a potentially transformative force. Hence to revamp the existing paradigms, the first part of the paper is articulated by stating a concise view towards the architectural importance of blockchain technology. The work also attempts to oversight the potential case studies implemented in the public sector. The second part patches the approachable technical underpinnings that can be transparently applied over with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum etc in the form of data visualizations. These visualizations attempt to highlight and demystify compliances in the blockchain datasets and help decision makers to improve their business values timely via this trusted medium.
The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) do not make explicit provisions, in terms of a specifically dedicated standard, for the accounting treatment of cryptocurrencies. This creates uncertainty, and guidance is therefore required in terms of accounting for such investments. Accounting theory has the potential to provide the foundation for this guidance. This study aimed to determine the most appropriate accounting treatment for cryptocurrencies based on the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (as a form of accounting theory) that results in decision-useful information. The research further investigated the proposed accounting treatment in terms of IFRS and sought to determine whether this treatment was aligned with the IASB’s conceptual framework. This qualitative study conducted a non-empirical interpretative analysis of the literature (focusing specifically on accounting theory) to address the research aim. The conceptual framework indicated that the most appropriate way to account for cryptocurrencies was to recognise an asset at fair value. This accounting treatment aligns with accounting for assets under International Accounting Standard (IAS) 2 commodities held by broker-traders and the IAS 38 revaluation model. Addressing the problem of accounting for cryptocurrencies with reference to accounting theory makes this study novel. The guidance provided could reduce uncertainty among entities holding investments in cryptocurrencies and could increase the decision-usefulness of financial information.
Block chain technique is developed from a distributed, dependable application development platform to an irreversible record of crypto currency transaction history. Block chain technology's emergence has sparked a number of possible changes in how corporate operations are managed across numerous industries. However, to the best of research experience, no prior effort has concentrated on integrating block chain to establish a secure and unchangeable data and evidence attribution maintenance architecture that autonomously checks the origination records. Therefore, the research work proficiently introduces the novel Block Chain based Contribute Sequence Tracking (BCCST) system with amalgamation of Trail based Smart Indenture (TSI) and Release Attribution Model (RAM). The study begins by outlining a practical application of the proposed TSI for the disintermediation of commercial activities utilising a notional, shared information ledger. This ledger not only makes monitoring data exchange easier, but it also encourages supply chain participants to cooperate together on a multilateral network. The novel RAM to create immutable data trails that make it easier to gather, maintain, and verify reliable data provenance.
Pouyan Jahanbin, Stephen C. Wingreen, Ravi Sharma, Behrang Ijadi · 5 authors
The application of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies has received increasing attention from industry and scholars alike. Given predicted looming food crises, some of the most impactful deployments of blockchains are likely to concern food supply chains. This study outlined how blockchain adoption can result in positive affordances in the food supply chain. Using Q methodology, this study explored the current status of the agri-food supply chain and how blockchain technology could be useful in addressing existing challenges. This theorization leads to the proposition of the 3TIC value-driver framework for determining the enabling affordances of blockchain that would increase shared value for stakeholders. First, we propose a framework based on the most promising features of blockchain technology to overcome current challenges in the agri-food industry. Our value-driver framework is driven by the Q-study findings of respondents closely associated with the agri-food supply chain. This framework can provide supply chain stakeholders with a clear perception of blockchain affordances and serve as a guideline for utilizing appropriate features of technology that match organizations’ capabilities, core competencies, goals, and limitations. Therefore, it could assist top-level decision-makers in systematically evaluating parts of the organization to focus on and improve the infrastructure for successful blockchain implementation along the agri-food supply chain. We conclude by noting certain significant challenges that must be carefully addressed to successfully adopt blockchain technology.
Since its first appearance as the infrastructure supporting Bitcoin, blockchain has received different waves of attention from practitioners and academics. Besides the degree of interest, the attention to blockchain has often focused not merely on its own potential and characteristics but on its applications field. However, looking at its application and deployment in domains other than cryptocurrency or the nascent non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology does not seem to be widely adopted or is still in its early stages. Given this, we are interested in how managers and the general public are informed about new technology other than through academic papers or the specialized press. In this paper, we analyze how blockchain has been presented by speakers invited to give TED and TEDx Talks to identify the most common terms used to present blockchain in these talks using a multi-methods approach (qualitative analysis and big data analysis) and see if the discourse surrounding blockchain has shifted over time. The results of this study show how the different perspectives brought by broadcasters like TED often overshadow a technological innovation like the blockchain in its evolution and application by the fact that the focus is instead shifted to products and services built on it. Also, this study shows how different degrees of attention and expertise are associated with each fashion wave of new or emergent technology innovations.
Δαμιανός Π. Σακάς, Nikolaos T. Giannakopoulos, Markos Margaritis, Νίκος Κανέλλος
Due to the volatility of the markets and the ongoing crises (COVID-19, the Ukrainian war, etc.), investors are keen to exploit any potential chances to make profits. For this reason, the idea of harvesting data from cryptocurrency market users takes an innovative step. Potential investors in supply chain firms in the fertilizer industry need to know whether the observation of data originating from the cryptocurrency market is capable of explaining their stock price variation. The authors identify the innovative utilization of cryptocurrency markets’ user analytical data to model and predict the stock price of supply chain firms in the fertilizer industry stock price. The main aim of this research is to evaluate the contribution of cryptocurrency market big data as a predicting factor for the stock price of fertilizer market firms. Such a finding improves the knowledge and decision-making of potential investors in the fertilizer market. Moreover, this study seeks to highlight the benefits of utilizing cryptocurrency market big data for other financial purposes, apart from stock price prediction. The analytical data was derived from cryptocurrency websites and applications and was then processed through statistical analysis (correlation and linear regressions), Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM), and Hybrid Modeling (HM) modeling. The hybrid model’s simulation showed that analytical data from the cryptocurrency markets tend to explain and predict the stock price of supply chain firms in the fertilizer industry. Such data refer to Bitcoin’s website organic keywords and traffic costs, as well as paid traffic costs from cryptocurrency trade websites/apps. A rise in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trade websites’ organic and paid traffic costs tend to increase supply chain firms in the fertilizer industry’s stock prices, while Bitcoin’s website organic keywords variation decreases accordingly.
Ioannis Kourouklides, Novak I. Zukowski, Kleitos Alexandrou
This whitepaper presents the vision, mission, and overarching role of the GUT-AI Foundation. The Foundation aims to promote the research, development and eventually the deployment of user-friendly, human-centred and developer-friendly Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for the betterment of humanity through an Ecosystem of Concepts and Implementations (ECI). The Foundation recognizes the potential of AI to revolutionize numerous industries, ranging from Healthcare and Education to Financial Services and Self-Driving Cars. However, the development of such AI systems poses significant challenges and impediments, such as multiple single points of failure, lack of interoperability, and lack of user adoption. Therefore, this whitepaper proposes a multidimensional approach to promote a whole ecosystem that has the ability to overcome such challenges. Primarily, the Foundation will encourage research into AI systems that are accessible, intuitive, and ready-to-use. The research will focus on proposing AI system architectures that meet the needs of the users, while they address their pain points in order to enhance both the User Experience (UX) and Developer Experience (DX). Furthermore, the Foundation will focus on promoting the adoption of best practices and Optional Open Standards for AI development and deployment that is automated, cost-effective, and scalable. For instance, these best practices will include the use of modular architectures, microservices, and containerization. By adopting these practices, the Foundation aims to enable interoperability and reuse of AI components. In addition, the Foundation envisions creating a marketplace, which will enable buyers to discover and adopt AI Solutions that meet their needs and preferences. The marketplace will also provide sellers with opportunities to showcase their AI Solutions, reach out to potential buyers and receive feedback from them. Finally, the Foundation will leverage emerging technologies such as Blockchain and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) to enhance the transparency, security, and trustworthiness of AI systems, while incentivizing innovation and collaboration among humans.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a key driver of innovation in the digital era, offering new possibilities for the development of Web 3.0. Web 3.0 represents the next evolution of the internet, characterized by decentralized systems, peer-to-peer networks, and advanced technologies such as blockchain and smart contracts. In this paper, we provide an overview of the role of AI in the development of Web 3.0, its opportunities, and challenges. AI can be used to process and analyze large amounts of data more effectively, enabling more intelligent decision-making and insights. We review the key concepts and technologies of Web 3.0, including the Semantic Web, and ontologies, and highlight the potential of AI to transform various industries, including healthcare, finance, and education. We also analyze the challenges of AI in Web 3.0, including data privacy, bias, trust, and ethics, and discuss the potential implications of AI in Web 3.0 for society as a whole. Finally, we outline the future directions and implications of AI in Web 3.0, and recommend areas for future research. Our paper contributes to a better understanding of the potential impact of AI on the development of the web and its implications for society as a whole.
Marco Picone, Stefano Mariani, Antonio Virdis, Paolo Castagnetti
The Metaverse has been recently envisioned as the next technological revolution with the idea of building fully immersive virtual worlds where users can interact with each other and with mixed-reality environments and objects. The relationship between the digital and the physical worlds represents a challenging opportunity to foster the idea that virtual experiences and interactions can complement and enhance reality enabling the definition of new use cases and services. In this context, Metaverse’s technologies need to rely on a connected, trustworthy, and highly detailed digital representation of users and objects to build an effective virtual world based on trusted and fresh information from the physical world. The need to decouple responsibilities through a multi-layered vision allows Metaverse’s applications to focus only on their business goal by relying on a cyber-physical layer enabling bi-directional communication with users and devices, accessing trusted information, invoking available actions, and retrieving immutable historical data. In this paper, we analyze and propose the combination of Digital Twins and Blockchain technologies as strategic pillars for bridging the gap between the virtual and the physical worlds and supporting the creation of the Metaverse.
Occupational stress among health workers is a pervasive issue that affects individual well-being, patient care quality, and healthcare systems' sustainability. Current time-tracking solutions are mostly employer-driven, neglecting the unique requirements of health workers. In turn, we propose an open and decentralized worker-centered solution that leverages machine intelligence for occupational health and safety monitoring. Its robust technological stack, including blockchain technology and machine learning, ensures compliance with legal frameworks for data protection and working time regulations, while a decentralized autonomous organization bolsters distributed governance. To tackle implementation challenges, we employ a scalable, interoperable, and modular architecture while engaging diverse stakeholders through open beta testing and pilot programs. By bridging an unaddressed technological gap in healthcare, this approach offers a unique opportunity to incentivize user adoption and align stakeholders' interests. We aim to empower health workers to take control of their time, valorize their work, and safeguard their health while enhancing the care of their patients.
Zibin Zheng, Jianzhong Su, Jiachi Chen, David Lo · 6 authors
The Smart Contract Weakness Classification Registry (SWC Registry) is a widely recognized list of smart contract weaknesses specific to the Ethereum platform. Despite the SWC Registry not being updated with new entries since 2020, the sustained development of smart contract analysis tools for detecting SWC-listed weaknesses highlights their ongoing significance in the field. However, evaluating these tools has proven challenging due to the absence of a large, unbiased, real-world dataset. To address this problem, we aim to build a large-scale SWC weakness dataset from real-world DApp projects. We recruited 22 participants and spent 44 person-months analyzing 1,199 open-source audit reports from 29 security teams. In total, we identified 9,154 weaknesses and developed two distinct datasets, i.e., DAPPSCAN-SOURCE and DAPPSCAN-BYTECODE. The DAPPSCAN-SOURCE dataset comprises 39,904 Solidity files, featuring 1,618 SWC weaknesses sourced from 682 real-world DApp projects. However, the Solidity files in this dataset may not be directly compilable for further analysis. To facilitate automated analysis, we developed a tool capable of automatically identifying dependency relationships within DApp projects and completing missing public libraries. Using this tool, we created DAPPSCAN-BYTECODE dataset, which consists of 6,665 compiled smart contract with 888 SWC weaknesses. Based on DAPPSCAN-BYTECODE, we conducted an empirical study to evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art smart contract weakness detection tools. The evaluation results revealed sub-par performance for these tools in terms of both effectiveness and success detection rate, indicating that future development should prioritize real-world datasets over simplistic toy contracts.
Dana Alsagheer, Nour Diallo, Rabimba Karanjai, Lei Xu · 5 authors
Researchers have started to recognize the necessity for a well-defined ML governance framework based on the principle of decentralization and comprehensively defining its scope of research and practice due to the growth of machine learning (ML) research and applications in the real world and the success of blockchain-based technology. In this paper, we study decentralized ML governance, which includes ML value chain management, decentralized identity for the ML community, decentralized ownership and rights management of ML assets, community-based decision-making for the ML process, decentralized ML finance, and risk management.
Recent developments in blockchain technology have enabled the development of wallet applications for storing peoples’ cryptocurrency reserves. Cryptocurrency wallet applications could deploy affiliate marketing processes to increase the visibility of their products. From these affiliate marketing processes, supply chain firms in the air forwarding sector that seek to advertise their services to a larger audience could be benefited. This research examines whether affiliate marketing initials of cryptocurrency wallet applications affect their digital marketing efficiency, as well as whether air forwarding firms’ website visibility could be benefited from them. After collecting the required Web Analytic data, the authors performed statistical analysis (correlations and linear regressions), followed by Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) macroanalysis and Hybrid Modeling (HM) microanalysis to assess the outcomes of cryptocurrency wallet applications’ affiliate marketing programs. Hence, from the deployed methodology, valuable insights arose. The first part of the produced outcomes concerns the effect of cryptocurrency wallet application affiliate marketing metrics on their digital marketing results. The increased implications of affiliate marketing metrics (referring domains, backlinks, etc.) decrease the number of pages their visitors see. Regarding the air forwarder firms’ website visibility, specific metrics (branded and referral traffic) were increased and others (social traffic) were decreased from the increment of cryptocurrency wallet application affiliate marketing metrics (backlinks, internal links, etc.). Supply chain firms, in the air forwarding sector, could have increased website visibility by deploying advertisements and affiliate marketing initiatives with cryptocurrency wallet organizations. Summing up, specific affiliate marketing metrics of cryptocurrency wallet applications are capable of significantly impacting their digital marketing performance and also constitute determinant factors of supply chain firms’ website visibility.
Smart Contract Project Management Framework (SCPMF) is a proposed conceptual model that combines smart contract technology with project management principles to enhance transparency, accountability, and security in project management. This framework has the potential to revolutionize project management by enabling real-time monitoring of project progress, automated contract execution, and immutable record-keeping. This paper provides an overview of the SCPMF, induding its applications in project planning, resource management, and contract management. The paper also discusses the benefits and challenges of using SCPMF in project management. The benefits indude increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved collaboration, while the challenges include scalability, interoperability, and regulatory compliance. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the current trends in SCPMF-based project management and offering recommendations for future research. Overall, the paper demonstrates the potential for SCPMF to transform project management and suggests that further research and development in this area could lead to significant improvements in project outcomes.
Abstract The audiovisual media content (AMC) industry, focused on film and television drama production, is confronted with a broken business model due to the dominance of centralized streaming platforms. The top platforms dominate global distribution but only offer slices of produced and heritage content. In addition, they compete with the AMC industry by producing a majority of content distributed. This leaves fewer gatekeepers deciding on the content to be distributed and less diverse content easily accessible to audiences Consequently, audiences are compelled to engage in pirating movies despite a willingness to pay. Recent blockchain innovations towards the so-called Web3 promise to restore this broken business model by re-establishing direct contact between the producers of films and their audiences. The benefits of networks (peer-to-peer or community based) in combination with Web3 follow the principle of decentralized disintermediation while comprising elements such as FIAT to crypto-payment mechanisms, self-sovereign identity authentication, blockchain oracles, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), and so on. A gap exists with regard to methodological designs of Web3 decentralized applications (DApp) and their ecosystems for restoring a viable AMC business model that not only eliminates the need for piracy activities but even the need for platforms. The DApp architecture designs for the film- and media industry ecosystem creation in this paper allow, on the one hand, for a legal compliance check ahead of a costly deployment. On the other hand, the DApp designs of this paper also allow for a tailored blockchain technology stack development. Ultimately, this research is a continuation of an earlier whitepaper to establish a participatory economy in the film industry from peer-to-peer streaming.
Karar bilimi karar verme işini kolaylaştırmak ve geliştirmek için eldeki sınırlı bilgiyi kullanarak pek çok teknikten faydalanır. Bu nedenle ekonomi, istatistik, üretim yönetimi ve kontrolü ve psikoloji gibi bilim dallarını da içeren disiplinler arası bir alandır. Sürekli olarak karşı karşıya kalınan karar verme durumu neticesinde verilen kararlar ve sonrasında atılan adımlar ise geleceği şekillendirmektedir. Bu nedenle karar biliminin günümüzdeki yeri oldukça önemlidir. Bu çalışmada 2012-2021 yılları içerisinde karar bilimi alanında üretilen bilimsel çıktıların değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Bu amaçla Scopus/SciVal veri tabanı üzerinden ulaşılan 508.220 bilimsel çıktı incelenmiş, yıllara göre bilimsel çıktı sayısı, atıf sayısı, görüntülenme sayısı bilgileri paylaşılmıştır. Dünya genelinde üretilen bilimsel çıktıları kapsayan bu çalışmada karar bilimi alanında en fazla bilimsel çıktının 2021 yılında (95.109) üretildiği ve en fazla bilimsel çıktıya sahip ülkenin Çin (106.752) olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca en fazla bilimsel çıktıya sahip enstitü/üniversitenin CNRS (10.411) ve en fazla bilimsel çıktıya yer veren derginin “IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology” (10.084) olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bilimsel çıktı sayısı dikkate alındığında yapılan çalışmalarda daha çok kurumsal işbirliklerinin tercih edildiği (201.933) ve karar bilimi alanı içerisinde en fazla çalışılan konuların “Bitcoin; Ethereum; Nesnelerin İnterneti” (16473) olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Genel olarak yapılan bu çalışma karar bilimi alanında çalışan araştırmacılar için bilgilendirme, değerlendirme ve yönlendirme özelliklerini taşımaktadır.
<strong>Purpose: </strong><em>With the emergence of Online Purchasing, Product Identification is an essential model that allows the seller to add a product to a decentralized platform such as Blockchain and allows buyers to purchase the product from the decentralized platform. Fraud products, counterfeiting, and duplication are the current marketplace's major problems. This aims to develop a system for verifying product identification with their information, ownership, and validity detail.</em> <strong>Design/Methodology/Approach: </strong><em>The proposed system applies Extreme Programming (XP) to reduce the risk caused by the fixed-time project using new technology and thus the final project could be delivered in time. Solidity and metamask being new technologies were unstable and to adopt the changes, the agile development model was the best through ABI and the bytecode are deployed into the Ethereum Blockchain.</em> <strong>Findings/Result: </strong><em>This system maintains the buyers, sellers, and product details in a decentralized blockchain platform. This research details the entire product development process from planning, analysis, design, implementation, and testing for systematic online purchasing. Verifying the product ownership and its information to get the original product is the major difficulty in this space, but this research systematically solves some of those problems. This signifies an improvement in the current centralized way of purchasing goods online, where the information remains as it is entered by the seller while listing the product in Nepal and developing countries context.</em> <strong>Originality/Value: </strong><em>The study has produced a decentralized, reliable, secure, and third-party independent marketplace for buying and selling products for fraud free market.</em> <strong>Paper Type: </strong><em>Research paper</em>
Blockchain technology has seen practical application since 2009. However, the suitable selection of blockchain technology for any particular application is currently completed using no standard formalised process with limited understanding of where a particular blockchain is in its development maturity against its peers, or peer sector. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) offer a common and well known method for identifying the maturity of a technology. However, new TRL definitions have been required to address sector specific requirements. This work addresses these challenges and presents a novel Blockchain Readiness Level (BRL) for identifying the maturity of blockchain technology.
The analysis of the causes or drivers of the adoption of big data analytics and blockchain and their subsequent influence on firm performance has become a significant need as a direct result of the rapidly expanding popularity of business intelligence. The purpose of this research is to present a model that investigates the direct and indirect influence of business intelligence on firm performance through the mediating roles of the adoption of big data analytics and blockchain. The analysis is based on data collected from a representative sample of 387 employees from 12 Information technology (IT) firms operating in Croatia. The study investigates these connections using a structural equation modeling. The findings showed that business intelligence has a direct and significant influence on firm performance. In addition, business intelligence significantly and positively influenced the adoption of big data analytics and blockchain and, in turn, firm performance. Additionally, the adoption of big data analytics and blockchain technology signified and positively mediated the relationship between business intelligence and firm performance. Both the mediations were partial. Finally, the study also provides managerial implications, limitations and future directions.
Construction projects’ performance is not self-regulating. Therefore, a continuous progress tracking and monitoring process is highly demanded to avoid potential deviations or misalignments. The current practice for the progress tracking and monitoring process suffers from heavily intermediated workflows, human errors, transfer latencies, inaccuracies, and/or information holes. Such issues could gradually lead to severe delays or even complete project failure. This research introduces a novel Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system that relies on Blockchain Technology (BT) and Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) for managing progress information and as-built digital assets or files. The system is developed based on a three-step approach. First, two chaincodes are formulated for mapping and governing the data operations. Second, a private blockchain network is configured based on Hyperledger Fabric as a hosting platform, including the relevant stakeholders. Third, a private IPFS network is configured and coupled with a cluster service to manage and distribute the off-chain visuals and as-built digital assets. A case study for a non-residential construction project is utilized to test and verify the system’s practicability and assess its performance. The research significance is anticipated in diverse practical areas, including but not limited to; boosting coordination and trust among stakeholders, tracing progressive elaboration of As-built digital assets, accelerating incremental payments processing, assessing overall project performance and on-site productivity, supporting delay analysis and claim/dispute management, and streamlining data flow between the construction phase and the operation and maintenance phase. Further, the system’s future is mapped by evolving it as a sub-unit in a more advanced data model.
Anna N. Kurian, P.P. Joby, Tomina Anoop, Allen Mathew
Risks involved in the pharmaceutical drug supply chain are complaints and traceability, which result in the circulation of counterfeit and deteriorated drugs that are adverse to human life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling this global scourge became even more acute and urgent. The integrity of records with traditional centralized database is expensive and existing visibility technologies face challenges to ensure the traceability of drugs. The integration of novel blockchain technology and Internet of Things into the pharmaceutical supply chain helps in real-time data access as well as better record management. Our chapter discusses the pharmaceutical ecosystem, study on existing visibilty technologies, and the temperature sensors in the cold supply chain; many case report on the issue of counterfeit drugs and emphasis on the distributed digital ledger technology along with the Internet of Things provides cryptographically secure, transparent, tamper-proof blocks that pause the entry of counterfeit drugs and improve traceability.
Alberto Arias Maestro, Óscar Sanjuán Martínez, Ankur Teredesai, Vicente García‐Díaz
Contemporary cloud application and Edge computing orchestration systems rely on controller/worker design patterns to allocate, distribute, and manage resources. Standard solutions like Apache Mesos, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes can span multiple zones at data centers, multiple global regions, and even consumer point of presence locations. Previous research has concluded that random network partitions cannot be avoided in these scenarios, leaving system designers to choose between consistency and availability, as defined by the CAP theorem. Controller/worker architectures guarantee configuration consistency via the employment of redundant storage systems, in most cases coordinated via consensus algorithms such as Paxos or Raft. These algorithms ensure information consistency against network failures while decreasing availability as network regions increase. Mainstream blockchain technology provides a solution to this compromise while decentralizing control via a fully distributed architecture coordinated through Byzantine-resistant consensus algorithms. This research proposes a blockchain-based decentralized architecture for cloud resource management systems. We analyze and compare the characteristics of the proposed architecture concerning the consistency, availability, and partition resistance of architectures that rely on Paxos/Raft distributed data stores. Our research demonstrates that the proposed blockchain-based decentralized architecture noticeably increases the system availability, including cases of network partitioning, without a significant impact on configuration consistency.