We eliminate the primary source of uncompensated risk from trading in one of the largest sectors of the global financial markets. Market infrastructure enhancements are achieved in the foreign exchange (FX) forward contract market by integrating distributed ledger technology (DLT) into the creation of collateral-linked contracts for currency forwards (CLCF). Specifically, we deploy DLT with embedded automation as the shared platform for bilateral FX forward contracts, including operational provisions of International Swaps and Derivatives Association and Credit Support Annex agreements. Through automation, we link the economics of the currency forward contract and the price-volatility-induced counterparty exposures, bringing intraday counterparty risk to within mutually acceptable ranges. The essential benefits of the over-the-counter market structure are preserved because CLCF contracts remain bilateral to allow for customized terms and conditions between market participants. Reduced concentration risk is also preserved because there is no central counterparty or central clearing organization into which all risks are pooled. As a result, liquidity is enhanced and risk is reduced in the FX forward contract market. <b>TOPICS:</b>Futures and forward contracts, currency, performance measurement, risk management
Rune Tevasvold Aune, Adam Krellenstein, Maureen O’Hara, Ouziel Slama
<h3>Practical Applications Summary</h3> In <b>Footprints on a Blockchain: <i>Trading and Information Leakage in Distributed Ledgers</i></b>, from the Summer 2017 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Trading</i></b>, authors <b>Rune Tevasvold Aune</b>, <b>Adam Krellenstein</b> (both of <b>Symbiont</b>) <b>Maureen O’Hara</b> (<b>Cornell University School of Management</b>) and <b>Ouziel Slama</b> (formerly of Symbiont and now with <b>Legolas</b>), describe a creative solution to a potential limitation to the use of distributed ledger technology in financial market contexts. This complication relates to the disclosure of proprietary trading information that could be used to “front-run” certain investors. The authors outline a solution to this problem, which involves the use of a cryptographic hash to indicate prioritization of transactions. This solution could facilitate widespread usage of blockchain technology in a variety of financial contexts. <b>TOPICS:</b>Quantitative methods, exchanges/markets/clearinghouses
This article looks at the application of present Indian payment system policies and regulatory model on virtual-currency in India. In fact, simply banning cryptocurrency in India would not serve the purpose of legislature and Reserve Bank of India (RBI); rather it will boost cryptocurrency frauds in India due to absence of any law. The present article analysis shows that there is an ample scope within the present models and policies with necessary amendments to facilitate the regulation of virtual-currency in India. The analysis also suggests new model regulation on cryptocurrency which shall constitute the basic model regulations in India to govern cryptocurrency technology and products. Author uses the Banking Regulation Act as a model, regulating all types of new fintech products such as cryptocurrency, Bitcoin & business activity, its intermediaries, exchanges, customer protection in robust and transparent fashion in India.
Mukhadin Eskindarov, М. А. Абрамова, В. В. Масленников, Nataliya A. Amosova · 14 authors
The active digitalization of the life of modern society observed over the past 20 years has led to real changes in the economy. The financial sector is at the heart of a digital transformation that has been spearheaded by FinTech, which is now shaping a new segment of modern financial markets. At the same time, the most wellknown objects of FinTech are cryptocurrency and token. Cryptocurrencies, regardless of the attitude of regulatory authorities to them, have become a virtual reality of the financial sector and are actively used to pay for goods and services. The peculiarity of cryptocurrencies is its anonymity and unaccountability of the state that defines a range of risks to society and the state. However, cryptocurrencies, along with risks, create opportunities — from the development of innovative technologies to the creation of new jobs and replenishment of the national budget. The penetration of FinTech into the financial market segments traditionally occupied by banks gave rise to a discussion about their future. However, it will probably not be the displacement of the banks but their FinTech transformation. An example of this is the payment industry, which has become one of the main consumers of the latest financial technologies and provides a wide range of opportunities for FinTech companies to develop. An important element of FinTech is RegTech (Regulatory Technology), which allows companies to bypass trade barriers and helps build a constructive dialogue with regulators. In turn, SupTech (Supervision Technology) is used for analysis and forecasting purposes. At the end of the article, based on the analysis of foreign experience, we formulated the main approaches, the implementation of which allows states to stimulate the introduction and development of new financial technologies, as well as we analysed the experience of interstate coordination of cooperation in the field of financial technologies in the EU and the EAEU countries.
Open access
FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
Yusuf Sani Abubakar, Ahmad Faosiy Ogunbado, Mpawenimana Abdallah Saidi
Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency and the most successful in blockchain management. It has become famous in recent years. The critical aspects of cryptocurrency are its legitimacy, source of money laundering, tax evasion, lack of regulation etc. The aim of this study is to explore the view of Muslim scholars on the legality of bitcoin with respect to Shariah. The study adopts doctrinal approach which utilizes descriptive approach of qualitative research methodology which relies on secondary data in form of text books, journals, newspapers, related websites etc. The study found that Muslim scholars are divided on the issue. A part of them completely rejected bitcoin and considered it against Shariah principles. On the other hand, some Muslim scholars believe bitcoin does not contradict Islamic principles and therefore may be used, however with certain conditions. The researchers tend to support the proponents’ view as most of the opponents’ grounds for the rejection are temporary in nature which may be covered through policy regulations.
The rapid proliferation of digital technologies with new functionalities has profoundly changed competitive environments, reshaping traditional business strategies and processes (Bharadwaj, Sawy, Pavlou, & Venkatraman, 2013). Such technologies also give rise to new ways of collaboration, leveraging resources, product/service design, development, and deployment over open standards and shared technologies (Markus & Loebecke, 2013). At the microlevel, digital technologies also reshaped the mentality of entrepreneurs (Domenico, Daniel, & Nunan, 2014) and hence affect their decision-making processes (Shepherd, Williams, & Patzelt, 2014). Digital entrepreneurship includes ventures and transformation of existing businesses by creating novel digital technologies and/or novel usage of such technologies. Currently, many countries consider digital entrepreneurship as a critical pillar for digital economic development. It is imperative to develop a fine-grained understanding of digital entrepreneurship. Traditionally, research on entrepreneurship seeks to understand “how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated, and exploited” (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000) and how entrepreneurial activities, processes, and outcomes are influenced by certain contexts (Zahra, Wright, & Abdelgawad, 2014). Despite the increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and businesses that are currently using digital technologies to pursue opportunities, research has lagged far behind practice and paid limited attention to the phenomenon (Grégoire & Shepherd, 2012). Particularly, the understanding about the role that digital technologies play in entrepreneurship and the role that users and agents play in digital entrepreneurship remains limited (Nambisan, 2016). Several review articles on entrepreneurship also clearly point out the gaps in understanding the novel usage of digital technologies by entrepreneurs (Kiss, Danis, & Cavusgil, 2012; Mainela, Puhakka, & Servais, 2014; Shepherd et al., 2014). Research in the IS field has a relatively long tradition of investigating entrepreneurial actions enabled by digital technologies within an organizational context (Bharadwaj et al., 2013; Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, & Grover, 2003). However, only a few recent studies have shed light on the characteristics and design of digital platforms for entrepreneurial activities, such as crowdfunding (Burtch, 2013; Burtch, 2014; Zheng, Li, Wu, & Xu, 2014). The objective of this special issue is to provide a forum for IS and other business scholars to engage in this important dialogue on digital entrepreneurship and to contribute to the development of cumulative knowledge in this pivotal area. The selected articles address digital entrepreneurship from quite diversified perspectives with different methodologies and shed light on the roles of technologies. In particular, these studies reveal some interesting interactions among platforms, players, institutions, and agency and offer rich insights to guide future research on digital entrepreneurship. The study on “Digital Transformation by SME Entrepreneurs: A Capability Perspective” by Li, Su, Zhang, and Mao (2018) offers a special perspective to understand the transformation of SMEs in a digital ecosystem. This paper presents case studies that describe how seven SMEs have transformed from local, incapable small firms to active and successful cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) players on the Alibaba platform. From the authors' view, these Chinese firms were “least likely to embrace IT and complex digital platforms for foreign trade.” The miracle happened through dynamic managerial capability building, organization capability building for CBEC, and strategic changes. A key perspective to appreciate the paper is its exposition on how SMEs acquire capabilities through the Alibaba digital platform. While the authors rightfully focus on SMEs' acquisition of capabilities necessary for CBEC and beyond, a reader may as well appreciate how a digital platform plays a nurturing role in this process. Almost at every step, the platform goes the extra mile in motivating SMEs, providing hands-on training on the use of the platform, providing social networking and mutual learning among SMEs, building CBEC tools to overcome trading barriers, and motivating SMEs for strategic transformation. Therefore, the moral of the story is really not only about how individual SMEs became heroically successful but also about what a platform should do to build a digital ecosystem, with CBEC being an example. The authors call it the “management-oriented service” of the platform, which could be interpreted as the “nurturing,” “coaching,” and “scaffolding” roles of the platform. The intricate relationship between the platform and SMEs is what makes this case study different. A plausible explanation of this phenomenon is the Chinese business culture on relationships or “guanxi.” If so, this study offers an interesting contrast to the typical arms-length business relationship that exists between firms and a platform in the West. The paper, “From a Marketplace of Electronics to a Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (DEE): The Emergence of a Meta-Organization in Zhongguancun, China,” by Du, Pan, Zhou, and Ouyang (2018), focuses on the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem (DEE) and, particularly, the role of the external environment, using a case-based approach. The paper reports on the findings from a single case study of an emerging DEE in China, often referred to as “China's Silicon Valley.” Meta-organizational theory is used to show that the emergence of the DEE involves the development of a meta-organization or “community.” The meta-organization comprises elements of labour (institutional supporters, coworking space operators, and niche players) and integration effort, which is concerned with the construction of a common infrastructure and the cultivation of an entrepreneurial culture. The study adds to the literature by providing a rich account of the emergence of a DEE and showing the importance of taking a community perspective in examining how the actors involved organize to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities available through digital technologies. Given that much of the research on digital entrepreneurship is at the single firm level, this study makes an important contribution by examining the ecosystem and the meta-organization formation process. This provides a richly grounded basis for guiding entrepreneurs on the dynamics of a DEE and the roles and processes involved. Sometimes, digital platforms may pose negative challenges to heterogeneous entrepreneurship. The stigma of a digital platform is one of such challenges that might affect entrepreneurs and their ventures on the platform. The study by Ingram Bogusz and Morisse (2018), entitled “How Infrastructures Anchor Open Entrepreneurship: The Case of Bitcoin and Stigma,” brings a fresh perspective to understand the relational aspects of digital platforms by using an ideological lens to examine how a digital platform (in this case bitcoin infrastructure) is described and interpreted by open entrepreneurs and how such ideologically heterogeneous entrepreneurship responds to stigma towards bitcoin communities. The authors used a case study of the bitcoin community and entrepreneurs to reveal the possible ideologies held by entrepreneurs over bitcoin communities, ranging from mainstream, pragmatist, technologist to libertarian. Entrepreneurs with different ideologies develop different interpretations of the stigma towards bitcoin communities and hence respond in different ways. Financing is a critical issue for entrepreneurship, and crowdfunding offers a novel approach. Two papers in this special issue provide interesting and supplementary insight. The paper entitled “Sponsor's Cocreation and Psychological Ownership in Reward-based Crowdfunding” by Zheng, Xu, Zhang, and Wang (2018) addresses the topic of online reward-based crowdfunding. The study draws on data from a sample of individual crowdfunding investors in China. It focuses on how the sponsor's psychological ownership of the entrepreneurial project is promoted by their value cocreation process and leads to an improvement of the sponsor-entrepreneur relationship and commitment. Sponsor's cocreation positively influences psychological ownership by generating perceptions of control and intimate knowing about the project, which the authors showed as important mediators of the relationship. The study found that the relationship between sponsor cocreation and psychological ownership was moderated by the entrepreneur's activeness, as well as by social connections, implying that active involvement of the entrepreneur and sharing of information were important factors in enhancing the relationship. The paper makes an important contribution to a so-far neglected area of reward-based crowdfunding research by focusing on the postinvestment behaviours and relationships of sponsors and entrepreneur. By considering the role of sponsor cocreation on the relationship and the sponsor's ongoing commitment to the project, the paper provides useful insights into the psychological and behavioural dimensions associated with reward-based crowdfunding. The study by Thies, Wessel, and Benlian (2018), entitled “Network Effects on Crowdfunding Platforms: Exploring the Implications of Relaxing Input Control,” sheds light on the mechanisms that drive the evolution and growth of a crowdfunding platform. Using 8-year data from one of the most popular reward-based crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter, the authors seek to answer whether, in such digital platforms, the platform growth is mainly driven by funders, entrepreneurial projects, or their reciprocal relationship. The findings suggest asymmetric network effects, in that increasing the number of entrepreneurial projects, as compared with the number of funders, contributes more to network effects and is more critical for platform growth. Hence, should losing input control, one of the mechanisms to increase the number of entrepreneurial projects, be a reasonable choice? The results show that both same-side and cross-side network effects would be compromised. The value in this research is to offer a useful way to understand the dynamics in digital platforms resulting from network structures. The selected articles investigate quite a diversified yet related set of phenomena in digital entrepreneurship and reveal the rich interaction among digital platforms, entrepreneurs, institutions, and investors. We believe these studies add great value to enrich our understanding of digital entrepreneurship and hope the exploration effort made by the authors in this special issue will inspire future research developments. Dr Kathy Ning Shen is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business and Management at the University of Wollongong in Dubai. She received her Doctoral degree in Information Systems from the City University of Hong Kong and was the Chairperson of the Management Information System Department at Abu Dhabi University. Her main research areas include human-computer interaction, applications of information systems in organizations, e-marketing, virtual communities, and knowledge management. She has published more than 60 refereed journal and conference articles. Her work has appeared in top refereed journals such as Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Information & Management, Journal of Business Research, Communications of the ACM, Behaviour and Information Technology, Journal of Computer Information Systems, and Internet Research and top conferences in the field. Professor Valerie Lindsay is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management, and Director of Graduate Programs (SBA) at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the UAE. She has a PhD from the University of Warwick in the UK. Prior to joining AUS, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, held academic positions at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and at the University of Warwick, UK, specializing in international business and strategy. Professor Lindsay's research interests lie in the area of international strategy, specifically, internationalization and market entry, SMEs, services internationalization, and business in Asia. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Management International Review, Organizational Dynamics, Industrial Marketing Management, and International Journal of Services Industry Marketing, and she coauthored the book Knowledge at Work. Before joining academia, Valerie was the New Zealand Marketing Manager for ICI Pharmaceuticals and also worked in two New Zealand government departments in the areas of trade and tertiary education. She has consulted widely in strategy and marketing in industry and in government over many years. Professor Yunjie (Calvin) Xu is a Professor at the School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He received his PhD in Management Information Systems from Syracuse University, New York, USA. His research interests include electronic commerce, knowledge management, and social media. His research publications appeared in various information systems journals, including Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Association for Information Systems, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Communication of the ACM, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Retailing, and Decision Support Systems.
Tobias Riasanow, Fiona Burckhardt, David Soto Setzke, Markus Böhm · 5 authors
The emergence of blockchain technology, most known due to the hype around Bitcoin, has the potential to transform entire industries, such as banking, insurance, or the Internet of Things (IoT). Yet, parallel ecosystems like cryptocurrencies that substitute products and services of traditional financial institutions emerged. However, literature does not provide a structured overview of the blockchain ecosystem. By analyzing 479 blockchain companies reported in the Crunchbase database, this paper visualizes the current blockchain ecosystem using the e3-value method consisting of eleven generic roles. Moreover, we identify three strategic implications where blockchain is fundamentally different from prior approaches: governance, trust, and openness. Scholars can apply the generic ecosystem for future research, while practitioners can use the model to identify possible disruptive actors or potential business opportunities.
Derivatives are the “bad boys” of modern finance: exciting, dangerous, and fundamentally misunderstood. These misunderstandings stem from the failure of scholars and policymakers to fully appreciate the unique legal and economic structure of derivative contracts, along with the important differences between these contracts and conventional equity and debt securities. This Article seeks to correct these misunderstandings by splitting derivative contracts open, identifying their constituent elements, and observing how these elements interact with one another. These elements include some of the world’s most sophisticated state-contingent contracting, the allocation of property and decision-making rights, and relational mechanisms such as reputation and the expectation of future dealings. The resulting hybridity essentially splits every derivative into two separate contracts: one that governs under normal market conditions, and another that governs under conditions of fundamental uncertainty. In good times, derivative contracts contemplate the almost automatic determination and performance of each counterparty’s obligations. In bad times, these contracts include various mechanisms designed to provide counterparties with the flexibility to incorporate new information, fill contractual gaps, and promote efficient renegotiation.\nThe process of splitting derivative contracts open yields a number of important policy insights. First, the bundling of contract, property, decision-making rights, and relational mechanisms makes derivatives look far more like commercial loans than publicly traded shares or bonds. The regulatory treatment of derivatives as “securities”—and the resulting emphasis on market transparency—is thus somewhat misguided and serves to distract attention from the significant prudential risks posed by the widespread use of derivatives. Second, the flexibility associated with the relational mechanisms embedded within many derivative contracts can play a useful role in promoting both institutional and broader financial stability. This has important implications in terms of the desirability of the recent push toward mandatory central clearing of derivative contracts. It also exposes the potential perils of recent proposals to use distributed ledger technology and smart contracts to execute, clear, and settle these contracts. By the same token, the widespread breakdown of these relational mechanisms can be a source of financial instability. This provides a compelling rationale for authorizing central banks to act as “dealers of last resort” during periods of fundamental uncertainty.
Zusammenfassung Mit dem FinTech-Aktionsplan, den die Europäische Kommission im Frühjahr vorgestellt hat, werden erste Konturen einer europäischen Agenda für innovative Finanztechnologien (FinTech) erkennbar. So umfassend der Anwendungsbereich des Aktionsplans, so beschränkt ist jedoch bislang sein materieller Regelungsgehalt. Die Rechtswissenschaft hat umso mehr zur künftigen Rechtsentwicklung beizutragen, muss dabei aber dem primär ermöglichenden Charakter der europäischen FinTech-Agenda Rechnung tragen. Blockchain-basierten Smart Contracts, die in der Finanzbranche großes Potenzial haben, sollte insoweit besonderes Augenmerk gelten, zumal angesichts ihres selbstdurchsetzenden, regelnden Gepräges. Der nachfolgende Beitrag illustriert nach einer überblicksartigen Darstellung des Aktionsplans die rechtlichen Grenzen, die in seiner Folge zu überdenken sein werden; dabei konzentriert er sich auf jene Smart Contracts und deren Begrenzung, insbesondere durch mitgliedstaatliche Regeln zur privatrechtlichen Selbsthilfe.
In this report, Shakow explains how a decentralized autonomous organization functions and interacts with the U.S. tax system and presents the many tax issues that these structures raise. The possibility of using smart contracts to allow an entity to operate totally autonomously on a blockchain platform seems attractive. However, little thought has been given to how such an entity can comply with the requirements of a tax system. The DAO, the first major attempt to create such an organization, failed because of a programming error. If successful examples proliferate in the future, tax authorities will face significant problems in getting these organizations and their owners to comply with the tax laws.
Sandi Gec, Dejan Lavbič, Marko Bajec, Vlado Stankovski
Today, container-based virtualization is very popular due to the lightweight nature of containers and the ability to use them flexibly in various heterogeneously composed systems. This makes it possible to collaboratively develop services by sharing various types of resources, such as infrastructures, software and digitalized content. In this work, our home made video-conferencing (VC) system is used to study resource usage optimisation in business context. An application like this, does not provide monetization possibilities to all involved stakeholders including end users, cloud providers, software engineers and similar. Blockchain related technologies, such as Smart Contracts (SC) offer a possibility to address some of these needs. We introduce a novel architecture for monetization of added-value according to preferences of the stakeholders that participate in joint software service offers. The developed architecture facilitates use case scenarios of service and resource offers according to fixed and dynamic pricing schemes, fixed usage period, prepaid quota for flexible usage, division of income, consensual decisions among collaborative service providers, and constrained based usage of resources or services. Our container-based VC service, which is based on the Jitsi Meet Open Source software is used to demonstrate the proposed architecture and the benefits of the investigated use cases.
Sandi Gec, Dejan Lavbič, Marko Bajec, Vlado Stankovski
Today, container-based virtualization is very popular due to the lightweight\nnature of containers and the ability to use them flexibly in various\nheterogeneously composed systems. This makes it possible to collaboratively\ndevelop services by sharing various types of resources, such as\ninfrastructures, software and digitalized content. In this work, our home made\nvideo-conferencing (VC) system is used to study resource usage optimisation in\nbusiness context. An application like this, does not provide monetization\npossibilities to all involved stakeholders including end users, cloud\nproviders, software engineers and similar. Blockchain related technologies,\nsuch as Smart Contracts (SC) offer a possibility to address some of these\nneeds. We introduce a novel architecture for monetization of added-value\naccording to preferences of the stakeholders that participate in joint software\nservice offers. The developed architecture facilitates use case scenarios of\nservice and resource offers according to fixed and dynamic pricing schemes,\nfixed usage period, prepaid quota for flexible usage, division of income,\nconsensual decisions among collaborative service providers, and constrained\nbased usage of resources or services. Our container-based VC service, which is\nbased on the Jitsi Meet Open Source software is used to demonstrate the\nproposed architecture and the benefits of the investigated use cases.\n
Abstract Initial Coin Offerings ( ICO s) emerged in 2017 as a revolutionary form of raising capital by technology companies and investment vehicles. ICO s enable start-up companies to issue blockchain-based assets (‘digital tokens’) to the public in return for a payment in cryptocurrencies or fiat money. The fundraising objective is to finance technology projects carried out by the ‘ ICO issuer’. The ICO funding model represents a financial revolution as it provides additional pools of liquidity for capital formation purposes and a powerful tool for incentivizing communities through network effects. More importantly, the latent value of ICO s lies in the usage of the raised funds to develop cutting-edge distributed ledger technologies ( DLT s). The advent of ICO s mushrooming worldwide promises to democratize financing, yet the commonly unregulated space in which ICO s operate, opens up a Pandora’s Box of investment and legal risks. The present paper argues that regulation needs to be goal-orientated and for that purpose, it is crucial to identify the nature of the ICO funding model, the cryptoeconomics behind it and the legal nature of digital tokens. With ICO s, academia, economists and regulators are at ground zero. Practitioners’ first instinct is to apply the knowledge of capital markets, but ICO s are a fundamentally new model of raising funds that have spawned different dynamics from ‘traditional’ capital markets. If we can establish how to approach ICO s within their own right, then choosing the correct regulatory stance will become a matter of identifying how ICO s and markets interact and how the investment risks can be allocated. Keeping with the spirit of ICO s as a financial innovation, the paper proposes self-regulation by ICO issuers to be a suitable regulatory approach, while limiting the role of regulators to policing the secondary market of crypto-intermediaries. For the purpose of fully rationalizing this position, the paper outlines the process of carrying out an ICO , relevant benefits and risks to the model, the current state of ICO regulation, digital token characterization and merits of different regulatory approaches.
Purpose This paper aims to explain the current stage of blockchain and virtual currency regulation in the EU. Design/methodology/approach The paper explains the current state of blockchain and virtual currency regulation in the EU, presenting the EU institutions’ main policy and regulatory initiatives on, and approaches to, blockchain and virtual currency. Findings Though the EU is looking seriously at the potential of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, many European institutions are of the opinion that it is still too early to regulate in this field. As far as virtual currencies are concerned, Member States’ central banks do not consider them to be equivalent to money or legal tender. However, with the current high profile of and interest in virtual currencies, one can expect the European Commission to at least consider what regulation might be called for. Originality/value This study provides practical guidance on and introduction to the current regulatory and policy landscape of blockchain and virtual currency in the EU.
Blockchain is receiving ever-growing attention from research and industry and is considered a breakthrough technology. This paper presents an overview of Blockchain Technology and its potential applications in developing countries especially Uganda. It was noted that these nations have the potential to progress, but do not have adequate access to present day technology, primarily due to lack of infrastructure and thus Blockchain Technology will fill the gaps. Fundamentally, these nations need transparency, security, and accountability in their processes, all of which are cornerstones of Blockchain technology. Finally, this paper reveals that due to the support from both government and non-governmental organizations, and the establishment of the Blockchain Association of Uganda, Uganda is ready for Blockchain Technology.
Monireh Vahdati, Kamran Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, Ali Mohammad Saghiri, Hassan Rashidi
Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology are used to improve the traditional companies. One type of traditional companies is insurance companies. These companies suffer several problems that are leading to decrease their efficiency in modern societies. Many users of these companies are unhappy and dissatisfied because of some problems. The main problems of these companies are that their operations are not transparent. Moreover, their insurance rates are not calculated and in adaptive with customer's characteristics, e.g for low-risk and high-risk customers. Note that, users are not identical to the same insurance rates, which are determined by the insurer. In modern society, we have the IoT technology that enables us to find some specific information about users. This information enables the insurance companies to increase its accuracy. In addition, considering the potential of the smart contract of the blockchain, determining insurance rates must be transparent. This article proposes a self-organizing framework for insurance based on IoT and blockchain, which eliminates the main problems of traditional insurance. To evaluate the proposed framework, it is compared with the existing framework. The results show that it has several advantages over the existing framework and could be useful in near future.
Innerhalb der letzten Jahre wurden Blockchain-Technologien in vielen traditionellen Sektoren (z.B. im Finanzbereich) adaptiert. Dadurch wurden existierende Systeme neu überdacht und ganzheitlich neuartige Systeme erfunden. Allerdings blieb während dieser Zeit des raschen Fortschritts der Fokus stets auf der schnellen Produktentwicklung, was zu vielen Sicherheitsproblemen geführt hat durch die mehrere hundert Millionen von USD gestohlen oder verloren wurden. Nahezu alle derzeitig öffentlichen Blockchains bieten keine formale Semantik oder formales Framework zur Verifizierung von Smart-Contract-Code. Diese Arbeit präsentiert eine neuartige Semantik für Smart-Contract-Interaktionen und eine state-of-the-art Implementierung eines smart-contract-basierenden Investmentfonds für die Ethereum Blockchain. Der Fokus liegt darauf, eine formale Semantik für Smart Contracts mit dem tatsächlichen, wirtschaftlichen Anwendungsfall eines Investmentfonds zu verbinden. Genauer gesagt, die eingeführte Semantik bietet einen neuartigen Denkansatz dadurch, dass sie Smart Contract Interaktionen und nicht einzelne Smart-Contract-Ausführungen in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Die Blockchain wird durch einen Global State repräsentiert, auf welchem komplexe Transaktionen durch eine Big-Step-Semantik modelliert werden können. Der im Laufe dieser Arbeit entwickelte Investmentfonds ERCFund macht es möglich, in ein aktiv verwaltetes Portfolio von ERC20-Tokens und Ether zu investieren. Dies wird realisiert durch Tokens, welche als Anteil des Investmentfonds genutzt werden und je nach Bedarf gemünzt und vernichtet werden können. Außerdem unterstützt die Software mehrere fortgeschrittene Funktionen, wie z.B. Cold-Wallet-Support und Multi-Signature-Schutz durch Off-Chain-Signaturen. Wir zeigen, dass die eingeführte Semantik in einer realen, geschäftlichen Situation anwendbar ist, indem wir eine wesentliche Sicherheitsfunktion des Investmentfonds adaptieren und formal beweisen.
Aug 1, 2018·2018 17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications/ 12th IEEE International Conference On Big Data Science And Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE)
Blockchain is a distributed system with efficient transaction recording and has been widely adopted in sharing economy. Although many existing privacy-preserving methods on the blockchain have been proposed, finding a trade-off between keeping speed and preserving privacy of transactions remain challenging. To address this limitation, we propose a novel Fast and Privacy-preserving method based on the Permissioned Blockchain (FPPB) for fair transactions in sharing economy. Without breaking the verifying protocol and bringing additional off-blockchain interactive communication, FPPB protects the privacy and fairness of transactions. Additionally, experiments are implemented in EthereumJ (a Java implementation of the Ethereum protocol) to measure the performance of FPPB. Compared with normal transactions without cryptographic primitives, FPPB only slows down transactions slightly.
With the underlying technology of Bitcoin or other crypto-currencies and its rapid growth nowadays, many places have begun accepting Bitcoin payments in hot debate. It is hardly to deny the emerging success of the creation Blockchain platform behind of Bitcoin in the field of mathematics, finance, banking, and healthcare. The paper aims to create a diagrammatic conceptual model of medical app using Blockchain technology to manage all database of patients and doctors when they have a surgery. The model is built based on the gap of previous models which are mostly using Blockchain in banking and finance sector. Focusing on the development of mission space conceptual models, this paper will continue to propose a simulation space conceptual models in current studies, especially in the context of very few models applied blockchain in healthcare. After creation of this model, an app on smartphone using Bitcoin in payment could be created to facilitate doctors' management of all their patients directly and effectively as well as helping patients have a good comparison of cost, procedure or preparation of pre and post-surgery. Hopefully this paper will contribute to the given field the conceptual model for medical stakeholders including researcher, public health authorities, etc. to participate in the network as Blockchain "miners", to synthesize anonymous data as mining rewards, in return for sustaining and securing the network via Proof of Work.
Muniba Memon, Syed Shahbaz Hussain, Umair Ahmed Bajwa, Asad Ikhlas
In the world of Internet of Things, social media, and cloud computing, blockchain is the latest addition to the technology. The swift development of blockchain and its respected applications has made it a force to be recognized. But the scope of blockchain is not limited to bitcoin or the cryptocurrencies implementation. This paper enlightens the stipulation of blockchain beyond the bitcoin. Furthermore, this paper reveals the insights of blockchain technology concepts, evolution, mechanisms and challenges based on literature review. This paper identified the complications or challenges in implementation of blockchain technology in real-world applications. Secure implementation of blockchain technology on small scale applications is the key problem that still need to be addressed. The proposed consensus mechanism would be useful for secure implementation of the blockchain on small-scale application or projects.
Cryptocurrency exchanges, i.e. online platforms where customers exchange their cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies, are routinely targeted by hackers, which often result in a massive drain of cryptocurrencies. The heists can be large enough to bring down the exchanges to their knees. The customers of an exchange who have entrusted it with cryptocurrencies would have a contractual right to claim their return. If the exchange is wound up, however, personal claims (such as a contractual claim) brought in bankruptcy proceedings would not yield to them a full recovery. It is, therefore, practically important to examine whether the cryptocurrencies entrusted to an exchange are shielded from the bankruptcy of the exchange provider, so that the customers can obtain a full recovery. Under most, if not all, legal systems, the answer to this question would be unclear because cryptocurrencies are a novel asset and because the legal relationships between an exchange provider and its customers have not been sufficiently scrutinised. This article will seek to improve legal clarity by presenting an analytical framework, identifying issues, and pointing to possible solutions.
It will begin by examining the law of Japan, possibly the only country in the world where the matter has been litigated. Following a hacking attack, Mt Gox, the world’s biggest operator of a Bitcoin exchange at that time, became insolvent. After the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, one of its former customers filed a suit against the bankruptcy trustee in Japan, seeking a full recovery of the Bitcoins he had entrusted to the exchange. Rather than relying on a personal claim, the plaintiff asserted ownership over what he saw as “his Bitcoins”. His claim was, however, dismissed by the Tokyo District Court for reasons to be examined in this article. More recently, other customers filed a suit in Japan by trying another legal avenue to obtain a full recovery. They are arguing that their Bitcoins had been held by the exchange on trust for them.
After presenting an analysis under Japanese law, this article will explore its relevance to other legal systems. Since Japanese law belongs to the family of civil law systems, the analysis concerning the ownership of cryptocurrencies would have direct relevance to other civil law systems in the context of rei vindicatio (vindication of property). It would also inform the debate whether cryptocurrencies are “property” in terms of the tort of conversion in common law systems. The analysis concerning whether an exchange holds cryptocurrencies on trust for its customers would be useful to all the common law systems of which the law of trusts forms an integral part as well as any civil law systems which, like Japanese law, have introduced the concept of trusts.