Jia Liu, Tibor Jager, Saqib A. Kakvi, Bogdan Warinschi
Time-lock encryption is a method to encrypt a message such that it can only be decrypted after a certain deadline has passed. We propose a novel time-lock encryption scheme, whose main advantage over prior constructions is that even receivers with relatively weak computational resources should immediately be able to decrypt after the deadline, without any interaction with the sender, other receivers, or a trusted third party. We build our time-lock encryption on top of the new concept of computational reference clocks and an extractable witness encryption scheme. We explain how to construct a computational reference clock based on Bitcoin. We show how to achieve constant level of multilinearity for witness encryption by using SNARKs. We propose a new construction of a witness encryption scheme which is of independent interest: our scheme, based on Subset-Sum , achieves extractable security without relying on obfuscation. The scheme employs multilinear maps of arbitrary order and is independent of the implementations of multilinear maps.
Today's vehicles are becoming cyber-physical systems that not only communicate with other vehicles but also gather various information from hundreds of sensors within them. These developments help create smart and connected (e.g., self-driving) vehicles that will introduce significant information to drivers, manufacturers, insurance companies, and maintenance service providers for various applications. One such application that is becoming crucial with the introduction of self-driving cars is forensic analysis of traffic accidents. The utilization of vehicle-related data can be instrumental in post-accident scenarios to discover the faulty party, particularly for self-driving vehicles. With the opportunity of being able to access various information in cars, we propose a permissioned blockchain framework among the various elements involved to manage the collected vehicle-related data. Specifically, we first integrate vehicular public key infrastructure (VPKI) to the proposed blockchain to provide membership establishment and privacy. Next, we design a fragmented ledger that will store detailed data related to vehicles such as maintenance information/ history, car diagnosis reports, and so on. The proposed forensic framework enables trustless, traceable, and privacy-aware post-accident analysis with minimal storage and processing overhead.
The incredible growth of cryptocurrencies over the past six months has captured the attention and imagination of the world, with something of a crypto-mania emerging.What was once predominately the domain of a niche group of internet libertarians, cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming the darlings of Wall Street.
The conventional grid and power system infrastructure is monitored using a centralized approach. Wherein remote terminal units are governed using a master control facility. In the wake of dispersed generations where every consumer is also becoming a producer with solar powered PV panels or wind, managing power is becoming a difficult task. This situation can become unmanageable in an event of cyber-attack on a smart grid.The objective of this paper is to use Block Chain Technology (BCT) to manage data of a power system. Initially, we will consider an attack on a switch of SMIB and issues arising out of it. Then we model two more cases where, BCT will aid in management of power.
Artiklen betragter udviklingen i værdien af Bitcoin og stiller spørgsmålet, om der er en boble i Bitcoin - eller om prisudviklingen kan forklares ved nogle mere fundamentale karakteristika ved denne og andre kryptovalutaer eller måske af nogle teknoøkonomiske udviklingstendenser. Det er svært at komme med et entydigt svar på spørgsmålet, men ifølge artiklen er der flere forhold, der tyder på en boble.
New technologies such as Big Data, blockchain, machine learning, and text-mining have made it to the legal world, simplifying all phases of the dispute resolution process. Arbitration and these new technologies share a mutually beneficial relationship. On the one hand, new technologies will improve efficiency, cut costs, promote the expansion of arbitration into new segments of the market, and improve outcomes for clients. On the other hand, the proliferation of new technologies will inevitably generate disputes that arbitration is best-suited to resolve. For example, although self-execution limits certain litigation risks concerning the performance of smart contracts, conflicts regarding their definition, interpretation, and general framework are likely to arise. The delocalized nature of the arbitral regime, the flexibility of proceedings, and the straightforward enforcement of awards are key features that make arbitration the optimal dispute resolution mechanism for new technology disputes. New technologies can thus reinforce arbitral proceedings, and arbitration can provide insurance to these emerging practices – these reciprocal benefits should be exploited.
Blockchain allows for decentralized, self-regulating data, ultimately creating a shared infrastructure where transactions are saved and stored. Scientific information in its essence is a large, dynamic body of information and data that is collaboratively created, altered, used and shared. It lends itself well to the blockchain technology because that technology has the potential to solve challenges around peer review, irreproducibility, and metrics. Other applications of blockchain technology such as cryptocurrencies and digital rights management systems also have a potential relevance for academic publishing.
Jiafu Wan, Baotong Chen, Muhammad Imran, Fei Tao · 7 authors
The cyber-physical production system (CPPS), which combines information communication technology, cyberspace virtual technology, and intelligent equipment technology, is accelerating the path of Industry 4.0 to transform manufacturing from traditional to intelligent. The Industrial Internet of Things integrates the key technologies of industrial communication, computing, and control, and is providing a new way for a wide range of manufacturing resources to optimize management and dynamic scheduling. In this article, OLE for process control technology, software defined industrial network, and device-to-device communication technology are proposed to achieve efficient dynamic resource interaction. Additionally, the integration of ontology modeling with multiagent technology is introduced to achieve dynamic management of resources. We propose a load balancing mechanism based on Jena reasoning and Contract-Net Protocol technology that focuses on intelligent equipment in the smart factory. Dynamic resources management for IoT-based manufacturing provides a solution for complex resource allocation problems in current manufacturing scenarios, and provides a technical reference point for the implementation of intelligent manufacturing in Industry 4.0.
Can a monetary system in which privately issued cryptocurrencies circulate as media of exchange work? Is such a system stable? How should governments react to digital currencies? Can these currencies and government-issued money coexist? Are cryptocurrencies consistent with an e cient allocation? These are some of the important questions that the sudden rise of cryptocurrencies has brought to contemporary policy discussions. To answer these questions, we construct a model of competition among privately issued at currencies. We nd that a purely private arrangement fails to implement an e cient allocation, even though it can deliver price stability under certain technological conditions. Currency competition creates problems for monetary policy implementation under conventional methods. However, it is possible to design a policy rule that uniquely implements an e cient allocation by driving private currencies out of the market. We also show that unique implementation of an e cient allocation can be achieved without government intervention if productive capital is introduced.
Upon the launch of bitcoin futures on 10 December 2017, it seems an opportune time to look into the technology that has enabled its ascent and applications in many sectors.
Med introduktionen af et futures-marked er Bitcoin-eksponering blevet tilgængelig for en bredere gruppe af investorer, som hidtil ikke har kunnet eller villet tilgå det underliggende marked for Bitcoin. Artiklen finder, at kontrakterne umiddelbart favoriserer spekulanter på bekostning af hedgers og arbitragører, og analyserer, hvorledes futures-priserne kan indeholde væsentlig information om spekulaternes forventning til den fremtidige prisudvikling.
The German public pension system created under Otto von Bismarck in 1889 was the first of its kind in the world. It also managed to survive the upheavals of two world wars, revolution, military occupation, and no fewer than five different forms of government in the twentieth century. In A History of the German Public Pension System: Continuity and Change, Alfred Mierzejewski seeks to account for the resiliency of this remarkable institution while also offering his readers a comprehensive new history of the German pension system from its inception to the major reforms implemented under the governments of Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel. Mierzejewski is well equipped to tell this story, drawing on extensive research in German archival and printed primary sources and demonstrating a complete mastery of this complex topic and its rich historiography throughout his narrative. The book begins by recounting a now-familiar story of the Bonapartist, anti-Socialist, and Pietist Lutheran origins of the idea of public pensions under Bismarck. It is to the author’s credit that he highlights how much the actual legislation passed in 1889 was altered from Bismarck’s original proposal during debate in the Reichstag and Federal Council. Unfortunately, little of the rich tenor of those debates over no fewer than forty-three Reichstag committee meetings and twenty-four plenary sessions was conveyed by the author’s brief summary of the legislative process (14–17). In any case, Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor,” was highly dissatisfied with what was passed. Rather than a centralized and uniform system of generous worker pensions funded from taxation and the proceeds of a state tobacco monopoly, he got a compulsory insurance system financed primarily by worker and employer contributions, with very modest benefits scaled to employee contributions. The system’s administration was decentralized to some thirty-one self-governing regional state-insurance institutes, thirteen in the state of Prussia alone. Out of sheer expediency, it became a pay-as-you-go system with a modest reserve accumulated to protect against economic fluctuations. With minor modification, it would remain that way for most of the twentieth century.
Setting proprietary standards for elemental data components of financial transactions, once the province of market participants and intermediaries, their sovereign regulators, and software and data vendors, has evolved into a global open source standards requirement. Global data standards initiatives are now seeking to eliminate unnecessary infrastructure costs and risks arising from use of proprietary data and interoperability standards and processes. Data standards have taken on new meaning and urgency as they have also become a prerequisite to securing financial networks from cyberattacks and enabling new technologies of the digital age. A new generation of innovation led by distributed ledger technology (DLT), a supportive database technology of the Blockchain, is being actively pursued by financial institutions and their financial market utilities. It is also of interest to many financial market regulators who are requesting access to more granular standardised transactional data. It has tremendous potential to eliminate reconciliation processes at financial institutions and refocus many of the hundreds of data intermediaries and financial market utilities that play a significant role in reconciling risk prone and costly non-standard data. This paper argues that the components of a sustainable financial industry infrastructure rebuild are coming into existence, but uncoordinated efforts across the globe will stifle the effectiveness of these changes. Therefore, this paper proposes a new global industry/ government partnership to coordinate implementation of data identification standards, accelerate data harmonisation initiatives and sponsor a secure financial-sector DLT protocol standard.
Utilities confront challenges to optimally plan and develop the distribution grids both for reducing their imposed costs and for satisfying the customers' electricity needs. In this paper, optimal allocation of automatic and manual sectionalizing switches as well as protective devices is performed in presence of load flexibilities. Control devices could improve the duration-based reliability indices, while protective devices could improve both duration-based and frequency-based reliability indices. In this paper, optimal incentives and penalties in the emergency demand response programs (EDRP) are determined based upon the customers' behaviors. The resulting optimization problem is then solved in 2 different scenarios: without load flexibility and incorporating EDRP. Finally, a standard reliability test system (RBTS4) is used to delineate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyze the probability of customers' contribution in EDRP based upon the predetermined contracts.
This article covers the main concepts, common features and differences between electronic grizzly and cybercriminals. The author, based on his own research, gives examples and characteristics of these concepts. The scientific approach describes the important aspects of the functioning of these modern means of payment, which are becoming increasingly popular in the world. However, each of them has both advantages and disadvantages, and in a sense, their use is associated with a number of risks that should be taken into account when deciding on their use. In order to take into account the risks, it is first of all to understand the essence of the payment instrument and the mechanism of its operation. It is for this purpose that this article is prepared: to help readers, irrespective of the level of financial training, to understand the important aspects of the circulation of cryptography and electronic money.
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
The design of a successful distributed system for enabling payments and small transactions among Internet users has long been a major challenge in applied computer science. Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency having reached world-wide popularity, suffers from sustainability problems such as inefficient energy expenditure for its network operation and from perverse incentives that foster speculative hoarding behavior. We propose a digital transfer system based on a variant of the Bitcoin ledger that is meant to support deterministic small payments with enforced proportional transaction fees: to achieve this property, we renounce the persistence of balances expected of a cryptocurrency, thus mitigating currency hoarding. We introduce at the same time a novel external incentive mechanism based on a verifiable third party with the goal of promoting long-term sustainability, adjusting the margins of profitability for contributors to the proof-of-work scheme without stifling the transaction rate.