Blockchain Papers

Hock Chuan Lim

No abstract is available for this record.

Azam Rashid, Muhammad Jawaid Siddique

A Smart Contract is self-executable and self-enforceable program code that runs on the top of blockchain to manage complex business logic. It eliminates the need of extrinsic enforcement of legal agreements. Furthermore, it enforces the terms and conditions of an agreement that lies between untrustworthy parties in which the trusted third parties cannot interfere. The cryptography logic used in smart contract enables the blockchain network to provide trust and authority to all parties in transaction. Network decentralization, data immutability and transparency, resiliency and security make blockchain technology more versatile. Recently, it has become a potential quality and capability of IoT to connect uncountable electronic objects or devices at the same time. The most prominent feature of blockchain-based IoT applications is the integration of smart contracts between blockchain and IoT.A brief comparison has been given in the paper that how the smart contracts react on multiple blockchain platforms with respect to scalability, system complexity and consensus protocol factors. Furthermore, the context of Smart contract integration between blockchain and IoT with highlighting the integration opportunities and challenges along with future research directions. Therefore, we have concluded in the current paper that amalgamation of Blockchain with IoT through Smart Contract can provide a strong framework for distributed application and the newly introduced business communities.

Seung Jae Pee, Eung Seon Kang, Jae Song, Ju Wook Jang

The energy market is entering the transitional period, and various types of energy markets such as solar energy will be formed beyond oil and gas. Correspondingly, energy prosumers that individuals and institutions produce and trade surplus electricity will become more widespread. Using the block chain, it guarantees the immutability and transparency of energy transactions, generates ERC20 tokens based on smart contracts, and transactions are automatically executed without third party intervention and can be extended to various transaction conditions. In the transaction, the energy is transferred using the Energy Storage System(ESS) which the seller and the buyer belong, and payment is made by transferring the token through a transaction. Based on this information, this paper suggests proposes a peer-to-peer (P2P) system that can freely trade the produced energy.

Kazuhiro Yamashita, Yoshihide Nomura, Ence Zhou, Bingfeng Pi · 5 authors

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger technology, and it is the technology underlying Bitcoin and Ethereum. The interest in blockchain has been increasing since its emergence. Hyperledger Fabric is one of the permissioned blockchain frameworks. One of the characteristics of Hyperledger Fabric is it utilizes general-purpose programming languages, e.g., Go, Node.js, and Java, to implement smart contracts (called chaincode in Hyperledger Fabric). The advantages of utilizing these languages are already known to potential developers, and development tools might already exist. However, one of the disadvantages is that these languages were not originally designed for writing smart contracts. Hence, there may be risks that developers do not need to consider when using specific languages such as Solidity of Ethereum. Furthermore, even though development tools exist, how many risks are covered by the tools is an open question. In this paper, we focus on Go language and the tools. First, we surveyed what kind of risks are associated with chaincodes are developed using Go language and observed there are 14 potential risks. Then, we investigated how many risks can be covered by Go tools, e.g., golint and gosec, and a vulnerability detection tool for chaincodes called Chaincode Scanner. From our results, we observed that some risks are not covered by the existing tools. Hence, we develop a detection tool to cover risks by static analysis. Finally, in this paper, we describe how to find the risks with our tool and evaluate the usefulness.

Jayesh Arun Bordekar, Shubham Gupta, V S Narayana Tinnaluri, Aditya Sinha

In modern society, blockchain technology is used to improve traditional companies. One type of traditional companies are insurance companies. These companies suffer several problems that are leading to decrease their efficiency in modern societies. The insurance industry is heavily dependent on multiple processes between transacting parties for initiating, maintaining and closing a different kind of policies. The main problems of these companies are that their operations are not transparent. In addition, considering the potential of the smart contract of the blockchain, determining insurance rates must be transparent. The application of blockchain in FinTech processing requires a deep understanding of the underlying business processes. In this study, we focus on the design of an efficient approach for processing insurance related transactions based on a blockchain-enabled platform.

Qi Liu, Xiao Zou

In recent years, the status of cooperation and innovation has become increasingly important. Research on the behavior of production, education, and research organizations has attracted widespread attention. Blockchain technology is considered as another subversive technology following cloud computing, wireless sensor networks, and big data. It is highly concerned by governments, financial institutions, and technology companies. Blockchain technology is essentially a technical solution that collectively maintains a reliable database through a decentralized, high-trust way. Blockchain WEB technology has not only used in financial and other fields, but also has a great potential for application in the fields of production, education, and research. It has expected to play an important role in the establishment of a trust mechanism in the “Internet +” production, research, and innovation and promote education. Drawing on the experience in blockchain applications in the financial sector, the blockchain in the education sector mainly embodies six application modes: building individual science credit data, creating an intelligent education Taobao platform, developing a degree certificate system, and building a new ecology of open educational resources. Of course, due to the uniqueness and complexity of the trust field in the cooperation innovation of industry, universities, and research institutes, the application of blockchain technology is also faced with difficulties in the application, promotion, and operation of production and research, fuzzy ownership of educational big data, limited data storage space, and potential safety problems of blockchain technology. There are many challenges such as the privacy protection risks of teachers and students.

Moritz Hoffmann

Since Bitcoin was introduced in 2008, blockchains have established as a tool for speculation as well as decentralized applications. In 2014, Ethereum, a so-called second-generation blockchain, introduced the concept of smart contracts, which allows the decentralization and disintermediation of a wide range of use cases and industries. In the context of financial instruments or securities, smart contracts allow increased transparency, liquidity, availability, and auditability, while significantly reducing the barrier to entry for potential investors. In recent months, numerous projects and standard proposals have aimed to facilitate the tokenization of securities. However, regulatory compliance imposes a major challenge for security token platforms. Current realizations of legally required user verifications lack scalability, flexibility, and reusability. Furthermore, potential investors are confronted with tedious redundant processes to disclose private data per investment opportunity. We address these challenges by proposing a smart contract architecture that generally solves legal compliance. Immutable logic, the upgradability of compliances, as well as structuring evaluation logic in hierarchies allow the realization of arbitrary regulatory clauses. Our design addresses both the primary and secondary market, and can easily be extended, e.g. to allow secondary offerings or legal enforcement. Furthermore, we envision a network of trust realized via identity management on the blockchain. Hereby, conventions between platforms, regulators, and exchanges fully automate legal checks throughout atomic transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Furthermore, we use so-called oracles to bridge blockchain-based logic with regulatory definitions, e.g. investment limits in Euro. We compare our proposal to existing implementations and extensively discuss design decisions. Furthermore, we evaluate our proposal with exemplary use cases. Specifically, we fully implement a fictive compliance to demonstrate general concepts, as well as evaluate real-world challenges derived from legal frameworks. Our work aims to complement existing work related to security token in order to accelerate the adoption of asset tokenization.

Nisar Ahmed, Khadija Rasheed, Muhammad Talha

This research study shows the perspective of Islamic banking on Shariah compliant FinTech (financial technology) model. As startup firms providing and compete in the global market regarding financial services including e.g, online investment, Peer to peer equity crowdfunding, online payments (E-Wallets), philanthropic crowdfunding platforms, RegTech, Distributed ledgers technologies, crypto currency and many other threats of Distributed ledgers and digital currencies technological advancements. By keeping mentioned technological advancement, it is observed throughout the Islamic world by Shariah Experts and technology industry experts regarding Islamic FinTech ecosystem implementation. Primary data was collected through self administrative instrument with some previous research studies. Targeted population for this research contains Islamic and window Islamic banking staff, 150 respondents were approached with in the Karachi city. Testing shows positive results of independent to dependent variable of Shariah compliance relationship regarding FinTechmodel in Islamic banking according to Shariah-principles. Almost in the vicinity of Islamic banking and finance with FinTech implementation researches are under process in many universities or institutions throughout the world. Some researches shows positive results of FinTech aspects on Islamic banking services. Chosen independent variables have strong correlation with the dependent variable. Debated areas of FinTech and Islamic banking services have significant results produced under this research.

Nikos Fotiou, Vasilios A. Siris, George C. Polyzos

Despite technological advances, most smart objects in the Internet of Things\n(IoT) cannot be accessed using technologies designed and developed for\ninteracting with powerful Internet servers. IoT use cases involve devices that\nnot only have limited resources, but also they are not always connected to the\nInternet and are physically exposed to tampering. In this paper, we describe\nthe design, development, and evaluation of a smart contract-based solution that\nallows end-users to securely interact with smart devices. Our approach enables\naccess control, Thing authentication, and payments in a fully decentralized\nsetting, taking at the same time into consideration the limitations and\nconstraints imposed by both blockchain technologies and the IoT paradigm. Our\nprototype implementation is based on existing technologies, i.e., Ethereum\nsmart contracts, which makes it realistic and fundamentally secure.\n

María Claudia Solarte-Vásquez, Mait Rungi, Katrin Nyman-Metcalf

Purpose This paper aims to report on signs of public awareness and empowerment among the general public that are presumed to determine the viability of the smart contracting (SC) approach and identifies prevailing concerns regarding individual transactional experiences. Design/methodology/approach A mixed approach was followed to explore perceptions of self-regulation and transaction friendliness by using an interpretative multiple case study method and by presenting a descriptive summative analysis of the data. Findings On self-regulation, the study reveals spread awareness, empowerment, contractual competences and responsibility. Regarding transaction friendliness, subject matter influences transaction experiences the most, and trust and engagement are the most problematic factors. The findings support the viability of SC, endorsing the application of proactive perspectives in legal and managerial practice. Research limitations/implications The study confirms the foundational assumptions of SC, identifies key transactional issues that should be further addressed to improve the functionality of digital trade environments and contributes to the consolidation of the legal design research field on transaction usability. Practical implications The findings point to the viability of SC. Organizations and practitioners are given indications on transaction upgrade priorities and invited to adopt and help disseminate the proposal. Social implications The expansion of a collaborative transactional culture can reduce legal disputes, improving the legal environment of business and strengthening private governance regulatory models. Originality/value This is the first empirical study on the viability conditions of the SC-approach, identifying transactional usability testing and intervention priorities.

Mahmood A. Rashid, Krishneel Deo, Divnesh Prasad, K. Ranjith Singh · 6 authors

Blockchain is an emerging technology framework for creating and storing\ntransaction in distributed ledgers with a high degree of security and\nreliability. In this paper we present a blockchain-based platform to create and\nstore contracts in between students and their higher education sponsors. The\nsponsorship might be in any form, such as scholarship, donation or loan. The\nfund will be arranged and managed by a group of competitive agents\n(Fundraisers) who will hold the distributed ledgers and act as miners in the\nblockchain network.\n

Gianluca Miscione, Tobias Goerke, Stefan Klein, Gerhard Schwabe · 5 authors

Blockchain technology provides a distributed ledger and is based on a logic of peer to peer authentication. It gained prominence with the rise of cryptocurrencies but provides a much broader field of possible application, including – but not limited to – land and other registries, global trade systems. While it has been originally closely linked to a libertarian, anarchic agenda, recent developments of commercial applications have illustrated that it can been dissociated from a particular ideological framing. The purpose of our paper is to identify and classify core properties of blockchain as an organizational technology and related modes of blockchain governance. We do this by looking at a number of case studies which highlight a number of governance design issues as well as unintended effects of the technology and related design choices. We are exploring the linkages between blockchain application properties and related design options and choices.

Gourang Aggarwal, Vimal Patel, Gaurav Varshney, Kimberly R. Oostman

Blockchain and its application on cryptocurrency transactions have gathered a lot of attention and popularity since the birth of the pioneer Bitcoin in 2009. More than 1500 cryptocurrencies are currently circulated in the market. The technology underpinning Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is Blockchain and is a rapidly growing decentralized distributed ledger technology which find its major involvement in cryptocurrencies. But cryptocurrencies are of extremely volatile and fragile nature which makes it difficult to be used as a stable currency for transactions and devoid this market of human trust. Cryptocurrency market is controlled by various social and government factors which keeps it fluctuating. This paper identifies and discusses the important factors that govern the cryptocurrency market and analyzes the impact of these factors. A pilot user survey has also been presented at the end of this paper to understand and demonstrate the societal view of the acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Plinio Limata

Can the blockchain be the infrastructure of the circular economy paradigm? In the present paper, we first explore the concepts of the blockchain and circular economy and consider why and how they could interact. Our inquiry of the literature provides a positive theoretical answer. However, shortcomings are also reviewed in terms of their practical implementation. Much will depend on how the blockchain technology and its functionalities (e.g., smart contracts, distributed autonomous organizations) will be able to support the circular economy ecosystem.

Voraprapa Nakavachara, Tanapong Potipiti, Thanawan Lertmongkolnam

No abstract is available for this record.

Constantin Fischer, Ingo Fiedler, Lisa Babenko

No abstract is available for this record.

Henry Kim, Muhammad Mehar

No abstract is available for this record.

Filipe Andrade Bernardi, Vinícius Lima, Felipe Carvalho Pellison, de Azevedo Marques Paulo Mazzoncini · 8 authors

Data sharing, information exchange, knowledge acquisition and health intelligence are the basis of an efficient and effective evidence-based decision-making tool. A decentralized blockchain architecture is a flexible solution that can be adapted to institutional and managerial culture of organizations and services. Blockchain can play a fundamental role in enabling data sharing within a network and, to achieve that, this work defines the high-level resources necessary to apply this technology to Tuberculosis related issues. Thus, relying in open-source tools and in a collaborative development approach, we present a proposal of a blockchain based network, the TB Network, to underpin an initiative of sharing of Tuberculosis scientific, operational and epidemiologic data between several stakeholders across Brazilian cities.

Othalia Doe-Bruce

No abstract is available for this record.

Sope Williams-Elegbe

No abstract is available for this record.

Ricardo Henríquez, itai cohen, Netanel Bittan, Kanat Tulbassiyev

No abstract is available for this record.

João Pedro Marques Ferreira, Maria José Angélico Gonçalves, Amélia Ferreira da Silva

No abstract is available for this record.

M.H.M. Schellekens

Abstract Blockchains are increasingly being used for content distribution, sometimes as an unwanted side effect of blockchain applications that have other primary purposes, sometimes as intended content distribution. The typical characteristics of a blockchain such as its claimed immutability raise new questions as to what preventive measures can reasonably be demanded from blockchain intermediaries, and managers of nodes in particular. The article asks whether the exemptions introduced in the Directive on e-Commerce can be applied, what mitigating or preventive measures other than Notice-and-Takedown can be applied and how governmental regulators should react.

Ke Gu, Linyu Wang, Weijia Jia

Currently, blockchain technology has been widely researched and is being applied to many other fields, such as financial transactions, E-government, logistics, and supply-chain system. It can be used to store and maintain transaction data through the de-centralized model. In this paper, we propose an autonomous resource request transaction framework based on blockchain in a social network, in which all kinds of resources in the social community can be traded through blockchain technology. When a user needs to acquire some resources from a community, the user may make a transaction with the members from the community through blockchain technology while the members autonomously negotiate each other to reach an agreement. The proposed framework provides an incentive mechanism to encourage community members to disseminate the resources through a smart contract.