Abstract As the Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in popular culture through Cryptocurrencies, its full implication and application to businesses, on a concrete and factual level, is still seen to be in its infancy stage. While the technology provides numerous advantages regarding stability, trust, speed and others, the robustness of the technology is not widely disseminated. This is further coupled by the common notion of resistance to change in business management processes. This paper explores the concept of Smart Contracts through the blockchain technology and its relevance to the business sector and further outlines the advantages and limitations of its applicability as of date.
Blockchain is first introduced by Bitcoin in 2009 and developers all around the world have been trying to apply blockchain in different areas, like finance services, credit and ownership management, resource sharing, investment management, Internet of Things (IoT) etc. Ethereum is a Blockchain 2.0 platform that allows developers to build a Decentralized Application (DApp) without building a new blockchain from the scratch. IoT is the technology to embed all the physical devices with sensors and chips to provide automation process via machine-to-machine communication. Blynk is a platform that provides iOS and Android application for the users and developers to collect data from control microcontroller. This paper is aiming to build a system with Ethereum private Blockchain, Raspberry Pi (RPi), Blynk platform, DHT11 temperature and humidity sensors. The system is a proof-of-concept prototype to simulate smart home applications. It collects the real-time room temperature and humidity by DHT11 via Raspberry Pi. The sensor data will be updated to the Blynk App and stored on the smart contract deployed on the Ethereum private Blockchain. If the real-time temperature or humidity value exceeds the threshold value set by the users, red or green LEDs will be turned on as warnings. This system can be improved by some possible future work.
Xu Wang, Xuan F. Zha, Guangsheng Yu, Wei Ni · 8 authors
Ethereum, as the first Turing-complete blockchain platform, provides various application program interfaces for developers. Although blockchain has highly improved security, faulty configuration and usage can result in serious vulnerabilities. In this paper, we focus on the security vulnerabilities of the official Go-version Ethereum client (geth). The vulnerabilities are because of the insecure API design and the specific Ethereum wallet mechanism. We demonstrate attacks exploiting these vulnerabilities in an Ethereum testbed. The vulnerabilities are confirmed by the scanning results on the public Internet. Finally, corresponding countermeasures against attacks are provided to enhance the security of the Ethereum platform.
Quanqing Xu, Zhiwen Song, Rick Siow Mong Goh, Yongjun Li
Evolvement of blockchain technology has greatly changed the network and it makes many applications to be distributed, decentralized without loss of security. Ethereum is an open-source blockchain platform that provides a runtime environment for running smart contracts, which is called Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Ethereum-based applications are usually referred to as Decentralized Applications (DApps), since they are based on the decentralized EVM, and its smart contracts. Meanwhile, distributed data store also evolves fast with the blockchain technology. Distributed storage develops to reduce the cost of the server side hardware and increase data availability. InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol for distributed storage. IPFS stores immutable data, remove duplication, and obtain address information for storage nodes to search for files in the network. Many DApps have been created with the use of these technologies and one example is to use this design for a decentralized Twitter-like system that is resistant to censorship and single point of failure. This paper involves researching the blockchain technology and implementing a decentralised social network application on the Ethereum private blockchain with the use of smart contract and IPFS. In addition, it examines how blockchain and distributed storage can enable more functionalities of traditional social network systems.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital decentralized cryptocurrency created by an individual under pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In fact, it is the first digital decentralized currency. The importance of digital cryptocurrency and the concept of blockchain have been explored by several developers and organizations. It is assumed to be one of the secure and easy payment methods that can be used in the coming days. In this paper, we survey various topics under Bitcoin such as blocks, blockchains, mining process and proof of work(PoW).
Today's commercial model for edge computing services consists in lightweight devices at the network edge connected through the Internet to remote cloud data centers. Microclouds are an alternative vision of edge computing, where the cloud infrastructure runs at the network edge leveraging decentralized resource contributions of a community. But current attempts to build such microclouds lack a collaborative governance system to operate successfully. In this paper we discuss the opportunity to implement with blockchain technologies key services to enable the decentralized collaborative governance of microclouds. A multiagent approach could further contribute to improve the efficiency in the decision making in the collaborative governance service.
Distributed Ledger Technology is getting famous day by day. Not only investors, financial organizations and technical personnel are interested in this technology, but also government and nearly every other organization are showing interest in this evolving technology. This technology deals with the settlement of transactions without the need of any third party. But it also requires that different nodes distributed all over the world should have the same state of the data to prevent faulty transactions for which there is a need of consensus algorithms. Many algorithms have already been developed and implemented. This paper discusses some of the algorithms that are widely accepted or talked about and also compares them in terms of centralization, energy consumption, transaction rate etc.
In the present era of smart cities and homes, the private information of the patients such as their names, address, and disease is being breached on a regular basis, which indirectly related to the security of electronic health records (EHRs). The existing state-of-the-art schemes handling the security of EHRs have resulted in data being generally inaccessible to patients. These schemes struggle in providing the efficient balance between the data privacy, need for patients, and providers to regularly interact with data. Blockchain technology resolves the aforementioned issues because it shares the data in a decentralized and transactional fashion. This can be leveraged in the healthcare sector to maintain the balance between privacy and accessibility of EHRs. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain-based framework for efficient storage and maintenance of EHRs. This further provides the secure and efficient access to medical data by patients, providers, and third parties, while preserving the patient private information. The goals of this paper are to analyze how our proposed framework fulfills the needs of patients, providers, and third parties, and to understand how the framework maintains the privacy and security concerns in the healthcare 4.0.
IoT is leading a digital revolution in both academia and industry. It brings convenience to people's daily lives; however, the issues of security and privacy of IoT become challenges. Blockchain, a decentralized database based on cryptographic techniques, is promising for IoT security, which may influence a variety of areas including manufacture, finance, and trading. The blockchain framework in an IoT system is an intriguing alternative to the traditional centralized model, which is struggling to meet some specified demands in IoT. In this article, we investigate typical security and privacy issues in IoT and develop a framework to integrate blockchain with IoT, which can provide great assurance for IoT data and various functionalities and desirable scalability including authentication, decentralized payment, and so on. We also suggest some possible solutions to these security and privacy issues in IoT based on blockchain and Ethereum to show how blockchain contributes to IoT.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain technology has received great attention in recent years. However, the data volume of blockchain grows continuously due to the features that cannot be deleted and can only be added. Currently, the total size of Bitcoin blockchain ledger has reached 200GB. Its high demand for storage space and bandwidth to synchronize data with the network prevents many nodes from joining the network.This is not only not conducive to the expansion of this decentralized network, but also becomes the bottleneck of the development of blockchain technology. This paper proposes an IPFS-based blockchain data storage model to solve this problem.In this paper, the miners deposit the transaction data into the IPFS network and pack the returned IPFS hash of transaction into the block. Utilizing the characteristics of the IPFS network and the features of the IPFS hash, the blockchain data is greatly reduced. The scheme is applied to the Bitcoin blockchain. According to the experimental results, the compression ratio can reach 0.0817. According to the analysis, it also has good performance in terms of security and synchronization speed of new node.
The fundamental problem in digital record-keeping is establishing consensus on an update to a ledger, e.g., a payment. Consensus must be achieved in the presence of faults-situations in which some computers are offline or fail to function appropriately. Traditional centralized record-keeping systems rely on trust in a single entity to achieve consensus. Blockchains decentralize record-keeping, dispensing with the need for trust in a single entity, but some instead build a consensus based on the wasteful expenditure of computational resources (proof-of-work). An ideal method of consensus would be tolerant to faults, avoid the waste of computational resources, and be capable of implementing all individually rational transfers of value among agents. We prove a Blockchain Trilemma: any method of consensus, be it centralized or decentralized, must give up (i) fault-tolerance, (ii) resource-efficiency, or (iii) full transferability.
Georgia Avarikioti, Felix Laufenberg, Jakub Sliwinski, Yuyi Wang · 5 authors
Micropayment channels are the most prominent solution to the limitation on transaction throughput in current blockchain systems. However, in practice channels are risky because participants have to be online constantly to avoid fraud, and inefficient because participants have to open multiple channels and lock funds in them. To address the security issue, we propose a novel mechanism that involves watchtowers incentivized to watch the channels and reveal a fraud. Our protocol does not require participants to be online constantly watching the blockchain. The protocol is secure, incentive compatible and lightweight in communication. Furthermore, we present an adaptation of our protocol implementable on the Lightning protocol. Towards efficiency, we examine specific topological structures in the blockchain transaction graph and generalize the construction of channels to enable topologies better suited to specific real-world needs. In these cases, our construction reduces the required amount of signatures for a transaction and the total amount of locked funds in the system.
Many blockchain consensus protocols have been proposed recently to scale the throughput of a blockchain with available bandwidth. However, these protocols are becoming increasingly complex, making it more and more difficult to produce proofs of their security guarantees. We propose a novel permissionless blockchain protocol OHIE which explicitly aims for simplicity. OHIE composes as many parallel instances of Bitcoin's original (and simple) backbone protocol as needed to achieve excellent throughput. We formally prove the safety and liveness properties of OHIE. We demonstrate its performance with a prototype implementation and large-scale experiments with up to 50,000 nodes. In our experiments, OHIE achieves linear scaling with available bandwidth, providing about 4-10 Mbps transaction throughput (under 8-20 Mbps per-node available bandwidth configurations) and at least about 20x better decentralization over prior works.
Table of Contents Hello world in blockchain Building a Bitcoin Payment System Building Your Own Cryptocurrency Peer-to-Peer Auctions in Ethereum Tontine Game with Truffle and Drizzle Blockchain-Based Futures System Blockchains in Business Creating an ICO Distributed Storage IPFS and Swarm Supply Chain on Hyperledger Letter of Credit Hyperledger
The purpose of the study is to investigate a financial component of interbudget relations in Ukraine in part of providing and improving the horizontal equalization of regional budgets under the conditions of decentralization. We aim to measure horizontal fiscal imbalance in Ukraine before and after implementation of the decentralization reform: the changes in the horizontal levelling of regional budgets in pre-reform period and during a period of budgetary decentralization. The methodology of the research is based on the theory of public finance, in particular on the theory of fiscal federalism. Study uses the estimation of the statistical data of the authorized bodies related to the distribution of the state budget funds over the regions of Ukraine. The time interval of the research is four years (2015-2018) due to the starting time of implementation of the decentralization reform in Ukraine and the availability of published statistical information. Software packages MS Excel 2016 and SSPSS Statistics 17.0, StatGraphics Plus 5.0 are used for economic-statistical calculations. Such analysis is conducted using the methods of synthesis, tabular, graphic, cluster and correlation analysis. The constrains of the study are related to the incomplete statistical data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. Results. It is proved that the equalization subsidy was the main tool for equalizing of the revenue part of local budgets. It formed about a quarter of revenue of local budgets and about half of official transfers of local budgets. It is found out that horizontal imbalance is much lower after the decentralization reform in Ukraine: after reforming the horizontal equalization, the absolute volume of the horizontal equalization decreased by 11.5 times, relative indicators decreased by 15 times. A detailed analysis reveals the existence of imbalances in the horizontal equalization of regional budgets in Ukraine in 2015-2018. Furthermore, the present system of horizontal equalization is ineffective according to the criterion of fiscal efficiency and contradicts a basic approach of budget decentralization. Four budget clusters are identified based on the criterion of distribution of basic subsidy: 1-st cluster of budgets with average size of basic subsidy (budgets of Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Chernigiv, Kirovograd, Khmelnytsky, Mykolayiv and Cherkasy regions); 2-nd cluster of budgets with minimum amounts of basic subsidy (budgets of Luhansk and Sumy regions), and with the change of directions of horizontal equalizationts (budgets of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Lviv regions); 3-rd cluster of budgets with maximum size of the basic subsidy (regional budgets of Volyn, Rivne, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi regions); 4-th cluster of budgets of those who transfered a reverse grant to the State Budget of Ukraine (budgets of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv and Poltava regions). Practical meaning. The directions of improvement of the horizontal equalization of regional budgets in Ukraine are substantiated, among them: introduction of the index of horizontal equalization; constance of approaches to horizontal equalization for three years according to requirements of medium-term budget planning and sustainable development of regions; extending the interval of the index of horizontal levelling. The prospects for further study are related to the justification of the mechanism of financial provision of local government in the context of implementation policy of decentralization.
풀뿌리 민주주의 구현을 위한 주민자치회가 두 번의 시범실시를 통하여 드러난 문제점과 시사점을 통하여 향후 성공적인 주민자치회를 위한 방안을 강구할 필요가 있다. 주민자치회의 활성화를 위해서는 우선 입법적 정비를 통해 지방자치법과 지방분권특별법에 보다 명확한 규정의 보완이 필요하고 주민자치법의 제정도 검토해 보아야 한다. 나아가 지방자치를 보다 강화하기 위한 방안으로 주민자치회에 대한 지역적 실정과 특색을 반영하는 조례의 정비도 단행하여야 한다. 주민자치회에 대한 구체적인 내용으로는 주민자치회의 정상적인 운영을 위해서는 재정에 대한 중앙정부에 의존하는 구습을 탈피하여 스스로 재원을 확보하는 다양한 방안이 강구되어야 한다. 또한, 참여민주주의의 실현을 위해 주민자치회는 지방자치단체가 위임 또는 위탁하는 사무에 국한 될 것이 아니고 주민자치회 구역 내의 주민화합과 주민발전을 위한 사항들을 스스로 발굴하여 일반주민들도 주민자치회의 활동과 사업에 적극적으로 참여할 수 있는 다각적인 노력을 경주하여야 한다. 나아가, 주민자치회의 지속적인 발전을 위하여 주민자치회에 다양한 각계각층의 전문가가 참여할 수 있는 기회의 장을 만들고 참여한 위원들의 전문성 강화를 위한 교육과 훈련도 중요하다. 아울러 주민참여를 통한 주민자치를 실현하기 위해서는 지역의 일반주민들의 참여의식을 고취시키는 것이 무엇보다 중요하다. 이를 위해서는 주민자치회 역시 가능한 많은 인원이 주민자치회에 대하여 관심을 갖고 아는 것이 중요하기에 지속적인 교육이 중요하다. 홍보도 가능한 손쉽게 다가갈 수 있도록 하여야 하며 정보통신기술을 활용한 교육 및 홍보체계가 구축되어야 한다. 궁극적으로 이러한 주민자치회의 적극적인 운영은 주민에 대한 근거리 행정을 지역주민이 자치적으로 행하게 됨으로써 지역주민의 참여, 협동, 창의에 힘입어 보다 창의적인 지역자율행정이 전개될 수 있는 계기를 마련하고 성공적 지방분권을 위한 시금석이 되리라 본다.It is necessary to develop a plan for a successful Resident Autonomy Council after viewing the problems and implications seen after witnessing two demonstration by the Resident Autonomy Council, that were promoting a goal of realizing a grassroots democracy. To address the Residents Autonomy Council, it’s required to improve the Local Autonomy Act and Special Act on Decentralization through a legislative investigation and to review the enactment of the Local Autonomy Act. As a way to further support local autonomy, it is important to improve ordinances which reflect local situations and characteristics. Regarding the issues presented by the Residents Autonomy Council, dependence upon the central government for finances should be avoided for the normal operations. In addition, there should be diverse ways to secure resources locally. To realize a participatory democracy, the Residents Autonomy Council’s duties will be limited to the affairs delegated or assigned by local autonomous organizations. There should be multiple efforts made to empower the locals to participate in the Residents Autonomy Council’s projects and activities, hence discovering the matters needed for community harmony and development. For the continued development of the Residents Autonomy Council, it is essential to give experts from diverse fields a chance to participate, lending their knowledge. To realize the potential of the residents it is crucial to improve their consciousness during participation. To this end, many people’s interests must be addressed by the Residents Autonomy Council, and continued education is needed as well. In terms of public relations, the Residents Autonomy Council should be easily accessible. Furthermore, there should be an information and communication technology-based training and PR system. Ultimately, it appears that he promotion of the Resident Autonomy Council could be the turning point in launching a humane and, at the same time, creative local autonomy administration, based on the locals’ participation, collaboration, and creativity. Furthermore, it can be a touchstone for successful decentralization.
Diverse Approaches in Healthcare and Education Studies
У статті охарактеризовано основні виклики, що постали перед фінансовими системами країн світу з огляду на появу криптовалют, які здатні порушити монополію центральних банків щодо контролю грошової маси в обігу. Визначено наявні у світовій та вітчизняній практиці підходи до визначення сутності криптовалют. Розглянуто основні відмінності між електронними грошима і віртуальною валютою. Здійснено оцінку тенденцій на ринку криптовалют, динаміки капіталізації основних криптовалют, зокрема біткоіна, структури криптовалютного ринку. Проаналізовано ситуацію відносно визначення правового статусу криптовалюти в зарубіжних країнах та Україні, обґрунтовано наявність у світовій практиці п’яти основних підходів до регулювання ринку криптовалют. Визначено переваги та недоліки потенційного використання криптовалют як платіжного засобу, а також ризики, пов’язані із частковим заміщенням офіційних платіжних засобів криптовалютами. Визначено ключові передумови застосування ефективних регулятивних підходів до здійснення операцій з криптовалютами, напрями побудови законодавчо-нормативної бази таких операцій в Україні.
У статті розглянуто особливості фінансової децентралізації в Україні. Досліджено повноваження отримані органами місцевого самоврядування для надання якісних та доступних суспільних послуг громадянам. Також, охарактеризовано відповідальність органів місцевого самоврядування перед виборцями – за ефективність своєї роботи, а перед державою – за її законність. Крім того, досліджено основні джерела ресурсів об’єднаних територіальних громад та проведено групування за критеріями їх сутності та ролі у формуванні конкурентних переваг. Проаналізовано фінансову спроможність громад. Визначено, інші інструменти забезпечення економічного розвитку громади, зокрема, здійснення зовнішніх запозичень, самостійне обрання установ з обслуговування коштів місцевих бюджетів відносно розвитку та власних надходжень бюджетних установ, сформовано теоретико-методологічні положення, які можуть бути покладені в основу сучасної системи управління ресурсоефективністю територіальних громад. Доведено, що добровільно об’єднані територіальні громади мають усі можливості й ресурси для повноцінного функціонування та розвитку. Сьогодні органи місцевої влади беруть на себе цілковиту відповідальність за всі сфери життя на власних територіях, що і є показником успішної й доцільної діяльності ОТГ. Визначено, що за умови добросовісного виконання зобов’язань, підвищується ефективність використання бюджетних коштів, а це – прямий і правильний шлях до стабілізації соціально-економічної ситуації в усій країні. Визначено проблеми з якими стикаються місцеві органи влади на шляху до децентралізації. Проведено аналіз видаткових повноважень органів місцевого самоврядування у сучасних реаліях.
У статті розглянуті особливості інновацій, що лежать в основі технології розподілених реєстрів, її різновиди, потенційні і фактично реалізовані напрями застосування, організаційні форми відповідних проектів. Показано, як ця технологія трансформується в напрямку наближення до централізованих реєстрів, але водночас стимулює удосконалення і модернізацію останніх. Виявлено, що для максимального використання потенціалу ТРР необхідна інтеграція децентралізованих систем з правовим полем і зміна технології не лише у проблемних ланках, що найбільше виграють від її застосування, а й в середовищах, з якими ці ланки взаємодіють. Як свідчить досвід реально запроваджених ТРР-проектів, найбільш успішними з технічних та інституційних причин виявляються платформи, що перебувають десь посередині спектру централізованих і децентралізованих реєстрів, тож втілення радикальної лібертаріанської місії ТРР ще не знайдено – системам потрібний централізований арбітр, координатор, суб’єкт відповідальності і гнучкість, якої можна досягти за допомогою авторитетного втручання в протокол. Зроблено висновок, що навіть максимальне поширення ТРР не означатиме перемогу мереж над ієрархіями і демократизацію: по-перше, тому, що будь-яким мережам властиві процеси подальшої ієрархієзації, а по-друге, відновлення ієрархічного порядку може виявитися необхідним для запобігання сповзанню в анархію.
I. A. Chykarenko, O. O. Chykarenko, А. S. Ushakova
The article identifies the factors, which determine the need for strategic planning of local development in a context of decentralization, namely: reforms or dynamic changes that are taking place today in all spheres of socio-economic and political life in Ukraine; reorientation to new management models due to the need for clear goal-setting and development of projects and programs for achieving goals; amalgamation of communities puts forward the need to create a methodological basis for the independent decision-making on a strategic choice of ways of development, etc. The research is based on the experience of designing and implementing strategies and projects for the development of the amalgamated territorial communities of Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast in which the authors of the publication participated as expert-consultants. The role and specific features of the strategic development management process of the amalgamated territorial communities are described. The corresponding principles of management of the implementation of the strategy of development of the amalgamated territorial community (in particular, providing a meaningful relationship between the strategy and other planning documents; timeliness and prevention; personal responsibility; openness and transparency for the public; current scientific and communication support for the implementation of the strategy; etc.) as well as the role of certain processes and functions in managing the implementation of the strategy are substantiated. The paper shows the importance of the multi-level system of personal responsibility for implementation of strategic priorities - from carrying out of each project from the corresponding portfolio of projects of strategic priorities implementation to responsibility for implementation of the strategy as a whole. In order to ensure efficient management of the strategy implementation, a separate authorized body - Strategy Implementation Management Committee (SIMC) - is suggested to be formed. The functions of the SIMC in the amalgamated territorial communities, which differ in content from the functions of other authorized bodies (working group, strategic committee, etc.) traditionally created to manage the implementation of the strategy of local (regional) development are described. It is grounded the necessity of monitoring and adjusting of certain parameters of the strategy (goals, set of projects, financing, terms of implementation, executors, and expected results, etc.) in case of changes, for example, external environment, loss of relevance of certain strategic or operational goals (projects) or, conversely, new goals (projects), etc. An algorithm for making changes to the strategy summary document is described.
Abstract Since new distributed ledger technologies hold out a promise to restructure cross‐border flows of people and material resources, they affect globalization and alter transnational spaces. Their capacity to facilitate secure and disintermediated value transfer through crypto‐code and smart contracts enables novel forms of remittance transfer, resource management and digital identity verification – and may also generate new vulnerabilities. In this article, we examine the use of emerging blockchain applications in various migration and diaspora related initiatives in the emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Europe. By building on existing social networks of mutual obligation and quasi‐ethnic affinities, blockchain technologies may facilitate the ability to enlarge the scope of diasporas and change the nature of belonging, sovereignty, migration and statehood. Through exploring the selective foregrounding of mutuality and materiality in such alternative value transfer systems, we seek to explain the dynamics of trust and agency that these networks generate to extend commitments and loyalties in the transnational space.