An economic analysis of what distributed ledgers can do, examining key components and discussing applications in both developed and emerging market economies. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to transform economic organization and financial structures. In this book, Robert Townsend steps back from the hype and controversy surrounding DLT (and the related, but not synonymous, innovations of blockchain and Bitcoin) to offer an economic analysis of what distributed ledgers can do and a blueprint for the optimal design and regulation of financial systems. Townsend examines the key components of distributed ledgers, discussing, evaluating, and illustrating each in the context of historical and contemporary economies, reviewing featured applications in both developed economies and emerging-market countries, and indicating where future innovations can have large impact. Throughout, Townsend emphasizes the general equilibrium impact of DLT innovations, the welfare gains from these innovations, and related regulatory innovations. He analyzes four crucial components of distributed ledgersâledgers as accounts, e-messages and e-value transfers, cryptography, and contractsâassessing each in terms of both economics and computer science, and forges some middle ground. Relatedly, Townsend highlights hybrid systems in which some of these components allow useful innovation while legacy or alternative pieces deal with the problem of scale. The specific applications he analyzes include an intelligent financial automated system that provides financial services to unbanked and under-banked populations, and cross-border payments systems, including financial systems that can integrate credit and insurance with clearing and settlement. Finally, Townsend considers cryptocurrencies, discussing the role and value of tokens in economies with distributed ledger systems. The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from Arcadia â a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
This paper is the first part of the Proof of Meet (PoM) work. This part focuses on the need for the model and its system (roughly) rather than giving technical details. In the second part, full technical details and architecture of the model will be discussed. The model focuses on consensus-based sharing (meeting) economy model. The sharing (meeting) describes the relationship between what is already somewhere and what goes there. The consensus is built on active clients (where the client can be anything capable of a change of location) on a social activity (location and action). There are two parts of clients; the first who/which go somewhere for a purpose (C_1) and the second who/which are regularly somewhere for a purpose (C_2). C_1 is in the domain of at least two clients and C_2 is in at least one. To build a decentralised blockchain with no energy-consuming, the paper proposes a consensus system, PoM, on the top of Proof of Stake (PoS) and Blockchain-Based Proof of Location (BBPL). The sharing economy model is one of the applications of the proposed blockchain model. The blockchain system called HOX is available to use very large area distributed ledger systems from a dynamic transportation system to dynamic big data. HOX is an instance of PoM application. Consequently, the proposed model provides the opportunity to record taxes, earn a fair share of labour and use blockchain actively in daily life within the legal framework.
Due to poor traffic conditions and the high costs of traveling by private cars, ride sharing has become a popular means to trip. In view of the security threats and centralization existing in the current ride-sharing service, we propose a secure ride-sharing scheme based on a consortium blockchain, which can guarantee the security, confidentiality, and privacy of data interaction via attribute-based proxy re-encryption algorithm. First, the passenger presets the access structure and encrypts the data using attribute-based encryption. The ciphertext is then sent to the roadside unit (RSU), which broadcasts the carpooling request to the driver. After receiving the request, the driver sends the itinerary attribute to RSU, which performs carpool matching according to received ciphertext and itinerary attributes, then the ciphertext is re-encrypted and sent to the matched driver. Second, the master node uses an improved Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus to verify the carpool record, which is stored on the blockchain after the verification is successful. In case of disputes, block data can be utilized for traceability. Third, drivers and passengers use the credibility mechanism to score each other after ride sharing. In addition, trusted authority can reveal the real identity of malicious users. Finally, we conduct a security analysis and performance evaluation for our proposed scheme. The results manifest that our scheme not only meets the security and privacy requirements of ride-sharing services but also effectively resists potential security risks. Therefore, our scheme is feasible, efficient, and suitable for ride-sharing services.
As a green travel mode, bike sharing is developing rapidly across China. At present, charging deposits from users is the common operation mode adopted by shared bicycle enterprises. The large number of shared bicycle enterprises generates fierce market competition, and the eliminated enterprises always refuse to return user deposits. Even regular running enterprises still have trouble with the immediate return of deposits. This situation severely affects the reputation of shared bicycle enterprises, and concerns have been shared widely across the society. Meanwhile, there is a general expectation among users that their deposits could be refunded timely and a broad appeal for technical management to resolve this problem. This article uses blockchain technology to reform the current management mode for shared bicycle deposits and constructs a decentralized, user information and deposit visualized, and multidimensional supervised management system. The proposed management system makes the real-time flow direction supervision of user deposits to be realized. Furthermore, a smart contract of shared bicycle deposits with punishment mechanism is also designed. Finally, the differences between the proposed deposit management mode and the current deposit management mode are analyzed, and a simulation experiment is conducted. In the simulation experiment, the deposit theft rate of our deposit management system is 0%, which is far better than the two existing bike deposit management systems. The results show that the outstanding advantages of the proposed deposit management mode, which include improving deposit supervision and guaranteeing user deposit security, are also conducted. This article has made effective technical management exploration to reduce deposit management risks and improve deposit management institutions for shared bicycles. It has important practical reference value for accelerating the sustainable development of shared bicycle enterprises.
The concept of peer-to-peer energy trading became popular with the increase of local energy production and use of renewable energies. Based on a sharing economy, this framework allows energy trading between households, bringing flexibility and decreasing the dependency on energy providers. In parallel, the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and the development of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology open new ways to store, transport and deliver renewable energy. V2G-enabled cars could contribute to the flexibility of peer-to-peer energy marketplaces. Our physical demonstrator illustrates the benefits of V2G-enabled vehicles in the context of local energy marketplaces in terms of economical gain, overall power balancing and consumed renewable energy rate. The demonstrator is composed of smart contracts implementing such marketplace running on a local Ethereum blockchain deployed on Raspberry Pis, autonomous agents simulating the energy consumption and production behavior of 4 households as well as their buying/selling behavior, and finally a V2G car whose behavior is controlled by a user through a tablet.
Blockchain technology, beyond cryptocurrencies, is called to be the new information exchange ecosystem due to its unique properties, such as immutability and transparency. The main objective of this work is to introduce the design of a decentralized rental system, which leverages smart contracts and the Ethereum public blockchain. The work started from an exhaustive investigation on the Ethereum platform, emphasizing the aspect of cryptography and all the technology behind this platform. In order to test the proposed scheme in a realistic use, the implementation of a web application for the rental of vehicles has been carried out. The application covers the entire vehicle rental process offered in traditional web applications, adding more autonomy and ease of use to users. Following Ethereum application development guidelines, all business logic is located in the smart contracts implemented in the Ethereum network, where these contracts control the entire vehicle rental system of customers. While this is a work in progress, the results obtained in the first proof of concept have been very promising.
Asset custody is a core financial service in which the custodian holds\nin-safekeeping assets on behalf of the client. Although traditional custody\nservice is typically endorsed by centralized authorities, decentralized custody\nscheme has become technically feasible since the emergence of digital assets,\nand furthermore, it is greatly needed by new applications such as blockchain\nand DeFi (Decentralized Finance).\n In this work, we propose a framework of decentralized asset custody scheme\nthat is able to support a large number of custodians and safely hold customer\nassets of multiple times the value of the total security deposit. The proposed\ncustody scheme distributes custodians and assets into many custodian groups via\ncombinatorial designs, where each group fully controls the assigned assets.\nSince every custodian group is small, the overhead cost is significantly\nreduced. The liveness is also improved because even a single alive group would\nbe able to process transactions.\n The security of this custody scheme is guaranteed under the rational\nadversary model, such that any adversary corrupting a bounded fraction of\ncustodians cannot move assets more than the security deposit paid. We further\nanalyze the security and performance of our constructions from both theoretical\nand experimental sides and give explicit examples with concrete numbers and\nfigures for a better understanding of our results.\n
Mohammed Shuaib, Salwani Mohd Daud, Shadab Alam, Wazir Zada Khan
The land registry system is one of the very important department in any governance system that stores the records of land ownership. There are various issues and loopholes in the existing system that give rise to corruption and disputes. This requires a significant chunk of valuable government resources from judiciary and law enforcement agencies in settling these issues. Blockchain technology has the potential to counter these loopholes and sort out the issues related with land registry system like tempering of records, trading of the same piece of land to more than one buyer. In this paper, a secure and reliable framework for land registry system using Blockchain has been proposed. The proposed framework uses the concept of smart contract at various stages of the land registry and gives an algorithm for pre-agreement. First, we describe the conventional land registry system and reviews the issues in it. Then, we outline the potential benefits of employing Blockchain technology in the land registry system and presented a framework. Finally, a number of case studies are presented.
Purpose With the conceptualization of the blockchain as a socio-technical assemblage, this study aims to critically examine the blockchain initiatives in Korea in terms of the opportunities, risks and challenges embedded in their development. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzes blockchain design and development from socioecological views: social, technological and cultural phenomena that represent the strategic interaction among people, technology and society. The qualitative data were collected from a variety of sources and diverse means. Findings The results imply that blockchain needs a close socio-technical examination to avoid simplistic assumptions of its promises and pitfalls. The development of blockchains in Korea will need to consider a range of socio-technical issues to facilitate the best outcomes for blockchain in society. Research limitations/implications Despite proactive drives, new risks, such as security, privacy and transparency, emerge as critical concerns of the social implications of the blockchain and their impact on the new digital environment. Questions are raised as to how to govern blockchains, and how to address the unexpected outcomes that such a policy choice may have on society and industry. Originality/value The sociopolitical implications of Korean blockchains are examined to identify key concerns and issues as the country progresses rapidly toward a blockchain-driven society.
Crowd funding is an online cash raising technique that started as a path for the people to contribute limited quantity of money to enable innovative individuals to fund the venture. Using crowdfunding, people can put resources into pioneering businesses through a middle medium or platform. The issue with the current crowd funding technique is that, third party medium don't give the assurance of the money investor contributed for the project and investor don't have control over the cash they contributed. This paper proposes the blockchain based crowd funding by using which the platform can give a private, secure and decentralized path for crowdfunding. The main objective of this paper is to let investors contribute to any project effectively by creating smart contracts through which the contributors can have a control over the invested money and also both the project creators and investors can effectively make and reserve funding for the project.
Blockchain is a catch-all term for a combination of three technologies: distributed ledger, cryptology and network protocols. The first enables storing the same info in different places, the second allows secure transactions to be recorded and then encrypted on the distributed ledger. The third element governs the network and verifies transactions across the network automatically and independently. Considered by many as âthe biggest technological innovation since the Internetâ1, blockchain is a decentralized, more secure and transparent model for transactions that operates on an encrypted peer-to-peer basis. This model makes trust between parties superfluous by instead placing trust in the underlying technological platform. This would effectively remove the need for intermediaries whose business has been to make up for the lack of trust; these include banks, brokers, governments, internet platforms, law firms etc. While reducing the costs of contract enforcement and thus facilitating trade, blockchain technology may have significant implications for antitrust law. As decentralized organizations such as blockchain are not recognized as legal persons, this raises questionsabout whether anticompetitive practices and their perpetrators can be identified. For example, can a non-entity hold a dominant position? Can blockchain create a âmonopoly without a monopolistâ? Finally, if a blockchain is dominant, which users and/or entities hold that dominant position? This article intends to highlight the challenges that blockchain presents to the analyses of unilateral anticompetitive practices.
The transparency and visibility engendered in Distributed Ledger Technology allows, for the first time, disparate stakeholders to agree on common resource existence, ownership, and rules of exchange, while keeping the coordination costs comparatively low with respect to earlier methods. This infrastructure can finally facilitate a self-organising market mechanism, where people can decide upon the market rules themselves and potentially self-select into any particular marketplace dependent upon their personal beliefs and preferences. Reinventing the apparatus of the economy upon shared distributed infrastructure may finally allow the emergence of actual shared ownership, unlike the existing systems where short-term rentals or access-based consumption are often confused with sharing and social exchange.
Blockchain is a distributed or decentralised ledger technology that uses cryptographic algorithms to verify the creation and transfer of digitally represented assets or information over a peer-to-peer network. It eliminates the need for a central authority to keep, update and verify data. Traditionally, services provided by these central authorities constitute a significant part of the services industry. This paper argues that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is changing the services industry in three ways. First, services previously provided by central authorities are now being replaced and supplied jointly by some or all participants on the distributed ledger. Second, with the elimination of central authorities, auxiliary services used to support the operation of these central authorities are being eliminated. Third, services trade may be expanded and become more inclusive by engaging previously disadvantaged or marginalised individuals. This paper further argues that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), as the first and the only multilateral trade agreement on services, is highly relevant for the development and regulation of DLT-based applications. This relevance is unpacked by: (i) identifying the services relevant in the context of DLT-based applications; and, (ii) exploring whether a WTO Member, in adopting regulations affecting DLT-based applications, needs to consider its obligations under the GATS. The paper arrives at the conclusion that the GATS can be an effective instrument in expanding trade in DLT-replaced or enabled services.
Francesca Dal Mas, Grazia Dıcuonzo, Maurizio Massaro, Vittorio DellâAtti
Purpose The objective of this study is to deepen how blockchain technology through smart contracts can support the development of sustainable business models (SBMs). Particularly, the authors aim to determine the key elements enabling SBMs by applying smart contracts. Design/methodology/approach The research context focusses on the case study of SmartInsurance, which is a fictitious name for a start-up in the insurance sector and the real name of which is not to be revealed. The start-up was able to collect 18m euros in 80 s in a crowdfunding operation, using smart contracts and a revolutionary business model. Internal as well as external documents of different sources are analysed and coded to gather information about the company, its values and its business and what it pursues with employing blockchain technology. Findings The results show how smart contracts can reduce the costs of transactions, increase social trust and foster social proof behaviours that sustain the development of new SBMs. Originality/value This study contributes to both the transaction cost theory and social proof theory, showing how new technologies such as the blockchain can provide a fresh perspective to support the development of SBMs.
Few blockchain centric projects have gone beyond their white paper or proofs-of-concept. While many have fallen below expectations and failed to address the fundamental issues of scalability, privacy, and trust distribution, there are a few âimperfectâ projects that are making an impact on society. We describe the lessons learned from three projects and highlight their âimprovisionsâ in achieving their vision of serving the underserved, and identify areas of possible improvements. Our research has shown that mass adoption of blockchain technology will accelerate in financial industry and supply chain with private permissioned blockchains, but these e-inclusion projects using âInclusiveâ Blockchain will take a longer time with OnChain/OffChain complexities. A long-term view is needed to build a Noahâs Ark as the rush to build the Tower of Babel to harness short term gain may not bring net benefits to the economy and society.
Im letzten Jahrzehnt hat der Begriff Blockchain aufgrund des Medienrummels um Bitcoin, der ersten KryptowĂ€hrung, immense PopularitĂ€t erlangt. Bald darauf wurde die Blockchain-Technologie zu einer Inspiration fĂŒr zusĂ€tzliche Anwendungen neben KryptowĂ€hrungen. Eine solche Anwendung sind Smart Contracts oder Programme mit dem Ziel, die Vereinbarungen eines Vertrags automatisch und sicher ohne die UnterstĂŒtzung einer zentralen Stelle auszufĂŒhren. Derzeit ist Ethereum die wichtigste Blockchain-Plattform fĂŒr Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts im Ethereum-Netzwerk können Teil einer dezentralen Anwendung sein oder als eigene Einheit existieren. Sie können durch eine externe Transaktion (User) oder eine interne Transaktion (einen Smart Contract) ausgelöst werden. Angesichts der Bedeutung und SensibilitĂ€t der Informationen und / oder Daten, mit denen Smart Contracts tĂ€glich umgehen, ist es wichtig, ein besseres VerstĂ€ndnis dafĂŒr zu erlangen, wie Smart Contracts tatsĂ€chlich funktionieren, welche Funktionen sie ausfĂŒhren und wie sie im Ethereum-Netzwerk miteinander verbunden sind. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Ansatz fĂŒr das Clustering von Smart Contracts auf Ethereum hinsichtlich der gemeinsamen FunktionalitĂ€t vorgeschlagen, das die Graphdatenbank Neo4j und andere Visualisierungsmethoden und / oder âwerkzeuge verwendet. Es werden verschiedene DatensĂ€tze (Partitionen des kompletten Datensatzes an Smart Contracts auf Ethereum), sowie zwei Clustering- AnsĂ€tze verwendet, um einen besseren Einblick in die Funktionsweise von Smart Contracts zu erhalten und deren funktionale Ăhnlichkeiten zu verstehen.
Ever since peer to peer transaction paradigm was implemented, there has been a certain belief that it can be used effectively in the commercial sector. The freelance economy has witnessed massive growth over the years, while India is the largest freelancing market with over 10 million freelancers. Freelancer is the person who works under different employers to earn money, with no assurance of long-time commitment to a particular employer. There are multiple centralised freelancing websites present but the problem with the centralised system is that it can be manipulated. In these platforms, freelancers and employers are dependent on the third-party for payment contracts. Hence, we are proposing a decentralised system based on public Blockchain Ethereum to resolve the issues generated by the third party. The proposed system will have peer to peer transaction using cryptocurrency and peer to peer reviews on the distributed ledger of Ethereum.
The rapid increase of the worldâs urbanization process has been improving citizensâ quality of living. Combining new technologies of smart government, smart healthcare, smart transportation and other services under a framework of smart city minimizes urbanization challenges. However, these services demand a large data technology to support the infrastructure of smart cities. It is a major benefit to using blockchain technology as a framework to integrate multiple technologies of smart city such as Internet of Thing, big data platforms and smart transportation to enhance the automation, security and decentralization of smart city services. However, querying the blockchain to retrieve a transaction record is one of the major limitations of blockchain systems. The operation requires scanning blockchain ledger searching for results. In this paper, we utilized different smart contract designs to support indexing and querying the blockchain for ride sharing data. Our experiments evaluate the complexity of two smart contract designs, Catalog and Sparse smart contracts for indexing and retrieving data from the blockchain
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to help in providing a better understanding of the application of blockchain technology in the context of the banking and finance sectors. The aim is to outline blockchain's benefits, opportunities, costs, risks as well as challenges of the technology in the context of banking and finance services. Design/methodology/approach Careful examination of the extant literature, including utilising relevant academic-based research databases has been carried out. It covered reviewing various research contributions published in peer-reviewed journals, academic reports, as well as technical reports to help in identifying related benefits, opportunities, costs and risks. Findings The findings reveal that there are limited contributions in utilising blockchain in the banking and finance sectors when compared with other sectors. As such, the study highlighted the relevant perspective of benefits, opportunities, costs and risks within such sectors. Practical implications This study helps in offering a focal point to banking and financial sector managers and decision-makers for realising the value and offerings of blockchain technology as well as associated strategies and programmes. Originality/value This study highlights the need for a holistic understanding of the various aspects of cost, benefits, risk and opportunities to create blockchain applications that work for banking and finance sectors
Xiaomin Du, Yang Gao, ChiaâHuei Wu, Rong Wang · 5 authors
The purpose of this study is to explore how to apply blockchain technology to intelligent transportation, create a hierarchical theoretical framework of intelligent transportation, and explore a sustainable application system of intelligent transportation under the blockchain. However, not only this hierarchical theoretical framework must consider unnecessary attributes and the interrelationships between the aspects and the criteria, but also the sustainable application system must be in consideration in multiple stakeholders. Hence, fuzzy set theory is used for screening out the unnecessary attributes, a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is proposed to manage the complex interrelationships among the aspects and attributes, and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to divide the hierarchy and construct a hierarchical theoretical framework. Finally, the research develops a sustainable GCU application system for intelligent transportation under the blockchain. The results show that (1) solving social problems is the primary link, (2) economic tasks are mainly focused on smart contracts and affected by the social problems, (3) the continuous improvement of environmental issues requires a solution to social problems, and (4) the application system of blockchain in intelligent transportation needs to be built from three levels including the government layer, the company layer, and the user layer. This theoretical hierarchical framework aims to guide intelligent transportation toward the application of blockchain. This study also proposes the engagement of stakeholders for establishing a sustainable application system.