Blockchain technology is disrupting the business landscape in many industries. Energy sector is conservative and has specific reliability and security requirements therefore the possible application range is relatively narrow. Authors research the benefits and shortcomings of the applied blockchain technology and suggest the possible areas in energy sector to develop the solutions based on blockchain principles. Usability of blockchain principles is under research and proper aim has to be defined in order to follow the energy utility goals. The aim od the article is to define the environment and methodology for application of blochchain principles for solving operational technology challenges at energy utilities. Authors also define the possible threats that do not enable fast technology adoption in power utilitiesbiggest of which is cyber security.
It is almost impossible to avoid the hype around blockchain technology. In the space of less than two years, what was once the preserve of developers and deep tech entrepreneurs has exploded into the public consciousness. Perception varies wildly. Kate Baucherel, COO of emerging technology software house City Web Consultants, and presenter of BCS’s recent blockchain webinar looks, discusses and diff erentiates between hype and utility.
D A Zakoldaev, Rodion V. Yamshchikov, Nadezhda V. YAmshchikova
The article analyzes the development and use of the blockchain technology in Russia. The authors assess the implemented solutions of the “distributed register” technology, the national blockchain platform Masterchain and the “Digital economy” program in particular. The process of developing solutions for the digitalization of different sectors of the economy is considered. Support of the “digital” trend of the country development by the first persons of the state is also scrutinized. Having analyzed the political practice and legal framework, the authors come to the conclusion about the need for joint work of all branches of the government on the construction of a digital society in modern Russia.
Current American jurisprudence on digital assets (e.g. Bitcoin) is woefully underdeveloped due to the rapid development and adoption of blockchain technology-creating an intellectual gold rush with agencies, attorneys, and techies all shouting their positions (on securities laws, particularly) into the wind. This Comment enters the ether in an endeavor to counter prevailing federal agency narratives about the role of securities laws regarding "ICOs"-introducing the reader to the most pertinent features of blockchain technology and Initial Coin Offerings, introducing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (the "SEC") current regulatory approach, and applying the seminal Howey is-it-a-security test.
Background: Blockchain technology is recently receiving a lot of attention from researchers as well as from many different industries. There are promising application areas for the logistics sector like digital document exchange and tracking of goods, but there is no existing research on these topics. This thesis aims to contribute to the research of information systems in logistics in combination with Blockchain technology. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the capabilities of Blockchain technology regarding the concepts of privacy, transparency and trust. In addition, the requirements of information systems in logistics regarding the mentioned concepts are studied and brought in relation to the capabilities of Blockchain technology. The goal is to contribute to a theoretical discussion on the role of Blockchain technology in improving the flow of goods and the flow of information in logistics. Method: The research is carried out in the form of an explorative case study. Blockchain technology has not been studied previously in a logistics setting and therefore, an inductive research approach is chosen by using thematic analysis. The case study is based on a pilot test which had the goal to facilitate a Blockchain to exchange documents and track shipments. Conclusion: The findings reflect that the research on Blockchain technology is still in its infancy and that it still takes several years to facilitate the technology in a productive environment. The Blockchain has the capabilities to meet the requirements of information systems in logistics due to the ability to create trust and establish an organisation overarching platform to exchange information.
This paper considers the tasks of supporting the connectivity of nodes in communication networks of unmanned transport (VANET/MANET-networks). High dynamics, decentralization and absence of hierarchy in the networks of this type actualize the task of supporting the connectivity of nodes with software-configurable security services, providing the network protection. It is offered to use a Blockchain technology based system for VANET/MANET network topologyand authentication data distribution and storage. The issue of unlimited blockchain growth preventing this method from being implemented in VANET/MANET networks is considered. The existing solutions of this issueare analyzed and drawbacks are identified. A notion of blockchain with floating genesis block is introduced and its advantages over similar ideas are demonstrated thus allowing it to be used to resolve the issue of continuously growing blockchain within the systems with stalingtransactions as a whole and in VANET/MANET networks in particular.
The invention of Bitcoin in 2008/2009 gave consumers and businesses the possibility to transfer money nationally and internationally on a truly peer-to-peer basis (i.e. without a trusted central party such as a bank). Few people realised the full potential of the technology in the early days, but today blockchains are often referred to as the “internet of trust”. This term relates to the universal potential of blockchain technology, which goes beyond payment systems and enables people that do not trust each other to directly exchange (digitally representable) goods and services with each other. Today’s variety of blockchain technologies, including many crypto currencies, is impressive. Start-ups and IT incumbents are constantly reducing the speed, cost and effort it requires to transfer crypto currencies globally, while also increasing transaction capacity and offering services that go beyond payments. This discussion paper characterises the 10 biggest crypto currencies in terms of market capitalisation and explains the functioning principles of their underlying technologies. These variants of the technology are also essential for non-financial applications. A focus of this paper is the potential of blockchain technologies to improve (international) payments and land registries. Bitcoin-enabled payments were the first application of blockchain technology, and frictionless (international) payments are an essential part of financial inclusion. In contrast, improving land registries is a more innovative use of the technology, but the connection to financial inclusion is not straightforward. However, land registries may indeed play an important role in fostering access to credit for financially underserved people. Almost any technology comes with new risks, and blockchains are no exception to this rule. Although blockchains can provide a very high level of safety and immutability, it depends on the concrete design of the implementation whether this potential is realised. In addition, some blockchain technologies are very energy-intensive, which is an environmental risk. Finally, the high levels of volatility of most crypto currencies represent an economic risk for their users. National and international regulators are challenged by the rapid evolvement of the technology and should aim to mitigate its risks without compromising its potential.
This paper provides a description of the blockchain that underpins the Bitcoins. This paper provides a new mechanism to reinforce the credibility of online transactions based on blockchain technology. It then becomes possible to explore the future of the blockchain technology in other online electronic markets of goods and services. We assert that the blockchain technology, still linked with the BT, could become in the near future the keystone of many electronic markets and could considerably increase online transactions. A cryptocurrency regime based on sidechain is modelled and a public blockchain controlled by a central is proposed.
Sandra Hirsh, Susan Alman, Victoria L. Lemieux, Eric T. Meyer
ABSTRACT It is clear from the expanding literature that blockchain technology is a trend potentially on the brink of revolutionizing the public and private sectors. There have been conferences, books, white papers, start‐ups, and numerous back‐channel discussions on ways blockchain technology can address seemingly endless processes, and it is on the radar of many information professionals. Blockchain technology has the potential for organizations to accomplish much more than cryptocurrency, payments or housing electronic credentials. Currently, organizations are experimenting with its use in a variety of settings from land transaction recording, medical recordkeeping, supply chain management, regulatory compliance, identity management and beyond. The technology enables a broader impact within the information community and around the globe. Some suggestions being mooted for blockchain applications in information centers include building an enhanced metadata center, protecting Digital First Sale rights, supporting community‐based collections, and facilitating partnerships across organizations. With its potential to transform social, political and economic interactions, and the way that information is managed, there is more to explore about how blockchain can be applied to manage information and what the ethical implications may be. The panelists will provide an update on the current and future uses of blockchain from their own ongoing research: they will present the recommendations developed from the IMLS‐funded project to investigate the possible uses of blockchain, research outcomes from the University of British Columbia's Records in the Chain Project, and the outcomes of a recently completed project (Project Novum) that focused on the organizational and structural issues in visual arts and financial services.
Jie Xiao, Jungang Lou, Jianhui Jiang, Xiaoxin Li · 6 authors
Currently, few works focus on the reliability of the blockchain architecture at the circuit level, which makes its security and privacy vulnerable to hardware errors. To mitigate the hazard, through an iterative probabilistic transfer matrix model coded by a binary-decimal mechanism, a reliability-based evaluation method for the importance of circuit units is proposed in this paper. First, the method calculates the output reliabilities in any leads by the iterative probabilistic transfer matrix model and obtains the reliability gradient for the circuit units based on the gradient and barrel theory. Second, it sorts the importance of the circuit units based on their obtained reliability gradients. Third, combining the sensitized path coverage rate and the sequence comparison, the method constructs an importance-based sorting algorithm for the circuit units with the same reliability gradients. Finally, it reinforces the importance circuit units based on the sorting results to improve the security and privacy for the blockchain architecture at the hardware level. Theoretical analysis and experimental results indicate that the proposed method can be applied to measure the importance of circuit units at several abstract levels, with high precision and small time-space complexity, and systems can thus achieve a great reliability improvement at a small cost.
The HPlane IoT framework abstracts security and privacy concerns of critical IoT infrastructure in a Remote Healthcare Monitoring (RHM) environment. Despite its usefulness, the framework lacks a scalable access control mechanism leading to performance and scalability challenges. Some of these challenges can be overcome by using Byzcoin blockchain that provides strong consistency guarantee. However, we found limitations in Byzcoin with respect to reliability, performance and high failure probability due to the use of unreliable Collective Cosigning (CoSi) protocol. Our practical analysis shows that on an average 10-30% CoSi protocols fail when it uses a spanning tree topology to scale Schnorr multisignature. Thus use of Byzcoin poses a significant risk to critical IoT infrastructure. In this paper, we present a robust spanning tree topology along with an implementation of BLS multisignature. Our enhanced topology successfully tackles reliability limitation while BLS multisignature improves performance and lowers failure probability. This work also summarizes how blockchains can serve as a controller application to provide an effective scalable access control in HPlane IoT framework.
Recent declarations and investigations by the Securities and ExchangeCommission suggest that blockchain-based assets are potentially subject to regulation as securities under the Securities Act.This Article presents a systematic analysis of the risks and embedded costs of investments in blockchainbased assets and assesses their potential regulation as securities.This Article offers a comprehensive account of the pertinent properties of blockchain-based assets, the technology of the blockchain, the markets available for their trade, and their varied underlying sources of value.It identifies unique costs and risk factors inherent to the blockchain technology, and examines whether securities laws can potentially add value and protect investors from these unique risks.Identified costs and risks factors include controlling costs prevalent even in decentralized ledgers, monitoring costs that vary according to the costs of automatic verification, technology risks rooted in the vulnerability of the blockchain to bugs in its software, and systemic risks embedded in limited transparency and contractual rigidity of the blockchain-based investment contract.This Article examines these unique costs and risk factors and assesses their normative implications for securities regulation of blockchain-based assets.With current efforts by regulatory authorities to designate blockchain-based assets as securities, a coherent approach is presented based on the type of the offering, investors' profile, and the technical and legal contours of the blockchain-based