Blockchain Papers

Erişah Arıcan, Başak Tanınmış Yücememiş, Gökhan Işıl, Aclan Omağ

No abstract is available for this record.

Т. И. Казанцева

The work is devoted to the analysis of Bitcoin protection on mathematical bases, in particular, elliptic curves and finite fields.

Marielle Fiedler, Cecilia Uney

The digital currency Bitcoin has attracted a lot of attention lately, partly because of its high volatility and rising popularity. The purpose of this study was to find out why companies have chosen to implement and accept Bitcoin as a payment method. Furthermore, investigate what costs and benefits companies experience from accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment, as well security concerns and risks related to Bitcoin. The scientific method of observation used to gather information was through qualitative research where interviews were conducted with six different companies that accepts Bitcoin as a means of payment. The study's results indicate that there are several factors that lead to companies choosing to implement Bitcoin as a payment method. It is perceived to be of high level of security as well the risks associated with Bitcoin are not perceived to be major among the respondents. The result showed that the costs of accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment are low for companies but unlike previous studies, it showed very high transaction fees for consumers.

Yongjun Ren, Linhui Kong, Yepeng Liu, Jin Wang

No abstract is available for this record.

Edmund Schuster

No abstract is available for this record.

Abelardo Arredondo

The true innovation behind the Bitcoin protocol is blockchain technology. Blockchain is the underlying distributed database and encryption technology that enables trustless transactions that can be verified, monitored, and enforced without a central institution. This master’s report presents the core concepts behind blockchain that are concerned with carrying instructions for storage, sharing of non-financial data, including an examination of the byzantine fault tolerant cryptography model.\nA literature review describes the types of blockchains, nodes, proof of work, disadvantages, and risks and provides a survey of future applications related to state government records, such as birth certificates, automobile registrations, land deeds, and voting. This review will answer the question: Is it possible for a state government to use blockchain employing trusted nodes given that the nature of blockchain is that of a distributed network of peers accompanied by a public ledger without a central authority?\nFinally, the requirements for a specific application case study will be defined and developed. The desired application will be a smart contract to invoke a statutory durable power of attorney using blockchain technology for oneself in case of incapacitation while still living.

Monika Messmer, Freya Schäfer, Maaike Raaijmakers, Frédéric Rey · 14 authors

The European project LIVESEED (www.liveseed.eu) is based on the concept that cultivars adapted to organic systems are key for realizing the full potential of organic agriculture in Europe. LIVESEED will help to establish a level playing field in the organic seed market across Europe, improve the competitiveness of the organic seed and breeding sector, and encourage greater use of organic seeds by farmers. LIVESEED will improve guidelines for cultivar testing and strategies for ensuring seed health. It will develop innovative breeding approaches suited to organic farming. Finally, it will investigate socio-economic aspects relating to the use and production of organic seed and their interaction with relevant (EU) regulations. The LIVESEED project (2017 – 2021) is coordinated by IFOAM EU with FiBL for scientific coordination and consists of 35 partners and 14 third linked parties from 18 European countries. LIVESEED received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727230 and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 17.00090.
\nBy connecting several networks LIVESEED will combine co construction and exchange of knowledge integrating biological, technical, legal, organisational, financial and political aspects as well as market development to facilitate fast upscaling and outreach of various tailor made socio-technical, evidence based, innovation tracks. LIVESEED will generate (i) a tool box of measures and interventions to match production and demand of organic seed, (ii) validated options for competent authorities to reduce the number of derogation for untreated conventional seed, (iii) develop technical solutions for national databases of organic seed including an interface to a European wide router database to increase the transparency on the availability of organic seed, (iv) analyse in depth formal and informal seed chains, (v) explore various business models including checklists for setting up new multiplication and breeding initiatives, (vi) produce technical factsheet on the best practice guidelines for seed production for major crops including vegetative plant propagation material, and (vii) an develop organic seed quality strategy including quality control of farm saved seeds and efficiency of seed exchange networks.
\nWith respect to organic plant breeding LIVESEED will provide new concepts for designing and implementing decentralized breeding initiatives for organic and low-input agriculture through (i) establishing networks across Europe (e.g. for apple, brassica vegetables) and fostering public-private partnerships, (ii) combining farmer, value chain or community based system breeding with functional trait-based and molecular breeding approaches, (iii) identifying trade-offs between resilience traits and sensory and nutritional quality, (iv) developing breeding schemes for heterogeneous cultivars and species mixtures, and (v) elaborating different financing models.
\nConsidering the plant as a mega organism, including the above and below ground associated microorganism, has the potential to evoke a paradigm shift in plant breeding, and will be elucidated in case studies.

Daniel Gama e Colombo, Jorge Martínez-Vázquez

No abstract is available for this record.

Charlotta Kronblad, Helena Haapio

Smart contracts are becoming all smarter and increasingly available. Yet there seems to be a reluctance in mainstream industry to actually use them. It seems hard to convince general counsel, law firms, and purchasers of legal services to implement smart systems. This is a challenge for the providers of smart technology. The technology is not the problem - successful implementation is. The aim of this paper is to explore the resistance and gatekeepers within the legal industry, potentially resulting in a better understanding of how to overcome the barriers and use available smart technology. © 2018 Editions Weblaw. All rights reserved.

Mikhail Portnoy

Выпуск 3 Том -2018 Доллар, криптовалюты, золото -разные судьбы в одной связке Портной Михаил Анатольевич Институт США и Канады РАН Российская Федерация, Москва Аннотация Рассматривается роль криптовалют и традиционных денег в современном мировом денежном хозяйстве.Предложена трактовка криптовалют в качестве специфических жетонов, или токенов, пригодных для перевода денег и некоторых других операций.Даётся оценка технологии блокчейн как перспективному продукту ИТ-технологий, пригодному для конструктивного использования во многих отраслях экономики.Рассматриваются достоинства и недостатки нового метода привлечения инвестиций -первоначального размещения токенов (ICO -Initial coin offering).Отмечается образование в современной экономике и её финансовой сфере нового сектора с элементами самоорганизации на основе применения продуктов ИТтехнологий.Подчёркивается необходимость правового обеспечения эмиссии и оборота криптовалют.Даётся оценка перспектив сосуществования криптовалют и современных денег.Утверждается роль золота как товара и отмечаются пути его использования в экономике

Sungbum Lee, Boohyung Lee, seinMyung, Jong‐Hyouk Lee

No abstract is available for this record.

Jason Tubinis

The School of Law's Information Technology Librarian summarizes blockchain, the current impact is having on business, finance and e-commerce, and the potential implications for our not so distant future as it pertains to the law.

Mayur Joshi, Nuruddin Ahmed, Jean‐Philippe Vergne

No abstract is available for this record.

Nikhita Ramrakhiani

The purpose of this thesis is to examine, scrutinize and deduce, The current issues
\non accounting for cryptocurrency, to obtain views of accounting and finance
\nprofessionals on current issues on accounting for cryptocurrencies. The title of the
\nthesis was chosen to point out to a reader that there are logical and technical issues
\nthat needs clarification regarding accounting for cryptocurrencies. The thesis also
\nincludes a brief summary of blockchain, just to understand the basics and evaluate
\nthe appropriateness of cryptocurrencies as they are derived from the process of
\nblockchain.
\nThis thesis advices managers to examine and better understand the key features of
\ncryptocurrencies that are relevant to their business as so to be able to correctly
\naccount for them as cryptocurrencies have a quasi-asset and quasi-currency feature
\nand also can be an inventory to some business models. In addition, it states that the
\npreparers of financial statements should evaluate the appropriateness of their
\naccounting policies for cryptocurrencies and validate their disclosures about
\ncryptocurrencies are material and sufficiently transparent to users of financial
\nstatements.
\nThis thesis warrants for standard- setters to undertake research of this area so as to
\nprovide guidance and clarity in accounting for the cryptocurrencies in areas such as
\nasset classification, revenue recognition, valuation and disclosures. They must also
\nensure that the accounting guidance for cryptocurrencies is relevant and useful to
\nthe preparers of financial statements and the users of financial statements.
\nThe research of the thesis will focus on key accounting themes relevant to
\ncryptocurrencies. Although the literature on the topic of the thesis available, is
\nlimited and narrow. Accounting standards are studied in depth in order to deduct
\ntheir appropriateness on cryptocurrencies for the literature review. Further seven
\ninterviews were conducted with accounting professionals to obtain their views on the
\naccounting themes for cryptocurrencies.

Chelsea Pieroni

The advent of Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency has left a permanent mark on the world as we know it, regardless of what percentage of the populace will ever touch or comprehend cryptocurrency in its lifetime. Thanks to the advent of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency has given rise to expedited international exchanges, increased protection of consumer identity, and secured methods for logging transactions. But cryptocurrency’s nebulous nature makes it inherently vulnerable to a slew of hacks, cyberattacks, and run-of-the-mill theft. Moreover, its indeterminate qualities make cryptocurrency incredibly difficult for federal law to wrangle. But, perhaps most chillingly, the rise of cryptocurrency has given organized crime a new look, swapping society’s Kuklinskis1 and Capones2 for pseudonymous sleuths and computer-clad criminals, and underground operations for “dark web” schemes that transcend international borders at the click of a button. This Recent Development will examine how organized crime leverages cryptocurrency, and how U.S. federal law can adapt to stop it.

Nadezhda Ya. Grinchinko, S.S. Ubiraev

The article analyzes the current state of digital economy and crypto currency. It also attempts to outline the main development directions of the Russian legislation on legal regulation of digital currency usage on the basis of current national legislation and foreign experience. Significant attention is given to digital economic concept, its main paths, development of legal framework for digitalization of economic processes. The article includes a review of modern scientific publications on questions under investigation and highlights the necessity of the complex approach both to the analysis of phenomena under study and to their legal regulation. It is also shown that crypto currency circulation is ambiguous and multifaceted and it has both financial advantages and criminological threat. Special consideration is given to the provisions of the draft law on “Digital Financial Assets”, the first project dedicated to the regulation of relations arising in the creation, release, storage and circulation of digital financial assets, which contains key definitions for the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies and transactions with them in the Russian Federation.

Stephan Breu, Theodor G. Seitz

First it has to be stated that Cryptocurrencies are mostly used for legal transfers between legitimate partners and are becoming more and more popular in our society. Any heavy regime of new regulations would make all transactions costlier and less convenient. Such negative economic impact is opposing the need of monitoring the financing structures of organized criminal and terrorist organisations. With the increasing importance of cryptocurrencies, a completely new field of complex problems is arising through the implied anonymity and complexity or sheer impossibility to track transfers in the dark net. As regulations in this new financial market will be difficult to enforce, it is necessary to establish international cooperation and capacity building to implement some possibilities for law- enforcement and intelligence entities to monitor the illegal parts of the capital flowing in these systems. To solve this situation, the focus should lie on the attempts to make the risk of detection of such transfers higher for the parties involved. Without interfering too strongly with the new financing system developing, this process asks for improved compliance and cooperation on all levels and capacities.

Hoang-Long Nguyen, Jean-Philippe Eisenbarth, Claudia‐Lavinia Ignat, Olivier Perrin

No abstract is available for this record.

Kedar Iyer, Chris Dannen

This is the first of the project and game chapters that will take us through the remainder of the book. The first six chapters covered the basics of Ethereum and Solidity. We will now move away from theory and dive in to practical examples of Solidity code. Admittedly, Ponzi schemes do not seem at first glance to be the most practical of examples. Surprisingly, though, some of the first interactive smart contracts released on Ethereum were verifiable Ponzi schemes. In this chapter, we will first write a simple Ponzi contract and then explore examples that were deployed on the Ethereum mainnet.

Joseph Warner

This paper looks at two measure of the value of Bitcoin (the price and volume traded in the last month of Bitcoin) and sees if investor attention causes any changes in the values of Bitcoin. This paper also adds exchange rates, the S&P 500, and the price of gold as other possible explanations for the value of Bitcoin. This paper examines the variables at a worldwide level and at the countries with the top 10 GDP in the world. The results of this paper find that investor attention has a significant positive relationship with the value of Bitcoin. Specifically at the country level, Russia consistently has a significant relationship with the value of Bitcoin.

Sondre Bergløff, Markus Øverli, Jacob Emil Tønnesen

Liquidity is one of the most important characteristics of an asset. While it has been studied extensively in conventional markets, little research has been done on the liquidity of bitcoin markets. We investigate determinants of liquidity in the bitcoin markets, both on an hourly and a daily basis. As a measure of liquidity, we use the bid-ask spread, calculated from high-frequency data from four different exchanges located around the world. We find that contemporaneous traded volume and volatility are positively related with the bid-ask spread. We also find that high absolute returns predict high bid-ask spread in the next period. Our findings indicate that bitcoin market makers tend to increase the bid-ask spread in more uncertain times and that higher traded volume can be interpreted as new information arriving in the market.

Nicola Borri, Kirill Shakhnov

This paper studies the efficiency of the cryptocurrency market by looking at the distribution of bitcoin prices over time and across exchange-currency pairs. We document persistent differences in relative bitcoin prices (or discounts), with a half-life of 1 day, and a distribution which is leptokurtic, skewed to the right, with a standard deviation of 3.9%. The variability of discounts is larger in countries with tighter capital controls due to the combined effect of market segmentation and local supply and demand shocks, which we relate to location-specific mining activities and investor attention.

Shruti Rajagopalan

No abstract is available for this record.

Anna NAZARUK

This research examines existence of Bitcoin bubble in the year of 2017 by studying time series data within four main paradigms of the modern bubble theory. All four models suggest that Bitcoin closing price was overstated during the period. The analysis also detects Bitcoin features that could lead to the behavioral bias on the cryptocurrency market. The study suggests that investors’ behavior on the crypto market should be investigated more within behavioral finance.