Blockchain Papers

Fernando Zunzunegui

No abstract is available for this record.

Surekha Nayak, Sangeetha Rangasamy, Aarthy Chellasamy, Kavitha Rajamohan · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Anna Kobusińska, Grzegorz M. Wilczyński

In the last few years, we can observe a constantly increasing interest in systems and applications based on blockchain technology. Undoubtedly, this fact was significantly influenced by the introduction of the smart contracts mechanism that is one of the most popular features of blockchain nowadays and can be used across almost any industry. Smart contracts are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. Since programming smart contracts is not trivial, this paper proposes a service that enables their creation by constructing diagrams from graphical blocks. The diagrams are then transformed into a smart contract code written in the Solidity language. The paper presents the general idea of the proposed service and selected use cases illustrating its application.

Muhammad Shoaib Siddiqui, Toqeer Ali Syed, Adnan Nadeem, Waqas Nawaz · 5 authors

Virtual Tourism (VT) is a booming business with potential perspectives in the entertainment and financial industry. Due to travel restrictions, safety concerns, and expensive travelling the younger generation is showing interest in virtual tourism instead of traditional tourism. However, virtual tourism does not financially benefit the service providers as compared to traditional tourism stakeholders. An online system is essential to provide a central point of access to various tourism sites along with usage, permission, and payment control. In this paper, a secure blockchain-based broker service for users and content providers is proposed, which allows tourism sites to announce their virtual tours and provide accessibility and accountability. Meanwhile, it enables users to register, subscribe, access, and be billed according to their usage. The permission control module ensures authentication and authorization, while the usage control provides accountability to the predefined service level agreement. The transactions are stored on the blockchain to ensure the integrity of data and smart contracts are used to ensure automatic usage and permission control. An implementation on Hyperledger Fabric is provided as a proof of concept with performance measurements as a case study.

Duckworth, Peter

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) facilitates a new chapter for the internet, one known as Web3. It is a back-end upgrade (Voshmgir, 2020, p. 28) that drives particularly rapid innovation in the finance industry. Its trajectory will be in part determined by the role of developer communities, innovators, and technology companies. It will be shaped by government supervisors and decisions by policymakers on how to foster innovation, control risk, or compete internationally. It is no secret that the ideals of DLT developers regarding decentralization and democratization are partly social in nature; indeed, their efforts have been recognized as the ultimate form of protest (Russo, 2020). Despite this, discussion of DLT developers as belonging to social movements or civil society is a research gap in the academic literature. In seeking a better political context for the social efforts of DLT developers, the first contribution of this thesis is a definitional distinction between DLT Automation and DLT Activism. The null hypothesis that DLT activism must exist as a theme in DLT narratives, presented by the mainstream written media, is then developed. This is done by tying together interdisciplinary literature on DLT, banking, environmental and social governance, as well as civil society, and social movements. The importance of decision framing in the media is discussed in the research methods section, along with natural language processing techniques used to test the hypothesis. The research methodology begins with a multi-label classification prediction model built using machine-learning packages available in Python. Predicted descriptive labels for a large sample of articles from The Economist magazine suggest the null hypothesis should be rejected. This outcome is subsequently validated more comprehensively using ProQuest command-line queries and a larger sample, which suggests that at a 5% confidence level there is evidence to accept the expanded hypothesis; that DLT activism exists as a minor theme in mainstream DLT narratives. The thesis concludes with discussion about the risk of divided partisan views about DLT. Technology is used to create decentralized organizations and facilitate widespread contractual cooperation. One could say that political polarization regarding DLT could result in extreme collective organization within, rather than across, group lines thereby exacerbating social cleavages. As democracy faces the growing challenge of political polarization, the inclusive and open ecosystems that DLT communities have nurtured so far should be studied more deeply with a view to strengthening cross-cutting ties. DLT communities should not be left to develop in an isolated and insular manner.

Hosseini Akram, Armin, Saygin, Oktay

Studien syftar till att undersöka hur influencer marketing påverkar konsumenternas attityd och trovärdighet gentemot marknadsförda Non-Fungible Token (NFT) projekt. Begreppet influencer marketing syftar till marknadsföringsstrategin som handlar om att utveckla relationer med influencers som sedan marknadsför en produkt eller varumärke för att påverka sina följare. Strategin används av företag inom olika marknadsområden för att kunna förmedla och rekommendera produkter på ett mer trovärdigt sätt. Många konsumenter upplever att marknadsföring av företag är för kommersiellt vilket leder till mindre trovärdighet. Genom att använda sig av influencers för att marknadsföra produkter, kan detta stärka trovärdigheten och information som förmedlas. Influencer marketing används även för att påverka konsumenter vid köp av NFT som blivit en populär trend att investera i eftersom det är en digital tillgång i form av konst och samlarobjekt. NFT köps online genom kryptovalutor och certifierar sedan en unik digital tillgång till sin ägare. Däremot finns det stora kunskapsluckor inom NFT vilket ställer högre krav på influencers expertis för att kunna få en högre trovärdighet av konsumenter, dessutom är NFT-marknaden volatil då priset korrelerar med Herding behavior och inlägg från sociala medier. Den instabila NFT-marknaden ihop med osäkerheten kring influencers trovärdighet skapar en försämrad effekt av förtroende i två olika led, dels influencer marketing och NFT. Studien baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer med totalt 8 respondenter. Frågorna som formats i intervjuguiden har utgått från det teoretiska ramverket med teorier om influencer marketing, AIDA, Source Credibility, Herding behavior och Electronic word-of-mouth. Teorierna är viktiga faktorer för att förstå och generera kunskap om hur konsumenter påverkas av influencers gällande NFT. Resultatet av studien visar att influencers har en tydlig och allmän stor påverkan på konsumenter. Dock är denna påverkan till en viss gräns och skiljer sig beroende på konsumenters tidigare erfarenheter. Om konsumenter är nya inom NFT har influencers haft en direkt påverkan på köpbeslut, medans för de kunniga konsumenterna, blir påverkan endast till att bli uppmärksamma konsumenterna om NFT-projekt som presenteras. Sedan tas egna analyser och beslut självständigt av konsumenterna. Resultatet visar även att expertis är en vital faktor för att öka influencers trovärdighet, samt att nyansering och perspektiv av NFT-projekt är något som uppskattas av konsumenter.

Roshaali Khaturia, Hendro Wicaksono, Omid Fatahi Valilai

No abstract is available for this record.

Nawel Hamdi, Chiraz El Hog, Raoudha Ben Djemaa, Layth Sliman

No abstract is available for this record.

Harshdeep Singh, Kavisankar Leelasankar

No abstract is available for this record.

Poshan Yu, Shengyuan Lu, Emanuela Hanes, Yijun Chen

In recent years, blockchain, with its features of decentralization, security, reliability, transparency of information, and low maintenance cost, has been applied in the fintech industry in more and more cases in China. The maturity of blockchain-enabled technology has improved. This is expected to rebuild the underlying internet technology or will trigger a new round of development and innovation in the Chinese fintech industry. This chapter aims to investigate the current application of blockchain technology in China's fintech industry by analyzing case studies. Through the comparison and analysis of the cases in the fintech industry, this chapter attempts to examine how and whether digital transformation and other innovative technologies can drive new business models and create valuable experiences for consumers and/or firms in China's fintech industry. A variety of challenges and opportunities is analyzed to draw a blueprint for Chinese blockchain development. Finally, this chapter also provides some recommendations to the government.

Sayan Mondal, Rajat Kumar Behera

No abstract is available for this record.

Yannis Bakos, Hanna Hałaburda

No abstract is available for this record.

Felician Alecu, Paul Pocatilu, Silviu Ojog, Petru Simon Mot

No abstract is available for this record.

Cristiano Bellavitis, Christian Fisch, Paul P. Momtaz

Blockchain technology and smart contracts are catalysts for decentralization and disintermediation. These new technologies reduce transaction costs, agency costs, and offer a basis for trustless social and economic interactions. They are fueling new business models for decentralized platforms and have revolutionized crowdfunding. A recent trend, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), stands to fundamentally transform organizing and governance. DAOs are blockchain-native, decentralized organizations that are collectively owned and managed by their members via smart contracts. In this note, we assess the promises and challenges of DAOs, with a focus on decentralized governance and disintermediation, and offer a first empirical glimpse at the rise and functioning of DAOs. Overall, DAOs may introduce a new era in organizational economics, transforming the global corporate landscape from hierarchical organizations to democratic and distributed organizations powered by organizational entrepreneurship and innovations.

Khoi Le Quoc, Hong Khanh Vo, Huong Hoang Luong, Khiem Huynh Gia · 13 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Roee Sarel, Hadar Yoana Jabotinsky, Israel Klein

Distributed Ledger Technology ("DLT") - the technology underlying cryptocurrencies - has been identified by many as a game-changer for data storage. Although DLT can solve acute problems of trust and coordination whenever entities (e.g., firms, traders, or even countries) rely on a shared database, it has mostly failed to reach mass adoption outside the context of cryptocurrencies. A prime reason for this failure is the extreme state of regulation, which was largely absent for many years but is now pouring down via uncoordinated regulatory initiatives by different countries. Both of these extremes - under-regulation and over-regulation - are consistent with traditional concepts from law and economics. Specifically, whenever DLT implements a "public blockchain" - where there is no screening of who joins the network - both the technology and its regulation constitute what economists call "non-excludable goods". For these types of goods, two classical incentive problems emerge: (i) over-regulation, due to the "tragedy of the commons", and (ii) under-regulation, due to the "free-rider problem". We argue that these problems are best solved using some form of global regulation. Comparing alternative paths to such regulation, including (i) centralized regulation, (ii) decentralized regulation, and (iii) international administrative law, we analyze how global regulation of DLT could be implemented using a mixture of 'on-chain' (embedded in the technology itself), and 'off-chain' measures. Our Article is the first to analyze why global regulation of DLT makes sense from a law and economics perspective and is the first to provide concrete suggestions on how to implement such regulation.

Efstathios Papanikolaou, Jannis Angelis, Vassilis Moustakis

No abstract is available for this record.

Raffaele Battaglini, Davide Davico

Abstract This chapter assesses the scope of application of the Crowdfunding Regulation ratione materiae, with reference to the rapidly evolving world of blockchain-based crowdfunding techniques, such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Initial Token Offerings (ITOs), and Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs). It investigates whether the choice to exclude ICOs/ITOs/IEOs from the scope of the Crowdfunding Regulation was correct. The chapter then presents a comparison between the Regulation and the future possible regulation of crypto-assets in the EU, with particular reference to the proposed Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation, and the Distributed Ledger Technology Pilot Regime. Cryptocurrencies pose two questions that seem far from being resolved: their definition and their legal nature. The term ‘cryptocurrency’ refers to the concept of money, which is misleading or at least reductive. Depending on their functions and technological peculiarities, cryptocurrencies may differ significantly from one to another, which necessarily affects their legal nature.

Md. Shajjed Hossan, Mst. Lelana Khatun, S. Abdul Rahman, Saha Reno · 5 authors

When using the ride-sharing service, users may run across difficulties. For example, the driver may misconduct with them, have trouble hiring, verbalize abusively, or be a victim of harassment. So, the protection of the rider is extremely important in RSSs. We suggest a method to ensure protection that is based on private blockchain, in light of the current RSS’s security concerns and centralism. Blockchain is a platform in which the stored transactions become immutable. Hyperledger is a blockchain that is better than public blockchain in almost every aspect. The benefits of the hyperledger is that the information which is stored in the hyperledger blockchain and can’t be accessed outside the multiple organization. In our paper, we have secured the RSS by utilizing hyperledger predicated on a private blockchain system. If the users or riders faced any quandaries and they endeavored their issues via our hyperledger private blockchain, the organization could not modify or expunge the subsist report. In classical RSS, the ascendancy could modify or efface the report and they are able to expunge the riders ride information. To stop the unethical comfort, we have provided this hyperledger based private blockchain solution.

Teck Ming Tan, Jari Salo

Abstract Since the introduction of Ethereum in 2015, blockchain technology (BT) has been evolving, and BT has been associated with the concept of the sharing economy by business academics. Despite the marketing research on the sharing economy that has been extensively conducted in the last decade, the linkage between BT and ethical marketing in the sharing economy remains unclear. Through a systematic literature review of 163 articles and a co-citation analysis, this study identifies the key elements of blockchain capabilities, blockchain attributes, and the underlying economic theories of blockchain. It also synthesizes and proposes a shift of ethical marketing logic in the blockchain-based sharing economy that delineates the principles of stakeholder capitalism. The article concludes with a list of future research directions that underline three approaches of stakeholder theory (i.e., the descriptive, instrument, and normative approaches). These directions aim to guide marketing scholars concerning how BT enables an institutionally embedded view of ethical marketing activities and practices that enhance collaborative marketing and subsequently innovate value chains and create sustainable business models in the sharing economy, as well as to the metaverse.

Ryan Shivers, Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman, Md Jobair Hossain Faruk, Hossain Shahriar · 6 authors

Ride-hailing and ride-sharing applications have recently gained popularity as a convenient alternative to traditional modes of travel. Current research into autonomous vehicles is accelerating rapidly and will soon become a critical component of a ride-hailing platforms architecture. Implementing an autonomous vehicle ride-hailing platform proves a difficult challenge due to the centralized nature of traditional ride-hailing architectures. In a traditional ride-hailing environment the drivers operate their own personal vehicles so it follows that a fleet of autonomous vehicles would be required for a centralized ride-hailing platform to succeed. Decentralization of the ride-hailing platform would remove a roadblock along the way to an autonomous vehicle ride-hailing platform by allowing owners of autonomous vehicles to add their vehicles to a community-driven fleet when not in use. Blockchain technology is an attractive choice for this decentralized architecture due to its immutability and fault tolerance. This thesis proposes a framework for developing a decentralized ride-hailing architecture that is verifiably secure. This framework is implemented on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform. The evaluation of the implementation is done by applying known security models, utilizing a static analysis tool, and performing a performance analysis under heavy network load.

Dimitri Saingre

Comprendre la consommation énergétique des blockchains : un regard sur les contrats intelligents Les systèmes de chaînes de blocs sont des registres répliqués dans un réseau pair à pair. Elles ont connu un développement rapide depuis quelques années en s'illustrant dans de nombreux domaines d'activités. En permettant le traitement et la sauvegarde de données dans un contexte distribué et Byzantin, ces technologies ont le potentiel de modifier de nombreux secteurs. Par exemple, dans le cadre de la finance décentralisée, les cryptomonnaies se développement comme une alternative aux monnaies fiduciaires en proposant un système de paiement dépourvu de tiers de confiance. Cependant, une certaine inquiétude vis-à-vis de l’impact environnemental des chaînes de blocs a émergé en parallèle de leur développement. En particulier, de nombreuses recherches ont démontré le coût énergétique important des chaînes basées sur les preuves de travail. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons de contribuer à l'étude expérimentale du coût énergétique des solutions logicielles basées sur les chaînes de blocs. Face à l'enrichissement progressif de l'écosystème lié aux chaînes de blocs, nous proposons BCTMark, un nouvel outil de déploiement et d'évaluation des performances des chaînes de blocs. Partant de cet outil, nous concentrons notre étude sur l'impact des contrats intelligents sur la chaîne de blocs Ethereum. D'une part, nous proposons un modèle pour l'estimation du coût énergétique des contrats intelligents développé pour Ethereum. D'autre part, nous proposons un nouveau protocole pour l'identification et l'élimination des contrats non utilisés dans le but de proposer des chaînes de blocs plus frugales en calculs et espaces de stockages.

G. Parameswaran, M. J. F. R. Perera, C. R. B. Aluthgedara, E. D. N. Amanda · 6 authors

Accommodation is one of the basic needs for travelers, tourists, students, and employees. Accommodations range from low-budget lodges to world-class luxury hotels, but finding the preferable accommodation is undoubtedly a tedious task. And due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become problematic state to visit each accommodation property to check whether it's suitable for the accommodation seeker, considering the location, environment, and to check if the property matches the user’s preferences. There have been incidents reported where thousands of people have been victimized because of contract breaches in the accommodation and real estate sectors, recurring from contract alterations. Considering these problems, we have proposed a system to provide solutions using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Augmented Reality (AR), Block-chain, and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN). This system provides an efficient approach to viewing the exterior and interior of an accommodation using 360-degree views, providing recommendations to the user based on user preferences using KNN and cosine similarity, providing security in a digital agreement using blockchain technology, and a map navigation system using ASR. With the aid of the previously mentioned techniques, a mobile application prototype is created with the possibility of future testing and implementation.

Juan García-Hernández, Luis G. Marín, Guillermo Jiménez‐Estévez, Particio Mendoza-Araya

Microgrids' role in the decentralization of energy systems keeps growing and becoming more and more important. Trading mechanisms have been improved by the incorporation of Distributed Ledger Technologies, mainly Blockchain, offering transactions with improved security, and reduced cost, among other benefits. The study of the implementation of Distributed Ledger Technologies as part of Microgrid Transactive Energy Systems has been narrowed down to the use of Blockchain as trading platform, given the maturity and global acceptance of the technology. Nonetheless, other existing Distributed Ledger Technologies, such as IOTA, Tempo, Holochain, Hashgraph, offer significant improvements in transaction cost, scalability and latency. Therefore, this paper presents the implementation and simulation of an IOTA Tangle based micromarket looking forward to increase the research efforts in other Distributed Ledger Technologies, besides Blockchain. A successful simulator is presented, which offers the possibility of evaluating the results and convenience of implementing a microgrid energy manager based on IOTA Tangle.