Does blockchain technology drive sustainability? An exploratory review
- Authors: Jayawardhana, Jayawardhana , Colombage, Sisira
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility p. 17-42
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Blockchain technology is an extension of distributed ledger technology and it is used in cryptocurrencies. Many studies describe blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is an application of it in a very broad sense. Blockchain technology has several applications. Some of these applications could have direct or indirect relevance to either or both pillars of sustainability advocated by Crowther, Seifi, and Wond (2019). Extending to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, one possible connection to sustainability may be the reduction of the use of paper for printing currency notes, which can save forests. Furthermore, the growing cryptocurrency market attracted the investors to focus on the price fluctuations but making them forget about the terrifying carbon problem associated with cryptocurrencies. However, this possibility has not been demonstrated anywhere so far. The issue examined here is how blockchain technology can be used for solving sustainability problems. We initiate a qualitative study of the blockchain technology/cryptocurrency and sustainability using the twin pillars of sustainability: (1) responsibility, (2) governance. An exploratory review linking blockchain technology/cryptocurrency and sustainability and its two pillars revealed many actual and trial applications by corporates as CSR initiatives and other novel programs by various agencies in various countries. In governance, corporates use the CSR route to address sustainability issues. However, no definition is an available linking cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and sustainability and we developed a definition to fill the gap. This paper stresses that the sustainability perspective has not been used to develop the cryptocurrency definition, but rather technological and legal perspectives have employed. © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited.
Enhanced profitability of photovoltaic plants by utilizing cryptocurrency-based mining load
- Authors: Eid, Bilal , Islam, Md Rabiul , Shah, Rakibuzzaman , Nahid, Abdullah , Kouzani, Abbas , Mahmud, M.
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity Vol. 31, no. 8 (2021), p.
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The grid connected photovoltaic (PV) power plants (PVPPs) are booming nowadays. The main problem facing the PV power plants deployment is the intermittency which leads to instability of the grid. In order to stabilize the grid, either energy storage device - mainly batteries - or a power curtailment technique can be used. The additional cost on utilizing batteries make it not preferred solution, because it leads to a drop in the return on investment (ROI) of the project. A good alternative, is using a customized load (such as; cryptocurrency-based loads) which consumes the surplus energy. This paper investigating the usage of a customized load - cryptocurrency mining rig - to create an added value for the owner of the plant and increase the ROI of the project. These devices are widely used to perform the required calculations for validating the transactions on the network of the Blockchain. A comparison between the ROI of the mining rig and the battery have been conducted in this study. Based on this study the mining rig has superior ROI of 7.7% - in the case with the lowest ROI - compared to 4.5% for battery. Moreover, an improved controlling strategy is developed to combine both the battery and mining rig in the same system. The developed strategy is able to keep the profitability as high as possible during the fluctuation of the mining network. © 2002-2011 IEEE.
Bitcoin : users’ characteristics, motivations and investment behaviours
- Authors: Carter, Corey
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In less than a decade, the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin has gone from a fringe phenomenon to a topic of increasing interest to academia and mainstream investors. However, despite the growing body of research seeking to understand Bitcoin, the pseudonymous, decentralised, and globally-diffused nature of its user base means that the individuals who use it remain poorly understood. In particular, the motivations, risk-appreciation, and investment behaviours of early adopters and innovators are subject to supposition in the absence of data derived from the user base. This thesis seeks to address this gap in knowledge by employing a multi-stage, mixed methodology approach and a theoretical framework to understand the Bitcoin user base. Utilising semantic analysis, a survey of online cryptocurrency communities, and econometric time-series analysis, this thesis addresses the extent and nature of Bitcoin in hedging; how individual users perceive their own motivations, uses, and risks that have driven their behaviour; and the nature of the relationship between the prices of cryptocurrency and indices of confidence. Analysis of the data determined that the use of Bitcoin as an instrument of hedging is limited, and influenced by political and institutional factors. Likewise, its motivations, uses, and risks are reflective of the users’ political ideology, with the community and marketplace becoming more sophisticated as they evolve over time. Additionally, despite several case studies demonstrating risk-averse adoption of Bitcoin, there is no relationship between its prices and confidence.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An overview on smart contracts : challenges, advances and platforms
- Authors: Zheng, Zibin , Xie, Shaoan , Dai, Hong-Ning , Chen, Weili , Imran, Muhammad
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Future Generation Computer Systems Vol. 105, no. (2020), p. 475-491
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Smart contract technology is reshaping conventional industry and business processes. Being embedded in blockchains, smart contracts enable the contractual terms of an agreement to be enforced automatically without the intervention of a trusted third party. As a result, smart contracts can cut down administration and save services costs, improve the efficiency of business processes and reduce the risks. Although smart contracts are promising to drive the new wave of innovation in business processes, there are a number of challenges to be tackled. This paper presents a survey on smart contracts. We first introduce blockchains and smart contracts. We then present the challenges in smart contracts as well as recent technical advances. We also compare typical smart contract platforms and give a categorization of smart contract applications along with some representative examples. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Device agent assisted blockchain leveraged framework for Internet of Things
- Authors: Nasrullah, Tarique , Islam, Md Manowarul , Uddin, Md Ashraf , Khan, Md Anisauzzaman , Layek, Md Abu , Stranieri, Andrew , Huh, Eui-Nam
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 11, no. (2023), p. 1254-1268
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Blockchain (BC) is a burgeoning technology that has emerged as a promising solution to peer-to-peer communication security and privacy challenges. As a revolutionary technology, blockchain has drawn the attention of academics and researchers. Cryptocurrencies have already effectively utilized BC technology. Many researchers have sought to implement this technique in different sectors, including the Internet of Things. To store and manage IoT data, we present in this paper a lightweight BC-based architecture with a modified raft algorithm-based consensus protocol. We designed a Device Agent that executes a novel registration procedure to connect IoT devices to the blockchain. We implemented the framework on Docker using the Go programming language. We have simulated the framework on a Linux environment hosted in the cloud. We have conducted a detailed performance analysis using a variety of measures. The results demonstrate that our suggested solution is suitable for facilitating the management of IoT data with increased security and privacy. In terms of throughput and block generation time, the results indicate that our solution might be 40% to 45% faster than the existing blockchain. © 2013 IEEE.