Contracts have emerged as an appropriate expanse for the application of Blockchain to eliminate human mediation perceived to be mired by weaknesses. Smart contracts date back to the 1990s, but the proposed Blockchain technology makes it a great force economically. Beyond the transactional processing qualities of blockchain, industries envisage the technology to resolve divergent human-related complications with traditional contracts. Per literature, smart contracts offer superior economic value with respect to legality, formation, deployment, execution, and cost. These qualities of smart contract ensure performance and eliminate risk. Criticised on the inhumane aspect of the technology in terms of contract amendments and the current influx of foreign-based blockchain companies in Africa limiting indigenous design considerations, the application of smart contracts in continent could be hindered by contract renegotiations strongly embedded in cultural values of empathy. Nonetheless, a trade-off would resolve the contractual bottlenecks in Africa.
Cryptocurrencies have been in the center of interest of both scientific and professional public for over ten years. Due to the volatile exchange rate against convertible currencies, investors predominantly use cryptocurrencies as an instrument of speculative investment, while their use in the payments is at a negligible level. On June 18, 2019, the Internet giant Facebook announced the creation of a consortium of financial and technology companies aimed at establishing a global cryptocurrency with stable value called Libra. It is planned to create an open blockchain through a new programming language, which will serve development teams in the future for creation of smart contracts. The subject of research in the paper will be the potential operational performances of Libra concept. The basis for the research will be a white paper published by Facebook and knowledge about the functioning of other cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin. The aim of the paper is to highlight the expected economic and security implications of Libra concept.
As use of data is becoming increasingly pervasive in all facets of society, many organizations and businesses are building their capabilities for better and more valuable uses for it. At the same time, infusing the use of data to various organizational practices has turned out to be a very complex task in practice. With this case study I aim to build on the understanding on how various organizational structures and processes impact the utilization of data in a large utilities company with highly autonomous business units. This study was motivated by two perspectives on data governance which as of yet have been relatively little researched. First, the literature review of this research indicates that data governance impacts the development of ordinary and dynamic organizational capabilities, even as there has been little joint research on these topics. Second, some research on data governance has suggested that decentralized, bottom-up approaches could be more suitable for large organizations than topdown approaches, which have mainly been at the focus of data governance research. In this single case study I conducted semi-structured interviews with various case company managers. Based on the findings from the interviews and synthesis with literature, I posit that data governance builds support for development of integrative capabilities, such as the ability to communicate efficiently in data related issues across the company. Additionally, dynamic integrative capabilities, such as communication practices aimed for changing the existing data processes, are a central enabler for further development of decentralized data governance. Further analysis also indicated that perception on value of data, top management support, data overview and business unit specific practices, competences and approach to collaboration also impacted the development of data governance in the case company. Based on these findings I present a framework for decentralized data governance. The goal of the framework is to help practitioners and researchers in understanding further the possible interconnections and dynamics of the various factors involved in development of common data governance practices in large, diverse organizations.
A blockchain is an ordered, decentralized, immutable ledger that allows a recording of transactions in a network. Over recent years, blockchain has emerged to be a technology that can be applied in various sectors. It has promised to be the technology that will allow transactions simply, effectively, safely, and cheaply. The main aim of this thesis was to study the possible impacts of blockchain in the banking industry along with its challenges and limitations. The outcome would include a good explanation of blockchain technology, how it works, future bank implementation, and its challenges. \n \n To answer the research questions, a literature review was conducted. The articles were selected from evidence-based scientific databases such as ABI Inform, Academic Search Elite, Emerald, Sage Premier, ScienceDirect, Springer Open, and Google Scholar. Six scholarly articles were selected by using inclusion and exclusion criteria and screening the relevant articles. \n Data were systematically extracted and grouped into five main categories. \n \n The result shows that blockchain technology could enhance the efficiency of various sectors of the banking industry. It has the potential to upgrade and transform the cross-border payment, trade finance, capital markets, and financial reporting and compliance. It also makes the process of knowing your customer straightforward. So, the implementation of blockchain is projected to disrupt the banking and finance system by facilitating a new way of payment, faster trade execution, secured ledger, smart contracts, and many other innovations. However, there are some obstacles such as regulation and technological challenges to be solved for efficient implementation in the banking sector.
The article investigates some of the most relevant legal issues that emerge in connection with blockchain technology and smart contracts by addressing them from a public policy perspective.In particular, it focuses on some under-investigated problems connected to some possible legal hurdles to their widespread adoption in the legal practice of business at the national and international levels.The legal analysis of blockchain and smart contracts is then employed to explore the more general question of how much the law needs to change in order to accommodate new technologies, or how much it is instead preferable to believe that the existing law is already capable of accommodating innovation, however radical it may be.* Assistant Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Turin.I would like to express my debt to the participants at the conference on Blockchain e diritto
Fintech in simple terms is leveraging technology to deliver banking and financial solutions to individual and enterprise customers. This is one of the fastest-growing sectors in both developed & developing countries with India amongst the top three fintech startups globally. Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, AI, Data Analytics, Machine learning, Big data, Robotics, and Cloud are some of the top technologies leveraged by fintech firms to deliver products. Domestic & global broadband connectivity setup by telecom service providers made available basic infrastructure needed for fintech growth. One of the early fintech innovations was the installation of the first ATM by Barclays Bank in 1967. Post global financial crisis in 2008, many ex-employees of financial firms came up with innovative fintech products. The objective of this paper is to identify globally emerging fintech trends. The Qualitative research methodology was used relying on a review of literature, discussion with the professionals and researchers. The emerging trends include IMF focus on leveraging fintech for cross border payments using distributed ledger technology, Augmented reality for customer satisfaction, Digital insurance, Digital invoicing, Crowd-funding, Crowd investing, Robotics investment advisory, Future relationships between Banks and Fintech firms, Central bank regulatory role. It also came out that although there are many research papers on fintech globally, however, there is not much research work carried out on fintech in India and there is an opportunity for further research on innovation and growth of fintech in India.
Nowadays, we frequently encounter the term of “digital assets†within the financial market’s terminology and media. As this native asset class is maturing, the uncertainty with regards to the underlying value, remains. The cause is clearly the agitated history that transcended the space of cryptocurrencies, which during its evolving stages, created confusion and misconceptions with regards to the purpose and viability of digital asset classes across various industries. In order to understand the real potential of digital assets and its underlying technology, it is important to clearly assess and classify this novel assets class, outlining the benefits for all financial actors and institutions, before projecting the future of finance around Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). This paper will focus on the evolution of financial digital assets and the impact Financial Technology played in the adoption of novel financial services as a new emerging asset class within the Alternative Investment Spectrum.
Abstract Initial coin offerings (ICOs) represent a novel funding mechanism where digital tokens are issued on the blockchain and sold to investors. One major reason for the success of this financing model is the fact that the issued tokens can immediately be traded on secondary markets. This event study analyzes 250 exchange cross-listings of 135 different tokens issued through ICOs on 22 cryptocurrency exchanges. We find significant abnormal returns of 6.51% on the listing day and 9.97% over a seven-day window around the event. Further analysis shows that the results clearly differ for individual cryptocurrency exchanges, as listings on individual exchanges yield returns of up to 34% on the event day, while others are negligible. An investigation of liquidity-related metrics shows that lower prior trading volume and asset market capitalization have positive effect on listing returns. Investors use phases of high market liquidity to sell off positions around the period of cross-listing events. The results on the cross-listing effects of ICOs may be of relevance to investors/traders, ICO projects, cryptocurrency exchanges and regulators.
Iyolita Islam, Kazi Md. Munim, Shahrima Jannat Oishwee, A.K.M. Najmul Islam · 5 authors
Blockchain is relatively a new area of research. However, a surge of research studies on the blockchain has taken place in recent years. These research studies have mostly focused on designing and developing conceptual frameworks to build more reliable, transparent and efficient digital systems. While blockchain brings a wide variety of benefits, it also imposes certain challenges. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand the properties of blockchain, its current uses, observed benefits and pitfalls to provide a balanced understanding of blockchain. A systematic literature review approach was adopted in this paper in order to attain the objective. A total of 51 articles were selected and reviewed. As outcomes, this research provides a summary of the state-of-the-art research studies conducted in the area of blockchain. Furthermore, we develop a set of concept maps aiming to provide in-depth knowledge on blockchain technology for its efficient and effective usage in the development of future technological solutions.
Contract production and transaction are very common and important since it can greatly reduce future uncertainty and is well-organized by buyers, sellers, and trusted third parties (TTPs). However, current commodity trading systems (such as spot, futures, and forward contract) are still traditional centralized structures, which means that there may always be concerned about the single point of failure and data corruption. Besides, even though there already exists fragmentary decentralized applications (DApps) for the marketplace, order management, resale, delivery, financing, and insurance, they are not integrated for operating contract production and transaction comprehensively. In this work, a blockchain-enabled integrated marketing platform (BeIMP) is proposed for contract production and transactions. BeIMP is a consortium blockchain (CsBc) framework that enables better safety, efficiency, and interoperability among stakeholders. BeIMP can directly match producers and consumers and reduce the problem of intermediaries' improper market operation. BeIMP has a three-tier risk diversification mechanism. First, both parties can know the quantity and price according to the contract specification (CSpec) in advance to avoid future uncertainty. Second, the buyers can resell the established order if they need, thereby diversifying the risk. Third, the concept of insurance is introduced to reduce force majeure and other systemic risks. BeIMP can also help producers get the loan from the financial institution (FI) if they need fund for production. We implement and demonstrate the prototype in contract farming (CF) first and discuss its generalizability to other scenarios. Experiment results show that the smart contract (SC) function is stable enough and the proof of authority (PoA) has the advantage in throughput and can give users a better experience.
Energy supply industries play a vital role in a country. Inefficiencies in the energy supply chain regarding tricky contests and the lack of management instantly change energy tariff calculation. This work proposes the Ethereum blockchain platform with existing traditional infrastructure to track and investigate energy supply chain activities using a unique identity with smart contracts. It maintains the records of the organization's protected and available actions to stakeholders according to the recognized collection of procedures and practices without requiring any centralized administration. The purpose of the study is to focus entirely on analyzing and developing a simplified, low-cost, and secure decentralized application (DApp) in the untrusted environment. It should be fit to quickly connect the present energy supply industry at various geological locations to track and trace the energy market's linked data. Keywords: Blockchain, smart contract, energy supply chain, decentralization, design science.
The global implementation architecture of the traditional stock market distributes responsibilities and data across different intermediaries, including financial and governmental organizations. Each organization manages its system and collaborates with the others to facilitate trading on the stock exchange platform, and typically buy-sell orders go through different parties before settlement. This design architecture that involves a complex chain of intermediaries has several limitations and shortcomings, such as a single point of failure, a longer time for financial settlements, and weak transparency. Blockchain technology consists of a network of computer nodes that securely share a common ledger without the need of having any kind of intermediaries. In this paper, we present a novel blockchain-based architecture for a fully decentralized stock market. Our architecture is based on a private Ethereum blockchain to create a consortium network leveraging organizations that are already involved in the traditional stock exchange to act as validating nodes. In our architecture, the stock exchange trading logic is completely implemented on a smart contract, while considering the existing governmental market regulations. Since the new platform does not introduce significant changes to the stock exchange trading logic and does not eliminate any of the traditional parties from the system, our proposal promotes efficient adoption and deployment of decentralized stock exchange platforms. In addition, we present a proof of concept implementation of the new architecture, including the smart contract for trade exchange, as well as a virtualization-based test network to assess the platform performance. The test network consists of virtual nodes that run the developed stock exchange smart contract where we measure the buy-sell orders throughput and latency under different network sizes and trading workload scenarios. The obtained results have shown that the proposed trading platform can reach a throughput of 311.8 tx/sec, which is equivalent to 89% of the optimal throughput when the sending rate is 350 tx/sec. This throughput is largely sufficient to meet the requirement of major stock exchanges, such as Singapore stock market.
Habeeb Ilufoye, Oluwatolani Vivian Akinrinoye, Chinelo Harriet Okolo
This paper proposes a strategic product innovation model specifically designed for launching digital lending solutions within the financial technology sector. Recognizing the unique challenges posed by rapid technological advancements, stringent regulatory requirements, and evolving customer expectations, the model integrates market opportunity identification, technology enablement, agile development, and cross-functional governance to guide successful product launches. Emphasizing a customer-centric and risk-aware approach, the framework facilitates alignment among diverse stakeholders and fosters continuous improvement through iterative feedback mechanisms. The study underscores the importance of balancing innovation speed with compliance and ethical considerations to build trust and ensure sustainability. Implications for both industry practitioners and policymakers are discussed, highlighting how the model can inform best practices and regulatory strategies that promote responsible fintech growth. Finally, the paper explores future directions for evolving the model alongside emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and decentralized finance, advocating for ongoing adaptation to maintain relevance in dynamic markets. This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the accessibility, inclusivity, and resilience of digital lending products, contributing to more equitable financial ecosystems.