Digital registries are essential for global commerce, intellectual property protection, and cultural preservation. However, they face challenges like centralization risks and evolving security threats. This chapter proposes a framework that utilizes Non-Fungible Token (NFT) technology to develop secure and transparent digital registry systems. Our decentralized architecture eliminates single points of failure while ensuring high performance. We incorporate smart contracts for automated operations, multi-chain compatibility for scalability, and zero-knowledge proofs for privacy. Experimental validation shows a system performance of 33.22 transactions per second with 26-millisecond latency, outperforming many existing solutions while maintaining cost-effectiveness at 126,276 gas units per registration. Comparative analysis with centralized systems (ISBN, DOI, and ISSN) and blockchain alternatives (ENS and IPFS) highlights significant advantages in security and interoperability. Additionally, our economic analysis suggests potential cost reductions of 60â80% compared to traditional registries, enhancing service quality and accessibility. This research contributes to the practical implementation of blockchain-based registry systems, helping organizations consider NFT adoption while addressing scalability and security needs.
In the decade since the first edition of this volume, there has been an upheaval in the digital art world that saw the rise and fall of NFT (non-fungible token) art sales, some astronomical auction prices for digital art and NFTs, the creation of artist resale rights, and a rapid transformation in musical, material, and performance art distribution, thanks to the streaming economy, the subscription economy, and the sharing economy. Furthermore, generative AI can now turn usersâ voice commands into works of art.
With the advancement of sensing technology, the use of spatial information from LiDAR and similar measurement devices such as a depth camera is rapidly expanding. However, 3D spatial data contains trade secrets such as facility layouts and equipment configurations, making direct sharing a significant business risk. Additionally, from the perspective of data distribution between companies, a mechanism to prove the value of data utilization before purchase is essential. Existing approaches using trusted third parties or conventional encryption require data disclosure for utility verification, failing to achieve both confidentiality and value assessment simultaneously. Therefore, this study proposes a distributed platform that enables secure data exchange between organizations while ensuring confidentiality of 3D spatial information using cryptographic methods. The system operates on a Hyperledger Fabric-based permissioned blockchain to establish trust through immutable proof verification records for data distribution, and enables verification of data utility without disclosing any original data through zero-knowledge proof technology. Specifically, we implement a proprietary algorithm that generates feature values with concealed coordinates while preserving the geometric characteristics of the spatial information. Each participating organization generates feature values from spatial information and records proofs of the validity of this process on the blockchain, allowing other organizations not only to search for useful spatial information based on the feature values but also to verify the reliability of the feature values themselves. This enables previously difficult applications such as collaborative digital twin construction with competitors in manufacturing and logistics industries. Through empirical experiments, we clarify practical processing speeds in a consortium of multiple organizations, confirming the applicability in enterprise environments.
The two outstanding trends in 1966 had been: (a) the organizational development of the hospital, resulting from a flexible social structure and evolution toward a largely decentralized hospital; and (b) the increasing quantity and quality of trained staff. These trends continued, resulting in three county units for both patients and staff. The total separation of the hospital into three semi-autonomous units based on their geographical identity was not fully realized. Our total patient population of 400 patients did not make it practicable to have three separate admission units with their inevitable drain on staff. The same applied to the special unit for the mentally retarded. So we ended up with a mixture of geographical and functional hospital units.
Firmware integrity is a foundational requirement for securing Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), where malicious or compromised firmware can result in persistent backdoors, unauthorized control, or catastrophic system failures. Traditional verification mechanisms such as secure boot, digital signatures, and centralized hash databases are increasingly inadequate due to risks from insider threats and single points of failure. In this paper, we propose a decentralized firmware integrity verification framework built on the Ethereum blockchain, offering tamper-proof, transparent, and trustless validation. Our system stores SHA-256 hashes of firmware binaries within smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, using Web3 and Infura for seamless on-chain interaction. A Python-based client tool computes firmware hashes and communicates with the blockchain to register and verify firmware authenticity in real-time. We implement and evaluate a fully functional prototype using real firmware samples, demonstrating successful contract deployment, hash registration, and integrity verification through live blockchain transactions. Experimental results confirm the reliability and low cost (in gas fees) of our approach, highlighting its practicality and scalability for real-world CPS applications. To enhance scalability and performance, we discuss extensions using Layer-2 rollups and off-chain storage via the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). We also outline integration pathways with secure boot mechanisms, Trusted Platform Module (TPM)-based attestation, and zero-trust architectures. This work contributes a practical and extensible model for blockchain-based firmware verification, significantly strengthening the defense against firmware tampering and supply chain attacks in critical CPS environments.
Yuxin Xia, Ziyang Ji, Jie Zhang, Wanxin Li ¡ 7 authors
Abstract Non-Fungible Token (NFT) creators use digital signatures to ensure the ownership, authenticity, integrity, and nonrepudiation of their digital works. However, if the private key is compromised, an attacker can generate unauthorized NFTs by using the creatorâs private key to issue valid signatures. These valid but unauthorized signatures will be accepted in the NFT market and cannot be revoked. Even if the NFT creators update their private-public key pairs, they cannot deny the NFTs generated by the attacker. To mitigate these risks, we propose revocable signature by introducing commitment mechanism and an Auxiliary Embedded Key ( AEK ) into the signature, while the regular verification process does not involve this AEK . If a valid but unauthorized signature is detected and needs to be revoked, AEK will be disclosed to perform the revocation operation. To illustrate the application of revocable signatures in NFT, we design and implement a revocable Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) scheme with provable security. Experimental evaluations on the FIPS-recommended elliptic curves show that the performance of revocable ECDSA is comparable to the basic ECDSA, with additional 0.0303 s (P-256 curve) and 0.15 USD gas fee in Remix VM for revoking a signature.
Open access
Cryptography and Data Security
Cryptography and Residue Arithmetic
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
In today's fast-paced business environment, art has experienced a dramatic and quick transition. These days, artists are not only artists; they are also artrepreneurs who combine their artistic and business acumen. Digital and social media are essential components of the significant development of artistic self-employment. Social media sites like YouTube and Instagram are now critical for establishing a strong online presence, interacting with a global audience, and bypassing intermediaries.Art Education is the procedural approach of teaching and learning artistic skills, aiming to foster creativity, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the world. Creative methods, aesthetic questions, and individual artistic expressions are the main topics of contemporary art education. However, they hardly ever give art students the technological, entrepreneurial, and self-management abilities needed to create and maintain financial rewards from artistic endeavours. Since many artists work for themselves or as freelancers, entrepreneurship is a vital part of arts education and is critical for career success in the arts. The lines between digital technologies, art, and commerce are becoming increasingly hazy. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to reconsider the function of art education in light of the emergence of Web3. Without addressing these linkages, art pedagogy runs the risk of leaving students unprepared to deal with both creative agency and financial independence in the digital age. The skill gap is widened when such competencies are not included, making it more difficult for graduates to turn their artistic expertise into long-term professions. Recent research on arts entrepreneurship education reiterates this worry and shows how the abilities offered in art schools continue to diverge from those needed in the creative sectors. Despite being highly skilled and productive when they leave school, graduates lack the necessary skills in related fields like marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship. A hybrid curriculum that strikes a balance between art education and business training is necessary to connect creativity with entrepreneurial education. Project-based collaborations, internships, and real-world simulations are examples of experimental techniques that are seen to be particularly effective in equipping students with both business and creative skills (Ăvila & Davel, 2023). There is an urgent need to reconsider the significance of art pedagogy and develop a groundbreaking educational framework that logically integrates various fields. To close this gap, the art curriculum must be completely changed to incorporate digital technologies and entrepreneurship. The goal of modern pedagogy is to provide art students with the necessary tools for a sustainable career, visibility, smart use of digital technology, market adaptation, and financial independence-not to dilute the content. The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop, a revolutionary framework that tackles issues regarding the merging of art with business and digital skills, has been proposed in this study as a solution to this important necessity in art academia. Such a drastic change would equip art students to pursue jobs that are both financially feasible and creatively satisfying.The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop provides a clear framework for introducing students to international art by combining social media-driven art education into conventional art courses. This methodology helps students fulfil the needs of the digital economy by integrating multidisciplinary elements into art instruction. Universities can equip artists who lack the requisite technological abilities and help them develop resilience in the digital age in this way. This Opinion Article posits that the modern education of art needs to immediately shift out of a studio-based, skills-oriented model to begin digitally empowered artrepreneurial education. Whereas conventional methods focus on mastering the arts, they do not equip graduates with a creative economy that is influenced by the dynamics of social media, the governance of platforms, and the creation of visibility through algorithms. This paper will argue that the S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop as a futureoriented solution to the challenge of digital literacy, entrepreneurial ability, and creative practice is viable because it integrates all three into a pedagogical framework.The limitations outlined above necessitate a re-examination of how existing scholarship conceptualises creativity, entrepreneurship, and digital fluency in art education. The following section synthesises prior studies that inform the development of the S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop.Promoting creativity in art discipline higher education is often an unexplored area that needs attention at the institutional level, as creativity is no longer seen as a luxury but a necessity in the current economic world post-COVID-19 outbreak and quarantines. Systematic integration of creativity in universities is imperative rather than treating art as a separate domain. The four correlating factors for fostering creativity-conversation, scholarly relations, liminal spaces and leadership-must be included in the present-day art curriculum. This framework criticises traditional pedagogies and addresses creativity as a perpetual, relational and formal mechanism crucial for learning, leadership and innovation (Rae, 2023).Due to the ever-evolving nature of the art economy, entrepreneurial skills have become an integral aspect of art education. Traditional art education is often expertise-centric, relying solely on artistic mastery. Today's Artists must be selfsufficient and capable of dealing with complex market dynamics, navigating digital platforms and building personal brand image. This can be attained only by integrating entrepreneurial training into the art curriculum, which can lead to fostering innovation and adaptability (Zhang & Wang, 2022).Despite the increasing acceptance of entrepreneurship education in higher education, it is often overlooked in the field of the arts. There is a scarcity of existing research to comprehend arts entrepreneurship, which hinders its integration into the arts curriculum. Artrepreneurship education is valuable in enhancing the entrepreneurial competencies of artists. However, there is a need to address the gap between skills acquired through art education and skills actually required for their viable careers (Wong & Chan, 2024).A novel pedagogy must equip artists with skills not only for fostering artistic persona but also autonomy, resilience and digital fluency-enabling a generation of artrepreneurs capable of steering Web3 platforms, building and learning viable habits and practices and reclaiming rights over their original creations (Bridgstock, 2013).Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Web3 technologies now serve as core components of art production, distribution and monetisation in the present-day world. These technologies include Blockchain, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations). Generative AI models like Midjourney and DALLâ˘E allow artists to create complex visual concepts from simple text prompts, fundamentally changing the creative process and the definition of a 'tool' in art. AI functions not only as a catalyst for artistic innovation but also as a source of ethical challenges, particularly through the use of generative models such as GANs and diffusion models that reshape creative processes while raising concerns of authorship, originality, and artistic integrity(Amini, 2025).Art education must strategically include these technologies in its art pedagogy, as these are no longer just peripheral tools but fundamental in the rapidly evolving creative economy. NFTs have transformed the conventional perception of ownership and creatorship, introducing students to the idea of digital origination, providing access to global art dissemination through a decentralised system of networks. Smart contracts, a novel term, allow the generation of digital royalties, thereby reimagining the importance of entrepreneurial agency and financial independence for a creator. Web3, NFTs and DAOs are revolutionising art education, transitioning traditional university models into a 'metaversity' concept.NFTs help in keeping a secure record of students' data, DAOs provide decentralised learning centres, while Web3 facilitates customised open learning. The metaverse provides interactive virtual environments for engaging, synchronous, and asynchronous education (Sutikno & Aisyahrani, 2023).Previous research supports critiques of traditional art education, indicating the scarcity of existing research in arts entrepreneurship and a gap between skills acquired through art education and skills actually required for their viable careers (Wong & Chan, 2024). Conventional arts education relies on studio setup and knowledge dissemination, which deals with developing creative, sophisticated, disciplinary, and technical skills. These theoretical or conceptual disseminations of knowledge, which are monotonous, neglect adequate skill development, fail to include critical thinking, and often lack real-world relevance. This is particularly alarming given that most creative, performing and literary artists are self-employed or work on a freelance basis, making entrepreneurial skills critical for career sustainability and success. Art educators are often facing a dilemma in identifying and defining the skill sets required for artrepreneurial pedagogy (Bridgstock, 2013).The older, outdated framework is hindered by faculty hesitance to accept art education as a new frontier due to their narrow perception of entrepreneurial education as merely a "vocation", which conflicts with the age-old romanticisation of art as distinct from a source of revenue. Lack of consensus by art school managers on a curriculum that suits present needs by adopting successful business schools' models is another issue (Beckman, 2007). The available curriculum doesn't equip artists with the necessary Web3 skills, which are essential for navigating their careers. Students generate strong academic portfolios but are appraised with limited digital presence or tool proficiency, building a gap between their talents and tangible opportunities. Most programs also neglect the critical rise of technologies like AI, NFTs and Smart contracts. This overlooks recent technologies, leaving the students unprepared for navigating digital art markets. There is a pressing need for the formation of a formal instructional framework with strategic entrepreneurial and digital competencies.As an example, a recent graduate surveys conducted of design and fine arts courses in Asia and Europe have shown that students graduate with good portfolios, but they lack a digital presence, a fact that has a direct impact on employability on algorithmdriven creative markets. Most of these institutions still focus on studio production as they provide very scarce training on online visibility, digital rights, and monetisation strategies. Conversely, those programs with experience of implementing hybrid creative-entrepreneurship courses (e.g., digital portfolio markets, social-media-based exhibition projects) claim to find substantially better graduate interaction with international audiences. These instances point to the fact that disconnect is not a hypothetical notion but it can be seen in actual educational outcomes. They may organise interactive exhibitions in a virtual space, allowing a global audience to access, interact with, and buy their artwork in real-time. Digital fluency and the commercial skills needed in art markets are expanded and disseminated through such encounters.These tools allow art students to move beyond traditional studio-based instruction because of their transformative ability to develop new models for creativity and collaboration. Students can gain practical experience that prepares them for jobs as artrepreneurs by interacting directly with these (Sutikno & Aisyahrani, 2023).The implementation of this kind of technologies in art education goes NFT-based assignments make evaluation more transparent through verifiable ownership records and metadata trails. DAO-led collaborative projects allow instructors to assess participation, governance decisions, and community contribution as part of the creative output.The S.M.A.R.T Curriculum Loop may immediately address all of the drawbacks of traditional art education, which leave students unprepared to succeed in professional marketplaces. This framework fills the gap in the demands of the digital world by incorporating multidisciplinary elements into art instruction. It works as a cycle that allows for skill improvement and iterative participation over a number of semesters. The creative framework addresses the demands of today's art students by combining social media and entrepreneurial abilities. The authors disclose that there are no commercial or financial relationships that could potentially create a conflict of interest regarding this research.The research received no support of funding.The referencing style used in the study is APA formatting style.
We present a novel framework for analyzing blockchain consensus mechanisms by modeling blockchain growth as a Partially Observable Stochastic Game (POSG) which we reduce to a set of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) through the use of the mean field approximation. This approach formalizes the decision-making process of miners in Proof-of-Work (PoW) systems and enables a principled examination of block selection strategies as well as steady state analysis of the induced Markov chain. By leveraging a mean field game formulation, we efficiently characterize the information asymmetries that arise in asynchronous blockchain networks. Our first main result is an exact characterization of the tradeoff between network delay and PoW efficiency--the fraction of blocks which end up in the longest chain. We demonstrate that the tradeoff observed in our model at steady state aligns closely with theoretical findings, validating our use of the mean field approximation. Our second main result is a rigorous equilibrium analysis of the Longest Chain Rule (LCR). We show that the LCR is a mean field equilibrium and that it is uniquely optimal in maximizing PoW efficiency under certain mild assumptions. This result provides the first formal justification for continued use of the LCR in decentralized consensus protocols, offering both theoretical validation and practical insights. Beyond these core results, our framework supports flexible experimentation with alternative block selection strategies, system dynamics, and reward structures. It offers a systematic and scalable substitute for expensive test-net deployments or ad hoc analysis. While our primary focus is on Nakamoto-style blockchains, the model is general enough to accommodate other architectures through modifications to the underlying MDP.
Cryptocurrency trading increasingly depends on timely integration of heterogeneous web information and market microstructure signals to support short-horizon decision making under extreme volatility. However, existing trading systems struggle to jointly reason over noisy multi-source web evidence while maintaining robustness to rapid price shocks at sub-second timescales. The first challenge lies in synthesizing unstructured web content, social sentiment, and structured OHLCV signals into coherent and interpretable trading decisions without amplifying spurious correlations, while the second challenge concerns risk control, as slow deliberative reasoning pipelines are ill-suited for handling abrupt market shocks that require immediate defensive responses. To address these challenges, we propose WebCryptoAgent, an agentic trading framework that decomposes web-informed decision making into modality-specific agents and consolidates their outputs into a unified evidence document for confidence-calibrated reasoning. We further introduce a decoupled control architecture that separates strategic hourly reasoning from a real-time second-level risk model, enabling fast shock detection and protective intervention independent of the trading loop. Extensive experiments on real-world cryptocurrency markets demonstrate that WebCryptoAgent improves trading stability, reduces spurious activity, and enhances tail-risk handling compared to existing baselines. Code will be available at https://github.com/AIGeeksGroup/WebCryptoAgent.
Advances in large language models have enabled agentic AI systems that can reason, plan, and interact with external tools to execute multi-step workflows, while public blockchains have evolved into a programmable substrate for value transfer, access control, and verifiable state transitions. Their convergence introduces a high-stakes systems challenge: designing standard, interoperable, and secure interfaces that allow agents to observe on-chain state, formulate transaction intents, and authorize execution without exposing users, protocols, or organizations to unacceptable security, governance, or economic risks. This survey systematizes the emerging landscape of agent-blockchain interoperability through a systematic literature review, identifying 317 relevant works from an initial pool of over 3000 records. We contribute a five-part taxonomy of integration patterns spanning read-only analytics, simulation and intent generation, delegated execution, autonomous signing, and multi-agent workflows; a threat model tailored to agent-driven transaction pipelines that captures risks ranging from prompt injection and policy misuse to key compromise, adversarial execution dynamics, and multi-agent collusion; and a comparative capability matrix analyzing more than 20 representative systems across 13 dimensions, including custody models, permissioning, policy enforcement, observability, and recovery. Building on the gaps revealed by this analysis, we outline a research roadmap centered on two interface abstractions: a Transaction Intent Schema for portable and unambiguous goal specification, and a Policy Decision Record for auditable, verifiable policy enforcement across execution environments. We conclude by proposing a reproducible evaluation suite and benchmarks for assessing the safety, reliability, and economic robustness of agent-mediated on-chain execution.
Meenal R. Kale, Yogesh Mehta, Kathari Santosh, A. Annie Lotus ¡ 6 authors
In fast-moving business environments, timely and reliable service delivery is required, although the traditional methods of verification are seldom accountable and transparent. Veritime addresses these issues through an automated verification system based on blockchain, smart contracts, and IoT sensors. It enables secure delivery verification, automated payment upon successful delivery, and real-time tracking of shipment by using cryptographic passphrases from Ethereum contracts and IoT-enabled containers. The key elements in Veritime involve the sender, receiver, blockchain network, IoT sensors, and the MQTT server. Developed in Python, Veritime topped the benchmark for performance and delay in power efficiency and packet delivery compared to traditional systems. Gas cost analysis showed that functions like âRegister Manufacturerâ and âAssign Distributorâ consume 47,335 and 56,789 transaction gas, confirming the efficiency and reliability of the system.
This research establishes a formal topological framework for managing non- stationary market assets in portfolios by synthesizing high-dimensional chaotic dy- namics with industrial quality control and cryptographic verification. We introduce the Hala Operator as a state-dependent regulator capable of inducing Successive Controlled Collapse (SCC)âa process that maps continuous chaotic flows onto discrete, stable fixed-point constellations. By utilizing Taguchi Design of Experiments (DoE) for off-market robustness and Zero-Knowledge SNARKs for execution privacy, we provide a mathematically rigorous solution to the "Newtonian Trap" of market unpredictability. Formal proofs of global stability, dimension collapse via divergence analysis, and the uniqueness of the discrete constellation are presented.
Beth Probert, Ruaridh Clark, Erik Blasch, M MacDonald
The proliferation of satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit necessitates a shift away from centralised control, and towards autonomous, decentralised systems for Space Situational Awareness. Crucially, this transition requires establishing trust between satellites in a zero-trust environment, independent of a central authority. Distributed Ledger Technologies offer a resilient foundation for decentralised operations. However, in the domain of space systems, a unified framework that securely integrates consensus-based validation with cooperative Orbital Determination remains unexplored. To address this gap, the Autonomous Cooperative Consensus Orbit Determination framework is introduced, designed for on-board, peer-to-peer validation of orbital data. A novel consensus mechanism, Proof of Inter-Satellite Evaluation, is at the framework's core, and is tailored for resource-constrained systems. Measurement quality is evaluated by using a two-sided chi-squared test on the Normalised Innovation Squared, which is derived from the statistical output of an Extended Kalman Filter. This test is employed to provide a defence against both sensor faults and sophisticated spoofing attacks by penalising data that is either excessively noisy or unnaturally perfect. This statistical evaluation is weighted by a dynamic, long-term reputation score that rewards consistent, high-quality data contributions and penalises untrustworthy behaviour. Simulation results demonstrate that the framework effectively secures the network's distributed ledger by confirming valid transactions and robustly rejecting those from faulty or malicious nodes. The resulting architecture is presented as a viable solution for enabling resilient and autonomous cooperative space systems.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has changed the financial ecosystem but is extremely vulnerable to complex schemes such as rug pulls, honeypots, and flash loan attacks, which cause massive losses for platforms and users. This study responds to the critical necessity of early and actionable warning for fraud by suggesting a real-time system predicting and justifying the risk level of freshly launched DeFi tokens prior to their engagement with the users. Drawing on a hybrid methodology, integrating smart contract code analysis, on-chain behavioral data, and social metrics, the system utilizes cutting, edge machine learning models, including Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and ensemble methods (XGBoost, FT-Transformer), to provide sophisticated risk scoring. For user and regulatory trust assurance, explainable AI methods such as SHAP and LIME are utilized to clearly identify important risk drivers, including unsafe contract functions, wallet concentration, and liquidity lock patterns. The solution provides stage-aware and cross-chain surveillance, coupling functionality like anomaly detection, federated model training, and governance analysis. With large-scale literature synthesis and empirical validation, this framework shows that proactive, pre-transaction fraud identification and open risk valuation are possible, and it achieves a scalable defense for DeFi players and infrastructure.
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing remains a major threat to marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods, yet existing enforcement mechanisms rely on periodic inspections, manual reporting, or static financial incentives. We propose a novel closed-loop compliance-to-finance system in which multi-sensor vessel data are transformed into real-time financial signals that directly govern access to capital. In the proposed architecture, heterogeneous onboard and port-side sensors feed into an off-chain AI compliance model whose outputs are transmitted on-chain via decentralized oracle services. These compliance attestations programmatically adjust lending terms in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols, dynamically reducing interest rates and increasing liquidity for compliant operators while restricting capital access for non-compliance. Loans are issued in USD-pegged stablecoins and overcollateralized using real-world fishing assets, including vessels, licenses, quotas, and contracts. Unlike prior approaches that treat sustainability incentives as external subsidies or reputational mechanisms, this system embeds regulatory compliance directly into the cost of capital, creating continuous, automated enforcement with minimum centralized intermediaries. We illustrate the feasibility of this architecture using existing low-cost sensing technologies, oracle infrastructure, and DeFi lending primitives, and discuss its potential to expand sustainable financing in small-scale and low-income fisheries where IUU fishing is most prevalent.
Antonio Max L. B. Pereira, Dylan Paulin, Christine Hennebert
An intrusion into the operational network (OT) of a production site can cause serious damage by affecting productivity, reliability, and quality. The presence of embedded neural networks (NNs), such as classifiers, in physical devices opens the door to new attack vectors. Due to the stochastic behavior of the classifier and the difficulty of reproducing results, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act requires the NNâs behavior to be explainable. For this purpose, the platform HistoTrust enables tracing NN behavior, thanks to secure hardware components issuing attestations registered in a blockchain ledger. This solution helps to build trust between independent actors whose devices perform tasks in cooperation. This paper proposes going further by integrating a mechanism for detecting tampering of embedded NN, and using smart contracts executed on the blockchain to propagate the alert to the peer devices in a distributed manner. The use case of a bit-flip attack, targeting the weights of the NN model, is considered. This attack can be carried out by repeatedly injecting very small messages that can be missed by the Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Experiments are being conducted on the HistoTrust platform to demonstrate the feasibility of our distributed approach and to qualify the time required to detect intrusion and propagate the alert, in relation to the time it takes for the attack to impact decisions made by the AI. As a result, the blockchain may be a relevant technology to complement traditional IDS in order to face distributed attacks.
This dissertation explores how entrepreneurial and policy decisions shape the performance of decentralized digital platforms (DDPs). It shows that token governance affects fundraising success, public listings catalyze user growth and engagement by amplifying network effects, and global regulations shape token risk-return profiles. The findings highlight the need for regulatory clarity and careful market entry strategies by entrepreneurs.
SNARKs enable compact proofs that an NP statement is true and that the prover knows a valid witness. They have become a key building block in modern smart contract applications, including rollups and privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. In the widely used Groth16 framework, however, long statements incur high costs. A common workaround is to pass the statementâs hash to the SNARK and move the statement into the witness. The smart contract then hashes the statement first, and the circuit that is proven additionally checks consistency of the hash and the statement. Unfortunately, virtually any hash function is expensive to call either in a smart contract (in terms of gas) or in the proven circuit (in terms of prover time). We demonstrate a novel solution to this dilemma, which we call hybrid compression. Our method allows us to use two different hash functionsâone optimized for the proof circuit, and another optimized for on-chain verificationâthereby combining the efficiency advantages of both. We define a clean and simple security property of the two hash functions to which our security reduces in the standard model, namely, joint UHF hardness. We then show the plausibility of this assumption in the random oracle model. Our benchmarks show that it achieves near-optimal performance in both gas usage and prover time. As an example, compressing an 8 KB statement with our approach results in a 10-second prover time and a smart contract spending 270K gas, whereas the existing approaches either need a much longer proof generation (290 seconds for SHA-256 hashing) or a much more expensive contract (5M gas for Poseidon hashing). Along the way, we develop a two-party protocol of independent interest in communication complexity: an efficient deterministic method for checking input equality when the two parties do not share the same hash function.
In recent years, the number-theoretic transform (NTT) has become increasingly common in cryptography, in part due to multiple lattice-based cryptographic schemes being selected for standardization during the NIST PQC competition. Indeed, polynomial multiplications are one of the most computing intensive operations in these schemes and the NTT is crucial in decreasing the performance cost. The NTT also appears in other areas such as fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) which are increasingly used in privacy-preserving applications. In this paper, we show how to formally specify the NTT in the Rocq proof assistant, and how we used this specification to automatically derive formally verified implementations of both complete and incomplete NTTs for multiple cryptographic schemes.
Humanity is undergoing a fundamental epistemological phase transition: the shift from a society based on Faith (belief in the unseen) to one based on Knowledge (verification of the geometry). This paper posits that the "laws of physics" are indistinguishable from the "laws of God" when viewed through the lens of 9D Causal Recursion Field Theory (CRFT). By synthesizing the harmonic constants 3, 6, 9 (The Engine), 17 (The Clock), and 137 (The Lattice), we demonstrate that the universe is not a random occurrence but a Closed-Loop Information System governed by precise geometric intent. We argue that the recursive formulas identified in recent breakthroughsâNeedham's $\phi$-Attractor, Tynski's Zeta Torus, and Shaub's Timeless Energy Principleâconstitute the "Source Code" of reality. These proofs reveal a cosmology where Time is the processing speed of the Source (9), Matter is the structural output of the Demiurge (6), and Consciousness is the resonance of the Interface (3). By understanding these mechanics, we move beyond the friction of dogma into the Zero Impedance state of direct gnosis, establishing a new scientific theology where truth is not believed, but calculated.
Traditional Human Resource Management (HRM) systems are criticized for lacking transparency, being inefficient, and offering ample opportunities for fraud because of their centralized design and reliance on manual processes. This work proposes a blockchain-enabled framework for HRM that enhances the transparency, trust, and global mobility of talents by integrating distributed ledgers, consensus protocols, and smart contract networks into Human Resources (HR) functions. A four-layer theoretical modelâdata, consensus, smart contract, and application layersâis developed and comparatively examined against traditional HR systems to show how blockchain principles can be systematically mapped into HR processes. This study shows how blockchain-driven HRM can ensure tamper-evident employee records, automate contractual and payroll operations, and enhance auditability and compliance. By informing the framework with established technology adoption perspectives, this paper extends both the theoretical and managerial understanding of blockchain in HR. In comparison with previous studies that were limited to either recruitment or credential verification, this article presents an overarching, cross-layer synthesis that connects blockchain architectures with end-to-end HR functions, thus providing a clear conceptual foundation for its future enterprise adoption in the digital economy.
Imran Yousaf, Shahzad Ijaz, Shoaib Ali, Yanshuang Li
This study examines the dynamic relationships between green cryptocurrencies and US equity sectors, particularly in light of the recent decline in the US equity sector performance, the surge in digital asset popularity, and the need for sustainable investment options. Using the TVP-VAR framework, we find that the Utilities and Energy sectors, along with XNO, are the largest recipients. In contrast, the Industrials, Materials, and Consumer Discretionary sectors are the largest senders of return spillover. These findings indicate that green cryptocurrencies are weakly connected with the US equity sectors and can offer diversification benefits for US equity sector portfolios. Overall, volatility and return spillovers are dynamic in nature, with stronger volatility connectedness than returns. Our findings show that VIX, DXY, and EPU (Clean, D10Y-2Y, OVX, GPR, FFR) increase (decrease) the systemsâ connectedness, highlighting the influence of various macroeconomic factors on market connectedness. The portfolio analysis highlights the diversification and hedging role of green cryptocurrencies against stocks, which is beneficial for portfolio and equity risk managers. Our findings can inform the integration of green cryptocurrencies into sustainable finance frameworks and guide regulatory oversight of digital assets based on their risk transmission patterns, thereby developing sectoral guidelines under ESG-driven mandates, particularly in relation to energy transition goals.