Poupak Azad, Barış Coşkunuzer, Murat Kantarcıoğlu, Cüneyt Gürcan Akçora
The rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which enable transactions with a degree of pseudonymity, has led to a surge in various illicit activities, including ransomware payments and transactions on darknet markets. These illegal activities often utilize Bitcoin as the preferred payment method. However, current tools for detecting illicit behavior either rely on a few heuristics and laborious data collection processes or employ computationally inefficient graph neural network (GNN) models that are challenging to interpret. To overcome the computational and interpretability limitations of existing techniques, we introduce an effective solution called Chainlet Orbits. This approach embeds Bitcoin addresses by leveraging their topological characteristics in transactions. By employing our innovative address embedding, we investigate e-crime in Bitcoin networks by focusing on distinctive substructures that arise from illicit behavior. The results of our node classification experiments demonstrate superior performance compared to state-of-the-art methods, including both topological and GNN-based approaches. Moreover, our approach enables the use of interpretable and explainable machine learning models in as little as 15 minutes for most days on the Bitcoin transaction network.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It is a public, immutable append only ledger. The data can be verified by all the participants which makes the system transparent and secured. This paper provides information about history of blockchain, various cyprtographic primitives including digital signature and public key cryptography, which are used in blockchain and different consensus algorithms. The consensus algorithms used in blockchain is a focus in this paper. Particularly we studied about consensus algorithms like proof of work, proof of stake, delegated proof of stake, proof of burn, proof of capacity, proof of activity, proof of elapsed time, byzantine fault tolerance, delegated byzantine fault tolerance, seieve and directed acrylic graph from various points of views like security, scalability, power consumption, fault tolerance, throughput, speed, node identity management, application platform etc. We also tabulated the comparison of various consensus algorithms.
Summary Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency system that uses a distributed data structure called blockchain, a log that lists all transaction details accomplished with the currency. The bitcoin network delivers a promising infrastructure for one who makes use of e‐currency in e‐commerce. However, the transaction of bitcoin is highly suffered with some scalability issues that could not be overwhelmed with the prior methodologies. Hence, a novel scalability blockchain tumbling framework is proposed to tackle the scalability issues in which a rake interior blockchain etiquette is designed to increase the number of bitcoin transactions in which peer faction algorithm groups blocks that reduces propagation delay and ravenous algorithm ensure higher credibility of transaction with tamper resistant. However, transaction size of the record is high hence, to manage transaction record a novel batch payment into one transaction approach is utilized to limit the size of the transaction records by initiating a precise block using block summing‐up and chagrin algorithms that collects all trust information about blocks. Thus the proposed framework attains 550 bitcoin transaction within 2 min and latency of proposed model is reduced below 60 s.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Retinal Imaging and Analysis
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
With the significant advantages of system complexity and operating costs, train autonomous circumambulate system (TACS) is gradually replacing the traditional communication-based train control system as the next-generation train operation control system development direction. As train operation and control become more decentralized and autonomous, real-time and accurate obstacle detection, apart from route-level protection, is quite desirable in TACS. Most of the existing researches about obstacle detection focus on detection algorithm optimization based on the once-deployed lifelong use principle, whereas model reoptimization based on the actual operating environment under unexpected situations and model sharing among multiusers are largely ignored. In this article, we design a novel obstacle detection system in TACS based on blockchain-empowered edge intelligence (EI). To make full use of the massive raw unannotated data collected online, we first propose an semisupervised learning-based TACS obstacle detection model. Considering the resource-hungry model training, we introduce EI into TACS and propose a multiagent reinforcement learning-based task offloading algorithm for secure and efficient computation offloading coordination. Furthermore, we propose a blockchain-based model sharing scheme to facilitate the multimodel parameter exchange and improve the obstacle detection accuracy. Extensive simulation results show that the designed obstacle detection system can effectively improve the TACS obstacle detection performance.
Muhammad Mohsan Sheeraz, Md Ariful Islam Mozumder, Muhammad Omair Khan, Muhammad Usama Abid · 6 authors
Healthcare data security is a much-discussed topic nowadays. Medical data storage and sharing require security, privacy, and trust between organizations. Different research organizations, medical institutes, or individual researchers publish their research results but sometimes they need to share the data as well. In this scenario, a secure and transparent medical data-sharing system is much needed. In this work, we are proposing a blockchain-based system for medical data sharing between organizations. The system ensures security, privacy, transparency, and trust, hence trust between the organizations is not necessary. Since the system requirement is permissioned, a private or permissioned blockchain is used. We have set up the blockchain infrastructure using hyperledger fabric, known for its flexibility and modular architecture.
Faheem Nawaz Tareen, Ahmad Naseem Alvi, Asad Ali Malik, Muhammad Awais Javed · 8 authors
Smart cities are emerging rapidly due to the provisioning of comfort in the human lifestyle. The healthcare system is an important segment of the smart city. The timely delivery of critical human vital signs data to emergency health centers without delay can save human lives. Blockchain is a secure technology that provides the immutable record-keeping of data. Secure data transmission by avoiding erroneous data delivery also demands blockchain technology in healthcare systems of smart cities where patients’ health history is required for their necessary treatments. The health parameter data of each patient are embedded in a separate block in blockchain technology with SHA-256-based cryptography hash values. Mining computing nodes are responsible to find a 32-bit nonce (number only used once) value for each data block to compute a valid SHA-256-based hash value in blockchain technology. Computing nonce for valid hash values is a time-taking process that may cause life losses in the healthcare system. Increasing the mining nodes reduces this delay; however, the uniform distribution of mining data blocks to these nodes by considering the priority data is a challenging task. In this work, an efficient scheme is proposed for scheduling nonce computing tasks at the mining nodes to ensure the timely execution of these tasks. The proposed scheme consists of two parts, the first one provides a load balancing scheme to distribute the nonce execution tasks among the mining nodes such that makespan is minimized and the second part prioritizes more sensitive patient data for quick execution. The results show that the proposed load balancing scheme effectively allocates data blocks in different mining nodes as compared to round-robin and greedy algorithms and computes hash values of most of the higher-risk patients’ data blocks in a reduced amount of time.
Feb 1, 2023·International conference on civil infrastructure and construction/Proceedings of the ... International conference on civil infrastructure and construction
A blockchain, is a decentralized digital ledger that is distributed across multiple computers, recording transactions in a way that cannot be altered without the consent of the network and the alteration of all subsequent blocks. In the context of land and real estate property records, a blockchain could be used to securely and transparently track the ownership and transfer of properties. Using a blockchain to digitize land and real estate records can have several benefits. For example, it can help reduce the risk of fraud, as all transactions are recorded on a secure and tamper-proof ledger. It can also make the process of transferring ownership more efficient, as it can automate many of the steps involved and reduce the need for intermediaries. Additionally, a blockchain can increase the transparency of the property market, as all records will be publicly available on the ledger. In this work, we examine the current situation and the related problems in registering land and real estate property records, especially in developing countries, and we state the challenges and opportunities of the application of blockchain technology in this field. We investigate whether blockchain has the potential to bring a positive change and play a significant role in the real estate market in the future and what are the prerequisites to achieve that.
Blockchain technology has gained immense momentum in the present era of information and digitalization and is likely to gain extreme popularity among the next generation, with diversified applications that spread far beyond cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. The application of blockchain technology is prominently observed in various spheres of social life, such as government administration, industries, healthcare, finance, and various other domains. In healthcare, the role of blockchain technology can be visualized in data-sharing, allowing users to choose specific data and control data access based on user type, which are extremely important for the maintenance of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Machine learning and blockchain are two distinct technical fields: machine learning deals with data analysis and prediction, whereas blockchain emphasizes maintaining data security. The amalgamation of these two concepts can achieve prediction results from authentic datasets without compromising integrity. Such predictions have the additional advantage of enhanced trust in comparison to the application of machine learning algorithms alone. In this paper, we focused on data pertinent to diabetic retinopathy disease and its prediction. Diabetic retinopathy is a chronic disease caused by diabetes and leads to complete blindness. The disease requires early diagnosis to reduce the chances of vision loss. The dataset used is a publicly available dataset collected from the IEEE data port. The data were pre-processed using the median filtering technique and lesion segmentation was performed on the image data. These data were further subjected to the Taylor African Vulture Optimization (AVO) algorithm for hyper-parameter tuning, and then the most significant features were fed into the SqueezeNet classifier, which predicted the occurrence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) disease. The final output was saved in the blockchain architecture, which was accessed by the EHR manager, ensuring authorized access to the prediction results and related patient information. The results of the classifier were compared with those of earlier research, which demonstrated that the proposed model is superior to other models when measured by the following metrics: accuracy (94.2%), sensitivity (94.8%), and specificity (93.4%).
Ruhul Amin, Ashraful Islam, Deluwar Hussen Tanvir, Redwanul Islam Arif
Traditional methods of document storage have cre-ated validity and safety issues for academic, professional, and other certifications. To alleviate these issues, many researchers use the blockchain to justify those documents' authenticity. Getting these certificates from different providers, putting them in order, and then applying for a job can take time and effort. This study developed heterogeneous interoperability by which all applicants are linked to this system and can list their certificates deployed on various blockchain networks. When a recruiter posts a job, the applicant can make a CV by choosing the needed certifications. After submitting a CV, the selected certificates will be transferred from the provider blockchain to our system for a limited time through interoperability and provide access to the recruiter. A recruiter can check the files by clicking on a candidate's CV to evaluate the authenticity of the certificates. We developed our system using Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum to perform interoperability, but it is also generalizable to other programmable blockchain networks like IOTA, Quorum, Hyperledger Beau, etc.
Zuobin Ying, Wusong Lan, Chen Deng, Lu Liu · 5 authors
The metaverse provides us with an attractive virtual space in which the value of the virtual property has been increasingly recognized. However, the lack of effective cross-metaverse trading tools and the reputation guarantee makes it difficult to trade items among different metaverses. To this end, a decentralized reputation system for virtual items trading forum named DVIT is devised. To the best of our knowledge, DVIT is the first decentralized cross-metaverse item trading prototype inspired by the online-game trading system. We designed the corresponding transaction function and realized the autonomous governance of the community by introducing the reputation mechanism. An improved election mechanism is proposed to improve efficiency based on Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS). Through token rewards associated with activity levels, users’ motivation can be stimulated. The experiments indicate that our proposed scheme could dynamically measure the trustworthiness degree of the users through the dynamic reputation value and thereby exclude malicious users from the blockchain within 20 epochs.
Hossein Hassani, Kimia Norouzi, Alireza Ghodsi, Xu Huang
Multitudinous health data are continually being produced as our activities, including medicine, evolve into the digital age where data plays a decisive role. Challenges come along as well, concerning the collection, secure storage, verification and secure access to the continuously growing data at such a broad scale before valuable information can be extracted to contribute to medical advancement nowadays. With the decentralization feature, huge successes of blockchain technology in overcoming similar challenges in the finance and cryptocurrency sector brought us the confidence to investigate and reveal its immeasurable potential for the health sector, specifically in dentistry. Dentistry is an important area of healthcare, but there is relatively little research focusing on its interactions with blockchain technology. Given the limited amount of existing research on this specific subject, this paper focuses on blockchain in dentistry and aims to provide a conceptual framework for the possible applications of blockchain in dentistry. The framework is organised by different areas of dentistry operations so that dental professionals can easily refer to and identify areas of interest. This contributes to increasing the awareness of blockchain technology among dental professionals and promoting blockchain-empowered revolutions in dentistry. This paper also discusses how blockchain fits alongside other emerging technologies, the challenges that have to be overcome to maximise the functionality and efficiency of this technology, as well as future research directions concerning blockchain implementations in the dental industry.
S Jayanthy, Arumugam Arunkumar, Mr. J. Judeson Antony Kovilpillai, M. Bhuvardhena · 5 authors
Transfer of data over the blockchain is significantly improved over the years. This proposed system gives a unique method of transferring patient health data to another hospital or to a peer, using a blockchain-based web application that places patient ownership and data security at the forefront. Patient data is stored in a decentralized and distributed manner using the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), eliminating the need for a central authority. Smart contracts written in Solidity facilitate transactions by checking for sufficient funds and managing the transaction process. A beacon proxy is used to automatically update patient ownership in the smart contract, reducing errors and inaccuracies resulting from manual intervention. The blockchain network offers a secure and decentralized solution for transferring patient health data, ensuring privacy and accessibility only to authorized individuals through advanced cryptographic techniques, distributed data storage, and smart contracts.
Utilizing the 0.1 to 10 THz spectrum in the next-generation wireless communication networks holds potential for futuristic applications. However, managing resources to accommodate numerous devices raises privacy and security concerns. Further, technology proliferation entwines devices, infrastructure complexity, and resources. Indeed, the transition from 5G (fifth-generation) to 6G (sixth-generation) signifies a progression towards high-speed data rates, minimal latency, and seamless integration of artificial intelligence, enabling ground-breaking applications and services. However, it complicates network management, privacy, resource allocation, and data processing. Notably, integrating Blockchain Technology (BCT) and Machine Learning (ML) is a promising solution, enhancing security, decentralization, trust in ML decisions, and efficient data sharing. This survey thoroughly reviews the integrated ML and BCT, showcasing their collaborative enhancement of network security, decentralization, trust in ML decisions, immutability, and efficient model sharing. Furthermore, we also delve into various distinctive topics, such as BCT-enabled spectrum refarming, rate splitting multiple access, 6G radar-based communication, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, visible light communication, and integrated sensing and communication. Moreover, it also explores the integration of ML and BCT in novel 6G communication technologies, including molecular, holographic, and semantic communication. Finally, critical open issues, challenges, solutions, and futuristic scope are identified for forthcoming researchers.
With the current day complexification of image manipulation technologies (ranging from colour editing or aspect ratio modifications to AI generated fake news), myriad of numerical representations can be connected to a same semantic visual content. Thus, ensuring trust and authenticity for tracking near-duplicated visual content (i.e., semantically identical yet digitally different contents) becomes challenging from both methodological and technical points of view. Addressing these challenges requires the synergistic combination of methodological solutions stemming from different research fields, while current solutions are heterogeneous and lack interoperability. In this paper, we bring forth an automatic full lifecycle management workflow for visual content assets represented on blockchains. The workflow is supported by a novel architecture seamlessly integrating near-duplicated content detection, Smart Contract automation, and token brokerage. The architecture leverages a load balancing framework and near-duplicated content detection to grant properties natively featured by blockchains (security, trust, and transparency) to the authentication of assets in environments where the same semantic content has various digital representations. Subsequently minted blockchain assets can then be used contingently with other state-of-the-art tools, ensuring interoperability with blockchain working standards. The effectiveness of this workflow is demonstrated through open-source example implementations for the Ethereum and Tezos frameworks, illustrating the benefits this process brings to automatic asset generation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Jonathan Kvist Brittain, Wei-Yang Chiu, Weizhi Meng
The importance of efficient and accessible parking systems has been growing over the past decades. Steady growth in urban population and car ownership has increased problems with traffic congestion and air pollution caused by inadequate parking systems. Blockchain-based parking systems have been proposed to increase system availability and resilience and improve trust among participants. However, these systems are not transferable to the parking systems of European cities such as Copenhagen, as they are based on assumptions about the parking infrastructure, which do not hold, and are inherently incompatible with regional privacy protection regulations such as the GDPR. Furthermore, many blockchain solutions suffer from scalability issues, severely limiting their efficiency. In this work, we develop a blockchainbased parking system in Denmark, aiming to make up the gap in the existing research by directly considering GDPR compliance. Our work focuses on the municipal parking system for on-street parking in Copenhagen (Denmark), where Hyperledger Fabric is used to maintain a trusted distributed ledger for parking data shared by the network. Personal data is protected through offchain storage while maintaining on-chain verifiability. The proposed system is implemented as a proof-of-concept application, which can deliver sufficient throughput to support the needs of municipal parking.
Tasfia Rahman, Sumaiya Islam Mouno, Arunangshu Mojumder Raatul, Abul Kalam Al Azad · 5 authors
Submitting fake certificates is a common problem in Southeast Asia, which prevents qualified candidates from getting the jobs they deserve. When applying for a job, students must provide academic credentials as proof of their qualifications, acquired both inside and outside the classroom. Verifying academic documents before hiring is crucial to prevent fraud. Employing blockchain technology has the potential to address this issue. Blockchain provides an electronic certificate that is tamper-proof and non-repudiable, making it difficult for students to manipulate their academic credentials. This paper presents a prototype for an academic credential verification model that leverages the security features of blockchain and IPFS (Interplanetary File System). Certificates are temporarily stored in a database before being transferred to IPFS, where a unique hash code is generated using a hashing algorithm. This hash code serves as the certificate's unique identity and is stored in the blockchain nodes. Companies can verify an applicant's credentials by searching for the applicant and accessing their already verified certificates. Utilizing IPFS as a middleman storage platform lowers the expenses of directly storing massive data on the blockchain. To sum it up, the proposed solution would make the process of certificate verification more efficient, secure, and cost-effective. It would save time and resources that would otherwise be used to manually verify certificates.
Dalia Elwi, Osama Abu-Elnasr, A. S. Tolba, Samir Elmougy
Blockchain is a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that allows users to exchange values directly without a need for trusted third parties. Bitcoin is one of the most popular digital cryptocurrencies that is based on blockchain technology. However, it faces scalability problems including transaction throughput, latency, and starvation. Bitcoin transaction throughput is very low compared to traditional payment methods. Additionally, many Bitcoin transactions suffer from delays and starvation as miners prefer transactions with higher fees. More of the current research focuses on how to enhance Bitcoin scalability by improving the performance of consensus techniques, dividing the network into smaller ones with different parts of the blockchain, or completely changing the blockchain data structure. Unfortunately, engaging in this problem usually affects either decentralization or security; this is called the blockchain trilemma. This paper proposes the Cooperative Mining System (CMS), which depends on enhanced proof of work consensus algorithm. This proposed system increases transaction throughput and eliminates transaction latency and starvation without affecting decentralization and security. In CMS for each epoch, miners cooperated to create one super-block that contains more transactions than the traditional Bitcoin block. Whereas miners create their traditional blocks simultaneously, broadcast them, wait to receive other miners’ blocks, and lastly create a super-block that contains all the transactions of the gathered blocks. The Simulation results of the CMS and Bitcoin system using different case scenarios show a significant improvement in CMS compared to the current Bitcoin system. The CMS greatly increases the transaction throughput and eliminates transaction latency and starvation.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Our proposed method utilizes blockchain technology to safeguard the ownership of specific regions within image data. In our approach, diverse values could be assigned to each region based on its importance, and only users with ownership rights can access these designated regions. This ensures the protection of ownership rights for individuals in any given region of an image. Identified regions are individually encrypted using an XOR cipher, and a corresponding key image is generated for decryption, thereby preserving the privacy of the encrypted region. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are employed to protect the key image and manage the ownership of each object in the image data. The NFT for the key image is generated by the key holder (who possesses the entire image), and the ownership NFT is acquired by the user who needs access to the key NFT. Furthermore, the ownership NFT and the key NFT are verified for a match by the judgment function, and only upon successful validation, the NFT is displayed on the screen. This method enables different values to be assigned to various parts of an image, facilitating the transfer and sharing of ownership. Additionally, the original image?s owner can benefit financially based on the value of the image, thus enhancing the overall security of image data.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Sejal Sudhendu Dhamgaye, Shrikant V. Sonekar, Mirza Moiz Baig
The rise of the internet of things has revolutionized the way people work and live. It has also created a vast amount of data that can be collected and stored by various devices. Unfortunately, the centralization of this data has raised concerns about its security. With the help of blockchain technology, a secure and decentralized method of transmission can be established. The concept of blockchain technology is a globally distributed ledger that records and transactions using cryptography. Due to the rapid technological development taking place in the field, it is now considered a key component of Web 3.0. It allows applications to run on a secure and stable basis. In terms of tech terms, data stored on a blockchain is immutable. Various sectors where blockchain shows comprehensive success like e-learning Banking & Finance Online shopping. Reason for success of blockchain. These innovations have the potential to transform our daily lives. The Internet of Things is a vast network that collects and transmits vast data. This data is often sensitive and non-critical, raising questions about its ownership and protection of it. The goal of this paper is to explore the potential of blockchain technologies to address the security challenges of the Internet of Things (IoT). It will first introduce the concept of the secure blockchain framework and its various features. The paper will then introduce the framework for implementing secure and decentralized transmission of IoT data. It will discuss the various features of this technology and its selection of appropriate cryptographic methods and consensus algorithms. It will be subjected to a series of tests to evaluate its performance and security. The findings of the tests will be discussed and analyzed, and recommendations for future developments will be provided. The paper also concludes by summarizing the results. The paper will provide an evaluation of the various aspects of secure blockchain technology for the transmission of data from the Internet of Things. It will also explore its potential to improve the security of the networks that are connected to it.
Haneef Khan, Ishan Budhiraja, Sarfaraz Ahmad Wahaj, Malik Zaib Alam · 6 authors
By 2025, more than 96% of products will have Internet of Things (IoT) components at their core, the rapid spread of IoT inspires the development of novel applications for the end user, illustrating just how dominant this technology will become. However, if proper safety measures are not taken, serious issues may arise, such as the victimization of innocent people in crimes like burglary caused by the unauthorized disabling of a smart system. Blockchain, a distributed ledger system, is rapidly becoming a match in the field of data transfer with security. The Internet of Things (IoT) network will get the benefit from blockchain technology, which makes IoT possible to build trust in distributed networks without the need for a governing body to intervene. In this article, we focus on the most significant challenges that have still to be solved in order to achieve integration in between IoT and the Blockchain.
With the rapid development of blockchain technology and industries, scalability has been widely realized as one of the primary and urgent concerns for the large-scale adoption of blockchain, especially for cryptocurrencies. In this respect, directed acyclic graph (DAG) proves to be an elegant solution to scaling blockchain but suffers from weak consistency and security issues. In this article, we designed a novel DAG-BLOCK architecture for blockchain-enabled cryptocurrency markets in order to improve the scalability. In our work, DAG is used to replace the Merkel-tree-based transaction structure within the block, and a novel design of open blocks is proposed to enable user nodes to participate in verifying the transactions in blockchain systems. On this basis, we designed a new segmented market structure, in which each miner serves only a group of users instead of all users, so as to reduce miners’ workload and thus scale transaction processing capabilities. Our work can help improve the scalability of cryptocurrencies via evolving the underlying blockchain systems to graph-based distributed ledgers and is expected to shed new light on designing blockchain-based decentralized markets.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain is one of the most emerging technology in the present IT world. It powers some highly monetized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many more. The uses of blockchain are not just limited to cryptocurrencies; researchers are working to implement real-world applications using blockchain. Blockchain has shown potential use cases in many domains like IoT, Logistics, Healthcare, E-commerce, Finance, and Security. Blockchain’s fundamental properties, like its decentralized nature, immutable architecture, transparent behaviour, and security, are the main reason behind its immense popularity. In this paper, a blockchain-based educational credential verification system is proposed, independent of credentials format and size, that uses the power of blockchain to provide a secure, decentralized interface to process, store and verify students’ academic credentials. The proposed solution can also deal with any archived credential with any well-known digital format like PDF, DOCX, JPG, PNG, etc.