"Zero Cost'' Majority Attacks on Permissionless Blockchains

The core premise of permissionless blockchains is their reliable and secure operation without the need to trust any individual agent. At the heart of blockchain consensus mechanisms is an explicit cost (whether work or stake) for participation in the network and the opportunity to add blocks to the blockchain. A key rationale for that cost is to make attacks on the network, which could be theoretically carried out if a majority of nodes were controlled by a single entity, too expensive to be worthwhile. We demonstrate that a majority attacker can successfully attack with a {\em negative cost}, which shows that the protocol mechanisms are insufficient to create a secure network, and emphasizes the importance of socially driven mechanisms external to the protocol. At the same time, negative cost enables a new type of majority attack that is more likely to elude external scrutiny

Deconstructing Blockchains: A Comprehensive Survey on Consensus, Membership and Structure

It is no exaggeration to say that since the introduction of Bitcoin, blockchains have become a disruptive technology that has shaken the world. However, the rising popularity of the paradigm has led to a flurry of proposals addressing variations and/or trying to solve problems stemming from the initial specification. This added considerable complexity to the current blockchain ecosystems, amplified by the absence of detail in many accompanying blockchain whitepapers. Through this paper, we set out to explain blockchains in a simple way, taming that complexity through the deconstruction of the blockchain into three simple, critical components common to all known systems: membership selection, consensus mechanism and structure. We propose an evaluation framework with insight into system models, desired properties and analysis criteria, using the decoupled components as criteria. We use this framework to provide clear and intuitive overviews of the design principles behind the analyzed systems and the properties achieved. We hope our effort will help clarifying the current state of blockchain proposals and provide directions to the analysis of future proposals

The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 2

Alena Ledeneva invites you on a voyage of discovery to explore society’s open secrets, unwritten rules and know-how practices. Broadly defined as ‘ways of getting things done’, these invisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation in official discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favours and tributes for services, interest-driven know-how (from informal welfare to informal employment and entrepreneurship), identity-driven practices of solidarity, and power-driven forms of co-optation and control. The paradox, or not, of the invisibility of these informal practices is their ubiquity. Expertly practised by insiders but often hidden from outsiders, informal practices are, as this book shows, deeply rooted all over the world, yet underestimated in policy. Entries from the five continents presented in this volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, made possible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplines and area studies. By mapping the grey zones, blurred boundaries, types of ambivalence and contexts of complexity, this book creates the first Global Map of Informality. The accompanying database (www.in-formality.com) is searchable by region, keyword or type of practice, so do explore what works, how, where and why

Shared Destiny: China Story Yearbook 2014

Humanity as never before shares a common destiny, whether it be in terms of the resources of the planet, the global environment, economic integration, or the movement of peoples, ideas, cultures. For better or worse humankind is a Community of Shared Destiny 命运共同体. The People’s Republic of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and its ‘Chairman of Everything’, Xi Jinping, has declared that it shares in the destiny of the countries of the Asia and Pacific region, as well as of nations that are part of an intertwined national self-interest. The Party, according to Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory, is the vanguard of progressive social forces; it cleaves to the concept of shared destiny and its historical role in shaping that destiny. Since its early days nearly a century ago it has emphasised the collective over the individual, the end rather than the means. It addresses majority opinion while guiding and moulding the agenda both for today, and for the future

IN BLOCKCHAIN WE TRUST? The examination of an anti-counterfeiting solution

Product Counterfeiting is deemed a major and pertinent threat to the global luxury sector. The entanglement of luxury and counterfeiting has evolved into a complex problem for the modern milieu. This aim of exploring this topic as social phenomena seeks to expose the shadow economy of counterfeiting, unpack issues of intellectual property and the threat posed through the integration and adoption of blockchain technology as an anticounterfeiting solution and high trust system of exchange. Luxury counterfeited brands offers a perspective which considers the complexities surrounding fashion consumption, the globalisation of brands, brand culture, and the connotations of luxury today, including its place in the criminological sphere. Academics call for studies pertaining to the under explored area of counterfeited luxury goods owing to a rise in the grey and copycat markets further catalysed by recent market demand for second-hand luxury goods (Wall and Large, 2010; Wang et al., 2020). The consumption of such goods not only pilfers innovation and affects industry but is entwined with a mirrored underworld of counterfeit production and consumption which has given rise to more sinister activities with linkages to organized crime, modern slavery, and terrorist activities. Against this backdrop, this research will seek to achieve the following research aims: A. Examine product counterfeiting of luxury goods as a social phenomenon a. Critically examine the socio-economic, historical, and cultural implications of counterfeiting. b. How are issues of copyright and trademark infringement impacting counterfeiters? B. Examine Blockchain as an anti-counterfeiting solution and its enhancement of supply chain management. a. Can Blockchain-based supply chains enable transparency and product traceability? i. Can the integration of a blockchain solve issues of provenance? ii. What is the value of blockchain-enabled services? iii. Identify threats to adoption and regulation of blockchain technologies in the UK. b. Can Blockchain enable a high-trust ecosystem? i. Does block-tech ensure accountability and create trust? ii. Examine the proposition that non-fungible tokens can create unprecedented models of ownership allowing for product circularity. The study seeks to unveil the shadow industry of counterfeiting’s impact and to assess blockchain technologies merit as an anti-counterfeiting solution via an examination of issues existing in luxury goods supply chains. Thomas’ (2019) description of fractured supply chains and the utilisation of sub-contracting via offshore producers are central to establishing a case for enterprise blockchain-based solutions to combat counterfeiting and to create transparent supply chains. To achieve the above-mentioned aims, this literature review will highlight the impact of product counterfeiting through the provision of an ontological examination of counterfeiting with a particular focus on luxury goods. The penultimate section offers a sociological examination of the luxury goods industry, anticounterfeiting measures and addresses inherent issues overlooked in studies regarding counterfeiting of luxury and their interrelationship. The final section of the literary review will provide a theoretical examination of blockchain technology (block-tech) within an epistemological framework to assess block-tech capability to enhance supply chains to foster transparent and traceable chains, and, in doing so ameliorate the effects and risks of counterfeiting within the global luxury goods industry. As this research is exploratory in nature, it will undertake a qualitative methodological approach, investigated through elite interviews and ethnographic data collection. The study will address this surge in the demand for counterfeit luxury goods and its accumulation into a trillion-dollar generating industry, as a social and criminological phenomenon. The researcher will examine issues pertaining to, and solutions of traceability, authentication, and supply chain provenance. In fulfilling the research objectives, it is imperative to identify current anti-counterfeiting strategies’ effectiveness through a critical and comparative examination, with a focus on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) known as Blockchain. Henceforth, blockchain will be referenced throughout as ‘block-tech’ and otherwise ‘the technology’ or ‘blockchain technology’, or on its own ‘blockchain’. Initial findings reveal the emergence of conscious consumers, a rise in re-commerce of luxury goods and a shift toward circularity within a microcosm of the industry