Bitcoin is the latest fantasy object of utopian thinkers far and wide. Angry with the banks? It sidesteps them. Fed up with governments? They canât regulate it. Annoyed by corporations? Bitcoin transcends them. Worried about fraud? Bitcoin uses the latest cryptography. Keen to make a buck (so to speak) by participating in a boom? Come on down and plug in.
Digital currencies have emerged as a new fascinating phenomenon in the financial markets. Recent events on the most popular of the digital currencies--BitCoin--have risen crucial questions about behavior of its exchange rates and they offer a field to study dynamics of the market which consists practically only of speculative traders with no fundamentalists as there is no fundamental value to the currency. In the paper, we connect two phenomena of the latest years--digital currencies, namely BitCoin, and search queries on Google Trends and Wikipedia--and study their relationship. We show that not only are the search queries and the prices connected but there also exists a pronounced asymmetry between the effect of an increased interest in the currency while being above or below its trend value.
Nearly every aspect of a hacked computer and a users online life can be and has been commoditized. Recent trends into crypto currencies have made the former even more true as cyber criminals are now committing crime for monetary benefit and not just to out smart each other. In this study, I look more closely at Bitcoin, a de-centralized crypto currency which has become increasingly popular in the last six months. This study focuses on the analysis of the bitcoin economy, the involvement of malware and botnets and its effect to the currency.
AbstractâWith more integration in VLSI technology, Intellectual Property (IP) cores are reused to meet the customerâs specifications in time. For intellectual property protection (IPP), various kinds of IP marks, such as watermarks, fingerprints, are embedded into the design for establishing the veracity of a legal IP owner. However, convincing public verification of such marks is not leakageproof. Attackers not only manage to obtain potential clues to tamper public marks rendering public verification invalid, but can also suitably override the marks to include own signature, resulting in wrong public identification of IP vendor and IP buyer. Furthermore, current technique includes a sufficiently large set of public marks containing a header and a message body in addition to private ones to facilitate only public verification at the cost of significant increase in design overhead. We propose a zero-knowledge protocol to ensure robust and leakage proof convincing public verification with a smaller set of public marks consisting of only header part. We have tested our protocol for FPGA benchmarks and the results on robustness and overhead are encouraging. Index termsâFPGA design, intellectual property protection, mark verification, zero-knowledge protocol. I.
Mathematics has been considered as very important subject since ancient times. We find very elaborate proof of this in Vedas, which were compiled around 6000 BC. The concept of division, addition etc. was used even that time. Concepts of zero and infinite were also there. We also find roots of Beez Ganit in Vedas. When Indian Beez Ganit reached Arab, they called it Algebra. Algebra was name of the Arabic book that described Indian concepts. This knowledge reached Europe from there. This fact was well known to intellectuals of India, which is why they gave special importance to the development of Mathematics, right from the beginning. When this knowledge was negligible in Arab and Europe, India had acquired great achievements. This paper discusses development of mathematics in India from ancient time. Key words: Mathematics, India, Mathematicians, History
In January 2009, the Japanese software designer Satoshi Nakamoto invented a virtual currency named Bitcoin and released software for managing transactions in the new money. It consists solely of bits and bytes, but we cannot see it as a coin or banknote on the market. There is no cover in terms of gold or stocks, in fact, nothing but the source code of the software which consists of 31 000 lines of code. The payment system is completely decentralised and so contains no central organisation which monitors transactions. Many people use this new currency to pay for services or products on the Internet, since it is not less safe than traditional payment systems. The anonym currency can be a perfect tool in the hands of criminals to reach their goals. Law enforcement authorities like the FBI have dealt with the question in a long report that recently leaked to the Internet. It can be interesting to examine the âBitcoin problemâ from this point of view too, because the anonymous money transferring possibility seems to be the root of money laundering at first sight.
The article deals with the financial aspects of the implementation of programs to ensure the energy security of the regions of the Far North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The decentralized model of energy supply in the medium and long term, production of gas from deposits of Yakutia and the completion of main gas pipelines, which is fundamental to the sustainable growth of the economy of remote communities and to improve social and environmental conditions. Energy security means economic security of the Russian Federation on the external and internal factors and rational use of energy resources in the economic and environmental feasibility and prospects for sustainable socio-economic development. Economic efficiency is shown in the article replace the imported fuel to gas, and the dynamics of the share of the federal budget, budget, credit institutions and investment companies in the funding of projects. Focus also on the socio-economic factors that reduce the overall impact of the program on gasification of the region the financing of projects. Also focuses on socio-economic factors that reduce the overall effect of the programs on the gasification of the region. In the context of the importance of autonomous power systems requires effective public policies that encourage the use of alternative energy sources.
Masood Parvania, Mahmud FotuhiâFiruzabad, Mohammad Shahidehpour
Advancements in smart grid technologies have made it possible to apply various options and strategies for the optimization of demand response (DR) in electricity markets. DR aggregation would accumulate potential DR schedules and constraints offered by small- and medium-sized customers for the participation in wholesale electricity markets. Despite various advantages offered by the hourly DR in electricity markets, practical market tools that can optimize the economic options available to DR aggregators and market participants are not readily attainable. In this context, this paper presents an optimization framework for the DR aggregation in wholesale electricity markets. The proposed study focuses on the modeling strategies for energy markets. In the proposed model, DR aggregators offer customers various contracts for load curtailment, load shifting, utilization of onsite generation, and energy storage systems as possible strategies for hourly load reductions. The aggregation of DR contracts is considered in the proposed price-based self-scheduling optimization model to determine optimal DR schedules for participants in day-ahead energy markets. The proposed model is examined on a sample DR aggregator and the numerical results are discussed in the paper.
In einem Umfeld kriseninduzierter Verunsicherung Ăźber das Funktionieren des Geld-und Finanzsystems finden Forderungen nach einer grundsätzlichen Reform des Geldwesens verstärkte media-le Beachtung. Das elektronische Währungsprojekt Bitcoin und das Konzept Vollgeld sind zwei Varianten von Ideen zur Geldreform. Im Prinzip kĂśnnen diese Reformideen auf zwei Positionen der ordoliberalen Diskussion zurĂźckgefĂźhrt werden. Der Beitrag diskutiert ihre Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede sowie MĂśglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer Verwirklichung auf Basis einer Analyse ihres Geldverständnisses. <bold>Summary</bold> The recent economic crisis has shattered widely held beliefs in the functioning of the current monetary and financial system. In this context, calls for a fundamental reform of money have received considerable attention in the media. Bitcoin, a project for a private electronic currency, and the âpositive moneyâ (in German: âVollgeldâ) concept are two variants of ideas for monetary reform. Their roots can be traced back to two views held within ordoliberal economics. The paper discusses their commonalities and differences, as well as their limits based on an analysis of their concepts of money. JEL Classification: E42, E 52, E 58
Abstract The process of decentralisation of public administration was based on the transfer of competences from state administration to municipalities and on the setting of new conditions for financing of municipalities. In the process of decentralization of public administration and fiscal decentralization, the range of original and transferred competences, as well as the tasks of municipalities and the corresponding instruments of financing, were set there by mutual agreement between the state bodies and the local self-government. The transfer of competences on municipalities in the field of education was not a simple process. The first steps in the management of schools and educational facilities did not entail without problems. Many of the misunderstandings grew up mainly from a lack of knowledge of the relevant laws governing the specific educational and training activities, operation, financing, personnel and material-technical provision of schools and educational facilities. The aim of the contribution is legislative and financial definition of current system of provision of services by municipalities in the Slovak Republic in the field of regional education, because this area is complicated and disorganized the laws dealing with education and its financing have undergone many amendments. The following compact and comprehensive issues can serve as a framework for further research.
With the rise and extensive usage of Bit coin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system beginning at 2008, the number of transactions is growing. In order to analyze the activity in this currency system, we present a parallel analysis approach for meeting the need of building the transaction graph of this financial system. In order to test the performance and the realistic possibility of our approach, we implemented our approach and conducted some comparing to test the performance of our system. Through the experiment, we confirmed that this method is highly efficient and reliable compared with the traditional method.
Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands: The Ohio Hopewell System of Cult Sodality Heterarchies. A. MARTIN BYERS. Alta Mira Press, Lanham, MD, 2011. 558 pp., ill., maps. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-7591-2032-7; $97.99 (e-book), ISBN: 978-0-7591-2034-1.A. Martin Byers's newest book presents another of his attempts at synthesizing Eastern Woodland prehistory. At its base, Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands promotes a new and alternative explanation of Hopewell social organization. The main thesis this book seeks to elucidate is how and why the Middle Woodland (ca. 100 B.C. to A.D. 400) ritual landscape developed in the middle Ohio River valley. On the back cover of this book, Byers's is described as and grounded in empirical data. Some of Byers's ideas are innovative, but radical may be a poor word to describe his current work; sodalities have been proposed as an organizing principle for Hopewellian societies before. In addition, only portions of the book are grounded in empirical data, none of which derives from new or unpublished work. The language used herein is typical of Byers's previous books; the vocabulary is exhausting, and constant rereading of various parts of the text is required to comprehend his thesis. Nonetheless, the amount of work Byers undertook to complete this book should not be dismissed. It is as impressive as it is important because it requires us to consider alternate theories that push the boundaries of current and enduring interpretations of the Hopewell phenomenon.Byers's book is organized into two parts. The first section critically assesses prevailing interpretations of Hopewell social organization and how it developed. His alternative is also presented in this section. The second section outlines how the Ohio Hopewell possibly interacted according to his model. Here Byers discusses specific sites and their significance. Both sections are addressed below.In the introduction Byers outlines his analytical methods and the models he critically tests. He employs what he calls the hermeneutic spiral (p. 15) to create a critical comparison of his models and the existing models of Hopewell social organization. This method consists of delineating situations in which specific social, political, and economic conditions may have developed that led to the creation of landscapes containing burial mounds and geometric earthworks. The two specific models that Byers juxtaposes are described as the monistic modular polity community model (MPC) and the heterarchical polyistic localecentric community model (HPC) (pp. 17-28). The former is identified as the vacant center/dispersed hamlet hypothesis argued for by archaeologists Paul Pacheco and William Dancey. The latter is Byers's model, a version of which he used in 2006 to describe the organization of Mississippian peoples who constructed Cahokia. The primary difference between these two models rests in the nature of sociopolitically decentralized kin-based societies. While the MPC considers Hopewellian societies to be organized along kin-based clans, Byers's HPC regards them as organized in autonomous and decentralized sodalities ordered in relation to seniority and age-sets transcending physical kinship in clans.Moving forward, Byers highlights cultural analogs and cosmological models used to describe nontangible aspects of Hopewell society. He rejects Pacheco's cultural analogs, drawn from the Mapuche of southern Chile, for not fitting the HPC of sodality origins (p. 39). Byers condemns Christopher Carr's arguments for earthen enclosure variation relating to different functions, uses, and community sizes by outlining his perspectives on Hopewell mortuary traditions and material culture in Chapters 3-5. He argues that Carr's of multiple, kin-based communities pooling labor does not properly characterize the variability of the sodality-based Hopewell system (pp. âŚ
I think one also writes for the dead.âJacques Derrida In the European marketplace, literature by African writers is often commodified as a distinctly cultural product, having an âAfricanâ identity. This need not be clearly defined either in terms of the writer's ideological, geographic, or ethnic orientations, just so long as the work reflects some vague traces of its âAfricanness,â which can be thematized through lurid imagery splashed across the cover of a book or comprised of equally lurid blurbs on its back cover. In some cases, critics exhibit complicity in minimizing complex identities by regarding literary works as cultural products and describing them as âtruly African,â or âthe first of its kind.â1 Emphasizing either the originality or authority of the writer, such critics seem caught up in the search for a âZulu Tolstoy,â tending to bestow laurels only to rescind them immediately.2Deceptively laudatory remarks about particular African literary and cultural productions can be problematic not only because they often assume an impossible intimacy with the sum of African cultures in all of their complex and variegated forms. Such remarks can also represent a backhanded gloss on the quality of African work as a whole. Moreover, a hostile solicitude toward the history of African letters tends to ignore its indigenous oral and literary past and assume that it constitutes a relatively new history, originating only through colonial influence.3The market of African literature unevenly distributes capital and mystification between author, publisher, and audience. It domesticates the text while exoticizing the product. In this study, I explore this paradoxical trend as illustrated by the critical reception of two novels by West African authors: Le regard du roi by Camara Laye and Le devoir de violence by Yambo Ouologuem. The literary criticism of these two novels is haunted by discrepant responses of authentication, uncertainty, and contempt. At the same time, the works themselves evoke another form of haunting, namely the specters of violent histories of colonialism and neocolonialism. Illustrating the kind of European writing about these histories that Laye and Ouologuem subvert, this study includes a brief discussion of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. My examination of Conrad's novel foregrounds the other works in this study against the horizon of colonialism.Laye and Ouologuem have each been accused of plagiarism or forgery. The cases against the authors are very different, and it is my own opinion, especially with regard to Laye, that these accusations are tenuous and unfair. However, I do not wish to engage directly in the debates over these authors' authority or originality. Rather, I would like to examine the terms of this debate for the values they reflect. I argue that staking the value of a work on the identity of the author disengages one from the text and can lead to violent misreadings. Shifting these stakes, I look to a concept that undermines legal or proprietary judgments about the pure originality and authority of either Laye or Ouologuem: ghostwriting. Being the of the publisher, author, the text a complex between and its while the of specters in the writing of judgments about an originality can two while authority on the they also the of that to a with this of originality are about the and to on the originality of the work is to and a of the one in the of this of the work as of a pure of writes that âthe originality of literature in its in the of or to its The to originality is to look not for first of a to of works that have been and are the of of other that have been or that of the or and and this is constitutes of literature and it in this is an the in the form of judgments about writers and their This an of the of that a cultural works of and literature in the their not only to the of the have also to the of their concept of so and so in its European an in oral In and in West that in African for that a would the same that that would be that in the a of of of Laye and Ouologuem this problematic between African and European literary The to have its in the European to represent the work of as a kind of from the to the of that as a of the of and in the literary works are and have very to do with African of of African for of productions of literary as cultural not an of literary and up to the of the such as and the of in a European in is an it is in in as the of to other a text or of other as to the to of from African as as European these as and for a to on the of writing with which a particular author is in The and author the first and is to to a on an with its own and of to to another in an and in to to critics the authority of writers like Laye and they to a about these plagiarism or are that be to have against a of colonial and of these writers first as and as some of the first literary from the African and as and The critical of African authors that on the of is a in the reception of African cultural not just a of a The cases against Laye and Ouologuem for a kind of and the of the African to this of the of the author the of the or not the author own as a the of the African is a of is a as the originality or authority is critics an of and between European and African the laurels that the work as a of African cultural the is by in European and a for African of the of between European and African critics the between these the same that they ignore this the of against Laye and The in is that a work as own it by in it is that as own a work that from other In that are because they about the very of from to is and one to about one a work from a legal because and authority are The debates and are in to of In to the terms of this I examine the of in their the of a legal debate on of authors like Laye and Ouologuem have been accused of an can be a of its a and by a author, a it can The of the author on the horizon and of the Le regard is a as not have such a a of this kind of it an to explore the concept of as a of the of the with the of the between the author and the writer, or between the and the by that of It to originality and to it as a of as the of an in It to the of writing by writers accused of or of and of writing through that in the of histories of very that have not been or to this in its as as its to as as the about the of colonialism by the the writing of history and its of writing and can be or haunted by complex of writing that between the oral and the or between the author and the in that their In this study, I from the from these can is the of a form of that a particular and a through a of between the author and in the of The or is to form and to a that not be the a book and often or in the and of the a cultural product. Moreover, a of is the by is by the a the from oral to its tends to represent a form of It that is not and on a work not be and from their own writers are in this is only in a because tends to be unevenly between an author is and a work is to In other cases, as can works from an oral In this the of author and are it is the of the oral that and for which the tends to the of about is the of that Ouologuem which I explore in in the of this The of the is to legal about literary while a new for literary I this is a is to the very and of literary this the history of through of an in on of an of the as Ouologuem the of the to on the and history of are the of ghostwriting. to been an of the to an audience. Derrida that âthe in the is a for by which not which not so to in and which their in that this a form of the the of the as a of the of The in a paradoxical to own they on a of their also the of and the concept of the in of as as other the of the and a of that are that be as in an also the of to the of the which as an to form an with histories of and that this It is because is a of with history, a of writing The of the the that to by history and can a form of writing that is a of with the of to the traces of the past in the as as in or oral traces the between and writing because writing tends to be a of cultural oral of the of colonialism is the to cultural by to European which writing as cultural that is are because of their Moreover, the are not a to be its because it not been and because it a of This is the need to the colonial to to seem and that and can be between and on from to The a and is as a to its This is the of the which can represent that against have which to to the of the the the in the of and for the is Rather, the to be through a kind of to and just such a In its writing and can also be a for haunting, the is and its is not the kind of writing that in the the of in the by the writing which is a for a kind of writing that can be also traces of the The traces of through some the author to writing or the writing to the it In other been or can to the of traces be to lead back to the that the writes in and The of a text is not a The not in the of the in the with the wish to the the to which it a it is in this It not only the also in another is in so on the and in an and of its it is not to in book on a kind of the literary of in the to the of the African of the that the complex identity and of the is a of African The of African and the text and its the of the are that the writing the of a of an This like a and to a through the the form of that also undermines African the critical reception of works by Ouologuem and Laye as a form of can legal of and to the of the in this the critics of these authors' works a kind of of their the about the of Heart of also an This book been the of an debate about the writer's complicity in and of The of the is with Joseph as The reception of the book reflects a writer's the of complex over the by own as to of the novel the as a of and an of The is in the of colonialism and of the Conrad's is in and Laye and Ouologuem in Heart of is of a that these writers writing this Conrad's book to a over of it one of the literary works about by a colonial and to the of European while a to all the African Heart of is by to Heart of to about the the one some critics Conrad's very criticism of the colonialism of of the the other as and have to criticism to colonialism and in its the novel reflects the of European a of the novel that the that Conrad's toward in the writing of the In other for the of the that for the of is for the and its the of or its to reflects Conrad's and the that in that âthe of the is not a look it is by that the of colonialism is of the of the and of and in the It this the text by it an the impossible of of the In this is the of its as a that can be to the the of the its the of are not to not the reception and of writing by African The trend tends to a particular kind of and This is the of the in traces of this can also be Conrad's to a in the the of of indigenous in in which been The only African Conrad's and in is the This it back to in with as the is the only in the directly to the is by own of the to to of a from In a is the very of with which up the of violence and in the Moreover, a between the of and the that on I in a in a on the of The them in a all in a that to like the first of a the I and the of by the is not in in the of and in the and that this the of this also been one of the on the This is haunted by the specters of and colonialism the by the works that Conrad's Heart of as a Camara Le regard du roi an on a European in In one criticism of through a that is its in a particular about Heart of with the that the of colonialism its is to as the for the of two through which they explore their African as a in a is not about of and in as of Conrad's is it about âthe as in of to the the in an African not of is not like the of Conrad's is to a form of as the of and as it that is the of the The the of with Conrad's in which are by another is the reception of the writer's critics have and responses to the novel a debate on the of of originality reflects the of like their that is to the to the to critics work as of by that to only a of and that not the same as the writes in Le de a de de de is not like and I is other the it is because that is it is because I have the from the to and I have in this not to The to novel is a from as The that Laye to work is of so to for some The of from European that African writers of the to have to do with This a of and from European in African for writing not the of the European writer, of of European by African writers this This have been as from the of African writers of this of critics like work Le regard for a of a of African often as one of the works of African the work is It on a to the in search of the with to an audience. The book with with the and of values are so in a is to have been from or to this as of and are often it for to to as a that or a and in new in in the of a The that it is to on a by to be the to that one for the of and is a a from of are the it that one the of that is I have for I that is not I not have for that is which I to for of be do of is up with of and as a in At the of that the of and such as an with the the that the to just not I a of and that and are the of In they represent the that be from and that be to these a because of In is to to the is is and a form of The that a that can only be through to for the of the of authority over the of in is the critical with the book that from literary and toward a the of the text the authority of the The is and of the as a and the that of Le regard is a of literary Laye a to to critics work of not have the to the accusations of which the of Camara Laye, to by and to of forgery. accusations not only Laye also and and by the of all of on the that are to that Laye not have Le only a which Laye to and is to have the book for Laye, is and on and In of about the literary Laye literature and first in and in for are to not only that Laye not have the to first two novels by also that not and that the of in Le regard be as a that Laye not the of that Laye not have the novel its and its cultural to and a of that Laye not be the author of Le book a as the is to the value of with The on not only have to Laye as a have also about authority and can represent values of literary and the that work the of book in also been by a of the of first novel in is a that on up as as on the and of that to The colonial of in and is which some have on with especially that its by This in by Le a kind of that in of European in in which to the in first its is by the in to In Le de Laye to the oral history of the of with the the of this Le regard seem a of first It is in an African across which the the of a in and are against the that the other the in and been with Laye so that in of the a between their identities is in Le de the two the one Laye a literary and of criticism that can also be in in to the as a work of oral African cultural on with the works of European the other and oral history of the that a with regard to the the author to Laye the very of European literary to critics because of the with which between and that the of plagiarism and are by the in and between However, these between can be in another have with that of through to be and for on that a them in of a a a novel of and and a of the of with of European not to to In it have been and to the of African that it for to on European such as and to a novel that the and of a that own of and Laye the in between the and and to about kind of writing Laye would have been of in about the of critics of the It is that on Laye been such a of over Le originality and Laye the of between and the In so Laye also European of it as a for by authors of as a an to literary of cultural about an the is that of such as to this I think the of these values is that of it by with a European of literary that Laye a for a of this to in the between the of African oral and European to have to be as a do European as as the while writing about Laye European is with regard to European as a whole. tends to European literary and in a with African of cultural and as with a of the works explore the with which is the same by African these writers and to of African oral with oral of cultural to European of writing with a of In this it would to of against especially with it is so from the The very of and of writing not be as that a European have been that over of work also be to that the for Le regard is the that Laye in a to and this of an the for to of Le also that as a not have a also that the complex that toward own do not as about on a with the is of of the to Laye with the of that in Laye as a of its and be for between and that this undermines is they a of European in of the of a of the colonial in complex about the of colonialism in to from writing in with Laye which Laye to from this that not to that to and to only in can from this that by the and to by writing in a have to the like of the need to in a and to author and the to a a on to in with toward the colonial so in reflects complex to the between and It also for work on this also in of a of that are in literary oral cultural a kind of that is and that on the by a of or de as Laye by a is book is a with the of African oral about can be as from the violent history of between the and literary of and Laye is caught in a of between and of writing that can and can in the of is problematic for such a only because is to to a kind of one that be and in work need to a with the European the colonial to and about between and as are for in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. works a to the cultural and of a European and an indigenous writer, Laye by a of The the of African the works as the European an by indigenous to the over and the traces in work of and cultural up novel have having the relatively of up in in first have been by the new work of African from the of a European on a in Le regard a of about it that the critics from the a European the of the is the of its it to about and European and in that not to the that an indigenous the and of with an African novel be an that is to be to in Laye to an of indigenous book been a The that the very that Laye the novel its reception a history of ghostwriting. by of such a a of that specters in the or in the of Laye a with work through with the This can be as a from the European that to writing in that that the Laye as a African author in as a of the of in the colonial in and have been a of the colonial and would have been as an for the new to by a to the in its not they would be so to that a and would the of to of to explore to and European can be with that of another West African writer, the Yambo Ouologuem. Le devoir de not to the the same This which the violent history of the a African and is not on the history of of for the novel by a of the originality. in Le the book as the African novel of the the cover of the first of its in the of a the book is the of Le as âthe first African the history of African in the and in the of the been over some of this for the novel to its on violence by against other Le devoir an lurid and of and and with of from oral of It the of the the of the a of and is the of in critics have a of the of the Ouologuem a of the of and its in de de de de violence de du the of the in which the the of violence on of of to the with its of and the of a of the an and that of the and that to the of the with its on the the in with the the as as European the In is a between the toward the cultural that and in European and and toward the the are in the of and as is and of the are de have is of an market of that the other of a of these that de de this is the This is the of a on the be a the are is to be from the history represent the that is so that the can and The de this to its which is to European colonial and in the is a novel that to not only the form of the of the novel its for history is de de de de the one to that is to the of African is that the reception of Le devoir de violence such a The over the work to be as critics accusations of and of from novels by and de as as other works the the that work a of and of and the book from in across and have been have up for Ouologuem against these of novel to for its originality. for that of the from are and the that âthe novel the of an to as a and as a these seem to is that the terms and to a of that novel their on the and authority of the author, they do not or the terms of the plagiarism In such in the of value that the European literary market as a of with of in the also in the over that the and to the works it or not Ouologuem the of novel that the is an for legal However, of the of and I Ouologuem the concept of ghostwriting. This concept for the values European literary with cases of plagiarism are with their own of and book the same Ouologuem of to The of the values of and originality the legal and proprietary of European the for that in its can a of The of the a as a from a of of In the that up the of the with regard to Ouologuem the of this as to the de de du de de this to in of its the work that as a on own to The and of the in a a that is from a from a that this not only can work to the European that the and originality of a also that it about the of the values that these the as that be of the and of have been an that all a Ouologuem can the of histories of the Ouologuem the traces can the history of the of the of to Ouologuem to the a with that over time, to In this Ouologuem up as a of the and with the problematic that and through de du de de de to this by a new work with an the of the marketplace, to the of a writer, is to it is a to the and in a be a like for the the that it a to about the as a of with a a for because is to this is a on the of the in with also to the to writing is a to the between and that Ouologuem to the to look it in the and it in the of the as in to its history in the of the to its of that have in the of the the a to and to the of the market for African writing originality and to about writing and the histories of violence and Ouologuem not only the African works of cultural can to a This of is a in which the of the history of in just as of from the of for an of these terms is a of the colonial against the history of of them in the form of a to this of history as a to colonialism and its that and to Ouologuem in in cases European have from African of or the of or the need to work on its own it to an on have to it as an of African as as European in the West have an plagiarism of and other writers the African writers Ouologuem and which African the of West African history, and the also the of oral of on the the against Laye and the against
PUTTING ON A PLAY IN AN UNDERWORLD COURTROOM: THE ââMINGPANââ (INFERNAL JUDGMENT) SCENE IN TANG XIANZUâS MUDAN TING (PEONY PAVILION) THOMAS KELLY University of Chicago This article is an attempt to present a new way of thinking about courtroom trials in traditional Chinese theater. I look at how one playwright, Tang Xianzu ćšŻéĄŻçĽ (1550â1616), used meta-theatrical devices to comically deflate and satirize judicial authority. At the same time, however, I argue that he used the scaffolding of the courtroom trial to experiment with theatrical scene composition in the chuanqi ĺłĺĽ drama form. Tang not only used a theatrical idiom to parody the procedures of the courtroom, he looked to the format of the trial to stretch the representational possibilities of the dramatic medium. Questions of what constitutes juridical authority and what grounds an act of adjudication are equally pertinent to the role-playing of the courtroom and the illusionary domain of the stage in his most famous play, Mudan ting çĄä¸šäş (The peony pavilion; preface dated 1598). I focus specifically on how these themes are treated in the complex courtroom scene in the twenty-third scene of the play, ââMingpanââ ĺĽĺ¤ (Infernal judgment). The scene as Tang wrote it, I suggest, displays a heightened awareness of how dramatic representations of the law in both the world of the living and the dead can call into question the nature and artifice of the theater itself. THE ââMINGPANââ SCENE IN TANG XIANZUâS MUDAN TING Tang Xianzuâs Mudan ting returns time and again to question the verifiability of charactersâ testimonies and the disputed status of actions taken within the world of the play.1 The burden of proof falls on the two lovers, Du Liniang ćéşĺ¨ and Liu Mengmei ćłĺ¤˘ć˘ , who each must justify and corroborate their testimony before juridical authorities and also prove to family and friends who they are from Scene 16 on. Liu not only has to prove his credentials as a promising scholar to Miao Shunbin čččł when the latter is inspecting jewels (Scene 21) and metropolitan 1 As Tina Lu has argued at length, questions of personal identity are at stake throughout the play: Are characters who they claim to be? Can we trust their outward appearances? These questions assume an added urgency in the underworld trial scene, which Lu only discusses in relation to issues of counterfeiting and slippage between material and nominal worth in the determination of monetary value (see Tina Lu, Persons, Roles and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan, [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001], pp. 106â13). CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 32.2 (December 2013): 132â155 # The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2013 DOI: 10.1179/0193777413Z.00000000010 civil service examination candidates (Scene 41), he also has to prove that he is not guilty of robbing the grave of Liniang, the daughter of (the playâs chief patriarch) Du Bao ć寜. Liu is arrested (Scene 50) and undergoes harsh interrogation and physical torture by Du Bao (Scene 53). It is not until the final scene (Scene 55) that Du Baoâs charges against him are finally dismissed by the emperor, even if this does not lead to Du Bao recognizing Liu as his son-in-law. Du Liniang never suffers judicial torture,2 but she also is required to repeatedly prove that she is who she claims to be and that her loveâa love that both kills and resurrects herâis genuine. Although the final scene is initially presented as a contest between the counterclaims of Du Bao and Liu Mengmei, and it seems that Du Liniang only attends as a witness (she even arrives unescorted), after her arrival the key question becomes whether she is presently a ghost or not.3 Prior to that, however, Liniang is the main ââdefendantââ in ââMingpan,ââ the playâs most elaborate and complex courtroom scene, a scene that appears almost half-way through the drama and marks an important turning point in the narrative.4 Earlier, Du Liniang encountered her lover in a dream (Scene 10), was unable to repeat the experience (Scene 12), became love-sick enough that she felt the need to paint and leave...
Prabhjot Singh, B. R. Chandavarkar, Srishti Arora, Neha Agrawal
In this paper, we study Bit coin network for electronic cash transactions, and compare the extension to the BTCs network which inculcates provision of executing fast transactions with greater security and assurance with the former method of Proof-Of-Work for executing transactions. Above milestones are achieved by introducing the concepts of mutual trust and verifiable code execution between the payer and the payee in the network. Our work proposes a significant modification of the Pioneer model to provide a two-party trust framework for Bit coin transactions, considerably faster compared to the generic trust platform of Bit coin networks based on slow proof-of-work. The scheme proposed can promote the use of Bit coin transactions in real life scenarios, where fast transactions are desirable due time constraints between the payment and the service.
Previous article FreeThe galactic polity in Southeast AsiaStanley Jeyaraja TAMBIAHStanley Jeyaraja TAMBIAHHarvard University Search for more articles by this author Harvard UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull TextEPUBMOBI Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreI have coined the label galactic polity to represent the design of traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms, a design that coded in a composite way cosmological, topographical, and politico-economic features. The label itself is derived from the concept of mandala, which according to a common Indo-Tibetan tradition is composed of two elementsâa core (manda) and a container or enclosing element (la). Mandala designs, both simple and complex of satellites arranged around a center, occur with such insistence at various levels of Hindu-Buddhist thought and practice that one is invited to probe their representational efficacy.Mandala as cosmological topographyCosmological schemes of various sorts in Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism have been referred to as mandalaâfor example, the cosmos as constituted of Mount Meru in the center surrounded by oceans and mountain ranges. At a philosophical and doctrinal level, the Buddhist Sarvastivadin school represented the relation between consciousness (citta) and its associated mental phenomena (caitta) in terms of the law of satellites, wherein consciousness placed in the center is surrounded by ten caitta, each of which again is surrounded by four laksana, or satellites (Stcherbatsky 1923; Conze 1970). The design and arrangement of the magnificent architectural monuments like Borobodur and Angkor Vat have been called mandala (Mus 1935, 1936).At quite a different level, Kautilya in his Arthashastra used mandala as a geopolitical concept to discuss the spatial configuration of friendly and enemy states from the perspective of a particular kingdom (Shamasastry 1960). The human body is likened to a mandala (Tucci 1971), a description that finds its resonances in ritual and medical practices. Finally, mandala designs are printed on textiles or are reproduced in the transitory designs drawn with powdered colors on numerous occasions.My primary interest in this paper is the traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms that are described as conforming to the mandala scheme in their arrangement at various levels. Mandala as geometrical, topographical, cosmological, and societal blueprints are not a distinctive feature of complex kingdoms and polities only. The evidence is quite clear that simpler mandala designs appear in tribal lineage-based segmentary societies practicing slash-and-burn agriculture, and that the most elaborate designs are manifest in the more complex centralized polities of valley-based sedentary rice cultivators (for example, see Mus 1935; Heine-Geldern 1942; de Jong 1952; Schrieke 1955; Shorto 1963; Moertono 1968; Wheatley 1971). But this is a simplification. There are indeed expressions both simple and complex found in phenomena standing between these polesâat the level of tribal polities and local communities. An excellent case in point are the Atoni of Timor. They have named patrilineal descent groups, live in villages, grow maize and rice by shifting agriculture on mountainous terrain, and at the same time belong to princedoms. Their village houses are made to a complex center-oriented design wherein con-cepts of inner and outer, right and left, four major mother posts, twelve peripheral chicken posts, and so on build up a scheme that simultaneously has cosmological, ritual, sexual, and practical ramifications (Cunningham 1973). And, as may be expected, the wider encompassing polity as such is constituted according to an ela-borate design of center and satellites and of successive bipartitions of various kinds (Nordholt 1971).Examples of the elementary geometric designs are the five-unit (quinary) and nine-unit samples. The first consists of four units deployed around a central one, and the second is composed of a center, four places in the major cardinal positions, and four more placed in between at the lesser cardinal points (Figures 1 and 2). In Indonesia, for example, the quinary formula called mantjapat ("five-four") had various usages: it denoted the arrangement of four village tracts around a fifth cen-tral one; it represented the rotational location of village markets in a five-day cycle; it made its appearance in the settlement of Minangkabau land-ownership disputes in that the unanimous testimony of the heads of families owning the four surrounding plots was required (de Jong 1952); it described the headman's council at the village level (in the same sense as that of the panchayat in village India); and it appears (Schrieke 1955) to have been the underlying pattern of the Mataram king-dom during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, arrived at by successive bipartitions (Figure 1, upper right).Similarly, the nine-unit design appears in stereotyped accounts of the king and his ministers arranged in two concentric circles. It also appears in the territorial design of the traditional Negrisembilan polity (Figure 2), with the domain of Sri Menanti in the center, immediately surrounded by four "verandah" (serambi tracts and these again being flanked by four major districts (de Jong 1952). Figure 1: Upper left: The mantjapat. Upper right: The Mataram stateâa five-unit system through successive bipartitions (after Schrieke 1955) Lower left: Nine-unit system, showing a radical pattern. Lower right: The king's council, showing two concentric circles.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointHere is the first problem posed by these facts: because these geometrical and radial constructs, traditionally conceived as cosmological designs, occur in slash-and-burn and wet-rice economies, occur at the level of local community and the widest conception of polity, and occur in simpler and more complex societies, there are no prima facie grounds for explaining their manifestation as immediate and direct projections of ecological considerations or the logistical constraints of sociopolitical organization. The logic of their use cannot be reduced to a simple causal explanation. It is clear that if we approached these center-oriented constructs or models as a form of classification, we could start with an initial pentadic or quinary system and progressively build up an expanding series of mandala circles comprising seventeen, thirty-three, and still larger clusters of units.Perhaps the most famous of these complex schemes was realized in the Hindu-Buddhist polities of Southeast Asia that employed the thirty-three-unit scheme to express and organize cosmogonies and pantheons as well as religio-political groupings. In this scheme the king as wielder of dharma (the moral law), as the chakra-vartin (universal emperor) and bodhisattva (buddha-to-be), was seen as the pivot of the polity and as the mediating link between the upper regions of the cosmos, composed of the gods and their heavens, and the lower plane of humans and lesser beings.1Figure 2: Negrisembilan (after de Jong 1952). Bottom: Schematic design of the Negrisembilan polity as a nine-unit system.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointThe best expression of this scheme is the thirty-two myos of the medieval Mon kingdom and the thirty-seven nats of the subsequent Burmese pantheon so well elucidated for us by Heine-Geldern (1942) and Shorto (1963); both these schemes derive from the paradigmatic heavenly scheme of the god Indra, flanked by the four guardians of the world (lokapala) and twenty-eight lesser devatas as retinue. For example, Thaton, the Mon kingdom overrun by Anawrahta in 1057, had thirty-two myos or provinces, each the seat of a subordinate prince, ringing the capital. All these political and territorial units were further linked together by the Buddhist cetiya cult of relic pagodas, also thirty-three in number. Similarly, the kingdom of Pegu in 1650 and the Mon kingdom of Rammanadesa of Lower Burma had their own permutations and variations of these schemes (Shorto 1963).All these Buddhist courts also provided prolix examples of such mandala schemes as the king surrounded by thirty-three queens and thirty-three lineages into which they married, and the like.Following is the second problem of interpretation. The classical descriptions of these Southeast Asian polities arranged in center-oriented galactic schemes were and are accompanied by a certain interpretation of their raison d'etre, which I shall label as the cosmological mode. It is best exemplified by the writings of Eliade and Heine-Geldern (among others), and repeated by Shorto and Wheatley; surprisingly, it is also espoused by Riggs (1967) in his characterization of the traditional Siamese polity. Even Geertz's (1973) trinitarian formulation of the traditional Javanese and Balinese polities in terms of the doctrines of exemplary center, graded spirituality, and theater state resonates with a "cosmological" ontology, which provides the impulsion for the politics in these traditional kingdoms to be the enactment of ritual.The doyen of contemporary cosmological interpreters is Eliade, who for instance in his Cosmos and history: The myth of the eternal return (1959) argues that Archaic Man, as opposed to Modern Man, constantly enacted archetypes or exemplary models in his rituals (as well as other activities), of which the symbolism of the center as the axis mundi is the most celebrated. For Eliade, these center-oriented cosmologies are enacted and implemented by the archaic mentality, not because of any rational or practical considerations but because they constitute a prior ontology and therefore an absolute reality for the actors. in other words, the "sacred" orientation provides the impulsions and guidelines for the "profane" activities of traditional man. Thus, in Eliade's vision, archaic man's "reality is a function of the imitation of a celestial archetype [and this] reality is conferred through participation in the 'symbolism of the center': cities, temples, houses become real by the fact of being assimilated to the 'centre of the world.'"Again, more recently, Wheatley, the author of a large work, The pivot of the four quarters (1971), repeats in his inaugural lecture the same interpretive perspective: "in these religions which held that human order was brought into being at the creation of the world there was a pervasive tendency to dramatize the cosmogony by constructing on earth a reduced version of the cosmos, usually in the form of a state capital. in other words, Reality was achieved through the imitation of a celestial archetype by giving material expression to that parallelism between macrocosmos and microcosmos without which there could be no prosperity in the world of men" (1969: 10).Let me be clear about what i am questioning in the received wisdom so persuasively purveyed by these eminent scholars. My own stand is far from a vulgar utilitarianism or pragmatism in terms of which the schemes in question ought to be explained. one must grant the validity of the galactic model as a collective representation. But what i question is seeing the rationale for this model in a cosmo-logical mode of thought as an ontological priority, which is so interpreted as to constitute a sociological anteriority as well, such that for the imputed "traditional" or "archaic" mentality a notion of the "sacred" is alleged to engulf the "secular" and to serve as the ground of reality.Apart from the limitation that such a cosmological mode of explanation is static and cannot account for either variations between the schemes employed by societies or polities or dynamic changes in the schemes over time, there is the major objection that in these examples of traditional thought and practice, the sacred as such cannot be persuasively distinguished from a profane domain, and that the cosmological, religious, political, economic dimensions cannot be disaggregated. What the Western analytical tradition separates and identifies as religion, economy, politics may have either been combined differently, or more likely constituted a single interpenetrating totality. If, as I believe, these entities under scrutiny were total social phenomena in the Maussian sense, then one has to employ a different analytical strategy from those already cited so as to recover something of their con-tours and relations.My approach, which I shall call "totalization," aims to give an integrated account that is, as far as possible, a true representation of the traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms as extant actualities. But the task is not easy, least of all the problem of translation of indigenous concepts and their elucidation in terms of the analyst's concepts and vocabulary.My thesis is that the kingdoms in question were arranged according to a galactic scheme, and that this scheme was conceptualized and actualized in ways that are best elucidated in terms of certain key indigenous concepts. The most central of these concepts is mandala (Thai: monthon), standing for an arrangement of a center and its surrounding satellites and employed in multiple contexts to describe, for example: the structure of a pantheon of gods; the deployment spatially of a capital region and its provinces; the arrangement socially of a ruler, princes, nobles, and their respective retinues; and the devolution of graduated power on a scale of decreasing autonomies. Other key concepts in the Thai language (which have th eir counterpar ts in other Southeast Asian languages as well) are: muang, which in a politico-territorial sense signifies kingdom/principality in terms of center-oriented space, and of central and satellite domains; and krom, which represents the radial mapping of an administrative system of departments and their subdivisions, as well as the constitution of successively expanding circles of leaders and followers or factions.The range of meanings of these and other concepts will emerge in due course. Here I shall note certain features integral to the notion of totalization. First, there is a semantic overlap and a certain amount of redundancy in the meanings attributable to the Thai concepts cited, although they are not identical and do not occupy equal semantic space. Second, these (and other similar) concepts are polyvalent, and if their meanings are mapped onto a Western conceptual grid of "levels," they are revealed to be, in varying degrees of overlap, at once cosmological, territorial, politico-economic, administrative, and so on.Thus, from the standpoint of the integrity of these traditional polities, it would be a mistake to disaggregate them into the above-mentioned Western conceptual levels and to treat them as analytically adequate and exegetically sufficient. Although not committing this error, I, as translator and analyst, can only give some idea of the totality by showing that the key concepts do resonate with the polyvalent implications that we attribute to these levels. Therefore, I shall adopt the descriptive strategy of showing that the galactic scheme was characterized by certain structured relations, which were reflected at various levels that I disaggregate or deal with in succession only so that later I can reconstitute the totality.My descriptive strategy has two implications, which are paradoxically the two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, because the levelsâcosmological, territorial, politico-economic, and so onâhave no true analytical validity, it follows as a corollary that we cannot assign a deterministic and privileged role to any of them. on the other hand, because the key polyvalent concepts are totalistic and simultaneously carry those significances which we descriptively disaggregate (as cosmo-logical, political, economic), we have to see the galactic scheme as encoding all the impulsions that we customarily attribute to each level. Thus, in requiring us not to assign priority to any one level or to ignore its impulsionâcosmological or logis-ticalâthe approach makes it possible to integrate the claims of a cosmological imperative with other imperatives without contradiction. Finally, the approach also makes it possible to relate the model of the galactic polity to certain parameters that define the outer limits of its existence and explain processual oscillations within those limits.From cosmology to political processThe so-called cosmological schemes can be seen dynamically as serving as frames for political processes and outcomes of a pulsating kind. Furthermore, and this is i hope a novel argument, the cosmological idiom together with its grandeur and imagery, if read correctly, can be shown to be a realistic reflection of the political pulls and pushes of these center-oriented but centrifugally fragmenting polities. in this instance myth and reality are closer than we think.Before I enumerate its salient political and economic features, let me provide some factual illustrations of the galactic polity.The kingdom of SukhothaiThe kingdom of Sukhothai, which historically marked the first political emergence and realization of a Thai polity in the thirteenth century (in what is now Thailand), bore the unmistakable marks of a galactic polity (principal sources here are Wales 1934; Griswold 1967).The concept of muang (the Mon parallel is dun) had a range of meanings signifying kingdom, country, province, town, capital, and The most for that concept is that it referred to or as opposed to space, and for a capital, town, or settlement with the surrounding over which it At the widest it was the case that the of a kingdom was with the of the capital The Javanese was that of a with its with decreasing the power of the center the range of its conception of as a space, over which as power from a center, is integral to the characterization of the traditional polity as a mandala composed of concentric usually in number. concentric system, the relations, was in the center was the king's capital and the region of its direct which was surrounded by a of by or by the and these again were surrounded by polities more or that the capital itself was an architectural representation of a Thus, the capital had in the inner core of the the king's and the major and standing by this center was surrounded by circles of with four at the cardinal points is cited by Wales as giving this description of the territorial and administrative of Sukhothai, it had itself from and had in and within a of two its At the center was the capital or by the muang or this domain, the king was in his capital and within it again in his At the four cardinal points were the muang, each by a of the king (and their in by the as kingdoms, were as the of with to the capital province, as by the expression muang The were received from the king and on the same as the capital, the being to with the for and on of of a of units that one in that they of finds expression also those units as the of the structure of a muang, capital or of these are the of the village at the level, the the of the of The outer the concentric the four provinces, was the region of kingdoms, brought under were in a is, in a relation of than direct political as of his kingdom various polities of the and the kingdom of Sri in the and the kingdom of Pegu to the was at best this give evidence of the social of the (and are of the Mon concepts cited the nobles, of the the of the the for the who was also called of the who were lesser to the capital muang and who as of the body of which the of his capital and the immediately the king in of up other examples of the galactic polity, I shall a the constitution of the central or capital region of the king and its provinces, and the between them. On the one hand, there is a on a reduced scale of the center in its on the the satellites the of and in of we constantly in the expanding and of the political under we can the central reality that although the political units in each lesser was a and imitation of the What is a galactic of a central surrounded by satellites, which are more or entities held in and within the of of the we at the other central and their satellites, we shall be to the logic of a system that as a of central points is to the of and of is clear that the of the and with to territorial Although of his of Thai who a a that was on the of had first to for his and then to as of the states as The problem of territorial was to the of of the of was the kingdom of further to the was in the was to the and far to the The under and under were example, and between and in the of the Furthermore, the of and and the of the polities that the capital of the its Thai a of around first to from there to and for up in and there for to Thus, a of ought to us that we must the of the capital as the exemplary center with the fact of a center of and of the king on the or on the of was and to or with the of The of was reduced to a of in and by the were and into the kingdom of polity have in a a description of the design of the kingdom of and the pattern of its political and administrative at certain points in its Here I shall give a of the polity around the quarter of the century so as to the point that although more the underlying of territorial and administrative to the scheme of the galactic polity. Figure Schematic representation of the polity The represents the domain of 1 by of the by of the up the Large ImageDownload is at this time with the of his The pattern was as follows Figure the capital of and its core region or domain, which was into later called lesser were in by to the ministers in the In these were the by the king's of of the of of a later they were called of The that this description were in fact the muang that composed the major of the now kingdoms of and of the same as muang but with a of local and of more or were the of in the in the and most famous of in the provide the best evidence of the and in the capital All and of and their own 1 and were the muang by the of the by of the second these were the central domain from the large At the were the polities, such as the kingdoms of and and the states of and all these in a to there were the and Burmese the the were of enemy and of galactic in their own still more complex mandala model the design of the kingdom was in the century in time were now into four there were two of the first of the second of the and of the under the of the capital. The and also had subordinate to them than to the capital. It was this that was into the and the of and of which was reproduced in the law by I in It is most to note of this in the were to a of and those of the capital, and had the same of but positions, and all of these were by the the from the capital. The such local and in were by the in the capital, with for terms reality from the but that us into the political of the galactic center-oriented concentric of the polity was pervasive in Southeast The Javanese called which various features of the kingdom in the century, most evidence thesis of the galactic polity An of the read in
The Bitcoin crypto-currency has come under attack from multiple directions over the past few weeks, including massive thefts. And given the intrinsically anonymous nature of the system, it may be impossible to track down the thieves.
Technological development and the increased use of the internet have led to the proliferation of virtual communities. Some of these communities have created and circulated their own currency for exchanging goods and services. Bitcoin is currently the most popular among these virtual or digital currencies and has been in news recently because of the wild fluctuations in its "value" and also significant venture capital investment in entities associated with it.1 Bitcoin is relevant in several areas of the financial system and is therefore of interest to central banks, consumers and investors. Digital currencies are part of a broader group of virtual currencies that include credit card points, air miles, loyalty points and coupons (Chart 1). With the advent of the Internet, mobile devices and detailed consumer information, companies are increasingly using digital currencies as a marketing tool. As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the use of digital currencies, particularly for app-based coins and tokens, mobile coupons, and personal data exchanged for digital content. As these trends evolve, digital currencies have the potential to become more popular and compete with traditional currencies. This paper aims to provide some clarity in particular on Bitcoin, its role and potential future use in the financial system and the risks associated with this form of digital currency.. It will begin by providing a short introduction to the Bitcoin network as well as describe the benefits of allowing the Bitcoin network to develop and innovate. It will highlight concerns for consumers, policymakers and financial regulators. Next it will analyze the role that Bitcoin could play in the financial system. The paper will conclude by providing recommendations to address policymakers' concerns while allowing for further innovation within the Bitcoin network. An initial comprehensive overview of this kind is absent from the existing literature. This paper intends to fill that gap in the literature.
Describing, understanding, and modeling the emergent behavior of self-organizing software systems remains an open challenge. Such systems can solve problems in computing domains where traditional, centralized models are impractical or problematic, including ubiquitous and pervasive computing, peer-to-peer networks, large-scale grids, and Ultra-Large-Scale Systems. Self-organizing approaches have demonstrated great promise in building adaptive behavior into decentralized systems, enabling cooperative, autonomous self-management and the exploitation of the heterogeneity of system components. My investigation of self-organizing software systems has revolved around Myconet, an unstructured overlay protocol for peer-to-peer networks. Myconet takes inspiration from fungal growth patterns in order to build an efficient self-optimizing superpeer topology that can also rapidly self-heal in response to damage orattacks. Myconet has proven to be flexible, and has been used as a platform for the development of other self-organizing applications in large-scale distributed systems, including load-balancing in distributed service networks (Mycoload), and detection and mitigation of attacks against the overlay (Hormone-Inspired Topology Adaptation Protection [HITAP] and Self-Organized Degree Adaptation Protection [SODAP]). Each extension has given additional insights into the self-organizing dynamics of such systems, but has also shown the limitations of ad hoc approaches to the design and analysis of new applications. These experiences have led me to investigate formal tools and models that may provide the designer of a self-organizing system with early and accurate insight through augmented analytical power. This research selects a small set of synergistic modeling techniques, and builds an integrated approach to modeling for the design and validation of self-organizing software systems. These tools are used to model the core Myconet platform and its currently developed extensions, particularly focusing on the SODAP layer which provides self-protection features to a superpeer-based P2P overlay network. Once established, this modeling approach can be applied to the principled design of further Myconet extensions, as well as other self-organizing systems, thus advancing the understanding of how to model and engineer self-organization in software systems.