In recent years, the incredible growth and diversity of IoT systems and applications have generated an enormous amount of sensing data which play an essential role in IoT-based smart systems. So far, it has consumed much time and cost to collect these sensing data enough for these intelligent systems, which is the main reason leading to the needs of sharing available data to shorten time-consuming and cost savings for the data collection process. However, there are many challenges in ensuring integrity, security, and fairness in the data sharing process. In this paper, the authors propose a model leveraging the emerging Blockchain technology as an alternative solution to enhance the security of IoT data sharing management in terms of three principal criteria including confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Our prototype on Ethereum Blockchain demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed model.
This study examines the concept of cryptocurrency and gives a brief history and overview of its characteristics. In an increasingly electronic society, cryptocurrency could be the next step in the evolution of finance in the same way that the internet was a step in the evolution of communication. In the coming years, countries may even announce the release of national cryptocurrencies, although certain conditions must be met for these efforts to be successful. Although the market is still in the early stages, as it begins to mature, cryptocurrency may become more prominent, until it becomes the new status quo.
Electronic bidding systems have become widespread since the advent of the internet and mobile phones. In the Electronic bidding systems, the seller will sell an item and many buyers will bid for that item and the highest bidder will get the item. One of the main issue with this E-Bidding system is the introduction of third-party mainly a company or set of companies which will develop and host either the website or smartphone application. The Buyers and the Sellers have to trust this company because all the bidding process will be handled by the company. The company can manipulate the bidding process if it wants. So to avoid the trust issues blockchain based electronic bidding system is introduced in this paper. In this model, there is no need for third party. Smart Contract will handle all the bidding transactions. Since blockchains are known for its integrity this system makes sure that the integrity of the bidding process is preserved.
Hamza Baqa, Nguyen B. Truong, Noël Crespi, Gyu Myoung Lee · 5 authors
The emerging Blockchain (BC) and Distributed Ledger technologies have come to impact a variety of domains, from capital market sectors to digital asset management in the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, more and more BC-based decentralized applications for numerous cross-domain services have been developed. These applications implement specialized decentralized computer programs called Smart Contracts (SCs) which are deployed into BC frameworks. Although these SCs are open ato public, it is challenging to discover and utilize such SCs for a wide range of usages from both systems and end-users because such SCs are already compiled in form of byte-codes without any associated meta-data. This motivates us to propose a solution called Semantic SC (SSC) which integrates RESTful semantic web technologies in SCs, deployed on the Ethereum Blockchain platform, for indexing, browsing and annotating such SCs. The solution also exposes the relevant distributed ledgers as Linked Data for enhancing the discovery capability. To achieve this goal, the OWL-S service ontology is extended by incorporating some domain specific terminologies, which are used in the development of the proposed SSCs. As a result, SSC can be utilized to enrich queries for a domain-specific terms across multiple distributed ledgers, which greatly increases the discovery capability of decentralized IoT applications and services. Contribution in standardization is also discussed. We believe that our research work takes the first steps towards connecting BC-based decentralized services with semantic web services in order to provide better IoT ecosystems.
Blockchain technology has received extensive attention recently, but still a large of technical challenges such as scalability and security. This paper helps to find where recent studies have been focused on and offers a broad perspective relating blockchain applications and smart contracts, their main problems and corresponding solutions and will help to specify gaps and future research. The study extracted 292 articles from top Digital Libraries such as IEEE, ACM, Science Direct and Springer. After a detailed review process only 28 publications were considered based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Sofiane Benahmed, Ivan Pidikseev, Rasheed Hussain, Jooyoung Lee · 7 authors
Development of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-based applications requires an appropriate platform that meets the application requirements. However, due to the abundance of such platforms such as Ethereum, NEM, IOTA, and OpenChain, and the differences among them in terms of scalability, throughput, and features, it is not easy to select a platform for a given use-case. Selection of the right DLT platform is pivotal for the performance of applications and thus-forth directly affects consumer satisfaction. Therefore, the aforementioned factors must be taken into account to decide on a particular platform. To fill this gap, in this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis of different DLT platforms. The choice of platform is based on their popularity and current market share as well as the evolving trends and approaches. In essence, we choose Ethereum, EOS, Hyperledger Sawtooth and NEO. We compare these platforms from both development and performance perspectives. The comparison revealed that Sawtooth provides a huge customization capability that affects the performance and EOS maintains a stable throughput under varying network scales and loads.
블록체인 기술의 발전은 스마트계약의 기술적 구현 및 상용화를 가능케 하였고 국제무역 대금결제에 있어 신뢰성과 효율성 측면의 근본적인 변화를 가져오리라 기대를 모으고 있다. 블록체인 및 스마트계약의 도입을 통해 서류의 위변조를 방지하고 계약체결 및 계약의무이행의 자동화가 가능해질 경우, 전통적인 화환신용장에 소요되는 비용과 시간을 혁신적으로 단축시켜 1일 이내 가능케 하리라 전망한다. 실제로 HSBC 등 글로벌 금융기관에서는 이와 같은 1일내 신용장 결제 구현사례가 발표되고 있다.BR 본 연구는 블록체인 기반 스마트계약을 도입하여 새로운 ‘스마트계약신용장’의 도입을 제안한다. 특히, 전통적 화환신용장의 7단계 계약관계가 3단계로 축소되고 통지은행은 없어지는 등 달라지는 절차 및 계약관계, 향후 예상되는 쟁점 및 특징을 탐색적으로 규명하였다. 선행연구의 부족을 보완하기 위해 전문가 인터뷰를 통해 본 제안의 타당성을 검증하였고 스마트계약신용장의 향후 전망을 함께 검토했다.
Since it takes time and effort to put a new product or service on the market,\none would like to predict whether it will be a success. In general this is not\npossible, but it is possible to follow best practices in order to maximise the\nchance of success. A smart contract is intended to encode business logic and is\ntherefore at the heart of every new business on the Ethereum blockchain. We\nhave investigated how to measure the success of smart contracts, and whether\nsuccessful smart contracts have characteristics that less successful smart\ncontracts lack. The appearance of a smart contract on a listing website such as\nEtherscan or StateoftheDapps is such a characteristic. In this paper, we\npresent a three-pronged analysis of the relative success of listed smart\ncontracts. First, we have used statistical analysis on the publicly visible\ntransaction history of the Ethereum blockchain to determine that listed\ncontracts are significantly more successful than their unlisted counterparts.\nNext, we have conducted a survey among more than 200 developers via an\nanonymous online survey about their experience with the listing process. A\nsignificant majority of respondents do not believe that listing a contract\nitself contributes to its success, but they believe that the extra attention\nthat is typically paid in tandem with the listing process does contribute.\nFinally, based on the respondents' answers, we have drafted 10 recommendations\nfor developers and validated them by submitting them to an international panel\nof experts.\n
Yong Tang, Jason Xiong, Rafael Becerril‐Arreola, Lakshmi Iyer
Purpose The purpose of this paper is fourfold: first, to provide the first systematic study on the ethics of blockchain, mapping its main socio-technical challenges in technology and applications; second, to identify ethical issues of blockchain; third, to propose a conceptual framework of blockchain ethics study; fourth, to discuss ethical issues for stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs literature research, research agenda and framework development. Findings Ethics of blockchain and its applications is essential for technology adoption. There is a void of research on blockchain ethics. The authors propose a first theoretical framework of blockchain ethics. Research agenda is proposed for future search. Finally, the authors recommend measures for stakeholders to facilitate the ethical adequacy of blockchain implementations and future Information Systems (IS) research directions. This research raises timely awareness and stimulates further debate on the ethics of blockchain in the IS community. Originality/value First, this work provides timely systematic research on blockchain ethics. Second, the authors propose the first research framework of blockchain ethics. Third, the authors identify key research questions of blockchain ethics. Fourth, this study contributes to the understanding of blockchain technology and its societal impacts.
The sport industry has experienced significant technological change in its environment with the recent rise of Bitcoin and its underlying foundation, blockchain. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to introduce and conceptually ground blockchain in sport and discuss the implications and value proposition of blockchain to the sport industry. After a brief overview of blockchain and the technology stack, the mechanism is conceptually rooted in the network paradigm, a framework already known to the academic sport community. This treatment argues that the decentralized, closed, and dense mesh network produced by blockchain technology is beneficial to the sport industry. Notably, the article identifies blockchain’s capacity to facilitate new sources of revenue and improve data management and suggests that sport management and communication consider the value of blockchain and the technology stack as the digital footprint in the industry intensifies and becomes increasingly complex.
Over the last decade, blockchain technology has emerged to provide solutions to the complexity and privacy challenges of using distributed databases. It reduces cost for customers by eliminating intermediaries and builds trust in peer-to-peer communications. Over this time, the concept of blockchain has shifted greatly due to its potential in business growth for enterprises and the rapidly evolving applications in a collaborative smart-city ecosystem, healthcare, and governance. Many platforms, with different architectures and consensus protocols, have been introduced. Consequently, it becomes challenging for an application developer to choose the right platform. Furthermore, blockchain has misaligned with the goals for an efficient green collaborative digital ecosystem. Therefore, it becomes critical to address this gap and to build new frameworks to align blockchain with those goals. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of blockchain architecture and consensus protocols, bringing a retrospective analysis and discussing the rationale of the evolution of the various architectures and protocols, as well as capturing the assumptions conducive to their development and contributions to building collaborative applications. We introduce a classification of those architectures helping developers to choose a suitable platform for applications and providing insights for future research directions in the field to build new frameworks.
An advantage of blockchain protocols is that a decentralized community of users may each update and maintain a public ledger without the need for a trusted third party. Such modifications introduce important economic and ethical considerations that we believe have been not been considered among the community of blockchain developers. We clarify the problem and provide one implementable ethical framework that such developers could use to determine which aspects should be immutable and which should not.
This paper describes one of Oxfam’s pilot projects exploring blockchain technology, focusing on the non-technological, institutional challenges faced by the organisation. There is an emerging literature on blockchain for social good, however, this predominantly focuses on the use cases and issues relating to applying the technology in international development projects. A gap in the literature exists regarding the non-technological aspects of blockchain projects both within the sector and more broadly. Addressing this gap is critically important as many of the promises of blockchain technology will only eventuate in their fullest when whole ecosystems are using the technology. To get there requires a transition period and it is this transition period that holds the key to success for organisations exploring the technology. This paper goes some way to addressing this gap. It does so by describing a specific case study and unpacking some of the organisational challenges associated with implementing a blockchain-based project in the international development and humanitarian sector. This has important implications for the sector as blockchain technology becomes ever more present as a tool capable of reducing inequality and addressing power imbalances. The Oxfam case study described in this paper highlights the difficulty many not-for-profits are having engaging with the technology. The lessons are drawn from a specific use case of a current pilot project using blockchain technology in a cash transfer preparedness project in a small island developing state. Although important and insightful, this paper does not focus on the specifics of the application of the technology but rather discusses the myriad non-technological challenges faced from Oxfam Australia’s perspective. These are categorised into three main areas: awareness and understanding of the technology, capacity constraints of in-house support services in providing relevant support for a nascent technology, and issues related to engaging in non-traditional partnerships. The paper concludes by recommending further areas of research and suggestions to develop practical tools and guidance to help the international development and humanitarian sector navigate this emerging technology.
In this growing world, Internet has changed so much to an extent that it turned into a powerful tool in every aspects of our lives.E-auction is one of those things which helps the bidders to take part in an auction online over the air. In a sealed bid third parties need to pay an extra cost to help the buyers and sellers carry out their exchange without any hassle. But there can be a breach of trust by the third parties. Owners of the auction or the company that is auctioning can have direct entry to it when the auction is run on a decentralized platform. When the users auction off something on the chain, the smart contract takes control of the auctioned asset and thereafter it manages the bids associated. In this paper, we execute a smart contract for a verifiable sealed-bid auction on the Ethereum blockchain. The type of auction used is sealed-bid in which the bidders submit their bids privately and each bidder can participate only once. As per the biddings received, the highest bidder wins and pays the highest corresponding highest submitted bid. Additionally, before the auction ends the bidder can withdraw the bid after submitting it. In such a case the bidder will have another chance to place the bid. This smart contract implementation abides by the true essence of a sealed-bid, to be precise, no information about the biddings is leaked to the bidders except for the highest bid
Mohammad Hashemi Joo, Yuka Nishikawa, Krishnan Dandapani
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the applications and contributions of blockchain technology in finance in general, and to identify areas where the technology can make a larger impact in payment systems. Design/methodology/approach The authors do an exhaustive review of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, and examine the successful applications of blockchain technology in several finance disciplines including cryptocurrency. The authors critically evaluate the technical studies on behaviors in cryptocurrency prices. Findings Cryptocurrency is the first successful application of blockchain technology and can be used as the main fuel of the global money transfer network. Research limitations/implications Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that can change the world with its convenience, transparency, accuracy and efficiency in speed and cost. The growth of blockchain usage in finance depends on further familiarization and trust gained by an increasing number of proven successful usage cases and testimonials as well as appropriate legislative changes. Originality/value This paper provides a comprehensive review of the contributions that blockchain technology has made and is expected to make in the field of finance with the aim of adding value to corporate executives, investors, policy makers and a general audience.
Blockchain for business is a new concept which enables many industries and organizations to implement even the basic of systems on foundation of blockchain technology. Using this technology, our goal is to develop a payments system that enables transfer of funds for a monetary transaction between two parties. Hyperledger is an open source community oriented effort which was made to propel cross-industry blockchain advances that were available. The Linux Foundation has it. It has partners from everywhere throughout the world , at a worldwide dimension and incorporates ventures like funding, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, assembling and Technology. Using Blockchain for Enterprise technology, we are going to develop a new payments system that makes use of regulated cryptocurrency. Using this system, we want to create a new cryptocurrency specific to the payment portal for people to buy, sell and pay or earn rewards using this cryptocurrency. This system will majorly consist of participants and admins that will be divided based on the certificates assigned to every participant. Our implementation involves. using the fabric for creating a payment system run on the backend of blockchain technology. This will involve having a regulatory authority to maintain the cryptocurrency, ledger and authenticity of the users. Theoretically, the blockchain technology maintains anonymity for transactions. It uses a distributed ledger to record transactions for people to be able to make secure transactions without any repercussions. Blockchain for Enterprise implements Blockchain technology by using concepts like Trust, Privacy and Smart contracts in addition to the distributed ledger to create an industry friendly Blockchain business application. Blockchain is a rapidly growing field with multiple implementations which can be explored not just on anonymity but also on actual life implementations. Distributed ledger technology is applied to the payment systems. Cryptocurrency would now not only be used for anonymous transactions but also for regular day to day transactions.
Dinh C. Nguyen, Pubudu N. Pathirana, Ming Ding, Aruna Seneviratne
The blockchain technology is taking the world by storm. Blockchain with its decentralized, transparent and secure nature has emerged as a disruptive technology for the next generation of numerous industrial applications. One of them is Cloud of Things enabled by the combination of cloud computing and Internet of Things. In this context, blockchain provides innovative solutions to address challenges in Cloud of Things in terms of decentralization, data privacy and network security, while Cloud of Things offer elasticity and scalability functionalities to improve the efficiency of blockchain operations. Therefore, a novel paradigm of blockchain and Cloud of Things integration, called BCoT, has been widely regarded as a promising enabler for a wide range of application scenarios. In this article, we present a state-of-the-art review on the BCoT integration to provide general readers with an overview of the BCoT in various aspects, including background knowledge, motivation, and integrated architecture. Particularly, we also provide an in-depth survey of BCoT applications in different use-case domains such as smart healthcare, smart city, smart transportation and smart industry. Then, we review the recent BCoT developments with the emerging blockchain and cloud platforms, services, and research projects. Finally, some important research challenges and future directions are highlighted to spur further research in this promising area.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore, from the view of buyers and sellers, the relationship between the blockchain technology and various important aspects of real estate transactions such as transparency, security and cost reduction. Design/methodology/approach The present study uses a quantitative research method. For the purpose of this study, a questionnaire with close-ended questions is used. The questionnaire was distributed to both buyers and sellers alike. The study included 1,000 people using the stratified probability sampling. The study uses factor analysis to analyze the relationship between the blockchain technology and other research variables such as such as transparency, security and cost reduction. Findings The findings of this study indicate that the buyers and sellers perceive that the transparency and cost reduction have the highest influence on the intention to adopt blockchain technology in a real estate transactions system, followed by the security of transactions. Practical implications The study has great implications for the real estate transactions system in Kosovo and society in general. The study shows that the blockchain technology can provide for a transparent and errorless interaction between buyers and sellers of real estate. Since smart contracts eliminate the need for third parties in real estate transactions, the cost of transactions shall be considerably reduced due to elimination of intermediaries and due to process speed and efficiency. Finally, the blockchain technology can increase the trust between parties and shall serve as a means to fight corruption and money laundering in real estate investments. Originality/value The study is the first quantitative study that studies the causal link between the blockchain technology and important aspects of real estate transactions system such as transparency, security and transaction costs.
Mohamad Kassab, Joanna F. DeFranco, Tarek Malas, Phillip A. Laplante · 6 authors
Healthcare is a data-intensive domain, once a considerable volume of data is daily to monitoring patients, managing clinical research, producing medical records, and processing medical insurance claims. While the focus of applications of blockchain in practice has been to build distributed ledgers involving virtual tokens, the impetus of this emerging technology has now extended to the medical domain. With the increased popularity, it is crucial to study how this technology accompanied with a system for smart contracts can support and challenge the healthcare domain for all interrelated actors (patients, physicians, insurance companies, regulators) and involved assets (e.g., patients’ data, physician’s data, equipment’s and drug’s supply chain, etc.). The contributions of this paper are the following: (i) report the results of a systematic literature review conducted to identify, extract, evaluate and synthesize the studies on the symbiosis of blockchain in healthcare; (ii) summarize and categorize existing benefits/challenges on incorporating blockchain in healthcare domain; (iii) provide a framework that will facilitate new research activities; and (iv) establish the state of evidence with in-depth assessment.
Suzan Bayhan, Anatolij Zubow, Piotr Gawłowicz, Adam Wolisz
Mobile network operators (MNO) can opportunistically use the licensed bands of the primary users (PU) provided that they monitor the spectrum and stop their transmission upon detection of the PU. As deploying spectrum sensors may be prohibitively expensive, the MNO can buy spectrum sensing service from sensing helpers in its proximity. However, such a trade requires a framework with three key functions: helper selection, faulty or malicious helper identification, and payment to honest helpers. Here, we introduce Spass which provides these functions and facilitates a fair exchange between the entities without a trusted third party via smart contracts (SC) running on a blockchain network. While payments via SCs seem conceptually simple, realizing it is difficult due to the cost of using SC functions which might be prohibitive as write/computation operations on the SCs might have a cost, e.g., in Ethereum. Considering our design goals and SC-related overhead, we derive the optimal Spass parameters maximizing the MNO's profit. Moreover, we propose a K-means clustering approach to identify independent malicious helpers, and using both lossless and lossy compression on the helpers' sensing report to decrease the cost of write operations. Via simulations, we show under which conditions Spass-powered service leads to a profitable business for an MNO.