SoK of Used Cryptography in Blockchain

The underlying fundaments of blockchain are cryptography and cryptographic concepts that provide reliable and secure decentralized solutions. Although many recent papers study the use-cases of blockchain in different industrial areas, such as finance, health care, legal relations, IoT, information security, and consensus building systems, only few studies scrutinize the cryptographic concepts used in blockchain. To the best of our knowledge, there is no Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) that gives a complete picture of the existing cryptographic concepts which have been deployed or have the potential to be deployed in blockchain. In this paper, we thoroughly review and systematize all cryptographic concepts which are already used in blockchain. Additionally, we give a list of cryptographic concepts which have not yet been applied but have big potentials to improve the current blockchain solutions. We also include possible instantiations of these cryptographic concepts in the blockchain domain. Last but not least, we explicitly postulate 21 challenging problems that cryptographers interested in blockchain can work on

Using Blockchain Technology in Smart Life Applications

مقدمة: Blockchain هي قاعدة بيانات يتم تخزينها بترتيب زمني بطريقة آمنة ومستقرة. كانت Bitcoin هي التطبيق الأولي لتقنية Blockchain ، ولكن نظرًا لفوائدها من حيث الأمان والخصوصية والتحكم الذاتي ، فقد تم اعتمادها منذ ذلك الحين من قبل مجموعة متنوعة من التطبيقات. يتم إنشاء تقنية Blockchain عن طريق ربط الكتل معًا بشكل مشفر. نظرًا لأن كل كتلة تحتوي على كلٍ من التجزئة الخاصة بها وتجزئة الكتلة السابقة لها ، فلا يمكن لأي شخص خارجي كسر السلسلة. تُستخدم تقنية Blockchain ضمن مجموعة متنوعة من التطبيقات ، بما في ذلك الصناعية والتجارية والأمنية وسلسلة التوريد وإنترنت الأشياء وغيرها. هذا لأنه يتميز بمزايا التحكم في البيانات وتنظيمها وتخزينها. الغرض من هذه المقالة هو سرد بعض التطبيقات ومجالات التطوير الخاصة بـ Blockchain.   طرق العمل: في تقنية Blockchain ، يعد الأمان والاستقرار (الثبات) واللامركزية من بين الأشياء المهمة التي تجعل هذه التقنية مفيدة في مختلف مجالات الحياة التي تخدم المستخدم. تم استخدام هذه المزايا لحل العديد من المشكلات التي تواجه الشبكة ، بما في ذلك المشكلات المتعلقة بالإنتاجية ووقت المعالجة وقابلية التوسع. تم استخدام طرق مختلفة في الحل ، بما في ذلك العمل على تغيير هيكل الشبكة ، واختيار عقدة أساسية (المدير) ، والتعدين الموازي ، والتنافس مع عمال المناجم الآخرين. الاستنتاجات: ازداد الميل إلى استخدام تقنية Blockchain في العديد من المجالات ، بما في ذلك المالية والزراعية والتجارية والصحية وإنترنت الأشياء وغيرها ، نظرًا لمزاياها ، بما في ذلك اللامركزية والتوزيع والموثوقية والاستقرار. هناك اتجاهات أخرى عملت على تطوير أداء وكفاءة وأمان نظام Blockchain نفسه في إنترنت الأشياء والرعاية الصحية وسلسلة التوريد والقطاع المصرفي والتسويق الرقمي بالإضافة إلى الدراسات التي تشمل تحسين الكفاءة والأمان وتطوير النظام.Background: Materials and Methods:      In Blockchain technology, security, stability (immutability), and decentralization are among the important things that make this technology useful in various areas of life that serve the user. These advantages were used to solve many problems facing the network, including those of productivity, processing time, and scalability. Various methods were used in the solution, including working on a change in the network structure, choosing a basic node (the manager), parallel mining, and competing with other miners. Results:     Through recent studies, it has been shown that the Blockchain technology has been used in various fields, as it is characterized by many advantages, the most important of which are security, decentralization, and stability. Because of these advantages, it outperforms other technologies. Conclusion:     Due to its advantages, the tendency to use blockchain technology has increased in many fields, including financial, agricultural, commercial, health, the Internet of Things, and others. It includes decentralization, distribution, reliability, and stability. There are other trends that have worked to improve the performance, efficiency, and security of the blockchain system itself, In the Internet of Things, healthcare, supply chain management, the banking sector, and digital marketing In addition to studies that include improving the efficiency, security, and development of the system

Redefining Auditing in a Blockchain Era: Opportunities and Obstacles for External Auditors

The characteristics and mode of operation of blockchain technology could transform the accounting and auditing industries. The technological advancements introduced by Blockchain are anticipated to significantly influence reporting and auditing procedures, particularly within accounting information systems. The escalating adoption of blockchain technology is poised to alter the comprehensiveness and caliber of information accessible to auditors, thereby impacting the auditing process. Consequently, it is imperative for professionals in accounting and auditing to grasp both the prospects and impediments posed by these innovative technologies. This study endeavors to scrutinize the role of blockchain within the realms of accounting and auditing, both within existing literature and in professional practice

Towards a Blockchain Technology Framework – Literature Review on components in blockchain implementations

The goal of this work is to obtain a framework that represents the technological core aspects of blockchain, separated into components, their subcategories and related basic technologies. In order to gain a holistic view of blockchain, with the help of the framework, technologies constructs should be made identifiable as blockchain. For this purpose, a literature review will be conducted to investigate previous approaches to the component-wise division of blockchain technologies. Subsequently, a literature analysis will be conducted in which five established blockchain systems will be analysed and their implementations will be assigned to the general components. For evaluation, a further sixth blockchain technology is used to confirm the basic framework. It becomes apparent that the framework allows a classification of blockchain systems into technologies. The framework has potential for expansion by adding further technology features to make the framework even more useful

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations in Organisational Design Theory

As Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) is a new emerging form of organisation with unrevealed characteristics, this study examines how DAO can be classified in terms of organisational design theory and provides an overview of its characteristics. The investigation could further provide guidance on what types of organisations can be easily transformed into a DAO. A deeper look into the knowledge base on organisational design theory and organisational forms is essential as well as characteristic properties. In regard of DAO, the underlying concepts of blockchain and smart contracts are marked as they serve a better understanding, which is needed to characterise DAO. An analysis of DAO will specify how they are classified in terms of organisational design and how they differ compared to traditional organisation forms, which will be displayed in an overview. The results are discussed and concluded, also comprising the highlighting of potential paths for future work

A blockchain-based distributed paradigm to secure localization services

In recent decades, modern societies are experiencing an increasing adoption of interconnected smart devices. This revolution involves not only canonical devices such as smartphones and tablets, but also simple objects like light bulbs. Named the Internet of Things (IoT), this ever-growing scenario offers enormous opportunities in many areas of modern society, especially if joined by other emerging technologies such as, for example, the blockchain. Indeed, the latter allows users to certify transactions publicly, without relying on central authorities or intermediaries. This work aims to exploit the scenario above by proposing a novel blockchain-based distributed paradigm to secure localization services, here named the Internet of Entities (IoE). It represents a mechanism for the reliable localization of people and things, and it exploits the increasing number of existing wireless devices and blockchain-based distributed ledger technologies. Moreover, unlike most of the canonical localization approaches, it is strongly oriented towards the protection of the users’ privacy. Finally, its implementation requires minimal efforts since it employs the existing infrastructures and devices, thus giving life to a new and wide data environment, exploitable in many domains, such as e-health, smart cities, and smart mobility

Exploring the role of blockchain technology in modern high-value food supply chains: global trends and future research directions

Trust, safety, and quality are among the most important factors in the agri-food supply chains. Traceability is a powerful tool to ensure them, but implementing a transparent and effective system is a complex operation. As a result, innovative systems, like blockchain, could be introduced. Although research on its impacts in the agri-food is recent, the literature appears fragmented. The objective is to investigate the studied aspects of the blockchain adoption in agri-food, with the purpose of retrieving meaningful considerations about the current state of the art about strategic high-value supply chains, such as wine and olive oil, particularly subjected to fraudulent behaviors. A productivity measurement was applied to retrieve the evolution of the number of documents through the years, the most productive countries, the sources, the research areas, and the most significant papers in terms of number of citations received. To understand the research trends, a co-occurrence analysis was employed. Results show that most of the existing studies focus on the role of blockchain in the resolution of some critical issues as food safety and frauds. While wine is currently an emerging sector in which this approach can be implemented, olive oil still needs more attention. In both cases, blockchain could potentially help to support the profitability and sustainability of the production. The research underlines the importance of focusing on the environmental and social dimension of the blockchain phenomenon and the use of technology to improve the efficiency of agri-food chains and reduce waste and resource use

Analysis of Blockchain consensus mechanisms : Proof-of-Work vs Proof-of-Stake

The objective of this thesis is to understand and evaluate the two popular consensus mechanisms of blockchain: Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS), especially in terms of their cost effectiveness. This study attempts to answer one significant research question: “Researchers assume that blockchain cannot takeover computer networks, as it requires excessive computation power. If blockchain moved to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm would takeovers remain equally difficult?” The thesis uses qualitative desk research approach by utilizing the existing research papers and published reports related to the topic. It attempts to draw comparison between both consensus algorithms and extracts reasonable conclusions based on the simulation experiment results. The three main comparison points discussed among the consensus protocols are energy consumption, decentralization, and security of blockchain. This study concludes that Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consumes less energy than the Proof-of-Work (PoW) and also shows better results in providing decentralization and security as compared to Proof-of-Work (PoW). Hence, takeovers are easier with PoS over PoW, but PoS still has room for improvement to reduce the required energy resources and further research studies are needed to analyse it

Pravuil: Global Consensus for a United World

Pravuil is a robust, secure, and scalable consensus protocol for a permissionless blockchain suitable for deployment in an adversarial environment such as the Internet. Pravuil circumvents previous shortcomings of other blockchains: - Bitcoin’s limited adoption problem: as transaction demand grows, payment confirmation times grow much lower than other PoW blockchains - higher transaction security at a lower cost - more decentralisation than other permissionless blockchains - impossibility of full decentralisation and the blockchain scalability trilemma: decentralisation, scalability, and security can be achieved simultaneously - Sybil-resistance for free implementing the social optimum - Pravuil goes beyond the economic limits of Bitcoin or other PoW/PoS blockchains, leading to a more valuable and stable crypto-currenc