Blockchain Papers

Muyanja-Ssenyonga Jameaba

No abstract is available for this record.

Sharon Sophia

The grass root of an investing and spending activity of an individual fabricates on the wise decisions patterns and individual independency level while taking financial decisions .It determines the superiority of financial literacy and financial inclusion provided by a country as a whole. The disrupting breed amidst financial innovation and financial technology is the evolution of FinTech, propelling greater hopes of global digital economy. Tackling the gap between the financially literate, included society and the unbanked or under-banked society paving way for economic growth though remains a challenge for developing countries. The pace at which developing countries like India, Brazil, Russia, etc are adopting to financial innovation brings phenomenal impact while pronouncing “global digital economy”. The balance between human and technology and potential risk of drifting away from the customer needs are greater challenges handled in this era that faces explosion of technical innovation. Financial innovation and the disruptions of fintech are often viewed as double edged sword. Losing the human aspect, the persistent state of flux and the challenging upgrades are heating up the finance industry. Fintech takes the pride of creating deep customer relationship creating market agility. It has helped the financial services industry to stun the traditional competitions. In a decade we have seen countless Fintech breakthroughs since introduction of ATM of Barclays (1967), online checking account by Wells Fargo (1995), online payment processing by PayPal (1998), Cryptocurrency named Bitcoin (2009) followed by Apple Pay (2016). In a very short space of time Fintech has come a long way and thus it beckons the touch of regulations blurring the future of mushrooming fintech industry, especially spurious ones. The rise of Central Bank Digital Currency, has led to strengthening the banking regulations. The advancement of Robo Advisors and the paradigm shift in payments have opened the way for Distributed Ledger Transactions at large. The approach in which the regulations are strengthened shapes three major areas of advancement in Fintech – depository institution, consumer protection and securities. A responsible framework of financial innovation reflects and emphasizes on - the outreach and technical assistance, awareness and training, coordination and facilitation, researches and collaboration.

Yushi Chen, Ulrich Volz

Summary Motivation Most low‐ and middle‐income countries face an urgent need to scale up sustainable finance for low‐carbon and climate‐resilient infrastructure investment, yet underdeveloped capital markets tend to inhibit domestic resource mobilization for infrastructure investment. At the same time, domestic savers face a scarcity of “safe” local‐currency assets, resulting in the export of capital. Purpose This article explores options for mobilizing domestic savings through financial technology (fintech) solutions to scale up sustainable investment. Methods and approach The article discusses how fintech can help to complement conventional capital markets and mobilize financial resources for sustainable infrastructure investments. Findings The article puts forward a proposal for blockchain‐based project bonds to raise finance through a digital crowdfunding platform which is able to record transparently and certify the use of proceeds, sustainability impact, and revenue streams of projects by combining timestamp, public and private key mechanisms, and smart contract technologies. Policy implications The proposed approach would not only provide investors of different sizes with the opportunity to purchase local‐currency assets and issuers such as municipalities to raise funds for sustainable infrastructure investment, it would also facilitate project management once the project is operational, for example through metering and billing, and create full transparency over the life cycle of the investment, reducing problems concerning the misuse of funds.

Niki Naderi

No abstract is available for this record.

Ibrahim E. Sancak

Abstract This chapter introduces the fundamentals of portfolio and financial consumer protection from frauds in the cryptoasset space. Cryptoassets pose new risks to portfolios and financial consumers: idiosyncratic risks stemming from their unique features and systematic risks arising from transitioning from centralized to decentralized finance. Market experience indicates that these risks threaten every portfolio and financial consumer holding cryptoassets. In the consumer protection framework, cryptoasset risks are higher than traditional asset risks. Cryptoassets fall outside the regulatory domain in many jurisdictions. Moreover, their decentralized nature, technological attributes, and the momentum of financial technology cause asymmetric technology, disarming system-based portfolio and consumer protection mechanisms against frauds and abuses. Hence, the idiosyncratic and systematic risks of cryptoassets highlight the importance of developing more vigilant self-protection mechanisms.

Ahmad A. Al‐Naimi, Esra a Al-Trad, Razan A. Yousef

The purpose of our paper is to provide an overview of Fintech trends with a special focus on Jordan. It provides an explanation for the evolution of Fintech and how Fintech relates to banks through discussing the role of E-banking that considered the most modern approach of using banking services through electronic channels, so we give attention to this sector and how it is affected by Financial technology. Also, we briefly discuss E-banking services and the literature about Peer-to-peer lending and cryptocurrencies that considered an incredibly transparent alternative to the traditional fiat currencies which we are used to, and it is an alternative that will improve the society, in addition we preview the point of view for various countries toward the financial technology and cryptocurrencies. Our study focuses on Jordan where its financial sector considers a stable sector with a considerable effect and share in the Jordanian economy, Fintech in Jordan is a main factor that will strengthen and develop the financial industry in the country, where the Jordanian government plays a great role in supporting the financial sector especially ‘Financial technology’.

Michael S. Barr, Adrienne Harris, Lev Menand, Karin Thrasher

No abstract is available for this record.

Christian Catalini, Alonso de Gortari, Nihar B. Shah

Stablecoins have the potential to drastically increase competition and innovation in financial services by reducing our reliance on traditional intermediaries. But they also introduce new challenges, as regulators rely on intermediaries to ensure financial stability, market integrity, and consumer protection. Because they operate at the interface between traditional banking and cryptocurrencies, stablecoins also represent an ideal setting for understanding the key trade-offs cryptocurrencies involve, and insights from robust stablecoin design and regulation are highly relevant for related innovations in decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens, and Web3 protocols. In this review, we describe the following: key stablecoin design choices, from reserve composition to stability mechanism; legal claim against the issuer; noninterference with macroeconomic stability; and interoperability with public sector payment rails and central bank digital currencies. Last, we cover the key benefits of stablecoins in the context of real-time, low-cost programmable payments, financial inclusion, and DeFi.

Ryan Randy Suryono, Indra Budi, Betty Purwandari

Digital transformation creates challenges in all industries and business sectors. The development of digital transformation has also clearly triggered the emergence of fintech (financial technology) initiatives, which are recognized as some of the most important innovations in the financial industry. These initiatives are developing rapidly, driven in part by the sharing economy, regulations, and information technology. However, research in the field of fintech remains in its infancy. Fintech offers several services, such as funding, payment (including electronic wallets), e-aggregators, e-trading, and e-insurance, and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This provides an opportunity to more closely examine fintech’s research challenges and trends. This study aims to (1) determine the state of the art of financial technology research; (2) identify gaps in the financial technology research field; and (3) identify challenges and trends for future research potential. The novel proposal in this study includes theoretical contributions regarding financial technology. Using the systematic literature review approach of Kitchenham, in addition to thematic analysis, meta-analysis and observation to validate the quality of literature and analysis, the results of this study provide a theoretical basis fintech research from an information systems perspective, including the formulation of fintech technology concepts and their development.

Md. Asaduzzaman, Farhan Hasib, Zawad Bin Hafiz

In the era of modernization, poverty and hunger is a curse for the developing and under developed countries. Micro- credit is a groundbreaking idea that can help in defending the problem. But there is a problem in accomplishing the task due to trust and security issues. In this critical situation of poverty, these issues hinder the rate of success. Central databases have many issues with security and trust. In this paper, a comprehensive approach to implement a system for the micro-credit distribution and management is described. Being one of the most emerging technologies, blockchain is used to ensure trust, security and reliability. NGO/MFIs and registered miners will be able to act as nodes. The data is completely secure, as each block is encrypted. There is reward for the miners which will enhance the field of employment. Borrowers have a defined credit which is deducted at the time of borrowing and refunded during returning the borrowed amount. Borrowers have a reputation point based on borrow and return. A group of well reputed borrowers will be able to form an MFI. A portion of interest will be deducted as network charge which can be deposited as VAT in the government fund.

Mohamed Cherif El Amri, Mustafa Omar Mohammed, Ruslan Sabirzyanov

No abstract is available for this record.

Mücahit Özdemir, Zeyneb Hafsa Orhan, Hüseyin Burgazoğlu

This chapter examines the cryptocurrencies within the framework of recent developments in Islamic economics and aims to contribute to the effort to understand the phenomenon. It then examines the technical features of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The chapter also mentions the views of the leading scholars/religious authorities in the Islamic world regarding cryptocurrencies and practical initiatives. It discusses the potential that cryptocurrencies can offer to Islamic economics and raises some issues for further studies. Blockchain technology enables peer-to-peer money transfer without the need for any intermediary institutions. The most innovative feature of Bitcoin is that it functions as a monetary system outside a central authority. Bitcoin is the reference point for the majority of fatawa for cryptocurrency. This fatwa about Ether will undoubtedly open new debates, both particularly in the academic field in the Islamic world and the legitimacy of cryptocurrency in general.

Jean-Marie Ayer, Bruno Pasquier

This chapter argues that blockchain technology enables start-ups and small and medium-sized companies to raise funds from a multitude of investors on a peer-to-peer basis without the involvement of an intermediary. It discusses the phenomenon of initial coin offerings (ICO), illustrates with concrete examples, and reviews the legal framework governing ICOs. Using the potential of distributed ledger technologies, ICOs have emerged as a novel mechanism for financing entrepreneurial ventures. One of the main challenges related to the legal regulation of ICOs is the functional diversity of the tokens issued in crowdfunding campaigns. Tokens can be linked to different types of rights, such as membership rights or property rights. A key aspect regarding the financial market regulations of ICOs is whether the tokens qualify as securities. A fundamental problem for the said qualification lies in the different definitions, depending on the applicable jurisdictions.

Dr. S. Mahalakshmi

The emergence of digital financial technology, such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi) has created new opportunities in the field of financial inclusion, although gender differences are still very strong. The research paper examines the acceptance and effects of Web3 financial tools on the economic empowerment of women, the access and use as well as the financial literacy levels of women in the developed and emerging economies. The research design is a mixed-method study that will involve quantitative data based on blockchain transaction data, the use of digital wallets, and financial inclusion indicators, and qualitative data collection based on structured interviews and focus groups with female users and fintech providers. The results show that there are also a great difference in the adoption: women in technologically developed areas are better equipped with access, financial literacy, and institutional support, and women in resource-deprived regions have challenges with limited internet connectivity, lack of digital literacy, and socio-cultural constraints. In spite of such difficulties, Web3 technologies can contribute to making women more financially independent through facilitating inexpensive and safe transactions, decentralized savings, and having access to alternative credit structures. In addition to this, the user interaction also indicates subtle preferences: digitally literate users prefer convenience, transparency, and privacy, whereas the less digitally equipped ones focus on trust, education, and community support. Strategic interventions presented in the paper, such as female-sensitive policy models, specific financial literacy interventions, and onboarding strategies driven by communities, are also suggested to facilitate fair involvement in the Web3 ecosystem. Through the identification of both prospects and obstacles to digital finance that is inclusive of gender, this paper illustrates that Web3 can be used as an empowering opportunity in the economy and financial sustainability. The findings can be added to the increasing body of research on digital finance and presented as evidence-based policies to help policymakers, fintech developers, and advocacy organizations to enhance the gender gap in digital financial technology adoption.

Harrison Kofi Belley

Local governments have been created as agents of local development in which the people in the local areas are given greater opportunities to influence policies and programs that directly affect their well-being and thereby reducing their poverty levels. But the implementation of the policies and programmes is bedeviled with many problems. Key among them is the issue of financing the local development projects in order to reduce rural poverty. The government of Ghana attempted to reduce this problem when it introduced a development fund in1994 known as the – District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to encourage local governance and deepen Government’s commitment to decentralization in general and fiscal devolution in particular. The study therefore, seeks to assess the impact of District Assembly Common Fund on Local Government Development in the Adaklu District Assembly in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study mainly adopted qualitative methods of research to obtain information on the experiences of the poor people in the Adaklu communities selected as study areas. Interview guides were used to obtain information from the people in the communities, staff of the Assembly and some heads of the decentralized departments. A major finding of the study is that the assembly did not involve the rural people in the poverty reduction programmes in the district.

Malcolm Campbell‐Verduyn, Daivi Rodima‐Taylor, Moritz Hütten

No abstract is available for this record.

Sandeep Kumar Panda

The blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, and immutable database system built on top of peer-to-peer (P2P) network through which digital assets can be transferred securely from all over the world. After the successful implementation of blockchain in Bitcoin, many applications and platforms evolved for the development of blockchain technology. Ethereum is one of the most widely used blockchain platforms for developing the Dapps. This chapter presents the specifics of functioning, drawbacks, and problems in the current crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. Using Ethereum and the concept of smart contracts, the crowdfunding platforms can be implemented in a secure and profound way without being afraid of the fraudulent spending of the money raised through the funding. In this chapter, all the details and the technicalities in the implementation of the crowdfunding platform through Ethereum blockchain network are elucidated in a scholarly manner.

Ana Cristina O. Siqueira, Benson Honig, Sandra Regina Holanda Mariano, Joysi Moraes

No abstract is available for this record.

Rushabh Khara, Deepika Pomendkar, Rishika Gupta, Ishwarlal Hingorani · 5 authors

As per 2018, agriculture provides employment to more than 50% of the Indian workforce and contributes 17-18% to the country's GDP. Every farmer possesses a requirement of credibility or other services during the time of cultivation. Due to unavailability of bank loans for low-income farmers, they have no other option but to look up to private lenders or micro-finance institutions. The interest rate charged by microfinance institutions consists of various subjective factors which forces MFIs to provide microcredits to farmers at high-interest rates. Relevant to this context, this paper proposes a blockchain-based system which eliminates the need of MFIs. The system handles microloans on a distributed ledger which increases transparency among stakeholders and also enables small/large scale investors to lend microcredits to farmers at interest rate and repayment schedule decided by the farmer. The proposed system facilitates low-cost, secure and real-time payments with the help of smart contracts.

Claire Ingram Bogusz, Christofer Laurell, Christian Sandström

A vibrant development is currently taking place in entrepreneurial finance due to the field's digital evolution over recent years. This article aims to assess the interplay between four of the key phenomena that has fuelled this development, namely crowdfunding, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and initial coin offerings (ICOs). By making use of social media analytics, public discussions on social media concerning crowdfunding, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs have been systematically tracked in social media over three time periods between the May 6, 2017, and October 2, 2018. In doing so, a total of 197 770 captured posts across social media platforms have been collected and analyzed. The results illustrate that discussions on blockchain technologies dominated the interplay in the first analyzed time period, that discussions on cryptocurrencies and ICOs dominated the interplay in the second analyzed time period, while discussions concerning blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs highly converge in the third time period. By illustrating this shift over the analyzed time periods and by offering a systematic exploration of key characteristics of the interplay at hand, this article adds to previous literature on entrepreneurial finance by providing an empirical contribution which details the coevolution of these phenomena in recent years.

Mirna de Lima Medeiros, Eduardo O. De Souza

As criptomoedas surgem como uma maneira diferenciada de se efetuar pagamentos, principalmente no âmbito online. As criptomoedas se tratam de um modelo de moeda virtual cujas principais características são a descentralização e o anonimato de seus usuários. O presente trabalho buscou relacionar as criptomoedas com o setor do turismo, tomando por base um levantamento bibliográfico para compreender o que são as criptomoedas e o seu funcionamento, seguido de uma análise de 255 notícias em portais de notícias especializados em negócios que tratavam de criptomoedas e suas aplicações no mercado. Com isso constatou-se que as cinco criptomoedas mais utilizadas para venda de serviços turísticos são o Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum e DASH. Algumas características dessas criptomoedas como o seu preço e taxa para realização de transação foram abordadas na pesquisa para melhor entender como elas poderiam ser implementadas no setor turístico. Conclui-se que as criptomoedas são uma forma diferente de se efetuar transações que pode trazer comodidade e ao mesmo tempo riscos para os turistas. Agradecimentos ao CNPq pela concessão de bolsa para realização da pesquisa.

Franklin Allen, Xian Gu, Julapa Jagtiani

The intersection of finance and technology, known as fintech, has resulted in the dramatic growth of innovations and has changed the entire financial landscape. While fintech has a critical role to play in democratizing credit access to the unbanked and thin-file consumers around the globe, those consumers who are currently well served also turn to fintech for faster services and greater transparency. Fintech, particularly the blockchain, has the potential to be disruptive to financial systems and intermediation. Our aim in this paper is to provide a comprehensive fintech literature survey with relevant research studies and policy discussion around the various aspects of fintech. The topics include marketplace and peer-to-peer lending; credit scoring; alternative data; distributed ledger technologies; blockchain; smart contracts; cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings; central bank digital currency; robo-advising; quantitative investment and trading strategies; cybersecurity; identity theft; cloud computing; use of big data, artificial intelligence. and machine learning; identity and fraud detection; anti-money laundering; Know Your Customers; natural language processing; regtech; insuretech; sandboxes; and fintech regulations.

Neil Patel

The United Republic of Tanzania explicitly recognizes the human right to water and sanitation in its constitution. However, full implementation of this right has been complicated by Tanzania’s ongoing decentralization process for water governance, which has created a significant public financing gap for cash-strapped rural water schemes. Under the framework of the progressive realization of the human right to water, this thesis examines the potential for digital credit financing to bridge the public financing gap for rural water schemes in Tanzania. The thesis utilizes (1) country-wide data on digital financial inclusion and rural water access and (2) two case studies of digital credit financing in the rural water sector to explore the viability of a digital credit financing model. This thesis challenges sector-wide intuition on a “cost-recovery” model for rural water financing, instead arguing in favor of a “cost-reduction” model that prioritizes the use of debt financing for cost-reducing asset improvements, such as low-maintenance solar pump technology. It further finds that the weak regulation of the digital credit industry creates a major risk of predatory lending toward financially-illiterate consumers and outlines clear delineations of responsibility for various government agencies in regulating lending terms and providing technical assistance for rural water schemes. Finally, the thesis explores opportunities for cross-subsidization to ensure that the improved financial sustainability of water schemes does not come at the cost of equitable access to water for the rural poor.

Peter Roosenboom, Tom van der Kolk, Abe de Jong

We analyse the determinants of success for 630 ICOs undertaken from August 2015 up until the end of December 2017, a period in which the market for ICOs grew to an unprecented level. We find evidence that ICOs are more successful in raising funding when they disclose more information to investors (i.e. have a higher profile rating), have a higher quality rating by cryptocurrency experts, have a pre-ICO GitHub repository, organise a presale, refrain from offering bonus schemes, have shorter planned token sale durations and have a larger project team. ICOs that disclose more information to investors and that have a higher quality rating at the time of the campaign show stronger ex-post performance. Longer-term project success is positively impacted by having a pre-ICO GitHub repository, a shorter planned token sale duration and having a larger project team at the time of the ICO, although these results depend on the ex-post success measure used. We conclude that for entrepreneurs it is important to make an ICO as transparent as possible and that profile and expert ratings are a valuable means to overcome the information asymmetry problems associated with token sales.