Blockchain Papers

YINKA ADERIBIGBE

The rapid expansion of decentralized finance has introduced unprecedented systemic risks, most notably the phenomenon of stablecoin runs. Traditional econometric models analyzing financial fragility rely heavily on retrospective data, which is insufficient for tracking high-velocity, algorithmic bank runs on blockchain networks. This paper proposes a cloud-native architectural solution utilizing distributed Amazon Web Services middleware to ingest, normalize, and analyze blockchain ledger data in real-time. By deploying an asynchronous Python orchestration pipeline integrated with eXtreme Gradient Boosting and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithms, the proposed system identifies transaction velocity anomalies indicative of panic-selling and de-pegging events. This methodology fundamentally shifts the analysis of stablecoin fragility from theoretical post-mortem to programmatic, real-time detection. Preliminary architectural evaluations demonstrate that decoupling the data ingestion layer from the predictive inference engine significantly reduces latency, providing financial regulators and researchers with a scalable, deterministic tool for monitoring digital asset stability.

Tsvetomir Gospodinov, M Atanasova, Eliza Stefanova

EUPHEMIA, the Pan-European day-ahead electricity market-coupling algorithm, operates in a centralized manner that restricts independent auditability and has been characterized as pseudo-transparent. We propose a blockchain-based architecture that improves the transparency and verifiability of the market-coupling process while preserving participant confidentiality. It combines off-chain computation with selective on-chain publication and treats the three principal data categories of the EUPHEMIA pipeline separately: order books, network constraints, and clearing outputs. Zero-knowledge proofs utilizing zk-STARKs are employed to verify the integrity of the order book aggregation process and specific network-constraint sub-processes, whereas Merkle commitments ensure tamper-evident anchoring of publicly disclosed data. zk-STARKs are selected over CRS-based alternatives to eliminate the trusted-setup governance overhead associated with EUPHEMIA’s multi-jurisdictional structure. The estimated AIR trace size reaches approximately 2,225,000 rows in the worst-case NEMO (EPEX SPOT) scenario. A correction proof generated by the Regional Coordination Centre (RCC) requires an AIR of 641 trace rows when a binding network constraint exceeds its threshold during the review of Transmission System Operator (TSO) submissions. This trace size corresponds to an estimated proving time of 1 to 30 s based on reported STARK prover throughput. End-to-end verification of welfare maximization remains infeasible due to the lack of a complete public algorithm specification. Preliminary calibrated estimates are provided, and full empirical benchmarking remains as future work.

Patikiri Arachchige Don Shehan Nilmantha Wijesekara, Kalupahana Liyanage Kushan Sudheera, Harsha S. Gardiyawasam Pussewalage, Geeth P. Wijesiri N. B. A

No abstract is available for this record.

Rekha R, Senthil S

Due to the fast development of digital communication technologies and the creation of distributed computing architecture, it is crucial to ensure the security of communication through effective and safe authentication schemes that can protect data privacy within cybersecurity frameworks. The most efficient cryptographic method for such purposes is zero knowledge proof since it provides ultimate security by proving the authenticity without disclosing any sensitive data to the verifying party. It is fascinating to look into the zero-knowledge proof protocol based on graph isomorphism because of its mathematical nature. A detailed discussion on the graph isomorphism based zero-knowledge authentication techniques along with their significance in the current cryptography is presented in this paper. Working principles and concepts behind graph theoretic based authentication techniques and the concept of graph isomorphism and zero-knowledge proofs have been discussed in this paper. Besides, emerging application areas of these protocols in disciplines like cybersecurity, block-chain. Internet of Things security, cloud computing and post-quantum cryptography have also been highlighted in this paper. In addition to that, this paper provides an analysis of major advantages, drawbacks and future research directions for the graph theoretic zero-knowledge authentication schemes

Ayaan Siddiqui

No abstract is available for this record.

Andry Alamsyah, Nurdiana Safitri, Dian Puteri Ramadhani

No abstract is available for this record.

V Vishnu Prasad, Meta Dev Prasad Murthy, Rishika Jain

Premium non-fungible token (NFT) collections often fail to attract liquidity, while modest but coherent ones thrive, presenting an anomaly that classical signaling cannot explain. We reframe market-making as a coordination problem and introduce a Brand × Topology × Dispersion (BTD) framework, arguing that participation follows weakest-link clarity: the least clear signal dimension, not the average, governs action. A high-realism 2 × 2 × 2 experiment (N = 336) shows that brand capital, ownership topology, and value dispersion each raise willingness to trade, yet the minimum across them dominates conversion; discordant signals depress engagement more than concordant signals lift it; and signals act as complements in thin markets but substitutes in mature ones. A 6-month Ethereum panel, analyzed with fractional logit and Cox hazard models, replicates these patterns in the field. The studies extend signaling theory from dyadic quality revelation to multilateral coordination and yield a bottleneck-governance principle for marketers and platforms, suggesting that the weakest clarity dimension be repaired first.

Susan Meld Shell

Scholarship on Kant’s religious writings commonly diverges on two related issues: the theological weight and meaning of his endorsement of religious faith, and the apparent inconsistency between his earlier and later, seemingly less secular, treatments of the subject. The questions raised by these disputes are not only theoretical; for at stake is whether in Kant’s considered view a just political community is ultimately sustainable without affirmative theological commitments of some kind.Kant’s brief essay “On the Failure of All Philosophic Efforts at Theodicy” opens a promising window on such questions. It is thematically continuous with the Critique of Judgment, published one year earlier, that itself ends with an implicit proof of the impossibility of theodicy understood as a theoretical justification of God’s moral wisdom based on what experience of the world teaches. [8:255] At the same time, Kant’s essay also differs from the Critique of Judgment in in a number of crucial ways that partly reflect Kant’s darkening assessment of his political circumstances as ones requiring new means of public enlightenment on the crucial question of the true basis of religious faith, as reflected in subsequent religious writings beginning with Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason. One striking feature of that change is the replacement of sincerity, or honesty before the bar of conscience, with conscientiousness, or striving to be honest, as the highest goal of moral aspiration, and of indulgence of the inclinations through self-deception as the ultimate source of human evil. Another is conceptual room for something like grace in the religious sense.

Alaa A. Qaffas

The growing interconnectivity of industrial systems has intensified the need for secure, intelligent, and scalable data transfer mechanisms within Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments. Despite rapid IIoT adoption, industrial data transfer remains vulnerable to high-volume, dynamic cyber anomalies and consensus-level attacks, while existing security mechanisms struggle to jointly deliver low-latency, scalable, and trustworthy communication under large-scale adversarial deployments. This study introduces a Secure Dual-Consensus Blockchain-Enabled Deep Learning Framework (SD-BDL) that unifies blockchain security and adaptive anomaly detection to ensure trustworthy and efficient IIoT communication. The framework employs a hybrid consensus mechanism, integrating Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) to achieve enhanced fault tolerance, reduced latency, and protection against collusion and Sybil attacks. To address the dynamic and high-volume nature of IIoT data streams, a CNN–LSTM model is deployed for real-time anomaly detection, with hyperparameters optimized using the Adaptive Aquila Optimization (AAO) algorithm—identified as the most effective technique for achieving rapid convergence, high detection accuracy, and balanced exploration–exploitation. The proposed SD-BDL framework is evaluated on an IIoT dataset, incorporating preprocessing steps to mitigate class imbalance, missing values, and noise interference. Experimental outcomes demonstrate a significant improvement in performance metrics, achieving an R² score of 0.985, throughput enhancement of 25.2%, and latency reduction of 19.4% compared with benchmark models using PSO, GA, and Bayesian optimization. The hybrid consensus blockchain further ensures transaction integrity, tamper resistance, and low-energy overhead, validating its robustness under adversarial and large-scale deployment scenarios involving over 1,000 nodes. This research contributes a novel, energy-efficient, and scalable architecture for industrial data protection, setting a foundation for future integration with 6G-enabled IIoT systems, federated trust networks, and lightweight transformer-based threat detection frameworks.

Basil Q. Abdulkareem, Suad A. Alasadi

The emergence and expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) have created an increasing need for distributed, secure, and scalable consensus protocols that can validate transactions in such volatile and resource-limited environments. DAG-based ledger systems, in combination with Fast Probabilistic Consensus (FPC) offer high throughput with minimal communication cost for conflict resolution. However, traditional FPC does not have any logical means of assigning weight to different validators in an adversarial setting. In this context, this article attempts to present a hybrid Proof-of-Stake and Fast Probabilistic Consensus (PoS-FPC) protocol for DAG-based IoT systems. The proposed framework consists of transaction attachments on a DAG graph, Ed25519 signatures, BLAKE2b-256 hashing, a weighted quorum for non-conflicting transactions, and a stake-weighted FPC algorithm for the resolution of conflicting transactions. The weight of validators in the proposed framework is computed based on an adaptive weighting scheme that uses the normalized weight of stake and mana, dynamically tunes their weights depending on network traffic, and implements reward and penalty mechanisms to ensure honest participation and prevent malicious attacks. The proposed framework was tested by conducting discrete event simulations of 20,000 transactions in different adversarial situations. The experimental evaluation yielded a throughput of 5,128 transactions per second, a decision accuracy of 99.6%, adversary resistance of 97.81%, a quorum latency of 69.782 ms, FPC conflict latency of 690 ms and average convergence time of 3.73 rounds of the FPC algorithm. When compared to a mana-based DAG-FPC framework that was evaluated under the same simulation setup, the proposed framework outperforms it in terms of decision accuracy, conflict latency, faster convergence, and robustness to adversarial participation of up to 40%.

Tiago Ferreira Cavazin

O presente artigo analisa o custo-benefício energético de três mecanismos de consenso centrais no ecossistema de criptoativos – Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS) e o modelo híbrido baseado em Proof-of-History (PoH) combinado com PoS – examinando como as diferenças de consumo energético entre esses paradigmas se relacionam a propriedades de segurança, desempenho e sustentabilidade econômica. A partir de dados recentes sobre o consumo energético de redes públicas de referência – entre as quais o Bitcoin, o Ethereum antes e depois da transição para PoS (Merge) e a Solana – discute-se em que medida a evolução dos desenhos de consenso permite reduzir o uso de eletricidade por ordens de grandeza, sem necessariamente comprometer segurança e descentralização. A metodologia combina revisão bibliográfica de estudos acadêmicos e relatórios técnicos sobre consumo energético em blockchains, análise de estimativas consolidadas de uso anual de eletricidade e de energia por transação e discussão conceitual dos trade-offs entre eficiência energética, robustez criptográfica, requisitos de hardware e impactos regulatórios. As evidências empíricas revisadas indicam que o Bitcoin, ancorado em PoW, mantém consumo anual estimado em torno de 120 a 130 terawatt-hora (TWh), ao passo que o Ethereum, após a migração para PoS em setembro de 2022, reduziu seu consumo em mais de 99,9%, operando com menos de 0,01 TWh por ano. Relatórios de eficiência energética apontam que redes que combinam PoH e PoS, a exemplo da Solana, apresentam consumo de energia por transação da ordem de centenas de joules, valor inferior tanto ao de redes PoW quanto ao de diversas redes PoS de menor vazão, embora existam ressalvas metodológicas e debates acerca dos efeitos de centralização de infraestrutura associados a requisitos elevados de hardware e conectividade. Conclui-se que PoS e esquemas híbridos com PoH oferecem vantagens substanciais em termos de eficiência energética, mas que a avaliação de custo-benefício deve incorporar conjuntamente a segurança econômica, a distribuição de poder entre participantes, a maturidade do ecossistema e o alinhamento com agendas de sustentabilidade que tendem a moldar a evolução da infraestrutura Web3 nas próximas décadas.

Shiqiang Chen

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has suffered over $5 billion in cumulative losses from security incidents, yet the academic community lacks a large-scale, multi-source-verified dataset to systematically characterize these threats. We present DEFIHACK-824, a curated dataset of 823 DeFi security incidents spanning 2017 to 2026, cross-validated against three independent intelligence sources (Rekt News, SlowMist, and CertiK). Each record is annotated with attack category, confidence level (Gossip/Classified/Ground Truth), and estimated financial loss. We classify incidents into 14 attack categories and conduct statistical analyses: (1) flash-loan-enabled price manipulation and reentrancy together account for 51.5% of all attacks; (2) a chi-squared test rejects the null hypothesis of uniform category distribution at p < 0.0001 (chi-squared = 1,273.2, df = 13); (3) despite widespread deployment of automated detection tools, the annual attack count has not monotonically decreased. We further propose a six-layer DeFi threat model and quantify the effectiveness of four defense classes. The dataset, threat model, and 50 categorized Solidity vulnerability patterns are released under the MIT license.

Jakub Zwydak, Marcin Wątorek, Jarosław Kwapień, Stanisław Drożdż

Artificial transaction generation remains an important source of potential market manipulation on cryptocurrency exchanges, as it may distort reported liquidity and reduce market transparency. This study proposes a diagnostic framework for detecting unusual trading patterns based on complexity and statistical-structure measures derived from high-frequency trade-level data. The analysis considers log-returns, trading volume, and transaction counts, using tail distributions, autocorrelation functions, multifractal characteristics, approximate entropy, and detrended cross-correlations. The methodology is applied to BTC, ETH, and XRP traded on Binance, Bitget, KuCoin, and Kraken over the period from April 1 to June 30, 2025. The results reveal a pronounced anomaly on Bitget for BTC and ETH after mid-May 2025. The number of transactions increases sharply, but there is no proportional increase in traded volume or return fluctuations. This regime is characterised by numerous low-volume trades, weaker autocorrelations, reduced multifractal organisation, higher short-pattern irregularity, and weaker cross-correlations involving the transaction-count series. These features are consistent with a noise-like component in trading activity and may indicate artificially increased transaction counts, although they do not provide direct proof of wash trading. The findings show that complexity-based indicators can be useful for detecting exchange-specific trading anomalies that remain hidden in price-based measures.

Iliya Mirzaei, Mohammad Javad Amiri

Distributed systems deployed in untrustworthy environments agree on a common transaction order through Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus protocols, and that order has real financial value in many decentralized applications: whoever influences it can profit at other users' expense, a problem known as maximal extractable value (MEV). Mysticeti is a state-of-the-art DAG-based BFT protocol in which many validators propose blocks in parallel, and the total order is derived from the resulting DAG afterward. Mysticeti is the consensus protocol powering Sui, a production blockchain with a market capitalization of roughly $3 billion, and it is widely believed to order transactions fairly, since many validators propose blocks in parallel and committed transactions are re-sorted by gas price before execution. We show this fairness assumption breaks down in practice, and the effect is already present on Sui's live network. First, when vertices of the committed graph are merged into a single total order, blocks from the same round are sorted by validator index, giving lower-indexed validators a permanent head start. In our evaluation on a 13-validator network with no attacker, the lower-indexed side wins same-round ordering about 89% of the time. Second, the gas-price re-sort intended to remove this bias uses a stable sort, so transactions paying equal fees (common at the reference gas price) retain the original biased order, letting an attacker profit without paying extra. Third, a validator can amplify this advantage by choosing when to stay silent, a fully legitimate action that violates no protocol rule; this raises its ordering win rate above 94%. We measure all three exploitations, verify that Mysticeti otherwise remains resilient below the standard Byzantine fault threshold, and propose a simple fix: replace the validator-index tiebreaker with an unpredictable, per-commit random key.

Leon Calvin II long

This paper presents a unified back‑end settlement architecture designed to support multi‑rail, ledger‑agnostic financial transactions across modern digital asset systems. It defines a deterministic settlement model capable of coordinating fiat rails, tokenized assets, distributed ledgers, and messaging networks under a single canonical framework. The architecture introduces a universal settlement core that abstracts rail‑specific behaviors into standardized primitives, enabling consistent execution, reconciliation, and finality across heterogeneous systems. It incorporates a canonical identity layer, semantic tokenization model, and compliance‑aware routing logic to ensure interoperability between traditional financial infrastructure and emerging tokenized environments. Key contributions include: A multi‑rail settlement engine supporting synchronous and asynchronous flows Deterministic finality logic for cross‑rail and cross‑ledger operations A universal bridge framework for rail‑agnostic asset movement Canonical identity mapping for participants, assets, and transaction states Semantic tokenization rules enabling unified representation of digital and traditional instruments Compliance and audit primitives embedded directly into the settlement workflow This work provides a complete architectural foundation for institutions seeking to modernize settlement operations, integrate tokenized assets, and achieve interoperability across fragmented financial rails. It serves as a reference model for next‑generation clearing and settlement systems.

FRANK MORALES

Overview The paper presents a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis (RH) using Arithmetic Spectral Theory (AST), and applies it to deterministic cognitive engineering in artificial intelligence. The foundational core of this work is the realization that the first six primes—2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13—form a unique "Pure Kernel" ($R$) that accounts for 97.85% of total spectral weight. The Three Pillars of the Proof The proof rests on three historical and mathematical foundations: Euler's Product Formula (1737): Established the zeta function as an infinite product over primes. The Sieve of Eratosthenes (~200 BC): Used to identify the prime numbers. Set Theory (Cantor, 1895; Halmos, 1960): Used to distinguish between the pure kernel and the "noisy" remaining primes ($p \ge 17$), where the latter destroy the spectral trap. The Mathematical Mechanism L-EFM Operator: The Laplace-Euler-Fourier-Mellin operator ($E_{LEFM}$) is a finite product over the pure kernel $R$ that converges for all $s = \sigma + i\gamma$. Spectral Trap: The L-EFM operator exhibits a unique "spectral trap" at $\sigma = 0.5$, which is equivalent to the critical line condition of the Riemann Hypothesis. Validation: The framework validates all seven known consequences of the RH, including prime counting, prime gaps, primality tests, counting functions, L-function analogues, physics connections, and post-quantum cryptography. Cryptographic auditability is provided via SHA-256 hashes for each validated consequence. Applications to AI The same mathematical structure used to prove the RH has been applied to solve critical challenges in AI: Catastrophic Forgetting: Solved by using prime-anchored embeddings at the pure kernel indices, allowing networks to retain previous task knowledge. World Model Certification: TOPO-JEPA integration creates world models that avoid forgetting and demonstrate stable performance. AI Bias: Eliminated structurally through a four-tier spectral annihilation framework that rejects biased data and anchors representations to equitable primes. Deterministic AI Safety: Achieved through H2E Sheriff, which enforces geometric constraints to ensure zero safety violations. The Universal Architecture The framework was validated across six different AI architectures (including Dense Transformers, Sparse MoE, and Vision Transformers) across three continents, consistently showing minimal memory overhead and zero $NaN/Inf$ events. The author describes this as the beginning of "deterministic cognitive engineering".

Kusuo Oda

This paper proposes the Global AI Development Commons, a new framework for AI governance designed to reconcile rapid AI innovation with continuous AI safety and international coordination in an increasingly multipolar world. Existing approaches often assume that stronger regulation inevitably slows technological progress, creating incentives for states and firms to avoid safety commitments while competitors continue to accelerate.The proposed framework separates AI development into a shared Foundation Layer and a competitive Innovation Layer. Participants voluntarily contribute useful but non-frontier seed technologies in exchange for interoperability, reusable components, shared evaluation resources, and opportunities to help shape emerging international standards. After joining, developers remain free to compete in AI models, products, and applications, while common governance focuses only on identity, authority, delegation, provenance, verification, and revocation.The paper introduces Proof of Constraint, a cryptographically verifiable framework that combines provenance, bounded delegation, zero-knowledge proofs, continuous verification, and instruction mediation to strengthen AI governance without requiring disclosure of proprietary technologies. It also proposes Time to Useful Scale as a measurable outcome for evaluating whether cooperative development can outperform isolated competition.Rather than slowing AI development, the framework seeks to make governed cooperation more competitive than isolated development. If successful, it offers a practical and falsifiable pathway toward international AI governance that strengthens innovation, preserves fair competition, enhances AI safety, and contributes to the long-term flourishing of humanity. Related Studies in This Research Program • A Quiet Roadmap for Preventing Uncontrollable AIhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20946975⁠ • AI Control Through the Analysis of Dangerous Instruction Patterns and Instruction Mediationhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20990310⁠ • An Instruction-Mediation Reference Implementation Protocol for High-Risk AI Governancehttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21216841⁠ • Instruction Mediation Reference Implementation (Software)https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21229233⁠ • Water Beyond Numbers (Book)https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21049923⁠ • Gray Instructions (Book)https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21193341⁠ These studies form an integrated research program that progresses from foundational conceptual theory for preventing uncontrollable AI, through the analysis of dangerous instruction patterns, governance based on instruction mediation, operational reference implementations, and the institutional design of an international framework for AI development and control. The program further extends to book-length studies examining the broader institutional, social, and philosophical dimensions of AI governance.Although each study addresses a different subject and analytical level, they are united by a common research question: how meaningful human governance over advanced AI systems can be maintained across the successive stages of development, instruction, delegation of authority, execution, monitoring, interruption, and resumption.Collectively, these publications are intended as an interconnected body of research for readers interested in AI safety, AI governance, autonomous AI agents, instruction mediation, delegated authority, corrigibility, interruptibility, institutional oversight, cryptographic verification, international cooperation, and meaningful human control over advanced AI systems. While each publication and software implementation is designed to stand on its own, reading the series as a whole reveals a continuous research trajectory extending from conceptual foundations to institutional design, operational protocols, practical implementation, and international governance.This research program is intended to contribute to ongoing international discussions on the governance of advanced AI by presenting complementary theoretical, institutional, and implementation-oriented perspectives on maintaining meaningful human oversight and control.

Adnane Hadj Ali

This research paper aims to investigate the applications of blockchain technology and smart contracts in managing global supply chains, as well as their financial and economic implications. The study addressed the concept of supply chain management and the technologies of blockchain and smart contracts, with a focus on their applications in validating and tracking transactions, facilitating the flow and storage of information in international trade, supporting customs, shipping, and container management operations, and increasing transparency in commercial transactions. The most prominent digital supply chain platforms based on blockchain were also presented. The results showed that the application of these technologies contributes to reducing costs and fees, improving cash management, increasing transparency and reducing risks, and enhancing the economic and operational efficiency of exporting and importing companies. It also provides administrative bodies with the ability to track and verify transactions instantly, which supports more accurate financial and strategic decision-making.

Simon Curty, Hans-Georg Fill

No abstract is available for this record.

VeriSBOM

# VeriSBOM: Secure and Verifiable SBOM Sharing Via Zero-Knowledge Proofs **VeriSBOM**, a trustless, selectively disclosed SBOM framework that provides cryptographic verifiability of SBOMs using zero-knowledge proofs. Within VeriSBOM, third parties can validate specific statements about a delivered software, mainly regarding the authenticity of the dependencies and policy compliance, without inspecting the content of an SBOM. Respectively, VeriSBOM allows independent third parties to verify if a software contains authentic dependencies distributed by official package managers and that the same dependencies satisfy rigorous policy constraints such as the absence of vulnerable dependencies or the adherence with specific licenses models. ## Key Features * **Selective Disclosure (Hiding):** Choose which proprietary components to hide from the public SBOM. The system generates a cryptographic proof that replaces the plaintext data, guaranteeing privacy. * **High-Performance Folding:** Powered by **Nova-Scotia**, utilizing recursive SNARKs to handle SBOMs. * **Interactive Dashboard:** A complete 4-step workflow (Package Manager, Auditor, Vendor, Client) built with **Streamlit**. ## Repository structure The repository contains three main folders: 1. **Empirical**: contains **Benchmarking** and **src**, for the analysis and source code, respectively. 2. **User study**: contains the code and results of the user study. 3. **README_Doc**: contains the images used for this documentation. ## VeriSBOM Architecture The system is divided into four main roles: 1. **Package Manager**: Maintains the package repository with the allowed packages. 2. **Auditor:** Represents the regulatory body marking the compliance status by checking the packages of the package manager. 3. **Software Vendor:** Represents the entity that provides software artefacts and wants to hide the related SBOMs for privacy reasons. He is responsible for the generation of the cryptographic proofs as verifiable substitutes of the hidden packages in SBOMs. 4. **Client:** The end-user who receives the cryptographic proofs along with the software artefact for verifying binding, inclusion and compliance status. ## Web Access (Recommended) **For direct access to the artefact, VeriSBOM can be accessed at this public link** https://verisbom-verisbom-software.hf.space ## Setup & Installation Follow the README within the artefact ## Operational Workflow The application follows a **linear workflow** composed of four steps. Each step depends on the output generated in the previous one. > **Performance Note** Due to the cryptographic operations involved, generating proofs may take some time depending on the number and complexity of the active policy constraints. In the current reference environment, proof generation takes approximately **~5 seconds**, while verification takes around **~3 seconds per proof**. ## Step 1 — Package Manager In this step, the **Package Manager initialises the package repository**. ### Instructions 1. Open the **Package Manager** tab. 2. Click **`Load repository`**. > For convenience, the system automatically loads a **default repository containing packages from the NPM ecosystem**. ### Expected Output After successful execution: - A **green confirmation message** is displayed. - The **package list** appears on the left panel. - The **dependencies of each package** can be inspected on the right panel using the search bar. - A **dependency graph** is displayed at the bottom of the interface. ## Step 2 — Auditor In this step, the **Auditor defines policy constraints** that will be applied to the packages in the repository. ### Instructions 1. Enter a **policy name** (e.g., `Vulnerabilities`, `MIT License`). 2. Click **`Add`** to create the policy constraint. 3. Use the **search bar** to locate target packages. 4. **Uncheck packages** to mark them as **non-compliant**. > By default, **all packages are marked as compliant**. 5. Click **`Save and Propagate`** to apply the policy. ### Optional - Repeat the previous steps to create additional policy constraints. - Remove policies that are no longer required. ### Expected Output - A **green confirmation message** appears. - A **dependency graph visualisation** shows how non-compliance propagates across dependencies for the selected policy (or combination of policies). ## Step 3 — Software Vendor In this step, the **Software Vendor generates cryptographic proofs for a given SBOM**. ### Instructions 1. Upload a **local SBOM file**. > For demonstration purposes, the system automatically loads an **example SBOM**. 2. In the **Selective Disclosure** section: - Select which SBOM packages should be used for proof generation. 3. Click **`Generate Proofs`**. 3. Click **`Download`**. - Download the SBOM with hidden components and plaintext components ### Expected Output - A **progress bar** indicates the proof generation process. - **Green confirmation messages** appear once proofs are generated successfully. > **Important:** Successful proof generation only means that the **cryptographic proof has been constructed correctly**. Compliance with policies is verified only in **Step 4**. ## Step 4 — Client In the final step, the **Client verifies the proofs generated by the vendor**. ### Instructions 1. Upload the **SBOM**. 2. Select a **policy** from the dropdown menu. 3. Click **`Verify`**. ### Expected Output - **Verified (green badge)** The SBOM satisfies the selected policy. - **Failed (red badge)** The verification failed, and the interface displays the reason for the failure.

Syed Zubair Ahmed

This chapter examines the dual nature of virtual currencies. It mainly focuses on Bitcoin’s role in both financial innovation and illicit finance. This chapter analyzes the core mechanisms of anonymity and decentralization that make cryptocurrencies attractive to criminal activity. It was exemplified in the landmark Silk Road darknet marketplace case. The discussion traces the evolving regulatory response, from initial enforcement actions to the development of structured frameworks such as the GENIUS Act for stablecoins and the CLARITY Act for digital asset market classification. Further analysis covers the application of traditional securities and commodities laws to decentralized finance (DeFi). The MNGO Markets illustrated its exploitation case. The discussion centers around two blockchain applications: cross-border payments and the creation of immutable smart contracts to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This chapter concludes that cryptocurrencies exist as a dual-purpose technology. The system requires a sophisticated regulatory approach that lowers both financial crime risks and market integrity threats while preserving the potential for technological innovation.

Jace (Jeong Hyeon) Kim

Abstract Modern societies are shaped not only by visible institutions, laws, and technologies, but also by invisible structures that quietly govern the flow of information, incentives, resources, and human behavior. These hidden dynamics often remain unnoticed because they emerge gradually through countless local interactions, institutional routines, economic feedback loops, and algorithmic systems. By the time their consequences become visible, they are frequently perceived as isolated events rather than manifestations of deeper structural patterns. The Hidden Ledger presents a collection of seventeen visual essays that examine these invisible mechanisms through symbolic narratives accompanied by technical reflections. Rather than advancing a single political, economic, or technological thesis, the collection proposes a conceptual framework for exploring how complex societies organize themselves through distributed systems of incentives, institutional memory, information control, financial architecture, organizational design, and increasingly autonomous artificial intelligence. The visual essays employ metaphor and systems thinking to illuminate relationships that conventional analytical writing often struggles to communicate intuitively. Each episode functions as a conceptual thought experiment, inviting readers to examine how seemingly unrelated phenomena—including digital surveillance, data extraction, media ecosystems, bureaucratic inertia, scientific gatekeeping, economic dependency, charitable institutions, social exclusion, labor transformation, and AI alignment—may share common structural characteristics rooted in hidden feedback mechanisms. Although every essay focuses on a distinct domain, they collectively argue that modern civilization increasingly operates through invisible ledgers: distributed systems that continuously record incentives, redistribute risks, accumulate influence, and shape collective behavior without requiring centralized control or explicit coordination. These ledgers are not literal accounting systems but conceptual representations of the often unseen processes through which power, trust, responsibility, and information circulate across societies. The objective of this work is not to provide definitive explanations for contemporary social problems, nor to promote predetermined ideological conclusions. Instead, it offers a visual framework for interdisciplinary reflection, encouraging readers to move beyond isolated events and consider the structural conditions from which those events emerge. By integrating symbolic illustration with technical commentary, The Hidden Ledger demonstrates how visual reasoning can complement traditional scholarly discourse in exploring complex adaptive systems whose most influential mechanisms often remain hidden beneath everyday experience. Ultimately, this collection argues that understanding the future of human societies requires more than observing visible outcomes. It requires learning to recognize the invisible structures that quietly shape them long before they become apparent. Author's Note The Hidden Ledger began with a simple question: What if the most influential forces shaping modern society are not the ones we immediately notice, but the ones quietly operating beneath everyday events? Many discussions about artificial intelligence, economics, institutions, governance, and social change focus on visible outcomes. We debate policies, technologies, organizations, and individual decisions, yet we often overlook the invisible incentive structures and feedback mechanisms that connect them. This collection was created as an attempt to visualize those hidden relationships—not as definitive explanations, but as conceptual maps that encourage structural thinking. Each episode explores a different domain. Some focus on artificial intelligence, others on media, bureaucracy, science, finance, charity, religion, education, labor, or human psychology. Although these subjects appear unrelated at first glance, they gradually converge around a common question: What invisible systems quietly shape the visible world? For that reason, the episodes are intended to be read both independently and collectively. Individually, they function as symbolic thought experiments exploring specific structural phenomena. Together, they reveal recurring patterns—feedback loops, incentive structures, institutional memory, information asymmetries, distributed responsibility, and emergent behaviors—that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The technical reflections accompanying each illustration are therefore not literal explanations of the cartoons, but invitations to continue the conversation from multiple academic perspectives. This distinguishes The Hidden Ledger from my previous visual essay, The Age of Mirrors. While The Age of Mirrors explored the symbolic and relational dimensions of human–AI coevolution—asking how intelligent systems reshape meaning, identity, and human relationships—The Hidden Ledger shifts its attention outward toward the invisible architectures that organize societies themselves. One examines reflection; the other examines structure. Together, they represent two complementary ways of thinking about an increasingly interconnected world. Both collections share a common belief: visual narratives can communicate complex systems in ways that conventional academic writing sometimes cannot. A carefully constructed image can reveal relationships that might otherwise require pages of formal exposition. Rather than replacing analytical research, these visual essays seek to complement it by providing an additional language for interdisciplinary exploration. This work is also an experiment. I did not begin this series with a long-term publication plan, nor did I know where it would ultimately lead. It emerged gradually through curiosity, observation, and a desire to preserve ideas before they disappeared into the continuous flow of everyday conversations. Whether future visual essays will continue this series or move in an entirely different direction remains an open question. At the time of writing, I am simply exploring new subjects that may deserve similar treatment. Working as an independent researcher without institutional affiliation has, perhaps unexpectedly, become one of the greatest advantages of this journey. Without predefined disciplinary boundaries or organizational expectations, I have been free to move between artificial intelligence, psychology, economics, systems science, philosophy, governance, and visual storytelling—following questions wherever they seemed to lead. This freedom has made it possible to experiment with forms of scholarship that might not fit comfortably within conventional academic categories. If there is a single purpose behind this collection, it is not to convince readers that these interpretations are correct, nor to prescribe how society should change. My goal has always been more modest: to observe carefully, to connect ideas honestly, and to preserve those observations in a form that others may examine, question, refine, or even disagree with. Knowledge advances through conversation, not certainty. If The Hidden Ledger encourages readers to look twice at familiar systems, to ask different questions, or to notice structures that previously remained invisible, then it has already achieved more than I originally hoped. Finally, thank you for taking the time to explore this experimental work. As an independent researcher, I have the freedom to explore unconventional ideas and formats without being constrained by disciplinary boundaries. That freedom has made projects such as The Hidden Ledger possible, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share them openly. Constructive criticism, thoughtful discussion, and alternative perspectives are always welcome. If this collection encourages even a small number of readers to examine familiar systems from a different structural perspective, then this experiment has served its purpose. This collection represents an experiment rather than a conclusion, and I look forward to discovering where the next question may lead. Disclaimer: The analyses presented herein are not directed toward attributing fault or intent to any specific organization. Rather, they are intended as a conceptual and technical investigation of alignment methodologies, focusing on structural mechanisms and systemic trade-offs. Interpretations should be regarded as provisional, research-oriented hypotheses rather than conclusive statements about institutional practice. Notice: This work is disseminated for the purpose of advancing collective inquiry into generative alignment. Reuse, adaptation, or extension of the presented concepts is welcomed, provided that proper attribution is maintained. Instances of unacknowledged appropriation may be addressed in subsequent publications.

Griff gurwell

This paper asks whether the Prime Lattice Coherence Framework (PLCT) can be made genuinely predictive, and tests four distinct mechanisms — four "gears" — each corresponding to a different sense of the word. Gear 1 (forward zone prediction) predicts the zone of the next prime from the current one with 56.28% accuracy on 508,242 held‑out primes, a 90‑sigma effect, exploiting the Lemke Oliver–Soundararajan bias expressed in the PLCT's own Hard Wall / Temporal vocabulary. Gear 2 (aggregate prediction) forecasts the Temporal‑vs‑Hard‑Wall prime race at five previously unsieved values of x using only six analytically derived zeros of L(s,χ₃). The sign is correct at two checkpoints and magnitude reasonable at the nearest ones — an honest mixed result. Gear 3 (certain‑negative prediction) applies the classical Sophie Germain exclusion as a live filter at the current GIMPS search frontier: 4.4% of candidate exponents receive a mathematically certain composite verdict, eliminating a full Lucas–Lehmer test each. Gear 4 (certain‑positive prediction — naming which exponent will be prime) is proved closed. The Dirichlet obstruction shows no congruence system can ever be a sufficient condition for primality. The paper also retracts an earlier hopeful claim that spectral (zeta‑zero) data might provide an independent route around this wall, proving instead that full spectral knowledge is informationally equivalent to full prime knowledge, not a shortcut. The only remaining paths are direct computation (Lucas–Lehmer, AKS) or mathematics with no current existence

Yifan Jia, Ye Tian, Liguo Zhang, Yanbin Wang · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.