O presente artigo analisa o custo-benefício energético de três mecanismos de consenso centrais no ecossistema de criptoativos – Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS) e o modelo híbrido baseado em Proof-of-History (PoH) combinado com PoS – examinando como as diferenças de consumo energético entre esses paradigmas se relacionam a propriedades de segurança, desempenho e sustentabilidade econômica. A partir de dados recentes sobre o consumo energético de redes públicas de referência – entre as quais o Bitcoin, o Ethereum antes e depois da transição para PoS (Merge) e a Solana – discute-se em que medida a evolução dos desenhos de consenso permite reduzir o uso de eletricidade por ordens de grandeza, sem necessariamente comprometer segurança e descentralização. A metodologia combina revisão bibliográfica de estudos acadêmicos e relatórios técnicos sobre consumo energético em blockchains, análise de estimativas consolidadas de uso anual de eletricidade e de energia por transação e discussão conceitual dos trade-offs entre eficiência energética, robustez criptográfica, requisitos de hardware e impactos regulatórios. As evidências empíricas revisadas indicam que o Bitcoin, ancorado em PoW, mantém consumo anual estimado em torno de 120 a 130 terawatt-hora (TWh), ao passo que o Ethereum, após a migração para PoS em setembro de 2022, reduziu seu consumo em mais de 99,9%, operando com menos de 0,01 TWh por ano. Relatórios de eficiência energética apontam que redes que combinam PoH e PoS, a exemplo da Solana, apresentam consumo de energia por transação da ordem de centenas de joules, valor inferior tanto ao de redes PoW quanto ao de diversas redes PoS de menor vazão, embora existam ressalvas metodológicas e debates acerca dos efeitos de centralização de infraestrutura associados a requisitos elevados de hardware e conectividade. Conclui-se que PoS e esquemas híbridos com PoH oferecem vantagens substanciais em termos de eficiência energética, mas que a avaliação de custo-benefício deve incorporar conjuntamente a segurança econômica, a distribuição de poder entre participantes, a maturidade do ecossistema e o alinhamento com agendas de sustentabilidade que tendem a moldar a evolução da infraestrutura Web3 nas próximas décadas.
Regulatory permissiveness is widely prescribed as the primary institutional lever for digital asset adoption. This study challenges that prescription. Analyzing NFT and DeFi adoption across 105 countries using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-constructed composite indices and multivariate Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, we find that the Frontier Technology Readiness Index (FTRI) is the dominant structural correlate across all specifications, consistently outperforming competing explanatory variables. Regulatory environments neither independently explain adoption nor are associated with it linearly: both permissive and restrictive environments outperform mostly prohibited jurisdictions, suggesting that regulatory clarity rather than permissiveness is the operative institutional dimension. NFT and DeFi markets follow empirically distinct pathways: NFT adoption shows stronger associations with digital marketplace maturity while DeFi is more closely associated with technological infrastructure, suggesting that treating Web3 as a homogeneous policy category is unwarranted. National income conditions how effectively technological readiness is associated with adoption gains, with structural determinants exhibiting considerably reduced explanatory power in lower-middle-income economies. For policymakers, these findings reframe the debate: the primary structural correlate of digital asset adoption is technological capacity, not regulatory stance, and below a development threshold, neither intervention is reliably associated with adoption gains.
Abstract The same infrastructures that enable decentralised finance, NFT markets, and metaverse platforms also create new spaces for para‑crime. This article extends grey criminology to Web3 by applying three mechanisms of infrastructural illegality – parasitism, normative greyness, and platform co‑production – first developed for physical cross‑border grey economies (daigou). Drawing on technical and financial crime literature, we show how smart contracts, stablecoins, and DAO governance are parasitised for money laundering and fraud; how techno‑libertarian narratives of 'code is law' and decentralisation sustain normative greyness; and how algorithmic security and DAO co‑production reshape rather than eliminate para‑crime. The analysis reveals both structural parallels with physical grey economies and domain‑specific variations – most notably, the deeper internalisation of co‑production in code‑based systems. We argue that grey criminology must extend its infrastructural turn to virtual and metaversal spaces, and that enforcement paradoxes – where suppression threatens valued infrastructures – apply as much to blockchain protocols as to customs thresholds.
This research paper presents a comprehensive review of the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies, examining how their convergence can enhance trust, transparency, security, and intelligent decision-making in modern digital systems. The study explores the technological foundations of AI and blockchain, analyzes their complementary capabilities, and evaluates real-world applications in healthcare, financial services, supply chain management, Web3, and digital governance. It also critically discusses key technical, ethical, and regulatory challenges, including scalability, privacy, interoperability, governance, and security. Drawing on recent academic literature, the paper identifies current research gaps and outlines future directions for developing trustworthy, decentralized, and responsible AI-enabled digital ecosystems.
Open access
2 source records
Internet of Things and AI
Organizational and Employee Performance
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
This chapter examines the autonomous dynamics of the techno-political domain through the lens of political philosophy, primarily focusing on the intellectual legacy of Carl Schmitt. It begins with a unique analysis of Schmitt&s;s 1918 satirical essay The Buribunks, arguing that his dystopian vision of a “diary-writing society” presciently anticipated the data-driven social media culture of the twenty-first century. The discussion then navigates contemporary debates on depoliticization and post-politics, engaging with the works of Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Rancière, and Slavoj Žižek to illustrate how technological rationality often suppresses traditional political conflict. However, the chapter asserts that we are currently witnessing the “end of the apolitical honeymoon,” as the political, defined by Schmittian antagonism, re-emerges within the technological sphere. By analyzing phenomena such as China&s;s social credit system, hybrid warfare through disinformation, and the rise of decentralized technologies like blockchain and Web3, the text demonstrates how cyberspace has become the primary arena for modern sovereignty and power struggles. Ultimately, the chapter provides a philosophical framework for understanding technology not merely as a neutral tool, but as a constitutive element of the political sphere that reshapes the nature of global conflict and governance.
This chapter provides an exhaustive analysis of the core technological pillars defining the contemporary techno-political landscape: artificial intelligence (AI), surveillance technologies, blockchain and Web3, social media, and virtual universes (the metaverse). It begins by tracing the historical trajectory of AI and its diverse applications, specifically focusing on its transformative impact on strategic decision-making, foreign policy, and public opinion. The discussion then transitions into a philosophical and technical examination of surveillance, contrasting historical models like Bentham&s;s Panopticon with contemporary concepts such as Zuboff&s;s “surveillance capitalism” and the modern “omnipticon.” The analysis further delves into the ideological origins of blockchain, exploring the paradigmatic shift from the centralized structures of Web2 toward the ownership-based autonomy of Web3. Furthermore, the chapter evaluates the evolution of social media as a pervasive tool of power, highlighting its role in reshaping political participation and the dynamics of disinformation. Finally, it explores the emergence of virtual universes, addressing the critical challenges they pose to identity, security, and the nature of truth. By bridging technical evolution with political science and sociology, this chapter illustrates how these diverse parameters collectively restructure the dynamics of power, governance, and social legitimacy in the digital age.
To make the payment system robust and user friendly, decentralized based Scan and Pay system need to be designed. This paper integrates the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India with the Solana-based Blockchain to make the payment system decentralized. Solana offers a high throughput and low-cost based decentralized infrastructure which is combined with the simple and reliable UPI system. So, the proposed system enables cryptocurrency transactions linked to UPI while maintaining user friendliness, scalability, and regulatory compliance. The designed method uses a secure architecture powered by smart contracts and modular design. It offers a viable bridge between centralized financial networks and emerging Web3 ecosystems. Proposed Solana-based UPI is compared with the Non-Solana based UPI which is using Blockchain. Results show that there is improvement of 91% in transaction latency and 95% in transaction cost as compared to the Non-Solana based UPI system.
Educational institutions require secure, transparent, and tamper-resistant systems to manage academic records, examination data, and student results while ensuring accountability and data integrity. Conventional marks management systems primarily rely on centralized databases, making them susceptible to unauthorized modifications, security breaches, limited traceability, and single points of failure. The proposed blockchain-based university student marks management framework utilizes academic information collected from institutional administrative records, including student details, faculty information, academic structures, subject allocations, examination schedules, marks, and result data. The workflow incorporates secure user authentication using SHA-256 hashing, AES-based encryption of sensitive marks data, role-based access control, blockchain transaction validation, and smart contract execution for academic operations. Ethereum blockchain, Solidity smart contracts, Flask, Web3.py, MetaMask, and Ganache are integrated to implement secure record management, immutable storage, result publication, audit trail generation, and academic analytics. Performance evaluation is conducted using blockchain transaction processing, encryption efficiency, data integrity verification, access control validation, audit traceability, and result dissemination correctness. Experimental results demonstrate reliable storage of academic records, secure handling of examination information, accurate result processing, comprehensive audit logging, and effective protection against unauthorized modifications while maintaining complete transaction transparency. The proposed architecture significantly enhances the security, reliability, transparency, and trustworthiness of university examination and academic record management systems.
Smart contracts manage high-value digital assets, making their security a critical priority. In this work, we present a preliminary ecosystem analysis of how smart contract vulnerabilities are currently classified, disclosed, and managed across academia and industry. Our findings reveal the fragmented nature of Web3 security, characterized by a history of attempted classification schemes and a lack of proper vulnerability disclosure. We propose several hypotheses for this divergence from traditional software standards, including ideological decentralization, reputation management, and misaligned financial incentives. A case study of Uniswap illustrates these challenges, revealing inconsistent reporting and the difficulty of verifying vulnerability data. Ultimately, this work serves as a foundational step toward establishing unified methodologies for the detection, management, and disclosure of smart contract vulnerabilities.
The paper investigates how cross-cultural branding has adapted to the new reality of globalization, digital revolution and dynamic customer needs. The paper reviews the historical and modern views on branding to analyze how organizations strive to create a consistent global brand while responding to the requirements of local culture. The study is based on a qualitative review which reveals such issues as the need for balancing standardization and localization, the concept of glocalization, cultural intelligence, AI-powered personalization, sustainable branding and immersive digital ecosystems (Web3, metaverse). The branding has moved from its original function of identification to more interactive approaches powered by technologies and sensitive to culture. The digital glocalization seems to be an adequate strategy that allows merging globalized identity and consumer-localized experience. Modern resilient brands should combine cultural intelligence, ethical sustainability, emotional integrity, and flexibility in digital environments. Graphical Abstract
Open access
Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
Jin Ah Seo, Kun Hwa Lee, Vijayan Sugumaran, Jo Yeon Park · 5 authors
We build and evaluate a concrete Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning (ZKML)-based pipeline for epidemic diagnosis and show that it can enforce computational integrity without exposing raw medical data in a Web3 setting. In response to security challenges posed by centralized data handling in medical AI applications, particularly during public health crises such as COVID-19, ZKML offers a privacy-preserving alternative by combining machine learning and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP). We experimentally applied ZKML to a CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks)-based COVID-19 diagnostic model, achieving 87% accuracy and 0.35 loss. All proof generation and verification processes were executed entirely off-chain, with the verified outputs represented as committed public_vals recorded on-chain via smart contracts. To ensure authenticity, the system enforces dual ECDSA signature verification from both the model provider and the data provider. This mechanism prevents unauthorized submissions and confirms the validity of the result before it is stored on-chain. The system was tested under both normal and adversarial conditions, demonstrating robust and reliable operation. By enabling decentralized trust and self-sovereign control over data, this architecture aligns well with Web3 principles. The results indicate that ZKML can support the development of privacy-preserving and verifiable AI systems.
Open access
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
Blockchains have evolved from simple distributed ledgers into programmable platforms that process complex application logic and carry significant financial value. All modern Web3 systems share a common goal: providing secure, decentralized, and trustworthy execution in an increasingly interconnected environment. However, this evolution has shifted the attack surface from isolated infrastructure disruptions to programmable economic abuse and cross-domain exploits. In this article, we focus on the research of blockchain attacks and defenses. In particular, we categorize the threat landscape and corresponding mitigation strategies according to both a four-tier layered architecture (network, cryptographic, consensus, and application) and cross-domain trust boundaries. We seek to answer these important questions: How has the research in blockchain security evolved over the past decade, especially with the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) and cross-chain interoperability? How do local security assumptions fail when protocols are composed, and what are the driving needs for Web3 security research in the future?
Ilham Qasse, Po-Yu Tseng, Mohammad Hamdaqa, Gísli Hjálmtýsson
Smart contract security audit reports contain rich information about vulnerabilities and code quality issues in Web3 projects. However, these reports are scattered across different sources and formats, making large-scale analysis difficult. We present SCAR (Smart Contract Audit Repository), an open-source dataset and tool that automatically aggregates these audit reports. SCAR crawls reports from leading security firms (e.g., OpenZeppelin) and community contests (e.g., Code4rena), parses them into a structured JSON schema, and offers a queryable API for accessing the data. Its pipeline includes a crawler, a text-mining module to standardize findings (e.g., vulnerability types, severity, code references), and a web API for retrieving insights. With hundreds of audits covering thousands of issues, SCAR enables empirical studies of smart contract vulnerabilities at scale. The SCAR project repository is available on GitHub, and the screencast demo is available at this link.
PaperProof Protocol is a verifiable artifact publishing protocol built on Sui and Walrus. This slide deck introduces the core motivation, architecture, and product positioning of PaperProof. It explains how PaperProof models long-form digital artifacts such as preprints, technical reports, blog posts, datasets, software releases, and related discussion layers as protocol-native, versioned, and verifiable objects. The presentation also outlines PaperProof’s position in the Sui + Walrus stack, its relationship to SDKs and agent-facing skills, and its differences from traditional content platforms and web3 social protocols. The deck is intended for developers, researchers, ecosystem participants, investors, and infrastructure teams who want to understand why artifact versioning, content-addressed storage, and protocol-level verification matter for durable knowledge publishing. Official website: https://paperproof.site/ GitHub organization: https://github.com/PaperProofLabs
ASEGUNLOLUWA E. BABALOLA, DAVID O. ILESANMI, PREYE ADEOLA
Electronic voting can improve the speed of ballot processing and result generation, but conventional systems often depend on centrally controlled infrastructure that may create concerns relating to record alteration, transparency and administrative control. This study presents the development of a blockchain based electronic voting prototype that integrates election creation, candidate management, voter address authorization, ballot submission and result retrieval within a web application. The system adopts an Ethereum based architecture comprising a Next.js user interface, Web3 communication, MetaMask wallet connection, Solidity smart contracts and a local blockchain environment provided by Ganache. A factory smart contract is used to create separate election contracts, enabling each election to maintain its own candidates, authorized voter addresses, election status and vote totals. Before a ballot is accepted, the relevant election contract verifies that the election is active, that the submitting address is authorized and that the address has not previously voted. The developed prototype provides interfaces for election creation, voting and result presentation, demonstrating the integration of the web application with the smart contract and blockchain components. The study provides a basis for the independent management of multiple elections through separate smart contract instances.
Decentralized social protocols such as Nostr introduce a new paradigm for user-generated content (UGC) in the Web3 era, where content production, dissemination, and reward mechanisms operate without centralized governance. This paper presents one of the first large-scale empirical analyses of Nostr, based on 22.3 million user events collected from four major publicly accessible relays. Guided by three research questions, we examine (1) the temporal and spatial distribution of user participation, (2) the structural characteristics of decentralized UGC networks, and (3) thematic and incentive patterns in content creation and Zap-based rewards. Our analysis shows rapid growth followed by long-tail stabilization, while the interaction network remains highly modular and loosely connected, indicating fragmented yet persistent communities. Embedding-based clustering of textual posts identifies ten clusters on several topics: technical discussions, ideological debates, personal expression, community coordination, and media sharing, highlighting a hybrid ecosystem of social and technical discourse. We further find that knowledge-oriented content in Clusters 1 and 5 receives higher Zap engagement, suggesting the socialization of a primarily technical infrastructure. These findings advance the understanding of decentralized multimedia ecosystems by linking network decentralization with observed participation and engagement patterns in the absence of centralized moderation.
The Criminal Evidence Management System using Blockchain is designed to provide a secure, transparent, and tamper-resistant platform for managing digital criminal evidence throughout its lifecycle.Traditional evidence management systems rely on centralized databases, making them vulnerable to unauthorized access, data manipulation, and single points of failure.Such limitations can compromise the integrity of evidence and weaken the chain of custody during legal proceedings.To address these challenges, the proposed system leverages blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity, immutability, and traceability of digital evidence.The system employs Ethereum blockchain and Solidity smart contracts to securely record evidence-related transactions, while Python, Django, and Web3 facilitate seamless interaction between users and the blockchain network.Role-based access control enables administrators and investigating officers to perform authorized operations such as evidence submission, retrieval, and verification.Every transaction is permanently recorded on the blockchain, creating an auditable history that enhances accountability and prevents unauthorized modifications.The proposed solution improves the reliability and efficiency of evidence management by eliminating the risks associated with centralized storage and manual record-keeping.Through secure storage, transparent access, and automated verification, the system strengthens the chain of custody, increases trust among law enforcement agencies, and supports the admissibility of digital evidence in judicial processes, making it a robust solution for modern forensic investigations.
Web3Compass is presented as a novel search engine tailored to the decentralized Web, integrating multiple blockchain-based name services (ENS, UNS, BNB NS) and content storage networks (IPFS, Arweave, Swarm). Our work describes a real-time monitoring architecture: blockchain registries are queried continuously for new domain registrations and updates, content hashes (e.g. IPFS CIDs) are retrieved and fetched, and website data is parsed and indexed for keyword search. We emphasize the system’s novelty in unifying diverse name systems and content networks under one private search interface. A comprehensive literature review covers previous decentralized search efforts (e.g. DEWS 1, DeScan 2, Krypton 3), blockchain naming services (Namecoin 4, ENS 5, Unstoppable 6, Space ID’s .bnb 7), and content- addressed storage (IPFS 8, Arweave 9, Swarm 10). We include an architecture diagram and discuss implementation details (event log watchers, IPFS HTTP retrieval, indexing pipeline, privacy layers). Evaluation uses scalability and latency metrics, compares with existing solutions, and includes ethical/privacy analysis (e.g. query privacy via Hexens 11, censorship resistance 4). Our results show that real-time blockchain- based domain resolution is feasible and complements Web3 infrastructure, while highlighting trade-offs in data completeness and user privacy.
Web3 represents the next-generation value-driven Internet built on blockchain technology, whose realization heavily relies on mobile devices. However, the limited resources of these devices significantly restrict their ability to participate in transaction verification and ledger maintenance in blockchain networks. Existing offloading schemes often overlook storage offloading or adopt oversimplified joint strategies, failing to adequately consider the synergistic effects of storage and computation offloading on network performance. To address this issue, this paper proposes MEChain, a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)-aided blockchain network that implements a two-layer joint computation-storage offloading mechanism involving edge service providers (ESPs) and cloud service providers (CSPs). The joint computation offloading, ledger storage, and resource pricing problem is formulated as a three-stage Stackelberg game to capture the complexity of multi-party interactions. An iterative algorithm based on backward induction is designed to efficiently solve the Nash equilibrium, thereby ensuring system stability. Theoretical analysis and numerical experiments demonstrate that the MEChain framework not only significantly improves the profit per unit time of mobile devices by 11.3% but also exhibits rapid convergence of the proposed algorithm, providing a practical and theoretical foundation for resource optimization in mobile blockchain systems.
This article proposes a contemporary and innovative approach to portfolio efficiency, aiming to approximate a state of antifragility during periods of heightened geopolitical uncertainty and accelerated technological transformation. The multidisciplinary analysis draws on academic literature, European regulatory frameworks (such as MiCA), reports from international institutions including the World Economic Forum and the International Monetary Fund, as well as conceptual and technical documentation developed by leading platforms in the Web3 ecosystem. In preparing for the transition into a new technological era, the authors present a framework for real estate tokenization through converting property ownership into NFTs and using these tokens as collateral for lending in digital currencies. This approach addresses the problem of low real-estate liquidity and creates conditions for democratizing investment by enabling a low entry threshold and fractional ownership. The model’s antifragility is demonstrated through quantitative analysis, including an evaluation of portfolio volatility and efficiency based on Markowitz theory and the Sharpe ratio, with the results confirming the logic of Taleb’s barbell strategy. The study supports the potential for Bulgaria to position itself as an innovative regional hub for the development of Web3 and the tokenization of real-world assets.
Serving as the first touch point for users to the cryptocurrency world, cryptocurrency wallets allow users to manage, receive, and transmit digital assets on blockchains and interact with emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency wallets have always been the prime targets for attackers, and incidents of wallet breaches have been reported from time to time. Although some recent studies have characterized the vulnerabilities and scams related to wallets, they have mostly been studied at a coarse granularity, overlooking potential risks inherent in detailed designs of cryptocurrency wallets, especially from perspectives including user interaction and advanced features. To fill the void, in this paper, we present a fine-grained security analysis of browser-based cryptocurrency wallets. To pinpoint security issues in wallet components, we design WalleTruth, a visual-oriented testing framework specifically for browser-based wallet extensions. We have identified 12 attack vectors that can be abused by attackers to exploit cryptocurrency wallets and exposed 21 concrete attack strategies. By applying WalleTruth on 39 widely-adopted browser-based wallet extensions, we find that all of them can be abused to steal crypto assets from innocent users. Identified potential attack vectors were reported to developers in a timely manner and 26 issues have been patched already. This calls for urgent action from the community to mitigate threats related to cryptocurrency wallets.