Aleksandr Kapitonov, Ivan Berman, Sergey Lonshakov, Aleksandr Krupenkin
The article presents the architecture of communication protocol for modern industrial processes and business based on cyber-physical systems - Industry 4.0. The main attention is paid to one of the key trends of this concept - to economical autonomous agents i.e. to robots or smart things, which are able to make decisions independently about their economic actions. Agents begin to fully participate in business processes, so it is important to automate the processes and ensure formal and secure communication between multiple heterogeneous agents, taking into account the economic component of the industry. The article shows how to organize economic interaction between agents using a peer-to-peer network based on decentralized Blockchain technology and smart contracts. The general concept of protocol work is described and the experience of its implementation on ROS and Ethereum Blockchain is presented in the form of universal software for different agents. As a result, the experience of applying this solution in various projects is described: a business project with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and an educational project of "smart city".
Jun 1, 2018·2018 IEEE 20th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications; IEEE 16th International Conference on Smart City; IEEE 4th International Conference on Data Science and Systems (HPCC/SmartCity/DSS)
Energy conservation measurements in buildings are more and more popular as they benefit from an intelligent contractual framework called Energy Performance Contracts (EPC), where energy savings are measured as the difference between a predictive baseline model and the actual consumption. While modern predictive models make use of large amounts of data from external sources and increasingly complex algorithms, these two aspects make their use difficult in practice because they need mutual understanding and transparency, requiring the involvement of a third-party for auditing. In this sense, we designed and developed a prototype that overcomes these issues by storing the predictive models and the data in an immutable blockchained data structure using the Ethereum framework. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first working prototype using the blockchain technology applied to EPCs. This paper presents and discusses the technical solutions and best-practice guidelines adopted in this prototype.
This thesis examines one key research question: how has the ideational infrastructure of global financial markets impacted on the regulatory reforms within the transnational and Third World financial regulatory orders? It explores the ideological and performative role of ideas and their related technologies and practices in the reproduction of financial capitalism and regulatory neoliberalism in the globalized financial markets and related transnational and national regulatory institutions, specifically in Third World countries. The regulation of the liberalized interest rates in Kenya's credit market forms the basis of a three-part case study on reproduction of regulatory neoliberalism in Third World countries. The study is premised on the observation that the Third World's historical contestation of the transnational financial regulatory order has registered both progress and challenges, but regulatory neoliberalism and the globalization of financial capitalism grows more resilient, despite periodic setbacks. While noting the significance of structural power, stakeholder interests, and material embedding, in the reproduction of regulatory neoliberalism, this thesis identifies and focuses on specific ideas and related technologies and practices as making an under-stated contribution. It therefore explores the ideological and performative power of neoclassical economic theories, doctrines of legal formalism, technological ideas, artefacts, and their related practices, which form the ideational infrastructure of contemporary financial markets. The thesis examines their role in constructing meaning, relationships and institutions, allocating identities, interests and capacities, defining problems and their solutions, thereby enabling and constraining action. The main argument explored in this study is that the ideational infrastructure of the financial markets legitimates, constitutes and performs neoliberal financial markets and regulatory neoliberalism, within the transnational and national financial regulatory institutions. By presenting neoliberal financial markets, and regulatory neoliberalism as the only rational form of economic organization, this ideational infrastructure conceals their reproduction of inequality and power asymmetries between developed and developing countries in transnational regulation, and also between lenders and borrowers in Kenya's credit markets. It also restricts the regulatory possibilities available to Third World policy makers and regulators for addressing the externalities of neoliberal financial markets, including, as explored in the Kenya case studies, high interest rates and high indebtedness. The related key findings of the thesis are four-pronged. The first finding is the transformation of neoliberal hegemony in global financial markets from the centralized structural, military and economic power of the US and other developed countries, to a more decentralized, diffused hegemony embedded in ideologies, discourses, performative practices, and technologies. This is evident in the transformation of liberal hegemony in response to Third World contestation. The second finding is the 'relatively autonomous' agential power of legal, economic and technological ideas and practices underpinning regulatory neoliberalism, when decoupled from their originators. This is demonstrated by the origination and diffusion of ideas to and from the Bretton Woods institutions, and also their embedding within the bureaucracies of Kenya financial markets regulators. The third insight is the complex, co-constitutive, but not necessarily causal, relationships between legal formalism, neoclassical economic theories, technological ideas, and their related practices, which contribute to the resilience and durability of transnational regulatory neoliberalism. The thesis demonstrates the embodiment of these ideas and practices in the credit information sharing infrastructure, and their simultaneous constitution of neoliberal interest rates markets in Kenya. The fourth insight is the conceptual indeterminacy, inconsistency, and contradiction at the heart of the legal, economic and technological ideologies, and possibilities of harnessing their ideological and performative power towards establishing alternative economic organizations. The three Kenya case studies demonstrates the failure of the legal, economic and technological ideologies and practices employed by Kenyan financial regulators in the interest rates market. The thesis concludes that the present Third World efforts aimed at contesting the regulatory neoliberalism at the heart of the transnational financial regulatory order should also focus on the ideological and performative power of the ideational infrastructure of the global financial markets. In doing so, TWAIL practitioners should of necessity adopt an interdisciplinary approach in their reflection, conceptualization, articulation, dissemination and legal operationalization of an alternative international financial law praxis.
Zhijie Li, Haoyan Wu, Brian King, Zina Ben Miled · 6 authors
Optimizing physical goods distribution by providing increased visibility to trading partners can directly impact product cost. However, current supply chain information systems often lack the ability to cost-effectively relay ground truth information in near real time to all stakeholders and most importantly to the supplier and the customer during the transport of the shipment. This paper presents a solution that addresses this gap through a peer-to-peer architecture that can support the increasing demand for visibility and timely delivery of information during the physical distribution phase of supply chain. Additional features of the proposed solution include scalability, privacy and validity of the information that is delivered to the trading partners. The solution enables small, medium and large businesses to interact in a dynamic and shipment-centric manner through a private blockchain sub-ledger that digitizes the transfer of custody chain for each shipment. Information in this private ledger is augmented by a public event ledger that reflects the movement of the shipment in near real time. Third party monitors are engaged in the validation of the geolocation of the shipments by posting their physical proximity in the form of events to the public ledger.
Since Bitcoin’s release in late 2008, the cryptocurrency has grown and proven itself as a disruptive technology, resistant to sovereign law and international financial regulations, and an alternative to the sovereign state’s concept of fiat money. The Wild West nature of cryptocurrency has enabled a number of individuals, criminal organizations, terrorist groups, and sovereign states to use Bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies, to avoid detection, interference, or punishment from regulatory agencies to commit actions such as money laundering, trafficking narcotics, purchasing weapons, and bypassing international sanctions. This thesis addresses the disruptive nature of cryptocurrency by asking what legislative options are available to sovereign states to maximize the effectiveness of sovereign laws while limiting undesired cryptocurrency use. To tackle this question, this thesis breaks down the legislative actions countries may take into three categories—prohibition, regulation, and adoption—to investigate the benefits, limitations, and effects of each policy. By examining the legislative actions of countries like China, the United States, and Russia, this thesis finds that sovereign states have had limited success in preventing illicit cryptocurrency use; however, without implementing a refined, multifaceted global regulatory standard on cryptocurrency transactions in the near future, cryptocurrency will remain an unchecked means to transact on an international scale.
With the rapid development of the Internet, there are more and more ways of spreading news, and it's spreading faster and faster. This creates a lot of fake news that confuses the reader's vision. In order to construct a healthy news communication environment, it is necessary to suppress fake news and to crack down on the source of fake news, so it is necessary to trace the source of news. This paper tracks the news based on the distributed storage, decentralization and other features of the blockchain, with the technology of consensus algorithm and intelligent contract.
Mining typically may cause soil subsidence problems. In the Netherlands, that has been the case in the old coal mining district of Limburg (southern Netherlands) and also, more recently, in the new gas and salt mining areas in the north of the country. In the Province of Groningen, three decades of gas mining have caused a soil subsidence of over 35 centimetres. Furthermore, since earthquakes increasingly occur and have even passed 3.3 on the Richter scale, which is the threshold of danger to property, in the late 1990s, their relation to mining activities is no longer denied by the industry after some decades of stubborn negation. In this article, a number of reasons are presented, including arguments derived from liability under tort law (strict liability, combined with reversal of proof, as applied in Limburg since the 1920s), for why the 2003 Dutch Mining Law (as amended in 2017) does not appear to be successful in reflecting the state of the art. One would have expected more in a field with so much at stake, not just for the mining industry but also for citizens and the environment at large. Therefore, it is observed that the liability of mine operators is treated better by the legislation in adjacent European countries. The analysis of the current Dutch Mining Law, concentrating on the issue of liability for damage caused by soil subsidence and earthquakes to private property and the environment, is made from a comparative perspective, with special attention to French, German, and British mining law.
It is a special responsibility to incur individual readings of one’s work from colleagues. I hope the following line of thought does them justice. Nay Rather, an essay by Anne Carson (a translator and poet as well as a classical scholar), begins with an account of the trial of Joan of Arc. Caught in battle against the English and their Burgundian allies on 23 May 1430, a year after she had assisted a French army in lifting the English siege of Orleans, Joan of Arc was put on trial for heresy. The trial lasted from January to May 1431, and Joan was burnt at the stake on 30 May, aged nineteen. In recounting this history, Carson explains that she is particularly interested in the way in which, as she puts it, Joan was ‘distant’ from her own words. Carson (2014: 8) elaborates. Joan of Arc’s guidance, military and moral came from a source that she called ‘voices’. She began to hear them at the age of twelve, and they commanded her style of dress, her beliefs and the revolutionary politics of her action. At her trial, her English ecclesiastical prosecutors wanted to know her voices, for Joan to name and describe them in ways in which they might understand: in terms of recognised religious imagery and emotions, and in a conventional narrative that might then be subjected to mechanisms of theological proof.
Mobile devices generate massive amounts of data that is used to get an insight into the user behavior by enterprise systems. Data privacy is a concern in such systems as users have little control over the data that is generated by them. Blockchain systems offer ways to ensure privacy and security of the user data with the implementation of an access control mechanism. In this demonstration, we present ChainMOB, a mobility analytics application that is built on top of blockchain and addresses the fundamental privacy and security concerns in enterprise systems. Further, the extent of data sharing along with the intended audience is also controlled by the user. Another exciting feature is that user is part of the business model and is incentivized for sharing the personal mobility data. The system also supports queries that can be used in a variety of application domains.
Jun 1, 2018·2018 IEEE International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2018 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS Europe)
Pierluigi Gallo, Suporn Pongnumkul, Uy Quoc Nguyen
The growing demand for safety in urban environments is supported by monitoring using video surveillance. The need to analyze multiple video-flows from different cameras deployed around the city by heterogeneous owners introduces vulnerabilities and privacy issues. Video frames, timestamps, and camera settings can be digitally manipulated by malicious users; the positions of cameras, their orientation and their mechanical settings can be physically manipulated. Digital and physical manipulations may have several effects, including the change of the observed scene and the potential violation of neighbors' privacy. To face these risks, we introduce BlockSee, a blockchain-based video surveillance system that jointly provides validation and immutability to camera settings and surveillance videos, making them readily available to authorized users in case of events. The encouraging results obtained with BlockSee pave the way to new distributed city-wide monitoring systems.
Blockchain and Internet of Things are supposed to have big impact on logistics. This study presents a prototypical smart contract using smart storage containers in order to investigate the potential and the maturity of Blockchain and Internet of Things for logistical processes. A smart storage container is developed and connected to an Ethereum-based smart contract. The smart contract is based on a multi signature wallet of three parties to process the payment and arbitrate disagreements. Further research implications for the development of smart contracts for supply chains are derived from the experiences of this prototype study.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized innovative alternative digital currency, which was introduced in 2009 and is now one of the most widely used crypto-currencies. As digital assets, crypto-currencies utilize encryption technology and electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust in a central authority, such as a government or a central bank. The Blockchain system, which is the underlying infrastructure for transferring any crypto-currency, is a shared form of recording that facilitates the recording of assets and transactions in an open network. Blockchain enables bitcoin transfer transactions from peer to peer without any intermediary, such as a bank or a transfer agency. In this study, artificial intelligence algorithms are developed in order to forecast the bitcoin price by taking into account monthly average prices of the previous three years.
Taking Ei Compendex (EI) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases as the literature sources, this paper presented a bibliographic analysis of the blockchain-related literature between January 2011 and September 2017. For each literature source, we built a separate dataset. Authors' productivity and collaboration, affiliation of authors and collaboration amongst institutions were analyzed using techniques of social networks analysis on both datasets. According to the results, the CNKI authors/institutes raised their productivity and outperformed the EI authors/institutes since 2016. However, the EI authors/institutes show a higher level than the CNKI authors/institutes in collaboration. We also summarized the hot topics on the EI dataset using textual analysis and discovered researchers have shifted their attention from Bitcoin itself to the blockchain technology underlying it.
Bitcoin, a decentralized P2P cryptocurrency, is the most successful application of blockchain that has gained widespread attention over the past several years. It allows users to create individual transactions and any number of addresses, which is used to send and accept Bitcoin. Generally, the value of Bitcoin is mainly reflected in the degree of users' participation and recognition. In the past, there are many proposed research successfully clustering various addresses into different groups to help identify specific users by using two heuristics. However, they paid little attention to exploit the users' activeness and possible impacts on the development of Bitcoin system. Participation ranking as an indicator is important for enhancing Proof-of-Activity based algorithm and predicting the activity of blockchain system. In this paper, we proposed a model to evaluate users' participation and importance objectively and mechanically by adapting PageRank algorithm. We finally run experiments on the public available metadata of blockchain and compare the results with some well-known addresses to assess its competitiveness.
The article is aimed at improving and further developing the methodical provisions on the use of program-target approach in the formation of local budgets in the context of decentralization of the State finances. The article defines advantages and limitations on the use of the program-target approach in the sphere of development of programs and projects of regional socio-economic development, financing of which are supposed to be realized at the expense of local budget. The sequence of stages of strategic planning of socio-economic development of the region is generalized. The approach to development and implementation of target projects and programs of regional socio-economic development, based on the integration of provisions of the program-target approach and the concept of fiscal space, is proposed. It is proved that in distribution of budget financing the potential of expansion of fiscal space should be considered as one of the key criteria of structuring and ranking of target programs, display of ability of local budget to mobilize additional sources of funding and raise funds to meet the requirements of maintaining financial stability.
Amir Feder, Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore · 5 authors
This study examines blockchain technologies and their pivotal role in the evolving Metaverse, shedding light on topics such as how to invest in cryptocurrency, the mechanics behind crypto mining, and strategies to effectively buy and trade cryptocurrencies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the research transitions from the fundamental principles of fintech investment strategies to the overarching implications of blockchain within the Metaverse. Alongside exploring machine learning potentials in financial sectors and risk assessment methodologies, the study critically assesses whether developed or developing nations are poised to reap greater benefits from these technologies. Moreover, it probes into both enduring and dubious crypto projects, drawing a distinct line between genuine blockchain applications and Ponzi-like schemes. The conclusion resolutely affirms the continuing dominance of blockchain technologies, underlined by a profound exploration of their intrinsic value and a reflective commentary by the author on the potential risks confronting individual investors.
Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko, Maribor, Slovenija, Marko Hölbl, Blaž Podgorelec, Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko, Maribor, Slovenija
Advanced Information Technology and Services: OTS 2018: Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Conference, 19th -20th of June, 2018. The papers in the proceedings of the 23rd Professional Conference on Advanced Information Technology and Services address the extremely topical challenges that we (IS/IT experts, software engineers, computer scientists, data scientists, software and solution architects, developers, IT managers, etc.) encounter in our daily work. The authors present innovative solutions and rich experience gained by conducting real-life projects: using blockchain technologies and platforms, establishing new ecosystems, business models and services contributing to digital transformation, introducing and implementing micro-service architectures, ensuring security, confidentiality and privacy, and related risk-management techniques, providing full virtualization and exploitation of infrastructure, updating and upgrading existing information systems, integrating machine learning algorithms and intelligent services and big data platforms, developing and using web components and technologies, applying agile approaches that enable the rapid and efficient development of both prototypes and production-oriented user-centric solutions via automated processes and continuous integration, delivery & deployment.
As a distributed database mapping the domain name and IP address, DNS makes it easier to access the Internet However, DNS relies on the resolution of the root server, which is a hierarchical network topology centered on the root. It is vulnerable to single points of failure and domain name resolution data tampered, affects the normal service of Internet domain name resolution seriously. To solve this problem, we proposed a new blockchain-based decentralization DNS data storage method by studying the principle and characteristics of blockchain. And implement a decentralization system DecDNS to establish multiple parallel DNS nodes, store the key information of the zone file resolution data. In the experiment, we proactively invalidated multiple nodes in the parallel resolution node and tampered the domain name resolution data. The experimental results show that, the DecDNS can provide normal resolution services, solve the problem of single point failure and the falsification of domain name resolution data. While compatible with the original domain name system, it is also enhances the stability and security of DNS framework, so it is an effective and feasible solution.
José Carvalho de Noronha, Gustavo Souto de Noronha, Telma Ruth Pereira, Ana Maria Costa
This article reflects on the future of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS, acronym in Portuguese), based on the foresight exercises conducted by the Brasil Saúde Amanhã initiative of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. The text briefly reviews some paths followed by the SUS as referred to in the Federal Constitution of 1988. It highlights the movement towards the decentralization of care and the constraint of health financial resources that reduced policies of increasing public expenditures. It examines the public and private arrangements for financing and provision of services that have resulted in sectoral privatization, mainly from economic policies articulated with concession of fiscal benefits. It analyzes the changes in the public sector financing through successive constitutional amendments that resulted in the weakening of established social protection policies, particularly of the health sector. For the future, the text considers population aging and analyzes trends in the epidemiological profile, with consequent changes in the health care paradigm. The article concludes by pointing out the consequences of fiscal strangling in the organization of the healthcare system and the need to reverse legal provisions that hamper the fulfillment of the constitutional mandate for equity and universality.
The use of distributed ledger technologies introduces new security and privacy challenges. These challenges are dependent on properties of the ledgers, such as transaction latency and throughput. Some use cases may be outright impossible to implement securely, or in a privacy-retaining manner. Consequently, it is important that these concerns are taken into account when distributed ledger technologies are evaluated and selected as building blocks for higher-level systems. In this paper, we illustrate these concerns through use case examples. We discuss the implications these concerns on the use of distributed ledgers within higher-level systems, such as in SOFIE, a DLT-based approach to securely and openly federate IoT systems.
Martin Holland, Josip Stjepandić, Christopher Nigischer
Within “Industrie 4.0” approach 3D printing technology is characterized as one of the disruptive innovations. Conventional supply chains are replaced by value-added networks. The spatially distributed development of printed components, e.g. for the rapid delivery of spare parts, creates a new challenge when differentiating between “original part”, “copy” or “counterfeit” becomes necessary. This is especially true for safety-critical products. Based on these changes classic branded products adopt the characteristics of licensing models as we know them in the areas of software and digital media. This paper describes the use of digital rights management as a key technology for the successful transition to Additive Manufacturing methods and a key for its commercial implementation and the prevention of intellectual property theft. Risks will be identified along the process chain and solution concepts are presented. These are currently being developed by an 8-partner project named SAMPL (Secure Additive Manufacturing Platform).
Digital Transformation in Industry
Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies