3,196 research outputs found
The Evolution of Embedding Metadata in Blockchain Transactions
The use of blockchains is growing every day, and their utility has greatly
expanded from sending and receiving crypto-coins to smart-contracts and
decentralized autonomous organizations. Modern blockchains underpin a variety
of applications: from designing a global identity to improving satellite
connectivity. In our research we look at the ability of blockchains to store
metadata in an increasing volume of transactions and with evolving focus of
utilization. We further show that basic approaches to improving blockchain
privacy also rely on embedding metadata. This paper identifies and classifies
real-life blockchain transactions embedding metadata of a number of major
protocols running essentially over the bitcoin blockchain. The empirical
analysis here presents the evolution of metadata utilization in the recent
years, and the discussion suggests steps towards preventing criminal use.
Metadata are relevant to any blockchain, and our analysis considers primarily
bitcoin as a case study. The paper concludes that simultaneously with both
expanding legitimate utilization of embedded metadata and expanding blockchain
functionality, the applied research on improving anonymity and security must
also attempt to protect against blockchain abuse.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, 2018 International Joint Conference on
Neural Network
Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs
This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc
Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs
This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc
A Decentralised Digital Identity Architecture
Current architectures to validate, certify, and manage identity are based on
centralised, top-down approaches that rely on trusted authorities and
third-party operators. We approach the problem of digital identity starting
from a human rights perspective, with a primary focus on identity systems in
the developed world. We assert that individual persons must be allowed to
manage their personal information in a multitude of different ways in different
contexts and that to do so, each individual must be able to create multiple
unrelated identities. Therefore, we first define a set of fundamental
constraints that digital identity systems must satisfy to preserve and promote
privacy as required for individual autonomy. With these constraints in mind, we
then propose a decentralised, standards-based approach, using a combination of
distributed ledger technology and thoughtful regulation, to facilitate
many-to-many relationships among providers of key services. Our proposal for
digital identity differs from others in its approach to trust in that we do not
seek to bind credentials to each other or to a mutually trusted authority to
achieve strong non-transferability. Because the system does not implicitly
encourage its users to maintain a single aggregated identity that can
potentially be constrained or reconstructed against their interests,
individuals and organisations are free to embrace the system and share in its
benefits.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, 3 table
The Data Breach Dilemma: Proactive Solutions for Protecting Consumersâ Personal Information
Data breaches are an increasingly common part of consumersâ lives. No institution is immune to the possibility of an attack. Each breach inevitably risks the release of consumersâ personally identifiable information and the strong possibility of identity theft.
Unfortunately, current solutions for handling these incidents are woefully inadequate. Private litigation like consumer class actions and shareholder lawsuits each face substantive legal and procedural barriers. States have their own data security and breach notification laws, but there is currently no unifying piece of legislation or strong enforcement mechanism.
This Note argues that proactive solutions are required. First, a national data security lawâsetting minimum data security standards, regulating the use and storage of personal information, and expanding the enforcement role of the Federal Trade Commissionâis imperative to protect consumersâ data. Second, a proactive solution requires reconsidering how to minimize the problem by going to its source: the collection of personally identifiable information in the first place. This Note suggests regulating companiesâ collection of Social Security numbers, and, eventually, using a system based on distributed ledger technology to replace the ubiquity of Social Security numbers
The Paradoxical Effects of Blockchain Technology on Social Networking Practices
Blockchain technology is a promising, yet not well understood, enabler of large-scale societal and economic change. For instance, blockchain makes it possible for users to securely and profitably share content on social media platforms. In this study, w
Blockchain for video streaming : opportunities, challenges and open issues
Blockchain, Quality of Experience (QoE), and Video Streaming have all received much attention from both academia and industry so far, although they have not been jointly addressed for prospective applications yet. While the industry has already adopted blockchain-based video streaming platforms, other stakeholders, e.g., academia, government, regulators, and service providers, could contribute more to develop protocols, technologies, and standards to help grow this niche technology and support its implementation in media streaming applications. This paper reviews the current technologies, industrial advancements, and critically identifies the current research activities and future research opportunities
Blockchain: Developing Regulatory Approaches for the use of Technology in Legal Services
This paper charts the evolution of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies as tools for radically simplifying common legal tasks such as identity verification and contract fulfilment
Foundations, Properties, and Security Applications of Puzzles: A Survey
Cryptographic algorithms have been used not only to create robust ciphertexts
but also to generate cryptograms that, contrary to the classic goal of
cryptography, are meant to be broken. These cryptograms, generally called
puzzles, require the use of a certain amount of resources to be solved, hence
introducing a cost that is often regarded as a time delay---though it could
involve other metrics as well, such as bandwidth. These powerful features have
made puzzles the core of many security protocols, acquiring increasing
importance in the IT security landscape. The concept of a puzzle has
subsequently been extended to other types of schemes that do not use
cryptographic functions, such as CAPTCHAs, which are used to discriminate
humans from machines. Overall, puzzles have experienced a renewed interest with
the advent of Bitcoin, which uses a CPU-intensive puzzle as proof of work. In
this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of the most important puzzle
construction schemes available in the literature, categorizing them according
to several attributes, such as resource type, verification type, and
applications. We have redefined the term puzzle by collecting and integrating
the scattered notions used in different works, to cover all the existing
applications. Moreover, we provide an overview of the possible applications,
identifying key requirements and different design approaches. Finally, we
highlight the features and limitations of each approach, providing a useful
guide for the future development of new puzzle schemes.Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in ACM Computing
Survey
Blockchain for Organising Effective Grass-Roots Actions on a Global Commons: Saving The Planet
An overwhelming majority of experts has been flagging for decades that âSaving the Planetâ requires immediate, persistent and drastic action to curb a variety of catastrophic risks over the 21st century. However, despite compelling evidence and a range of suggested solutions, transnational coordination of effective measures to protect our biosphere continues to fall short. To remedy, we propose a novel platform for addressing the central issue of affording trust, transparency and truth while minimizing administrative overheads. This will empower an even loosely organised, global grass-roots community to coordinate a large-scale project on a shared goal (âCommonsâ) spanning the digital and real world. The Web3 concept is based on the swiftly emerging âBlockchainâ and related cryptographic, distributed and permissionless technologies. âWisdom of the crowdsâ mechanisms involving competitive parallelisation and prediction markets are enabled by formalised reputation and staking to incentivise high-quality work, fair validation and best management practice. While these mechanisms have been (mostly separately) applied to science, business, governance, web, sensor, information and communication technologies (ICT), our integrative approach around Blockchain-enabled âoperating principles and protocolsâ sets the basis for designing novel forms of potentially crowdfunded Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)
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