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

Blockchain For Food: Making Sense of Technology and the Impact on Biofortified Seeds

The global food system is under pressure and is in the early stages of a major transition towards more transparency, circularity, and personalisation. In the coming decades, there is an increasing need for more food production with fewer resources. Thus, increasing crop yields and nutritional value per crop is arguably an important factor in this global food transition. Biofortification can play an important role in feeding the world. Biofortified seeds create produce with increased nutritional values, mainly minerals and vitamins, while using the same or less resources as non-biofortified variants. However, a farmer cannot distinguish a biofortified seed from a regular seed. Due to the invisible nature of the enhanced seeds, counterfeit products are common, limiting wide-scale adoption of biofortified crops. Fraudulent seeds pose a major obstacle in the adoption of biofortified crops. A system that could guarantee the origin of the biofortified seeds is therefore required to ensure widespread adoption. This trust-ensuring immutable proof for the biofortified seeds, can be provided via blockchain technology

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

Does blockchain technology have anything to say in the oil and gas industry: the study of opportunities, challenges, and future trends

This research focuses on the utilization of blockchain as an emerging technology in the oil and gas industry with the aim to advance the understanding of blockchain technology adoption in this industry. Through conducting qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with managers and decision makers in the oil and gas industry and by overviewing the literature, the current opportunities, challenges, and adoption barriers of this technology were investigated. Findings indicated that despite the rapid progress of digital technologies, the adoption of blockchain technology in the oil and gas industry is a slow process due to the conservative and inherently resistant nature of the industry. Although there is evidence proving that the technology is capable of increasing the efficiency and operational transparency in the industry, there are still challenges mainly due to lack of business and managerial support, awareness, and expertise about blockchain technology within the oil and gas industry or immaturity and complexity of the technology. Different categories of blockchain adoption barriers were detected together with the presentation of some solutions to overcoming these barriers. Additionally, the drivers and influential factors in the adoption of the technology were discussed. The future of blockchain technology in the oil and gas industry is considered to be promising based on the participants’ opinions and the evidence from successful use cases

Developing decentralized business within highly institutionally centralized environment: the case of blockchain-based business in China

Blockchain-based business and therefore cryptocurrency-related activities are spreading globally developing the newly emerging crypto economy. However, regulatory responses to the crypto economy and businesses within it were very diverse in different countries. Given the above, the main research aim was to investigate how blockchain-based business (BBB) with idea of opposing the institutional regulations can be developed in the regula-tory adverse institutional environment. More specifically, this thesis investigated, how BBB are developed within the ultimate institutional constrains in the environment, such as China, where crypto-related activities are banned. The research question for the thesis was how to develop decentralized BBB in highly centralized institutional environment of China? The research objectives were to assess blockchain technology's impact on Chinese companies; to explore the situation of BBB in China; and to explore how companies in BBB in China cope with the institutional environment. The case study approach was undertaken for this research. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with six interviews, leaders of successful BBB in China. To sup-port primary data, secondary data was collected to deeper learn about the BBB cases in-vestigated. The findings suggest that strict institutional environment for BBB in China has a significant impact on BBB innovation and growth in several diverse ways. On the one hand, the Chi-nese government is promoting blockchain technology and innovations related to it. On the other hand, the cryptocurrency, as one of the most prominent blockchain technology application, is a contentious issue that the Chinese government opposes. As a result, the Chinese government considers BBB regulation to be necessary and essential. Firms that are operating in Chinese market do not necessarily need to stop their operations and de-velopment of the BBB. However, they need to make various adjustments to balance out the requirements of the regulatory regime. The thesis contributes to the literature by showcasing how innovative decentralized busi-nesses, such as BBB can remain active within adverse and regulatory pressing institutional environment

#Blockchain4EU: Blockchain for Industrial Transformations

The project #Blockchain4EU is a forward looking exploration of existing, emerging and potential applications based on Blockchain and other DLTs for industrial / non-financial sectors. It combined Science and Technology Studies with a transdisciplinary policy lab toolbox filled with frameworks from Foresight and Horizon Scanning, Behavioural Insights, or Participatory, Critical and Speculative Design. Amid unfolding and uncertain developments of the Blockchain space, our research signals a number of crucial opportunities and challenges around a technology that could record, secure and transfer any digitised transaction or process, and thus potentially affect large parts of current industrial landscapes. This report offers key insights for its implementation and uptake by industry, businesses and SMEs, together with science for policy strategic recommendations.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Polic

Applications of Industry 4.0 Digital Technologies Towards A Construction Circular Economy: Thematic, Gap Analysis and Conceptual Framework

Purpose This paper aims to explore the emerging relationship between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) digital technologies (e.g. blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI)) and the construction industry’s gradual transition into a circular economy (CE) system to foster the adoption of circular economy in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach A critical and thematic analysis conducted on 115 scientific papers reveals a noticeable growth in adopting digital technologies to leverage a CE system. Moreover, a conceptual framework is developed to show the interrelationship between different I4.0 technologies to foster the implantation of CE in the construction industry. Findings Most of the existing bodies of research provide conceptual solutions rather than developing workable applications and the future of smart cities. Moreover, the coalescence of different technologies is highly recommended to enable tracking of building assets’ and components’ (e.g. fixtures and fittings and structural components) performance, which enables users to optimize the salvage value of components reusing or recycling them just in time and extending assets’ operating lifetime. Finally, circular supply chain management must be adopted for both new and existing buildings to realise the industry's CE ambitions. Hence, further applied research is required to foster CE adoption for existing cities and infrastructure that connects them. Originality/value This paper investigates the interrelationships between most emerging digital technologies and circular economy and concludes with the development of a conceptual digital ecosystem to integrate IoT, blockchain and AI into the operation of assets to direct future practical research application