Blockchain Papers

Douglas W. Arner, Ross P. Buckley, Dirk Andreas Zetzsche, Anton N. Didenko

No abstract is available for this record.

Ismael Sanz Arribas, David Arroyo, Denisa Kera

No abstract is available for this record.

Yi Ding, Chenshuo Wang, Qionghui Zhong, Haisheng Li · 6 authors

The close integration of blockchain and smart contract technology has become an important foundation for current trusted applications. High-quality, high-efficiency and high-security codes have become basic requirements for smart contract applications because they are not easy to be modified after being deployed on blockchain. This paper proposes a function-level dynamic monitoring and analysis method for smart contract, and implements a prototype system. The method adds a “shadow stack” and related data structures to virtual machine of testing blockchain platform by analyzing the principle of function management with original stack, then monitors the bytecode after code instrumentation, records the function calling relationships as well as the relevant metrics of time, instruction number and gas consumption. The prototype system identifies contract inefficient behaviors using visualization and intelligent analysis methods, then forms a smart contract optimization closed loop through iterative improvement. Finally, the paper verified the high feasibility and applicability of the monitoring and analyzing method as well as prototype system's performance through experiments.

Joseph Lee, Vere Marie Khan

This paper discusses the legal risks and regulatory solutions for a peer-to-peer energy trading platform (P2P-ETP) in creating a sustainable energy ecosystem. Part I discusses the conceptual framework of P2P-ETP, which enables consumers to become energy ‘producers' and traders. Smart technologies — smart contracts, smart meters, and distributed ledger technology (DLT) — are the main components of this platform. The study examines the legal basis and regulatory framework for these components. Part II analyses the legal uncertainty of the smart contract, such as its enforceability, and the inadequate protection for consumers and their individual rights through price manipulation, violation of rights to privacy, and data breaches. Part III discusses the potential policy implementations and the principles behind a legal and regulatory framework for establishing a trusted peer-to-peer energy trading platform.

Magnus Krogsbøll, Liv Hartoft Borre, Tijs Slaats, Søren Debois

No abstract is available for this record.

Shekha Chenthara, Khandakar Ahmed, Hua Wang, Frank Whittaker

No abstract is available for this record.

Vaishnavi Reddy, Komal Pawar, Sagar Dhawale, Renuka Pawar · 5 authors

The commercial real estate (CRE) industry appears to take pride in keeping several aspects of its operations private, such as comparable lease rental rates, property prices, and valuations, to create a possible competitive advantage. However, secrets are hard to keep and may not even be desired in today’s hyperconnected and digitized world. In response to greater demand for transparency, technology advancements and the disintermediation by startups are gradually making some of this information public. As a result, property-related information is increasingly available in digital and paper form. However, a significant portion of the digitized information is hosted on disparate systems, which results in a lack of transparency and efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies that creates a greater potential for fraudulence.[1] This paper aims to present the Blockchain and smart contract for a specific domain which is real estate. Currently, the real estate business online is at risk of fraudulence. The main objective of this project is to create a platform to maintain transparency in the real estate world so that no fraudulent activities can happen due to false contracts. Goal is to create tamper proof systems and to remove third party reliability for transactions. Consensus algorithms such as Proof of Work and Proof of Authority can be used to achieve consensus in the network. Blockchain uses Proof of work concept to ensure transaction denial thus helping remove denial of services. Proof of authority on the other hand ensures only authorized smart contracts pass the system.

Joseph Lee, Florian L’heureux

The paper examines cryptocurrency in the crypto-finance ecosystem and identifies areas in which regulatory intervention is required. Part I focuses on the system and processes of cryptocurrency and identifies the features of this ‘decentralised’ system and the legal and regulatory implications. Part II discusses the perceived benefits and the rise of cryptocurrency to determine whether those benefits fit with regulatory objectives and contribute to the rise of cryptocurrency. Part III discusses the fall of cryptocurrency and some associated factors, particularly a lack of governance. Part IV discusses the need for regulation and governance. Cryptocurrency, blockchain, DLT, tokenization, cryptoasset, exchanges, investor protection

Feras Shehada, Mohanad Shehada

No abstract is available for this record.

Rabin K. Jana, Debojyoti Das

No abstract is available for this record.

Xingxiong Zhu

Abstract This paper elaborates on the blockchain-based identity authentication and intelligent credit reporting method. The technologies of multidimensional authentication, multifactor weighted score calculation, security threshold, distributed ledger, smart contract and encryption algorithm are proposed to realize dynamic identity security authentication and intelligent risk control. The user behaviour analysis system, real-time risk identification system and intelligent risk prevention system are constructed. The multidimensional credit data collection is realized through blockchain distributed nodes. The distributed ledger of credit reporting, intelligent pricing of assets and automatic credit rating of users are proposed. It realizes credit reporting system and service based on multidimensional data, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts.

Natalia Dashkevich, Steve Counsell, Giuseppe Destefanis

Blockchain is a novel technology capturing the attention of Central Banks and a technology with significant disruptive potential. However, a gap in research effort between practitioners and academics seems to have emerged. This paper analyses and maps that gap by exploring trends in peer-reviewed research contributions through thematic categorisation of academic literature on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) use-cases for services, operations and functions performed by central banks. Furthermore, this paper provides summaries of opportunities and challenges for central banks arising from blockchain adaptation to each of those use-cases. To achieve this goal, we utilise a Systematic Mapping Study approach. The paper presents an in-depth assessment of statistical and thematic analysis of research maturity and the types of researchers, with specific emphasis on types of central bank use-cases considered for blockchain adaptation. Our work contributes to an understanding of where the most or least attention is directed, allowing for identification of gaps and opportunities for both academics, practitioners and combinations of each. Results show that the research topic is a comparatively new domain. It confirms the gap between depth and volume of the research provision from industry and academia, with industry leading the trend. Our study also found that the most research-intensive use-cases are those for: 1) Central Bank issued Digital Currency (CBDC), 2) Regulatory Compliance and 3) Payment Clearing and Settlement Systems (PCS) operated by central banks; a comparatively low engagement was found in the areas of 4) Assets Transfer/Ownership and 5) Audit Trail.

Bin Sharudin, Mohd Shahrul Zharif

In the paper "A blockchain-Based Architecture for Collaborative DDoS Mitigation," Rodrigues, Bocek, Lareida, Hausheer, Rafati, and Stiller proposed a collaborative DDoS signaling system using the Ethereum blockchain and smart contract for AS owners to cooperate and mitigate a DDoS attack in a fully decentralized manner. Rodrigues, Bocek, and Stiller later created a proof-of-concept of this system and called it Blockchain Signaling System (BloSS). In their architecture, AS owners will deploy their smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain for other members to signal when they are under attack by sending IP addresses to be white or blacklisted to the smart contract. BloSS uses a central registry to store information on participating Autonomous Systems (AS) IP addresses it managed, Ethereum wallet addresses, and their smart contact address for victims to report attacker's IP addresses in the event of a DDoS attack. However, a trusted central authority is required to manage the registry. The members of the collaboration need to believe that the central authority is honest in performing its role since membership in the alliance is up to the central authority discretion. McCorry, Siamak, and Hao present a decentralized and self-tallying voting protocol with maximum voter secrecy using Ethereum smart contract called Open Vote Network (OV-net) that does not rely upon any trusted authority to tally the vote. Nevertheless, it still requires an administrator to set up the election and add voters to the election. Therefore, the voters still need to trust a central authority to manage the election and to make sure those who are eligible to vote are in the voters' list. The goal of this project is to implement a self-managed blockchain scheme based on the collaborative DDoS mitigation architecture proposed by Rodrigues et al., where participation in the collaboration requires members' consensus. We introduced a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) smart contract called ElectionCommissioner to manage the membership to BloSS central registry. The addition or removal of member needs to the registry needs to be proposed by an existing member. When a member submits a proposal, the Election Commissioner will advertise the proposal to the community. The members then register their interest to vote by sending their voting key and Ethereum token (ETH) as a deposit, which is refundable after the election. The Election Commissioner executes an “election process” (described in section IV) to determine the support for a proposal to add or remove a member. After voting, the Election Commissioner will tally the vote and if the executes the proposal if it is accepted by most of the registered voters.

Vennis Shah, Karnika Padia, Vivian Brian Lobo

No abstract is available for this record.

I Inghirami

No abstract is available for this record.

Nikhil Vadgama, Paolo Tasca

In this research, the evolution of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in supply chains has been mapped from the inception of the technology until June 2020, utilising primarily public data sources. Two hundred seventy-one blockchain projects operating in the supply chain have been analysed on parameters such as their inception dates, types of blockchain, stages reached, sectors applied to and type of organisation that founded the project. We confirm generally understood trends in the blockchain market with the creation of projects following the general hype and funding levels in the industry. We observe most activity in the Agriculture/Grocery sector and the Freight/Logistics sector. We see the shift of market interest from primarily private companies (startups) to public companies and consortia and the change in blockchain adoption from Ethereum to Hyperledger. Finally, we observe higher success and lower failure rates for Hyperledger-based projects in comparison to Ethereum-based projects.

Yijun Zou, Ting Meng, Peng Zhang, Zhang Wen-zhen · 5 authors

As a decentralized distributed ledger, blockchain has developed rapidly since its birth and has been highly valued by governments, academia, and industry. Start in the financial field, blockchain technology has been rapidly applied to various fields such as the Internet of Things, supply chain, and healthcare. Blockchain technology has made sufficient development and innovation, but it also faces many challenges, such as security, scalability, and waste of resources. This paper starts with the development history of blockchain and combines the characteristics and technical principles of it to analyze the current academic research status and application scenarios. Meanwhile, this paper analyzes the existing outstanding blockchain projects and elaborates on their key advantages and current challenges. With discussing the ongoing development trend of blockchain, the development direction, and the research trend of blockchain in the future, this paper provides a useful reference for related research.

Mahmood A. Rashid, Krishneel Deo, Divnesh Prasad, K. Ranjith Singh · 6 authors

Abstract Blockchain is an emerging technology framework for creating and storing transaction in distributed ledgers with a high degree of security and reliability. In this paper, we present a blockchain-based platform to create and store contracts in between students and their higher education sponsors facilitated by intermediary brokers denoted as fundraisers. The sponsorship might be in any form, such as scholarship, donation, or loan. The fund will be arranged and managed by a group of competitive fundraisers who will hold the distributed ledgers and act as the miners in the blockchain network.

Oleksii Konashevych

Many recent social media posts and news may create a perception of big success in the use of blockchain for the real estate industry, land registration and protection of titles and property rights. A sobering outlook is crucial because misleading concepts may bury the whole idea of blockchain use. The paper aims to research the possibilities of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and applicability of these technologies for different purposes in real estate, property rights and public registries. Blockchain, which is distinguished from permissioned systems as the technology of the immutable ledger that does not require authorities, is a new word in governance. However, this technology has some principal features that can restrain its implementation at the state level, and thus require further research and development. The application of blockchain requires a proper architecture of overlaid technologies to support changes of outdated and mistaken data, address issues of digital identity and privacy, legal compliance and enforceability of smart contracts and scalability of the ledger. This paper shows the constraints of the technology's properties which were not explained before in the context of title rights and land registration even though technological limits are known in more specific technical sources. Along with the known benefits this meant to help to avoid misinterpretation of some DLT features by non-technical people. A multidisciplinary approach in analysing the technology and laws helped to better understand what can and cannot be beneficial for public registries and the protection of property rights. The presented outcomes can be laid down as requirements for the technical protocols aimed at addressing the issues of DLT and public policies to put blockchain at the service of society.

Omar Alqaryouti, Nur Siyam, Zainab Alkashri, Khaled Shaalan

No abstract is available for this record.

Cristian Kevorchian, Camelia Gavrilescu, Gheorghe Hurduzeu

Traditional agricultural insurance systems are mainly based on the relationship between two actors: (i) a farmer, who purchases a crop insurance policy in exchange for a premium paid before crop seeding, and (ii) an insurance company that provides compensation for crop damages caused by extreme weather events. Many crop insurance schemes are a mix of procedures, aiming at covering the weather risk by subsidizing (partially or totally) the insurance premium. Yet, the bureaucratic mechanisms designed to evaluate the damages related to the insured crops lead to complex procedures that result in significant delays in covering the damages and implicitly the disruption of the farms’ cash flow and production processes. The insurance system decentralization based on a P2P insurance system implemented on the basis of a framework supported by blockchain technologies dedicated to agricultural insurance through a smart contract system operated on the Ethereum platform can ensure, besides a less bureaucratic agricultural insurance system, a smoother payment to the farmer in a context of social economy that diminishes farmer's distrust of the risk coverage product. The paper is intended to design a technological solution based on the Ethereum blockchain that supports a financial product to cover the production risk through a structured framework on two levels: the analysis-decision level and the payment level.

Anton Wahrstätter

No abstract is available for this record.

Abdelghani Echchabi, Mohammed Mispah Said Omar, Abdullah Mohammed Ayedh

The current study examines the factors that might increase the investment in Bitcoin among Muslim communities. Oman is selected as a setting for this study due to the rapid progress in the Islamic finance and investment areas that the country has witnessed though ventured in this field relatively late compared to other countries. The study used a survey questionnaire to collect data for a sample of 200 respondents. Subsequently, the collected data was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) as well as basic descriptive statistics and one sample t-test. The findings revealed that the respondents perceive themselves to have sufficient awareness and knowledge of the Bitcoin concept and benefits, as well as the techniques used to manage a Bitcoin account. In addition, the findings revealed that factors such as perceived ease of use, compatibility, awareness and facilitating conditions have a significant impact on Omani communities' intention to invest in Bitcoin.

Karsten Schulz, Marian Feist

The rapid development of digital technologies such as blockchain and distributed ledger-based systems holds transformative potential for the financial sector. Promising applications include asset management as well as peer-to-peer networks for the transparent exchange of data and information. International climate finance stands to benefit in particular ways from these new opportunities in financial technology. Distributed ledger technologies could be leveraged to support climate action, for example by facilitating transparent and standardized transactions, or by enabling more efficient monitoring and accreditation processes. In view of these promising opportunities, we focus our inquiry on the case of the Green Climate Fund to explore how distributed ledger technologies can be used for innovative climate finance. Based on our analysis of different digital system models and potential use cases, we then discuss some of the technical and political challenges that may arise, for example with regard to standards and safeguards, governance processes, country ownership, and further capitalization. Our findings show that distributed ledger-based systems could benefit the work of the fund in key areas such as multi-stakeholder coordination and impact assessment. However, our analysis also points to the concrete limitations of technology driven solutions. Digital technologies are not a standalone solution to persistent resource allocation and governance challenges in international climate finance, especially because the design and deployment of these digital systems is inherently political.