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Purpose: This study analyzes the performance implications of adopting blockchain to support supply chain business processes. The technology holds as many promises as implementation challenges, so interest in its impact on operational performance has grown steadily over the last few years. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on transaction cost economics and the contingency theory, we built a set of hypotheses. These were tested through a long-term event study and an ordinary least squares regression involving 130 adopters listed in North America. Findings: Compared with the control sample, adopters displayed significant abnormal performance in terms of labor productivity, operating cycle and profitability, whereas sales appeared unaffected. Firms in regulated settings and closer to the end customer showed more positive effects. Neither industry-level competition nor the early involvement of a project partner emerged as relevant contextual factors. Originality/value: This research presents the first extensive analysis of operational performance based on objective measures. In contrast to previous studies and theoretical predictions, the results indicate that blockchain adoption is not associated with sales improvement. This can be explained considering that secure data storage and sharing do not guarantee the factual credibility of recorded data, which needs to be proved to customers in alternative ways. Conversely, improvements in other operational performance dimensions confirm that blockchain can support inter-organizational transactions more efficiently. The results are relevant in times when, following hype, there are signs of disengagement with the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the influence of international experience, in particular FATF recommendations, European legislation on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies in Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the experience of the United Kingdom, EU and Switzerland, which successfully conducted test transactions in accordance with FATF requirements. The article emphasizes the difficulty of complying with international standards in blockchain operations due to the long terms of their implementation and the amount of necessary legal changes. The article defines the need for a scientific analysis of trends in the development of regulation of crypto-assets, with the aim of scientific forecasting of their further development, separation from existing legal institutions. The decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which confirms the payment function of cryptocurrencies, which makes them similar to fiat money, is analyzed. However, Ukrainian legislation does not yet recognize cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, which complicates their regulation. The article also highlights the benefits of blockchain technology for government and business, including transparency, immutability of data once recorded, and independence from participants. Positive changes in Ukrainian legislation, in particular the implementation of the EU Regulation on crypto-asset markets, should accelerate the development of the national economy and its integration with the European market. The article analyzes the close connection between the implementation of blockchain technologies and the financial and banking sectors of the economy, while analyzing the difference in development and the key characteristics of the use of blockchain when making payments, documentary transactions, and financing export-import agreements. Identified trends in the development of legal support, namely, the connection with the financial and economic (commercial) sector, the need to implement verification, identification and authentication of subjects for the legality of transactions - transactions carried out using blockchain technology, separation of blockchain technology from the cryptocurrency market, in the sense that cryptocurrencies are one of the possibilities of blockchain technology, and not blockchain technology is a service, auxiliary mechanism of the cryptocurrency market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary era, blockchain technology has brought about a significant transformation in the realm of digital currency through innovations like Bitcoin. A blockchain serves as a decentralized ledger, ensuring an immutable record of transactions across a network. Recent observations indicate the pivotal role of blockchain technology not only in the financial sector but also in networking. This study considers blockchain as the essential link in establishing a genuinely decentralized, trustless, and secure environment for network nodes. The objective is to provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of futuristic endeavours in this domain. The exploration begins with an examination of the fundamental operational concepts of blockchains and how these systems achieve decentralization, security, and suitability. The focus then shifts towards addressing open research challenges within blockchain technologies, particularly in securing diverse communication networks such as Distributed Computing, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks, Opportunistic Networks, and Delay Tolerant Networks. Simulation results underscore the superior security performance of blockchain, especially under conditions of attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction transparency and trust are highly valued in the digital age. When conventional centralized systems are utilized, concerns arise regarding data security and intermediate control, as these systems frequently fail to meet these standards. In this regard, blockchain technology, which offers secure and decentralized solutions, stands out as a game-changer. The article examines the underlying principles of smart contracts and blockchain technology in order to gain an understanding of their potential to revolutionize online interactions. We delve into the decentralized architecture of the blockchain, focusing on its distributed ledger system that ensures the immutability and transparency of data. Determining the functions of consensus mechanisms such as Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake, which form the technological foundation of blockchain, is crucial for preserving the security and integrity of the network. We further investigate the possibility that intelligent contracts can orchestrate agreements and enable trustless transactions in response to predefined conditions. This study showcases the practical applications of blockchain technology and smart contracts in establishing more reliable processes within the healthcare, supply chain management, and finance sectors. The study not only contemplates potential solutions and forthcoming improvements but also recognizes the constraints of the existing technology, specifically with regard to scalability and energy usage. The emergence of smart contracts and blockchain technology heralds a new era of decentralized and impenetrable digital security. Their revolutionary potential to redefine trust and empower both individuals and corporations is evident. In order to optimize their capabilities, we must work together to address existing challenges and enforce solid legal structures that regulate the ethical and transformative application of these state-of-the-art technologies.

Abstract High voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and confidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions challenging. Specifically, the counting implementation must support reproducibility, and the choice of individual voters must remain confidential. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel referendum protocol that ensures transparency, confidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by combining secure multi-party computation and distributed ledger technology, e.g., a Blockchain. The persistence and immutability of the protocol communication allow verifiability of the referendum outcome by any participant. Voters therefore do not need to trust third parties. We provide a formal description and conduct a thorough security evaluation of our proposal.

Blockchain technology has been growing at a substantial growth rate over the last decade. Blockchain, originally developed to support the cryptocurrency ecosystem, has recently been used in various other fields to achieve extraordinary levels of security. Blockchain technology has applications beyond cryptocurrencies, including risk management, healthcare facilities, financial and social services, and more. Blockchain has been used in the healthcare industry for several purposes including secure data logging, transactions, and maintenance using smartcontracts. The healthcare sector integrating blockchain into various aspects of this digital age. Its features such as micro-transactions, decentralized exchanges, consensus mechanisms, and smart contracts allow for securing the privacy of the health data of patients who are key stakeholders in the healthcare domain. The User Interface (UI) of the HealthChain system highlights the development of blockchain peers with background data on blockchain network construction. By digitally linking patients, payers, and providers over an open network, Health Chain is building a datadriven healthcare community. The modular Hyperledger fabric architecture, which promotes secrecy, scalability and security in health informatics, is a major asset of HealthChain which is powered by Blockchain. The smartcontracts guarantees that the right people are authorised and given the rights on its network of permissions. This review's primary goal is to offer an extensive look and assessment of blockchain technology. The intention is to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technology, its present status, and its possible effects on a range of industries, including supply chain management, healthcare, banking, and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, blockchain technology has received attention because of its decentralized, immutable and other characteristics, but it faces storage and retrieval challenges. To address these challenges, this paper introduces IOTA distributed ledger technology, which solves the scalability and cost problems of traditional blockchains. By analyzing and experimenting the Tangle, the underlying consensus structure of IOTA, this paper reveals the main factors affecting its development, and proposes a segmented adaptive cutting-edge transaction selection algorithm to optimize the system performance. At the same time, based on IOTA distributed ledger, this paper proposes a data encryption storage and retrieval scheme, which speeds up the data link and retrieval speed, and ensures the integrity and security of data. Finally, this paper discusses the application of blockchain in accounting informatization, and puts forward the scheme of building a new generation of accounting informatization platform, which is of great value to the construction of accounting informatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Duc to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic around the world in 2020 and the huge impact on the global supply chain, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are facing huge pressure to survive and the financing conditions for SMEs are is particularly difficult. Once the cashflow chain is broken. SMEs may face bankruptcy, thus endangering the survival of large and medium-sized firms, and may even lead to the collapse of the whole supply chain. In the long term. the financing constraints of SMEs have been a problem that has plagued many countries around the world, including developed countries, and have not been effectively solved. Supply chain finance is one of the effective methods to alleviate financing constraints for firms. However, traditional supply chain finance has many shortcomings, such as information asymmetry, transaction forgeries, difficult credit evaluation, low business efficiencies. and inconvenient regulation of collateral. This paper utilizes the excellent. characteristics of blockchain to empower traditional supply chain finance, which can effectively resolve the shortcomings of traditional supply chain finance and help alleviate the financing constraints of firms. The research results not only can provide a new way to effectively solve the financing constraints for SMEs, but also can make a positive contribution to the comprehensive development of the digital economy and society. Currently, most literatures mainly discuss the basic characteristics, development models, business optimizations, and evolutionary games of blockchain-based supply chain finance. This paper firstly indicates the reasons for choosing the consortium blockchain and illustrates the network constructions of the supply chain finance system based on consortium blockchain. And then we initially analyze the operating mechanism of the system through adopting PBFT algorithm to achieve consistent consensus. We finally show the application scenarios of accounts receivable financing in our system. The main results we found are as follows. Firstly, because of the outstanding performances of the consortium blockchain, such as partial decentralization. consensus trust, tamper-proof, traceability, smart contract, privacy and security, it is much more suitable for the consortium blockchain rather than a public blockchain or private blockchain to build up the supply chain finance system. Secondly, the existing literatures of blockchain-based supply chain finance are not abundant and there are very rare researches about its internal logicality and operating mechanisms. Through carrying out the processes of selecting the master node, packaging data. building new blocks and verifying messages, the PBFT algorithm can achieve consistent consensus among all the nodes, which is the essential key to the operating mechanism of the supply chain finance system based on consortium blockchain. Meanwhile, this paper optimize the "requests pool" in the consensus processes and propose the data structures of the consensus algorithm. We hope to provide the theoretical references for the R&D and applications of the blockchain-based supply chain finance system for banks and firms. Thirdly, from the three perspectives of business processes, data adding to blockchain and financing performances. this paper discusses how banks and firms utilize the blockchain-based supply chain system to implement the financing businesses of accounts receivable. Compared with the common trade finance and the traditional supply chain finance, our system could be able to significantly shorten corporate financing time, reduce corporate loan interest rate and expand corporate loan volume. Our research is not only conducive to solving the corporate financing difficulties. especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also provides theoretical foundations and practical guidance for firms and banks to exploit and develop the supply chain finance system based on consortium blockchain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the application of blockchain technology in optimizing warehouse management, focusing on improving transparency, security, and operational efficiency. By utilizing a Blockchain-based Warehouse Platform (BCWP), the study enhances inventory tracking and supply chain transparency. A fuzzy-Delphi method was employed to identify and evaluate critical blockchain practices, with their relative importance assessed using the Best-Worst Method (BWM). The Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) technique further ranked key performance outcomes. The findings reveal that practices such as quality inspection and information sharing play a pivotal role in boosting warehouse performance. Additionally, the integration of blockchain technology led to significant improvements in transaction speed and operational efficiency. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing a structured decision-making framework for blockchain implementation, offering practical insights for supply chain managers aiming to streamline warehouse operations and enhance decision-making processes.

Phone numbers are globally unique identifiers that are extensively utilized in online service registration processes of verifying a user's identity. They are issued by mobile network operators (MNO) during the customer onboarding process, after performing a know-your-customer (KYC) process. In an increasing number of countries, regulatory bodies prescribe MNOs to verify customers' identities by checking their national identity cards card during the KYC process, making the digital identity associated with a phone number trustworthy and valuable. However, MNOs do not capitalize on customers' digital identities for anything other than offering connectivity. This paper explores how MNOs can empower their customers with trustworthy digital identities, referred to as TelcoIDs, that the customers are free to utilize for all sorts of online services. To be compliant with the latest privacy-preserving principles of the Self-sovereign Identity paradigm, a decentralized identity management system that is commonly operated and governed by different MNOs, serves as the technical foundation for TelcoIDs. The proposed concept has the potential to not only add value for customers of MNOs but also to create a new business opportunity for MNOs in the role of trustful identity providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As blockchain becomes more widely used, a growing number of application fields are becoming interested in blockchain to benefit from its decentralised nature, invariability, security, transparency, quick transaction capabilities, and cost-effectiveness. Blockchain has a wide range of applications and uses in healthcare. Distributed ledger technology facilitates the secure transfer of patient medical records, manages the medicine supply chain, and creates an efficient, transparent, safe, and effective way of communicating data across global healthcare. The organ transplantation process (OTP) is one of the healthcare areas that benefit from the use of such technology to make its process more secure and transparent. In this article, we put forward a systematic literature review analysis on the application of blockchain to the OTP. Additionally, we address and highlight the barriers and challenges that arise while using blockchain technology for the OTP. We also offer some suggestions for future developments that would enhance blockchain's implementation in the OTP domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the advantages of high volume of transactions and low resource consumption, Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)-based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been considered a possible next-generation alternative to block-chain. However, the security of the DAG-based system has yet to be comprehensively understood. Aiming at verifying and evaluating the security of DAG-based DLT, we develop a Multi-Agent based IOTA Simulation platform called MAIOTASim. In MAIOTASim, we model honest and malicious nodes and simulate the configurable network environment, including network topology and delay. The double-spending attack is a particular security issue related to DLT. We perform the security verification of the consensus algorithms under multiple double-spending attack strategies. Our simulations show that the consensus algorithms can resist the parasite chain attack and partially resist the splitting attack, but they are ineffective under the large weight attack. We take the cumulative weight difference of transactions as the evaluation criterion and analyze the effect of different consensus algorithms with parameters under each attack strategy. Besides, MAIOTASim enables users to perform large-scale simulations with multiple nodes and tens of thousands of transactions more efficiently than state-of-the-art ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research introduces a comprehensive collaborative intrusion detection system (CIDS) framework aimed at bolstering the security of Internet of Things (IoT) environments by synergistically integrating lightweight architecture, trust management, and privacy-preserving mechanisms. The proposed hierarchical architecture spans edge, fog, and cloud layers, ensuring efficient and scalable collaborative intrusion detection. Trustworthiness is established through the incorporation of distributed ledger technology (DLT), leveraging blockchain frameworks to enhance the reliability and transparency of communication among IoT devices. Furthermore, the research adopts federated learning (FL) techniques to address privacy concerns, allowing devices to collaboratively learn from decentralized data sources while preserving individual data privacy. Validation of the proposed approach is conducted using the CICIoT2023 dataset, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing the security posture of IoT ecosystems. This research contributes to the advancement of secure and resilient IoT infrastructures, addressing the imperative need for lightweight, trust-managing, and privacy-preserving solutions in the face of evolving cybersecurity challenges. According to our experiments, the proposed model achieved an average accuracy of 97.65%, precision of 97.65%, recall of 100%, and F1-score of 98.81% when detecting various attacks on IoT systems with heterogeneous devices and networks. The system is a lightweight system when compared with traditional intrusion detection that uses centralized learning in terms of network latency and memory consumption. The proposed system shows trust and can keep private data in an IoT environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) in the past decade has challenged our imagination to discover new, innovative and disruptive solutions to problems in domains ranging from finance and healthcare to supply chain and Smart Cities. However, the enormous energy consumption that has been observed in some of the most successful DLT applications raises the question of their long term sustainability. This article reviews the standardization efforts of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to provide guidelines to regulators and policy makers for making informed decisions on the applicability and sustainability of DLT architectures from the point of view of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the technological globe, blockchain technology is expanding tremendously in every field where ledgers and security plays a role. The smart contract, as a significant part of the blockchain that automatically executes whenever the pre-conditions are satisfied for the business to proceed also ensures trust even among unknown parties and completely eradicates the middleman. In order to deploy or interact with a smart contract, the gas cost is to be paid in teams of ether or wei in the Ethereum blockchain network. The gas cost is mainly charged for the effort or computational power required to process the operations present in the transactions of the smart contract. The gas cost becomes overpriced, due to the increasing demand to process a huge number of transactions in the network and the inflation in the price of the cryptocurrency and the normal users of the network does not know how to determine gas price paid to the miners and ended up paying an overprice for processing their transactions quickly. So, there arises a need to optimize the gas cost and find the right strategy balancing both transaction cost and the wait time. In this paper, various approaches such as merge task, Unit256 vs. Uint8, data type preference, unnecessary libraries, dead code elimination, short circuiting and loop operation are proposed and techniques such as Monte-Carlo approach and M/M/1 queuing are experimented to reduce the gas cost in both the phases of contract generation and contract deployment in the Ethereum network. The proposed techniques can be utilized to reduce the overall gas cost also minimize the extortionate smart contract vulnerabilities thus, providing a way to develop optimized smart contracts and provide direction to contribute to future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2000s, the interest around smart cities continues to grow due to the increasing digitalization, urbanization, and marketing of the smart city idea by tech companies. A central characteristic of smart cities is their use of digital technologies. One of these technologies that is increasingly applied in smart cities is the blockchain. Re-search on blockchain and how it is used within smart cities has grown significantly over the last years. Nowadays, research on blockchain in smart cities is a heterogeneous research field with contributions from many different disciplines. This paper therefore seeks to provide an analysis and overview of the emergent research field of the application of blockchain technology in smart cities. We do so by conducting a bibliometric analysis of research published between 2014 and 2021. As results, we give a thematic and bibliometric overview of this research field. This includes an overview of the past research on blockchain for smart cities, its key topics, and main areas of research. Furthermore, by giving an overview of potential future research questions, we aim to provide researchers with a platform for further developments within this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart contracts become significant as blockchain technology is blooming around the technological globe. In this juncture, smart contract is an automatic programming framework executed based upon pre-conditions in blockchain even among untrusted parties by eliminating third party. The usage of blockchain in various fields keeps on increasing enormously from crypto-currency to 6G wireless communication. While developing smart contracts for novel purposes, vulnerability and various challenges are discovered. Smart contracts are still in the emerging development stage with few bugs and errors, which are often exploited by hackers leading to huge losses. There are loopholes and misinterpretations in the development of smart contracts, thus it is necessary to design smart contracts. The anonymity and self-execution of the smart contract are taken as an advantage for illegal business. Hence, various modern tools are developed to identify the vulnerabilities in the smart contract but still, there is a research gap in this area. In this paper, various smart contracts and their challenges are studied to analyze the current state and a survey is carried out mainly focusing on its security aspects. Hence, providing a way to develop highly secure smart contracts and providing directions for contributing to future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]