Blockchain Papers

Fuchen Ma, Meng Ren, Ying Fu, Mingzhe Wang · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Antonio López Vivar, Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco, Luis Javier García Villalba

The use of blockchain and smart contracts have not stopped growing in recent years. Like all software that begins to expand its use, it is also beginning to be targeted by hackers who will try to exploit vulnerabilities in both the underlying technology and the smart contract code itself. While many tools already exist for analyzing vulnerabilities in smart contracts, the heterogeneity and variety of approaches and differences in providing the analysis data makes the learning curve for the smart contract developer steep. In this article the authors present ESAF (Ethereum Security Analysis Framework), a framework for analysis of smart contracts that aims to unify and facilitate the task of analyzing smart contract vulnerabilities which can be used as a persistent security monitoring tool for a set of target contracts as well as a classic vulnerability analysis tool among other uses.

Χριστιάνα Κατσάμπουλα, Christiana Katsampoula

Σε αυτή τη διατριβή, εξετάζουμε τα πιθανά οφέλη της διαφοροποίησης και την κατανομή βαρών (σταθμών) για την βελτιστοποίηση χαρτοφυλακίου κρυπτονομισμάτων. Συγκεκριμένα, δημιουργήθηκαν δύο χαρτοφυλάκια. Το πρώτο αποτελείται, αποκλειστικά, από τα πέντε πιο δημοφιλή κρυπτονομίσματα (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Monero), τα οποία οδήγησαν σε υψηλό κίνδυνο λόγω της υψηλής μεταβλητότητας στις τιμές κλεισίματος. Το δεύτερο χαρτοφυλάκιο (μικτό) αποτελείται από το δείκτη αγοράς S&P500 και τα τέσσερα κρυπτονομίσματα (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, & Ripple). Αυτό έδειξε χαμηλότερα επίπεδα κινδύνου μέσω της διαφοροποίησης. Οι αποδόσεις ήταν ελαφρώς παρόμοιες και για τα δύο χαρτοφυλάκια. Τα μοντέλα στρατηγικής που εφαρμόστηκαν στην εργασία ήταν τα ακόλουθα: α) το μοντέλο Naïve (κανόνας 1/N, ίσα σταθμά), β) το μοντέλο ελαχίστου κινδύνου, γ) το μοντέλο εφαπτομενικότητας (μεγιστοποίηση της αναλογίας Sharpe, με μηδενικό κίνδυνο) και δ) το μοντέλο της μέγιστης χρησιμότητας. Και τα δύο χαρτοφυλάκια εξετάστηκαν με δύο Rolling Windows το καθένα, για 100 ημέρες και για 252 ημέρες. Επιπλέον, εφαρμόστηκε ο περιορισμός της θέσης αγοράς (μόνο), τα σταθμά παραμένουν θετικά σε όλη τη διάρκεια της εξέτασης, (χωρίς άδεια πώλησης). Τέλος, δεν εφαρμόστηκαν προμήθειες και έξοδα σε κανένα από τα δύο χαρτοφυλάκια. Συμπερασματικά, το μικτό χαρτοφυλάκιο παρουσίασε καλύτερα αποτελέσματα μέσω της διαφοροποίησης.

Jongbeen Han, Heemin Kim, Hyeonsang Eom, Yongseok Son

The use of digital documents is exploding around the world due to high productivity and convenience. However, the digital documents have some security issues. For example, when a user who has the permission behaves maliciously for his/her benefit, the digital document can be easily falsified. In this paper, we propose a decentralized document management system (DDMS) to improve security of a digital document. DDMS first distributes access permission to multiple users for higher security of the document. To do this, DDMS encrypts a document via a symmetric key and splits the key via a Shamir's secret sharing scheme. And, DDMS manages each split keys using blockchian and reconstructs the complete symmetric key when the document is retrieved via a devised smart contract. We implement DDMS based on Ethereum blockchain. The experimental results show that the proposed DDMS can provide higher security with a reasonable performance overhead compared with other three types of DMSs.

Pedro Antonino, A. W. Roscoe

The exploitation of smart-contract vulnerabilities can lead to catastrophic losses. Formal verification can be a useful tool in identifying these vulnerabilities before deployment. We present an encoding of Solidity and the Ethereum blockchain using Boogie, an intermediate verification language. Based on this formalisation, we create Solidifier: a bounded model checker for Solidity. Distinctive features of our encoding are precisely capturing Solidity's unorthodox memory model, a notion of lazy blockchain exploration, and memory-precise verification harnesses. Unlike much of the work in this area, our modus operandi is not matching contracts against specific known behavioural patterns that might lead to vulnerabilities. Rather, we provide a tool to find errors/bad states - be they vulnerabilities or not - that might be reached through behaviours that might not follow such a pattern.

Xiaoqi Li, Ting Chen, Xiapu Luo, Chenxu Wang

As the most popular blockchain that supports smart contracts, there are already more than 296 thousand kinds of cryptocurrencies built on Ethereum. However, not all cryptocurrencies can be controlled by users. For example, some money is permanently locked in wallets' accounts due to attacks. In this paper, we conduct the first systematic investigation on locked cryptocurrencies in Ethereum. In particular, we define three categories of accounts with locked cryptocurrencies and develop a novel tool named Clue to discover them. Results show that there are more than 216 million dollars value of cryptocurrencies locked in Ethereum. We also analyze the reasons (i.e., attacks/behaviors) why cryptocurrencies are locked. Because the locked cryptocurrencies can never be controlled by users, avoid interacting with the accounts discovered by Clue and repeating the same mistakes again can help users to save money.

Awsan A. H. Othman, Emarn A. A. Muhammed, Haneen K. M. Mujahid, Hamzah A. A. Muhammed · 5 authors

Voting process is a democratic practice that has been used over the years as a primary method used by people in democratic countries to express their opinions on issues and discussions that concern them. This paper seeks to facilitate and protect the voting process by making an online voting system for elections and referendums connected with voting devices. The IoT and Blockchain have been used with this system to ensure that users' data are protected from theft and prevent eavesdropping or vote tampering to guarantee the integrity of the voting. The blockchain encrypts votes in order to protect every vote from forgery. This system is not directed to governments only, but to all governmental and private agencies. For example, governments can establish referendums or elections, and anyone who has reached the legal age and has a voting card issued by the government will be able to vote, thus we get rid of the traditional methods and dispense with ballot boxes, standing in long queues and delay counting the votes that cost governments a lot of time, effort and money. Also, any institution or private corporation that wishes to conduct polls and questionnaires or to conduct a specific study in order to collect opinions from people of society can simply use this system to reach them. The system assists the concerned authorities in obtaining results quickly without delay, taking into account the differences in voting process between government and private organizations.

Yiming Hei, Jianwei Liu, Hanwen Feng, Dawei Li · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Ünal Gülhan

This study aims that Bitcoin prices are considered as dependent variables, and the total number of Coronavirus cases in the world, Ethereum Prices, Gold Prices, Coronavirus Google Trend Index, and Crypto Money Google Trend Index are considered as independent variables. Using the ARDL model, it was analyzed with a daily data set between 21.01.2020 - 04.04.2020. It is concluded that the relationship between the variables included in the analysis and Bitcoin prices exists co-integrated in the long term. Within the framework of the findings, investors' fears were interpreted by associating them with Bitcoin and Covid-19.

Shuhui Fan, Shaojing Fu, Haoran Xu, Xiaochun Cheng

No abstract is available for this record.

M. Kavitha, M Suba Ranjani, Ra Theepavishal, A. Sai Vishal

To develop a application software for automating the agricultural land documents of the farmers along with their sustainable needs. At present agricultural documents are maintained by the government physically which makes it difficult to access and get back the data efficiently. SHA-256-based approach for creating a Cryptocurrency system for storing largest crop documents (field chart, income reports, encumbrance certificate) in a bitcoin blockchain (Secured hashing algorithm). The administrator account can update the records on a daily basis as well as the user will view the property records in the blockchain network via their private key. Because the blockchain network cannot be hacked, it ensures the manipulation of land records is avoided, helping to maintain the ledger. The proposed structure consists of a block chain network under the SHA algorithm that cannot be compromised and stores land data. All data are often contained in an unified, easy-to-follow block chain Ethereum uses a meta mask wallet to perform transactions in the blockchain system. Even in the database, the agricultural land government relevant documents of small landowners are not being adequately maintained. At this modern environment, property data's are inconsistent, and property forgery is common. So, by using SHA 265 algorithm, we've developed a blockchain technology to preserve the details of the farmland government document, which is the most trustworthy application. As a result, the particulars of The public land record is kept secure in the blockchain.

Zehuan Qiu, Yifan Zhu

Background. Vaccine, as an irreplaceable means in herd immunization, is widely applied in prevention for communicable diseases. However, adverse impacts were frequently incurred by fake or expired vaccines in China. Given the necessity of vaccine anticounterfeiting, blockchain-based transaction platform could be practiced as a solution in addressing the issue; however, most of the available experiments focused on single-chain structured design with inventible limitations. Accordingly, exploration for the effectiveness and feasibility of mixed-chains structured platform for vaccine anticounterfeiting and tracing is essentially required. Methods. Both public chain and private chain were inserted in anticounterfeiting and tracing platform designing process, which were subsequently simulated in Ethereum environment. Results. By recording different information in public chain and private chain, partial information privacy protection requirements are realized. The transfer identification module realized the function of vaccine quality supervision and solves the problem of EPC label replication. Discussion. Compared with the traditional single-structured design, completeness information could be visited by all stakeholders in double-chain structure, including vaccine suppliers, National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), vaccine purchasers, and the vaccinated. Conclusion. Double-chain structured system for vaccine anticounterfeiting and tracing is more effective.

Yuniar Farida, Zhara Shafira Uswatun Khasanah

Cryptocurrencies are among the inventions that have caused a stir in the economy of late. Because in its use there are still pros and cons of various countries. Some countries reject the use of cryptocurrencies and others support the use of cryptocurrencies because it is considered a modernization of payment tools. Besides being used for payment instruments, cryptocurrencies can also be one of the options to invest. The number of cryptocurrencies that exist causes investors to be observant in making the right choices. In this study, the Promethee method was used I and II to determine the rank of 7 virtual currencies. Promethee I is a partial assessment method while Promethee II is a complete assessment method. The data used for ranking is obtained from the questionnaire "sentiment on the performance of cryptocurrencies". The results of the cryptocurrency performance analysis showed that the investment commodity of the most recommended in a row is Bitcoin with a net flow value of 0.33267, Cardano 0.14267, Ethereum 0.04800, Ripple 0.04733, Stellar -0.04733, Litecoin -0.04767 and Dogecoin -0.47567.

Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Woo-Young Kang, Fabio Spagnolo, Nicola Spagnolo

This paper provides comprehensive evidence on the effects of cyber-attacks (cyber-crime, cyber espionage, cyber warfare and hacktivism) and cyber security on the risk-adjusted returns, realised volatilities and trading volumes of the three main cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin).We find that stronger cyber security is generally effective in increasing the riskadjusted returns of cryptocurrencies and trading activity even in the presence of cyber-attacks.Hacktivism appears to be the most significant threat to cryptocurrency investors.Further, cyberattackers hitting the cryptocurrency exchanges are most likely to attack other sectors (government, industry and finance) as well.In addition, in the case of the US they target the government and industry sectors in preference to the cryptocurrency exchanges given the corresponding potential benefits and costs.In all cases appropriate strategies should be designed to enhance cyber security.

D. Lalitha Bhaskari P. S. G. Aruna Sri

Block chain technology (BT) is an evolving technology with reliable and protective measured for sharing data in various applications. This work concentrates on healthcare based BT over Ethereum platform for data management. The medical applications include complex medical procedures with clinical and surgical trials. It includes managing and accessing of huge medical data. With the execution of medical applications factors like system cost are estimated for providing feasibility. This works provide multiple flows of healthcare BT over Ethereum platform. The performance of this model is analyzed with multiple flows. The data management, security, identity, and autonomy are considered as an essential factor.

Ahmet Faruk Aysan, Asad Ul Islam Khan, Humeyra Topuz

The main aim of this article is to examine the inter-relationships among the top cryptocurrencies on the crypto stock market in the presence and absence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nine chosen cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Eos, BitcoinCash, Binance, Stellar, and Tron and their daily closing price data are captured from coinmarketcap over the period from 13 September 2017 to 21 September 2020. All of the cryptocurrencies are integrated of order 1 i.e., I(1). There is strong evidence of a long-run relationship between Bitcoin and altcoins irrespective of whether it is pre-pandemic or pandemic period. It has also been found that these cryptocurrencies’ prices and their inter-relationship are resilient to the pandemic. It is recommended that when the investors create investment plans and strategies they may highly consider Bitcoin and altcoins jointly as they give sustainability and resilience in the long run against the geopolitical risks and even in the tough time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filippo Contro, Marco Crosara, Mariano Ceccato, Mila Dalla Preda

Motivated by the immutable nature of Ethereum smart contracts and of their transactions, quite many approaches have been proposed to detect defects and security problems before smart contracts become persistent in the blockchain and they are granted control on substantial financial value. Because smart contracts source code might not be available, static analysis approaches mostly face the challenge of analysing compiled Ethereum bytecode, that is available directly from the official blockchain. However, due to the intrinsic complexity of Ethereum bytecode (especially in jump resolution), static analysis encounters significant obstacles that reduce the accuracy of exiting automated tools. This paper presents a novel static analysis algorithm based on the symbolic execution of the Ethereum operand stack that allows us to resolve jumps in Ethereum bytecode and to construct an accurate control-flow graph (CFG) of the compiled smart contracts. EtherSolve is a prototype implementation of our approach. Experimental results on a significant set of real world Ethereum smart contracts show that EtherSolve improves the accuracy of the execrated CFGs with respect to the state of the art available approaches. Many static analysis techniques are based on the CFG representation of the code and would therefore benefit from the accurate extraction of the CFG. For example, we implemented a simple extension of EtherSolve that allows to detect instances of the re-entrancy vulnerability.

Filippo Contro, Marco Crosara, Mariano Ceccato, Mila Dalla Preda

Motivated by the immutable nature of Ethereum smart contracts and of their\ntransactions, quite many approaches have been proposed to detect defects and\nsecurity problems before smart contracts become persistent in the blockchain\nand they are granted control on substantial financial value.\n Because smart contracts source code might not be available, static analysis\napproaches mostly face the challenge of analysing compiled Ethereum bytecode,\nthat is available directly from the official blockchain. However, due to the\nintrinsic complexity of Ethereum bytecode (especially in jump resolution),\nstatic analysis encounters significant obstacles that reduce the accuracy of\nexiting automated tools.\n This paper presents a novel static analysis algorithm based on the symbolic\nexecution of the Ethereum operand stack that allows us to resolve jumps in\nEthereum bytecode and to construct an accurate control-flow graph (CFG) of the\ncompiled smart contracts. EtherSolve is a prototype implementation of our\napproach. Experimental results on a significant set of real world Ethereum\nsmart contracts show that EtherSolve improves the accuracy of the execrated\nCFGs with respect to the state of the art available approaches.\n Many static analysis techniques are based on the CFG representation of the\ncode and would therefore benefit from the accurate extraction of the CFG. For\nexample, we implemented a simple extension of EtherSolve that allows to detect\ninstances of the re-entrancy vulnerability.\n

Cüneyt Gürcan Akçora, Yulia R. Gel, Murat Kantarcıoğlu

Abstract Blockchain is an emerging technology that has enabled many applications, from cryptocurrencies to digital asset management and supply chains. Due to this surge of popularity, analyzing the data stored on blockchains poses a new critical challenge in data science. To assist data scientists in various analytic tasks for a blockchain, in this tutorial, we provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of the fundamental elements of blockchain network models. We discuss how we can abstract blockchain data as various types of networks and further use such associated network abstractions to reap important insights on blockchains' structure, organization, and functionality. This article is categorized under: Technologies > Data Preprocessing Application Areas > Business and Industry Fundamental Concepts of Data and Knowledge > Data Concepts Fundamental Concepts of Data and Knowledge > Knowledge Representation

Cüneyt Gürcan Akçora, Murat Kantarcıoğlu, Yulia R. Gel

Blockchain is an emerging technology that has enabled many applications, from\ncryptocurrencies to digital asset management and supply chains. Due to this\nsurge of popularity, analyzing the data stored on blockchains poses a new\ncritical challenge in data science.\n To assist data scientists in various analytic tasks on a blockchain, in this\ntutorial, we provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of the fundamental\nelements of blockchain network models. We discuss how we can abstract\nblockchain data as various types of networks and further use such associated\nnetwork abstractions to reap important insights on blockchains' structure,\norganization, and functionality.\n

Mohamad Rafi Raihan Rizal

Rapid technological advances have made blockchain technology applicable not only to digital money, but in various fields. One of the areas that can be implemented by blockchain is digital tourism, specifically in the online review system of tourism products. The current online review system has several problems due to its centralized nature. The problem faced is the manipulation of review data which can be in the form of review deletion by a centralized party. This research proposes a decentralized online review system using the Ethereum blockchain technology, Smart Contracts, and IPFS to provide a secure, transparent, and trustworthy online review system platform. The purpose of this research is to implement a permission-less blockchain as a storage for reviews (review forms and log notes) and develop a web application as a user interface. The data used is data from travel sites which contain details about hotels and restaurants in Bukhara. The results displayed are the development of a web application that implements a permission-less blockchain using Ethereum and the system performance is displayed based on system testing, which comprised of unit testing and Black-Box testing.

Neeraj Kishore Mishra

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as a disruptive force in global financial markets, presenting both unique opportunities and significant challenges, particularly for developing economies like India. This paper examines the economics of cryptocurrency within the Indian context, exploring the potential rewards and inherent risks of its adoption. India, with its burgeoning digital economy, is witnessing growing interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, driven by factors like financial inclusion, investment diversification, and the promise of decentralization. However, the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency in India has been slowed by a number of economic, regulatory, and security concerns, which have led to a complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between market participants, regulators, and policymakers. This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a comprehensive analysis of how cryptocurrencies could impact India’s financial system. Through interviews with key stakeholders, including policymakers, financial analysts, and cryptocurrency exchange operators, as well as an analysis of historical market data, the paper investigates the implications of cryptocurrency in India. It focuses on areas such as investment behavior, regulatory uncertainty, security risks, and the potential for blockchain technology to drive innovation in financial services. The research aims to strike a balance between the potential benefits cryptocurrencies could offer, such as enhanced financial inclusion and lower transaction costs, and the challenges they pose, including volatility and fraud. Ultimately, this paper offers insights into how India can harness the economic potential of cryptocurrencies while managing the associated risks, providing a roadmap for future regulatory and policy decisions.

Turabek Gaybullaev, Hee-Yong Kwon, Taesic Kim, Mun‐Kyu Lee

The rapidly increasing expansion of distributed energy resources (DER), such as renewable energy systems and energy storage systems into the electric power system and the integration of advanced information and communication technologies enable DER owners to participate in the electricity market for grid services. For more efficient and reliable power system operation, the concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has recently been proposed. The adoption of blockchain technology in P2P energy trading has been considered to be the most promising solution enabling secure smart contracts between prosumers and users. However, privacy concerns arise because the sensitive data and transaction records of the participants, i.e., the prosumers and the distribution system operator (DSO), become available to the blockchain nodes. Many efforts have been made to resolve this issue. A recent breakthrough in a P2P energy trading system on an Ethereum blockchain is that all bid values are encrypted using functional encryption and peer matching for trading is performed securely on these encrypted bids. Their protocol is based on a method that encodes integers to vectors and an algorithm that securely compares the ciphertexts of these vectors. However, the comparison method is not very efficient in terms of the range of possible bid values because the amount of computation grows linearly according to the size of this range. This paper addresses this challenge by proposing a new bid encoding algorithm called dual binary encoding, which dramatically reduces the amount of computation as it is only proportional to the square of the logarithm of the size of the encoding range. Moreover, we propose a practical mechanism for rebidding the remaining amount caused when the amounts from the two matching peers are not equal. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is evaluated by using a virtual energy trade testbed and a private Ethereum blockchain platform.

Guilherme Bergmann Borges Vieira, Jie Zhang

The current electricity networks were not initially designed for the high integration of variable generation technologies. They suffer significant losses due to the combustion of fossil fuels, the long-distance transmission, and distribution of the power to the network. Recently, \emph{prosumers}, both consumers and producers, emerge with the increasing affordability to invest in domestic solar systems. Prosumers may trade within their communities to better manage their demand and supply as well as providing social and economic benefits. In this paper, we explore the use of Blockchain technologies and auction mechanisms to facilitate autonomous peer-to-peer energy trading within microgrids. We design two frameworks that utilize the smart contract functionality in Ethereum and employ the continuous double auction and uniform-price double-sided auction mechanisms, respectively. We validate our design by conducting A/B tests to compare the performance of different frameworks on a real-world dataset. The key characteristics of the two frameworks and several cost analyses are presented for comparison. Our results demonstrate that a P2P trading platform that integrates the blockchain technologies and agent-based systems is promising to complement the current centralized energy grid. We also identify a number of limitations, alternative solutions, and directions for future work.