This study is designed and developed based on the assumption that education reform (Education) is part of the reform leading Romanian society in its evolution towards modernization and performance. The economy of the future, prefigured even now, is an economy of knowledge (information), involving full participation of the human factor, especially in the size of its human capital, intellectual properly prepared. Education, in all its forms of organizing and developing represent provider (manufacturer) of the main capital. The role of education and training in the construction of the future outlined itself in the programming of the European Union, according to the European economy which should have become far more efficient and competitive economy of the world. To fulfill its historic mission school at all levels should be organized and financed appropriately. In this context, the authors intend to highlight a number of issues important in their opinion on financing and decentralization of educational activity from the perspective of Education Law no. 1/2011 (updated and republished in 2013), preceded by the Education Law no. 84/1995 (republished).
Economic Analysis and Policy
Education, Management, Technology, Human Resources
Adam Everspaugh, Rahul Chatterjee, Samuel Scott, Ari Juels · 5 authors
Conventional cryptographic services such as hardware-security modules and software-based key-management systems offer the ability to apply a pseudorandom function (PRF) such as HMAC to inputs of a client's choosing. These services are used, for example, to harden stored password hashes against offline brute-force attacks.
We propose a modern PRF service called PYTHIA designed to offer a level of flexibility, security, and ease-of-deployability lacking in prior approaches. The keystone of PYTHIA is a new cryptographic primitive called a verifiable partially-oblivious PRF that reveals a portion of an input message to the service but hides the rest. We give a construction that additionally supports efficient bulk rotation of previously obtained PRF values to new keys. Performance measurements show that our construction, which relies on bilinear pairings and zero-knowledge proofs, is highly practical. We also give accompanying formal definitions and proofs of security.
We implement PYTHIA as a multi-tenant, scalable PRF service that can scale up to hundreds of millions of distinct client applications on commodity systems. In our prototype implementation, query latencies are 15 ms in local-area settings and throughput is within a factor of two of a standard HTTPS server. We further report on implementations of two applications using PYTHIA, showing how to bring its security benefits to a new enterprise password storage system and a new brainwallet system for Bitcoin.
We show a general connection between various types of statistical zero-knowledge (SZK) proof systems and (unconditionally secure) secret sharing schemes. Viewed through the SZK lens, we obtain several new results on secret-sharing: Characterizations: We obtain an almost-characterization of access structures for which there are secret-sharing schemes with an ecient sharing algorithm (but not necessarily ecient reconstruction). In particular, we show that for every language L2 SZKL (the class of languages that have statistical zero knowledge proofs with log-space veriers and simulators), a (monotonized) access structure associated with L has such a secretsharing scheme. Conversely, we show that such secret-sharing schemes can only exist for languages in SZK. Constructions: We show new constructions of secret-sharing schemes with ecient sharing and reconstruction for access structures that are in P, but are not known to be in NC, namely Bounded-Degree Graph Isomorphism and constant-dimensional lattice problems. In particular, this gives us the rst combinatorial access structure that is conjectured to be outside NC but has an ecient secret-sharing scheme. Previous such constructions (Beimel and Ishai; CCC 2001) were algebraic and number-theoretic in nature. Limitations: We show that universally-ecie nt secret-sharing schemes, where the complexity of computing the shares is a polynomial independent of the complexity of deciding the access structure, cannot exist for all (monotone languages in) P, unless there is a polynomial q such that P DSPACE(q(n)).
Divya Rana, Syed Md Faisal Ali Khan, Arvind Arahant, Jitender Kumar Chaudhary
This study investigates the concept of green cryptocurrencies as a potential solution to mitigate the ecological footprint associated with traditional cryptocurrencies. It explores their viability as a sustainable alternative to traditional currencies. The rising popularity of cryptocurrencies has brought about concerns regarding their environmental impact, particularly due to the energy-intensive nature of mining and transactions.In conclusion, the importance of exploring sustainable alternatives to traditional cryptocurrencies emphasizes the potential of green cryptocurrencies to address environmental concerns.It discusses the growing awareness within the cryptocurrency community and the general public regarding the urgent need to address these issues. Green cryptocurrencies employ alternative consensus mechanisms, such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS) or energy-efficient algorithms, and utilize renewable energy sources for mining and transactions.
This Issue Brief looks at the rapidly growing area of cryptocurrency donations to nonprofit organizations. Given the recent IRS guidance issued on taxation of Bitcoin, specifically its decision to treat cryptocurrencies as property, questions now arise as to how charitable contributions of the coins will be valued for tax deductions. Though Bitcoin resembles most other capital gain property, its volatility, general decline in value, anonymity, and potential for abuse require specific guidance on valuation and substantiation so as to handle its unique nature and prevent larger deductions for charitable contributions than those to which taxpayers are entitled.
This paper proposes a self-governing cryptocurrency, dubbed Autonocoin. Cryptocurrency owners play formal tacit coordination games by making investments recorded on the blockchain. Such investments represent bets about the focal point resolution of normative issues, such as whether a proposed change to Autonocoin should occur. The game produces a result that resolves the issue. With a typical cryptocurrency, the client software establishes conventions that ultimately lead to the identification of the authoritative blockchain. Autonocoin completes a circle by making transactions on the blockchain that in turn define those conventions and the expected software behavior. The distributed consensus mechanism embodied by formal tacit coordination games, meanwhile, can make other types of decisions, including which of competing blockchains is authoritative and whether new Autonocoins should be rewarded to benefit those who have taken actions to benefit Autonocoin. This establishes a unique funding model for a cryptocurrency, and it addresses objections to cryptocurrencies issued predominantly to the initial founders, as well as to those that encourage wasteful mining activities.
Bitcoin was introduced back in 2009 and since then, much investment and research have focused on it. Key topics such as system vulnerabilities or the economic implications of leveraging an electronic currency have been widely examined. Other investigations have centered in analyzing specific parts of the system. Specifically, some work has focused on one of the key entities of the system, namely the miners, their activity and profitability. We extend this line of work to include transaction fees chosen by clients by presenting a complete analysis of the transaction fees and the implications for both the users of the system and the miners. In order to do so, we define specific models for clients, miners and the underlying peer-to-peer network based on observations made after analyzing historical data. Given this information, we examine the problem of choosing fees to pay for issuing a transaction and the selection of transactions added to a block by miners. We conclude that current strategies should be refined to address the expected growth in use in order to protect the long term sustainability of the system.
Bitcoin, a virtual currency created in 2009 by an individual or group using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, is based on a decentralized peer-to-peer system. Transactions are made with no intermediary. There are no banks involved, little to no transaction fees, and transactions are almost instantaneous. Transactions are verified by network nodes, and the network uses a public ledger called the block chain to record transactions. There is no central repository or administrator. Treasury categorizes it as a decentralized virtual currency. As public acceptance increases, so too does the number of merchants willing to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. But even though the public is slowly embracing bitcoin as a form of payment (thus giving it characteristics of a currency), public officials continue to struggle with the question of whether bitcoin is a currency — and therefore subject to appropriate currency regulations — or if it is simply property, making transactions in bitcoin more akin to barter.
An open distributed system can be secured by requiring participants to present proof of work and rewarding them for participation. The Bitcoin digital currency introduced this mechanism, which is adopted by almost all contemporary digital currencies and related services. A natural process leads participants of such systems to form pools, where members aggregate their power and share the rewards. Experience with Bitcoin shows that the largest pools are often open, allowing anyone to join. It has long been known that a member can sabotage an open pool by seemingly joining it but never sharing its proofs of work. The pool shares its revenue with the attacker, and so each of its participants earns less. We define and analyze a game where pools use some of their participants to infiltrate other pools and perform such an attack. With any number of pools, no-pool-attacks is not a Nash equilibrium. We study the special cases where either two pools or any number of identical pools play the game and the rest of the participants are uninvolved. In both of these cases there exists an equilibrium that constitutes a “tragedy of the commons” where the participating pools attack one another and earn less than they would have if none had attacked. For two pools, the decision whether or not to attack is the miner’s dilemma, an instance of the iterative prisoner’s dilemma. The game is played daily by the active Bitcoin pools, which apparently choose not to attack. If this balance breaks, the revenue of open pools might diminish, making them unattractive to participants.
Code-based public-key encryption schemes (PKE) are the candidates for post-quantum cryptography, since they are believed to resist the attacks using quantum algorithms. The most famous such schemes are the McEliece encryption and the Niederreiter encryption. In this paper, we present the zero-knowledge (ZK) proof systems for proving statements about data encrypted using these schemes. Specifically, we present a proof of plaintext knowledge for both PKE's, and also a verifiable McEliece PKE. The main ingredients of our constructions are the ZK identification schemes by Stern from Crypto'93 and by Jain, Krenn, Pietrzak, and Tentes from Asiacrypt'12.
Zero knowledge proof of secret is a basic method in cryptography which is used in digital signature. For a zero-knowledge proof scheme of possessing a DSA digital signature which was given and proved by scholars,this paper analyzed the security again,and proposed an improved zero-knowledge proof of possessing a DSA digital signature. The scheme can prevent the third party who does not have the signature cheating and attacking,at the same time it can prevent the confirmed cheating.
Abstract. LowMC is a collection of block cipher families introduced at Eurocrypt 2015 by Albrecht et al. Its design is optimized for instanti-ations of multi-party computation, fully homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs. A unique feature of LowMC is that its internal affine layers are chosen at random, and thus each block cipher family contains a huge number of instances. The Eurocrypt paper proposed two specific block cipher families of LowMC, having 80-bit and 128-bit keys. In this paper, we mount interpolation attacks (algebraic attacks intro-duced by Jakobsen and Knudsen) on LowMC, and show that a practically significant fraction of 2−38 of its 80-bit key instances could be broken 223 times faster than exhaustive search. Moreover, essentially all instances that are claimed to provide 128-bit security could be broken about 1000 times faster. In order to obtain these results, we had to develop novel techniques and optimize the original interpolation attack in new ways. While some of our new techniques exploit specific internal properties of LowMC, others are more generic and could be applied, in principle, to any block cipher.
Although the legal system is founded on the assumption that sex is binary, important perforations of this principle have already taken place. These perforations concern transsexuals on the one hand and intersexuals on the other. Transsexuals and intersexuals in particular are staking a claim to integration into the legal system. Moreover, they demand a right to self-determine their gender. The fundamental question that emerges regarding these claims is whether the subject of a fundamental right has the prerogative of interpretation or whether instead the state is to determine the respective contents. There are primarily two different options that could comply with the mentioned claims: the dissolution of gender categories (post-gender) and the legal recognition of a third non-specific or neutral gender. The dissolution of gender categories would not be in conformity with the constitution (Grund gesetz), but it could be achieved by its amendment. In particular, such an amendment would have to address Art. 3, 6, 12a GG. The recognition of a third sex would also imply legislative changes. Although the constitution only has two categories of sex – male and female – it is not barred from any further openings towards the recognition of a third gender. The recognition of a third gender would present major challenges to the legal system: civil status as well as passport regulations would have to be adjusted. Important changes to the law of descent and the matrimonial law would be required. In addition to the said amendments of law, another important aspect has to be considered: a third sex could be stipulated as mandatory for intersexuals or as mere option that complements the binary system. Whereas a mandatory requirement for intersexuals would not respect their general personal rights (Art. 2 para. 1 sentence 1 in conjunction with Art. 1 para. 1 of the constitution), an option to choose between several options (male, female and a third, unspecified or neutral gender) would have to be offered not only to intersexuals but also to male and female persons. The legal recognition of such a right of choice between several genders for everyone would have extensive consequences. There would be no objective criteria to determine the gender any longer. Only a burden of proof by providing evidence could be imposed to show the seriousness of the decision. The burden should distinguish according a persons sex: a clear sex does indicate the gender and exempts from any burden in the event that the person chooses the gender corresponding to the sex. In contrast, the burden increases in the event that the chosen gender does not correspond to the sex. When it comes to intersexuals, the third/unspecified/neutral gender is indicated by their physical appearance. To preserve their general personal rights considering that having an unspecified gender may have discriminating effects, choosing an option belonging to the binary system (male or female) has to be facilitated. In the end, it remains a political decision whether to allow self-determination concerning ones gender despite the loss of objectivity in the legal system.
Despite the enactment of a number of public finance management reforms since the 1990s, misappropriation of public funds in Uganda remains a challenge. For example, scandals in the Office of the Prime Minister where UGX 60 billion was stolen and UGX 340 billion was lost to ghost pensioners in the Ministry of Public Services prompted several donor governments to suspend budget support to Uganda in 2012. In response to this and other challenges, the government took advantage of provisions in existing laws and regulations to initiate a number of new reforms and measures to further strengthen public financial management and improve public service delivery. This report examines the progress and impact of these on-going public finance management reforms undertaken by the MFPED since 2012/13. These reforms include the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA); upgrading the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS); improving wage and payroll management, improving budget formulation, implementation, monitoring and reporting; and strengthening budget transparency. The study employed different but complimentary approaches to gather the relevant data and information. These included an extensive review of government documents and reports relating to the reforms to obtain a clear understanding of the existing public finance management system, consultations with key ministries and government departments who were driving and implementing the reforms to capture their perspectives on the progress of the reforms in terms of achievement and challenges, and the collection of qualitative data from local governments (districts and municipalities) as well as service delivery units (schools and health centers) using a multi-stage purposive sampling procedure. The study findings show that despite some challenges, the reforms are so far yielding positive results in terms of improved accountability, reporting and service delivery. A summary of the outcomes of the key reforms is as follows. The key reforms contributed to improved public finance management at different levels of government. These areas include improved public expenditure management through the (TSA), improved accountability and public expenditure use through the IFMS, reduction in ghost workers and the overall wage bill at MDAs and local governments through the IPPS and the decentralization of the wage and payroll management system. A major milestone of these reforms in particular is the decentralization of payroll management that has so far reduced the incidence of ghost workers and reduced the government’s total wage bill. However, despite the noted improvements, there are still challenges with the implementation of some of these reforms. The challenges include limited coverage of the IFMS; limited interfacing between the IFMS and IPPS; limited internet infrastructure to support the IFMS and IPPS; and inadequate technical capacity to operate the IFMS, IPPS and OBT systems. There is also limited printing and display of the payroll at local government units.
In jüngster Zeit hat das Phänomen alternativen, auf Kryptographie basierenden Geldes, dessen bekanntester Vertreter »Bitcoins« sind, vermehrte Aufmerksamkeit erfahren. Juristisch sind noch viele Fragen ungeklärt. Der folgende Beitrag konzentriert sich auf die zivilrechtliche, insbesondere vertragstypologische Einordnung
Bitcoin [1] is a decentralized crytocurrency system launched by a mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Its novel and open design attracts not only a lot of users but also much attention from academia. The core of Bitcoin’s
Artificial intelligence (AI) delivers numerous chances to add to the prosperity of people and the stability of economies and society, yet besides, it adds up a variety of novel moral, legal, social, and innovative difficulties. Trustworthy AI (TAI) bases on the possibility that trust builds the establishment of various societies, economies, and sustainable turn of events, and that people, organizations, and societies can along these lines just at any point understand the maximum capacity of AI, if trust can be set up in its development, deployment, and use. The risks of unintended and negative outcomes related to AI are proportionately high, particularly at scale. Most AI is really artificial narrow intelligence, intended to achieve a specific task on previously curated information from a certain source. Since most AI models expand on correlations, predictions could fail to sum up to various populations or settings and might fuel existing disparities and biases. As the AI industry is amazingly imbalanced, and experts are as of now overpowered by other digital devices, there could be a little capacity to catch blunders. With this article, we aim to present the idea of TAI and its five essential standards (1) usefulness, (2) non-maleficence, (3) autonomy, (4) justice, and (5) logic. We further draw on these five standards to build up a data-driven analysis for TAI and present its application by portraying productive paths for future research, especially as to the distributed ledger technology-based acknowledgment of TAI.
Open access
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
The technologies of today's world are constantly updating themselves and adding innovations.The concept of Metaverse, which is seen as the biggest digital transformation concept of recent years, represents a brand new and unpredictable universe where multiple virtual universes merge.The graphic design field is also seen as a field that can renew itself with the Metaverse era in line with its professional skills.When used effectively, this virtual universe is seen as a brand new door of opportunity for graphic designers who can make three-dimensional (3D) designs, design user interfaces and have sufficient technical skills and equipment.For graphic artists who can produce digital works for the Metaverse, NFT [Non Fungible Token (qualified intellectual property)] allows them to earn income while protecting their works.However, in this new virtual universe community, which has not yet settled into a certain systematization, it remains unclear what the course of events will be for graphic designers.