The logging system records the logs generated by the software so that the administrator can handle the problems that occur. However, the traditional log system is not secure enough and the stored logs are easily falsified. As a decentralized distributed storage technology, the blockchain can ensure that the blockchain network works normally in the presence of a few malicious nodes or failed nodes. So we use the blockchain to store the logs, which improves the security of the log system. In order to improve the performance of the blockchain, we use a voting-based consensus algorithm as a blockchain consistency protocol. This article introduces the architecture and implementation of the log system and verifies the feasibility of the system through experiments.
Alina Buzachis, Antonio Celesti, Antonino Galletta, Maria Fazio · 5 authors
Every year, traffic collisions have increased rapidly in proportion to the increase in the number of vehicles, especially at intersections. The main cause is human error in recognition and decision-making. Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) systems represent emerging challenges. AVs can take a great deal of different actions when approaching an intersection. Several research centers are developing algorithms to solve one of the crucial aspects of autonomous driving, i.e the intersections management, trying to avoid collisions and traffic congestion. In this context, security is the main concern, due to the high exposure to data and information between Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Intersection (V2I) communications. Blockchain and smart contracts, one of most promising technologies emerged in recent years, represent a possible solution for the existing security issues. Smart contracts are the orchestration and choreography protocols that facilitate, verify and negotiated agreement between the consenting parties participating in the Blockchain network. In this paper, we propose a Multi-Agent AIM (MA-AIM) system based on V2I/I2V communication to securely manage vehicles crossing though an intersections by leveraging Blockchain facilities. A central Intersection Manager Agent (IMA) is implemented at each intersection while each vehicle is controlled by a Driver Agent (DA).
Blockchain technology is emerging in various fields, to guarantee security of digital currency and internet of things. In this paper, we provide incentive to encourage edge servers to serve mobile users for the mobile blockchain application. We formulate the problem as a resource allocation problem, then we propose a three-stage auction to implement resource allocation specially designed for mobile blockchain, and introduce the group-buying mechanism to motivate mobile users. We prove that our auction scheme is truthful, individual rationality, and computational efficiency. We compare proposed scheme with TACD and HAF mechanisms, and simulation results show that the social welfare achieved by our scheme is higher than that of TACD and HAF mechanisms.
The local government administrations in Romania have become more visible for taxpayers lately, once the decentralization process has developed. The interest in knowing how local government resources are used has increased, especially after diversifying and increasing funding sources. The present paper presents a detailed analysis of the public revenues and expenditures for the territorial administrative units in Romania. A number of local public finance problems are highlighted: the decrease of public investment, the budget imbalances, the increase of transfers from the state budget, etc., which have been worsened by some legislative changes in recent years.
Beverley A. MacKenzie, Robert Ian Ferguson, Xavier Bellekens
In a few short years the Internet of Things has become an intrinsic part of everyday life, with connected devices included in products created for homes, cars and even medical equipment. But its rapid growth has created several security problems, with respect to the transmission and storage of vast amounts of customers data, across an insecure heterogeneous collection of networks. The Internet of Things is therefore creating a unique set of risk and problems that will affect most households. From breaches in confidentiality, which could allow users to be snooped on, through to failures in integrity, which could lead to consumer data being compromised; devices are presenting many security challenges to which consumers are ill equipped to protect themselves from. Moreover, when this is coupled with the heterogeneous nature of the industry, and the interoperable and scalability problems it becomes apparent that the Internet of Things has created an increased attack surface from which security vulnerabilities may be easily exploited. However, it has been conjectured that blockchain may provide a solution to the Internet of Things security and scalability problems. Because of blockchain's immutability, integrity and scalability, it is possible that its architecture could be used for the storage and transfer of Internet of Things data. Within this paper a cross section of blockchain consensus protocols have been assessed against a requirement framework, to establish each consensus protocols strengths and weaknesses with respect to their potential implementation in an Internet of Things blockchain environment.
Saeid Esmaeili, Shahram Jadid, Amjad Anvari‐Moghaddam, Josep M. Guerrero
In this paper, optimal operational scheduling in smart microgrids in conjunction with hourly reconfiguration is investigated. The optimization problem has the objective function of minimizing total costs including the total loss, cost of bilateral contracts with fuel cell and photovoltaic owners, switching cost, and cost of exchanged power with wholesale market. To prevent the aged and risky switches from frequent switching actions over a short-term scheduling, a new index for switching action based on the remotely-controlled switch (RCS) ages and critical locations in the network is defined. The proposed optimization model is non-convex and non-linear, which is transformed into a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem to be solvable with conventional solvers. The satisfactory performance of the proposed model is demonstrated on the 84-bus Taiwan power company system.
Internet of Things is widely used in many fields such as industry, medical care, education, and supply chain. With the participation of multi-authorized entities, a large number of dynamic data will be generated in the basic dimension of time. The operations on these data have to be safe and traceable for use in various forensics and decisions. Therefore, the key point of dynamic data security protection is to reject tampering of unauthorized users and to realize the process in evidence and tracing of the dynamic data operation. In order to find a solution to the problem above, an optimization of dynamic data traceability mechanism based on consortium blockchain is proposed in this article. First, a mathematical model for the security of dynamic data storage has been established, followed by analysis on honest behavior motive of individual node decision-making in group game and distributed node cooperation essence in specific industry background. After that, ownership transition function and the architecture of the dynamic data storage system are optimized; quality and growth characteristics of the system under stochastic state model are analyzed. Result shows that the solution can effectively avoid potential attacks such as tampering and faking under approved accession mode. The mechanism has good application value while ensuring the dynamic data storage security.
Sthembile Mthethwa, Nelisiwe Dlamini, Graham Barbour
Even with the ability to produce documents digitally, the paperless environment has yet to become a reality in South Africa. Hardcopy documents are still printed daily which makes them susceptible to document fraud. In South Africa, a case was reported recently, where someone who was creating fake documents was exposed. This introduces the challenge when using hardcopy documents which is loss of integrity. Thus, it is vital to have systems in place to verify document integrity and be able to determine when a document has been tampered with. Various techniques have been used to secure documents, yet the challenge persists. The combination of 2D barcodes, digital signatures, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), cryptographic hashing has proved the potential to achieve good results when combined. Recently, blockchain has been added as one of the techniques to be employed for document verification. This paper presents a proposed solution that incorporates the combination of 2D barcodes, OCR, cryptographic hashing and blockchain. As this is still on-going work, experiments are still required to demonstrate the viability of the solution.
QR Code Applications and Technologies
Vehicle License Plate Recognition
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Yiming Liu, F. Richard Yu, Xi Li, Hong Ji · 5 authors
By bringing computing capabilities to the network edge, mobile edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a promising technique to enable low-latency video streaming services. However, due to the rapid growth of the number of devices and the heterogeneous formats of the video streams, the traditionally centralized content delivery schemes are insufficient to provide secure, adaptive video services with low complexity. To achieve a decentralized content market among untruthful parties (e.g., users and operators), in this paper, we propose an effective video transcoding and delivery approach based on MEC and blockchain. In the proposed approach, we envision a set of blockchain-based smart contracts to build an autonomous content delivery market, where all the participants are financially enforced by smart contract terms. Then, users, small base stations (SBSs), and content provider (CP) are able to autonomously adjust their strategies according to the content market statistics. Moreover, we formulate the optimization problem, including resource allocation, determining content price and quality levels of contents, as a three-stage Stackelberg game. We analyze the subgame equilibrium for each stage and the interplays of the three-stage game. Lastly, an iterative algorithm is proposed to obtain the solution. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Abstract— This article presents a comparative analysis of available solutions in authenticating access subjects in computer-aided information and telecommunication systems. Centralized and decentralized public key infrastructures (PKIs) are considered, and their weaknesses are brought to light. A blockchain model of decentralized PKI for access subject authentication in computer-aided information and telecommunication systems is proposed. The current embodiments of blockchain PKIs are checked for compliance with the proposed model.
With the development of information and storage technologies, electronic document recording has become an unalterable trend, which transforms the way that people store, access and operate the data generated in various applications. Healthcare is the leader application domain that pioneers in usage of electronic medical records (EMRs). Cross-organizational EMRs' sharing has many constructive effects in motivating the domain innovation, introducing better domain understanding and overall the domain intelligence. However, the privacy concern, trust issue as well as the sophisticated legal regulation of the sensitive EMRs' use leads to inefficiency in the data sharing process. In this paper, we propose a cross-organizational medical data sharing framework based on permissioned blockchain technology, named “EMRShare“, to resolve the trust concern existing in EMRs sharing practice among different participants like patients, clinicians and researchers, and other relevant parties such as the insurance agent and government, to make medical data sharing and access secure, efficient, transparent, immutable, traceable and auditable. A working prototype system is implemented to demonstrate the key features for the cross-organizational medical data sharing and access management. The objective of this work targets at explaining the essential design considerations along with the working principle and operation logics using the blockchain technology to facilitate the medical data sharing in a highly-cooperative healthcare ecosystem.
The problem with present tendering is its reach which is limited to number of people, though the internet is expanding and tendering is also not far from this, we have some online system for tendering but it is not secure as it should be because tendering has confidential data which is not supposed to be leaked and Blockchain solves that problem efficiently. The motive of this research is to find the better ways for tendering, as tendering is very essential part of businesses and development so improvement of this system leads to better development. Time efficiency, employment, fair system are some of the factors which can be improved by the proposed system of this research.
This research identifies a conceptual e-Prescription system based on blockchain technology. The system utilizes cryptocurrency principles applied to the electronic prescription processes to achieve its goals. This e-Prescription system can be utilized as a combatant to the nationwide opioid crisis as a potential Prescription Drug Monitoring System (PDMP). While not a fully evaluated system, the proof of concept results presented have significant demonstrated potential. Moreover, the concepts can be used to create a system that can serve as an inspiration to use blockchain technology in healthcare applications.
Fostering Worker Cooperatives with Blockchain Technology: Lessons from the Colony Project In recent years, there has been growing policy support for expanding worker ownership of businesses in the European Union. Debates on stimulating worker ownership are a regular feature of discussions on the collaborative economy and the future of work, given anxieties regarding the reconfiguration of the nature of work and the decline of standardised employment contracts. Yet, worker ownership, in the form of labour-managed firms such as worker cooperatives, remains marginal. This article explains the appeal of worker cooperatives and examines the reasons why they continue to be relatively scarce. Taking its cue from Henry Hansmann’s hypothesis that organisational innovations can make worker ownership of firms viable in previously untenable circumstances, this article explores how organisational innovations, such as those embodied in the capital and governance structure of Decentralised (Autonomous) Organisations (D(A)Os), can potentially facilitate the growth of LMFs. It does so by undertaking a case study of a blockchain project, Colony, which seeks to create decentralised, self-organising companies where decision-making power derives from high-quality work. For worker cooperatives, seeking to connect globally dispersed workers through an online workplace, Colony’s proposed capital and governance structure, based on technological and game theoretic insight may offer useful lessons. Drawing from this pre-figurative structure, self-imposed institutional rules may be deployed by worker cooperatives in their by-laws to avoid some of the main pitfalls associated with labour management and thereby, potentially, vitalise the formation of the cooperative form.
Raghava Rao Mukkamala, Ravi Vatrapu, Pradeep Ray, Gora Sengupta · 5 authors
In recent years, there has been a growing research attention and practitioner interest in exploring the suitability of Blockchain technology for decentralised applications in multiple domains. This paper investigates the application of Blockchain technology to address some of the key challenges faced by the domain of Social Business (SB). SB is a business model for investments in social causes for the socio-economic development of under-privileged communities. We have modelled a small example of micro-credit use-case from microfinance activities of SB using a semi-formal modelling approach using Blockchain technology. We identified that the Blockchain technology provide solutions that enhance trust, transparency and auditability in SB activities. However, we have also identified challenges related to creating a native cryptocurrency for SB, and barriers to infrastructure and technology adoption by the different stakeholders in SB.
Alvin Heng Jun Ren, Ling Feng, Siew Ann Cheong, Rick Siow Mong Goh
Off-chain transaction handling like the Lightning Network (LN) is among the most promising solutions to solve the scaling challenges in blockchain technology like Bitcoin. At the same time, the LN faces its own challenges like transaction path lengths, centralization of channels (hubs), channel imbalances (depletion), etc. Here we study the effects of payment channel fees on these various factors. To get realistic insights, we based our study on empirical Bitcoin transaction patterns and existing LN structure, and apply a simple form of fee structure with only one tunable parameter, α, that is most influential on the transaction routing paths. We assume the transactions through the LN take the path of the lowest aggregate fees, and found as a consequence that one cannot have short average path lengths and low overall channel imbalances at the same time. A good compromise is to have fees proportional to the square root of the channel capacity, such that reasonably short path lengths and overall balanced channel capacities can be achieved that makes the operation of the LN more sustainable.
Motivated by the recent disruption in shaping industries through blockchain, this paper examines the effect of integrating blockchain and Enterprise Resource Planning systems on the relation among the different parties of the supply chain. For a seamless integration, distributors seek to automate payments with retailers under specific conditions, which can be achieved through smart contracts in a blockchain network. In this paper, we study the utilization of QR codes to handle such cases in the supply chain industry between the distributors and retailers in particular. Then, we analyze the contribution of using blockchain to handle these cases. Furthermore, to emphasize the advantages of blockchain on a supply chain, a prototype is implemented and developed using Hyperledger Composer. This prototype highlights the added value blockchain can have on the relation between the two supply chain parties, while providing additional features to build the needed trust between both parties.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that is gaining popularity over the years. It can generate a significant amount of return while having a high volatility. Given the high risk, high return nature of Bitcoin, the study aimed at determining whether Bitcoin offers diversification benefit in a portfolio. Two characteristics of Bitcoin (correlation and volatility) were examined, and optimal portfolio analysis was conducted using different weights of Bitcoin. The study showed that Bitcoin's low correlations with most securities and assets in the market help diversify portfolios, but the currency's high volatility indicates that only a small amount of Bitcoin should be included in portfolio diversification.
The paper presents the concept of renewable energy management system. The idea behind the system is to exploit the potential of renewable energy generation sources so as to provide additional energy services and participation in a competitive energy market. These actions can significantly affect the shortening of the period of return on investment of individual customer in renewable energy sources. The paper contains a concept of Electricity Consumption and Supply Management System (ECSM) with application of blockchain technology. ECSM provides functionality to monitor and record continuously information about inbound and outbound energy to/from power grid. Except monitoring inbound and outbound energy, solution will provide the possibility to manage in automatic and manual way when energy should be sent to energy grid. Information about inbound/outbound energy will be part of smart contract which will be confirmed and stored in every node.
In this paper, we propose an access control solution for exchanging Blockchain-based Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) called BBACS (Block-based Access Control Scheme) that includes an access model and an access scheme. Unlike the existing Blockchain-oriented access schemes for EMRs, our access model can omit the agent layer (gateway) in order to authorise users' access with block level granularity, whilst maintaining compatibility with the underlying Blockchain data structure. Furthermore, the authorisation, encryption, and decryption algorithms presented in BBACS dispense with the need to use a public key infrastructure (PKI) and hence cut down the cost of network construction and improve the computational performance. We validated the efficiency (time cost) of local computation and data transmission (over Wi-Fi) for BBACS using a simulation of BBACS against another Blockchain-oriented access control scheme for EMRs called HDG as our baseline. To the best of our knowledge, BBACS is the first Blockchain-oriented access control solution without the need for an agent (or gateway) design, supporting granular authorisation (block level), that has been proposed for secure EMRs management in eHealth.
Daniela Mechkaroska, Aleksandra Popovska‐Mitrovikj, Vesna Dimitrova
BlockChain is a distributed database of records or public ledger of all time stamped transactions saved in all computers in one peer-to-peer network. It allows a secure and transparent transfer of digital goods including money and intellectual property. Bitcoin - a digital decentralized cryptocurrency, is the first application of BlockChain. The second application is an agreement called Smart contract that enables exchanging a value or assets between two owners based on a set of conditions included in the contract.
In this paper, we analyze the possibilities for application of BlockChain in Big Data and IoT. Implementation of BlockChain in Big Data confirms that data is accurate and secure and sharing of data will become more simple. In industries like financial services, government and healthcare there is a need to combine BlockChain and Big Data because these industries have repositories full of important data. They must store and share these large amounts of data. Implementation of BlockChain technology provides security of data and ensures its integrity when shared. BlockChain technology is also seen as a way to secure the Internet of Things (IoT). Application of BlockChain in IoT enables IoT devices to participate in BlockChain transactions and invents new styles of digital interactions. This technology will provide a simple infrastructure for devices to directly and securely transfer data or money using Smart contract.
Blockchain technologies (BC) are immutable distributed systems of digital ledgers (i.e., without central repository) and, as rule, without central authority. Currently, there is a lot of excitement around the use of BC technology, although the technology itself, on the one hand, is still not quite clear to many ones, and on the other (and this is the main thing) is not new. Superficial understanding of the BC as a phenomenon with «magical properties» leads to numerous predictions about the possibility of revolutionary transformations based on its application to entire sectors of the economy and, above all, in the credit and financial sphere. In this regard, this article presents a systematized analysis, the history of the BC emergence, leading from the international standards ISO 7498-2 of 1989 and ITU-T X.800 of 1991, as well as a brief informal definition of BC and considered are the basic principles and components of this technology, including cryptographic one-way functions (hashes), transactions, addresses and their retrieval, «digital wallets», ledgers, blocks, blockchain in operations. Representation of the BC as a sequence of blocks bounded base on known mechanisms of the data integrity with using asymmetric cryptography allows us to conclude that only its evolutionary development is possible, although at a rapid pace in real time. This is a characteristic feature of establishing modern stage of and all other IT types. In conclusion, attention is drawn to the need for additional research to assess the security and reliability of the BC in terms of assessing the prospects for its use in specific business applications and critical information infrastructure systems.