The blockchain could be the most consequential development in information technology since the Internet. Created to support the Bitcoin digital currency, the blockchain is actually something deeper: a novel solution to the age-old human problem of trust. Its potential is extraordinary. Yet, this approach may not promote trust at all without effective governance. Wholly divorced from legal enforcement, blockchain-based systems may be counterproductive or even dangerous. And they are less insulated from the law’s reach than it seems. The central question is not how to regulate blockchains but how blockchains regulate. They may supplement, complement, or substitute for legal enforcement. Excessive or premature application of rigid legal obligations will stymie innovation and forego opportunities to leverage technology to achieve public policy objectives. Blockchain developers and legal institutions can work together. Each must recognize the unique affordances of the other system.
Gokhan Sagirlar, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, John Sheehan · 5 authors
From its early days the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved into a decentralized system of cooperating smart objects with the requirement, among others, of achieving distributed consensus. Yet, current IoT platform solutions are centralized cloud based computing infrastructures, manifesting a number of significant disadvantages, such as, among others, high cloud server maintenance costs, weakness for supporting time-critical IoT applications, security and trust issues. Enabling blockchain technology into IoT can help to achieve a proper distributed consensus based IoT system that overcomes those disadvantages. While this is an ideal match, it is still a challenging endeavor. In this paper we take a first step towards that goal by designing Hybrid-IoT, a hybrid blockchain architecture for IoT. In Hybrid-IoT, subgroups of IoT devices form PoW blockchains, referred to as PoW sub-blockchains. Then, the connection among the PoW sub-blockchains employs a BFT inter-connector framework, such as Polkadot or Cosmos. In this paper, we focus on the PoW sub-blockchains formation, guided by a set of guidelines based on a set of dimensions, metrics and bounds. In order to prove the validity of the approach we carry on a performance and security evaluation.
Shi-Cho Cha, Jyun-Fu Chen, Chunhua Su, Kuo‐Hui Yeh
Recently, the popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to a rapid development and significant advancement of ubiquitous applications seamlessly integrated within our daily life. Owing to the accompanying growth of the importance of privacy, a great deal of attention has focused on the issues of secure management and robust access control of IoT devices. In this paper, we propose the design of a blockchain connected gateway which adaptively and securely maintains user privacy preferences for IoT devices in the blockchain network. Individual privacy leakage can be prevented because the gateway effectively protects users' sensitive data from being accessed without their consent. A robust digital signature mechanism is proposed for the purposes of authentication and secure management of privacy preferences. Furthermore, we adopt the blockchain network as the underlying architecture of data processing and maintenance to resolve privacy disputes.
Xiaohong Huang, Cheng Xu, Pengfei Wang, Hongzhe Liu
The Internet of Energy (IoE) provides an effective networking technology for distributed green energy, which allows the connection of energy anywhere at any time. As an important part of the IoE, electric vehicles (EVs), and charging pile management are of great significance to the development of the IoE industry. Previous work has mainly focused on network performance optimization for its management, and few studies have considered the security of the management between EVs and charging piles. Therefore, this paper proposes a decentralized security model based on the lightning network and smart contract in the blockchain ecosystem; this proposed model is called the lightning network and smart contract (LNSC). The overall model involves registration, scheduling, authentication, and charging phases. The new proposed security model can be easily integrated with current scheduling mechanisms to enhance the security of trading between EVs and charging piles. Experimental results according to a realistic infrastructure are presented in this paper. These experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can effectively enhance vehicle security. Different performances of LNSC-based scheduling strategies are also presented.
Many enterprises have not progressed their blockchain solutions beyond proofs-ofconcept. Daunting managerial challenges in the areas of standards, regulations, shared governance models and viable ecosystems impede progress. We describe the strategies that LO3 Energy, Moog, Inc. and the Center for Supply Chain Studies are pursuing to address these challenges.Click here for free presentation slides (pdf)
Carlos Molina-Jiménez, Ellis Solaiman, Ioannis Sfyrakis, Irene C. L. Ng · 5 authors
In this paper we discuss how conventional business contracts can be converted into smart contracts---their electronic equivalents that can be used to systematically monitor and enforce contractual rights, obligations and prohibitions at run time. We explain that emerging blockchain technology is certainly a promising platform for implementing smart contracts but argue that there is a large class of applications, where blockchain is inadequate due to performance, scalability, and consistency requirements, and also due to language expressiveness and cost issues that are hard to solve. We explain that in some situations a centralised approach that does not rely on blockchain is a better alternative due to its simplicity, scalability, and performance. We suggest that in applications where decentralisation and transparency are essential, developers can advantageously combine the two approaches into hybrid solutions where some operations are enforced by enforcers deployed on--blockchains and the rest by enforcers deployed on trusted third parties.
This paper presents an introduction to the current state of art of the Blockchain and Smart Contract technologies. Blockchain is a fast-disruptive technology becoming a key instrument in share economy. The Blockchain-based Smart Contract aim to automatically and securely execute the needed responsibilities of a contract without the support of a centralized execution authority. The Smart Contract runs on top of the Blockchain to facilitate, execute and enforce an agreement between un-trusted parties without the interfere of third party to trust it as this Smart Contract is an executable code that runs with rules on the Blockchain. Smart Contracts have some features that serve the goals of social justice and fairness. The paper presents the basic important information about the structures of the Blockchain and Smart Contract technologies and conduct a comparison between the different methodologies used in the Smart Contracts. The issues faced within the Smart Contract technology are surveyed. The four key issues are identified as: codifying, security, privacy and performance issues. We survey case cases of usage of the Blockchain in various business sectors like real estate, voting system and supply chain. The paper aims to assist a developer to grasp the big picture of the Blockchain technology and to further assist in the decision process of suitability of the technology to a specific application area.
Interacting with Ethereum smart contracts can have potentially devastating financial consequences. In light of this, several regulatory bodies have called for a need to audit smart contracts for security and correctness guarantees. Unfortunately, auditing smart contracts that do not have readily available source code can be challenging, and there are currently few tools available that aid in this process. Such contracts remain opaque to auditors. To address this, we present Erays, a reverse engineering tool for smart contracts without the need for source code. Erays takes in smart contract from the Ethereum blockchain and produces high-level pseudocode suitable for manual analysis. We show how Erays can be used to provide insight into several contract properties, such as code complexity and code reuse in the ecosystem. We then leverage Erays to link contracts with no previously available source code to public source code, thus reducing the overall opacity in the ecosystem. Finally, we demonstrate how Erays can be used for reverse-engineering in four case studies: high-value multi-signature wallets, arbitrage bots, exchange accounts, and finally, a popular smart-contract game, Cryptokitties. We conclude with a discussion regarding the value of reverse engineering in the smart contract ecosystem, and how Erays can be leveraged to address the challenges that lie ahead.
Smart contracts, self-executing agreements based on blockchain technology, have the capacity to create trust in what we term no-trust contracting environments. We argue that using them in such environments is the path to unleash the full potential of smart contracts. Compared to the contract enforcement mechanisms characterized by traditional contract law or relational contracts, smart contracts can offer a superior solution for facilitating trade.
Several lawyers and economists have debated whether smart contracts might offer the prospect of cheaper, faster and better transactions. As we discuss below, contract law scholars caution that they neither replicate the relational context essential for the day-to-day practice of contracting nor offer a superior solution to problems addressed by traditional contract law, such as contract validity and legality. We clarify and systematize the current thinking on the legal nature and reliability of smart contracts, and address the concerns of contract law scholars. While doing that, we suggest a step forward in characterizing contracting environments, contract enforcement mechanisms and the trust relationship underlying contracts.
In this paper, we propose a novel blockchain‐based contractual routing (BCR) protocol for a network of untrusted IoT devices. In contrast to conventional secure routing protocols in which a central authority (CA) is required to facilitate the identification and authentication of each device, the BCR protocol operates in a distributed manner with no CA. The BCR protocol utilizes smart contracts to discover a route to a destination or data gateway within heterogeneous IoT networks. Any intermediary device can guarantee a route from a source IoT device to a destination device or gateway. We compare the performance of BCR with that of the Ad-hoc On‐Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol in a network of 14 devices. The results show that the routing overhead of the BCR protocol is 5 times lower compared to AODV at the cost of a slightly lower packet delivery ratio. BCR is fairly resistant to both Blackhole and Greyhole attacks. The results show that the BCR protocol enables distributed routing in heterogeneous IoT networks.
Current shareholder engagement systems face large classical inefficiencies. First, due to the large chains of intermediaries in the current securities models, transaction costs are high and shareholder votes and other information are not always correctly transmitted between shareholders and issuers. Recent cases including DNick Holding and T. Rowe Price show the ‘absurdness’ of the current systems. The Shareholder Rights Directive II addresses these problems and the Implementing Regulation already hints at modern technologies to increase the transparency and verifiability of shareholder engagement. Next, the current shareholder engagement system enables different opportunities for different types of shareholders, creating inequalities and hindering shareholder democracy. The solution to these substantial problems lies in a state-of-the-art technology: in this contribution we argue that blockchain technology can solve these current inefficiencies that shareholders and companies face. Using a permissioned blockchain, information can be stored in a verifiable and immutable way, with a consensus mechanism tailored to its purpose. The large amount of initiatives and prototypes of blockchain proxy voting and trading, including the legislative initiatives that were initiated in the past 2 years, show the merits of using this state-of-the-art technology. The Europe Union should incorporate this technology in its legislation, like the CSD regulation, for remaining technology-proof in this globalized market.
Balázs Bodó, Daniel J. Gervais, João Pedro Quintais
This article offers a normative analysis of key blockchain technology concepts from the perspective of copyright law. Some features of blockchain technologies—scarcity, trust, transparency, decentralized public records and smart contracts—seem to make this technology compatible with the fundamentals of copyright. Authors can publish works on blockchain creating a quasi-immutable record of initial ownership, and encode ‘smart’ contracts to license the use of works. Remuneration may happen on online distribution platforms where the smart contracts reside. In theory, such an automated setup allows for the private ordering of copyright. Blockchain technology, like Digital Rights Management 20 years ago, is thus presented as an opportunity to reduce market friction, and increase both licensing efficiency and the autonomy of creators. Yet, some of the old problems remain. The article examines the differences between new, smart-contract-based private ordering regime and the fundamental components of copyright law, such as exceptions and limitations, the doctrine of exhaustion, restrictions on formalities, the public domain and fair remuneration.
There is an immense need of a proof of delivery (PoD) of today's digital media and content, especially those that are subject to payment. Current PoD systems are mostly centralized and heavily dependent on a trusted third party (TTP) especially for payment. Such existing PoD systems often lack security, transparency, and visibility, and are not highly credible, as the TTP can be subject to failure, manipulation, corruption, compromise, and hacking. In this paper, we propose a decentralized PoD solution for PoD of digital assets. Our solution leverages key features of blockchain and Ethereum smart contracts to provide immutable and tamper-proof logs, accountability, and traceability. Ethereum smart contracts are used to orchestrate and govern all interactions and transactions including automatic payments in Ether cryptocurrency between customers, digital-content provider, and the file server hosting the digital content. All entities are incentivized to act honestly, and our solution has a mechanism to handle dispute if arisen among participants. The solution has an off-chain secure download phase involving the file server and customers. Moreover, our solution leverages the benefits of interplanetary file system to store the agreed upon terms and conditions between the smart contract actors. A security analysis of our proposed system has been provided. The full code of the smart contract has been publicly made available on Github.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain-based smart contracts are emerging as a disruptive force that may change the way financial statement audits are performed and delivered. With their potential ability to autonomously execute audit procedures on behalf of the auditor and disclose the results of these audit procedures, blockchain-based smart contracts have the potential to improve audit quality and meet the information demands of various vested parties for more timely and transparent audit reporting. This paper proposes the application of smart contracts to auditing as an enabler for improved audit data analytics and close to real-time audit reporting.