In our research we have investigated the main issues that drive or limit further adoption of cryptocurrencies, specifically as means of electronic payments. The original intention of Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, was to serve as electronic payment system but it still hasn’t (entirely) fulfilled its mission regardless it is sporadically used for payments. Recent studies reveal that the cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, as promising new technology, are starting to have noticeable adoption worldwide, but even with many noted advantages, this technology is not yet matured and still lacks the expected mass adoption, especially in the area of the electronic payments. Bitcoin and many newer digital currencies are more acknowledged and accepted as an investment asset but not that much as a payment method. Regarding the online payment facet of the cryptocurrencies, there are still several issues that need to be addressed in a proper way in order to ensure further adoption of this technology and to successfully compete, or even disrupt, the currently dominant electronic payment systems as digital wallets, banking cards, banking transfers and even cash on delivery. The adoption issues, that we examine in this paper include the following: decentralization, volatility, legislation, trust, security, fees, speed of transactions, scalability, interoperability and energy consumption. Relevant and current literature was studied to identify the main properties of the leading cryptocurrency projects, advantages and disadvantages of the blockchain technology, utilization for electronic payments, adoption drivers and current state of adoption. Additionally, at least 31 different cryptocurrency projects (whitepapers, websites and communities) and several relevant web resources were investigated in order to draw conclusions regarding the main adoption issues. Our findings suggest that crucial issues that still need to be solved in order to achieve wider adoption of cryptocurrencies for payments are (i) the high volatility of their value and (ii) the unfavorable legislation worldwide. The other important issues are mostly technical and since the technology is still in development and not fully matured, there is still room for further improvements before it gets ready for mass adoption. Our research adds to the existing cryptocurrencies and blockchain studies by identifying, summarizing and envisioning possible solutions for the issues for further cryptocurrency adoption. Besides for academic researchers this study may serve as a reference for blockchain developers, cryptocurrency advocates and policy makers
As the number of blockchain (BC) platforms providing specific features increases, selecting a platform that fits all requirements needed for a specific case becomes a cumbersome task. For example, not only are BCs' technical details relevant, but also their intrinsic characteristics (e.g., cryptocurrency price) must be considered in selecting a BC for a given case. Hence, the management of data stored in multiple BCs and the selection process are not straightforward due to the myriad platforms and both technical and economic details (e.g., BC throughput and the underlying price fluctuation). This article defines a novel refinement flow (based on the policy continuum) of high-level BC selection policies to low-level BC transactions. Experiments with the BC selection framework developed applying policy-based management (PBM) in the BC context do show that such synergy simplifies data management in multiple BCs driven by user requirements (e.g., based on costs or performance policies). The performance analysis of the framework demonstrates the successful employment of PBM for BC selections with minimal overhead.
Purpose This study aims to contribute to the early but fervent debate on blockchain and supply networks by proposing a novel theoretical perspective on blockchain adoption grounded on social capital theory. In particular, it seeks to answer the following question: what is the role of social capital in shaping the decision to adopt blockchain in supply networks? Design/methodology/approach Multiple case-studies, based on interviews performed with managers of eight firms, were used. Findings The social capital theory emerged as an additional but necessary lens to investigate blockchain implementation in supply networks. The intuitions proposed highlighted the importance of managers’ sensemaking for investigating technology adoption. Relational capital emerged as a necessary but not sufficient condition to adopt blockchain in supply networks. In addition, it is argued a relationship between competitive opportunities at the firm level and the idea to adopt the blockchain. The opportunity to act as “Tertius Gaudens” or as “Tertius Iungens” information brokers in supply networks should severely affect firms’ proneness toward the adoption of blockchain solutions. Originality/value This is one of the first studies in the literature investigating blockchain adoption in supply networks from a social capital perspective. It introduces new issues to the debate related to the role of blockchain in the supply chain by discussing the role of goal misalignment and competitive advantage, which emerged as crucial for shaping the decision to adopt blockchain in supply networks.
This paper considers an online retailer and his or her manufacturer, both facing financial constraints and wishing to get loans from their e-commerce platform-backed finance company. Based on shared transaction data and monitored sales accounts, a tripartite loan contract is proposed to coordinate three parties’ actions in this supply chain financing problem. We prove that the proposed loan contract aligns the decentralized decision-makings of each party and duplicates the optimal channel performance under a fully integrated decision-making framework. A case study is then conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed loan contract. The result shows that the proposed loan contract outperforms wholesale-price contracts, where coordination does not take place, and buyback contracts, where coordination happens between the retailer and the manufacturer only. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis reveals that profit allocations among the lender, the retailer, and the manufacturer resulted from the proposed loan contract are more balanced when the cost-to-retail ratio or risk premium is high.
Youssef Faqir-Rhazoui, Javier Arroyo, Samer Hassan
Abstract Blockchain technology has enabled a new kind of distributed systems. Beyond its early applications in Finance, it has also allowed the emergence of novel new ways of governance and coordination. The most relevant of these are the so-called Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). DAOs typically implement decision-making systems to make it possible for their online community to reach agreements. As a result of these agreements, the DAO operates automatically by executing the appropriate portion of code on the blockchain network (e.g., hire people, delivers payments, invests in financial products, etc). In the last few years, several platforms such as Aragon, DAOstack and DAOhaus, have emerged to facilitate the creation of DAOs. As a result, hundreds of these new organizations have appeared, with their communities interacting mediated by blockchain. However, the literature has yet to appropriately explore empirically this phenomena. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the current state of the DAO ecosystem. We review the three main platforms nowadays (Aragon, DAOstack, DAOhaus) which facilitate the creation and management of DAOs. Thus, we introduce their main differences, and compare them using quantitative metrics. For such comparison, we retrieve data from both the main Ethereum network ( mainnet ) and a parallel Ethereum network ( xDai ). We analyze data from 72,320 users and 2,353 DAO communities in order to study the three ecosystems across four dimensions: growth, activity, voting system and funds. Our results show that there are notable differences among the DAO platforms in terms of growth and activity, and also in terms of voting results. Still, we consider that our work is only a first step and that further research is needed to better understand these communities, and evaluate their level of accomplishment in reaching decentralized governance.
Alan Rodrigues, Allysson Allex Araújo, Matheus Paixão, Pamella Soares
Blockchain tem sido enquadrada como uma nova infra-estrutura disruptiva baseada na internet. Parcela desse potencial advém do fortalecimento de plataformas públicas de blockchain, como a Ethereum, as quais viabilizam Aplicações Descentralizadas (dApps). Tais soluções são baseadas em contratos inteligentes (CIs) e lidam com restrições específicas que desafiam a evolução de software, como a imutabilidade de dados e o acesso transparente ao código-fonte. Em particular, a transparência de código pode ser observada através de ferramentas como o Etherscan, a qual provê acesso público a uma vasta quantidade de informações sobre os CIs implantados na Ethereum. Além disso, pode-se observar organizações oriundas desse ecossistema aderindo à prática de desenvolvimento open source dos CIs, incluindo o amplo uso do GitHub. Esse rico cenário motivou a necessidade de conduzir um estudo exploratório-descritivo baseado em mineração de repositórios de software para compreender a evolução de software de CIs através da avaliação de similaridade entre a versão disponível no GitHub e versão utilizada na Ethereum (e auditável via Etherscan). À luz de uma análise quali-quantititativa de 27 CIs, este artigo contribui ao 1) caracterizar quatro padrões que denotam diferentes comportamentos evolutivos dos CIs e 2) abordar um método experimental baseado em string para comparar a similaridade entre diferentes versões de CIs.
This study investigates a supply chain comprising of a manufacturer and a retail platform, wherein the former decides the quality information transparency strategy of products and the latter determines whether or not to implement price parity clauses (PPCs). The manufacturer can directly sell the end-of-season product to the end-consumer market and indirectly via the retail platform. Specifically, this study considers two quality information transparency strategies (i.e. ex-ante blockchain-adoption and ex-post voluntary disclosure) that differ on whether the manufacturer’s decision on quality information transparency strategy is made before or after observing the actual product quality. Results show that the manufacturer may prefer the ex-ante blockchain-adoption strategy in specific conditions but maintains the flexibility of information disclosure under ex-post voluntary disclosure strategy. Moreover, the implementation of PPCs significantly reduces the manufacturer’s incentive to disclose a large extent of quality information transparency when the effort cost is high or the service effect coefficient is low. By contrast, the manufacturer is more likely to adopt information transparency strategies under PPCs when the effort cost is low and the service effect coefficient is high. More interestingly, contrary to theories of harm from PPCs, the implementation of PPCs may simultaneously benefit the manufacturer and retail platform, achieving a ‘win-win' situation.
Ethereum is one of the most popular blockchain systems that support more than half a million transactions every day and foster miscellaneous decentralized applications with its Turing-complete smart contract machine. Whereas it remains mysterious what the transaction pattern of Ethereum is and how it evolves over time. In this article, we study the evolutionary behavior of Ethereum transactions from a temporal graph point of view. We first develop a data analytic platform to collect external transactions associated with users as well as internal transactions initiated by smart contracts. Three types of temporal graphs, user-to-user, contract-to-contract, and user-contract graphs, are constructed according to trading relationships and are segmented with an appropriate time window. We observe a strong correlation between the size of the user-to-user transaction graph and the average Ether price in a time window, while no evidence of such linkage is shown at the average degree, average edge weights, and average triplet closure duration. The macroscopic and microscopic burstiness of Ethereum transactions are validated. We analyze the Gini indexes of the transaction graphs and the user wealth in which Ethereum is found to be very unfair since the very beginning, in a sense, “the rich is already very rich.”
Ethereum platforma za izgradnju pametnih ugovora temelji se na blockchain tehnologiji koja je opisana u radu "Konsenzus u Ethereum 2.0 blockchainu". PoW konsenzus mehanizam koji se koristi kod platforme Ethereum sprema svako prethodno stanje mreže na temelju kojeg se računa novo stanje što rezultira ograničenjem skalabilnosti. Zbog tog razloga u tijeku je prijelaz na novi konsenzus mehanizam kao i promjena arhitekture mreže čime će se postići povećanje skalabilnosti. U ovom radu analizira se PoS konsenzus mehanizam kao i promjena arhitekture mreže pomoću layer 2 rješenja.
The railway is a complex technical system of systems in a multi-stakeholder environment. The implementation of digital technologies is essential for achieving operational excellence and addressing stakeholders’ needs and requirements in relation to the railways. Digitalization is highly dependent on an appropriate digital infrastructure provided through proper information logistics, whereas cybersecurity is critical for the overall security and safety of the railway systems. However, it is important to understand the various issues and challenges presented by governance, business, and technical requirements. Hence, this paper is the first link in the chain to explore, understand, and address such requirements. The purpose of this paper is to identify aspects of distributed ledgers and to provide a taxonomy of issues and challenges to develop a secure and resilient data sharing framework for railway stakeholders.
Konstantinos Stylianou, Leonhard Spiegelberg, Maurice Herlihy, Nic Carter
When network products and services become more valuable as their userbase grows (network effects), this tendency can become a major determinant of how they compete with each other in the market and how the market is structured. Network effects are traditionally linked to high market concentration, early-mover advantages, and entry barriers, and in the market they have also been used as a valuation tool. The recent resurgence of Bitcoin has been partly attributed to network effects, too. We study the existence of network effects in six cryptocurrencies from their inception to obtain a high-level overview of the application of network effects in the cryptocurrency market. We show that, contrary to the usual implications of network effects, they do not serve to concentrate the cryptocurrency market, nor do they accord any one cryptocurrency a definitive competitive advantage, nor are they consistent enough to be reliable valuation tools. Therefore, while network effects do occur in cryptocurrency networks, they are not (yet) a defining feature of the cryptocurrency marketas a whole.
The current smart contracts development practices do not follow a standard security development process to understand and explore the security vulnerabilities and attacks in smart contracts. We propose a self-adaptive security modeling approach for modeling and analyzing Service Level Agreement (SLA) based smart contracts using attack scenarios and goal models. There are many security vulnerabilities and bugs in the smart contract due to inconsistencies in the design of smart contracts. The objective of the proposed research is to help the smart contract security requirements designers and developers to understand the security vulnerabilities, concerns, and to propose a self-adaptive security approach to provide countermeasures to detect and mitigate these attacks in the SLA smart contract in the domain of Blockchain-Based Cloud (BBC).
Blockchain technology facilities multi-party applications that do not require the parties to trust each other, that are failure-resistant due to their decentralized nature, and that provide a consistent view on the transaction history. These properties make blockchains attractive for decentralized finance (DeFi), and in particular for trade finance, where parties do not necessarily trust each other and aim at reducing their financial risks.Traditionally, intermediaries like banks or fiduciaries provide such services – along with several inconveniences like the increased risk of fraud due to antiquated systems and processes, considerable settlement delays, and high costs.In this work, we focus on the financial instrument Letter of Credit (L/C), which is used to secure payments in international trade. We propose a method for evaluating blockchains for DeFi based on this use case. We adapt existing catalogues of criteria for platform evaluation to fit the development and operation of DeFi applications. After discussing and designing a prototype of a typical L/C workflow, we implement it on selected blockchain platforms. The evaluation rates the feasibility and usability of the development process.
This chapter compares the current legal and regulatory landscape of cryptocurrency regulations of selected countries. Countries have adopted distinct and disparate regulatory approaches in regulating cryptocurrency. Countries such as Gibraltar, Malta, Switzerland, Singapore, and certain states in the United States have enacted proactive, enabling, and industry-specific laws to regulate cryptocurrency. The Philippines and Denmark are relatively forward-looking in their endeavour to regulate cryptocurrency by allowing its utilization and/or trade but with a restrictive and cautious approach. Certain countries have imposed rigorous restrictions or banned the usage or trade of cryptocurrency. With the rapid evolution and emergence of cryptocurrency markets, policymakers are adopting different trajectories to develop a suitable regulatory framework to regulate cryptocurrency. Countries around the world should harness the capabilities of cryptocurrency by devising favourable regulations rather than inhibit the application of cryptocurrency.
Enterprise blockchain projects have great promise. They can cut costs and promote efficiency through disintermediation, increase transparency for tracking intercompany transactions, expand knowledge through consortia databases, and improve workflows through shared business processes. Despite its potential, blockchain technology has failed to produce promised benefits for enter-prise networks. While the underlying technology has advanced rapidly, managerial capabilities needed to form and manage blockchain consortia have lagged and as a result, few consortia have succeeded. This paper reviews the extant literature on blockchain consortia and provides a frame-work that identifies 1) foundational conditions that precede effective consortium formation, 2) capabilities required for effective consortium functioning and evolution, and 3) partner and ecosystem-level outcomes associated with successful blockchain projects.
This paper aims at investigating the main factors behind advancing the integration of products and services in the Brazilian subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz (MBB), and how Smart PSS has been perceived by other business units of the Daimler Group. We conducted an in-depth qualitative single-case study research to investigate the critical steps preceding the implementation of a smart PSS. The study was based on the main tactical areas of a PSS business model which was applied to MBB’s possible integration of their equipment (called Fleetboard) in a smart PSS solution. The findings demonstrate that the internal culture of a product-centric automotive manufacturing firm can prohibit the sales of services, even when service technologies are available. On the other hand, financial pressures can create the sense of urgency required for the firm to appreciate the necessity of change. The process of change is too complex, since it requires capabilities in key areas such as the law, marketing, networking/partnerships, design, sustainability, and organisation and human resources management. Our study shows how the company considers alternative options in order to reduce organisational barriers, develop partnerships and legal competence to offer PSS contracts, as well as seeking alignment between design, marketing and sustainability requirements.
Michael Lustenberger, Saša Malešević, Florian Spychiger
Blockchain technology has been extensively tested, implemented, used, or even abandoned by organizations. Whether organizations adopt blockchain technology depends on many factors. Previous literature has identified a range of potential factors affecting the adoption of blockchain technology, but most studies have focused solely on a subset of specific factors. As a result, these studies can provide only limited explanations for the varying degrees of blockchain adoption. By relying on the well-established Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, we propose an extended Blockchain Adoption Model (BAM). We derive a rich set of factors from the current state of research on blockchain adoption and the business ecosystem literature and extend them by conceptual reasoning. We then develop testable hypotheses for each of the identified factors. The resulting 14 hypotheses are tested by conducting a survey ( n = 350) within the DACH-region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). We quantitatively analyze our BAM with a binary logistic regression analysis and identify six constructs impacting the adoption (relative advantage, observability, organizational age, external stakeholder pressure, regulatory uncertainty, and scope of business ecosystem). Based on our findings we introduce the novel idea of “ecosystem readiness” as the most important factor for the adoption of blockchain. Ecosystem readiness is characterized by the following attributes: 1) a large ecosystem scope, 2) stakeholders that are not yet collaborating in a trustful and regulated environment, and 3) a powerful organization leading the ecosystem. This powerful organization further intentionally promotes innovation by 4) making the benefits of this new technology observable for others, by 5) putting pressure on the other ecosystem participants to adopt the new technology, and eventually by 6) striving for regulatory certainty in the application and use of blockchain.
A Futuristic Operating transactions Reaching beyond Territorial borders In blockchain Smart contract model (Fortis-ámyna) for cross border transactions in a quantum setting is proposed. A simple hybrid classical-quantum model has been described whose main ingredients are a classical blockchain capable of handling stateful smart contracts with quantum defence. This hybrid payment model uses quantum states as bank transactions and a classical blockchain to settle disputes and keep track of the valid reference numbers. The proposed model fortis ámyna has several desirable properties like de-centralized, requiring no trust in any single entity; Quick payments as quantum communication, regardless of the total number of users to speed up the transactions. In addition, fortis ámyna handles the situation in lighting speed in quantum bank-transaction if failed or has error due to connectivity, helping the initiator to track back the transaction from origin. This fortis ámyna model has tremendous advantages regarding speed, security, and authentication, guarding against quantum breaches. Ensuring more authenticity to customers and creating by linking a Distinct (De-Centralized) Identifier with blockchain’s current transaction state eventually leads to the updated digital ledger.
Abstract The number of users approaching the world of cryptocurrencies exploded in the last years, and consequently the daily interactions on their underlying distributed ledgers have intensified. In this paper, we analyze the flow of these digital transactions in a certain period of time, trying to discover important insights on the typical use of these technologies by studying, through complex network theory, the patterns of interactions in four prominent and different Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), namely Bitcoin, DogeCoin, Ethereum, Ripple. In particular, we describe the Distributed Ledger Network Analyzer (DiLeNA), a software tool for the investigation of the transactions network recorded in DLTs. We show that studying the network characteristics and peculiarities is of paramount importance, in order to understand how users interact in the DLT. For instance, our analyses reveal that all transaction graphs exhibit small world properties.
Participating in or operating a permissioned blockchain is a complex challenge and poses a significant hurdle for many organizations. This paper creates a structure for the operation of a permissioned blockchain with seven blockchain operations categories. An onboarding process of joining a blockchain exemplifies the use of the blockchain operations categories. The article illustrates the IT management structures necessary to operate a blockchain, the on-chain and off-chain interplay for a secure blockchain solution. Our results support the efficient management of permissioned blockchains. The approach is grounded in a research project that uses a scenario-driven approach to design blockchain infrastructures for supply chains. This project uses on Hyperledger Fabric as the blockchain framework.
Zusammenfassung Die Distributed Ledger- bzw. Blockchain-Technologie führt zu einer zunehmenden Dezentralisierung von Finanzdienstleistungen, die weitgehend ohne die Einschaltung von Finanzintermediären angeboten werden können. Dazu trägt wesentlich die „Tokenisierung“ von Vermögensgegenständen, Zahlungsmitteln und Rechten bei, die verschlüsselt als Kryptowerte in verteilten Transaktionsregistern digital abgebildet werden können. Dieser Beitrag erläutert die Grundlagen und Anwendungsfelder dezentraler Finanzdienstleistungen mit Kryptowerten, die mittelfristig die gesamte Architektur des Finanzsektors verändern könnten.
The paper aims to analyse adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the Baltic States in the context of regional competitiveness. To achieve the aim, the following tasks are set: 1) to investigate crypto activity and crypto regulation, 2) to analyse blockchain applications and policy actions beyond crypto space, 3) to investigate interconnections between blockchain adoption and regional competitiveness. The study employs methods of descriptive statistics and content analysis. The study concludes that Estonia’s leadership in the majority of regional competitiveness indicators correlates with its leading position in blockchain adoption not only in Baltic States, but also worldwide, specifically in the area of e-government. Lithuania shows an overall competitive position in blockchain adoption in fintech area. In contrast, Latvia significantly lags behind Estonia and Lithuania in terms of regional competitiveness and adoption of blockchain technology, which is weakened by the regulatory unclarity for virtual asset service providers and the lack of supportive actions from the government for blockchain innovation and its further adoption within and beyond crypto-space.