Blockchain, also known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), has attracted a considerable lot of attention from academics and industry professionals. When it comes to the tourism industry, the exploitation of blockchain technology could result in significant gains. Among the possible uses are digital identity management, tokenization of frequent flyer programs, accommodation, and transportation. After conducting a comprehensive review of the scientific literature published in this field over the past five years, we identify the most significant blockchain-enabled services and uses of this technology within the context of smart tourism. We analyze the benefits of blockchain technology for the travel industry, local economies, and tourists, laying the groundwork for future studies. Moreover, we present a novel context-aware mobile application that uses artificial intelligence and blockchain to create a hybrid cyber-smart tourist application.
P S Tejashwini, B Bharath Gowda, Anshul Shukla, J S Chiranth · 5 authors
Crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative means of raising capital for innovative ideas, but it faces drawbacks such as high fees and a lack of transparency. Blockchain technology provides a solution by offering a secure, decentralized, and transparent crowdfunding platform. This initiative presents a Trusted Crowdfunding Platform that utilizes Smart Contracts and blockchain technology to eliminate intermediaries, reduce costs, and enhance investor confidence. With this platform, investors maintain control over their contributions and ensure funds are allocated as intended. Smart contracts enable automatic agreement execution, guaranteeing project funding and allowing investors to profit from successful projects. Moreover, the platform is efficient, cost-effective, and attractive for cross-border investments. In summary, this proposed platform has the potential to revolutionize crowdfunding and facilitate peer-to-peer transactions.
Hani El-Chaarani, Zouhour El Abiad, Sam El Nemar, Georgia Sakka
Purpose This study contributes to examining the factors that drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies for financial transactions in the tourism and hospitality industries. This is crucial to develop tourism and hospitality and stimulate financial inclusion in developing and developed countries. Design/methodology/approach This research paper employs the SEM model and bootstrapping method on a sample of 417 French participants involved in tourism and hospitality industries to reveal the causal pathway between a set of independent factors and the willingness to adopt cryptocurrencies for financial transactions. Findings The empirical findings reveal that ease of use, perceived usefulness, social influence, and financial literacy increase the willingness to use cryptocurrencies. French hotels need to have a strategic orientation, to deal with customers, competitors and changing technological environment. The study also reveals that social influence and financial literacy reduce the level of perceived financial risk and thus, leads to increase the intention to adopt the new type of decentralized currencies. Originality/value In contrast to previous studies that focused on the volatility and risk of cryptocurrencies, this research employs a human-centric approach covering different factors that could lead to the adoption of the new type of currency for financial transactions in tourism and hospitality industries.
The emergence of a decentralized peer-to-peer platforms that matches lending and borrowing without collateral requirements and bank lending channels allowed to develop the new market of alternative financial instruments. In this paper, we aim to analyze the origins and nature of alternative finance, consolidate, and categorize the theoretical foundation of the alternative finance market, determine the taxonomy of its instruments, and identify and critically analyze the strategies and legislative framework for the development and functioning of the alternative finance market in the Republic of Moldova. The theoretical and practical significance of this research lies in the development of an econometric model that examines the influence of various groups of factors (regulatory, social, economic development, information technology) on the per capita volume of the alternative finance market. The obtained data enabled the identification of priority areas and specific proposals for the development of conditions and the potential of alternative finance in the Republic of Moldova.
Diego Cagigas, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz‐Fuentes, Marcos Fernández Gutiérrez · 5 authors
The adoption of a new technology such as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in government is a complex process with numerous potential benefits, but also costs and risks. Early pilots introducing DLT into the public sector show that its potential impact will likely vary depending on the context, including, the type of public service. Even within the same public service, the impact of DLT might be distinct for each of the stakeholders involved (the government, civil servants and citizens, among others). As the public sector is diverse, it is critical to get a proper analysis and understanding of the process of introduction of this technology, which encompasses the different dimensions that play a role in the process. This paper presents an original and multi-dimensional evaluation framework to analyze and compare the benefits, costs and risks of the introduction of DLT in the public sector. It considers a comprehensive set of factors, identified and extracted after conducting a systematic review of the literature, representing potential benefits, costs and risks of DLT in the public sector. These are categorized into four separate dimensions: technological, socio-economic, organizational-cultural, and institutional (legal and political). This evaluation framework has been designed to be used by policy-makers interested in analyzing and comparing the benefits and risks of the introduction of DLT in real-world applications of this technology in the public sector.
Blockchain technology provides a promising solution for collaborative economy systems by offering a decentralized, transparent, and secure platform. This is mainly accomplished through smart contracts, which are self-executing computer programs that facilitate, verify, and enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Digital tokens, on the other hand, are used to represent assets or currencies in these systems. Despite the benefits of Blockchain-based collaborative economy systems, significant security concerns are associated with them. These include the possibility of fraud, risk assessment, bugs in smart contracts, and cyber-attacks. For instance, attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in smart contracts to perform reentrancy and infinite loop attacks, leading to significant financial losses. To address these security challenges, this paper proposes integrating artificial intelligence models to prevent vulnerabilities in smart contracts and detect anomalies. Specifically, Graph Neural Networks models can be utilized to safeguard Blockchain-based collaborative economy platforms from attacks such as reentrancy and infinite loop attacks. According to the findings, this approach can accurately identify both normal and abnormal traffic and classify specific types of attacks. The framework's performance is further evaluated using various metrics to ensure its effectiveness in detecting anomalies, thereby providing an additional layer of security for Blockchain-based collaborative economy systems.
Based on blockchain technology, smart contracts promise to revolutionize the way parties legally agree. Smart contracts could enable tourism service providers to trade directly with customers bypassing some intermediaries. The study aims at identifying the provided services, economic impact, partners, popularity, technical and technological factors of smart contract applications in various tourism areas. It investigates ten popular smart contract applications that cover a wide spectrum of tourism areas such as hotel reservations, airline tickets, car rentals, payment management, reward programmes, traveller identity, luggage tracking, validity of reviews and ratings and more. These applications are analysed with respect to their purpose, business model, economic impact, partners, provided services, popularity, as well as what cryptocurrency and blockchain they use. Smart contracts enable time and transaction cost savings, convenience, flexibility, security, trust, ease verification of personal data and more. Most applications gained popularity mainly during 2018–19. Almost every application uses a different cryptocurrency. Ethereum is the most popular platform followed by Hyperledger Fabric and Stellar. The development of a universal legislation as well as interoperability is a necessity for the wide adoption of smart contracts.
Recently blockchain has become a tool for spatial coordination and appropriation. Globally, the tokenization of land and housing has led to new forms of datafication and increased financialization. In the case of land non-fungible tokens), security token offerings, and blockchain-based real estate investment trusts, blockchains act as exclusionary digital platforms, with new socio-technical assemblages emerging as complex predatory formations of speculation that are intentionally obfuscatory and difficult to regulate. With the security token offering, crowdfunding and venture capital are combined with cryptocurrency to create a “tokenized venture capital fund” tied to tangible assets, such as ownership rights in housing, real estate, or land. Distributed ledgers are proposed to be used as the digital technology underlying new forms of land/property documentation, ownership, and inhabitation – from conducting and recording land surveys and title creation to transference of land/property rights. This paper addresses the question: how equitable is tokenized equity – does it prioritize the right to the city for all or to all but a very few? This paper looks toward the means of contestation against extractive crypto-settlements, speculation, and housing financialization, critically comparing a range of proposed distributed ledger technology projects that claim to inject equity in the system, pose alternative housing economies, or leverage distributed ledgers for land rights and data sovereignty. I question the utility and limits of datafication and explore how engaging with digital technology – with or without distributed ledgers – can raise awareness and enact alternative forms of housing and land stewardship, from cooperativism to Community Land Trusts and to counter-hegemonic commoning practices.
Abstract This study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model composed of a small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME), a supervisory enterprise, and a bank for the inventory financing model. The effects of blockchain technology on rent seeking in supply chain finance are calculated with focuses on its mechanism and advantages in inventory financing from the theoretical perspective. The influence of the parameters on the evolutions is likewise determined. Results show that for high‐value financing business, compared with the traditional model, the bank's application of blockchain can accelerate the system to the stable state, in which the SME complies with the contract, the supervisor does not seek collusion, and the bank thoroughly investigates the relationships of enterprises, and the enhancement of blockchain's automatic monitoring capability does not lead to the bank's inaction on regulation. For low‐value financing business, in response to the problem of collusion between the SME and the supervisor for additional benefits in the traditional model, the bank can monitor fund transfers within enterprises and unauthorized pledge release through smart contracts embedded in the blockchain system to automatically detect joint defaults, and effectively avoid the negative stable state of the bank indulging in inter‐enterprise relations which triggers collusion to embezzle financing. In addition, the bank can enhance the robustness of inventory financing service and curb rent‐seeking behavior in the blockchain inventory financing through strict penalties on the supervisor for its violations, monitoring abnormal capital flows of the SME, confirming appropriate credit rate gap, and moderately raising the service value threshold.
Abstract Play-to-earn (P2E) is a new form of monetised gaming based on blockchain and crypto-currency technology. Such games offer opportunities to combine gaming with speculative investment through the purchase of tradable in-game currencies and assets (non-fungible tokens). In this paper, we investigate the profile of people most likely to be attracted to this emerging form of gaming. A sample of 560 participants aged between 18-65 ( M = 28.3, SD = 8.3) were recruited via Prolific to complete an online survey that included measures of gaming ( Petry’s Internet Gaming Disorder Scale ) and gaming risk ( Problem Gambling Severity Index ), measures of gaming motivation and impulsivity. Other existing engagement in gaming monetization as well as digital asset ownership was also assessed. P2E interest was associated with higher gambling risk scores, but not with internet gaming disorder. P2E gamers also scored higher on extrinsic motivation and monetised gaming was generally associated with higher impulsivity. The results suggest that P2E may be attractive to those with a pre-existing interest in financially risky activities. Policy implications include the increasing need to monitor the growth of digital asset technology and the increasing convergence of gambling, financial speculation and gaming and the potential for increasing financial harm in gaming populations.
Qianqian Zheng, Na Lin, Di Fu, Tianjun Liu · 7 authors
The platform-based agricultural service is receiving popularity in small-scale farming and shows significant advantages in gathering dispersed service requests and matching supply and demand. However, it also generates new challenges, including service traceability, denial and fraud, information security, and privacy issues. Blockchain is an emerging technology that provides a secure and trusted environment to track and manage the service process. In this study, we propose a blockchain-based service platform for efficient agricultural service operations with the support of Internet of Things technology. Following the smart platform, we use the drone plant protection service as an example and develop a new execution procedure for smart contract-based agricultural services. In the proposed procedure, we focus on integrating optimization methods to deal with multiple service requests as well as potential disruption events and establishing detailed interactions among service plans, smart contracts, and physical services. Moreover, we formulate the drone plant protection issue using a mixed-integer linear programming model to obtain the optimal service plan and develop a recovery model to deal with potential disruptions of new order arrival. Finally, we design detailed smart contract terms for drone plant protection services. Results of numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed optimization model in obtaining the optimal service plan before and after disruptions. Also, we verify the applicability and security of the smart contract on the Ethereum platform based on a three-phase functional test and a comprehensive security test.
Land administration systems play a critical role for a wide range of stakeholders involved in land management. However, a significant issue affecting these systems is the accuracy of their stored data, which often fails to align with the actual legal, spatial, and topographic reality. The main causes of data discrepancies in land administration systems stem from challenges related to data collection and compilation, data processing, and data misuse. This paper addresses the challenges of data tampering, lengthy transaction registration times, and the potential for double spending, all contributing to inaccuracies within land administration systems. Our research explores the potential of blockchain technology as a solution, specifically distributed ledger technology, to tackle these problems. We propose a Solidity programming language-based smart contract that addresses specific use cases in land administration systems, such as ownership sharing, partial ownership transfers, real estate splitting or merging, and the imposition of restrictions on real estate trading. The proposed smart contract serves as an implementation of a programming interface that combines elements from ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standards, catering to the specific needs of land administration systems.
The sharing economy has shown significant growth in recent years, reinforced by the emergence and success of companies like Uber, Airbnb, eBay, etc. Consistently, it is attracting more and more attention from both the business and academic communities, which in turn are driving the development and adoption of new technologies in the sharing economy, such as smart contracts. However, which attributes of sharing economy business model would be most effectively modified by smart contracts and what would the qualitative effect? To answer these questions in this paper, we conducted a four-part study. First, we presented a description of the sharing economy and smart contract technology. Second, we considered the previously proposed generalized business model of a sharing economy company. Third, we identified the attributes of this business model to which smart contracts can be most effectively applied. Fourth, we qualitatively presented the effect of using smart contracts for each attribute.
Abstract The goal of a content delivery network (CDN) is to reduce the content delivery latency to end-users by using distributed cache servers. Nevertheless, it is very expensive to deploy and maintain cache servers in a large-scale. To solve this problem, CDN providers have come up with a new content delivery strategy: allowing end-users's IoT edge devices to share their storage/bandwidth resources. This new edge CDN platform needs to address two core questions: (1) how can we incentivize end users to share IoT devices? (2) how can we facilitate a safe and transparent content transaction environment for end users? In this paper, we introduce SmartSharing, a new content delivery network solution. In smartSharing, the over-the-top (OTT) IoT devices belonging to end-users are used as mini-cache servers. To motivate end users to share the idle devices and storage/bandwidth resources, SmartSharing designs the content delivery schedule and the pricing scheme based on game theory and machine learning algorithms (to be specific, a tailored Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm). To facilitate content trading among end users, SmartSharing creates a secure and transparent transaction platform based on smart contracts in Ethereum. In addition, SmartSharing's performance evaluation not only through trace-driven simulations in the real world, but also a prototype using content metadata and the achieved pricing schemes. The evaluation results show that CDN providers, end users and content providers can all benefit from our SmartSharing framework.
Disruptive technologies, such as blockchain (BCT), uphold relevant implications to design more transparent, efficient, and effective coproduction. However, evidence on how disruptive technologies affect the design choices and process of coproduction remains limited. Drawing on the unique case of Barcelona, this study analyses how BCT can shape coproduction and how BCT-based coproduction can look. By using a novel framework, our findings suggest that BCT-based coproduction has the potential to lead to new forms and roles in digital coproduction, yet several institutional, social and organizational factors can influence the design choices and, in turn, the implication of such processes.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the public value of the government of Kuwait using blockchain technology to develop the capabilities of smart cities. Design/methodology/approach Research was conducted in Kuwait, where the increased use of blockchain technology has been evidenced in both the private and public sectors. A total of seven IT managers were interviewed to gauge their responses to blockchain and its use in Kuwait ministries. Findings Blockchain technology offers many benefits for the development of smart cities in Kuwait. This is a statement that received almost mutual agreement amongst all the IT managers interviewed. However, as regards wider acceptance, the majority mentioned that a framework is necessary to better articulate the public value of using blockchain in smart cities in Kuwait. Originality/value This paper develops research hypotheses and a framework for articulating the public value of blockchain technology for smart cities in Kuwait.
Distributed ledger technologies provide a mechanism to achieve ordering among transactions that are scattered on multiple participants with no prerequisite trust relations. This mechanism is essentially based on the idea of new transactions referencing older ones in a chain structure. Recently, directed acyclic graph (DAG)-type distributed ledgers that are based on DAGs were proposed to increase the system scalability through sacrificing the total order of transactions. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to study the process that governs the addition of new transactions to the DAG-type distributed ledger. We propose a simple model for DAG-type distributed ledgers that are obtained from a recursive young-age preferential attachment scheme (i.e., new connections are made preferably to transactions that have not been in the system for very long). We determine the asymptotic degree structure of the resulting graph and show that a forward component of linear size arises if the edge density is chosen sufficiently large in relation to the “young-age preference” that tunes how quickly old transactions become unattractive. Funding: The research of C. Mönch is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Grant 443916008].
The emergence of Web3 technologies is transforming the internet and its applications. Web3 refers to the next generation of the internet, which is built on blockchain technology and decentralized applications. This new version of the internet is expected to be more secure, transparent, and open than the current Web2, which is characterized by centralized control and data ownership.The review paper provides an overview of Web3 and its significance in the context of the internet and blockchain technology. It explains how Web3 is different from Web1 and Web2, and why it has the potential to revolutionize various industries. Web1 was the first version of the internet, which was static and read-only. Web2, on the other hand, introduced interactive and social elements to the internet, but it still relies on centralized control and data ownership. The review paper goes on to explain the various technologies associated with Web3, such as blockchain technology, decentralized applications (dApps), and smart contracts. Blockchain technology is the backbone of Web3 and enables decentralized data storage and transaction processing. Decentralized applications (dApps) are software programs that run on a blockchain and enable peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries. Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that automatically enforce the rules and regulations of an agreement. The review paper also explores the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) and its impact on the financial sector. DeFi is a subcategory of dApps that enables decentralized financial services such as lending, borrowing, and trading without the need for traditional financial intermediaries. The report discusses how DeFi is disrupting the traditional financial sector and opening new opportunities for innovation and financial inclusion. The review paper further discusses the potential use cases for Web3 in industries such as gaming, social media, supply chain management, and identity verification. For example, Web3 can enable new models of gaming that are more transparent and fairer for players, as well as provide a more secure and private social media experience. In supply chain management, Web3 can enable greater transparency and traceability of products, which can improve efficiency and reduce fraud. In identity verification, Web3 can provide a decentralized and secure way for individuals to prove their identity without relying on centralized authorities.Finally, the review paper discusses the challenges and limitations of Web3 technologies, such as scalability, interoperability, and user adoption. Despite these challenges, the report provides a vision for the future of Web3 and its potential impact on society.Web3 has the potential to create a more open, decentralized, and equitable internet that empowers individuals and communities.
We examine whether business model concepts, that demonstrate significant convergence to Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) attributes, fit to DLT ecosystem characteristics and identify similarities and deflections. We answer the question whether the appropriate DLT business model is totally unique or adjustable and what conditions need to be met. The study follows a conceptual approach that is based on critical examination of three business model types that demonstrate similarities to the business model that an organization needs to adopt in order to fit in DLT ecosystem characteristics. Although each one of the network, digital and information business model types demonstrate similarities to DLT business model and reveal some resemblance with it, there are critical parameters that are neither addressed nor partially met. The main contribution of study is the exploration of the adjustable nature of the DLT business. Moreover, we highlighted the challenge for DLT ecosystem sustainability, defined and reviewed the conditions that need to be considered for DLT business model design.
Adarsh Kumar Dubey, Suyash Chandrakant Shingte, M.S. Siddiqui, Sanket Patil
Crowdfunding is the practice of leveraging modest sums of money from lot of different people to launch a new business endeavor. Crowdfunding makes use of a straightforward connectivity of large network of people via social media and crowdfunding websites to link investors and entrepreneurs, with the potential to increase entrepreneurship by broadening the pool of investors beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives, and venture capitalists. By providing them with the necessary financing, the online money-making strategy known as crowdfunding supports the ideas of creative people. Crowdfunding allows individuals to make financial investments in newly formed businesses. The problem with the existing crowdfunding model is that the intermediary provides no assurances to the investor who contributed money to the project, and the investor has no control over the money they invest. A private, secure, and decentralized crowdfunding platform is offered using a blockchain-based approach to address this important problem.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of NFTs in revolutionizing innovation management and information systems. Innovations done by firms are blatantly used by other firms to develop cheap knock-off. This leads to huge economic loses to the firm investing in research and development activities. Firms are in need of trusted, immutable and verifiable means of storing information which cannot be used by others, even if publically available without their consent. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) appear to be one such solution to this problem that has recently attracted a lot of investor interest. Using NFTs the information is tokenized and is stored in a secure manner. Design/methodology/approach Through this scoping review, the authors investigate the influence of NFTs towards the innovation management from the dual aspects of management and information systems. This scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework by Arksey and O’Malley. The five stages of Arksey and O’Malley’s framework were used in this analysis to classify the literature through five stages of identifying the initial research questions; locating relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; and compiling, summarizing and reporting the results. Findings This study suggests that NFTs on the blockchain have significant potential to revolutionize innovation management and information systems. Theoretical frameworks used in investigating the role of digital tokens in blockchain management are mainly based on contracts, diversity theory, portfolio theory and faking likelihood theory. The study reveals gaps in the literature, particularly in the under-researched areas of behavioural psychology and social psychology theories. The appropriate regulation and regulation authority for different types of digital tokens are required. The study also presents archetypes that represent patterns in the current landscape of blockchain tokens, which have significant potential for future research and practical applications. Originality/value This study is unique in its approach to assessing the future of NFTs in the field of innovation and information management. While many existing reviews have focused on describing the progress and development of NFTs in the past, this study takes a forward-looking perspective and projects the future potential of NFTs. This innovative approach allows for a deeper understanding of the potential impact of NFTs in various fields such as entrepreneurship, innovation management and tokenomics. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature on NFTs by providing insights and recommendations for future research and practical applications.
Abstract This commentary explores the feasibility of blockchain technologies (and cryptocurrencies) in contesting the power of centralized, corporate platforms. While proponents of blockchain and cryptocurrencies regularly proclaim their power to decentralize and counter corporate power, I am much more constrained in my assessment and note the significant challenges facing open blockchain approaches in competing with platforms. From this, I highlight three key areas in which blockchains may complicate platform operations, albeit in indeterminate ways. These include (i) closed, state-based blockchain systems focused on making back-office processes more efficient, (ii) the use of cryptocurrencies for platform-based transactions and (iii) providing digital objects with an element of “uniqueness” that makes them tradable in new ways. In the end, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are technologies like any others, providing affordances for some kinds of action over others but ultimately their embeddedness in practice and space shapes how they impact the organization and geography of economies, societies and regions.