Immutable Autobiography of Smart Cars Leveraging Blockchain Technology

The popularity of smart cars is increasing around the world as they offer a wide range of services and conveniences. These smart cars are equipped with a variety of sensors generating a large amount of data, many of which are critical. Besides, there are multiple parties involved in the lifespan of a smart car, such as manufacturers, car owners, government agencies, and third-party service providers who also generate data about the vehicle. In addition to managing and sharing data amongst these entities in a secure and privacy-friendly way which is a great challenge itself, there exists a trust deficit about some types of data as they remain under the custody of the car owner (e.g. satellite navigation and mileage data) and can easily be manipulated. In this paper, we propose a blockchain assisted architecture enabling the owner of a smart car to create an immutable record of every data, called the autobiography of a car, generated within its lifespan. We also explain how the trust about this record is guaranteed by the immutability characteristic of the blockchain. Furthermore, the paper describes how the proposed architecture enables a secure and privacy-preserving mechanism for sharing of smart car data among different parties

Designing Secure Ethereum Smart Contracts: A Finite State Machine Based Approach

The adoption of blockchain-based distributed computation platforms is growing fast. Some of these platforms, such as Ethereum, provide support for implementing smart contracts, which are envisioned to have novel applications in a broad range of areas, including finance and Internet-of-Things. However, a significant number of smart contracts deployed in practice suffer from security vulnerabilities, which enable malicious users to steal assets from a contract or to cause damage. Vulnerabilities present a serious issue since contracts may handle financial assets of considerable value, and contract bugs are non-fixable by design. To help developers create more secure smart contracts, we introduce FSolidM, a framework rooted in rigorous semantics for designing con- tracts as Finite State Machines (FSM). We present a tool for creating FSM on an easy-to-use graphical interface and for automatically generating Ethereum contracts. Further, we introduce a set of design patterns, which we implement as plugins that developers can easily add to their contracts to enhance security and functionality

From legal contracts to smart contracts and back again: Towards an automated approach

Blockchain smart contracts, programs with the potential to automate transactions and beyond, have gained tremendous popularity over the past years. Central to the original of smart contracts is that every computable clause of a contract or agreement is encoded into arbitrary computer logic with the aim of coding this logic into computer programs, and let the program decide and execute what happens during the contract's life span. The term smart legal contract has been coined to describe smart contracts that aim to capture legally binding agreements between parties. This dissertation presents a method to facilitate the creation of smart legal contracts that constitute a legally binding contract and that can (partially) self-enforce their terms and conditions within that contract, regardless of the blockchain platform. Understanding how blockchain technology works is pivotal to grapple the ramifications of this choice for smart contracts. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the literature on blockchain to delineate architectural perspectives on the technology, and to define its properties. Finally, the chapter points out the current challenges for the technology and gaps in literature. In Chapter 3, a background on smart contracts will be provided using a motivational example. Chapter 4 expounds the research methodology, the research paradigm adopted for the research, and the philosophy underpinning the method called Model Driven Architecture. Following, in Chapter 5 a domain model for smart legal contracts is presented. The chapter demonstrates how the contents of a legal contract could be captured in a model using a motivational example. Chapter 6 is devoted to describing the models that can be employed to write smart contracts. The chapter presents a platform specific model for the Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platforms. A platform agnostic model for blockchain technology is thereafter presented that captures the commonalities between these platforms. Chapter 7 discusses how the main research question is addressed. Derived from the insights of the discussion some opportunities for future research are discussed. Finally, Chapter 8 concludes the dissertation

Towards a Blockchain-based Software Engineering Education

Blockchain technologies for rewards in education are gaining attraction as a promising approach to motivate student learning and promote academic achievement. By providing tangible rewards for educational attainment and engagement, such as digital tokens, educators can motivate learners to take a more active role in their learning and increase their sense of ownership and responsibility for their academic outcomes. In this context, this work proposes the Software Engineering Skill (SES) token as a way of rewarding students in order to improve their experiences in Software Engineering Education (SEE). We performed a proof of concept and conclude that SES token can be deployed in a platform to support SEE.Comment: 6 page

Cryptocurrency Research in the Field of Information Systems: A Literature Review and its Implications for Sharing Economy Research

Cryptocurrency has been widely adopted as an asset for investment with the rise of numerous well-known cryptocurrency exchanges. Practitioners and enthusiasts have begun to promote cryptocurrency as a means of payment in the sharing economy. This new trend has also received attention from academia, especially among information systems (IS) scholars. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to consolidate knowledge about cryptocurrency in the field of IS through a systematic literature review and provide insights for researchers to seek opportunities for cryptocurrency research in the context of the sharing economy

Giving to Get Well: Patients’ Willingness to Manage and Share Health Information on AI-Driven Platforms

The digitalization of healthcare makes for the widespread availability of patient-provided data. Artificial Intelligence (AI) relies on this data. In this information-intensive environment, it is imperative to understand the contributing factors of an individual’s willingness to manage and share personal health information (PHI). Drawing from the health belief model, we identify the factors that motivate individuals to manage and share their PHI in an AI-driven health platform to obtain its intended benefits. We recognize security risks and present the use of a blockchain database as a representative means of securely managing and controlling an individual’s PHI. Data collected from a nationally representative sample of allergy sufferers indicate that the health belief model strongly predicts willingness to share PHI on a personalized AI-supported platform. Our study makes significant contributions by investigating the factors that motivate patients to use an AI-driven health platform to manage their health

Applications of Blockchain Technology to Higher Education Arena: A Bibliometric Analysis

Reis-Marques, C., Figueiredo, R., & Neto, M. D. C. (2021). Applications of Blockchain Technology to Higher Education Arena: A Bibliometric Analysis. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 11(4), 1406-1421. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11040101 ---------------------------------------------- This work is financed by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., under the project “UIDB/04630/2020”.Research related to blockchain is rapidly gaining importance in the higher education. This opportunity collaborates with a proposal for a review of papers on the main blockchain topic. The bibliometric analysis included 61 peer-reviewed articles published in the Scopus database during the period of 2016 to 2021. This paper offers the identification of gaps in the literature enabling studies on the subject in higher education. The article identifies the main applications of blockchain technology in higher education around the world, as well as suggests future investigations. For further scientific investigation, we propose the operationalization of each of the researched approaches, especially combining the blockchain relationship, artificial intelligence, digital innovation, digital maturity, and customer experience in higher education.publishersversionpublishe