This article presents a comprehensive framework for integrating blockchain technology with Oracle SOA Suite to facilitate secure and efficient real-time financial transactions. The proposed architecture leverages distributed ledger technology's inherent security features alongside Oracle's robust service orchestration capabilities to address prevalent challenges in traditional payment systems. Through systematic implementation and rigorous testing, the article demonstrates significant improvements in transaction processing speed, security, and regulatory compliance. The integration framework incorporates smart contracts for automated transaction validation, enhanced payment messaging protocols, and optimized data processing pipelines. The article indicates that this hybrid architecture effectively reduces transaction settlement times while maintaining data integrity and meeting industry regulatory requirements. The article contributes to the growing body of knowledge in enterprise integration architecture and provides valuable insights for financial institutions seeking to modernize their transaction processing systems.
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) are an emerging vertical within "Web3" replacing the traditional method that physical infrastructures are constructed. Yet, the boundaries between DePIN and traditional method of building crowd-sourced infrastructures such as citizen science initiatives or other Web3 verticals are not always so clear cut. In this work, we systematically analyze the differences between DePIN and other Web2 and Web3 verticals. For this, the study proposes a novel decision tree for classifying systems as DePIN. This tree is informed by prior studies and differentiates DePIN from related concepts using criteria such as the presence of a three-sided market, token-based incentives for supply, and the requirement for physical asset placement in those systems. The paper demonstrates the application of the decision tree to various blockchain systems, including Helium and Bitcoin, showcasing its practical utility in differentiating DePIN systems. This research offers significant contributions towards establishing a more objective and systematic approach to identifying and categorizing DePIN systems. It lays the groundwork for creating a comprehensive and unbiased database of DePIN systems, which will inform future research and development within this emerging sector.
T. T. Lei, Qinnan Zhang, Wangjie Qiu, Hongwei Zheng · 9 authors
Consensus mechanisms are fundamental to maintaining consistency in distributed systems. With the advent of Web 3.0, blockchain has revealed limitations of traditional Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanisms. To address these issues, we propose a novel Quadratic Voting-based DPoS (Q-DPoS) consensus mechanism. Our approach integrates Quadratic Voting into DPoS to optimize voting power distribution, vote counting, and reward settlement processes, thereby incentivizing participation from users with lower stakes while reducing the concentration of influence. To prevent the system from reverting to a linear reward structure under Sybil Attacks, we introduce admission rules and vote similarity detection mechanisms to strengthen its robustness. Simulation results demonstrate that Q-DPoS significantly increases voter participation and alleviates stake centralization, thereby enhancing overall decentralization. Additionally, theoretical analysis grounded in game theory confirms that the proposed mechanism effectively diversifies voting preferences, contributing to a more balanced and resilient consensus mechanism suitable for Web 3.0 ecosystem.
Background: Ontologies and knowledge graphs have become critical for structuring data into machine-interpretable knowledge, especially in dynamic domains like IT service management (ITSM). Traditional ontology engineering relies heavily on domain experts, making it costly and slow. This study investigates whether a domain-specific ontology can be extended from a top-level ontology without expert involvement, using the IT service management ontology (ITSMO) and the descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering (DOLCE-lite) as a test case used in this study. Methodology: We propose an automated mapping approach integrating lexical approaches, embeddings, graph neural networks (GNN), and large language models (LLMs). Two primary mapping methods were developed: (1) embedding-based matching, computing cosine similarity between class embeddings from DOLCE and ITSMO; and (2) LLM-based matching, prompting a language model (GPT-4o) to evaluate class compatibility on a numeric scale. We also experiment with GraphSAGE GNN to enrich embeddings with ontology structure. Z-score clustering is applied to similarity scores to select top candidate mappings while filtering out outliers from the top cluster. The methodology operates with no annotated data and was validated using three-steps approach: GPT-4o as a surrogate expert for baseline class matching evaluation, expert spot-check, and OWL reasoner (Pellet and HermiT) to prove logical consistency (Glimm et al., 2014; Sirin et al., 2007). Results: The automated method successfully mapped ITSMO classes under DOLCE, yielding an integrated ontology (80 classes) that extends DOLCE into the ITIL domain with minimal expert intervention (expert consolidated suggestions into a result ontology). The LLM-based approach (GPT-4o) achieved the best performance with 73.5% accuracy for top-1 mappings and 82.4% for top-3 (cluster) inclusion. Transformer-based embeddings (e.g., DeBERTa) also performed well (up to 39.3% top-1, outperform random matching with 27.6% accuracy), but classical graph embeddings (RDF2Vec/Node2Vec) failed due to the small ontology size. Incorporating a GNN provided smoother embedding distributions and increased correct mappings within top-3 clusters, but it slightly reduced top-1 precision in this small-graph setting. These findings underscore the effectiveness of LLMs in zero-shot ontology alignment and the limitations of purely structural methods on limited data. Conclusions: This work demonstrates, as a proof-of-concept, that an upper-level ontology can be extended to a domain ontology automatically, with no or minimal expert involvement, by leveraging AI-based mapping techniques. The resulting new ontology integrates ITSMO into DOLCE, providing a consistent semantic foundation for IT domain knowledge graphs. The approach is immediately applicable to ITSM and suggests a generalizable framework for ontology expansion in other domains. Future work will focus on scaling the method to larger ontologies, automatically discovering new classes/relations from text, and evaluating the approach’s practical impact on IT service management processes.
The internet is evolving from Web2's centralized model, dominated by a few tech giants, to Web3's decentralized future. Web3 dismantles walled gardens, distributing data and applications across a peer-to-peer network. Imagine information not on a single server, but replicated across countless computers. This fosters transparency and eliminates censorship. Users, not platforms, own their data. Web3 empowers creators - artists can issue tokens tied to their work, allowing fans to directly support them and even own a piece. Tokens act as the fuel for a new economy, rewarding users for contributing to projects and fostering a more collaborative online experience. This shift towards decentralization has the potential to create a more equitable and user-centric internet, one where power lies not with corporations, but with the users themselves.
Block reorganization (reorg) may occur when a blockchain fork is deliberately instigated and remains poorly solved on Ethereum. We utilize an agent-based modeling approach to simulate the block generation and decision-making processes of reorg attackers and ordinary validators. We analyze the impact of six validator network structures (i.e., random, regular, small-world, scale-free, hierarchical, and community networks) and four fork selection rules (i.e., LMD GHOST, HLMD GHOST, Goldfish, and RLMD GHOST) on the success rate of reorg attacks. The results show that the community network is more vulnerable to reorg attacks, while the hierarchical network is more resilient to such attacks. In addition, the Goldfish fork-choice rule can significantly reduce the success rate of reorg attacks.
As Web3 gains momentum and ushers in the era of decentralized applications and blockchain technology, developers are faced with new challenges in designing robust and scalable architectures. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a proven architectural pattern that provides a solution for building modular, interoperable, and scalable systems. In this chapter, we explore SOA in general, its benefits and challenges, and discuss how this architecture pattern can be applied to Web3 applications.
W. Sarada, Pramod Kumar, G. Rekha, B. Aishwarya · 6 authors
The advances in the architecture of the new web and propelled by Web3 innovations are the major playground where the Internet is moving at a pace faster than we could imagine. It is towards that direction that this research seeks to examine the effectiveness of decentralised systems with emphasis on how Blockchains, Smart Contracts and Peer to Peer systems can revolutionalise the internet by offering more security, transparency and user ownership. Web3 technologies pin the inconvenience of Web2 as being too centralized, lacking in privacy, and problematic in terms of data ownership; Web3 can champion decentralized applications [or dApps] and smart contracts. Taking the key blockchain camps including Ethereum, Solana, and Polkadot into consideration, the study measures their effectiveness, operation capability, and security features. Success and failure rates of the decentralized architecture concept in response to problems affecting different sectors such as finance, healthcare, and digital ownership are measured by simulations as well as the case studies. Particular emphasis is created on such issues as scalability, legal requirements, and user acceptance. Application blockchains are audited by means of blockchain analytics tools and smart contract testing frameworks to identify the strengths and weaknesses of DApps in order to improve them. This research also points towards the issues that require focusing on the improvement of governance models, UX interfaces, and security frameworks in the Web3 sphere. By assessing the existing decentralized platforms and perform performance study, the research identifies the drawbacks and challenges of the blockchain platform and suggests probable solutions to tackle them. Thus, the study results indicate that decentralized web architectures as such have a rather high potential in the future, although the issues of scalability and usability will become the main factors to define their success.
The distributed ledger technology (DLT) landscape comprises a wide range of independent networks with little to none built-in interoperability. To be applied in traditional enterprises, these DLT systems must also interact with legacy systems with no support for the processes of a DLT. An important topic in DLT research is, therefore, to establish standardised protocols for cross-network transfer and exchange of data and assets. Ideally, these protocols should be general-purpose so that they can be applied on top of many different types of ledger systems. One such protocol, supporting asset transfer, is the Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP or 'SAT protocol') in development by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The SATP Core protocol draft by Hargreaves et al. (2024) describes an interoperability protocol that can facilitate asset transfer between two DLT systems, as well as between a DLT system and a non-DLT system. In either case, the SAT protocol imposes no restrictions on the underlying system implementations. Building on this work, in this paper, we present an adaptation of SATP that facilitates cross-network asset exchanges. This asset exchange protocol, named the Secure Asset Exchange Protocol, inherits the key advantages of SATP but enables asset exchanges instead of asset transfers.
In the pursuit of sustainable supply chains, the importance of data interoperability and fusion has become increasingly evident. Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) have emerged as a transformative solution, enabling enhanced data sharing, transparency, and accountability among diverse stakeholders. This review explores the role of DLT in improving data interoperability within sustainable supply chains, addressing key challenges and opportunities that arise from its implementation. The first section provides an overview of sustainable supply chains, highlighting the necessity for effective data interoperability to achieve operational efficiency and meet sustainability goals. The challenges related to data fragmentation, disparate formats, and security concerns are discussed, emphasizing the need for a cohesive approach to data management. Next, the review delves into the core principles of DLT, including decentralization, immutability, and consensus mechanisms. It outlines how these principles facilitate the development of standardized data formats and promote secure, transparent data sharing among supply chain participants. The integration of DLT with legacy systems and its capacity to enhance cross-border data exchange are also examined, showcasing how DLT can bridge existing gaps in data interoperability. Moreover, the benefits of DLT in sustainable supply chains are explored, including enhanced traceability, increased efficiency, better compliance with sustainability standards, and the establishment of trust among stakeholders. Real-world case studies from sectors such as food, textiles, and energy illustrate successful implementations of DLT and the resultant improvements in sustainability outcomes. The review also discusses future directions and innovations in the application of DLT. The potential integration of artificial intelligence (AI) for predictive analytics and decision-making, as well as the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices for real-time data capture, are highlighted as pivotal developments that can further enhance data interoperability. This review underscores the critical role of DLT in fostering data interoperability and fusion within sustainable supply chains. It calls for collaborative efforts among stakeholders to harness the full potential of DLT, paving the way for more resilient, efficient, and sustainable supply chain systems in the future. Through this exploration, the review aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the intersection of technology and sustainability in supply chain management. Keywords: Ledger Technologies, Data Interoperability, Supply Chains, Review.
The adoption of smart contracts in decentralized blockchain-based applications enables reliable and certified audits. These audits allow the extraction of valuable information from blockchains, which can be used to reconstruct the execution of the application and facilitate advanced analyses. One of the most commonly used techniques in this context is process mining, which leverages event logs to trace and accurately represent the process execution of applications. However, extracting execution data from blockchains poses significant challenges, and the current methodologies developed have some limitations. Most approaches are tailored to specific use cases, requiring that analysis techniques are defined during the smart contract’s development. Other techniques are applied a posteriori, relying on blockchain events that often lack a standardized format. This absence of standardization requires complex processing steps to correlate logs with the executed actions and such approaches are not universally applicable to all smart contracts on the blockchain , further limiting their scope. Lastly, none of the existing techniques can extract information from event logs embedded in internal transactions of smart contracts. To address these limitations, we propose EveLog an application-agnostic methodology that can be applied to any EVM-compatible application without predefined constraints. Its primary goal is to extract information from smart contracts, capturing both public and internal transactions, and organizing the results into a structured XES event log. The EveLog methodology consists of five key steps: (i) extraction of data from smart contract transactions, (ii) decoding raw data, (iii) selection of sorting criteria, (iv) construction of traces, and (v) generation of the XES event log. EveLog has been implemented in a client–server application and tested on existing solutions, specifically the CryptoKitties application, a blockchain-based game on the Ethereum blockchain. The study was conducted using 12,996 blocks, including over 8000 real transactions from the Ethereum mainnet.
Recently, blockchain has become the topic of interest for many industries as traditional approaches to data management are arranged based on new ideas, like decentralized ledgers that cannot be modified. The technology's functionality is powered by consensus algorithms, essential in guaranteeing the integrity of network and transaction validation. In this paper, we have put together a large study of consensus mechanisms and compared them to both open and closed blockchain ecosystems. We investigate the underlying principles of different consensus algorithms. We consider an integrated example on those most popular methods from the Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake that are usually used by public blockchains, through to a BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) one of its derived types which may be commonly found in private blockchain networks. In addition to this, the range of metrics that are used in researching those categories e.g., energy consumption, network scalability and security measures with transaction speed versus confirmation times are also studied. We will conclude by weighting these trade-offs at the architecture level and offer guidelines for when each mechanism is best used across different industries as well as use-cases. Furthermore, our research involves state-of-the-art consensus mechanisms as well including Proof-Of-Authority, Delegated Proof of Stake and hybrid mechanisms aimed at overcoming some of the limitations in existing methods. In this article we explore, some of the new technologies which may play a role in defining how Blockchain evolves and easily Integrates with different sectors.
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (De-PINS) are secured and governed by blockchains but beyond crypto-economic incentives, they lack measures to establish trust in participating devices and their services. The verification of relevant device credentials during device registration helps to overcome this problem. However, on-chain verification in decentralized applications (dApp) discloses potentially confidential device attributes whereas off-chain verification introduces undesirable trust assumptions. In this paper, we propose a credential-based device registration (CDR) mechanism that verifies device credentials on the blockchain and leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to protect confidential device attributes from being disclosed. We characterize CDR for DePINs, present a general system model, and technically evaluate CDR using zkSNARKs with Groth16 [1] and Marlin [2]. Our experiments give first insights into performance impacts and reveal a tradeoff between the applied proof systems.
The 1st International Workshop on Requirement Engineering for Web3 Systems (RE4Web3), held at the 32nd IEEE RE Conference 2024, fills in the space between traditional Requirements Engineering (RE) and particular challenges posed by Web3 technologies. The workshop discussed changing RE artifacts, processes, and practices to efficiently build and operate emerging Web3 systems. The accepted papers showcase the diversity and depth of research in this emerging field, addressing key topics such as smart contract compatibility with Central Bank Digital Currencies, RE challenges in rollup construction, privacy and security in blockchain-based federated learning, and infrastructure requirements for blockchain-native information systems. The new findings described in these industry-focused papers add to the formation of the discipline and lay the cornerstone for future research and practice in RE integration with Web3 technologies.
Shan Wang, Ming Yang, Wenxuan Dai, Yu Liu · 6 authors
Third-party RPC services have become the mainstream way for users to access Ethereum. In this paper, we present a novel deanonymization attack that can link an Ethereum address to a real-world identity such as IP address of a user who accesses Ethereum via a third-party RPC service. We find that RPC API calls result in distinguishable sizes of encrypted TCP packets. An attacker can then find when a user sends a transaction to an RPC provider and immediately send a beacon transaction after the user transaction. By exploiting the differences in the distributions of inter-arrival time intervals of normal transactions and two simultaneously initiated transactions, the attacker can identify the victim transaction in the Ethereum network. This enables the attacker to correlate the Ethereum address of the victim transaction’s initiator with the source IP address of TCP packets from a victim user. We model the attack through empirical measurements and conduct extensive real-world experiments to validate the effectiveness of our attack. With three optimization strategies, the correlation accuracy can reach to 98.70% and 96.60% respectively in Ethereum testnet and mainnet. We are the first to study the deanonymization of Ethereum users behind third-party RPC services.
Web3 needs complex semantic frameworks to update, validate, and regulate data across decentralized networks as it grows. The whole semantic system of this study includes SV, SC, DOC, ISV, and SG. The Semantic Validation technique performs parametric validation, scoring, and threshold comparison to safeguard data integrity, whereas the Semantic Agreement algorithm combines meanings by adding agreement values. Decentralized ontologies are improved using Distributed Ontology Construction to accommodate new meaning linkages. connected Semantic Verification detects semantic meaning compatibility across linked networks. Lastly, meaning Governance enables individuals to decide on recommended meaning modifications without centralization. Comparative analysis examines the framework. Tables and illustrations indicate its dominance over key aspects. The recommended strategy generally outperforms Web3 evolution methods in security, scale, interoperability, user privacy, and government effectiveness. Visualizing the process with pie charts, layered analysis, and temporal trends shows its efficacy. This semantic framework's consistency, correctness, and flexibility are key responses to Web3's changes. The framework's continual refinement methods can shape Web3 Internet semantics as open networks change. This semantic framework helps establish a decentralized and connected Internet as bitcoin and Web3 technologies progress. It also allows Web3-aligned semantic development.
Yuan Huang, Rong Wang, Xiangping Chen, Zibin Zheng
An increasing number of investors are active on Ethereum, resulting in numerous transactions. These historical transactions can be applied to complete contract testing. For example, it can be used for gas optimization or contract repair to verify that improved contracts meet expectations. Most existing methods deploy private chains to use non-real transactions for contract verification instead of actual historical transactions on the Ethereum mainnet. The challenge of using actual historical transactions for verification is that Ethereum only records the latest state of the account and cannot restore the execution of historical transactions. Due to contract code changes in contract gas optimization, contract defect repair, and other scenarios, we need to test the execution of the contract code before and after the change. However, existing tools cannot customize and modify historical transactions for testing purposes. Therefore, we propose an efficient transaction replay platform,EthReplayer, which can not only replay the historical transactions of Ethereum quickly and faithfully but also realize the modification of transactions to achieve the purpose of testing with actual transactions. Experimental results show that our replay speed is 1.5 times the fastest available, and it only takes 29,594 seconds to replay 1,200 million blocks. In addition, it is applied to contract repair verification, gas optimization verification, and gas estimation, and the results prove the effectiveness ofEthReplayer.
Pseudonyms are widely used in Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) to protect the location privacy of vehicles. However, the unlinkability nature of pseudonyms also enables Sybil attacks, where a malicious vehicle can pretend to be multiple vehicles at the same time. In this paper, we propose a novel protocol called zero-knowledge Proof of Distinct Identity (zk-PoDI,) which allows a vehicle to prove that it is not the owner of another pseudonym in the local area, without revealing its actual identity. Zk-PoDI is based on the Diophantine equation and zk-SNARK, and does not rely on any specific pseudonym design or infrastructure assistance. We show that zk-PoDI satisfies all the requirements for a practical Sybil-resistance pseudonym system, and it has low latency, adjustable difficulty, moderate computation overhead, and negligible communication cost. We also discuss the future work of implementing and evaluating zk-PoDI in a realistic city-scale simulation environment.
Zia Ahmed Shaikh, Kamran Dahri, Azar Akbar Memon, Shazma Tahseen · 6 authors
This study explores the approaches of interoperability through blockchain and traditional intercommunicational methodologies such as Web APIs and Web Services, which fall under the umbrella of service-oriented architecture (SOA) within the context of connecting heterogeneous systems. Interoperability, the ability of disparate and heterogeneous systems to communicate and exchange data seamlessly, is a crucial consideration in today's interconnected digital landscape. Service based architectures or SOA, a well-established architectural style, promotes loose coupling and reusability through standardized protocols, facilitating effective integration of diverse systems. On the other hand, blockchain, a decentralized and distributed ledger technology, offers a novel approach to interoperability, leveraging oracles and other tools to connect external systems, including IoT devices, with blockchain networks. This research evaluates the two approaches from multiple perspectives, considering the challenges and requirements of connecting heterogeneous systems. This comparative analysis also considers factors such as trust models, scalability, data integrity, transparency, governance, regulatory considerations, and the specific challenges posed by connecting heterogeneous systems. By assessing these factors and the specific requirements of connecting heterogeneous systems, organizations can determine the most suitable approach for achieving effective interoperability.
Muhammad Ikram Mohd Rashid, Imran Rasool, Nazir Ahmad Zafar, Hamra Afzaal
New to the Ethereum platform with version 2.0 is the Beacon chain. Validator status, attestation information, and many more are maintained via the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol, which is relied upon. The Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain relies on the validation and completion of checkpoints to validate and finish all the blocks associated with those checkpoints. By formally verifying it using the SPIN model checker, this research tackles the issue of the dependability and security of the Beacon Chain’s justification and finalization operations. Due of its novelty (launched in 2020), there is little any literature on the subject. Additionally, no previous study has formally verified the beacon chain using the SPIN model checker. The study makes use of PROMELA, a formal specification language, to formally outline the reasoning and finalization method of the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain. Utilizing the SPIN Model Checker, a program graph is generated for this procedure, which formulaically expresses safety features via the use of linear temporal logic (LTL). To make sure everything is in order, we run the SPIN model checker with the program graph and LTL formulae as inputs to see whether the program graph satisfies the properties. This is the formal verification process.