This paper aims to draw a comparison among the top 5 cryptocurrencies available in India based on the market capitalisation rate. It also aims to highlight the pros and cons of each category of cryptocurrencies and preference for one particular cryptocurrency over the other. The paper also focuses on whether cryptocurrency is accepted over and above the traditional modes of transaction. The study of various characteristic features of the five cryptocurrencies has highlighted that each cryptocurrency is technically different as well as significantly different in terms of speed of transaction. The study of price fluctuation of each of the cryptocurrencies over the 6 month period starting from October 2017 till March 2018 has revealed that prices of all cryptocurrencies have gone down in the month of March whereas November and December have been the peak time for almost all cryptocurrencies.It is also concluded that although the strikingly high price of cryptocurrencies promises high returns, the reasons for not investing in cryptocurrency outweigh the reasons justifying investment in it.
This review presents and evaluates various formalisms for the purpose of modelling the semantics of financial derivatives contracts. The formalism proposed by Lee is selected as the best candidate among those initially reviewed. Further examination and evaluation of this formalism is done.
This is the first paper that estimates the price determinants of BitCoin in a Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity framework using high frequency data. Derived from a theoretical model, we estimate BitCoin transaction demand and speculative demand equations in a GARCH framework using hourly data for the period 2013-2018. In line with the theoretical model, our empirical results confirm that both the BitCoin transaction demand and speculative demand have a statistically significant impact on the BitCoin price formation. The BitCoin price responds negatively to the BitCoin velocity, whereas positive shocks to the BitCoin stock, interest rate and the size of the BitCoin economy exercise an upward pressure on the BitCoin price.
Ali Dorri, Clemence Roulin, Raja Jurdak, Salil S. Kanhere
Security is one of the fundamental challenges in the Internet of Things (IoT) due to the heterogeneity and resource constraints of the IoT devices. Device classification methods are employed to enhance the security of IoT by detecting unregistered devices or traffic patterns. In recent years, blockchain has received tremendous attention as a distributed trustless platform to enhance the security of IoT. Conventional device identification methods are not directly applicable in blockchain-based IoT as network layer packets are not stored in the blockchain. Moreover, the transactions are broadcast and thus have no destination IP address and contain a public key as the user identity, and are stored permanently in blockchain which can be read by any entity in the network. We show that device identification in blockchain introduces privacy risks as the malicious nodes can identify users' activity pattern by analyzing the temporal pattern of their transactions in the blockchain. We study the likelihood of classifying IoT devices by analyzing their information stored in the blockchain, which to the best of our knowledge, is the first work of its kind. We use a smart home as a representative IoT scenario. First, a blockchain is populated according to a real-world smart home traffic dataset. We then apply machine learning algorithms on the data stored in the blockchain to analyze the success rate of device classification, modeling both an informed and a blind attacker. Our results demonstrate success rates over 90\% in classifying devices. We propose three timestamp obfuscation methods, namely combining multiple packets into a single transaction, merging ledgers of multiple devices, and randomly delaying transactions, to reduce the success rate in classifying devices. The proposed timestamp obfuscation methods can reduce the classification success rates to as low as 20%.
Dec 21, 2018·Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Medical 2018 & International Conference on Transportation and Traffic Engineering 2018
As a new decentralized infrastructure, blockchain has received attention and research in various fields. The decentralization, openness, autonomy and anonymity of the blockchain are of great significance to the development of the shipping industry. This paper outlines the characteristics and key technologies of the blockchain and introduces the infrastructure model of the blockchain. Combined with the characteristics of blockchain and shipping industry, this paper expounds the application status of blockchain in the shipping industry, analyzes the application prospects of the shipping industry to exploit the advantages of blockchain, and proposes the application barriers in the process of integration. This presents the development path of the blockchain in the shipping industry.
Tiago Quaini, Alex Roehrs, Cristiano André da Costa, Rodrigo da Rosa Righi
Electronic health records (EHR) are usually maintained in a centralized way by health organizations, leaving aside an integration between different health organizations to view the complete health history of a given patient. This lack of EHR integration prevents patients and physicians to have a unified view of medical records, which are often stored in different health organizations. Recent studies have proposed using Blockchain technology in distributed architectures due to its security and integration properties. In this context, this article proposes an application architecture using Blockchain technology for distributed EHR integration, which is called UniRec (Unified Medical Records). In the proposed model we seek to understand its effectivity, performance and applicability, using a case study methodology. We developed a prototype, which is evaluated using a test scenario. The prototype proved to be effective for distributed EHR integration, allowing one healthcare institution to view an EHR previously added by different providers, after being granted permission. During the test scenario execution, we obtained an average response time of 2.77 seconds, 961.6 MiB of memory consumption, 21.5% CPU usage and a total disk usage of 34.6 MB. The results reinforce the potential and feasibility of employing Blockchain for managing and storing medical data.
Interconnecting cyber-physical systems in networks leads to the creation of cyber-physical system-of-systems. In a cyber-physical system-of-systems (CPSoS), systems communicate by exchanging and sharing data and information, which this chapter also refers to as interoperability of information. To ensure reliable and secure interoperability of information between distributed cyber-physical systems, using blockchain technology or distributed ledging technology for distributed entities is an interesting option. Such a blockchain must, at a minimum, be fault tolerant and enable the entities involved to reach consensus on the information transactions that are to be performed. Once consensus about transactions between cyber-physicals is reached, it must be possible for these to record consistently the used data in a distributed ledger that provides a permanent shared overview of completed information transactions. The development of the new technology we call blockchain creates a new and as yet unfathomable reality of interconnected autonomous and self-organising cyber-physical systems that have the ability to make decisions about or for us as human beings.
Blockchain technology is a distributed electronic ledger of digital records, events or transactions that are cryptographically secure, extremely hard to forge, and updateable through a consensus protocol agreeable to all connected nodes. [1] The technology uses decentralized consensus algorithms to control database consistency. The database is purely distributed in nature and is shared to all nodes connected to the network. Transactions in the databases are bundled together for specified period of time to form a block of certain number of transactions.
David M. Maslove, Jacob Klein, M. Kathryn Brohman, Patrick Martin
BACKGROUND: Blockchain technology is emerging as an innovative tool in data and software security. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the role of blockchain in supporting clinical trials data management and develop a proof-of-concept implementation of a patient-facing and researcher-facing system. METHODS: Blockchain-based Smart Contracts were built using the Ethereum platform. RESULTS: We described BlockTrial, a system that uses a Web-based interface to allow users to run trials-related Smart Contracts on an Ethereum network. Functions allow patients to grant researchers access to their data and allow researchers to submit queries for data that are stored off chain. As a type of distributed ledger, the system generates a durable and transparent log of these and other transactions. BlockTrial could be used to increase the trustworthiness of data collected during clinical research with benefits to researchers, regulators, and drug companies alike. In addition, the system could empower patients to become more active and fully informed partners in research. CONCLUSIONS: Blockchain technology presents an opportunity to address some of the common threats to the integrity of data collected in clinical trials and ensure that the analysis of these data comply with prespecified plans. Further technical work is needed to add additional functions. Policies must be developed to determine the optimal models for participation in the system by its various stakeholders.
With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT), more and more IoT devices are connected and communicate frequently. In this background, the traditional centralized security architecture of IoT will be limited in terms of data storage space, data reliability, scalability, operating costs and liability judgment. In this paper, we propose an new key information storage framework based on a small distributed database generated by blockchain technology and cloud storage. Specifically, all encrypted key communication data will be upload to public could server for enough storage, but the abstracts of these data (called "communication logs") will be recorded in "IoT ledger" (i.e., an distributed database) that maintained by all IoT devices according to the blockchain generation approach, which could solve the problem of data reliability, scalability and liability judgment. Besides, in order to efficiently search communication logs and not reveal any sensitive information of communication data, we design the secure search scheme for our "IoT ledger", which exploits the Asymmetric Scalar-product Preserving Encryption (ASPE) approach to guarantee the data security, and exploits the 2-layers index which is tailor-made for blockchain database to improve the search efficiency. Security analysis and experiments on synthetic dataset show that our schemes are secure and efficient.
Ali Dorri, Fengji Luo, Salil S Kanhere, Raja Jurdak · 5 authors
Security and privacy in Direct Load Control (DLC) is a fundamental challenge in smart grids. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based framework to increase security and privacy of DLC. We propose a method whereby participating nodes share their data with the distribution company in an anonymous and secure manner. To reduce the associated overhead for data dissemination, we propose a hash-based transaction generation method. We also outline the DLC process for managing the load in consumer site. Qualitative analysis demonstrates the security and privacy of the proposed method.
Ali Dorri, Ambrose Hill, Salil S. Kanhere, Raja Jurdak · 6 authors
Blockchain is increasingly being used as a distributed, anonymous, trustless framework for energy trading in smart grids. However, most of the existing solutions suffer from reliance on Trusted Third Parties (TTP), lack of privacy, and traffic and processing overheads. In our previous work, we have proposed a Secure Private Blockchain-based framework (SPB) for energy trading to address the aforementioned challenges. In this paper, we present a proof-on-concept implementation of SPB on the Ethereum private network to demonstrates SPB's applicability for energy trading. We benchmark SPB's performance against the relevant state-of-the-art. The implementation results demonstrate that SPB incurs lower overheads and monetary cost for end users to trade energy compared to existing solutions.
With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT), more and more IoT\ndevices are connected and communicate frequently. In this background, the\ntraditional centralized security architecture of IoT will be limited in terms\nof data storage space, data reliability, scalability, operating costs and\nliability judgment. In this paper, we propose an new key information storage\nframework based on a small distributed database generated by blockchain\ntechnology and cloud storage. Specifically, all encrypted key communication\ndata will be upload to public could server for enough storage, but the\nabstracts of these data (called "communication logs") will be recorded in "IoT\nledger" (i.e., an distributed database) that maintained by all IoT devices\naccording to the blockchain generation approach, which could solve the problem\nof data reliability, scalability and liability judgment. Besides, in order to\nefficiently search communication logs and not reveal any sensitive information\nof communication data, we design the secure search scheme for our "IoT ledger",\nwhich exploits the Asymmetric Scalar-product Preserving Encryption (ASPE)\napproach to guarantee the data security, and exploits the 2-layers index which\nis tailor-made for blockchain database to improve the search efficiency.\nSecurity analysis and experiments on synthetic dataset show that our schemes\nare secure and efficient.\n
OBJECTIVE: To introduce the basic concepts of blockchain technologies in tackling the opioid epidemic. DESIGN: A narrative review. SETTING/BACKGROUND: The opioid epidemic is taking a big toll in terms of lives and livelihood in America. Various public and private sector agencies are actively implementing different strategies to contain the epidemic. Development of robust real-time databases that are secure and easily accessible to the stakeholders in the opioid/paincare ecosystem is essential. Blockchain technologies, with their inherent features of decentralization, immutability, and easy access are well suited to achieving these goals. Some practical applications of blockchain technologies include data collection/aggregation/analysis, patient/provider identification, traceability/monitoring of opioids, supply chain provenance, prescription monitoring, licensure and credentialing, interoperability, seamless integration/communication, development of opioid alternatives, and research incentivization. CONCLUSIONS: Blockchain technologies may help support the efforts of different agencies in curtailing the opioid epidemic.
Abstract Reinvestment in declining or poor areas is necessary to attract new middle-class residents, reduce concentrated poverty, and improve housing conditions for the poor. Private-sector housing and commercial real estate developers consistently argue that, without assistance from the public sector, projects are not economically feasible. However, fiscal and political constraints make local governments hesitant to provide direct subsidies to developers. Tax increment financing (TIF) is often offered as a politically attractive solution to this complicated development scenario. The expedited nature of TIF allows communities to fund projects and generate development investment through a highly decentralized process, potentially avoiding public involvement. This fiscalization of the development process raises key questions. Are the communities most in need of redevelopment benefiting from TIF, or do they compete for development? How does TIF’s “creative” financing strategy influence political fragmentation? This chapter illustrates these challenges and explores ways the tool can be used to promote inclusionary development practices and support creative affordable-housing strategies.
The article deals with ontological aspects of cryptocurrency, its classification characteristics and types. The questions related to the creation of a new instrument of monetary policy are studied. The authors carry out analysis of foreign and domestic scientific papers, international and state regulatory documents linked with cryptocurrencies. The study reveals the distinctive features of cryptocurrency from the concepts of ‘digital currency’ and ‘virtual currency’, as well as historical stages of their development.The authors describe characteristics of three main communication elements between the participants of operations with cryptocurrencies. The article discloses the model of decentralized digital currency schemes and their main characteristics. The paper presents the analysis of normative documents regulating the turnover of cryptocurrency in Ukraine and considers the problems of displaying transactions with cryptocurrencies in the accounting.The authors investigate the problems of cryptocurrency’s use as a full-fledged currency in contemporary economic conditions, in particular, the absence of a centralized cryptocurrency emission institutions, circulation control, transaction anonymity and insufficient of high liquidity, as well as substantial short-term leaps in its value.According to the results of the study the authors propose approaches of book-keeping for transactions with cryptocurrency in accounting for companies in Ukraine depending on the purpose of their use (purchase of a web-purse for operations with cryptocurrency, purch
The idea of big data has gained extensive attention from governments and academia all over the world. It is especially relevant for the establishment of a smart city environment combining complex heterogeneous data with data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Big data is generated from many facilities and sensor networks in smart cities and often streamed and stored in the cloud storage platform. Ensuring the integrity and subsequent auditability of such big data is essential for the performance of AI-driven data analysis. Recent years has witnessed the emergence of many big data auditing schemes that are often characterized by third party auditors (TPAs). However, the TPA is a centralized entity, which is vulnerable to many security threats from both inside and outside the cloud. To avoid this centralized dependency, we propose a decentralized big data auditing scheme for smart city environments featuring blockchain capabilities supporting improved reliability and stability without the need for a centralized TPA in auditing schemes. To support this, we have designed an optimized blockchain instantiation and conducted a comprehensive comparison between the existing schemes and the proposed scheme through both theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation. The comparison shows that lower communication and computation costs are incurred with our scheme than with existing schemes.