Remember internet boom of 1990s and how its usage changed the way we look at world? Blockchain technology (BT) is the Internet of present time. Studies highlighting ways to leverage the benefits of BT are being carried out aggressively and it's of keen interest for major industries and industrialists. Every new research in the area indicate various benefits of BT related to performance improvements. Therefore, to evaluate the enablers of blockchain adoption in smart contracts becomes essential and of great importance. For consumer driven economy like India, where implementation and adoption of BT has been sluggish, BT implementation can give strategic advantage to any industry, making it relevant to evaluate the feasibility and the importance of blockchain smart contracts in the electronic industry, which occupy a large share of the market. There are different enablers for BT adoption in different industries, and this study focuses on identifying and establishing the relationships between the enabler in the electronic supply chain. Eight enablers were considered after conducting a survey of the literature before applying the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) technique to understand the complex relationships between the identified enablers. The result of the detailed analysis, highlighted traceability as the most significant enabler among others for BT-related smart contract adoption for the electronic industry. This result is of immense importance for managers in identifying and developing policies and strategies related to BT implementation for the firm.
Shen Su, Yuntian Tan, Yue Xue, Chao Wang · 8 authors
The metaverse virtual assets are carried by smart contract, thus detecting the potential smart contract vulnerabilities and malicious intension is critical to protect the metaverse digital assets and the investors’ confidence. However, existing research mainly focus on the Ethereum address features, which can hardly reveal the characteristics of the entire smart contract project. In this paper, we take the first step to detect smart contract anomalies on the granularity of smart contract project, and propose a method to identify the smart contract project’s subordinate addresses, and a model network which takes the runtime features of the smart contract project. We further apply our method on our dataset collected from projects deployed on Ethereum, and prove that our method could effectively recognize the similarity of smart contract projects, and identify the malicious transactions which trigger smart contract project anomalies.
Hiren Dutta, Saurabh Nagesh, Jawahar Talluri, Parama Bhaumik
Traditional insurance policies pay the insurer according to the actual loss or damage to a tangible object that is insured. Due to the numerous parties involved, the settlement procedure is usually highly drawn out. Comparatively, parametric insurance protects a policyholder from the occurrence of a particular event by disbursing a predetermined sum dependent on the severity of the event. In the transportation sector, supply chain disruptions caused by delays are precisely the kind of event that parametric insurance may be able to cover. Transportation delays can happen for several reasons. Events like adverse weather, heavy traffic, and poor road conditions can all slow down the logistics supply chain. An occurrence triggers parametric insurance claims. Unfavorable scenarios can be insured, and claims can be automatically processed depending on policy criteria and conditions. The standard centralized database technique can be utilized to build parametric insurance schemes; however, the data is open to manipulation. This article examines how to create parametric transport insurance using blockchain. It discusses user journey, technology solutions, design and implementation problems, and parametric service insurance. The blueprint for transportation parametric insurance can be used in other fields including Agriculture (Crop Insurance) (Jha et al, 2021), Disaster Insurance (Parametric disaster insurance, Feb. 2023), Aviation, Travel, and manufacturing industry.
Liuyang Zhao, Yezhou Sha, Kaiwen Zhang, Jiaxin Yang
Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have attracted massive attention from both legal communities and businesses. Asset securitization is the procedure in which an issuer designs a financial instrument that is marketable by combining or merging different financial assets into one group. However, most securitization occurs with loans and other assets that generate receivables, such as consumer or business debt of various types. This article discusses the possible benefits of blockchain during the securitization process using the deep learning-based adaptive online intelligent framework (DLAOIF). The benefits can be significant, from reduced costs, time, and fraud risks to increased safety, trust, and accuracy. Tracking financial assets on a blockchain can reduce dependence on credit rating organizations and allow investors to monitor asset performance and the associated risk more carefully. It should improve investor confidence and increase secondary market interest.
Flight insurance has always been an element of air travel because the aviation sector has always been vulnerable to risks and uncertainties. There is a chance to upgrade aviation insurance processes and make them more secure, transparent, and effective with the development of blockchain technology. In this paper, potential of blockchain technology in flight industry is explored, including its advantages and challenges, and how it can be applied to create a decentralized and secure system for flight insurance. The application will allow users to purchase Insurance on the go and will make claim procedures hassle-free with less documentation. The service can be accessible to users by visiting the website.
The construction industry is one of the most critical sectors of the global economy, contributing significantly to economic growth and job creation [...]
Prior to the publication of this article, the author, Kathleen Moriarty, passed away on December 20, 2022. Kathleen was a pioneer in the investment management community, best known for her role in shepherding the first exchange-traded fund, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, to launch, which earned her the moniker “Spider Woman.” Throughout her career, Kathleen was a humble and thoughtful colleague who was universally recognized as a kind-hearted and beloved individual. She will be deeply missed by friends, family, colleagues, and clients, and her contributions to the industry will not be soon forgotten.
Enas Qutieshat, Bassam Al-Tarawneh, Osamah Al Naimat
Contract theory is considered one of the legal theories most affected by technological development. Technology has become a challenge and a test of the extent to which the provisions of the law related to the contract on the basis whether such theory is able to respond to technical development. This paper deals with smart contracts in the light of the Jordanian civil law texts and the Jordanian electronic transactions law, to determine whether the current legal texts can recognize the legality of such contracts on the one hand and the ability of the Jordanian legal system to apply this type of contracts. It has been concluded that the smart contract cannot be considered a contract unless the basic pillars of any of the contracts stipulated in the civil law are available. The Jordanian Electronic Transactions Law until the moment of writing does not regulate smart contracts based on automated implementation of the terms of the contract without human intervention, as it covers only the stage of contract creation. In addition, the mechanism of creating and implementing this type of contract constitutes a legal challenge to most of the rules governing the contract in Jordanian law.
As smart contracts process digital assets, their security is essential for blockchain applications. Many approaches have been proposed to detect smart contract vulnerabilities. Studies show that few of the reported vulnerabilities are exploited and hypothesize that many of the reported vulnerabilities are false positives. However, no follow-up study is performed to confirm the hypothesis and understand why the reported vulnerabilities are not exploited. In this study, we first collect 136,969 unique real-world smart contracts and analyze them using four vulnerability detectors, namely Oyente, SmartCheck, Slither, and SolDetector. Then, we apply Strauss’ grounded theory approach to manually analyze the source code of the smart contracts reported as vulnerable to recognizing false positives and understand the reasons for false results. In addition, we analyze the transaction logs of the smart contracts reported as vulnerable to identifying and understanding their exploitations. Our results show that 75.37% of the 4,364 smart contracts reported as vulnerable are false positives, and eleven reasons are causing the false positives. After analyzing the 4,106,134 transaction logs of the contracts reported as vulnerable, we find that vulnerabilities of only 67 (0.015%) of the contracts have been exploited in history. We also identify six reasons for demotivating and preventing the attackers from exploiting the vulnerabilities. Our results reveal that state-of-the-art smart contract vulnerability detectors primarily treat the smart contracts as yet another application developed using Object Oriented (OO) languages when analyzing and reporting the smart contract vulnerabilities. Without considering the specific design principles of the Solidity programming language and the characteristics of smart contracts’ application scenarios and execution environments, many of the reported vulnerabilities are not exploitable or not cost-effective to be exploited by adversaries.
With the increase of the adoption of blockchain technology in providing decentralized solutions to various problems, smart contracts have become more popular to the point that billions of US Dollars are currently exchanged every day through such technology. Meanwhile, various vulnerabilities in smart contracts have been exploited by attackers to steal cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars. The automatic detection of smart contract vulnerabilities therefore is an essential research problem. Existing solutions to this problem particularly rely on human experts to define features or different rules to detect vulnerabilities. However, this often causes many vulnerabilities to be ignored, and they are inefficient in detecting new vulnerabilities. In this study, to overcome such challenges, we propose a framework to automatically detect vulnerabilities in smart contracts on the blockchain. More specifically, first, we utilize novel feature vector generation techniques from bytecode of smart contract as source code is rarely publicly available. These feature vectors are then analyzed using our innovative metric learning-based Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to produce detection results. The framework’s predictions are further refined through a voting mechanism to achieve consensus. We conduct comprehensive experiments on large-scale benchmarks, and the quantitative results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
1. L’évolution des techniques et du droit. Il y a presque vingt ans, le législateur national accueillit favorablement les évolutions de l’économie numérique, en consacrant le commerce électronique comme « l’activité économique par laquelle une personne propose ou assure à distance et par voie électronique la fourniture de biens ou de services »1. Le droit européen participe également activement
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has once again highlighted the need for diversification across asset classes to avoid the fallout of black swan events. This study aims to identify the optimal portfolio weights for long-only investors in emerging Ghana stocks and two major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and Ethereum. BEKK-GARCH (1, 1) has been deployed to investigate the volatility spillover between the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and two major cryptos by market share: Bitcoin and Ethereum between January 2019 and December 2021. The influence of the COVID-19 crisis has been examined by dividing the full sample period into three sub-periods: pre-COVID-19, during-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 pandemic. This study has several important implications. First, the investors can take advantage of higher returns in cryptos by allocating low-single digits exposure and enhancing portfolio risk-adjusted returns. Second, policymakers can formulate policies to encourage more investors to adopt cryptos as an asset class in Ghana.
Henri B. Meier, John E. Marthinsen, Pascal Gantenbein, Samuel S. Weber
Abstract The value chains of Switzerland’s incumbent market players, such as banks and insurance companies, will be increasingly challenged by new technologies and competitors like FinTech, InsurTech, and RegTech firms. Digitalization, artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, smart contracts, data analytics, distributed ledger technologies, robotics, biometrics, and gamification are just a few ingredients spurring the FinTech revolution and breaking up existing value chains. These developments will fuel the consolidation of processes and collaborations with third parties and shift the boundaries between financial services providers. To support new business models in banking and insurance, the Swiss finance sector has invested in its infrastructure to trade digital assets. It has also been one of the very few early movers globally in providing a comprehensive and solid DLT regulation.
The guarantee rule system of digital RMB is a system that needs to be continuously improved. Its core is to establish the legal status and guarantee rules of digital RMB. Based on the research of the existing guarantee rule system, on the basis of drawing lessons from the existing blockchain technology and intelligent contract technology, this paper puts forward the idea of using intelligent contract to assist in the construction of digital RMB guarantee rule system. By embedding smart contracts in the whole process of digital RMB issuance, circulation and destruction, we can provide more enforceable guarantees for digital RMB, and gradually establish a digital RMB guarantee rule system that is compatible with China's current legal system and meets the needs of China's financial innovation.
Blockchain as a distributed ledger technology that can guarantee transparency and speed in real time is increasingly being used to increase supply chain performance directly or indirectly.Blockchain in the form of smart contracts in the insurance business will speed up insurance claims and increase transparancy, which will indirectly improve supply chain performance.This article aims to identify the role of smart contracts in increasing efficiency and applying smart contract designs to disbursing life insurance claims.The method for designing and implementing smart contracts was developed on the Ethereum platform involving several parties such as insurers, customers, and CAIPY Dapp.CAIPY is the name of the system being developed.CAIPY ensures that the system can prevent data manipulation, data leakage and guarantees the security of the smart contract itself.This research includes planning what data is needed in the smart contract design.Based on these data requirements, a system architecture, system mechanism is prepared, and closed with the design of a smart contract.This research produces a life insurance claim system in the form of a website by utilizing smart contracts.Analysis of the impact of implementing this system found an accelerated claim process, transparency of reasons for rejection in real time, and claims that are guaranteed as long as the conditions meet the policy requirements.
The emergence of smart contracts and the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) have introduced new dimensions to traditional contract law. This research paper aims to explore the profound impact of smart contracts and AI on the foundations and principles of contract law. It examines the benefits, challenges, and legal implications that arise from the adoption of these technological advancements. By analysing relevant case law, scholarly literature, and regulatory frameworks, this paper provides insights into the potential transformation of contract law in the era of smart contracts and AI. This research paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the impact of smart contracts and AI on traditional contract law. By examining the benefits, challenges, and legal implications, it provides a comprehensive analysis that can inform policymakers, legal practitioners, and scholars in navigating the evolving landscape of contract law in the digital age.