The topic of cryptocurrencies has been on the forefront of investors’ minds as they have seen ridiculous returns from the volatile swings in price. Its value highly debated because the asset is not backed by a hard asset. If we look back at the beginning of our country, we see how each state had its own currency and the difficulties that users faced around who would accept that as legal tender. The birth of a federal currency was accepted because it served as a medium of exchange and was backed by gold through the U.S. government. The final evolution of the U.S. dollar was moving away from the gold standard to a fiat currency backed only by the confidence in the U.S. government’s word. Today, we live in a globalized world where there is significant communication between countries around the globe that it seems that we have almost come to the same crossing point that our country saw when it first adopted a federal currency. For cryptocurrencies to be adopted as the standard around the world, we must first discuss why they would carry the same value as the current federal currencies that are already set in place and why there may be a shift. The paper will be investigating the reasons that cryptocurrencies may gain popularity first as a flight to quality asset before a widespread adoption throughout business and individuals. This carries great importance as the adoption of cryptocurrencies would mark a new era of untested, autonomous free markets around the globe. We will look at current debt levels, different asset class correlations, perceived stable currencies, and if cryptocurrencies can act as an alternative asset. The current idea of flight to quality assets is moving away from more risky assets like equities or unstable currencies to fixed income or stable currencies like the USD but what if investors lose faith in some of the U.S. denominated assets?
This paper considers the design, the developed and the experimental evaluation, a blockchain based smart contract specifying the operating rules of a real time, uniform-price double auction energy market. Producers and consumers interact with this contract sending their offers and bids accordingly and the contract clears the market based on a double auction model. We propose four different approaches for implementing, through the Ethereum platform, both the P2P network as well as the smart contract. We systematically compare the above approaches on the basis of their decentralization nature, operating costs, computational costs, effectiveness, security, privacy and beyond. This comparison is achieved through large scale, real time simulations based on the GridLAB-D platform.
Gucun merkezlerde olmayip insanlarin elinde toplandigi finansal teknolojiler gelecegi sekillendirmeye basladilar. Guvenligi matematiksel yontemler sifrelenerek saglanan kripto paralar, klasik anlamda kullanilan paralarin aksine hicbir devlet ve/veya kurum destegi olmaksizin dunyanin her herhangi bir yerinde bireysel kullanicilar tarafindan uretilerek kullanilmaktadir. Hâlihazirda bin alti yuz elli civarinda kullanilan kripto para piyasada islem gormektedir. Bunlardan one cikanlar; Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cardano, NEM, Litecoin, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, IOTA ve TRON’dur. Bu paralarin yatirim araci olarak degerlendirilirken bazi sirketler hatta ulkeler emtia olarak da degerlendirmektedir. Kripto paralarin dunyada islem hacimlerinin artmasi onlenemeyen bir gercekliktir. Bu gercekligin akademik bir makalede yer almasi gerekliligi uzerine calismanin literature degerlenmesi onemli gorulmustur. Calisma ile, zaman ve mekan siniri olmayan kripto paralarin avantaj ve dezavantajlarini degerlendirerek ulkelerin ve sirketlerin kripto paralari kullanimlarina yonelik yaptiklari calismalar ve hukuki duzenlemeleri inceleyip Turkiye acisindan konuyla ilgili yapilacak calismalara isik tutmak amaclanmaktadir. Bu baglamda calismada, dijitallesen dunyada yenilikci finansal teknolojileri kullanarak dunyanin gerisinde kalmadan gelecekte inovasyona liderlik edebilme olasiligi olan kripto paralar, yatirim olanaklari ve hukuksal duzenlemeleri ikincil verilerin isiginda ampirik olarak degerlendirilmektedir. Bunun yani sira Turkiye’de yeni nesille birlikte buyuyen kripto para yatirimcilarinin dikkat etmesi gereken unsurlar ile Turkiye’nin bu teknolojiye hazir olmasi icin gerekli model de calismada yer almaktadir.
Bitcoin is a digital currency raised by Satosghi Nakamoto, which is Completely decentralized, Highly anonymous, cross-border. Nowadays it has became one of the most widely used currency. Recently, as the used capacity has approached the capacity limitation of each block, the time needed to confirm a transaction increase dramatically. As a result, bitcoin cannot satisfy the need of a large number of bitcoin transactions. This paper aims to apply merged mining technology to bitcoin blockchain scaling, which builds another blockchain called auxiliary blockchain based on bitcoin blockchain and stores some of small rapid transactions in auxiliary blockchain. This paper also proves the merged mining technology can concentrate computing power and design a special miner reward program.
Ante un hecho noticioso, el periodista destaca lo mas relevante para llamar la atencion del lector. Las subidas y bajadas de Bitcoin, la criptomoneda de moda basada en la tecnologia Blockchain, ha hecho que la prensa generalista hable de ella sin saber muy bien en que consiste. Intentaremos, desde este reportaje, aportar un poco de luz.
In the recent years, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm. Although these cryptocurrencies promise a decentralized, anonymous, and secure form of payment, their enormous volatility and price fluctuations prevent mainstream adoption. While previous works have focused on link between external factors and the Bitcoin market, our work focuses on the link between Bitcoin market and the Bitcoin blockchain itself without external factors. We explore the use of machine learning in conjunction with blockchain data analysis for market prediction at various time intervals. Additionally, we investigate the presence and prevalence of market indicative features within the Bitcoin blockchain over the past few years.
This thesis introduces blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and discusses how best to conceptualize it relative to other technologies. Following an explanation of the fundamentals of blockchain, also known as the distributed ledger, I identify the characteristics of the technology. Building upon blockchain’s inherent strengths and limitations, I explore potential business applications of blockchain. Finally, I recommend that leaders continue to track the development and adoption of blockchain technology, even if they decide that implementing it does not align with their organization’s strategy at present.
Blockchain has received a great deal of attention due to its inherent and perceived security, as well as its ability to bypass traditional intermediaries and associated transaction costs. Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed network of peer to peer, encrypted public and private ledgers, composed of data records in ââ¬Åblocks,ââ¬Â linked into an immutable chain that is automatically verified and managed. With an initial objective of examining a blockchain use case, we considered the latent value of implementing blockchain within a regional health information exchange. Intrigued by our observations of the lukewarm interest in blockchain for managing the exchange of sensitive information, a difficult problem with high practical significance, we were motivated to examine the feasibility of blockchain applications. From an organizational perspective, there are many unresolved issues related to blockchain because we do not yet understand the impact of the unique features of this technology. Therefore, the objective of this research is: to identify the factors that should be considered when assessing the feasibility of blockchain application. \\ \\ To carry out the research, we examined prior literature and found an extensive number of design documents, opinion pieces (blogs, wikis, and posts), papers, technical reports, conference proceedings, and journal articles. Since the research objective was to examine feasibility, we focused mainly on conference and journal articles. We excluded papers dealing with cryptocurrencies or bit coins, technical papers describing algorithms, or technical developments. We selected all conference proceedings from the AISlibrary with the term ââ¬Åblock chainââ¬Â or ââ¬Åblockchainââ¬Â within the text. For journal articles, we selected papers using the terms ââ¬Åblock chainââ¬Â or ââ¬Åblockchainââ¬Â in the Title and Key Terms and the discipline ââ¬Åbusinessââ¬Â employing a unified search function through an institutional library. In total, 282 papers were retrieved that were related to blockchain. Our review of the literature on systems analysis and design or feasibility studies is not included in this count. \\ \\ From the above literature review, we found that blockchain inherits traditional feasibility concerns: technical, economic, operational/organizational, schedule, legal, governance, and political. However, several attributes are more salient to blockchain: 1) trust, 2) security and privacy, and 3) complexity. Information systems has already dealt with both: the emergence, adoption, and absorption of new technology; and the development of information systems. By examining the characteristics of blockchain from the perspective of the development and adoption of a new technology, we propose that the feasibility aspect of systems analysis should be modified. This leads to a feasibility framework for blockchain applications, that emphasizes trust, security, privacy, and complexity within existing feasibility concerns. \\ \\ Future research will focus on first interviewing senior executives, who are considering adopting and implementing blockchain, to understand how their decision-making process will proceed and, therefore, what additional attributes of feasibility need to be considered. Second, a case study will be used to examine the feasibility of a blockchain application. These will be useful for practitioners and academics in assessing the feasibility of blockchain technology prior to its implementation. \\
The real estate market is influenced by the global growth trends, such as the growth of the transaction costs and new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. The types of the transaction costs of the real estate market are analyzed in the paper. The characteristics of the blockchain as a new information technology that allows reducing transaction costs are considered. The essence of the blockchain as a value-communication technology that allows transferring not only information, but also value using mobile networks and the Internet, is substantiated. The types and classification of the blockchains are considered. The directions of real estate transformation on the basis of introduction of the blockchain technologies are shown. Some unresolved issues, as well as the dangers and challenges of the development of the blockchain technologies, are indicated in this article.
Global maritime logistics generates annual revenues upwards of two trillion dollars, more than one-fifth of which is earned by freight forwarders and other intermediaries facilitating the trade. Multiple entities in the supply chain, with their disjointed and often incompatible administrative procedures, outdated paperwork practices, and competing interests, add a great deal to the cost and time for exporters and importers. This study examines the feasibility of a blockchain-based approach to enhancing transparency, efficiency, and economy of the global maritime logistics and finds the approach much promising. A proof-of-concept Web client application, built using Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Sawtooth framework, is used to describe the functionality of a potential maritime logistics blockchain.
Digital identities and credentials are gradually replacing physical documents, as they can be verified with more accuracy and efficiency. Since online privacy is becoming more crucial than ever, it is essential to preserve the privacy of individuals whenever possible. Therefore, anonymous attestation of digital credentials should be feasible, where provers can selectively disclose attributes and create abstractions over attributes in their credential, in order to solely disclose the minimum amount of information required to complete the goal of verification.<br/><br/>Many schemes in the field of attribute-based credentials consider a single root authority issuing credentials to provers. This is coherent to the traditional way of the issuance of credentials since the process of producing physical documents is costly to distribute to multiple issuers. Digital identities provide the opportunity for authorities to distribute credential issuance rights (consecutively) to smaller entrusted entities.<br/><br/>To the best of our knowledge, we propose the first protocol which combines both anonymous attestation with attribute-based credentials and the delegation of selective signing rights for the issuance of these credentials. Root authorities could delegate signing rights for selective attributes consecutively to trustees, which are able to create anonymous attribute-based credentials with the acquired attributes for provers. Verifiers are able to verify presentation tokens with solely the public key of the root authority, without gaining knowledge about the identities of the prover and intermediate delegators. We introduce three adapted signature schemes based on existing work in order to realize a concrete instantiation of the protocol. Anonymity is achieved by incorporating Schnorr's zero-knowledge proof of knowledge with bilinear pairings to efficiently prove the correctness of presentation tokens.<br/><br/>We realized a prototype of our concrete instantiation and optimized the verification algorithm in order to achieve optimal pairing performance. Complexity analysis of the protocol shows improvement in efficiency by aggregating attribute signatures throughout signing right delegation. Experimental results demonstrate a degree of practical feasibility for the verification of presentation tokens on commodity hardware within the challenging public transportation access control time bound of 300 ms.<br/>
Urgency of the research.The competitive position of the national economy depends on the power of human capital, the foundation of which is based on the system of secondary education. The reform of the decentralization of budgetary relations allows the local authorities to influence the financial provision of the Concept of the New Ukrainian School, based on the needs and interests of each region. Target setting. The concept of the New Ukrainian School implies that the distribution of financial resources is based on the principle of money goes after the child. In September 2018 the elementary school moves to a new content of education and financing. Budget decentralization is a powerful tool for creating a new educational environment. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Topics of reforming education and the specifics of its financing were investigated by I. Kohut, O. Kuklin, E. Stadnyi, A. Seitosmanov, L. Tsymbal, O. Fasolya, P. Hobzsey, N. Kholyavko and other scholars. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. There is an urgent need to research the regional aspects of financing secondary education in the context of budget decentralization. The research objective. To substantiate the conceptual approaches to financing decentralization of secondary education taking into account regional specificity. The statement of basic materials. Modern theoretical and methodological approaches and analytical materials concerning the reform of secondary education are analyzed. The economic and political preconditions of providing educational reform in conditions of decentralization are showed. Conclusions. The constructive implementation of the decentralization reform of the financing of the secondary education system and the implementation of the concept of the New Ukrainian School, the transfer of significant powers and budgets from state authorities to local has been proved. The tendency to increase financing of education is revealed and specified directions for improving the provision of educational services.
Cecilia Anthony Das, Krishna Prasad, Shibley Sadique
This paper seeks to review the current regulatory regime governing cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore, and traces the regulatory trend in those identified countries. These developments are compared to the Australian context. From the comparative analysis conducted be-tween regimes available in other jurisdictions and those in Australia, the authors conclude that the Australian regulatory regime in relation to cryptocurrency, in particular Bitcoin, are comparable in some respects and in others are much progressive. This is specifically in light of the 2017 amendments relating to anti-money laundering legislation which places Australia as a strong forerunner to legislate on Bitcoin and anti-money laundering legislation. However, to successfully achieve this, Australia must address its lag in relation to the classification of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency respectively. As such, it is concluded that the regulatory regime of cryptocurrency both internationally and at the Australian level is far from satisfactory.
This diploma thesis deals with the cryptocurrencies in practice of law. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the initial coin offering and the basic tax aspects of the cryptocurrencies, both with respect to the Czech law, and to provide a comparative overview of the cryptocurrency legal regulation in different states of the world. The actual text of the thesis is divided into four parts. These parts are preceded by a general introduction outlining the overall concept of the thesis, its purpose and the reasons why the topic was chosen. The fourth part is followed by a conclusion summarizing the main findings that were made. The first part of the thesis deals with an explanation of the term cryptocurrency and its comparison with the terms virtual and digital currency. It also discusses whether cryptocurrencies can be considered as money or as currencies and what each of these two categories means. The second part is focused on the initial coin offer in the Czech law. There is a brief description of its course followed by an examination of the applicable rules of both public and private law. Particular attention is paid to the rules concerning the initial public offering, payment transactions, collective investment, enterprise and anti-money laundering. The third part of the thesis dissects basic tax aspects of...
In this research, the returns of four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and Ethereum) were analyzed in order to answer the following research question: “How do the returns of Bitcoin and other altcoins behave over time, and what can we say about extreme values for losses and profits?” With respect to volatility, cryptocurrencies can still be considered extremely volatile. For Bitcoin, the least volatile of the four, we found an annual volatility of approximately 70% based on daily exchange rates. For Ethereum, the most volatile of all four, this percentage was closer to 130%. Also, several distributions were fitted on the returns. It is shown that the Generalized Hyperbolic Distribution is the best fit for all four cryptocurrencies, apart from the tails in some cases.<br/>The tails were investigated seperately by using Extreme Value Analysis and by looking into both empirical and theoretical risk quantities (the Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall). Bitcoin appears to be the least risky of all four cryptocurrencies, but also the least profitable, whereas Ripple appears to be the most risky and also the most profitable.<br/>Compared to previous research, Bitcoin has also become less risky, showing a less fat tail for the losses than before. For Litecoin and Ripple, the reverse is true, as they appear to have become riskier. For Ethereum, no comparisons could be made, as this is a relatively new cryptocurrency that has not been investigated much yet. When tested for Paretianity, the left tails of Litecoin and Ripple appear to Pareto distributed: the losses seem to exhibit heavy tail behavior. For the profits, the tails turned out to be even heavier and can therefore also be considered Paretian. These results were confirmed by Maximum to Sum ratio plots, indicating infinite third and fourth moments for the losses and profits of Litecoin and Ripple, but not for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The results have implications for investment and risk management purposes.
Surprisingly little is written regarding cryptocurrencies in the academic literature (Cheung, et al., 2015) and most information available is merely regarding Bitcoin. Resulting in a lack of knowledge and consistency regarding important, investing related, questions. Such as if (traditional) pricing or valuation techniques apply to cryptocurrencies, what factors influence cryptocurrencies and what differences are can be recognized among cryptocurrencies? Therefore the following central research question and corresponding sub questions are created to explain and understand the price movement of cryptocurrencies:
What can the price movement of cryptocurrencies explain? What pricing theories can be applied to cryptocurrencies? What factors can explain the price movement of cryptocurrencies?
The cryptocurrencies are important topics in economics literature because their significance for the monetary system as innovations in information and communication technology are impacting the conventional thinking about currency, money and payments as they are used over the internet outside existing banking systems. At the same time, all innovations in payment systems come with risks associated with cyber security, speculative investments and money laundering. In present due to their little usage comparing to the total amount of cash and other legal tenders they do not pose risks to financial stability, but as they will increase in volume, they may impede “the central banks’ core functions: monetary policy, financial stability, payments and currency†and the safeguards of investors in cryptocurrencies. One opinion expressed in economics is that in order to mitigate some of the particular risks entailed by cryptocurrencies’ circulation on global financial and monetary system the central banks should considering the issuing of “central bank digital currencies†.
The use of Internet of Things devices is an integral part of our modern society. Communication with internet of things devices is secured with asymmetric key encryption that is handled by the centralized certificate authority infrastructure. The emerging Blockchain technology now provides a safe way to change ownership of digital resources through a decentralized system that challenges the traditional centralized view of trust in digital systems. This project studies the security of building public key infrastructures and access communication protocols on Blockchain technology for IoT devices. An informal cryptographic analysis that used proof by contradiction showed that it is cryptographically safe to build Blockchain based Public Key Infrastructures. The analysed Blockchain based public key infrastructure was implemented with smart contracts and tested on the Ethereum platform along with a dynamic access control protocol ensuring dynamic authentication and distributed logging. The project also concluded that advancements in the software clients of nodes are required before Blockchain can be used in Internet of Things devices. This is due to the high storage demands required by currently available nodes.
The recent surge in renewable energy in the distribution grid could transform the generation side to be more variable, which potentially reduces power quality. This technical local challenge could be compensated by introducing a market solution, which could be realised in the form of a local energy market. Such markets requires a comprehensive infrastructure, where a centralised database solution traditionally have been used. However, blockchain technology have lately been presented as a possible preferable alternative. Blockchain is a decentralised communication platform, which logs all information in a structured and tamper-proof manner. This design makes it potentially suitable for operating a local energy market. However, there have not been performed a lot of research on the feasibility of developing local energy markets using blockchain technology. This will be therefore be the focus of this thesis, where a technical, economic and regulatory analysis are performed.\n\nThis thesis address this feasibility by developing a complex local energy market, deploying this on a test blockchain and analyse the results. The market consists of three unique trading mechanisms, where all explores the benefits of flexible loads. These trading mechanisms are then represented as blockchain applications, and simulated over a range of scenarios. The results illustrate a proof of concept, in addition to measure the usage of computational resources of operating blockchain applications.\n\nThe market simulation proved the technical feasibility of running several complex mechanisms in a blockchain environment, with an integrated payment solution. The observed computational resource consumption of the market revealed that a complex real time trading with 600 nodes and a trading frequency of 5 minutes requires a blockchain that can process 10.2 standard Ethereum transactions per second. This is considered to be possible for a modern blockchain protocol to process. The blockchain application design is also analysed, where it is identified how applications should be designed in order to lower the resulting computational consumption. In result, this thesis identifies blockchain technology as suited to operate a local energy market, without significant negative computational consequences. \n\nRegarding the economical feasibility, such a solution is considered to be more expensive than a database solution when it comes to development costs. However, a blockchain solution presents new market possibilities, which could result in a more efficient market, and hence be more economically beneficial. Regarding a regulatory analysis, the Norwegian energy market regulations presents several challenges towards decentralised local energy markets. However, the technology behind blockchain could provide arguments for changing these regulations, and hence make it possible for end users to participate actively in an energy market.