Blockchain Papers

Timothy P. Hubbard, Dan LaFave

No abstract is available for this record.

Samuel Rosen, Christophe Spaenjers

No abstract is available for this record.

Valeria Fedyk, De-Rong Kong, Daniel Rabetti

No abstract is available for this record.

Tianying Song

The business world has witnessed a radical shift, epitomized by the journey from tangible products like apples to the digital sophistication of Apple Inc. This thesis focuses on the profound changes from traditional media to digital platforms, highlighting the role of innovations such as AI and blockchain in altering consumer decision-making and corporate marketing strategies. Specifically, the study investigates the impacts of fake reviews on small businesses and the influence of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the traditional art market. It further explores the implications of these digital marketing technologies within the frameworks of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, analyzing their critical influence on shaping business strategies and consumer behavior.

Pablo Rafael Banchio

No abstract is available for this record.

Anela Ilijaš

The emergence of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has revolutionized the landscape of digital art, providing artists with new avenues for creation, distribution, and monetization. This research investigates the landscape of NFT art collections featuring Asian characters, specifically Japanese kanji and Korean hangeul, on the OpenSea platform. Theoretical frameworks drawn from digital art valuation, cultural representation in art, and blockchain technology guide the analysis. Findings reveal diverse manifestations of cultural identity and artistic innovation within the analyzed collections, reflecting the intersection of tradition and modernity in Asian art. Economically, prominent artists command substantial sales volumes, while others experience more modest transactions, underscoring the growing interest in NFT art within the global market. Culturally, NFT art collections serve as platforms for preserving and promoting traditional scripts and symbols, contributing to the global dissemination of Asian cultural heritage. Technologically, the adoption of blockchain technology empowers artists to assert ownership over their creations and establish new paradigms of value and authenticity. In conclusion, this research highlights the transformative potential of NFTs in reshaping the landscape of art and culture, emphasizing the need for continued exploration and collaboration to amplify cultural voices and expand artistic horizons in the digital age.

Mohammadhossein Lashkaripour

No abstract is available for this record.

Suliman Alshahmy, Arnaz Binsardi, Padmi Nagirikandalage

This paper aims to apply Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to the prices and trading volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as they affect the non-fungible token subcategories of Collectibles, Metaverse and Art.The findings reveal that an accurate lag structure helps in capturing the lagged effects of shocks allowing the model to represent the intricate interdependencies among Bitcoin, Ethereum and the non-fungible token subcategories as indicated in the Impulse Response Function and Volatility Graph.This assists traders and investors visualize how these events and sudden increases in volatility impact the stability of cryptocurrency prices over time.

Joel Jacob Eldho

No abstract is available for this record.

Hui Gong

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent a groundbreaking shift in the digital ownership paradigm, leveraging blockchain technology to certify uniqueness and ownership of digital assets. Unlike fungible tokens, such as cryptocurrencies, which are interchangeable and hold the same value (one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin), each NFT is unique or ‘non-fungible’ and cannot be exchanged on a like-for-like basis. This uniqueness and indivisibility make NFTs the perfect vehicle for digitally representing ownership of unique items, from digital art to virtual real estate.

Yanto Chandra, Russell W. Belk

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have sparked questions about value. The mystery created by the millions of dollars paid for some NFTs while others are virtually worthless challenges our understanding of what constitutes value. In our attempt to shed light on the value of NFTs, especially during their dramatic rise in the early 2020s, we develop a theoretical analysis of the extrinsic factors shaping NFT value based on a perfect storm of individual, social, marketing, and environmental factors. After detailing the effects of each of these factors in shaping NFT valuation, we develop a new understanding of value in a frenzy of celebrity influence, social media, decentralized authority, unregulated markets, marketing hype, and media magnification. We also articulate the intrinsic factors that still affect value as well. Finally, we offer advice on how to make sense of value creation and perceptions of the NFT bubble. While our paper started as an attempt to discuss intrinsic object-based valuation, we found that in the NFT bubble economy and its aftermath, extrinsic, social, and situational factors came to dominate valuation. We end the paper by outlining a research agenda that can push our understanding of the impact of such factors as cryptocurrency and metaverse markets develop.

Carmen Năstase, Andreea Corina Niță, Maria Vrânceanu, Cristina Iuliana Petrovan

No abstract is available for this record.

Jie Dong, Naipeng Dong, Guangdong Bai

No abstract is available for this record.

Momčilo Bajac, Ana I. Lakatoš

In this paper, we follow the position of art, artists and works of art with regard to the conditions in which the work of art is created, in an environment ruled by capitalist relations and the high-tech environment that accompanies them. The transition from analog to digital formats has opened new perspectives for artistic creation and distribution of works of art, but also problems related to copyright protection and fair monetization of works of art. The advent of blockchain technology, especially the Ethereum blockchain platform with open source technology and smart contracts, has enabled more efficient communication, distribution and monetization of artwork. The focus of this paper is especially narrowed on the emergence of NFT (Non Fungible Tokens) that can be carriers of the value of a work of art. They enable the uniqueness of the work to be maintained through controlled scarcity. We will present the ERC-721 standard, which enables the creation of NFT, as well as the first five leading platforms for placing NFT tokens on the blockchain through selected examples.

Aleksandar Tošić, Jernej Vičič, Niki Hrovatin

Wash trading in decentralized markets remains a significant concern magnified by the pseudonymous and public nature of blockchains. In this paper we introduce an innovative methodology designed to detect wash trading activities beyond surface-level transactions. Our approach integrates NFT ownership traces with the Ethereum Transaction Network, encompassing the complete historical record of all Ethereum account normal transactions. By analyzing both networks, our method offers a notable advancement over techniques proposed by existing research. We analyzed the wash trading activity of 7 notable NFT collections. Our results show that wash trading in unregulated NFT markets is an underestimated concern and is much more widespread both in terms of frequency as well as volume. Excluding the Meebits collection, which emerged as an outlier, we found that wash trading constituted up to 25% of the total trading volume. Specifically, for the Meebits collection, a staggering 93% of its total trade volume was attributed to wash trading.

S. M. Wazid Ullah, Sibghat Ullah Bazai, Zubair Zaland, Muhammad Imran Ghafoor · 6 authors

The rapid growth of digital art has necessitated the development of secure ownership verification systems due to the inherent ease of duplication and distribution within the digital realm. This paper delves into the integration of smart contract technology, particularly the ERC721 standard, along with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), to establish a robust and secure framework for validating ownership of digital art. By harnessing the power of blockchain technology and smart contracts, this system aims to forge an indisputable connection between digital art pieces and their rightful owners, ensuring equitable compensation for artists and instilling confidence in the authenticity of acquisitions for collectors. The limitations of watermarking as a sole method for safeguarding digital copyright are explored, underscoring the susceptibility of watermarks to removal and manipulation. To surmount these limitations, we propose the fusion of watermarking with other methods to bolster the security and resilience of digital art protection. Notably, the implementation of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain emerges as a pivotal approach for establishing transparent and immutable ownership records.

Chen Shi-jian, Jiachi Chen, Jiangshan Yu, Xiapu Luo · 5 authors

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have seen significant growth since they first captured public attention in 2021. However, the NFT market is plagued by fake transactions and economic bubbles, e.g., NFT wash trading. Wash trading typically refers to a transaction involving the same person or two colluding individuals, and has become a major threat to the NFT ecosystem. Previous studies only detect NFT wash trading from the financial aspect, while the real-world wash trading cases are much more complicated (e.g., not aiming at inflating the market value). There is still a lack of multi-dimension analysis to better understand NFT wash trading. Therefore, we present the most comprehensive study of NFT wash trading, analyzing 8,717,031 transfer events and 3,830,141 sale events from 2,701,883 NFTs. We first optimize the dataset collected via the OpenSea API. Next, we identify three types of NFT wash trading and propose identification algorithms. Our experimental results reveal 824 transfer events and 5,330 sale events (accounting for a total of \$8,857,070.41) and 370 address pairs related to NFT wash trading behaviors, causing a minimum loss of \$3,965,247.13. Furthermore, we provide insights from six aspects, i.e., marketplace design, profitability, NFT project design, payment token, user behavior, and NFT ecosystem.

Wei Jia, Bin Yao

Responding to the necessity of scarcity and uniqueness in the digital format, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have recently gained much attention in cultural industries, especially video games and the art market. Faced with the digital paradigm shift and the challenge of dematerialization, creators started to use NTFs in order to emulate the concept of rarity for displaying, promoting, and monetizing their works in digital environments. An NFT is a certificate of ownership implemented through encrypted metadata pointing to a unique copy of a digital file. Likewise, NFTs enable the tokenization of a large array of digital, or even physical, assets. For this reason, they are used to facilitate the digitalization of contents heavily dependent on copyright and scarcity. Non-Fungible Tokens represent an emerging reality of significant economic, social, and cultural importance, which also raises important legal issues especially concerning the very nature of the NFT, as property or license, and the usage of copyrighted contents or trademarks. Indeed, the most frequent legal issues with NFTs are related to the attribution and exploitation of the Intellectual Property (IP) rights of the underlying content or litigations about non-contractual matters (i.e., theft). Litigious cases affecting NFTs most often take on an international dimension due to the decentralized nature of the technology on which they are developed, distributed on servers hosted in a multitude of countries, as well as the business practices of trading platforms that connect users from all over the world. Consequently, the principles of Private International Law (PIL) are applied to solve legal conflicts. This study focuses on the resolution of litigations related to NFTs in the three countries leading the global art markets: the US, the UK, and China. The analysis focuses on the application of international private law in relation to recent jurisprudence concerning conflicts involving NFTs and artworks.

Zixuan Liu, Yirui Bai, Tiankai Xu, Haoyu Gao · 5 authors

Due to the rapid growth of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the current total market value of worldwide NFTs is at 1.05 billion dollars. The massive trading market increases the issue of blockchain supervision — transactions employing NFT to money laundering occur on a regular basis. However, most of the current domestic platforms do not support trading in the secondary market of digital collectibles, while there is a lack of foreign research on the regulation of NFT trading. The economic benefits of NFT have considerable potential to greatly enliven the market. The main purpose of this paper is to study the regulation of NFT ecology. Therefore, we provide a regulatory framework for NFT that realizes ex-ante regulation, and study two major modules of money laundering detection and regulatory control for NFT. In addition, to enhance compatibility, we also provide alternative ways to the proposed framework, aiming to provide new standards and guidance on the regulation of NFTs.

Mingdong Tang, Xingyu Feng, Weili Chen

With the popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which has now become a financial market that has attracted extensive attention worldwide. A large number of investors and creators are flocking to this emerging market in search of investment opportunities. Nowadays, many studies have analysed this phenomenon from an economic perspective. However, we know little about the players and ecosystem characteristics of this market. To fill this knowledge gap, we first provide a processed large-scale dataset of the Ethereum blockchain-based NFT market, containing more than 80 million NFT transaction records from January 2018 to April 2022. Second, we constructed the NFT creator graph (NCG) and NFT holder graph (THG) to delve into the characteristics of the NFT market. Further, we analyse the market preferences and trends using statistical methods to reveal the development trends of the NFT market. Finally, we focus on predicting the transaction volume of the NFT market and analyse the influence factors. This study provides data support for participants and researchers to explore the NFT market, while our analysis promotes a deeper understanding of the NFT market among the public.

Мohamed Othman, Elie Nasr, J.-M. Nasr, Liliane Karam

This paper examines the impact of sentiment on the value of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the cryptocurrency market. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained significant attention in recent years as a new form of digital art investment. However, there is limited research available on the relationship between NFT sentiment and art value. In this paper, we sought to address this gap by using OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, and VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner), a sentiment analysis tool, to gather and analyze NFT sentiments. The OpenSea API was utilized to extract over one million NFT transactions. The data collected included information such as NFT asset name, description, date of transaction, and transaction price. After the data was extracted, it was ingested into a data storage system for analysis. The NFT sentiment was then analyzed using the VADER sentiment analysis tool, which uses a lexicon of words to determine the sentiment polarity of a given text. Before analyzing the sentiment, the data was preprocessed to remove any irrelevant information and to ensure that the data was in a consistent format. This involved cleaning the data to remove any duplicates, outliers, and missing values. The results indicate that most artists tend to use neutral words when describing their art, but the average price of NFTs with negative sentiment is higher than those with positive sentiment. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the factors that influence NFT value and offers a valuable resource for those interested in NFT investment such as digital artists, digital art collectors, blockchain-based companies, or anyone with basic knowledge in blockchain and non-fungible token. The paper approach is unique in terms of topic, problem-solving and the count data used in the experiment. The impact of digital art sentiment on art value is not only examined in this paper, but it opens the way for future research.

Camilla Scarpellino

The art market seems exclusive to a limited circle of collectors due to information imbalances regarding artworks and their value. Often, one must turn to experts and auction houses to finalize a deal. In addition to artistic advice, legal consultations are also necessary, often due to third-party claims on the ownership of the artwork or cases of fraud. This article aims to explore the potential advantages of utilizing distributed ledger technology in the art market to verify and record transactions involving whole or parts of artworks, making them traceable and perhaps more easily purchasable.

Authors unavailable

This article delves into the intersection of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the art world, and the instrumental role of social media in advancing the proliferation of digital collections. NFTs, unique digital assets built on blockchain technology, have sparked a revolution in art ownership, identity verification, and creative expression. Through comprehensive exploration of its significance, challenges, and opportunities, this study demonstrates how NFTs have democratized art ownership, provided global recognition to artists of diverse backgrounds, and simultaneously granted direct access to collectors. A significant driving force behind the success of this blockchain technology lies in its investment potential. Social media platforms have transformed into virtual galleries, effectively amplifying artists' voices, enhancing societal insights and cultural levels, and shedding light on the global visibility of NFT projects. Case studies of successful NFT collaborations underscore the coexistence between NFTs and social media, highlighting the potential of both mediums in shaping the future of art and creativity. While acknowledging concerns such as copyright issues and environmental impacts, this article underscores the need for responsible actions and ongoing research to ensure a sustainable and pervasive future for NFTs in the art world.

Thanh-Truong Pham, Tuan-Dat Trinh

The non-fungible token (NFT) market has experienced significant growth in recent years. Similar to real estate and artwork, NFT is illiquid and it does not have a market price. Thus, there arises a need for a comprehensive scoring system to analyze the value of NFTs. Using a single score is often inadequate, as NFT value is influenced by numerous factors and is assessed based on personal objectives. Addressing the issue, this study explores critical factors influencing NFT value and develops three scores to rank NFTs including rarity, return on investment (ROI), and reputation score. The scores serve to evaluate both NFTs and NFT collections. (i) The rarity score evaluates the level of scarcity, and it applies to NFTs within a collection. (ii) The reputation score evaluates the interest of communities in NFT projects, considering the number of followers and the interaction rate; the score is for NFT collections. (iii) The ROI score assesses the profit generated by NFTs; it applies to both NFTs and NFT collections. Our empirical results show that a well-distributed rarity score of NFTs enhances their demand and profit; high-rarity NFTs are typically associated with a low number of sale transactions. NFT collections with high ROI and high reputation generally draw more attention and yield a positive return. In addition to the three scores, this paper presents a system to collect and process a huge amount of blockchain and social network data for NFT evaluation.