Tracing Transactions Across Cryptocurrency Ledgers

One of the defining features of a cryptocurrency is that its ledger, containing all transactions that have evertaken place, is globally visible. As one consequenceof this degree of transparency, a long line of recent re-search has demonstrated that even in cryptocurrenciesthat are specifically designed to improve anonymity it is often possible to track money as it changes hands,and in some cases to de-anonymize users entirely. With the recent proliferation of alternative cryptocurrencies, however, it becomes relevant to ask not only whether ornot money can be traced as it moves within the ledgerof a single cryptocurrency, but if it can in fact be tracedas it moves across ledgers. This is especially pertinent given the rise in popularity of automated trading platforms such as ShapeShift, which make it effortless to carry out such cross-currency trades. In this paper, weuse data scraped from ShapeShift over a thirteen-monthperiod and the data from eight different blockchains to explore this question. Beyond developing new heuristics and creating new types of links across cryptocurrency ledgers, we also identify various patterns of cross-currency trades and of the general usage of these platforms, with the ultimate goal of understanding whetherthey serve a criminal or a profit-driven agenda.Comment: 14 pages, 13 tables, 6 figure

Shapeshift

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91012/1/maithitr_1334787374.pd

Frontiers of Adaptive Design, Synthetic Biology and Growing Skins for Ephemeral Hybrid Structures

The history of membranes is one of adaptation, from the development in living organisms to man-made versions, with a great variety of uses in temporary design: clothing, building, packaging, etc. Being versatile and simple to integrate, membranes have a strong sustainability potential, through an essential use of material resources and multifunctional design, representing one of the purest cases where “design follows function.” The introduction of new engineered materials and techniques, combined with a growing interest for Nature-inspired technologies are progressively merging man-made artifacts and biological processes with a high potential for innovation. This chapter introduces, through a number of examples, the broad variety of hybrid membranes in the contest of experimental Design, Art and Architecture, categorized following two different stages of biology-inspired approach with the aim of identifying potential developments. Biomimicry, is founded on the adoption of practices from nature in architecture though imitation: solutions are observed on a morphological, structural or procedural level and copied to design everything from nanoscale materials to building technologies. Synthetic biology relies on hybrid procedures mixing natural and synthetic materials and processes

Investigating transactions in cryptocurrencies

This thesis presents techniques to investigate transactions in uncharted cryptocur- rencies and services. Cryptocurrencies are used to securely send payments on- line. Payments via the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, use pseudonymous addresses that have limited privacy and anonymity guarantees. Research has shown that this pseudonymity can be broken, allowing users to be tracked using clustering and tag- ging heuristics. Such tracking allows crimes to be investigated. If a user has coins stolen, investigators can track addresses to identify the destination of the coins. This, combined with an explosion in the popularity of blockchain, has led to a vast increase in new coins and services. These offer new features ranging from coins focused on increased anonymity to scams shrouded as smart contracts. In this study, we investigated the extent to which transaction privacy has improved and whether users can still be tracked in these new ecosystems. We began by analysing the privacy-focused coin Zcash, a Bitcoin-forked cryptocurrency, that is consid- ered to have strong anonymity properties due to its background in cryptographic research. We revealed that the user anonymity set can be considerably reduced using heuristics based on usage patterns. Next, we analysed cross-chain transac- tions collected from the exchange ShapeShift, revealing that users can be tracked as they move across different ledgers. Finally, we present a measurement study on the smart-contract pyramid scheme Forsage, a scam that cycled $267 million USD (of Ethereum) within its first year, showing that at least 88% of the participants in the scheme suffered a loss. The significance of this study is the revelation that users can be tracked in newer cryptocurrencies and services by using our new heuristics, which informs those conducting investigations and developing these technologies

ShapeShift: Superquadric-based Object Pose Estimation for Robotic Grasping

Object pose estimation is a critical task in robotics for precise object manipulation. However, current techniques heavily rely on a reference 3D object, limiting their generalizability and making it expensive to expand to new object categories. Direct pose predictions also provide limited information for robotic grasping without referencing the 3D model. Keypoint-based methods offer intrinsic descriptiveness without relying on an exact 3D model, but they may lack consistency and accuracy. To address these challenges, this paper proposes ShapeShift, a superquadric-based framework for object pose estimation that predicts the object's pose relative to a primitive shape which is fitted to the object. The proposed framework offers intrinsic descriptiveness and the ability to generalize to arbitrary geometric shapes beyond the training set

UMN Morris Announces 2019–20 Performing Arts Series

The University of Minnesota Morris announces the 2019–20 Performing Arts Series. This year’s season features performances by Hiplet Ballerinas, Shapeshift, David L. Harris, and the Russian String Orchestra

Shapeshifting Corporations

This Article examines whether recent shifts among private and public markets are part of a more general phenomenon of shapeshifting among corporate entities. A shapeshift is a transformation of corporate form involving the creation or use of a new legal entity and one or more changes in structure, including capital structure and the allocation of control rights. Shapeshifting includes not only going private and private equity IPO transactions, but forms of public-company regulatory arbitrage and use of variable interest entities, structured investment vehicles, collateralized debt obligations, and related forms. I assess whether the insights of Ronald Coase and Tibor Scitovsky might be relevant to the analysis of shapeshifting, particularly private-equity transactions. I examine whether parties might shapeshift over time among seemingly Kaldor-Hicks efficient (or perhaps inefficient) regimes and draw some preliminary conclusions about different shapeshifting transactions. I argue that there are parallels between the rationales for shapeshifting and Coase\u27s arguments about why transactions take place in firms rather than in markets. Coasian boundary determinations essentially are a function of direct and indirect costs. Shapeshifting is no different, yet regulatory interference leads firms to shift shape in undesirable ways. Specifically, going-private transactions have a stronger normative justification than structured finance transactions, because they are subject to lower direct and indirect costs. I conclude that scholars considering one category of shapeshifting might sharpen their normative analysis through comparisons to other shapeshifting transactions