In January 2009, the whole world was introduced to a new financial invention called Bitcoin. This coin is intended to accelerate globalisation of the financial market. Significantly, the inventor is credited as the first to succeed in solving the double-spending challenges associated with digital currency. Prior to the invention, a white paper about the bitcoin was authored and released in 2008under the name, Satoshi Nakamoto. However, the name, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains a mystery; the original inventor of the bitcoin remains a mirage to the financial world. Some analysts believe a pseudonym, rather than an original name, was used in creating the bitcoin. The main purpose of this research was to assess the financial impact of crypto currency, specifically bitcoin, on the Ghanaian and other economies across the globe. The systematic exploratory technique, an example of the mixed methods approach to scientific inquiry, was adapted for this research. Data required for the conduct of this research were obtained mainly from secondary sources. These included text books, journals, newspaper publications, and digital currency markets.Findings from the research revealed divergent views on the prospects of bitcoins in the medium- and long-term: some experts believed a bitcoin would soon trade at 1BTC: US$12,000 while others believed the future of the digital currency cannot be predicted with relative ease, what would become of the bitcoin in the medium- and long-term. The findings revealed some price volatilities in the bitcoin market. This notwithstanding, the digital currency has made remarkable strides in value since 2009 till date. The study recommended the need for governments to introduce measures that would ensure anti-money laundering, and "know-your-customer” controls; reduce the level of anonymity and privacy to eventually minimise use of bitcoins in criminal activities. There is the need for intelligence agencies of governments to engage the services of individuals who are technologically savvy to understand, operate and control the bitcoin system, which is technologically more complex than most of the computer systems used in day-to-day operations in various organisations. Institutions of higher learning and professional bodies could integrate the study of crypto currency into individual business related programmes.
Blockchain Technology or known as the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is becoming the game changer in the business industry because of its disruptive and transformative ability. The study aimed to determine the factors that influence the professional accountants to accept to use blockchain technology. Data were from 30 professional accountants working in the Kingdom of Bahrain as respondents using descriptive method of research. They were chosen using a non-probabilistic sampling.
Mark C. Ballandies, Marcus M. Dapp, Evangelos Pournaras
More than 1000 distributed ledger technology (DLT) systems raising $600 billion in investment in 2016 feature the unprecedented and disruptive potential of blockchain technology. A systematic and data-driven analysis, comparison and rigorous evaluation of the different design choices of distributed ledgers and their implications is a challenge. The rapidly evolving nature of the blockchain landscape hinders reaching a common understanding of the techno-socio-economic design space of distributed ledgers and the cryptoeconomies they support. To fill this gap, this paper makes the following contributions: (i) A conceptual architecture of DLT systems with which (ii) a taxonomy is designed and (iii) a rigorous classification of DLT systems is made using real-world data and wisdom of the crowd. (iv) A DLT design guideline is the end result of applying machine learning methodologies on the classification data. Compared to related work and as defined in earlier taxonomy theory, the proposed taxonomy is highly comprehensive, robust, explanatory and extensible. The findings of this paper can provide new insights and better understanding of the key design choices evolving the modeling complexity of DLT systems, while identifying opportunities for new research contributions and business innovation. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10586-021-03256-w.
How promising is Bitcoin as a currency? This paper discusses four claims on the advantages of Bitcoin: a more stable currency than state-backed ones; a secure and efficient payment system; a credible alternative to the central management of money; and a better protection of transaction privacy. We discuss these arguments by relating them to their philosophical roots in libertarian and neoliberal theories, and assess whether Bitcoin can effectively meet these expectations. We conclude that despite its advocates' enthusiasm, there are good reasons to doubt that Bitcoin can fulfill its promises and act as a functioning currency, rather than as a mere speculative asset.
One of the defining features of a cryptocurrency is that its ledger, containing all transactions that have ever taken place, is globally visible. As one consequence of this degree of transparency, a long line of recent research has demonstrated that--even in cryptocurrencies that are specifically designed to improve anonymity--it is often possible to track money as it changes hands, and in some cases to de-anonymize users entirely. With the recent proliferation of alternative cryptocurrencies, however, it becomes relevant to ask not only whether or not money can be traced as it moves within the ledger of a single cryptocurrency, but if it can in fact be traced as it moves across ledgers. This is especially pertinent given the rise in popularity of automated trading platforms such as ShapeShift, which make it effortless to carry out such cross-currency trades. In this paper, we use data scraped from ShapeShift over a thirteen-month period and the data from eight different blockchains to explore this question. Beyond developing new heuristics and creating new types of links across cryptocurrency ledgers, we also identify various patterns of cross-currency trades and of the general usage of these platforms, with the ultimate goal of understanding whether they serve a criminal or a profit-driven agenda.
Blockchain technology is swiftly entering the fields of humanitarian and development aid. While it has the potential to revolutionize the aid sector, e.g., through pairing smart contracts with forecast-based financing, it also has the potential to perpetuate societal problems and add new risks. This essay outlines the use cases of Blockchain technology for the humanitarian and development sectors and reflects on potentials and pitfalls that come with the adaptation of this new technology.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network that facilitates transactions between parties minus the proof requirement of an appointed third party (i.e., banks or financial institutions). Accurate understanding into the implementation of bitcoin can be acquired from data of the universal record of bitcoin transactions. Although data from numerous websites show that bitcoin daily transactions count has reached capacities of tens of thousands, it is widely believed that most of these transactions comprise activities between speculators and only a few are actually used for trading of goods and services. The chapter explores if bitcoin has achieved the characteristics of money. For it to survive, bitcoin must overcome the problems of its unconventional pricing mechanism, shortage of vendors who accept it, and the circuitous way of obtaining it.
Lennart Ante, Philipp Sandner, Ingo Fiedler, Andranik Tumasjan · 5 authors
This study explores the determinants of initial coin offering (ICO) success, where success is defined as the amount of capital a project could raise. ICOs are a tool for startups in the blockchain ecosystem to raise early capital with relative ease. The market for ICOs has grown at a rapid pace since its start in 2013. We analyze a unique dataset of 278 projects that finished their ICOs by August 2017 to assess determinants of funding success that we derive from the crowdfunding and venture capital literature. Our results show that ICOs exhibit similarities to classical crowdfunding and venture capital markets. Specifically, we identify resemblances in determinants of funding success regarding human capital characteristics, business model quality, project elaboration, and social media activity.
Muhammad Mehar, Charles Louis Shier, Alana Giambattista, Elgar Gong · 8 authors
In spring 2016, the Distributed Autonomous Organization (The DAO) was created on Ethereum. As with Bitcoin, Ethereum uses a P2P network, where distributed ledgers are implemented as daisy-chained blocks of data. Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, Ethers are spent to execute pieces of code called smart contracts. Investors paid their Ethers for the DAO to operate and received the opportunity to vote on and become investors in venture projects proposed by Ethereum-based startups. Transactions and settlements between investors and startups are executed autonomously. The DAO experiment failed shortly after inception as an anonymous hacker stole over $50M USD worth of Ethers out of the $168M invested. The Ethereum community voted to return (or fork) the state of the network to one prior to the hack, returning Ethers back to investors and shuttering the DAO. However, this action arguably represented as a bailout—ironically, Bitcoin was conceived as a reaction against the 2008 bailout of US banks—and violated the ledger immutability and “code is law” ethos of the blockchain community.
Ji-Sun Park, Taek-Young Youn, Hye-Bin Kim, Kyung-Hyune Rhee · 5 authors
Internet of Things (IoT)-based devices, especially those used for home automation, consist of their own sensors and generate many logs during a process. Enterprises producing IoT devices convert these log data into more useful data through secondary processing; thus, they require data from the device users. Recently, a platform for data sharing has been developed because the demand for IoT data increases. Several IoT data marketplaces are based on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, and in this type of marketplace, it is difficult for an enterprise to trust a data owner or the data they want to trade. Therefore, in this study, we propose a review system that can confirm the reputation of a data owner or the data traded in the P2P data marketplace. The traditional server-client review systems have many drawbacks, such as security vulnerability or server administrator's malicious behavior. However, the review system developed in this study is based on Ethereum smart contracts; thus, this system is running on the P2P network and is more flexible for the network problem. Moreover, the integrity and immutability of the registered reviews are assured because of the blockchain public ledger. In addition, a certain amount of gas is essential for all functions to be processed by Ethereum transactions. Accordingly, we tested and analyzed the performance of our proposed model in terms of gas required.
Distributed ledger technology is attracting the attention of the financial sector, both owing to its use in transactions with crypto-assets and to the proliferation of initiatives which have the potential to increase the efficiency, transparency, speed and resilience of processes underlying financial transactions. This article aims to introduce this technology, describing a series of basic issues surrounding it and attempting to identify opportunities and intrinsic limitations. Additionally, it addresses possible applications in the financial sector and outlines some of the main challenges which its use poses for the authorities.
Blockchain technology shows significant results and huge potential for serving as an interweaving fabric that goes through every industry and market, allowing decentralized and secure value exchange, thus connecting our civilization like never before. The standard approach for asset value predictions is based on market analysis with an LSTM neural network. Blockchain technologies, however, give us access to vast amounts of public data, such as the executed transactions and the account balance distribution. We explore whether analyzing this data with modern Deep Leaning techniques results in higher accuracies than the standard approach. During a series of experiments on the Ethereum blockchain, we achieved $4$ times error reduction with blockchain data than an LSTM approach with trade volume data. By utilizing blockchain account distribution histograms, spatial dataset modeling, and a Convolutional architecture, the error was reduced further by 26\%. The proposed methodologies are implemented in an open source cryptocurrency prediction framework, allowing them to be used in other analysis contexts.
Smart contracts can be defined as computer codes which are run digitally by computer programs to utilise the negotiation, formation, and performance of an automated and irreversible agreement between the contracting parties. Smart contracts are distinguished from other forms of contracts in terms of the way they are concluded which is through Blockchain Technology. In contrast to conventional contracts established through speech, written words or actions, smart contracts are algorithmic and self-executing agreements. In this article, smart contracts will be discussed from the perspective of their general rules and features and the Iraqi law. This study analyses the formation mechanisms of the general principles in Iraqi law governing the contracts and how these mechanisms can be applied to the new technological framework of smart contracts. In addition, integrating smart contracts into the current legal provisions in Iraq is examined.
This paper presents a solution to the exchange of services within an agent society. We explore an open delivery chain scenario in which autonomous drones offer and sub- contract delivery services to each other. Such agents are able to self-organize according to a chain of responsibility pattern. In such a heterogeneous agent society, it is crucial to define an approach that will guarantee accountability, responsibility, and ultimately trust in the execution of the service. The presented solution is based on smart contracts using a blockchain style of a distributed ledger.
Blockchain has become another new information revolution after the Internet, and to a certain extent, like the Internet, will change the existing production relations and business logic. With the advent of blockchain, smart contracts have become one of the most sought-after technologies. Its high customizability becomes the key to implement blockchain technology in multiple fields ranging from financial services, life sciences and healthcare to energy resources and voting. However, due to the infancy, challenges are put forward as smart contracts widespread deployment. This study aims to contribute a comprehensive overview on smart contract within blockchain technology. Based on systematic mapping study, we offer a broad perspective of current academic research and application areas of smart contracts. First, by using bibliometric mining on 158 smart contract-related papers, we identified publication profiles, research hot trends and research topic clustering. Then, we provide a summary of the areas where smart contracts are used and analyze the pain points, they address. Finally, we identify the bottlenecks that need to be broken and propose research outlook for the future development of this topic. This paper is aimed at providing helpful guidance and reference for future research efforts.
This paper explores whether and how technological innovation, in conjunction with policy measures, can improve the process of correspondent banking cross-border payments. The paper builds on the empirical validation of existing shortcomings in this area of business by using a questionnaire and industry expert focus group sessions. Having identified the key areas of concern (e.g. cost, transparency, speed), several new network models for cross-border payments are assessed, in terms of their ability to address existing problems. Among the possible models, we also explore the use of innovative technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT). As a final step, we evaluate the different models and complement our findings with policy recommendations, in particular with a view to further streamlining Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist-Financing (CTF) as well as conduct of business rules in payments and supporting information sharing on suspicious transactions between institutions globally.
Background: The application of the blockchain technology has shown promises in various areas, such as smart-contracts, Internet of Things, land registry management, identity management, etc. Although Github currently hosts more than three thousand active blockchain software (BCS) projects, a few software engineering research has been conducted on their software engineering practices. Aims: To bridge this gap, we aim to carry out the first formal survey to explore the software engineering practices including requirement analysis, task assignment, testing, and verification of blockchain software projects. Method: We sent an online survey to 1,604 active BCS developers identified via mining the Github repositories of 145 popular BCS projects. The survey received 156 responses that met our criteria for analysis. Results: We found that code review and unit testing are the two most effective software development practices among BCS developers. The results suggest that the requirements of BCS projects are mostly identified and selected by community discussion and project owners which is different from requirement collection of general OSS projects. The results also reveal that the development tasks in BCS projects are primarily assigned on voluntary basis, which is the usual task assignment practice for OSS projects. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that standard software engineering methods including testing and security best practices need to be adapted with more seriousness to address unique characteristics of blockchain and mitigate potential threats.
In 2008-09, after the subprime mortgage crisis, the governments of several developed countries had to print billions of dollars to bail out banks and insurance companies. Bitcoins, unlike paper currencies, cannot be minted, but can only be mined by bots. Although bitcoin is yet to gain prominence as mainstream currency in India, the technology behind it — the Blockchain technology — has captured the attention of numerous Indian banks. In 2016, ICICI Bank revealed that it successfully executed transactions in global trade finance and remittances using Blockchain technology. Even as developed nations such as Japan and Russia contemplate legalizing the use of bitcoins, India, despite being at the threshold of a digital revolution, is yet to officially recognize the cryptocurrency. However, the biggest impediment that bitcoin supporters perceive to making this currency mainstream is the fact that several nations are treading very cautiously around bitcoin and do not have any concrete regulations governing them. This paper highlights the legal validity of bitcoin in India.
Code and law have been entangled in a silent tension ever since the advent of cyberspace. The centralised architecture of cyberspace paved the way for law to prevail. The latest manifestation of this tension, however, appears to be opening up a Pandora’s box. Blockchain and law are on a silent collision course that must be addressed. This paper argues that in bridging the divide between code and law in blockchain, a radical rethink of regulation is imperative.