Blockchain Papers

David Krause

No abstract is available for this record.

Igor Dunayev, Nataliia Viktorіvna Luhovenko

This article explores the transformation of the state’s role in regulating personal data in the post-GDPR world. The author analyzes the impact of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the evolution of the global privacy protection landscape, identifying trends towards harmonization and fragmentation of national legislations. The changing functions of the state as a regulator and guarantor of personal data protection in the context of digitalization are unveiled. The potential of blockchain technologies and distributed ledgers in ensuring user control over data is investigated. The influence of the development of the data market and new business models on the regulatory approaches of states and corporations is analyzed. The consequences of the spread of decentralized services for the relationships between the state, business, and civil society are considered. Priority directions for improving Ukrainian legislation in the field of personal data protection are substantiated, taking into account the realities of Web 3.0 and the need to balance innovation and security. The key idea is that the post-GDPR world stands at a crossroads between further fragmentation of the regulatory landscape and a long path towards harmonizing privacy standards. The choice of development trajectory depends on the coordinated political will of states, corporations, and global civil society to protect personal data as a shared value that unites humanity in the digital age. The article delves into the complex interplay of technological, legal, and societal factors shaping the future of data governance, offering insights into the challenges and opportunities ahead. It highlights the need for adaptive and inclusive regulatory frameworks that balance individual rights, economic interests, and public goods in an increasingly data-driven world.

Rafiqul Islam Munna, Kazi Md. Rokibul Alam, Yasuhiko Morimoto

Data sharing across collaborative mining can aid the community through analyses for decision-making tasks. While sharing personal data with a 3rdparty, data anonymization is a lawful obligation. Besides, preventing unauthorized access is another demand for storing data in a database. This paper proposes a framework of location data anonymization and data privacy over the database to ensure utility while data mining. For anonymization, upon the location data, it exploits dynamic geofencing, gridding, differential privacy, and zero-knowledge proof consecutively to perform the geographical analyses. Also, to securely store the data in the database, it encrypts data by elliptic curve cryptography. The anonymization framework produces grid-based circular coordinate boundaries, adds controlled noise, and proves the 3rdparty about its query results without telling any knowledge of the location (i.e., coordinates). Finally, the performance evaluation, analyses, comparisons, etc., using real data demonstrate that the proposed framework retains a better trade-off between the data utility and anonymity than the state-of-the-art works.

Chunge Zhu, Jingguo Bi, Chengsheng Zhou

The swift progression of Web3 and the proliferation of Decentralized Applications (DApps) have ushered in an era where data services are seamlessly integrated with blockchain technology. Despite this integration, the highly esteemed Quality of Service (QoS) service recommendation methodologies from the Web2.0 era face challenges in achieving seamless compatibility due to their centralized nature. In this paper, we introduce an innovative hybrid approach that bridges the on-chain and off-chain realms for service evaluation and recommendation, which we term as QoBS. This method leverages the power of ring signatures to safeguard identity data, thereby ensuring an efficient and secure framework for decentralized blockchain governance in the Web3 ecosystem. Through rigorous experimentation within the Ethereum environment, we validate the practical viability of our proposed solution, showcasing its robustness and effectiveness in the evolving landscape of decentralized services.

Oqeili Saleh, Abu-alzanat Thamer, Alkaraimah Qutaibah, al smadi Takialddin

CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, is a commonly employed security measure to distinguish between humans and computers. The Turing Test, designed to guarantee network security, is the foundation of this security technique. Usability is a crucial concern that can prevent human users from engaging in laborious and time-consuming tasks. When designing CAPTCHA, security and usability must be addressed simultaneously. When designing CAPTCHA, it is crucial to address security and usability simultaneously. A concerted effort is required to protect online data and guarantee privacy and security. The personal information of Internet users remains susceptible to theft. This study uses an information extraction technique called CAPTCHA to investigate the hazards associated with violating user privacy. It is a highly harmful process due to hacking, theft, unauthorized reuse, and the breach of user information. This study proposes a privacy preservation system employing concurrent encryption techniques, multilateral security computing, and zero-knowledge proof. The objective is to create a system that allows for uncomplicated and secure puzzle-solving using dice gas. CAPTCHA limits access to users' information. In the overview and application of evidentiary measurable methods, we can draw significant conclusions about the more extensive client group's discernments and encounters with CAPTCHA as a privacy-preserving component.

Chaimae El Filali, Imad Bourian, Khalid Chougdali

The healthcare sector stands to benefit greatly from the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. IoT-based healthcare systemscan offer personalized care services without restrictions on time or location, enhancing patient well-being. However, ensuring robust data protection and security remains a significant challenge in IoT deployments. To address this, we propose an integrated solution that leverages Ethereum blockchain and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) mechanism. This approach ensures the integrity and transparency of healthcare data, while providing fine-grained access controls. The sensitive data is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and stored in a decentralized manner on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). This enhances the overall security and privacy of the system. Furthermore, all transactions within the system are recorded on the blockchain, ensuring the traceability of the processes. Finally, we carry out experiments to assess the performance aspects of the proposed framework.

Abhishek Kumar Jha, Saurabh Kumar, Aarushi Jain

Purpose Blockchain technology has been labeled as the most disruptive technological innovation of the current decade due to its impact on almost every major industry. Based on privacy calculus theory and prior adoption literature on emerging technologies, this research investigates the impact of blockchain technology in the consumer technology segment. It elaborated on the mechanism through which blockchain technology influences users’ willingness to share information with technology products enabled by blockchain. Design/methodology/approach Taking a heterogeneous pool of users, this study conducted multiple experiments with the application of blockchain (vs. regular database) technology to high (vs. low) sensitive data to study the impact of blockchain perception on users’ information-sharing tendencies. Findings Through a mediated moderation analysis, the result shows that the use of blockchain technology enhances the sense of security among users. However, the impact of this heightened sense of security only develops a higher willingness to share information when the data is highly sensitive. Practical implications The research reflects on the perception of blockchain technology and the leading impact on willingness to share information with firms. This could be a critical criterion for determining investment in blockchain technologies for consumer products, particularly based on the sensitivity of the data the consumer is sharing. Originality/value This research focuses on the perception of blockchain technology among consumers and its impact on consumers’ decision-making related to their data sharing. People have a higher sense of safety when it comes to blockchain-enabled products. However, we find that it would not be the same for all contexts, and the sensitivity of the data collected would have an impact on this relationship and consumers’ data-sharing decisions.

Mohsen Rouached, Aymen Akremi, Mouna Macherki, Naoufel Kraïem

This paper addresses the challenge of preserving user privacy within the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem using blockchain technology. Several approaches consider using blockchain and encryption to enhance the privacy of IoT applications and constrained IoT devices. However, existing blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric already use encryption to store data blocks and secure communication. Therefore, introducing an additional cryptographic layer on top of these platforms could potentially increase processing overhead and reduce response time. In this work, we investigate the integration of IoT and blockchain for privacy preservation. More specifically, we propose a new model that leverages the properties of private blockchain and smart contracts to ensure user data privacy when shared with others. We define policy-based algorithms and notations to assist users in managing smart contracts responsible for registering and controlling their IoT devices. We also specify multiple smart contracts designed to enhance privacy by creating a private channel for communication between the user and the blockchain network.

Abdolreza Andalib, Afshin Rezakhani, Akbar Morshed Aski, Parisa Rahmani

No abstract is available for this record.

Baatar Oyunjargal, Bayaraa Bayalagmaa

No abstract is available for this record.

Seung‐A Annie Jin, Ehri Ryu

Metaverses may present innovative channels for business and finance , education, and workplaces. Drawing from the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as well as the literature on digital equality, this research attempts to unravel the dynamics of digital equality and trust in AI-empowered metaverses for various industry sectors. Three cross-sectional surveys ( N Total = 1086) examined US Internet users' intention to adopt metaverses for business, education, and workplaces. Structural equation models were estimated using Mplus 8.8. Study 1 indicates dynamic relationships among digital equality (commerce dimension), blockchain transparency, privacy concerns, and adoption intention. Study 2 shows dynamic associations among digital equality (educational, social, and political dimensions), digital adaptability, loneliness, and adoption intention. Study 3 demonstrates dynamic interconnections among digital equality (labor, government, and health dimensions), digital adaptability, identity threat, and adoption intention. Across three datasets, trust mediates the relationship between digital equality and adoption intention. Theoretical contributions to the emerging literature on decentralized finance (DeFi), AI-driven digital transformation, and AI-VR-convergence are discussed. DeFi businesses, enterprises, policy makers, educators, professional training providers, and workforce developers need to consider third-level digital (in)equality and digital adaptability in developing equitable, sustainable, and inclusive user experience (UX) in AI-empowered metaverses.

Malin Picha Edwardsson, Walid Al-Saqaf

This study aims to identify and assess AI and blockchain solutions in relation to journalistic authenticity and integrity. Central to our exploration is the role of blockchain technology in verifying content provenance. As a key component of a global Web3 framework, blockchain could offer a foundation for authenticating the origins of content. In this article, we explore how blockchain, with its capacity for creating immutable and cryptographically signed data records, could be applied by journalists to verify photos, videos and documents. Our analysis identified nine blockchain-based solutions for content verification, with three platforms–Attestiv, OriginStamp, and Fact Protocol–showing particular promise for journalistic workflows. We conclude that while AI and blockchain solutions are currently available to journalists today, they require high-level technical expertise. Many media companies are now venturing into this field as well, thus affecting the professional role of journalists in general. In our study, it is evident that integrating AI and blockchain in journalism is not merely about adopting new tools but also about understanding their broader implications for journalism as a profession and the convergence in society. The focus must remain on enhancing journalistic integrity and public trust to ensure that these technological advances benefit the field of journalism and, by extension, the democratic processes it supports.

Mpyana Mwamba Merlec, Nday Kabulo Sinai, Seng-Phil Hong, Hoh Peter In

The proliferation of digital technologies has led to an exponential growth in personal data generation, raising significant privacy, security, and ownership control challenges. However, existing centralized identity and data management models present concerns leading to data breaches, unauthorized data sharing, and loss of user ownership control. To address these issues, this article proposes a novel Personal Data-as-a-Service (PDaaS) platform, which leverages the robustness of a permissioned blockchain to ensure data integrity and access control, while using IPFS for decentralized and resilient data storage. It enables a secure and decentralized user-centric framework for managing personal data while preserving user privacy and data sovereignty. Leveraging a suite of advanced technologies including decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, enhanced encryption techniques (i.e., quantum-resistant encryption), zero-knowledge proofs, and dynamic consent management, the PDaaS platform enables individuals to retain ownership and control over their data while facilitating secure and privacy-preserving data processing, sharing, exchange, and monetization. This paper presents the design considerations and framework architecture of the proposed platform, which was built using the Hyperledger Besu to assess its feasibility and performance. It also discusses the implications, use cases, and challenges of deploying the PDaaS platform.

Ken Huang, Youwei Yang, Fan Zhang, Xi Chen · 5 authors

Chapter 2 leverages first principles thinking to reveal the seismic shift enabled by Web3’s self-sovereign Internet and decentralized economic architecture. Opportunities emerge in infrastructure, access, efficiency, accountability, and empowerment. On-chain data sharing and self-sovereign identity allow efficient bootstrapping in an open ecosystem. Decentralized finance increases financial access, while blockchain ID could facilitate inclusive programs such as universal basic income. By automating manual workflows, smart contracts and traceability boost efficiency. Immutable blockchain ledgers enhance transparency via innovations such as triple-entry accounting. The creator economy shifts power by enabling direct content monetization and ownership through NFT marketplaces, decentralized social platforms, and games. Despite adoption hurdles, Web3 fundamentally reshapes incentives around user control over identity, data, and value creation in a decentralized economy. Capturing the full potential requires reimagining economic systems, not just optimizing current models. This epochal shift promises to unlock tremendous value by aligning technology with empowerment in an open, user-centric Internet.

Ashish Makanadar

The rapid convergence of urbanization and digital technologies is fundamentally reshaping city governance through data-driven systems. This transformation, however, is largely controlled by surveillance capitalist entities, raising profound concerns for democratic values and citizen rights. As private interests extract behavioral data from public spaces without adequate oversight, the principles of transparency and civic participation are increasingly threatened. This erosion of data sovereignty represents a critical juncture in urban development, demanding urgent interdisciplinary attention. This comment proposes a paradigm shift in urban data governance, advocating for the reclamation of data sovereignty to prioritize community interests over corporate profit motives. The paper explores socio-technical pathways to achieve this goal, focusing on grassroots approaches that assert ‘data dignity’ through privacy-enhancing technologies and digital anonymity tools. It argues for the creation of distributed digital commons as viable alternatives to proprietary data silos, thereby democratizing access to and control over urban data. The discussion extends to long-term strategies, examining the potential of blockchain technologies and decentralized autonomous organizations in enabling self-sovereign data economies. These emerging models offer a vision of ‘crypto-cities’ liberated from extractive data practices, fostering environments where residents retain autonomy over their digital footprints. By critically evaluating these approaches, the paper aims to catalyze a reimagining of smart city technologies aligned with principles of equity, shared prosperity, and citizen empowerment. This realignment is essential for preserving democratic values in an increasingly digitized urban landscape.

Abeer Iftikhar, Kashif Naseer Qureshi, Faisal Bashir Hussain, Muhammad Shiraz · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

M. Okada, Ahmad Akmal Aminuddin Mohd Kamal, Masaya Fujisawa

Blockchains (BCs) have garnered attention owing to their potential applications in a wide range of fields, including finance and the Internet of Things. Nakajima et al. introduced a secure and decentralized storage system using a permissioned BC and secret sharing. However, this method employs conventional password-based user authentication with a single SDK server. In this study, we introduce a secure and decentralized user authentication system that employs secure computation based on Shamir’s (2,2) threshold secret sharing and smart contracts. We demonstrate that employing secure computation using secret sharing facilitates user authentication while maintaining the confidentiality of the original password. Furthermore, we show that even if the information registered on the SDK server is known, an attacker will not be able to recover the original password.

Katia Guerra, Chang E. Koh, Victor R. Prybutok, Vess Johnson

Smart contract applications are currently implemented in healthcare, but further research is needed to investigate their adoption by embracing a privacy perspective. This study fills this research gap by exploring smart contracts’ adoption in healthcare through a privacy calculus model integrated with technical, legal, and social factors. The authors explore two specific applications: smart contracts implementing immune certificates (SC-ICs) to fight a healthcare crisis and smart contracts encoding and storing electronic health records (SC-EHRs) in the absence of such a crisis. Data are collected through a survey, and partial least square modeling is used to test the research hypotheses. The results provide significant contributions for academics and practitioners by showing how the influence of technical, legal, and social factors on privacy evaluations and privacy calculus evaluations themselves differ in the case of different applications of the same technology, i.e. SC-ICs and SC-EHRs because of the peculiar healthcare scenario.

Mingwu Zhang, Qi Zou, Bo Yang

No abstract is available for this record.

Issam Al-Azzoni, Saqib Iqbal

This paper presents an approach for the verification of access control in smart contracts written in the Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML). The approach utilizes Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) and their analysis tool CPN Tools. It is a model-driven-based approach that employs a new meta-model for capturing access control requirements in DAML contracts. The approach is supported by a suite of tools that fully automates all of the steps: parsing DAML code, generating DAML model instances, transforming the DAML models into CPN models, and model checking the generated CPN models. The approach is tested using several DAML scripts involving access control extracted from different domains of blockchain applications.

Jamiel Sheikh, Jiaying Jiang

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) introduce unique concerns related to the privacy of personal data. To create an NFT, users upload data to publicly accessible and searchable databases. This data can encompass information essential for the creation, transfer, and storage of the NFT, as well as personal details pertaining to the creator. Additionally, users might inadvertently engage with technology crafted to gather personal data. Traditional paradigms of privacy have not evolved in tandem with advancements in NFT and blockchain technology. To pinpoint where current privacy paradigms falter, this chapter delves into an introduction of NFTs, elucidating their foundational technical mechanisms and processes. Subsequently, the chapter juxtaposes current and historical privacy frameworks with NFTs, underscoring how these models may be either overly expansive or excessively restrictive for this emerging technology. This chapter suggests that Helen Nissenbaum’s concept of “contextual integrity” might offer the requisite flexibility to cater to the distinct attributes of NFTs. In conclusion, while there is a pronounced societal drive to safeguard citizen data and privacy, the overarching aim remains the enhancement of the collective good. Balancing this objective, governments should be afforded the latitude to equate society’s privacy interests with its imperative for transparency.

Reza Nourmohammadi, Mohammad Reza Sabramooz, Kaiwen Zhang, Chamseddine Talhi

This paper presents a pioneering federated learning framework that leverages a novel hierarchical aggregation approach, empowering clients to collaboratively generate the global model through multiple levels of aggregation. Additionally, a unique role definition mechanism is integrated into the framework to delineate clients’ roles and tasks in each learning round. Moreover, decentralized storage (e.g. IPFS) and blockchain technologies are employed for storing local models and their corresponding hash pointers, respectively, to improve data availability and integrity. We implemented our solution using using Keras, Scikit-learn, web3 and Solidity. The performance of the proposed framework is evaluated using a genomic breast cancer dataset sourced from the GDC portal, yielding a remarkable 98% accuracy for the global model after 12 rounds of learning while for a centrally trained model on the 70% of the entire dataset the accuracy was 95%. This clearly shows the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Weihong Wang, Tom Van Cutsem

Web3, also known as the Decentralized Web, is a vision for the next generation of Web applications, supported by blockchain technology, where users have stronger ownership over their data and identity. One of the key components in Web3 is wallets, which hold a user’s public and private keys, manage digital tokens, and sign transaction details. Despite their significance in securely managing digital identities, wallets also introduce vulnerabilities that, if overlooked, can compromise users’ privacy and security, particularly during data exchange with network endpoints. We investigate how popular wallets like MetaMask can inadvertently expose sensitive information to RPC endpoints, even when no transactions are made. Additionally, we examine the confidentiality risks associated with the registration requirements of major node providers, highlighting how the collection of personal and financial details can further threaten user privacy. We briefly report on ongoing work in analyzing the characteristics of wallets across various blockchain networks to identify key security and privacy features that can be integrated into new wallet designs. This research aims to address the challenges inherent in wallet security and privacy within Web3.

Felix Meyer

Purpose: To aim of the study was to analyze the role of blockchain technology in enhancing data security. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Blockchain technology is increasingly recognized in Germany for its potential to enhance data security across various sectors. Its decentralized and immutable nature significantly reduces the risks of data tampering and unauthorized access, thereby fostering trust among users. In industries such as finance, healthcare, and supply chain management, blockchain provides transparent and secure methods for recording transactions and managing sensitive information. Additionally, German regulatory frameworks are evolving to accommodate blockchain applications, promoting innovation while ensuring compliance with data protection laws like the GDPR. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Technological acceptance model (TAM), diffusion of innovations (DOI) & resource-based View (RBV) may be used to anchor future studies on the role of blockchain technology in enhancing data security. Organizations should implement pilot projects to assess the effectiveness of blockchain in enhancing data security in their specific contexts. Policymakers should develop clear regulatory frameworks to support the adoption of blockchain technology across sectors.