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An overview on smart contracts : challenges, advances and platforms

- Zheng, Zibin, Xie, Shaoan, Dai, Hong-Ning, Chen, Weili, Imran, Muhammad

  • 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
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  • 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.

Bitcoin : users’ characteristics, motivations and investment behaviours

- Carter, Corey

  • Authors: Carter, Corey
  • Date: 2019
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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  • 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

Device agent assisted blockchain leveraged framework for Internet of Things

- Nasrullah, Tarique, Islam, Md Manowarul, Uddin, Md Ashraf, Khan, Md Anisauzzaman, Layek, Md Abu, Stranieri, Andrew, Huh, Eui-Nam

  • 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
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  • 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.

Enhanced profitability of photovoltaic plants by utilizing cryptocurrency-based mining load

- Eid, Bilal, Islam, Md Rabiul, Shah, Rakibuzzaman, Nahid, Abdullah, Kouzani, Abbas, Mahmud, M.

  • 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.
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  • 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.

Does blockchain technology drive sustainability? An exploratory review

- Jayawardhana, Asanga, Colombage, Sisira

  • Authors: Jayawardhana, Asanga , Colombage, Sisira
  • Date: 2020
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility p. 17-42
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  • 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.

Portfolio diversification possibilities of cryptocurrency : global evidence

- Jayawardhana, Asanga, Colombage, Sisira

  • Authors: Jayawardhana, Asanga , Colombage, Sisira
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Applied Economics Vol. 56, no. 47 (2024), p. 5618-5633
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  • Description: This article explores the cointegration, co-movement, and causality relationships amongst the equity, debt, and cryptocurrency markets to determine the risk diversification possibilities of an investment portfolio. We employ daily data extracted from the Bloomberg data terminal from 2 August 2017 to 2 June 2022 to investigate the short- and long-run relationships between these markets. Indices from the U.S.A., Europe, China, Australia, and Japan are selected as the proxies for the analysis. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, followed by unit root testing in the presence of structural breaks, indicates no long-run relationship among six financial variables and the cryptocurrency market. Although the Toda Yamamoto causality test does reveal unidirectional causality running from European and Chinese markets to the cryptocurrency market, we find no evidence to prove the existence of any bidirectional causality between markets. Furthermore, we use the R-squared metrics to analyse the market behaviour and co-movement between the cryptocurrency market and other financial markets. The test findings exhibit a lower level of co-movement behaviour. Our overall results suggest potential portfolio diversification possibilities between cryptocurrency and financial markets based on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fintech market

- Nguyen, Truong

  • Authors: Nguyen, Truong
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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  • Description: Financial technology or Fintech has become increasingly popular over the last several years because it has transformed traditional services through technological innovation across many sectors and aspects of the economy. As a highly dynamic industry, Fintech has demonstrated flexibility in adapting to changing market conditions. Therefore, when the market faces its first major global crisis - the COVID-19, its performance and response has become a great interest for its stakeholders and academics alike. This thesis aims to investigate changes happening to the Fintech market under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic using a mixed-methods approach. This approach provides a foundational understanding of trends since the pandemic’s onset, as well as insights into investor behaviours and market dynamics. The first study employed qualitative insights from scoping reviews of previous scientific journal articles, which provided an overview and current knowledge of how the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) affected various aspects of the Fintech market. The research findings indicated that policy impact, relationships and comparison of Fintech and other financial markets, changes within Fintech applications, and especially user behaviours have been major trends in studies on the impact of COVID-19 on the market. The second study examined the impact of the PHEIC on seven cryptocurrencies using Bayesian Structural Time Series (BSTS) to establish counterfactual models of these indices for the period from 2019 to mid-2020. The results suggested that the pandemic had no significant causal effect on the performance of the cryptocurrencies, even when accounting for investor sentiment. The third study used the same method to assess Fintech venture market, which was further split into smaller segments including different funding stages and two Fintech applications: digital lending and payment. Evidence from all counterfactual models indicated that the pandemic did not have a causal effect on the investment into Fintech ventures, which could be resulted from various external factors aside from the COVID-19. While the findings might seem surprising, it highlights the complexity of factors influencing these sectors throughout this current pandemic, shedding light on the resilience within Fintech markets against pandemic disruptions. Keywords: Fintech, COVID-19, Cryptocurrency, Investor behaviour, Fintech resilience, Fintech ventures, Market adaptation
  • Description: Doctor of Philosophy
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