We analyse the Tangle --- a DAG-valued stochastic process where new vertices get attached to the graph at Poissonian times, and the attachment's locations are chosen by means of random walks on that graph. These new vertices, also thought of as "transactions", are issued by many players (which are the nodes of the network), independently. The main application of this model is that it is used as a base for the IOTA cryptocurrency system (www.iota.org). We prove existence of "almost symmetric" Nash equilibria for the system where a part of players tries to optimize their attachment strategies. Then, we also present simulations that show that the "selfish" players will nevertheless cooperate with the network by choosing attachment strategies that are similar to the "recommended" one.
Since the establishment of Organization Studies in 1980, Michel Foucault’s oeuvre has had a remarkable and continuing influence on its field. This article traces the different ways in which organizational scholars have engaged with Foucault’s writings over the past thirty years or so. We identify four overlapping waves of influence. Drawing on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, the first wave focused on the impact of discipline, and techniques of surveillance and subjugation, on organizational practices and power relations. Part of a much wider ‘linguistic’ turn in the second half of the twentieth century, the second wave led to a focus on discourses as intermediaries that condition ways of viewing and acting. This wave drew mainly on Foucault’s early writings on language and discourse. The third wave was inspired by Foucault’s seminal lectures on governmentality towards the end of the 1970s. Here, an important body of international research investigating governmental technologies operating on subjects as free persons in sites such as education, accounting, medicine and psychiatry emerged. The fourth and last wave arose out of a critical engagement with earlier Foucauldian organizational scholarship and sought to develop a more positive conception of subjectivity. This wave draws in particular on Foucault’s work on asceticism and techniques of the self towards the end of his life. Drawing on Deleuze and Butler, the article conceives the Foucault effect in organization studies as an immanent cause and a performative effect. We argue for the need to move beyond the tired dichotomies between discipline and autonomy, compliance and resistance, power and freedom that, at least to some extent, still hamper organization studies. We seek to overcome such dichotomies by further pursuing newly emerging lines of Foucauldian research that investigate processes of organizing, calculating and economizing characterized by a differential structuring of freedom, performative and indirect agency.
This thesis will begin with a critique to the orthodox paradigm in monetary economics. Secondly, I will offer a theoretical, economic, structural and biopolitical analyses of the origin, nature and effects of money on society. After a critique to conventional paradigm of money, I will then propose a semiotic genealogy of money followed by an analysis of the Common, the Multitude together with a tentative fourfold proposal for monetary reform, i.e. a monetary dispositif for the socio-economic emancipation of the Multitude from the rule of capital to build a new paradigm of money. In particular, I will discuss the literatures on basic income and the emerging notion for bottom-up welfare named Commonfare; the Neo-Chartalist approach to money; complementary, viz. subaltern currencies; and crypto-currencies and distributed ledgers technology. In turn, I will present the two qualitative methodologies that I endorsed to design and research four sites of inquiry in Iceland, Spain, Finland and Italy: Participatory Action Research and Critical Muti-Sited Ethnography. A discussion of fieldwork findings will follow. Moreover, I will offer a comparative analysis on fieldwork findings by identifying not only commonalities and differences among the four sites, but also by eliciting the limits of methodological choices. I will conclude this thesis by arguing to refine the theoretical framework introduced in the literature review; and notwithstanding personal and objective limitations to the application of the monetary dispositif in the real world, I will advocate for further inquiry on Money for the Common Wealth of the Multitude to increase the quality and effectiveness of the debate on suggestions for monetary reform.
The analysis of using so-called smart contracts, which have become widespread in recent years. The definition of the term “smart contract” is given, some classification is offered for them. A comparative analysis of traditional and smart contracts in the part of legal regulation of their application was conducted. The article formulates legal problems of the theoretical and practical direction, which are a significant barrier to the use of smart contracts in the context of widespread use of Internet of Things, some solutions have been suggested for them.
This is an exploration of Blockchain technology that is growing in popularity and it seems to be able to disrupt a plethora of industries. A research is being conducted to examine Blockchain potential to be adopted by enterprises from different sectors as well as the parameters that could affect its adoption. Mostly known as the technology that underpins Bitcoin, this concept raised a significant interest within various markets. Blockchain offers a new approach to valued information management and sharing and it is introduced as a solution against the inefficiencies that affect the industry. Experts, infrastructure providers and banks can now work on this technology and explore its uses. This is a new technology journey with obstacles that will need to be overcome and it can not be clear yet what will eventually arise. Professionals from around the world express their views on the adoption of Blockchain by organisations and how these plan to support its deployment. Thoughts are shared in terms of the required budget and the parameters that can impact its adoption. There is a great interest in Blockchain technology and its revolutionary potential to modernize the world economy and this is only the beginning.
A spectre is haunting the globe. It is not the spectre of communism to which Marx and Engels referred. It is the spectre of smart contracts. These are contracts whose execution is automated, excising human intervention. There is even the pretension that they can circumvent judicial control. The purpose of this manifesto is to raise concern about the ambitions of technocrats to get rid of the law.
INTRODUCTION Much has been said about the effect of disruptive technology on business. In this contribution, an attempt is made to consider, in general terms, the implications of ‘disruptive technology’ for the law, particularly contract law. The particular disruptive technology focused on in this contribution is more of a ‘disruptive development’: the so-called digital revolution, and the new business opportunities and production methods which have emerged from the increasing digitalisation of so many activities, not least by utilising the potential of the Internet combined with smart-technology. These developments undoubtedly pose interesting challenges for contract law, particularly established paradigms forming the basis of many legal rules. This analysis begins by exploring the notion of disruptive technology, before considering the general challenges for, and possible responses by, the law as a result of new developments in technology or business practice. It will then highlight the main novelties of the digital revolution and turn to some of the specific legal issues which the digital revolution seems to create and consider potential legal responses. The key argument of this contribution is that there is a danger of rushing towards introducing new legal rules in response to new developments without rigorous consideration of the specific issues for both businesses and consumers which are created by things such as the digital revolution. Once these issues have been fully scoped, any legal responses need to be calibrated carefully so as to deal with these issues in a focused manner – there is a risk that, in the rush to provide a legal response, more problems might be created than solved. DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY Before considering the impact of the digital revolution on contract law, a few words should be said about the meaning of ‘disruptive technology’, a term used frequently in this context. This notion has gained prominence in the writings of Clayton Christensen, and focuses on the way technological developments can affect the way existing business models operate. In brief, Christensen distinguishes between two types of technological evolution: first, there is ‘sustaining technology’, by which he means technology which is evolving gradually or simply improving established technologies, particularly their performance. In contrast, ‘disruptive technology’ is a new type of technology, which, when first introduced, might be less reliable than established technologies, but will become reliable rapidly.
Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Iman A. El-Dessouky, Mahmoud Abdallah, Azza K. Nabih
The evolution of the business networks is fostering the demand for more connected devices to execute tangled and sophisticated business operations. This leverages complicated business networks space to include scalable network layers, more devices, and platforms relying on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Despite the fact that traditional IoT platforms usually target the technical side for IoT applications, they are not prepared enough to be easily integrated with pluggable and executable business logic or smart contracts. This makes it difficult to control a collection of shared business network resources in a standard and decentralized manner. With the rise of FinTech due to blockchain technology, it becomes possible to seamlessly engage business networks with financial digital assets. Consequently, combining IoT platforms with blockchain will drive new ways for better services consuming, transparency and products that depend on crowd-based economy [12]. In this paper, Sitechain is proposed as a new architecture to integrate IoT platforms with blockchain technology. The proposed architecture is not locked to specific IoT platforms but it can be extended to support different platforms in a standard, systematic and easy way. Sitechain is demonstrated by integrating Sitewhere and FIWARE IoT platforms with Hyperledger Fabric as a private blockchain network manager. Moreover a modeling language supported by Hyperledger composer is used to easily develop smart contracts and generate RESTful APIs, therefore any smart contract transaction events can be mapped into actions on remote devices.
Nearly twenty-five years ago, the internet disrupted the world and started a new era of technological supremacy. Today, with the rise of cryptocurrencies and its underlying technology, we stand at the helm of another such revolution. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are decentralised, digital currencies relying on a peer-to-peer network which operates without the need for a third-party intermediary like the Reserve Bank of India. Coupled with lack of regulatory guidance, its unique technical aspects create huge complications in its taxation. While much ignorance still prevails in respect of cryptocurrencies, countries around the world have finally started taking notice and acting upon it. This paper focuses on what cryptocurrencies are, why they are important, and the prevailing regulatory structure concerning them. It overviews the complete landscape for taxation of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, analysing the indirect and direct tax structure, particularly after the implementation of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, while also addressing the issues concerning the evasionary practices. The findings help in assessing the regulatory aspects in light of the technological, economic, social and financial forces, and establishing a set framework for taxation of cryptocurrencies.
Anunay Kulshrestha, Akshay Rampuria, Matthew Denton, Ashwin Sreenivas
We introduce a robust framework that allows for cryptographically secure multiparty computations, such as distributed private value auctions. The security is guaranteed by two-sided authentication of all network connections, homomorphically encrypted bids, and the publication of zero-knowledge proofs of every computation. This also allows a non-participant verifier to verify the result of any such computation using only the information broadcasted on the network by each individual bidder. Building on previous work on such systems, we design and implement an extensible framework that puts the described ideas to practice. Apart from the actual implementation of the framework, our biggest contribution is the level of protection we are able to guarantee from attacks described in previous work. In order to provide guidance to users of the library, we analyze the use of zero knowledge proofs in ensuring the correct behavior of each node in a computation. We also describe the usage of the library to perform a private-value distributed auction, as well as the other challenges in implementing the protocol, such as auction registration and certificate distribution. Finally, we provide performance statistics on our implementation of the auction.
Blockchain technology has been known as the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies, but nowadays it is further considered as a functional technology for improving existing technologies and creating new applications previously never practical. In this paper, we are focused on utilizing blockchain technology to introduce a new ID as a service (IDaaS) for digital identity management. The proposed blockchain-based ID as a service (BIDaaS) is explained with one practical example that shows how the proposed BIDaaS works as an identity and authentication management infrastructure for mobile users of a mobile telecommunication company.
The electricity distribution grid was not designed to cope with load dynamics imposed by high penetration of electric vehicles, neither to deal with the increasing deployment of distributed Renewable Energy Sources. Distribution System Operators (DSO) will increasingly rely on flexible Distributed Energy Resources (flexible loads, controllable generation and storage) to keep the grid stable and to ensure quality of supply. In order to properly integrate demand-side flexibility, DSOs need new energy management architectures, capable of fostering collaboration with wholesale market actors and pro-sumers. We propose the creation of Virtual Distribution Grids (VDG) over a common physical infrastructure , to cope with heterogeneity of resources and actors, and with the increasing complexity of distribution grid management and related resources allocation problems. Focusing on residential VDG, we propose an agent-based hierarchical architecture for providing Demand-Side Management services through a market-based approach, where households transact their surplus/lack of energy and their flexibility with neighbours, aggregators, utilities and DSOs. For implementing the overall solution, we consider fine-grained control of smart homes based on Inter-net of Things technology. Homes seamlessly transact self-enforcing smart contracts over a blockchain-based generic platform. Finally, we extend the architecture to solve existing problems on smart home control, beyond energy management.
Mobile security has become more and more important due to the boom of mobile commerce (m-commerce). However, the development of m-commerce is facing many challenges regarding data security problems. Recently, blockchain has been introduced as an effective security solution deployed successfully in many applications in practice, such as, Bitcoin, cloud computing, and Internet-of-Things. However, the blockchain technology has not been adopted and implemented widely in m-commerce because its mining processes usually require to be performed on standard computing units, e.g., computers. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a new m-commerce application using blockchain technology, namely, MobiChain, to secure transactions in the m-commerce. Especially, in the MobiChain application, the mining processes can be executed efficiently on mobile devices using our proposed Android core module. Through real experiments, we evaluate the performance of the proposed model and show that blockchain will be an efficient security solution for future m-commerce.
Ethereum, a cryptocurrency currently valued at 46 billion US dollars, has grown over 6,500% in the last 12 months. Despite the growth in value, we still have very limited Ethereum network visibility. In this thesis, we analyze the Ethereum network from two vantage points: the DEVp2p network and the Ethereum Mainnet. The DEVp2p peer-to- peer (P2P) network was developed specifically for and ultimately underlies the Ethereum Mainnet. We examine overall composition of the DEVp2p network. We analyze our peer connections on the Ethereum Mainnet—the main Ethereum network established on top of DEVp2p. We compare the Ethereum network’s properties to those of other well-studied P2P networks, namely BitTorrent and Gnutella. We develop novel techniques to measure the Ethereum P2P network and gain visibility into this previously opaque network.
Bitcoin is a computerized digital money and exchange network, represents an essential change in financial sectors, an interesting number of customers and excellent evaluation of channel inspection. In this research, dataset related to ten cryptocurrencies are used and created a new dataset by taking the closing price of each cryptocurrency for the research goal to ascertain how the direction and accuracy of price of the Bitcoin can be predicted by using data mining methods. Features engineering evaluated that all the ten cryptocurrencies are strongly correlated with each other. The task is achieved by implementation of supervised learning method in which random forest, support vector classifier, gradient boosting classifier, and neural network classifier are used under classification category and linear regression, recurrent neural network, gradient boosting regressor are used under regression category. In the classification category, support vector classifier achieved the highest accuracy of 62.31% and precision value 0.77. In regression category, gradient boosting regressor got the highest R-squared value 0.99.
Tomas Robert Fuentes Figueroa, Colón Rafael Pillasagua Salvatierra, Karina Lourdes Santistevan Villacreses
EVALUATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND TERRITORIAL PLAN OF THE RURAL PARISH MEMBRILLAL, JIPIJAPA, MANABÍRESUMENLos Planes de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial Parroquial (PDOT’s), son instrumentos de planificación, elaborados de forma participativa con la sociedad civil y actores territoriales. La parroquia Membrillal, está ubicada al noroeste del cantón Jipijapa, su clima es Tropical Seco, Sabana de Costa. La principal actividad económica es la agricultura, destacándose el cultivo de maíz (Zea mays L.) que lo producen en el periodo invernal aprovechando las lluvias. El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar el sistema económico del PDOT’s en la parroquia Membrillal, Jipijapa, Manabí, Ecuador, enfatizando en aquellos que inciden en la seguridad alimentaria local. Se realizaron visitas periódicas y entrevistas a la población local. Se obtuvo que de 14 proyectos establecidos, solo el 35% obtuvo la meta establecida. Los proyectos ejecutados por el Gobierno Autónomo Descentralizado (GAD) han generado fuentes de trabajo para los miembros de la comunidad. Se consideró evaluar anualmente el PDOT para verificar los logros en función a la conservación del medio ambiente y los recursos naturales. Se recomienda socializar los resultados de la evaluación con la comunidad de tal forma que permitan delinear estrategias a favor del desarrollo local. PALABRAS CLAVE: Desarrollo local; planes de ordenamiento; Membrillal, instrumentos de planificación.ABSTRACTThe Plans of Development and Parochial Territorial Organization (PDOT's), are planning instruments, elaborated in a participative way with the civil society and territorial actors. The Membrillal parish, is located northwest of the canton Jipijapa, its climate is Tropical Dry, Sabana de Costa. The main economic activity is the agriculture, standing out the cultivation of corn (Zea mays L.) that produce it in the winter period taking advantage of the rains. The objective of the research was to evaluate the economic system of the PDOT's in the parishes of Membrillal, Jipijapa, Manabí, Ecuador, emphasizing those that affect local food security. Periodic visits and interviews were made to the local population. It was obtained that of 14 established projects, only 35% achieved the established goal. The projects executed by the Autonomous Decentralized Government (GAD) have generated sources of work for the members of the community. It was considered to evaluate the PDOT annually to verify the achievements in terms of the conservation of the environment and natural resources. It is recommended to socialize the results of the evaluation with the community in such a way that they allow delineating strategies in favor of local development.KEYWORDS: Local development; ordering plans; Membrillal; planning instruments.
The partnership between ASX and Digital Asset (DA) has been hailed as the first practical application of blockchain technology in mainstream securities clearing and settlement, but don't expect it to usher in a new era of innovation and openness.
A controvérsia acerca da emergência do bitcoin como um novo meio de troca e sua conciliação com o teorema da regressão de Mises tem se intensificado nos últimos tempos. A questão principal do debate pode ser assim formulada: teria o bitcoin um valor de uso direto? O presente estudo afirma que o teorema da regressão não tem aplicabilidade à questão da gênese do bitcoin, pois o teorema limita-se a explicar a emergência de um novo meio de troca sob uma economia de troca pura ou escambo. O debate, portanto, está fundamentado em um erro de interpretação do teorema. Entretanto, a questão do valor de uso direto do bitcoin, se é que se pode afirmar que exista, tem sim importância para a avaliação da probabilidade de o bitcoin tornar-se um meio de troca generalizadamente aceito – isto é, dinheiro.
Mohamed Aturban, Michael L. Nelson, Michele C. Weigle
We show that state-of-the-art services for creating trusted timestamps in blockchain-based networks do not adequately allow for timestamping of web pages. They accept data by value (e.g., images and text), but not by reference (e.g., URIs of web pages). Also, we discuss difficulties in repeatedly generating the same cryptographic hash value of an archived web page. We then introduce several requirements to be fulfilled in order to produce repeatable hash values for archived web pages.
Ali Dorri, Salil S. Kanhere, Raja Jurdak, Praveen Gauravaram
BlockChain (BC) has attracted tremendous attention due to its immutable nature and the associated security and privacy benefits. BC has the potential to overcome security and privacy challenges of Internet of Things (IoT). However, BC is computationally expensive, has limited scalability and incurs significant bandwidth overheads and delays which are not suited to the IoT context. We propose a tiered Lightweight Scalable BC (LSB) that is optimized for IoT requirements. We explore LSB in a smart home setting as a representative example for broader IoT applications. Low resource devices in a smart home benefit from a centralized manager that establishes shared keys for communication and processes all incoming and outgoing requests. LSB achieves decentralization by forming an overlay network where high resource devices jointly manage a public BC that ensures end-to-end privacy and security. The overlay is organized as distinct clusters to reduce overheads and the cluster heads are responsible for managing the public BC. LSB incorporates several optimizations which include algorithms for lightweight consensus, distributed trust and throughput management. Qualitative arguments demonstrate that LSB is resilient to several security attacks. Extensive simulations show that LSB decreases packet overhead and delay and increases BC scalability compared to relevant baselines.
Bitcoin is an electronic monetary system, where transactions are carried out without a third party . The Bitcoins network is not dependent on the central organization .Bitcoin is based on an open cryptographic protocol. The Bitcoin network is distributed between a computer connected to the network. Bitcoin allows you to pay through a computer or smartphone without financial organizations. In this article, we analyzed the scientific-theoretical and practical issues in the Bitcoin network, attacks on the Bitcoin network, security and anonymity issues in the Bitcoin e-wallet .