Smart contracts are programs that manage interactions between many users. Recently, Solidity smart contract have become a popular way to enforce financial agreements between untrusting users. However, such agreements do not eliminate trust, but rather redirects trust into the correctness of the smart contract. This means that each user must verify that a smart contract behaves correctly, regardless of how other users interact with it. Verifying a smart contract relative to all possible users is intractable due to state explosion. This thesis studies how local symmetry can be used to analyze smart contracts from a few representative users. \n \nThis thesis builds on the novel notion of participation, that gives explicit semantics to user interactions. From participation, a topology is obtained for how users interact during each transaction of a smart contract. Local symmetry analysis shows that most users are interchangeable within a topology, and therefore, most users are locally symmetric. This motivates local bundle abstractions that reduce contracts with arbitrarily many users to sequential programs with a few representative users. It is shown that local bundle abstractions can be used to ameliorate state explosion in smart contract verification, and to accelerate counterexample search in bounded analysis (e.g., fuzzing and bounded model checking). We implement local bundle abstraction in SmartACE, and show order-of-magnitude improvements in time when compared to a state-of-the-art smart contract verification tool.
Abstract Blockchain technology is a distributed data recording system developed to monitor and secure all encrypted transactions with the shortest identification. Blockchain technology made a name for itself in 2008. However, the real development of this technology has been realized with use of smart contracts in Blockchain technology. In the cryptocurrency world, a smart contract can be defined as an application or program running on the Blockchain. They operate as digital deals that have to comply with certain rules. These rules are predetermined by computer codes and then copied and implemented by the servers in the entire network. The use of the word “smart” as a term in smart contracts comes from the fact that it is not made manually and is realized digitally. In this study, it is aimed to contribute to future studies in the transformation of smart contracts into real “smart” contract structures by applying artificial intelligence algorithms.
This teaching case explores the advantages and disadvantages of battling fake news with advanced information technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchains. Students will explore the purposes of, proliferation of, susceptibility to, and consequences of fake news and assess the efficacy of new interventions that rely on emerging technologies. Key questions students will explore: How can we properly balance freedom of speech and the prevention of fake news? What ethical guidelines should be applied to the use of AI and blockchains to ensure they do more good than harm? Will technology be enough to stop fake news?
Smart contract security is one of core security issues in the application of blockchain. In recent years, attacks on smart contracts occur frequently, there are a lot of researches concerning on smart contract security issues. However, almost all solutions proposed in these researches are low precision and high False Negative Rate(FNR). In this paper, we propose a defect detection method for checking security of Solidity smart contract based on knowledge graph. Therefore, we first construct knowledge graph of smart contracts by fully integrating syntax and semantic information of Solidity source code; then, we define defect patterns by analyzing defect characteristics; furthermore, we define inference rules for defects based on knowledge graph and defect patterns; finally, we detect defects by SPARQL query. We also implement a tool named SolDetector and perform experiment on three different datasets, which shows that SolDetector is effective and efficient.
AKM Bahalul Haque, Bilal Naqvi, A. K. M. Najmul Islam, Sami Hyrynsalmi
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world and limited work/personal life activities. Besides the loss of human lives and agony faced by humankind, the pandemic has badly hit different sectors economically, including the travel industry. Special arrangements, including COVID test before departure and on arrival, and voluntary quarantine, were enforced to limit the risk of transmission. However, the hope for returning to a normal (pre-COVID) routine relies on the success of the current COVID vaccination drives administered by different countries. To open for tourism and other necessary travel, a need is realized for a universally accessible proof of COVID vaccination, allowing travelers to cross the borders without any hindrance. This paper presents an architectural framework for a GDPR-compliant blockchain-based COVID vaccination passport (VacciFi), whilst considering the relevant developments, especially in the European Union region.
Emanuel Palm, Olov Schelén, Ulf Bodin, Christian Lagerkvist
Industry 4.0 will require unprecedented degrees of integration across organizational boundaries, which will put new demands on infrastructure for managing agreements between industrial stakeholders. In this paper, we present a system-of-systems architecture for cross-organizational negotiation of Ricardian contracts. We also describe our implementation of it, based on Eclipse Arrowhead, and how it can produce non-repudiable contracts between local clouds, potentially owned by distinct parties. We discuss how our architecture could impact current business paradigms, as well as arguing that our design, in contrast to most solutions based on smart contracts, avoids to deviate significantly from contemporary legal praxis, which should create better opportunity for industry adoption.
Internet of Things (IoT) technology such as intelligent devices, sensors, actuators and wearables have been integrated in the healthcare industry, thus contributing in the creation of smart hospitals and remote assistance environments. Ensuring the eHealth network adopts the appropriate security measures in order to effectively protect sensitive patient data against malicious attempts is a tough challenge. Devices composing eHealth infrastructure are considered to be easily exploitable. To that end, a solution monitoring the intelligent healthcare environment is of essence. In addition, by digitalising all health records, appropriate measures need to be implemented in order for patient records to be accessible by authorized personnel only. Furthermore, creating interoperable systems, capable of being integrated by multiple organizations such as hospitals and insurance companies, while maintaining a General Data Protection Regulation-friendly posture, providing access to health data is a great importance for optimal patient assistance. To address both concerns, we present a framework featuring a multi-layer tool for providing a highly effective security solution specifically designed to address the eHealth requirements, and a blockchain access control component, based on smart contracts to provide access control for authorized users to patient records and health data in a distributed way.
Integration of diverse technologies fuels business-model transformation, evolving new applications. Industry 4.0 utilizes emerging-technologies like IoT, AI to make next-generation manufacturing-processes more efficient and agile. Cyber physical systems (CPS) augmented with social, thinking technologies effectuate cyber physical social thinking systems (CPST). Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) like Blockchain are synergistic with architectural-elements of such industry-blueprints. Extant literature explores contextual-roles of distinct technology-components as-well-as their limited-combinations; clearly necessitating consideration of integrated-applications. This contemporary conceptual paper: (i) concisely analyses potential-synergies amongst Blockchain, CPST technologies; (ii) proposes novel integrated architecture; (iii) outlines underlying challenges, opportunities and performance considerations; bearing benefits beyond traditional-ecosystems to societal-stakeholders.
Svetislav D. Simić, Marko Marković, Stevan Gostojić
This paper presents theoretical and practical research on the possibilities of applying smart contracts in the field of law and a contract management system which allows users to conclude contracts based on blockchain technology. The transition from traditional contracting to smart contracting would significantly improve the contracting process as contracts concluded in this way would be without intermediaries. Therefore, they could be concluded more efficiently and the costs related to the contracts could be reduced. Allotment contract was selected as an example, i.e., a contract by which the hotel representative assigns certain accommodation capacities to a travel agency and by which the agency provides those capacities in their arrangements. A smart allotment contract has been written using the Solidity programming language, to run on the Ethereum platform.
Digital identity is an identity which involves from records and cultural capital, personal profiles created by interactions between individuals, commented “ I connect therefore I am” with expression, celebrity tag of Descartes “ I think therefore I am” by updating with social media platforms, in YouTube videos. A digital identity is comprised in time by users of technologies such as e-mail, text messaging, social media and so on electronic communication tools. Digital identity is defined in nine dimensions as digital access, digital law, digital communication, digital commerce, digital health, digital security, digital rights and digital responsibilities, digital literacy and digital ethic. The aim of this article is to reveal importance of digital identity concept and elements of digital identities and to explore roles of blockchain and artificial intelligence in development process of digital identities. This article is written as the theoretically. Therefore, in study has been used descriptive analysis method. Consequently, blockchain contributes increasing security measures of digital identity. In case artificial intelligence contributes development of digital identity with face recognition systems and algorithms. Moreover, digital identity got more secure thanks to blockchain systems while digital identities is defined more quickly and easily by means of developed technologies with artificial intelligence
Lim Wei Ming Shawn, P. Mohan, Peter K. K. Loh, Vivek Balachandran
In recent years, Blockchain, underpinned by distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been touted as the next disruptive technology with the potential to revolutionise various industry verticals and horizontals. Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Infringements of copyrights of artifacts, trade secrets, etc., are often fought in courts of law. There is an inherent need to adduce reliable evidence to establish a prima facie tort case or even beyond. In this paper we aim to leverage on the Blockchain technology to provide a digital transformation in the post-Covid world by offering a new platform to aid in the protection of one's intellectual property rights through a Proof of Existence (PoE) framework using Ethereum smart contracts. We have developed a seamless web platform to allow users experience a simple yet secure Proof of Existence (PoE) service by allowing the users to (i) certify, (ii) manage and (iii) view their documents securely through a digital portfolio. This PoE service leverages on the Blockchain characteristics to provide a reliable and transparent means to record a tamper-proof evidence of copyright information with timestamp as proof of existence for all its transactions through smart contracts.
Victoria L. Lemieux, Darra Hofman, Hoda Hamouda, Danielle Alves Batista · 11 authors
This paper reports on end users' perspectives on the use of a blockchain solution for private and secure individual “omics” health data management and sharing. This solution is one output of a multidisciplinary project investigating the social, data, and technical issues surrounding application of blockchain technology in the context of personalized healthcare research. The project studies potential ethical, legal, social, and cognitive constraints of self-sovereign healthcare data management and sharing, and whether such constraints can be addressed through careful design of a blockchain solution.
T Kim, Seo-Joon Lee, Dong Jin Chang, Ja‐Wook Koo · 7 authors
Although blockchain is acknowledged as one of the most important technologies to lead the fourth industrial revolution, major technical challenges regarding security breach and privacy issues remain. This issue is particularly sensitive in applied medical fields where personal health information is handled within the network. In addition, contemporary blockchain-converged solutions do not consider restricted medical data regulations that are still obstacles in many countries worldwide. This implies a crucial need for a system or solution that is suitable for the healthcare sector. Therefore, this article proposes the development of a dynamic consent medical blockchain system called DynamiChain, based on a ruleset management algorithm for handling health examination data. Moreover, medical blockchain-related studies were systematically reviewed to prove the novelty of DynamiChain. The proposed system was implemented in a scenario where the exercise management healthcare company provided health management services based on data obtained from the data provider’s hospital. The proposed research is envisioned to provide a widely compatible blockchain medical system that could be applied in future healthcare fields.
Flora Amato, Giovanni Cozzolino, Francesco Moscato, Vincenzo Moscato · 5 authors
The interest of Industry 4.0 in smart contracts and blockchain technologies is growing up day by day. Smart contracts have enabled new kinds of interactions whereby contractors can even fully automate processes they agree on. This technology is really appealing in Internet of Things (IoT) domain because smart devices generate events for software agents involved in a smart contract execution, making full automation possible. However, smart contracts have to comply with national and international laws and accountability of participant's actions. Soundness of a smart contract has to be verified in terms of law compliance. Here, we propose a model for verification and validation of law compliance of smart contracts in IoT environments. The main goal of this article is to propose a formal model (based on multiagent logic and ontological description of contracts) for validating law compliance of smart contracts and to determine potential responsibilities of failures.
Recent work on algorithmic bias has shown that understanding the values embedded in technology design processes is important for avoiding social harm. This paper explores the attitudes construed in whitepapers of blockchain technology start-ups. Blockchain technology is a relatively new phenomenon that has informed discourses about the future of governance and economics in relation to the internet. This study aims to understand the values discursively construed in the whitepapers of four blockchain start-ups: Steemit, Creativechain, Democracy Earth, and Bitnation. It adopts a corpus linguistics approach, and uses the Appraisal framework (Martin, J. R., and P. R. R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan) to analyse the evaluative meanings expressed in the whitepaper dataset. This analysis reveals that the blockchain start-ups manifest shared values around the concepts of decentralisation, trust in algorithms, and trust in individuals over institutions. The start-ups enact different political orientations, expressing ideals related to the digital commons, cyber-libertarianism, and capitalism. The corpus-based linguistic analysis used in this study offers a method that may be applicable to other areas of technology discourse where whitepapers and design documents tend to embed covert political and ideological positions.
Abstract Cryptocurrencies are proliferating as instantiations of blockchain, which is a transparent, distributed ledger technology for validating transactions. Blockchain is thus said to embed trust in its technical design. Yet, blockchain’s technical promise of trust is not fulfilled when applied to the cryptocurrency ecosystem due to many social challenges stakeholders experience. By investigating a cryptocurrency chatbot (Brokerbot) that distributed information on cryptocurrency news and investments, we explored social tensions of trust between stakeholders, namely the bot’s developers, users, and the bot itself. We found that trust in Brokerbot and in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are two conjoined, but separate challenges that users and developers approached in different ways. We discuss the challenging, dual-role of a Brokerbot as an object of trust as a chatbot while simultaneously being a mediator of trust in cryptocurrency, which exposes the social-technical gap of trust. Lastly, we elaborate on trust as a negotiated social process that people shape and are shaped by through emerging ecologies of interlinked technologies like blockchain and conversational interfaces.
One of the 21st century’s hottest topics in the world of IT has been the emergence of what some predict to be the foundation stone for a new era of internet (web 3.0): Blockchain technology. Besides being the backbone of what we come to know as cryptocurrencies, Blockchain’s features make for a bottomless list of possible applications, especially thanks to the concept of smart contracts. This, however, caused Blockchain to be in the limelight of not only interested investors but also malicious users who started hunting for this technology’s vulnerabilities, which resulted in numerous attacks on different Blockchain platforms. In an attempt to mend such loopholes, researchers took an interest in the verification of smart contracts, which are at the heart of Blockchain’s applications. In this survey, we aim to present a general overview of the different axes investigated by researchers towards the verification of smart contracts, while taking a special interest in studies that focus on formal verification, the different approaches they apply and vulnerabilities they target.
Blockchain is a relatively new technology which needs to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when processing personal data. In this study, the researchers focus on the issue of whether or not a blockchain that processes personal data can comply with the GDPR. Subsequently, it is important to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a blockchain from a civilian's point of view, since it is their personal data that will be processed. Finally, the results of a literature research and multiple interviews, show that there is no unequivocal answer to the compliancy issue regarding blockchains. This study contributes by extending the ongoing discussion on the topic of GDPR compliance on blockchain by showing that two different tendencies exist: purists and fundamentalists. Purists believe that public blockchains are the only `real' blockchains and because of the characteristics those possess, it can never comply with the GDPR. Furthermore, all technical measures that try to comply with the principles of the GDPR will compromise the very existence of that blockchain. On the other hand, fundamentalists argue that it is possible to take certain technical measures to meet the requirements of the GDPR and these will not jeopardize the blockchain1.
Daniel Schönle, Kevin Wallis, Jan Stodt, Christoph Reich · 6 authors
Digital transformation strengthens the interconnection of companies in order to develop optimized and better customized, cross-company business models. These models require secure, reliable, and traceable evidence and monitoring of contractually agreed information to gain trust between stakeholders. Blockchain technology using smart contracts allows the industry to establish trust and automate cross-company business processes without the risk of losing data control. A typical cross-company industry use case is equipment maintenance. Machine manufacturers and service providers offer maintenance for their machines and tools in order to achieve high availability at low costs. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how maintenance use cases are attempted by utilizing hyperledger fabric for building a chain of trust by hardened evidence logging of the maintenance process to achieve legal certainty. Contracts are digitized into smart contracts automating business that increase the security and mitigate the error-proneness of the business processes.
Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) are emerging and futuristic technologies gathering increasing global attention, especially in relation to their dual-use components. Although the international community has not come to an agreement on the definition of LAWS, states have nonetheless articulated their concern through dialogue and fora about these machines, which could use artificial intelligence (AI) to complete an objective requiring movement across uncertain environments and the use of kinetic force on uncertain targets in the parameters of a designated mission. A distinction between LAWS and other robots is the former’s ability to decide whether to employ lethal force independent of human oversight. In considering possible measures for responding to the threats LAWS may pose (through their anonymity especially) to international peace and security, this article recommends policy-makers contemplate adopting early, pragmatic approaches for the regulation of LAWS from an arms control perspective. In attempting to consider an approach for governance mechanisms to bolster non-proliferation, the article draws on the notion of ‘contact tracing,’ which will have become familiar to readers as a process to record the transmission of COVID-19 within and between communities, frequently assisted through the adoption of digital contact-tracing technologies. The first section of the article explores current debates and considers existing mechanisms within the United Nations to deliver such measures from an arms control context. The second section of the article proposes ‘tracing’ through distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to deter against the proliferation of LAWS and to provide governance options for the introduction of a decentralized records management system on LAWS.
This research work, a study was carried out on blockchain technology and its types, as well as the creation of new models of government and governance from the scope of an organization, infrastructure and platform. Governance and commercial models were addressed, based on standardization of data and legal frameworks. On the other hand, it showed how operational governance causes consequences in business models, whether with transactions, multi-signature, forks, consensus mechanism, smart contracts, tokenization, online dispute resolution and decentralized application (World Economic Forum, 2020, pp. 97 196). It was discovered that at least in current business models, private blockchain networks are more useful than public networks because they have greater operational flexibility and data governance, without exempting that public networks must also have mechanisms of governance since sometimes a human consensus must be reached to make updates to protocols and technical rules (The Law Society, 2020, pp. 24-61). This paper shows the basic principles that must be observed about governance and regulation in the implementation of blockchain technologies in systems created by governments, corporations and/or organized civil societies.