This paper introduces a structured approach to improving decision making in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) through the integration of the Question-Option-Criteria (QOC) model and AI agents. We outline a stepwise governance framework that evolves from human led evaluations to fully autonomous, AI-driven processes. By decomposing decisions into weighted, criterion based evaluations, the QOC model enhances transparency, fairness, and explainability in DAO voting. We demonstrate how large language models (LLMs) and stakeholder aligned AI agents can support or automate evaluations, while statistical safeguards help detect manipulation. The proposed framework lays the foundation for scalable and trustworthy governance in the Web3 ecosystem.
Fabrício Barbosa Viegas, Murilo Costa Salem, Tatiana Aires Tavares
Digital messaging plays a central role in modern society, but it is currently dominated by centralized platforms that compromise user privacy and control. This position paper argues that decentralized messaging systems, based on open protocols and free software, can serve as public communication infrastructure and exemplify Web3 as a digital common good. We discuss the limitations of current services (identity lock-in, user fragmentation, data exposure) and present decentralized approaches (peer-to-peer, federated, blockchain-based) according to recent literature. We relate these models to the concept of public digital infrastructure, essential communication systems managed in a non-exclusive manner, and the notions of digital commons. As illustrative cases, we cite open protocols like Matrix and Web3 initiatives that adopt blockchain-based identity (e.g., XMTP), showing that such systems exhibit the characteristics of common resources: public specification, collective governance, and open-source software.
Contemporary Online Social Networks (OSNs) present critical vulnerabilities in user authentication and data integrity protocols. Since the social network is a multi-user platform, it requires a well-performing authentication mechanism that works along with the blockchain to ensure secure transactions. The existing methodologies exhibit significant limitations, particularly susceptibility to quantum cryptanalysis and privacy vector compromises. This study proposes a novel blockchain-based framework for decentralized OSNs, implementing smart contracts and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocols to establish a distributed authentication architecture that mitigates these vulnerabilities while maintaining computational efficiency. Initially, we propose a post-quantum digital signature followed by a blockchain system using the signatures. Unlike previous OSNs, our solution uses post-quantum approaches, making it secure against both classical and quantum attacks. To enhance the data authentication of social network users, this research leverages the post-quantum multimodal biometric-based approach, where an improved version of Crystals Dilithium 3 is utilized in place of ECDSA in the XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain. We have integrated different post-quantum algorithms with XRPL using the open quantum safe library (liboqs) and compared the results in terms of resource consumption. The research explores the advantages of the proposed approach, highlighting its potential to mitigate the shortcomings of conventional methods and ensure secure data transmission in the era of quantum computing.
Luiz Eduardo Folly de Campos, Reinaldo Cézar de Morais Gomes
Trust on the internet is an essential pillar for online interactions, and blockchain technologies offer a new paradigm of trust based on data integrity and decentralization, enabling innovative solutions such as theWeb3 applications. This paper presents the experimental infrastructure for blockchain research and development currently being built within the ILIADA project at RNP, and its use for the development of new Web3 applications.
Felipe Castaño, Constantinos Patsakis, Francesco Zola, Fran Casino
LockBit has evolved from an obscure Ransomware-as-a-Service newcomer in 2019 to the most prolific ransomware franchise of 2024. Leveraging a recently leaked MySQL dump of the gang's management panel, this study offers an end-to-end reconstruction of LockBit's technical, behavioral, and financial apparatus. We recall the family's version timeline and map its tactics, techniques, and procedures to MITRE ATT&CK, highlighting the incremental hardening that distinguishes LockBit 3.0 from its predecessors. We then analyze 51 negotiation chat logs using natural-language embeddings and clustering to infer a canonical interaction playbook, revealing recurrent rhetorical stages that underpin the double-extortion strategy. Finally, we trace 19 Bitcoin addresses related to ransom payment chains, revealing two distinct patterns based on different laundering phases. In both cases, a small portion of the ransom is immediately split into long-lived addresses (presumably retained by the group as profit and to finance further operations) while the remainder is ultimately aggregated into two high-volume addresses before likely being sent to the affiliate. These two collector addresses appear to belong to distinct exchanges, each processing over 200k BTC. The combined evidence portrays LockBit as a tightly integrated criminal service whose resilience rests on rapid code iteration, script-driven social engineering, and industrial-scale cash-out pipelines.
Prof. C. V. Nalawade, V. S. Bhosale, S. A. Khetre, K. B. Kadam
In recent years, the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and Biometric technologies has revolutionized digital identity verification and secure electronic voting systems. The demand for transparent, tamper-proof, and fraud-resistant voting mechanisms has prompted researchers to explore distributed ledgers combined with intelligent authentication systems. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of AI-enabled blockchain voting architectures integrating biometric verification. The study explores technical advancements from 2020 to 2025 in decentralized voting, intelligent fraud detection, and privacy-preserving biometric mechanisms. We classify recent research trends, analyze current methodologies, and identify open challenges and future directions in implementing scalable and trustworthy e-voting frameworks. The analysis concludes that integrating blockchain’s immutability with AI-driven fraud detection and biometric identification ensures high security, transparency, and reliability in modern digital democracies.
This study presents a blockchain-backed Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) service for distributed clouds, addressing auditable authorization under multi-region latency and consistency constraints. Although end-to-end costs and tail impacts of permissioned ledgers in RBAC are under-quantified, the present study implements a multi-region deployment with Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance (IBFT), batched commits, and an off-chain cache, with evaluation against centralized and event-sourced baselines, throughput reported in requests per second (RPS), and calibration via Expected Calibration Error (ECE) and Brier Score using multi-seed runs and moving-block bootstrap. At the target load, the candidate achieved 145.0 +/- 4.6 ms 95th percentile (p95) latency and 1008 +/- 13 RPS while meeting the 150.0 ms Service Level Objective at 1000 rps; the 99th percentile (p99) policy-update consistency lag measured 1750.0 +/- 150.0 ms. Connectivity remains the bottleneck. The parts are familiar; the sequencing is not, combining ledger finality with cache-assisted reads and bounded block intervals to narrow the gap to centralized designs under controlled failures. These findings indicate that tamper-evident auditing can be added with modest overhead for enterprise security operators planning multi-region cloud authorization.
P. R. Sarode, Aditya Takawale, Sarita Yadav, Meera Sawalkar
Even while modern crowdfunding platforms have become quite popular, they still have problems that won’t go away, especially when it comes to centralized control, possible fund misappropriation, and not being open enough. People who would want to help with a project often don’t because they don’t believe it will work out or because they don’t like how the money is being handled. This article presents Sahaay, an innovative crowdfunding platform aimed at resolving these challenges through the integration of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Sahaay employs a decentralized ledger to make sure that all transactions, from pledges to giving out money, are entirely open and can’t be modified. Smart contracts are designed to automatically distribute money to the proper persons when particular project milestones are reached. This means that people are more responsible and don’t have to perform things by hand as often. An AI-based assessment tool also checks the text, team, and market aspects of prospective campaigns to see how likely they are to work. The AI also lets a complicated recommendation system find the best sponsors for initiatives. This article discusses how the Sahaay platform is created in layers, what its primary pieces are (including machine learning models and smart contract logic), and how it functions. We also discuss crucial moral concerns and present a complete set of rules for figuring out how well the system works, how safe it is, and how easy it is to use. Sahaay combines the security of blockchain with the analytical power of AI to make a smart, safe, and efficient ecosystem that is ready to alter crowdfunding by generating trust and making projects more likely to succeed.
Cloud infrastructure refers to the dynamic provisioning of computing resources over the internet, enabling scalable and flexible enterprise operations. However, such environments face significant security challenges, particularly in access management. Cloud infrastructure delivers scalable computing resources, yet traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) mechanisms face challenges such as centralized control, misconfigurations, and limited auditability. This study addresses these challenges by proposing a Hyperledger Fabric-based decentralized access control framework integrated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for healthcare data security. The framework employs Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for identity validation, Ciphertext Policy Attribute Based Encryption (CP- ABE) with Proxy Re-Encryption (PRE) for fine-grained data access, and machine learning driven anomaly detection for continuous monitoring. Experimental evaluation achieved throughput of 15000 transactions per second, latency of 350 milliseconds, privacy preservation up to 99.1 percent, and anomaly detection accuracy of 99.63 percent, surpassing prior models significantly. Storage analysis demonstrated predictable scalability with encrypted medical records up to 20 MB, while token revocation time remained within 1.9 seconds under network stress. The results confirm that blockchain-based access control enhances security, privacy, and auditability while maintaining operational efficiency. This research establishes a scalable and tamper-resistant model for secure healthcare data management in cloud environments.
This study investigates the structural transformation of financial intermediation in the context of decentralized finance (DeFi).Building on canonical theories of intermediation, it reframes traditional credit institutions as epistemic architectures, systems that define, validate, and circulate truth about economic behavior.The paper introduces the DeFi Intermediation Matrix (DIM), a conceptual framework that maps the functional equivalence between institutional and protocol-based mechanisms of trust, including risk screening, liquidity transformation, diversification, and compliance.It demonstrates how blockchain architectures redistribute informational power by substituting trust by institution with trust by design, turning verification from a delegated process into a transparent, auditable function.Through this analytical lens, decentralized finance emerges not as a technological disruption but as an epistemological shift: the evolution of finance from a model of delegated expertise to one of reflexive governance.The work concludes that the future of credit systems depends on designing architectures capable of balancing automation and interpretation, ensuring that transparency does not replace judgment, but sustains it.
Abstract — The Fractal Eavesdrop Detection (FED) protocol defines a cryptographic mutual-authentication... The Fractal Eavesdrop Detection (FED) protocol defines a cryptographic mutual-authentication and integrity validation mechanism between two fractal nodes sharing a recursive lineage. Unlike conventional systems that rely on fixed keys or static hashes, FED uses algorithmic mutability, session-based seed derivation, multi-point challenge validation, and time-bound CRC binding to detect both impersonation and passive eavesdropping. The protocol is designed for lightweight, low-power devices such as ESP32-class microcontrollers and operates without blockchain consensus or zero-knowledge proofs, while still enabling secure proof-of-origin and tamper-awareness. FED serves as the security and validation layer within the EQUORA Institute’s Fractal Economy architecture and complements the BlockFractal cryptographic tokenization layer and the EquoraVault hardware-based proof-of-impact system. This document is released as part of the EQUORA Institute White Paper Series and is a preprint version (v0.8), subject to revision. All versions remain archived for DOI-based citation integrity.
Open access
2 source records
Chaos-based Image/Signal Encryption
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Mufti Ubaid ul Rahman, Saba Aorangzaib, Shehbaz Shabbir
The growing trends of the digital economy have profoundly influenced all aspects of human life, particularly in the financial sector, where emerging concepts such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have challenged the traditional notions of ownership, exchange, and investment. In Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), ownership (milk) holds a fundamental position encompassing not only tangible assets but also intangible and abstract rights. This provides the essential framework for understanding and analyzing digital assets from a Shariah perspective.Blockchain, as a transparent, decentralized, and immutable digital system, has established new standards of trust and integrity in financial transactions. Cryptocurrency, being a product of this system, enables peer-to-peer exchanges without the intervention of central banks or financial institutions. From a fiqhi viewpoint, the permissibility or impermissibility of this system depends on whether it fulfills the Shariah principles of ownership, lawful exchange, and trust (amanah).Similarly, NFTs represent unique and non-replicable forms of digital property, extending the concept of ownership beyond the material realm. The crucial question arises: can assets that exist solely in digital form be recognized as legitimate “property” (mal) under Islamic law? Islamic jurisprudence identifies essential conditions for ownership including the presence of benefit (manfa‘ah), the right of disposal (tasarruf), and the owner’s responsibility (daman). When evaluated through this lens, digital assets that possess real value, are free from fraud, gambling, or usury, and have clearly defined rights, may align with the foundational fiqhi principles of ownership.From this perspective, the digital economy opens new avenues for ijtihad (juridical reasoning). It is increasingly important for Islamic jurists, economists, and technology experts to collaborate in formulating a framework that regulates modern digital assets in accordance with Islamic ethical and legal standards. Such a framework would not only promote transparency and morality in financial dealings but also ensure that technology operates within the moral and spiritual objectives of Islam.Hence, the concept of digital ownership in light of Islamic jurisprudential principles is not only plausible but also consistent with contemporary economic needs provided that its implementation prioritizes the Shariah’s core objectives of justice, trust, transparency, and responsibility.
Anny Nurbasari, Nisa Hanum Harani, Medy Syari Khalifah Anggari Raharjo
This study examines the influence of influencer marketing on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) purchase decisions, both directly and through the mediating role of brand image, with a focus on members of the Ordo Nemesis NFT community. The rapid evolution of blockchain technology has driven the surge in popularity of NFTs, where consumer decisions are profoundly influenced by brand perception and public figures who endorse them. Influencer marketing has emerged as a prevalent strategy to influence these perceptions. A quantitative approach was employed using survey data collected from 100 community members who had previously purchased NFTs. The data were analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS. The findings reveal that influencer marketing significantly strengthens brand image, and brand image exerts a strong positive effect on purchase decisions. However, the direct impact of influencer marketing on purchasing behavior is weaker than its indirect effect through brand image, underscoring the importance of brand perception as a mediating factor. These results suggest that NFT creators and companies should prioritize developing a strong, authentic brand image in collaboration with credible influencers to foster consumer trust and encourage sustainable purchasing behavior.
This paper evaluates the performance of classical time series models in forecasting Bitcoin prices, focusing on ARIMA, SARIMA, GARCH, and EGARCH. Daily price data from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed, with models trained on the first 90 percent and tested on the final 10 percent. Forecast accuracy was assessed using MAE, RMSE, AIC, and BIC. The results show that ARIMA provided the strongest forecasts for short-run log-price dynamics, while EGARCH offered the best fit for volatility by capturing asymmetry in responses to shocks. These findings suggest that despite Bitcoin's extreme volatility, classical time series models remain valuable for short-run forecasting. The study contributes to understanding cryptocurrency predictability and sets the stage for future work integrating machine learning and macroeconomic variables.
The Internet of Things (IoT) generates massive volumes of patient and healthcare data every day. Providing the required accuracy for data classification, processing time, and analyzing the vast volumes of data from IoT devices and sensors are said to be the main challenges in IoT. Cloud computing is widely utilized as the foundation for the technologies required to secure healthcare. The healthcare industry has the most promise for blockchain technology since it can be used to integrate fragmented systems, the standard of electronic medical records should be raised, and take a more patient-centric approach to healthcare systems. The objective is to protect medical data, enable patients to use it to support their medical care, and provide reliable consent protocols for data exchange between various institutions and apps. Provide a blockchain-based architecture that verifies user identity using the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA256) and Proof of Stake (POS) cryptography consensus technique to guarantee EHR sharing across many electronic healthcare systems.In this study, we assessed the performance of our proposed architecture using several metrics, and found that blockchain is a reliable security solution for the upcoming IoT network.
Introducing Reliablocks, an on-chain reliability index for non-finalized blocks in Optimistic Rollups. This was built during the EigenLayer Infinite Hackathon at the Infinite Hacker House at DevCon 2024. As part of this research, we delivered a working Layer AVS WASMI component, a working Eigen Layer AVS component, EigenLayer Solidity smart contracts that work with the AVS component, a UI dashboard illustrating the reliability score and a derived interest rate for further utilization.
The current surge in supply chain finance has significantly alleviated the "capital challenges" faced by domestic related enterprises, enabling enterprises upstream and subsequent stages of the industrial chain to achieve effective circulation of financing services in the supply chain based on the credit of core enterprises. By gathering essential information from the heart of the supply chain, supply chain financing enables efficient resource distribution and aids all stakeholders in making well-informed choices. However, supply chain finance in China still faces numerous obstacles, such as information asymmetry and inefficient credit transmission chains, hindering its long-term development. This paper designs an operational framework for supply chain finance incorporating blockchain technology, clearly defines the participating entities, and analyzes their business relationships. Based upon evolutionary game theory, a supply chain finance financing game model incorporating blockchain technology is constructed. A comparative analysis of the model's equilibrium points and their stability is conducted. The choices of evolutionary equilibrium strategies adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises, key players, and financing entities within this framework are explored, and the influence of blockchain technology on the prerequisites for completing supply chain finance transactions is investigated.
Ejiro U, Osiobe, Waleed A., Hammood, Safia, Malallah, Nyore E., Osiobe · 6 authors
Quantum mechanics principles underpin quantum computing, signaling a major shift in how we process information. While it offers immense processing power and potential advantages, it also presents significant challenges for the cryptocurrency industry. This sector has grown rapidly, supporting decentralized finance and empowering users worldwide, but it also attracts malicious actors looking to exploit its vulnerabilities. Traditional cryptography remains strong, yet increasingly sophisticated computational attacks threaten security. As the cryptocurrency market expands, quantum computing offers both opportunities, such as improved transaction security, and risks, like easier decryption for hackers. Understanding quantum technology’s benefits and challenges is crucial as it develops. Currently, data is protected by traditional cryptography, but future, more powerful quantum computers could weaken this security. This article explores potential uses of quantum computing in daily life and business, explains its functions simply, and discusses societal impacts. Its goal is to help students and general readers understand how quantum technology might transform our world through clear language and real-life examples. Topics include the basics of quantum computing, its present and future applications across industries, and its societal effects. We provide a thorough analysis of how quantum computing could reshape society through mathematical insights, practical examples, and future perspectives.