Blockchain Papers

Aleksandr P. Alekseenko, Aleksandr I. Svetlichny

No abstract is available for this record.

Daniel A. Pinkston

North Korea's Objectives and Activities in Cyberspace Daniel A. Pinkston (bio) The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) is a centralized, authoritarian, personalistic dictatorship under the third generation of the Kim dynasty. Despite having suffered a terrible famine and long-term economic deprivation, North Korea has developed its cyber capabilities into a significant and persistent threat and gained notoriety for its past hacking activities, most remarkably the attacks against Sony Pictures Entertainment, cryptocurrency and bank heists, and ransomware attacks. Pyongyang has seriously cultivated its cyber capabilities since the mid-1990s and now possesses the full range of capabilities to conduct computer network operations, including computer network attack, computer network exploitation, computer network defense, influence operations (military information support operations, information operations, and propaganda), cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and probably physical cyberweapons.1 Kim Jong-il recognized the value of cyber capabilities in the 1990s, which gave North Korea ample time to recruit and train human resources and invest in institutions to develop and sustain the country's assets in cyberspace.2 North Korea's priorities in the realm of information and communications technology (ICT) are embedded in the leadership's national strategy, which is composed of two main parts: national security and economic development. This is no different from any other state, except that the type of regime, division of the two Koreas, and external environment present a number of threats, challenges, and opportunities that affect North Korea's cyber posture and activities. This essay seeks to put North Korea's cyber activities in the context of the leadership's political goals and the country's science and technology policy. [End Page 76] After explaining Pyongyang's national strategy and the role of cyber, this essay will turn to the regime's demand for hard currency and the persistent attraction of cybercrime. While North Korean hackers successfully have demonstrated their skills, they also present a dilemma for the leadership. Who is to monitor these expert technicians? To help mitigate this problem, the regime has replicated its "coup-proofing" institutional design found in the security apparatus and the military. Finally, the essay speculates that in the future North Korea might try to employ its cyber capabilities more extensively in the realm of influence operations. Cyber Capabilities in North Korean Strategy When North Korea's cyber infrastructure took off in the mid-1990s, the country's survival was at stake. The economic shock and famine in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse and the death of founding leader Kim Il-sung led Kim Jong-il to adopt military-first politics that served as a type of public administration and crisis management system for regime survival.3 Kim Jong-il emphasized national security and military affairs with the aim of achieving a strong and prosperous country.4 To accomplish this goal, Kim Jong-il envisioned North Korea being strong in three dimensions: ideology and politics, military power, and the economy. He stated that "science and technology is a strong impetus for building a strong and prosperous country," while emphasizing "science as an important part of his strategic line to build a powerful socialist state."5 Kim Jong-un has continued his father's emphasis on science and technology. Under his rule, North Korea has been following the pyongjin line, which seeks the simultaneous development of nuclear technology (both military and civilian) and the economy. After Kim declared in his 2018 New Year's address that North Korea had "perfected the national nuclear forces," Pyongyang—at least nominally—shifted its emphasis to the economic portion of pyongjin.6 Science and technology, including ICT, are considered critical foundations in the leadership's effort to boost economic [End Page 77] output and efficiency.7 In his report to the 7th Party Congress in May 2016, Kim called for breakthroughs in advanced technologies such as information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, new materials technology, new energy technology, and space technology.8 North Korea's current five-year economic plan (2016–20) calls on science and information technology as instruments to normalize production in strategic industries.9 To foster the development of human resources in ICT, North Korean schools now introduce ICT into the curriculum...

Kashif Azam

There is a distinct lack of democratic governance in our contemporary era.In this paper I develop a mechanism to overcome this democratic deficit.'The Cryptostate' is an amalgamation of primordial democratic theory and recent technological advancements.By combining democratic principles with distributed ledger technology, we can create a decentralized, transparent, governance framework in which various groups-societies, ethnicities, or nations-can communicate, coordinate, and enfranchise all affected members.Never before in human history has it been technologically feasible to create such an entity.In this article, I demonstrate that not only can such a state exist, but that in the face of our ongoing technological and global upheaval, it must.

Eleanor B Eastham

No abstract is available for this record.

Rodrigo Adeodato, Sina Pournouri

No abstract is available for this record.

Predrag Cvetković

Blockchain technology becomes relevant in economic exchange as it lowers costs and contributes to cost-efficiency and effectiveness of economic transactions. The key quality of Blockchain lies in ensuring the authenticity of digital data: trust in the traditional legal relationship has been replaced by digital verification of data in blocks. As an important phenomenon, Blockchain calls for legal answers on the issues arising from its application. An example of this development is the legal regime of smart contracts. A smart contract is a transaction in which any rights and obligations of the contracting parties are programmed in a code. Being the result of Blockchain technology application, such a contract implies the need for trust between the contracting parties. As a legal phenomenon, Blockchain (smart contract) technology raises the issue of liability for performing contractual obligations. Smart contracts can minimize certain contract risks and additionally simplify contract execution. They are immediately put into effect, without the need for any further interaction between the parties. The essential components of smart contracts are the digitally verifiable data and the automatic performance of legally relevant actions based on digitally received and processed information. All of the enlisted issues are important for proper understanding of liability of Blockchain actors.

Ekrem Tufan, BAHATTİN HAMARAT, Özgür Manap, HASAN GÜL

No abstract is available for this record.

Tadas Limba, Andrius Stankevičius, Antanas Andrulevičius

Cryptocurrency market is developing fast during the past few years. Cryptocurrency now is available as a form of payment for retail goods, as an instrument for a wholesale international transaction a mean of exchange for whatever goods and is available through ATM's. Moreover, it is developing as a possibility for fundraising a) as a private debt b) as seed capital. Companies like Facebook are discussing launching own cryptocurrency. Bank UBS is developing its blockchain based virtual currency as well. However, scientist agrees that cryptocurrency has an important impact to national security. It became a relevant instrument for illegal good transactions, a mean of exchange in the darknet and an instrument for money laundering or infrastructure for new kind of money-laundering practices (for example-"Smurfing" phenomena (EU Observer, 2019)) European Union is launching AML and KYC procedures for the cryptocurrency market. Would it be efficient? Why are we implementing KYC and AML procedures for cryptocurrency? Is it able to minimize risks?

Mateja Đurović, André Janssen

This chapter examines in the first place the formation of (blockchain-based) smart contracts. The term “smart contract” is used to refer to software programs that are often (but not necessarily) built on blockchain technology as a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the parties perform on these promises. It is regularly said that smart contracts are neither legal contracts in the traditional sense nor are they smart and that the term therefore is a misnomer. The crucial question this chapter is trying to answer is whether the traditional (Common Law) concept of contract formation is seriously challenged by the rise of smart contracts. So are smart contracts the end of contract formation as we know it, or is it at the end just much ado about nothing? And if contract law is in principle fit for the formation of smart contracts, do they have features which do challenge the traditional contract law, and if yes what are those features? These are some of the questions this contribution is trying to answer.

Usman Ahmed

Abstract Technology is transforming global trade. The global trading system, however, has struggled to keep up with changes in technology. One of the major challenges for the trading system is that the issues raised by digitally enabled commerce are largely regulatory in nature. The issues that are at the forefront of digital trade increasingly relate to citizens’ most fundamental interactions, including speech, finance, energy, and transportation. This paper argues that resolving these international regulatory issues will require reforming the approach that has been taken to global trade negotiations. International discussions around the most challenging issues in the digital economy ought to move away from the ‘horse-trading’ nature of traditional trade negotiations and towards a strategy focused on regulatory cooperation. Failure to achieve regulatory cooperation could further fragment digital services based upon national borders. The Internet has the potential to positively impact the global economy precisely because it is global, decentralized, and bottom-up in nature. International policymaking through regulatory cooperation can maintain those principles, while protecting fundamental national concerns such as stability, privacy, and security.

Kacper Górniak

No abstract is available for this record.

Adam Jucovič

(english) This thesis deals with cybercriminality in area of cryptocurrencies. The thesis first of all describes basic terms, sources of law and issues of jurisdictions in area. Furthermore it deals with delineation of selected crimes commited in connection with cryptocurrencies. Part of the thesis focuses on issues with anonymity and proving. Key words Cybercriminality, Cryptocurrencies, Computer Criminality

Arnat Leemakdej, Chiyachantana N. Chiraphol

No abstract is available for this record.

Nicholas Ross Smith

No abstract is available for this record.

Andrej Zwitter, Oskar Josef Gstrein, Evan Yap

While ‘classical’ human identity has kept philosophers busy since millennia, ‘Digital Identity’ seems primarily machine related. Telephone numbers, E-Mail inboxes, or Internet Protocol (IP)-addresses are irrelevant to define us as human beings at first glance. However, with the omnipresence of digital space the digital aspects of identity gain importance. In this submission, we aim to put recent developments in context and provide a categorization to frame the landscape as developments proceed rapidly. First, we present selected philosophical perspectives on identity. Secondly, we explore how the legal landscape is approaching identity from a traditional dogmatic perspective both in national and international law. After blending the insights from those sections together in a third step, we will go on to describe and discuss current developments that are driven by the emergence of new tools such as ‘Distributed Ledger Technology’ and ‘Zero Knowledge Proof’. One of our main findings is that the management of digital identity is transforming from a purpose driven necessity towards a self-standing activity that becomes a resource for many digital applications. In other words, whereas traditionally identity is addressed in a predominantly sectoral fashion whenever necessary, new technologies transform digital identity management into a basic infrastructural service, sometimes even a commodity. This coincides with a trend to take the ‘control’ over identity away from governmental institutions and corporate actors to ‘self-sovereign individuals’, who have now the opportunity to manage their digital self autonomously. To make our conceptual statements more relevant, we present several already existing use cases in the public and private sector. Subsequently, we discuss potential risks that should be mitigated in order to create a desirable relationship between the individual, public institutions, and the private sector in a world where self-sovereign identity management has become the norm. We will illustrate these issues along the discussion around privacy, as well as the development of backup mechanisms for digital identities. Despite the undeniable potential for the management of identity, we suggest that particularly at this point in time there is a clear need to make detailed (non-technological) governance decisions impacting the general design and implementation of self-sovereign identity systems.

Olena Burutina

Nowadays the cryptocurrency industry is constantly growing and developing. Each year it attracts a big number of investors and businessmen from all over the world. Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, more than a thousand new cryptocurrencies with different features were created. Most countries are already working on an effective regulatory mechanism for the cryptocurrency industry. However, the question is whether the regulation will not contradict the essential features of digital currency, such as decentralization, independence and anonymity. This MA thesis analyzes the issue of cryptocurrency regulation as an important stage in their development and evolution. I compare the regulatory frameworks, developed by Canada, the USA, Great Britain and China, which are considered to be the world leaders in the cryptocurrency industry and the ICO sector. In this MA thesis I also try to explain how cryptocurrencies are perceived both by the cryptocurrency community and the regulators in order to give an answer to the question "What is a cryptocurrency?". Finally, this thesis also discusses the issue of cryptocurrency lobbying as an important part of the communication between the state and the third sector.

Authors unavailable

The US Government has now officially blamed North Korea for the recent WannaCry ransomware campaign. The attribution was made with the agreement of the governments of the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan and based on an analysis presented to those countries but not publicly available.

ケンジ ツカゴシ

In this paper, we consider the activities of hacker's social movement through the history of hacker culture and philosophy in modern times. Some social movements of contemporary hackers are called hactivism, but if hactivism aims for social reform, people’s support needs to be acquired it. Therefore, this paper considers the principle of winning the trust of citizens from the viewpoint of “justness and legitimacy” according to the theory of Giddens and Max Weber. Futhermore, through consideration of Wikileaks and bitcoin, we point out that there are many problems in hactivism.

Navneet Kaur, Nidhi Chahal, Ritu Dewan, Shikha Singh · 7 authors

Distributed ledger technology, a method of storing and maintaining the integrity of multiple copies of critical data using a massively redundant network of participating machines, has found a “killer application” in blockchain, a type of distributed ledger. A blockchain consists of sequential blocks that may never be modified or reordered, leaving a public, auditable record that is consistent and highly resistant to tampering and deletion. These qualities make blockchain eminently suitable for its most common use, cryptocurrency, and its occasional variants in the form of cryptocurrency tokens, used to represent ownership or some other right to virtual or physical goods and capabilities. Blockchain also enables smart contracts, discrete bodies of software written to serve both as the memorial and the means of execution of an agreement between parties. Smart contracts can have all the elements of a traditional contract, and as jurisdictions legislate or jurists rule on the fine points of enforceability and the acceptability of smart contracts as traditional contracts, applications in nearly every area of commerce have emerged. Digital lawyers may not need to become software developers, but deepening their understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the technology, developing a keen awareness of the issues at the intersection between code and the law, as well as the law’s readiness in this area, will be of great advantage to them and their clients in this rapidly evolving area at the intersection of technology, commerce and law.

Niranjan Sivakumar, Maxime Crépel, Dominique Boullier

Payments architectures are on the verge of a great bifurcation that must be documented in order to be debated. One one hand, actors like Google and Apple are moving towards becoming quasi-banks while they disseminate payment systems over smartphones. At the same time, the blockchain is a distributed ledger that introduces a radical new model of a trusted third-party for payments. The detailed history of credit card systems helps understand why the game of security has always been triggered by a delegation process of risk to third parties and by a cat-and-mouse game of security and fraud. Technologies were designed to solve these issues but have always been closely related to innovations in institutional assemblages. Payments systems shape our social life and the trust that we put in these architectures require an interdisciplinary examination that includes both technical and political concerns.

Timothy Bierer

"The article analyzes the potential uses of cryptocurrency as collateral in Article 9 secured transactions. At present, there is no clear guidance as to what status, if any, cryptocurrency has as collateral under Article 9. This paper briefly defines cryptocurrency, explains how it functions in its various forms, and shows why it would behoove lenders to utilize cryptocurrency as collateral. The current regulatory efforts over cryptocurrency are discussed to provide some context, through which the proposed actions and revisions of Article 9 are viewed. Finally, this paper recommends how cryptocurrency can be used as collateral under Article 9 under the current system, suggests possible revisions or explanatory notes which can be added to Article 9 to provide clearer guidance for policymakers and lenders alike."

Siddharth Misra, Vishal Kashyap, Poonacha K.B., Arjun Mukund · 5 authors

Tema ovog rada su kriptovalute. Budući da većina ljudi nije pravodobno upoznata s ovom temom, ovaj rad prikazuje i opisuje kriptovalute te način na koji se upotrjebljuju u svakodnevnom životu. Kriptovalute (eng. cryptocurrency) digitalne su valute dizajnirane kao sredstvo razmjene. Poznate su po tome što su državne agencije i banke isključene iz procesa razmjene. Kriptovalute omogućuju jednostavnu, jeftinu i brzu transakciju na području cijeloga svijeta. Trenutno najisplativije kriptovalute su Bitcoin i Ethereum, a u radu je opisana njihova korisnost, prednosti i mane. Budući da se Bitcoinu predviđa uspješna budućnost i sve je prisutniji i prihvatljiviji na tržištu, u radu su navedeni primjeri iz Hrvatske koji to potvrđuju. Sve veći broj poduzetnika odlučuje se za uvođenje kriptovaluta. U primjerima je obuhvaćen širok spektar djelatnosti, od frizerskih usluga, preko raznih tvrtki koji se bave prodajom računalne opreme, ugostiteljskih usluga preko mogućnosti brzog i lakog podizana gotovine na kripto bankomatima pa sve do plaćanja komunalnih usluga, pa čak i humanitarno djelovanje. Mnogi smatraju da su kriptovalute samo sinonim za prijevare i pranje novca, no programeri tvrde da su kriptovalute samo jedna vrsta tehnologije, alat koji sam po sebi ne može biti ni dobar ni loš, ovisno o tome za što se koristi. Autor ovoga rada proveo je istraživanje o tome kako se može besplatno započeti trgovanje kriptovalutama te je anketom ispitao stavove ispitanika o implementaciji kriptovaluta u društvu.

Xun Yi, Xuechao Yang, Andrei Kelarev, Kwok‐Yan Lam · 5 authors

Kriptovalute su digitalni novac utemeljen na kriptografiji i decentraliziranom sustavu. Postoje samo u elektroničkom obliku kao jedinstveni digitalni novčići ("tokeni"). Iza njih ne stoji autoritet države niti ih je moguće svojevoljno proizvesti. Rad se fokusira na značajkama, postavkama, razvoju i svim međuodnosima važnih ekonomskih faktora koji utječu na kriptovalute. U prvom poglavlju navedena su obilježja kriptovaluta. Drugo poglavlje daje primjere i govori o primjeni kriptovaluta u svakodnevnom životu. U trećem poglavlju je raspravljano o trenutnim i budućim regulacijama najmoćnijih zemalja svijeta (G20) , kao i njihovoj zajedničkoj suradnji u želji za jedinstvenim i standardiziranim pravilima, a sve u svrhu što kvalitetnijeg nadzora nad kriptovalutama kako bi se spriječile malverzacije i zaštitili potrošači. Četvrto poglavlje govori o inicijalnoj ponudi kovanica, a peto poglavlje je namijenjeno sigurnosti kriptovaluta. Cilj istraživanja je utvrditi koliko je studentska populacija upoznata i usmjerena prema novim oblicima digitalnog novca, koje značajke kriptovaluta smatraju pozitivnima, a koje negativnima i u kojoj su mjeri investirali ili su spremni investirati dio svojih ulaganja u kriptovalute i sl. Metode istraživanja korištene u radu su kompilacija na temelju proučavanja postojeće literature o temi rada, prikupljanje i analiza podataka vezanih uz kriptovalute, ponajprije podataka vezanih uz cijene i tržišnu kapitalizaciju, anketiranje studenata Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci i metoda dedukcije putem koje su pokazane sve važne karakteristike i obilježja kriptovaluta. Na temelju provedene ankete u kojoj je sudjelovalo 90 studenata Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci zaključak toga dijela istraživanja je da je mlada populacija dobro upoznata s kriptovalutama i njenim glavnim značajkama, ali i određenim nedostatkom informiranosti o tehnologiji (trećina studenata nije čula za pojam "blockchain") i nedovoljnoj odlučnosti oko investiranja i trgovanja u kriptovalute. Povrh toga, dokazan je i negativan utjecaj hakerskih napada i određenih kriminalnih radnji, kao i nestabilnost tržišne cijene na povjerenje studenata, ali i ukupne populacije vezane uz globalni financijski sustav u kriptovalute. Ishod istraživanja omogućio je da zaključimo kako su kriptovalute trenutno u ranoj fazi razvoja i nisu se dovoljno implementirale za široku primjenu u trgovini roba i usluga ili općenito kao sredstvo razmjene. Faktor koji je uključen u istraživanje kako bi opisao veličinu, odnosno obujam neke kriptovalute je tržišna kapitalizacija u dolarima. Temeljna ideja ovog rada je informirati čitatelja o pozitivnim i negativnim značajkama koje se se vežu uz kriptovalute. Na taj način čitatelji će biti bolje informirani i educirani o potencijalnom riziku ulaganja u kriptovalute, kao i većoj razini zaštite prilikom posjedovanja neke digitalne valute.

Andrés Guadamuz

In a sandpile world, decentralization is in the air. For many companies it is rapidly becoming a choice between merely hanging on and survival or thriving in the new world of global connectivity and proliferating complexity. In considering Decentralization 2.0, realization of the enablingand-autonomy paradigm presents three major challenges: designing an enabling organization, creating autonomous groups, and establishing a deep structure or genetic code to integrate these into a meaningful whole. Let’s remind ourselves that Decentralization 2.0 is conceived of in the context of a social-systemic perspective of organizing. In this way of looking at organizations, it is recognized that not only does the system have a purpose, but also the parts of the system and the larger whole containing the system, which both have purposes of their own. In other words, when the organization is that of a firm, both its individual members and the society in which it functions are recognized as having purposes of their own. Although they sometimes forget what they are for, companies, whether banks or health care organizations, do have the function to serve the purposes of the society they are a part of. If they fail to do so, in the long run, their survival is jeopardized. Even more so, sometimes companies find it difficult to recognize that their members are purposeful human beings, meaning that they display will, and even have ideals of their own.