This thesis introduces blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and discusses how best to conceptualize it relative to other technologies. Following an explanation of the fundamentals of blockchain, also known as the distributed ledger, I identify the characteristics of the technology. Building upon blockchain’s inherent strengths and limitations, I explore potential business applications of blockchain. Finally, I recommend that leaders continue to track the development and adoption of blockchain technology, even if they decide that implementing it does not align with their organization’s strategy at present.
Stefano Balbo, Guido Boella, Alex Cordero, Diego Di · 8 authors
We present Co-City, an Urban Innovative Action project funded by the European Commission.Co-City proposes a collaborative management of urban commons to counteract poverty and socio-spatial polarization through the combined use of different actions.In particular, we are developing a Proof of Concept based on distributed ledger technology that enables the development of local economy models.
Fennie Wang, Primavera De Filippi, Alexis Collomb, Klara Sok
In the blockchain space, most Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) will not be true ecosystem tokens and will therefore be well suited as securities token offerings, using registration exemptions and trading through decentralized alternative trading systems. Open-source blockchain-based ecosystems may choose to rely on fundraising practices typical of start-ups and private enterprises for the pre-production phase. Once they have established some profit centers, they may choose the use of coin offerings to fund post-production phases. Most importantly, token issuers might choose to devise creative corporate forms combining nonprofit structures, which would oversee access to shared open-source resources, with for-profit structures to develop specific business or decentralized applications.
The fintech revolution, crowdfunding, and blockchain-based funding have dramatically reduced borrowing and lending transaction costs. Many have argued that ultimately this would lead to the complete disintermediation of financing for start-ups and SMEs. However, persistent asymmetric information and moral hazard problems have led to the creation of a new class of intermediaries that play a vital role in these new innovative financing methods. The authors review the new ecosystem built around initial coin offerings (ICOs), and in particular study the role of the ICO aggregators, and listing and rating portals. Using their hand-constructed database of all ICOs from inception in 2013 to September 2017, the authors find robust statistical confirmation that extensive coverage of a particular fundraising campaign in the ICO aggregators’ lists is associated with more successful token sales. However, ratings data seem and appear to vary considerably across different ratings websites and appears to be of mediocre quality. Investors should therefore treat such ratings with caution. <b>TOPICS:</b>Currency, information providers/credit ratings, risk management
The promise of using blockchain technology in legal transactions is that it will enable smart contracts to self-execute without intermediaries and arbitrators. However, blockchain cannot access data outside of its network, so a smart contract can self-execute on its own only within the blockchain. If the contract requires a delivery of goods or a performance of services in the real world, an external agent must verify the facts and add the information to the blockchain. Blockchain can ensure that the data entered has not been subsequently modified, but it cannot guarantee that it is true. The article analyses the role of blockchain oracles - i.e. third-party services entrusted by the parties with verifying real-world data that can trigger smart contract execution. The need for legal impartiality of such agents is discussed.
The development of information technology in the modern economy is one of the drivers of economic growth. Digital technologies are developing at an accelerating pace. Digitalization stimulates not only economic, but also social and technological progress. The impact of digital technology in different industries is not the same. The authors of the article consider such promising modern technology as Blockchain. Its advantage is that the information is protected from unauthorized modification. This transforms the system of economic relations. The level of trust increases. Opportunistic behaviour of participants in contractual relations is blocked. As a result, economic efficiency improves. These positive effects are analyzed in the case of the pharmaceutical industry. The introduction of Blockchain technologies into pharmaceuticals allows you to track all stages of production of drugs and guarantee their quality. Blockchain technology allows you to confirm the authenticity of recipes and the drugs with the help of special digital devices. The consequence of this is a reduction in the number of counterfeit drugs on the market, as well as improving the quality of medical care for the population.
A useful blockchain should possess the following properties, one or more of which many existing blockchain systems lack: 1) A sound consensus protocol. 2) An efficient transaction-processing system. 3) Immutability of history. 4) Decentralization. 5) An effective avenue for hard-forks and rule changes. We propose a system named the “Verex Blockchain” that will fulfill these requirements. This system employs an “Assigned-Majority-Validation” consensus protocol whereby only nodes within a specialized, designated network may vote on the correct state of the blockchain and add new blocks of transactions without proof of work or stake. New nodes to this network must be approved by existing nodes. These nodes will be controlled by entities with high public visibility such as governments or multinational technology companies, whose identities and actions will be made fully transparent on the blockchain. Transactions will be charged fees in cryptocurrency according to a fixed and known fee schedule, which will be earned by nodes in the designated network. Any user in the world may download the blockchain, receive and verify updates, and submit transactions, but only nodes in the specialized network may write updates to the blockchain.
Permissioned distributed ledgers (permissioned blockchains) supporting smart contracts that automatically adjust accounts and coordinate records among multiple parties, present a valid platform opportunity for establishing a fully digital tax regime. We propose a permissioned blockchain-based system aimed at eliminating some of the losses that tax authorities globally are currently struggling with. These multi-billion flaws manifest themselves as the tax gap, or the inability to collect the full amount that is owed by a given entity to a particular authority. Illegitimate or inefficient tax operations could be prevented with a global suite of smart contracts deployed on top of a consortium distributed ledger with on-chain governance. We also introduce the vision for a VAT Invoice 2.0 modelled as a Linked Data document. A tax reference generated by a smart contract would allow anyone with the right permissions to immediately investigate the entire commercial chain for any taxable item on an ontology-based tax document.
Now that you have learned how to write and deploy smart contracts, in this chapter you’ll integrate a smart contract with a web front end. You can interact with a smart contract from your web front end through the Web3.js JavaScript libraries.
Alvaro Gonzalez Rivas, Mariya Tsyganova, Eliza Mik
Many expect Smart Contracts (SC’s) to disrupt the way contracts are done implying that SC have the potential to affect all commercial relationships. SC’s are automatization tools; therefore, proponents claim that SC’s can reduce transaction costs through disintermediation and risk reduction. This is an over-simplification of the role of relationships, contract law, and risk. We believe there is a gap in the understanding of the capabilities of SC’s. With that in mind we seek to define an amorphous term and clarify the capabilities of SC’s, intending to facilitate future SC research. We’ve examined the legal, technical, and IS views from an academic and practitioner’s perspective. We conclude that SC’s have taken many forms, becoming a suitcase word for any sort of code stored on a blockchain, including the embodiment of contractual terms; and that the immutable nature of SC’s is a barrier to their adoption in uncertain and multi-contextual environments.
Daniel Haberly, Duncan MacDonald-Korth, Michael Urban, Dariusz Wójcik
While contemporary technological disruption is increasingly conceptualized in terms of the logic and paradoxes of the digital platform economy, discussions of “FinTech” have only engaged to a limited extent with these debates—particularly from an economic geographic standpoint. Here we fill this gap by proposing an adapted Global Financial Network (GFN) framework for conceptualizing the organizational and geographic logic of the digital platform economy in finance, and applying it to examine the impact of the digital platform model on asset management. As we will show, asset management is being profoundly disrupted by what we dub digital asset management platforms—or DAMPs—which encompass services including index fund and ETF provision, robo-advising, and analytics and trading support. Like other digital platforms, DAMPs do not so much leverage technology to enhance their competitiveness within markets, as to radically restructure the market itself. Also, like other platforms, their rise has produced a winner-take-all paradox of centralization through democratization that defies predictions of technology-enabled industry decentralization. However, the logic and implications of the rise of DAMPs diverges, in other respects, from non-financial digital platforms, as finance has long possessed an informational intensity and regulatory and organizational fluidity characteristic of the digital platform economy. Consequently, the digital platform model has mostly developed endogenously in asset management through incremental innovation by major financial firms—in a process that has reinforced the position of leading incumbent asset management centers, and above all New York—rather than being introduced from the outside by upstart technology firms and clusters.
Sina Rafati Niya, Florian Schüpfer, Thomas Bocek, Burkhard Stiller
Abstract This work introduces the design and implementation of an Android-based Peer-to-peer Purchase and Rental Application termed PuRSCA, which leverages Smart Contracts (SC) and the Ethereum public blockchain (BC). As a Device-to-device (D2D) communication protocol, WiFi-Direct is chosen to enable the P2P data transmission between two parties. This work results in a cost-efficient, secure, SC-based, P2P, and Decentralized application (Dapp). Evaluations on performance of this Dapp is specified in terms of its D2D deployment, transaction costs, scalability, security, and privacy.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been argued to play a vital role in facilitating cross-border payments and improving the financial ecosystem at a global scale. This research builds upon digital platform literature to frame cross-border payment organisations and uses a case study within the remittance industry to review the potential shapes of DLT within these platforms. Findings suggest that DLT can play a role at removing inefficiencies and promoting financial inclusion in developing countries by being used as a settlement mechanism, as a standardised communication channel and as a way for consolidating data located within the boundaries of different platforms. This study contributes to digital platform and DLT literature by suggesting three potential implications that this phenomenon can bring and their relevance to payment platforms.