Exploring trust in Bitcoin technology:A framework for HCI research

Bitcoin is a crypto-currency which differs in several ways from the traditional use of money. It does not require an individual name but digital wallet IDs, which makes it more private. Bitcoin technology currently lacks protection with respect to monetary transfers, and its structure is not endorsed by the governments. Yet, understanding the concept of trust is fundamental to Bitcoin technology and digital currency economy. This paper offers a review of relevant work on cryptocurrency and trust in HCI, and critically examines its value in understanding the issues of trust in Bitcoin technology. Several limitations of the current theories and models of trust are identified, and a research framework is proposed to explore the specific trust challenges raised by the Bitcoin technology

Design for trust an exploration of the challenges and opportunities of Bitcoin users

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which has received increasing interest over the last five years. Built upon a decentralized peer to peer system, it supports transparent, fast, cost effective, and irreversible transactions, without the need for trusting third party financial institutions. We know however little about people’s motivation and experience with bitcoin currency. This paper reports on interviews with 20 bitcoin users about their experience and their trust challenges. Findings show that bitcoins are used more as commodities for speculative investment or savings’ protection. The paper advances the HCI theories on trust by identifying main bitcoin characteristics and their impact on trust, such as decentralization, unregulation, embedded expertise, and reputation, as well as transactions’ transparency, low cost, and easiness to complete. We also discuss the issue of insecure transactions and the associated risks, in particular the one of dishonest traders and its mitigating strategies. The paper concludes with three design implications including support for the transparency of two-way transactions, tools for materializing trust, and tools for supporting reversible transactions

Understanding and designing for trust in Bitcoin Blockchain

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that has created a new revolution in peer-to-peer technology. Built upon decentralised technology known as Blockchain, it supports transparent, fast, cost-effective and irreversible transactions, without the need for trusting the third-party financial institution. The privacy of Bitcoin users is protected, by the pseudoanonymous transaction. At present, Bitcoin holds the largest market share in cryptocurrency and the Blockchain technology had captured the interest of multi-corporations, such as Microsoft, Dell, and T-Mobile. However, Bitcoins have no legal tender in most and it is even worse with the illicit use by the irresponsible people and the cyber-attacks towards the application. Hence, these are the primary motivation of this Ph.D. work, to explore the trust between people and Bitcoin technology as well as identify the opportunities to design for the trust challenges. This thesis investigates the challenges and design works with 80 Bitcoin stakeholders such as users, miners, Blockchain experts and novices in six different but interrelated studies. The first and second studies report in-depth preliminary studies with 20 Bitcoin users and 20 miners to identify the trust challenges in people’s daily practices in using Bitcoin. Based on the findings, users’ risk related to dishonest partner in peer-to-peer Bitcoins transactions is the highlighted trust challenges to be addressed in this thesis. With a strong understanding of Bitcoin mining process, a physical Blockchain design kit, namely BlocKit was developed based on the embodied cognition theories and material centred design. This BlocKit was evaluated by 15 Bitcoin Blockchain’s experienced users and one of the important outcomes proposed the principles to design for trust application in peer-to-peer Bitcoins transactions. Later the algorithms of trust for Bitcoin application were developed based on the suggested principles and were validated by 10 Bitcoin Blockchain’s experienced users. Finally, based on the designed algorithms as well as a newly identified heuristic evaluation for trust, a mock-up prototype of Bitcoin wallet application namely, BitXFps was developed and the interface was evaluated for trust by 15 Bitcoin Blockchain’s experienced users

Implementation of Smart Contract Technology in Financial Services Institutions

The popularity of blockchain-based applications has pushed the advancement of a smart contract as an essential part of the blockchain platform. Previous research has validated that smart contracts can facilitate many functions in financial services companies such as banking and insurance. A smart contract is useful to automate the execution of an agreement by initiating steps when a certain circumstance is fulfilled; thus, it can eliminate the role of any middlemen or waste time. This study explores the basic concepts of blockchain-based applications, smart contracts, advantages, challenges, and potential implementation in the financial services industry. Keywords: Blockchain, smart contract, Ethereum, crypto eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC  BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behavior Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioral Researchers on Asians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behavior Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Knowledge of information commodity-based business towards income generation among bumiputera entrepreneurs / Nora’ayu Ahmad Uzir, Irni Eliana Khairuddin and Norliya Ahmad Kassim

As the world’s economy enters the information age, there are many possibilities for establishing information and knowledge-based businesses within the global information and knowledge economy. However, Bumiputera entrepreneurs have overlooked the opportunity in offering information as a commodity for income generation. This paper provides a brief review of related literature on entrepreneurs’ knowledge on information commodity-based business that leads to income generation. A novel conceptual model is developed and proposed to evaluate the information commodity resulting to income generation. The constructs of the conceptual model are based on the three dimensions namely entrepreneur opportunity, information as commodity and income generation. Exploration and exploitation on these three dimensions would lead Bumiputera entrepreneurs toward offering information as a commodity in the information industry. By adapting this model, future study will contribute to the information commodity modelling in boosting income generation among Bumiputera entrepreneurs through offering information as a commodity in the information industry

Antecedents and impacts of trust in mobile transactions: a case study of Malaysian consumers / Mohamad Noorman Masrek, Nora'ayu Ahmad Uzir and Irni Eliana Khairuddin

Just as the intensity of scientist investigating on advancing and sophisticating the mobile technologies, scholars and researchers alike have also been very active in studying the social aspect of the mobile usage. One of the most popular topics which has received much interest among IS researchers is the aspect of trust in using the mobile banking. There are two main actors in trust which are the trustor i.e. the trusting party, and the trustee which is the trusted party. In the context of mobile banking, the trustor would be the consumer of mobile banking services while the trustee would cover not only the retail banking that provides the mobile banking services but also the mobile telecommunication provider and the mobile telephone technology itself. The extant literature on the aspect of trust in mobile banking showed that most studies have been focusing on the retail banking and the mobile telecommunication provider only. The literature suggests that trust in technology is equally important in ensuring successful adoption of services rendered through the technology itself. Considering that very few studies have actually addressed the aspect of trust with all the three categories of trustee i.e. the retail banks, the mobile telecommunication provider and the mobile telephone in one single study, this study attempts to address this gap. In addition the study also seeks to investigate the impact of mobile banking utilization on satisfaction and loyalty. Adopting a survey research methodology involving 312 of mobile banking consumers in Malaysia, the findings suggest mobile banking utilization is positively correlated to satisfaction. The findings also show that mobile banking satisfaction does have bearing on loyalty. Three groups of antecedents namely the technology trust, trustworthiness and institution-based trust which are hypothesized to have significant influence on mobile banking utilization. The findings reveal that only technology trust and institution-based trust are found to have significant correlation with mobile banking utilizations. The findings of this study should be useful to both practitioners and researchers. As for the banking practitioners, the findings have empirically shown the importance of mobile banking services and its influence towards customer satisfaction. In the context of Malaysia, not all banks have implemented mobile banking. Hence this finding should alert banking practitioners that in line with the advancement of the ICT, they have no other choice but to embrace and implement mobile banking or otherwise they would risk of losing their customers. As for the researchers, besides replicating this study in countries that have implemented mobile banking, they should also consider employing a different research approach, such as qualitative approach so as to get richer and deeper understanding on the situation of mobile banking utilization among users. The framework used in the study could be used as the conceptual framework guiding such researches

Factors that Contribute to Students’ Attrition in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Environment: A systematic review

This paper presents a systematic literature review of open distance learning (ODL) research that reports empirical findings on the factors that contribute to students' attrition in the ODL setting. Several prior literature reviews identified self-regulated learning as one of the critical factors that may lead to students dropping out. However, there has been much less understanding of the factors and challenges faced by the students in ODL learning and delivery, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic years. To address this limitation, this study provides a step toward a better understanding of the critical factors contributing to dropout risk, particularly in the ODL environment. Keywords: Open distance learning; Student attrition; COVID-19. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC  BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behavior Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioral Researchers on Asians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behavior Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI10%20(Special%20Issue).413

The central bank digital currency in malaysia : A literature review

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a digital form of central bank money, and is different from traditional reserves or settlement accounts balances. In line with the digital technology era, CBDC has gained interest among the majority of the countries. Central banks in a number of countries have started experimenting, piloting, launching, and have laid their direction on CBDC. However, the development of CBDC in Malaysia is still behind compared to many other countries in the world. This paper aims to present the current status of CBDC in Malaysia. To achieve the goal, this paper explores literature reviews on CBDC, countries’ milestones on CBDC and Malaysia’s Central Bank stand on CBDC. This review found that Malaysia’s Central Bank has no intention for the immediate plan for CBDC in Malaysia. However, Malaysia’s Central Bank continues assessing the CBDC potential, especially in the digital assets and payments space. This study also found that Malaysia’s Central Bank participated in a cross-border payments trial under Project Dunbar

The Central Bank Digital Currency in Malaysia: a literature review

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a digital form of central bank money and is different from traditional reserves or settlement accounts balances. In line with the digital technology era, CBDC has gained interest among the majority of the countries. Central banks in a number of countries have started experimenting, piloting, launching, and have laid their direction on CBDC. However, the development of CBDC in Malaysia is still behind compared to many other countries in the world. This paper aims to present the current status of CBDC in Malaysia. To achieve the goal, this paper explores literature reviews on CBDC, countries’ milestones on CBDC and Malaysia’s Central Bank's stand on CBDC. This review found that Malaysia’s Central Bank has no intention for the immediate plan for CBDC in Malaysia. However, Malaysia’s Central Bank continues to assess the CBDC potential, especially in the digital assets and payments space. This study also found that Malaysia’s Central Bank participated in a cross-border payments trial under Project Dunbar. Jasni Mohamad Zain2, Norbik Bashah Idris1 and Engku Rabiah Adawiah Engku Ali

The central bank digital currency in Malaysia a literature review

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a digital form of central bank money, and is different from traditional reserves or settlement accounts balances. In line with the digital technology era, CBDC has gained interest among the majority of the countries. Central banks in a number of countries have started experimenting, piloting, launching, and have laid their direction on CBDC. However, the development of CBDC in Malaysia is still behind compared to many other countries in the world. This paper aims to present the current status of CBDC in Malaysia. To achieve the goal, this paper explores literature reviews on CBDC, countries’ milestones on CBDC and Malaysia’s Central Bank stand on CBDC. This review found that Malaysia’s Central Bank has no intention for the immediate plan for CBDC in Malaysia. However, Malaysia’s Central Bank continues assessing the CBDC potential, especially in the digital assets and payments space. This study also found that. Malaysia’s Central Bank participated in a cross-border payments trial under Project Dunbar