1,091 research outputs found
BlockChain: A distributed solution to automotive security and privacy
Interconnected smart vehicles offer a range of sophisticated services that
benefit the vehicle owners, transport authorities, car manufacturers and other
service providers. This potentially exposes smart vehicles to a range of
security and privacy threats such as location tracking or remote hijacking of
the vehicle. In this article, we argue that BlockChain (BC), a disruptive
technology that has found many applications from cryptocurrencies to smart
contracts, is a potential solution to these challenges. We propose a BC-based
architecture to protect the privacy of the users and to increase the security
of the vehicular ecosystem. Wireless remote software updates and other emerging
services such as dynamic vehicle insurance fees, are used to illustrate the
efficacy of the proposed security architecture. We also qualitatively argue the
resilience of the architecture against common security attacks
CREATe 2012-2016: Impact on society, industry and policy through research excellence and knowledge exchange
On the eve of the CREATe Festival May 2016, the Centre published this legacy report (edited by Kerry Patterson & Sukhpreet Singh with contributions from consortium researchers)
A Logic of Blockchain Updates
Blockchains are distributed data structures that are used to achieve
consensus in systems for cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) or smart contracts
(like Ethereum). Although blockchains gained a lot of popularity recently,
there is no logic-based model for blockchains available. We introduce BCL, a
dynamic logic to reason about blockchain updates, and show that BCL is sound
and complete with respect to a simple blockchain model
Applying blockchain to improve the integrity of the software development process
Software development is a complex endeavor that encompasses application and implementation layers with functional (refers to
what is done) and non-functional (how is done) aspects. The efforts to
scale agile software development practices are not wholly able to address
issues such as integrity, which is a crucial non-functional aspect of the
software development process. However, if we consider most software failures are Byzantine failures (i.e., where components may fail and there is
imperfect information on which a component has failed.) that might impair the operation but do not completely disable the production line. In
this paper, we assume software practitioners who cause defects as Byzantine participants and claim that most software failures can be mitigated
by viewing software development as the Byzantine Generals Problem.
Consequently, we propose a test-driven incentive mechanism based on
a blockchain concept to orchestrate the software development process
where production is controlled by a similar infrastructure based on the
working principles of blockchain. We discuss the model that integrates
blockchain with the software development process, and provide some recommendations for future work to address the issues while orchestrating
software productio
Crypto and Blockchain Fundamentals
I believe blockchain will do for trusted transactions what the Internet has done for information. - Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM Since the 1990s, we have had an Internet of Information that allows us to seamlessly share information such as documents, images, emails, and videos over the Internet. While most Internet users do not need to understand the details of the technical protocols operating underneath user-friendly software interfaces, it is helplful to understand how they work at a high-level. With the Internet of Information, copies of information are routed over the Internet. If a sender emails a friend, the sender keeps the original email, and the friend receives a copy of the email. To transact value, i.e., money, over the Internet, one cannot send a copy. Instead, after the transfer of value is complete, the sender should no longer have the money, but rather the recipient should
Software Engineering Applications enabled by Blockchain Technology: A Systematic Mapping Study
The novel, yet disruptive blockchain technology has witnessed growing attention, due to its intrinsic potential. Besides the conventional domains that benefit from such potential, such as finance, supply chain and healthcare, blockchain use cases in software engineering have emerged recently. In this study, we aim to contribute to the body of knowledge of blockchain-oriented software engineering by providing an adequate overview of the software engineering applications enabled by blockchain technology. To do so, we carried out a systematic mapping study and identified 22 primary studies. Then, we extracted data within the research type, research topic and contribution type facets. Findings suggest an increasing trend of studies since 2018. Additionally, findings reveal the potential of using blockchain technologies as an alternative to centralized systems, such as GitHub, Travis CI, and cloud-based package managers, and also to establish trust between parties in collaborative software development. We also found out that smart contracts can enable the automation of a variety of software engineering activities that usually require human reasoning, such as the acceptance phase, payments to software engineers, and compliance adherence. In spite of the fact that the field is not yet mature, we believe that this systematic mapping study provides a holistic overview that may benefit researchers interested in bringing blockchain to the software industry, and practitioners willing to understand how blockchain can transform the software development industry.publishedVersio
Systematizing Decentralization and Privacy: Lessons from 15 Years of Research and Deployments
Decentralized systems are a subset of distributed systems where multiple
authorities control different components and no authority is fully trusted by
all. This implies that any component in a decentralized system is potentially
adversarial. We revise fifteen years of research on decentralization and
privacy, and provide an overview of key systems, as well as key insights for
designers of future systems. We show that decentralized designs can enhance
privacy, integrity, and availability but also require careful trade-offs in
terms of system complexity, properties provided, and degree of
decentralization. These trade-offs need to be understood and navigated by
designers. We argue that a combination of insights from cryptography,
distributed systems, and mechanism design, aligned with the development of
adequate incentives, are necessary to build scalable and successful
privacy-preserving decentralized systems
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