I. D. Buldin, Mikhail Gorodnichev, S. S. Makhrov, Elena Denisova
The article presents a study in the field of development of next generation industrial blockchain-based wireless sensor networks. These sensor networks allow you to transfer and store data in accordance with the concept of the blockchain, ensuring the immutability of data and the use of smart contracts. A model of blockchain capable of working in the networks of the Internet of things, part of which are wireless sensor networks, has been developed.
Economic and Technological Systems Analysis
Digital Transformation in Law
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
The purpose of this paper is to show how the mechanism of the reward structure for cryptocurrency mining (known as “Proof of Work†) is applicable to alleviation of the free rider problem for voluntary public goods provision. This paper presents the following results. First, if each individual reports preferences honestly, then the Samuelson condition can hold. It is possible to set an appropriate level of mining. Second, if the scheme (mechanism) offered by our manuscript is introduced, public goods can theoretically be provided at a Pareto optimal level under certain conditions because each rational individual reports true preferences to the government.
With the increasing number of connected devices and the number of online transactions today, managing all these transactions and devices and maintaining network security is a research issue. Current solutions are mainly based on cloud computing infrastructures, which require servers high-end and broadband networks to provide data storage and computing services. These solutions have a number of significant disadvantages, such as high maintenance costs of centralized servers, critical weakness of Internet Of Things applications, security and trust issues, etc. The blockchain is seen as a promising technique for addressing the mentioned security issues and design new decentralization frameworks. However, this new technology has a great potential in the most diverse technological fields. In this paper, we focus on presenting an overview of blockchain technology, highlighting its advantages, limitations and areas of application. The originality of this work resides in the comparison between the different blockchain systems and their security schemes and the perspective of integrating this technology into secured systems models for our comfort and our private life.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Several problems exist in scientific research project management systems (SRPMSs), such as forgery, tampering, and plagiarism in project application. Additionally, withdrawal and misappropriation of funds in the course of projects and qualitative analysis and evaluation of the expected results of projects consisting of papers, monographs, (tests)reports, and patent inventions during project review remain a challenging task for SRPMS. Blockchain is a distributed database that is maintained by the entire network. It maintains all historical transaction data. This paper proposes researchain using blockchain for SRPMSs and analyzes the key technologies of each module in this model. This provides a new method for the construction of science research management platform.
With the great success of Bitcoin, the blockchain, as its key underlying technology, has been paid more and more concern. However, the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism used by Bitcoin requires long confirmation time and wastes more computing resource. Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), as another important protocol that has been widely used, which can tolerate at most 1/3 corruptions, meanwhile confirm transactions with quick speed. In fact, it is difficult to implement and maintain it with a large-scale setting. In this paper, considering a permissioned setting, we propose a Byzantine protocol based on the committee, and elect a committee to reach the consensus on behalf of all participants. In steady state, our protocol uses PBFT to approve transactions among all members of the committee. In election state, we use an efficient election algorithm which can combine the latest consensus results with the participants' authentication information to elect a new committee. Our protocol improves on Bitcoin in confirmation time and provides safety and liveness on the condition of the amount of Byzantine participants are less than 1/3.
Az Azrinudin Alidin, Abdo Ali Abdullah Al-Wosabi, Zamri Yusoff
Saadiqin is an industrial solution for contract based Islamic core banking which comply with the necessary pillars and conditions related to Muamalah Financial Contracts. The introduction of Blockchain provides new opportunities for financial services to harness the benefits of Blockchain. This paper discusses current problem with financial services particularly Islamic financial, the benefits of Blockchain implementation in financial services and the possibility of Saadiqin integration with Blockchain. Overall structure of integration is presented and initial progress is presented in this paper.
Autonomous driving (AD) promises to disrupt current process management practices in the automotive industry, as processes now have to fulfill increasing requirements for safety, quality and liability. This paradigm change especially manifests itself among electrical system suppliers, as the electrical components transmit the vehicle's energy and communication flow, determining safety critical functions in the vehicle such as steering and braking. In this research, we conducted a multiple embedded case study in the electrical supplier industry in order to derive current challenges as well as future requirements for production processes of safety critical products in the age of autonomous driving. Our data suggest, that the established manufacturing process and practices are unable to fulfill the increasing need for digital continuity, transparency and documentation. To overcome those barriers, we propose a blockchain (BC) and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled traceability system. Through the application of BC, processes can be interconnected, tracked and audited, achieving higher security, liability and quality. This is the first paper, which investigates manufacturing of electrical systems for self-driving vehicles as a suitable use case for BC application.
The recently emerged blockchain (in particular smart contract) technology offers an enticing opportunity for decentralized sharing economy. Machine learning can be one important subroutine in such a decentralized ecosystem. Unfortunately, machine learning programs are usually computational intensive as well as randomized, which fall into the inherent limitations of open blockchain where complex and randomized programs cannot be executed by the underlying nodes collectively. Given also the limitations of existing verifiable computing techniques, we propose a crowdsourcing idea from the game theoretic perspective to resolve the tension. We design a simple incentive mechanism so that the execution of a wide range of complex programs can be crowdsourced via the blockchain, and any false computing result could be deterred. In particular, our protocol works in the scenarios that there is no trusted third-party involved; Moreover, our protocol not only works in the classical model of non-colluding service providers, but also can tolerate any potential coalition up to n-1, where n is the total number of service providers. We also showcase how to use our protocol to crowdsource two typical kinds of machine learning tasks via open blockchain. We envision that our solution is not only promising to launch decentralized applications involving a wide range of machine learning programs, but also a stepping stone towards a general way to empowering intensive and randomized computations atop the open blockchain.
This paper is deeply motivated by the need to explore the impressive Bitcoin price development by addressing Bitcoin as money in its essential attribute as a medium of exchange. We adopt a monetary economics viewpoint and resort to a representative agent modelling strategy within a money-in-the-utility function (MIUF) framework. First, we show that the impressive Bitcoin price development observed since its inception can be interpreted as a hyperdeflation when we focus on Bitcoin role as a medium of exchange. Second, we show that specific monetary features of Bitcoin, its asymptotical fixed nominal stock and divisibility down to eight decimal places, account for a strong possibility of speculative hyperdeflationary paths. It is shown that those paths are fully consistent with the medium of exchange monetary role of Bitcoin and the representative agent optimizing behavior.
The growing interest for decentralized production of renewable energies calls for new market approaches. In this context, the blockchain is considered as a key technology for enabling decentralized local energy markets. Following this idea, several market solutions were proposed by the academic community. However, their technical feasibility or economical viability are yet to be assessed due to the lack of simulation frameworks. In this paper, we propose an agent-based simulation framework to experiment blockchain-backed energy market places. Moreover, based on realistic data of households located in northern France, we perform a sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of parameters on economics and blockchain system performances. Finally, we have implemented our solution on Raspberry Pies IoT devices to measure the actual power consumption of such systems.
Blockchain technology has pioneered a new consensus approach to building a distributed public ledger globally. A key feature expected from cryptocurrencies and blockchain systems is the absence of a centralized control over the operation process. That is, blockchain solutions should neither rely on "trusted parties or powerful minority" for their operations nor introduce such centralisation tendencies into blockchain systems. On the other hand, real-world blockchain systems require steady funding for continuous development and maintenance of the systems. Given that blockchain systems are decentralized systems, their maintenance and developmental funding should also be void of centralization risks. Therefore, secure and "community-inclusive" long-term sustainability of funding is critical for the health of blockchain platforms. In this work, for the first time, we provide a systematic exposition of blockchain development funding, planning, management, and disbursement mechanisms aka "treasury systems" (for cryptocurrencies and blockchain systems). Drawing from existing literature, we identify and categorise various treasury models, thereby enabling an exploration of their properties, benefits and drawbacks. Particularly, we perform an evaluation of real-world cryptocurrency treasury system of top cryptocurrencies e.g., Dash governance system, and ZCash Foundation. Finally, we briefly discuss desired properties of decentralised treasury systems and provide suggestions for improvement or alternative solutions to existing systems or implementations.
Data security, data reliability and data availability are the challenges the world has always been solving. Election and Voter data are very crucial for a democratic nation. India, in this respect, brings its own challenges. A lot of financial resources are spent to conduct elections. At times, people are unable to cast their vote because they are unable to travel back to their constituency. Either way, the regular public lifestyle is affected for days in a row. Notwithstanding the best efforts, the whole process is susceptible to unauthorized access and unauthorized deeds. In this paper use of Blockchain Technology, powered by Ethereum to overcome the challenges in existing voting system.
Traceability system is a system that is able to record product movements along the supply chain and trace them back. In the food supply chain, traceability systems are considered important to ensure the safety of a product. There are two data architectures commonly used in traceability systems namely one-step-forward and one-step-back and aggregated information model architecture. In one-stepforward and one-step-back architectures, tracing process takes a long time and does not guarantee the integrity of the data. In aggregated architecture, data is integrated but rely on third parties as data managers. This research explores the possibility of another type of architecture, which is the blockchain based system. Blockchain based system allows an integrated system to occur without third party by distributing all data to each member of the supply chain involved. Exploration is done by making the FoodTrail Blockchain design using four blockchain system abstraction layers. FoodTrail Blockchain records and tracks the transfer and transformation of food products in the supply chain. Transfer and transformation are stored in the blockchain and can be traced using depth first search algorithm. The design was then implemented in a prototype using the Hyperledger Sawtooth framework. The prototype that are built are evaluated based on aspects that must be considered in the traceability system (breadth, depth, precision, and access) and blockchain (distributed, verified, and immutable). The evaluation shows that FoodTrail Blockchain fulfilled the distributed, verified, and immutable aspect. The system has low performance in transaction handling related to breadth and depth aspect due to limited server capacity and complicated process. However the system has advantages related to access and precision aspect, because all transaction is verified, immutable, and stored locally in every node.
In order to decrease the delay of financial product information update among multi institutions, manage multi-dimensional and diversified financial product information, enhance the properties traceback ability, we propose a blockchain-based financial product management platform. It constructs a distributed network architecture for financial product information management which possess a tamper-resistant, information transparency and secure information sharing environment. The management platform in our paper, using Hyperledger Fabric as underlying architecture, realized the fundamental financial product manage operations. Such as routine maintenance of financial product, multi-function data inquiry and traceability of financial product. As last, considering the characteristics of financial product management, we put forward a follow-up prospect for improving the weaknesses of Hyperledger Fabric to perfect our management platform.
Cryptocurrency exchange platforms, which have appeared recently, provide exchanges between different types of cryptocurrencies as well as fiat money. Since multiple exchange platforms exist today, it is of essential importance to have timely information about user experience and the behavior of participants in such platforms. Trust is a notion that has been studied extensively in sociology, psychology, economics and computer science, with an objective to provide measures for quantifying user behavior in specific social settings and contexts. While in the domain of online social networks, the trust has been thoroughly analyzed from various points of view, in cryptocurrency exchange platforms, the questions about quantifying the levels of emerging trust, are still open. In this work, we elaborate on quantifying trust in the context of cryptocurrency exchange platforms. We focus on two well known bitcoin exchange platforms: Bitcoin-OTC and Bitcoin-Alpha. Using the existing data about user ratings upon interactions in these two platforms, we show how trust is related with the network structure and how to identify communities where trust level is high among participants. Our results can serve as a basis for a strategy on how to interact within these platforms.
Hiring seasonal workers in call centers to provide customer service is a common practice in B2C companies. The quality of service delivered by both contracting and employee customer service agents depends heavily on the domain knowledge available to them. When observing the internal group messaging channels used by agents, we found that similar questions are often asked repetitively by different agents, especially from less experienced ones. The goal of our work is to leverage the promising advances in conversational AI to provide a chatbot-like mechanism for assisting agents in promptly resolving a customer's issue. In this paper, we develop a neural-based conversational solution that employs BiLSTM with attention mechanism and demonstrate how our system boosts the effectiveness of customer support agents. In addition, we discuss the design principles and the necessary considerations for our system. We then demonstrate how our system, named "Isa" (Intuit Smart Agent), can help customer service agents provide a high-quality customer experience by reducing customer wait time and by applying the knowledge accumulated from customer interactions in future applications.
These days, the amount of digital health data is increasing. Legacy systems with privacy and security problems are used to store and share them. The blockchain technology appears as a disruptive solution to improve those systems. The main objective of this thesis work is to create a model based on the blockchain technology to securely store and share simple health assets. The days when blockchain was only related with cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are long past. Today, blockchain is considered an important technology to all applications that need immutable and traceable data, a cryptographic and distributed ledger and secure transactions. MedRec and Medical chain are examples of solutions, based on the blockchain technology, to manage health records that have been developed. The projected model describes a possible integration between MyXimi and a blockchain network. MyXimi users would be the terminals of the network. They will insert new health assets and get assets from the network. The network would consist of several distributed machines administrated by Compta. Those machines would store a public ledger of the health data transactions and all the sensitive data encrypted, always. As an application feature, management terminals would have access to anonymous health data for stats. To test the main features of the projected model it was created a demonstration system: XBlock. Within this system were used several methods to increase the privacy and security of the health data, such as, data encryption and data masking. XBlock was presented to a board of business and IT specialists, in Compta. In conclusion, XBlock proves itself as a true value to enhance the levels of security and privacy of health data when storing it and sharing it. As future work, is suggested the implementation of the propose model integrated with an health app. During this process, it’s important to improve the blockchain network, in terms of its performance and scalability.
This article introduces a new label, ‘Affective Ethnography’, and grounds it within the debates on post-qualitative methodologies and affective methodologies. Affective ethnography is theorized as a style of research practice that acknowledges that all elements—texts, actors, materialities, language, agencies—are already entangled in complex ways, and that they should be read in their intra-actions, through one another, as data in motion/data that move. I discuss three pillars for affective ethnographies that relate to researchers’ presence in doing fieldwork and their bodily capacity to affect/be affected. The first is embodiment and embodied knowing. Doing fieldwork implies the ability to resonate with, becoming-with, and the capacity for affective attunement. The second aspect relates to place as flow, and process—to placeness. The third relates to affect as the power to act and therefore to the presence in the fieldwork of the capacity to ‘make do’, either intentionally or unintentionally.
The recent major scientific conferences on the Innovatube Frontier (IFS) have focused on four areas of pioneering technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Blockchain and Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality. Blockchain has gained a lot of attention, because not only it is the technology that has created the fever of the Bitcoin and Ethereum digital coins, but also because of its great potentials that can change the nature of the real world and in everyone's lives. There have been various studies on blockchain, however, in reality the percentage of people who understand blockchain remain minute. This paper will highlight the important role of blockchain technology in the development of our future world, especially for developing countries.