Blockchain Papers

Stefania Fiorentino, Silvia Bartolucci

No abstract is available for this record.

Alex Marthews, Catherine E. Tucker

No abstract is available for this record.

Raina Haque, Rodrigo Seira, Brent Plummer, Nelson Maria Rosário

No abstract is available for this record.

Nino Lazuashvili, Alex Norta, Dirk Draheim

No abstract is available for this record.

Dominik Sparer, Henning Deeken, Björn Künsting, Philipp Sprenger

No abstract is available for this record.

Kaisa Still, Ilkka Lähteenmäki, Marko Seppänen

This paper explores the emergence of ecosystems in the context of Fintechs infusing digital technology into financial services. The rapid rise of Fintechs has changed the business landscape, challenging the established firms with novel solutions and services. As a result, the established firms are turning to new models of cooperation, replacing the hierarchically managed value chains with ecosystems that are modular and decentralized in their architecture. First, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to present the content and relationships in Fintech research in general. Then, a case study on two of the biggest retail banks in Finland and their innovation relationships in developing Distributed Ledger Technologies and related services was conducted. The results show how established players have established multiple innovation relationships, in different ecosystems as well as between them. These can be seen to demonstrate the emergence of Fintech ecosystems. The study contributes to previous literature by making the linkages explicit, particularly by examining the contextual elements that are crucial enablers or hindering factors in such relationships.

Luís Silvestre, Francisco Pires, Jorge Bernardino

Currently the search for a decentralized data model in companies for its big advantage in removing the middleman has been increasing. For that reason, DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) technologies have gained a lot of visibility in the business world, the most well-known being Blockchain and its emerging Smart Contracts. The identified problem is the lack of knowledge and skill of companies in the domain of the rising Smart Contracts. In this paper, we propose a generic model that could increase the competence of companies in this field by creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up the development environment of Smart Contracts.

Ahmad B. Alkhodre, Toqeer Ali, Salman Jan, Yazed Alsaawy · 6 authors

Businesses need trust to confidently perform trade among each other. Centralized business models are the only mature solutions available to perform trades over the Internet. However, they have many problems which includes but are not limited to the fact that these create bottleneck on the server as well as requires trusted third parties. Recently, decentralized solutions have gained significant popularity and acceptance for future businesses. The wide acceptance of such systems is indeed due to the trust management among various untrusted business stakeholders. Many solutions have been proposed in this regard to provide de-centralized infrastructure for various business models. A standard solution that is acceptable to the industry is still in demand. Hyperledger umbrella Blockchain projects, that are supported by IBM and many other industry big players are gaining popularity due to its efficient and pluggable design. In this study, the author present the idea of utilizing Blockchain to design a Value-Added Tax (VAT) system for Saudi Arabia’s newly introduced tax system. The reason to select this business model for VAT is twofold. First, it provides an untampered distributed ledger, which cannot be deceived by any party. Each transaction in the system cannot go unnoticed by the smart contract. Sec-ondly, it provides a transparent record, and updates all involved parties regarding each activity performed by stakeholders. The newly proposed system will provide a transparent database of VAT transactions according to our smart contract design and at each stage of supply chain, tax will be deducted and stored on peer-to-peer network via consensus process. The author believes that the proposed solution will have significant impact on VAT collection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Graham Greenleaf, Anna Johnston, Bruce Arnold, David Lindsay · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Dimaz Ankaa Wijaya, Joseph K. Liu, Ron Steinfeld, Dongxi Liu · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Cornelius Ihle, Ómar Muñoz Sánchez

No abstract is available for this record.

Nan Liu, Anthony Chapman, Bob Duncan

Distributed ledger technologies such blockchain, crypto-currencies, tokenization and smart contracts have recently received a lot of attention. Despite this increase in attention, industries and governments around the world are not using such technologies to their full potential. Real estate is one of such industries who could greatly benefit from adopting such distributed ledger technologies, mainly due to their automated confirmation and transaction transparency nature. In this paper, we explore some of the main distributed ledger technologies and evaluate their potential impact on the real estate market. Our aim is to show how they could improve current methods such as title deed transfer or property valuation as well as point out any issues which might arise from digitising real estate methods. We also review any reasons for why the technologies have not been adopted already and evaluate what impact they could have if they were to be implemented.

María Nieves Pacheco Jiménez

The aim of this research is to bring the reader closer to several concepts that are becoming more common day by day, and which find themselves in unstoppable development, such as blockchain technology, tokens, ICO (Initial Coin Offerings) or DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Thus, the process of «tokenization», based on abstractly representing a value through the blockchain, is a transcendental innovation in areas such as the financial or the corporate spheres, where ICO —introducing a new business financing channel through the online sale of cryptographic assets— or DAO —entities managed in a decentralized way through smart contracts by tokens holders— come onto the scene. Likewise, their undeniable utilities will be enhanced, but the practical problems faced by these technological developments will also be analyzed, being the main one the regulatory uncertainty.

Joshua Ellul, Gordon J. Pace

Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) are being touted to revolutionise digital services - through decentralisation. Cryptocurrencies, self-sovereign identities, decentralised certificate registries, and transparent voting systems are but a few applications which promise to empower endusers and provide assurances that neither data nor the associated computational logic have been tampered with. Decentralisation, disintermediation, transparency, verifiability, auditability, openness, inclusion, tamper-proof, immutability are just some of the buzz words that continue to be swung around in the promotion of the benefits brought about by Blockchain-based systems to the users. The rhetoric used creates parallels between the features brought about through blockchains and values that many try to uphold, for example honesty, openness, transparency, teamwork and unchanging truth. In this paper a number of blockchain applications aimed at supporting initiatives for common good are highlighted. This is followed by a discussion on technology de/centralisation and a thought experiment used to raise questions regarding the use of decentralised technology in terms of social implications.

Akash Madhusudan, Iraklis Symeonidis, Mustafa Mustafa, Ren Zhang · 5 authors

This paper presents an efficient solution for the booking and payments functionality of a car sharing system that allows individuals to share their personal, underused cars in a completely decentralized manner, annulling the need of an intermediary. Our solution, named SC2Share, leverages smart contracts and uses them to carry out secure and private car booking and payments. Our experiments on SC2Share on the Ethereum testnet guarantee high security and privacy to its users and confirm that our system is cost-efficient and ready for practical use.

Timothy Nielsen

A DAO does not fit well within the current landscape of recognized organizational structures and, rather than shoehorning it into one, states should recognize a new hybrid entity. This Note’s proposed Cryptocorporation form, with rules and protections better suited to the unique qualities of a DAO, could allow for the most appropriate tax treatment of shared profits, limit personal liability, and allow for an appropriate voting structure as articulated in the White Paper. The proposed Cryptocorporation would also protect investors and give the SEC more presumptive jurisdiction over the token-based-stock that is issued and represented exclusively through blockchain tokens. Cryptocorporations can actively attempt to preserve the pseudonymity which exists on a relevant blockchain network, because of the capabilities of electronic communication and the security of blockchain-based recordkeeping. In sum, by borrowing from and building upon the attributes of partnerships, LLCs, and corporations, the concept of the Cryptocorporation has the potential to foster the productive use and development of smart contract technology for decentralized organizations, while mitigating the risks to investors and facilitating a more frictionless secondary market.

Denis Kirillov, Oleg Iakushkin, Vladimir Korkhov, Vadim Petrunin

No abstract is available for this record.

Yan Chen

No abstract is available for this record.

Daniel Hellwig, Goran Karlic, Arnd Huchzermeier

Decentralized finance has evolved as a major contender for traditional banking systems over the last few years. Evolution in blockchain and cryptography technologies are the driving forces for decentralized finance’s growth. The emergence of Bitcoin in the finance system was a major driving force toward the tremendous growth of decentralized finance. However, with various platforms merging every day, the decentralized finance sector is still in its early, unorganized stages. The current decentralized finance market is chaotic. With a new “coin” being introduced almost every month, standardization is highly lacking in the system. DeFi already has several different applications available. For instance, one can purchase stable coins, or assets pegged to a national currency, on decentralized exchanges, move the assets to a lending platform that is also decentralized to earn interest, and then add the interest-earning instruments to a decentralized liquidity pool or an on-chain investment fund. DeFi enterprises frequently aim at decentralized decision-making, or governance, in everything from the user fees to the products they provide. A decentralized program may be started by one person or a small number of individuals, but as the project gathers traction, its leaders frequently try to step down and cede control to the user base. A decentralized autonomous organization that has its rules and regulations written into computer code and that may issue governance tokens, which allow its holders a voice in decisions rather than allowing the decision-making to a centralized government authority as in case of traditional finance, could represent this transition. While on one side, world governments are still trying to grasp and regulate the sector, on the other side, the technology’s reach has been very limited. Undoubtedly, the emergence of blockchain-based decentralized finance is massively influencing our current finance technology industry. In this chapter, we discuss the current growth in the FinTech industry and the blockchain-based decentralized finance sector. Furthermore, we discuss how decentralized finance can be used in the current FinTech industry.

Myriam Ertz, Émilie Boily

This study highlights the potential impacts of blockchain technology on the collaborative economy (CE), colloquially known as the sharing economy. This conceptual review first analyzes how the CE intersects with the blockchain technology. Collaborative consumption involves an intensification of peer-to-peer trade, underpinned by robust digital infrastructures and processes, hence an increased use of new technologies and a redefinition of business activities. As an inherently connected economy, the CE is, therefore, prone to integrating the most recent technological advances including artificial intelligence, big data analysis, augmented reality, the smart grid, and blockchain technology. This review then furthers the examination of the organizational and managerial implications related to the use of blockchain technology in terms of governance, transaction costs, and user confidence. A closing case finally examines the role of a prominent social networking site (i.e., Facebook ) in the CE-blockchain nexus.

Duneesha Fernando, Nalin Ranasinghe

No abstract is available for this record.

Sabrina Scuri, Gergana Tasheva, Luísa Barros, Nuno Nunes

No abstract is available for this record.

Niclas Kannengießer, Sebastian Lins, Tobias Dehling, Ali Sunyaev

Distributed ledger technology (DLT), including blockchain, enables secure processing of transactions between untrustworthy parties in a decentralized system. However, DLT is available in different designs that exhibit diverse characteristics. Moreover, DLT characteristics have complementary and conflicting interdependencies. Hence, there will never be an ideal DLT design for all DLT use cases; instead, DLT implementations need to be configured to contextual requirements. Successful DLT configuration requires, however, a sound understanding of DLT characteristics and their interdependencies. In this manuscript, we review DLT characteristics and organize them into six groups. Furthermore, we condense interdependencies of DLT characteristics into trade-offs that should be considered for successful deployment of DLT. Finally, we consolidate our findings into DLT archetypes for common design objectives, such as security, usability, or performance. Our work makes extant DLT research more transparent and fosters understanding of interdependencies and trade-offs between DLT characteristics.

Ümit Cali, Ozan Çakır

Peer-to-peer energy trading and next generation local energy market mechanisms are expected to provide new use cases and opportunities within the future sharing economy landscape. To this anticipation, we propose alternative incentive mechanisms as energy policy instruments that can be used by policy makers for directly supporting local energy producers, and hence indirectly the consumers, at current local energy markets using capabilities provided by contemporary distributed ledger technology. Under such peer-to-peer local market setting, we first detail market pricing and relevant market parameters thoroughly, and then we discuss fair incentive distribution to local producers in detail, by means of two distinct incentive systems what we call as the fixed stipend and the decaying stipend incentive mechanisms, respectively. We provide an analysis of market pricing and market parameters under German power market conditions, and an illustration of proposed support instruments with resorting to three scenarios experimented on a local energy market test bed that is equipped with realistic energy generation and consumption profiles for its participants.