Preface

This, together with the related term Bitcoin, was a revolution in blockchain as envisioned by the mystery character Satoshi Nakamoto up to 2008. All this changes the very way the foundations of digital exchange and storage were thought about: decentralized, transparent, immutable, the very fundamentals of Distributed Ledger Technology enabling safe data exchange without an intermediary. The blockchain is fundamentally a chain of blocks carrying information about transactions, including times and cryptographic hashes, each of these connecting to the previous one in one unbroken chain, for which no modification is viable. The whole design of Blockchain has been to solve a number of issues, including double spending, fraud, and inefficient records, with distributed nodes and consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, facilitated by cryptographic keys. Other areas beyond cryptocurrency where quite a number of innovative uses are cut across include supply chain, healthcare, financial, and real estate sectors. For example, while the supply chain process is being promoted to become effective and transparent in order to ensure the origin and quality of the product, adding to the guarantee that the user's personal health information will not be accessed and tampered with, blockchain uses smart contracts in automating agreement processes within the contract. All of them are expecting cost reduction, operating efficiencies enhancement, enhanced securities of many industries. Anyhow, there exist quite a number of serious obstacles standing in the way of the wide application of blockchain technology. Firstly, the problem of scalability has still been an issue whereby the network performance tends to be problematic when users are increased. Besides, energy wasting cannot be ignored-apparently mostly a challenge from the PoW kind of system proved to be consuming too much energy, standing big on the road to sustainability. Of course, the mere lack of any kind of international rules and standards is already a complication in making them work. It also underlines failures in the adoption of the system or in decentralizing and is still an open technical and organizational challenge on how to combine blockchain with traditional structures. Their solutions require compounding ideas: sharding of blockchain to make it big, off-chain solutions for the blockchain to be many but thin, and provision of amicable solution consensus mechanisms for environmental conservation. Besides coherent policy vision, in addition to the existing cornerstones of regulation besides well-laid-out standards of interoperability, it is important to create confidence and give a road map across different industries. This paper hereby conceptually reviews the literature with respect to how the blockchain technology was designed to show revolutionary capability in the different fields and what keeps on tormenting it with its future.KEYS: Blockchain technology; Distributed Ledger; Decentralization; Cryptographic keys; Consensus mechanisms; Proof of Work; Proof of Stake; Smart contracts; Supply chain management; Data immutability; Transparency; Scalability; Energy consumption; Challenges to regulatory bodies; Security vulnerability; Sharding; off- chain processing; Interoperability; Applications using blockchain; Architecture of blockchain.

While currently, general attention is focused on generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and their impact on project management; there is hardly any talk of blockchain applications. Using a bibliometric analysis of the pertinent literature, we can show a significant increase in the application of blockchain technology to project management and a clear link between AI, blockchain technology, and project management. Our research shows not only a significant increase in publications in the field of the application of blockchain technologies in project management, particularly in the construction industry and in China, but also the first concrete examples of application in the area of contract management, smart contracts, secure payment transactions as well as data management. The results of our research show in a unique way the direct connection between AI and blockchain technologies and their application in project management using the example of smart contracts with secure payment transactions in plant construction. This opens up a fascinating field of research and provides practitioners with exciting insights into an innovative application for AI and blockchain technologies.

Blockchain technology, originally developed for digital currencies, has evolved to offer transformative prospects for enhancing financial security and efficiency beyond its initial application. This review paper explores the expansive utility of blockchain technology across various domains, with a special focus on its implications for green logistics innovations within the oil industry, drawing a comparative analysis between Nigeria and the USA. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature, this study aims to uncover the multifaceted impact of blockchain on streamlining operations, ensuring transparency, and fostering sustainability in the oil sector's supply chain management.
 The methodology hinges on synthesizing findings from peer-reviewed articles, industry reports, and case studies to construct a holistic view of blockchain's role in mitigating traditional challenges faced by the oil industry, such as fraud, inefficiencies, and environmental concerns. By comparing the progress and setbacks in Nigeria and the USA, the paper delineates the influence of regulatory frameworks, technological infrastructure, and stakeholder engagement on the adoption and effectiveness of blockchain solutions.
 Key findings reveal that blockchain technology can significantly elevate financial security and operational efficiency, offering a robust framework for transparent, immutable transactions and supply chain oversight. However, the comparative analysis highlights a notable divergence in adoption levels and outcomes, attributed to varying degrees of technological readiness, regulatory environments, and commitment to sustainability goals between the two countries.
 Conclusively, the paper emphasizes that the broader application of blockchain in enhancing green logistics and sustainability within the oil industry requires a concerted effort among policymakers, industry leaders, and technology providers. It advocates for targeted investments in technology infrastructure, clearer regulatory guidelines, and stronger collaborations to harness blockchain's full potential, suggesting a pathway towards more secure, efficient, and sustainable industry practices.
 Keywords: Blockchain Technology, Financial Services, Smart Contracts, Decentralized Finance (Defi), Regulatory Landscape, Ethical Considerations, Privacy Concerns, Data Protection, User Anonymity, Operational Efficiency, Financial Security, Scalability Issues, Energy Consumption, Consensus Mechanisms, International Regulations, Jurisdiction-Specific Challenges, Technology Adoption, Integration Strategies, Innovation, Collaboration, Financial Ecosystem.

Block chain is a new application model integrating distributed data storage, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanism, encryption algorithm and other computer technologies born under the background of rapid development of the Internet, and its emergence has aroused the attention of various countries and discussions in various industries. The application of blockchain technology to the accounting field has been a hot topic of research and exploration for scholars in recent years. Its features of decentralization, de-trust, immutability, data traceability and smart contracts can solve the trust problem faced by the accounting field. The article focuses on the nature, working principle and characteristics of blockchain, discusses the advantages of applying blockchain to accounting, and proposes some problems faced by "block chain + accounting" today as well as strategies to solve the problems.

The world today has realized the vast technological evolution that has greatly shaped the production and management functions of business enterprises. Traditional contracts can take weeks or even months to initiate, and there have been numerous instances of breaches and lack of trust for contracts in both the private and public sector. A smart contract can be defined as a self-executing contract that utilizes blockchain technology to digitally enforce, verify, or facilitate the performance or negotiation of a contract. Owing to the security and decentralized system exhibited by blockchain technology, smart contracts can foster transaction credibility between contracting parties without the necessity of third parties as exhibited in traditional contracts. Any business organization that aims at achieving greater heights in management and production dimensions must consider utilizing robust technologies that are aimed at bolstering its competitive edge. Owing to the newness of smart contracts, characterized by very few studies on the same, this research reviews how smart contracts through blockchain technology can be implemented in an organization to enhance performance and outlines the applications, benefits, and limitations associated with such contracts. Keywords: Blockchain technology; smart contracts; smart contract applications; smart contract benefits; smart contract implementation; cryptography; cryptocurrency DOI : 10.7176/JIEA/9-5-07 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

In some liberal democracies, governments allow people to legally own guns to protect their lives and property. However, gun crime has been increasing in recent years. Taking the United States, for example, a report pointed out that Americans are 10 times more likely to be shot than citizens of other countries. Murder using guns in the United States is 25 times more than that in the other 22 high-income countries. Most of these guns came from other cities. These illegally circulating guns are directly linked to deadly street violence. This means that effective firearm management can reduce deadly violence. In the past few years, Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology was often used to track the supply chain. However, in the traditional supply chain, only the participants of the supply chain can query information. Furthermore, only the participants can verify the correctness of the data. This result causes information to be not transparent. On the other hand, blockchain technology, with a unique combination of features such as distributed notes, decentralized structure, consensus algorithm, storage mechanism, asymmetric encryption, and smart contract, ensures network visibility, transparency, and security. Therefore, we combine blockchain and RFID technology to propose a traceable firearm management system based on blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The proposed method achieves several goals. First of all, the characteristic data through the blockchain can be publicly verified and the information will not be modified. The traceability of the data and the application of RFID can effectively manage the production chain. In addition, we used Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic (BAN logic) logic to prove mutual authentication, and the nonrepudiation and integrity method can also be achieved in our proposed scheme.

Blockchain and drone technologies can operate in cooperation with each other. As the number of drones increases, managing them becomes a significant challenge. A swarm of drones, also referred to as swarm drones, must operate reliably and securely. In this study, blockchain technology is utilized through a smart contract to ensure both security and reliability. Swarm drones are deployed for surveillance missions, where each execution corresponds to a single mission. These missions are represented using a simple model. A smart contract maintains the essential mission data in the model. The mission is divided into smaller tasks. Until all the tasks are completed, they are executed by drones in parallel. The smart contract, implemented on the Ethereum platform, securely exchanges information with the drones. The proposed model functions dynamically. It reorganizes when drones leave or new drones join the system. Because blockchain platforms have limited resources, particularly in memory and the number of permissible execution operations, optimizations are applied to both the smart contract and drone programs to accommodate these constraints within the surveillance framework. The proposed surveillance model is implemented and simulated to analyze its dynamic behavior.

This volume contains papers accepted by the 2022 International Conference on Theoretical Physics, Computers and Electronic Engineering (TPCEE 2022), which was held online during December 30-31, 2022 in Toronto, Canada. TPCEE 2022 brought together innovative scholars and industry experts to jointly hold a forum. The main objective of the conference is to promote the research and development activities of theoretical physics, astrophysics, quantum physics, computer engineering, information technology and electronic engineering, and the other objective is to promote the exchange of scientific information among researchers, developers, engineers, students and practitioners around the world.
 Over 200 participants from many countries attended this online conference, which included 4 keynote speeches and 48 oral presentations on different aspects of theoretical physics, computers and electronic engineering in 4 sections. The cutting-edge research works were presented by such renowned keynote speakers. The virtual format of TPCEE 2022 was a success where all the participants gathered on the online platform regardless of the time zone and location and share experiences and research findings in their respective fields.
 Organizing Committees of TPCEE 2022
 Toronto, Canada

Blockchain technology has triggered a new round of technological innovation and industrial change. Promoting the deep integration of blockchain technology and smart water conservancy has become an essential part of the digital transformation of the Chinese smart water conservancy industry. On the basis of the analysis of the framework of the smart water conservancy system and the technology infrastructure model of the blockchain, a conceptual model of a smart water conservancy information sharing platform is established. The platform has four-in-one and multicentralized participants including government departments, water conservancy enterprises, the public, and third-party maintenance, and the design of “alliance chain + private chain” dual chain smart contract. Moreover, the multidimensional scenarios of smart water conservancy innovation applications incorporating blockchain platform technology are addressed. Then, the water rights trading market is taken as an example to propose an innovative development path with consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, asymmetric encryption, and information source tracing. Although there may be some questions and challenges related to smart water conservancy and blockchain technology, this paper can provide a reference for the sustainable development of the smart water conservancy industry due to its fundamental societal contributions.

As the mobility of global capital is getting higher, more and more investors tend to invest in overseas real estate. However, the conventional model of investing in real estate possesses several disadvantages including high entry hurdles, low levels of market liquidity, and low transparency, particularly for retail investors. This article will seek to establish how blockchain technology as applied in smart contracts can help in the clarification of unclear fragmented investments in overseas property. First of all, this paper begins with the definition and examples of applying conventional and advanced blockchain technology and then describes the work of smart contracts and the comparison between regular contracts and smart contracts. The paper also evaluates the nature of fragmented investment in overseas property and its associated risks before suggesting the use of blockchain and smart contracts for a new institutional structure of the investment platform. This study demonstrates how the technologies can advance data sec, promote trust in transactions, and how investment can be automated. It can be concluded that blockchain technology, and smart contracts, can enhance Overseas Real Estate Investment by increasing transparency and decreasing the investment threshold as well as the instances of fraud. This study also presents an analysis of the potential difficulties that may be encountered in real-world applications and a recommendation of what may be done in subsequent studies. On one hand, this research offers a new perspective to the theoretical world, on the other hand, it offers practical problems and solutions to the practitioners who are a part of overseas real estate markets and businesses by steadily helping the overseas real estate markets to move in the fairer and more transparent direction.

إنشاء عقود المعاملات وتنفيذها بين الطرق التقليدية وتقنية (البلوک تشين) والعقود الذکية- دراسة فقهية مقارنة أحمد سعد علي البرعي قسم الشريعة الإسلامية، کلية الدراسات الإسلامية والعربية للبنين، جامعة الأزهر، القاهرة، جمهورية مصر العربية. البريد الإلکتروني: dr_ahmed_saad78@yahoo.com ملخص البحث: تعد تقنية (بلوک تشين) من أهم تقنيات الثورة الصناعية الرابعة التي ستقود اقتصاديات العالم في السنوات القادمة، والتي لاقت رواجا واسعا في عالم المال والاقتصاد منذ بداية ظهورها، حتى تسارعت کثير من الدول الآن إلى الاستفادة منها في مجالات عدة، أبرزها مجال الذکية؛ حيث مکنت تلک التقنية الأفراد من إجراء عقودهم المالية وصفقاتهم التجارية بطريقة مباشرة عن طريق الند للند دون الحاجة إلى توسيط أي جهة مرکزية في المعاملة، وذلک عن طريق التمثيل الرقمي للممتلکات والأصول المالية في صورة رموز وأکواد تشفيرية مضمنة في منصات بلوک تشين يمکن نقلها بين المستخدمين بصورة آمنة وفاعلة وموثوقة، الأمر الذي مکن مستخدمي هذه الشبکات من إنشاء عقود ذکية فيما بينهم، تتولى شبکات البلوک تشين تنفيذها بطريقة آلية لا يتدخل فيها بشر؛ حيث يتم فيها- أوتوماتيکيا- نقل أصل الملکية بين أطراف المعاملة وفق بنود العقد الذي برمجوه وضمنوه في شبکة البلوک تشين، ويتم بعد ذلک تسجيل العقد وتخزين ما اقتضاه من معاملات في الشبکة بطريقة مشفرة لا يمکن لأحد أن يتلاعب فيها بمحو أو تعديل أو تزوير مهما طال الزمن، الأمر الذي سيغير في المستقبل القريب من صورة العقود والمعاملات المالية التي تجري بين الناس الآن في جميع مراحلها، بدءا من مرحلة إبرام العقد، ومرحلة توثيقه (حيث تقوم تلک الشبکات بتوثيق العقد وإشهاد جميع المستخدمين عليه، بدلا من توثيقه وتسجيله بالطرق التقليدية في الجهات المرکزية المختصة)، وانتهاء بمرحلة تنفيذه (حيث تتولى تلک الشبکات مسؤولية تنفيذ بنود العقد ونقل أصول الملکيات بين أطرافه بصورة آلية ذاتية تعمل وفق البرمجة التي اتفق عليها الطرفان وضمنوها داخل تلک المنصات)، وقد هدفت من هذه الدراسة تسليط الضوء على تلک التقنية الجديدة، ببيان ماهيتها، ونشأتها، وخصائصها، وطريقة عملها، مقارنا في ذلک بين العقود التقليدية التي جرى عليها العمل عند الفقهاء، وبين هذه العقود الذکية التي ستحل محلها في المستقبل القريب، منتهيا ببيان الرأي الفقهي في هذه النازلة. Designing Transactions Contracts and their Execution in between the traditional ways, the technology of (Blockchain) and Smart Contracts A Jurisprudential Study By: Ahmed Saad Ali Al- Boraee Department of Islamic Sharia Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies for Men in Cairo Azhar University E-mail : dr_ahmed_saad78@yahoo.com Abstract The technology of the blockchain is considered one of the most important technologies of the fourth industrial revolution which would lead the world economies in the following years, and which has widely flourished in the world of economy and finance since its early presence to the extent that many countries hastened to benefit from it in many fields. The most outstanding fields are where this technology enabled individuals to carry out their financial contracts and commercial bargains directly through peer- to- peer deals without resorting to any central authority as broker in the transaction. Such process runs through having digital representation of properties and financial assets in the form of symbols and decipherable codes included in blockchain platforms that can be transferred safely, effectively and trustworthily in between users. Such matters enabled the users of those networks to design smart contracts in between them. Blockchains networks take upon themselves executing them automatically as no human being is allowed to interfere since ownership assets are automatically transferred in between the two parties of the transaction in accordance with the articles of the contract which has been programmed and included in the network of blockchain. After that the contract is registered and saved in accordance with the requirements of transactions in a coded way through the network. None could manipulate this affair either by removing, modifying or even forging them along the years. Soon in the future, this affair would change the form of contracts and financial transactions running in between people in all phases; starting from the phase of signing the contracts, the phase of documentation (where those networks document the contract and all the users would testify instead of documenting and registering the contract via the specified central authorities in the traditional ways), till the phase of execution (where those networks take on the responsibility of executing the articles of the contract and transferring the assets in between the contracting parties through an automation that works in accordance with a certain programming approved by the two parties and included within those platforms). Therefore, this research is originally designed to highlight this new technology, its essence, origins, characteristics and its mechanism. The research also holds a comparison between the traditional contracts as identified by jurists and these smart contracts which will replace them soon in the future. Finally, the research concludes with the jurisprudential viewpoint regarding this mishap.

Incentive for blockchain technology adoption in an online platform-based co-opetitive supply chain

The convergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing is catalyzing a paradigm shift in developing secure, intelligent, and scalable digital infrastructures. This triad of technologies is increasingly utilized to improve performance, transparency, and trust in engineering-driven and socio-technical environments. This study systematically reviews the evolution, integration strategies, and applications of blockchain, AI, and cloud computing in digital ecosystems. The analysis is based on 108 peer-reviewed studies spanning the years 2012 to 2025. A comprehensive literature analysis was conducted to identify trends, synergies, and sector-specific implementations of these systems. The review explores how their integration supports real-world engineering and operational use cases. Blockchain contributes to decentralized architectures, secure data exchange, and identity verification. AI supports adaptive behavior, autonomous decision-making, and predictive analytics. Cloud computing offers the scalable infrastructure necessary for deployment. Key challenges addressed include interoperability, latency, security trade-offs, and resource allocation. Use cases in digital finance, supply chain management, and industrial automation demonstrate the effectiveness of this integration in building resilient, ethically aligned, and high-performance infrastructures. The findings offer valuable insights and technical considerations for engineers and architects seeking to design next-generation cyber-physical systems that are secure, intelligent, and socially responsive. Clinical Trial Number Not applicable. This article accentuates the extensive use of blockchain, cloud computing, and AI principles, emphasizing their crucial significance in the contemporary digital environment and paths in which blockchain technology may be employed to automate financial transactions, enhance the security of personal data and records, facilitate cross-border transactions, verify identities, execute smart contracts, utilize cryptocurrencies, and manage supply chains. This research systematically assesses the development and practical application of blockchain, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence technologies over the past decade. This study primarily focuses on monitoring the progress, practical applications, and benefits of blockchain technology in the context of financial transactions. This article probes the symbiotic relationship between artificial intelligence, cloud and blockchain technology, analyzing the evolution and fundamental concepts of their integration from 2012 to 2025. This paper also presents a detailed analysis of 108 research works acquitted over the past decade. The study provides a comprehensive examination of the current state and fundamental principles related to the integration of artificial intelligence, cloud, and blockchain technology. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the major obstacles confronted by blockchain technology, examining its wide-ranging applications over several industries and its socko role in transaction systems and the domain of cryptocurrencies.

This research explores the transformative role of blockchain technology in ensuring secure and trustworthy digital transactions. With the increasing reliance on digital platforms across industries such as finance, healthcare, and supply chains, blockchain has emerged as a solution to the challenges posed by traditional centralized systems, including data breaches, fraud, and lack of transparency. The study investigates blockchain's decentralized structure, cryptographic security features, consensus mechanisms, and smart contracts to evaluate how it enhances data integrity and trust in digital transactions. A qualitative approach was employed, utilizing case studies and a comprehensive review of existing literature. The results show that blockchain’s decentralization significantly reduces single points of failure, while its consensus mechanisms and smart contracts increase trust and automate transactions. However, challenges such as scalability, energy consumption, and regulatory concerns remain. The research highlights blockchain’s potential for transforming digital transactions but calls for further innovation to address these issues. The findings suggest that blockchain has the capacity to revolutionize secure transactions across various sectors but requires continued development to achieve widespread adoption and scalability.

Given the growing increase in the number of blockchain (BC) platforms, cryptocurrencies, and tokens, non-technical individuals face a complex question when selecting a BC that meets their requirements (e.g., performance or security). In addition, current approaches that aid such a selection process present drawbacks (e.g., require specific BC knowledge or are not automated and scalable), which hinders the decision process even further. Fortunately, techniques such as Machine Learning (ML) allow the creation of selection models without human interaction by identifying the BC features that match the requirements provided by the user in an automated and flexible manner. Thus, this work presents the design and implementation of an ML-based BC selection approach that employs five ML models to select the most suitable BC given user requirements (e.g., BC popularity, fast block inclusion, or Smart Contract - SC support). The approach follows an ML-specific data flow and defines a novel equation to quantify the popularity of a BC. Furthermore, it details the models’ accuracy and functionality in two distinct use cases, which shows their good accuracy (>85%). Finally, discussions on (a) the ML usefulness, (b) advantages over rule-based systems, and (c) the most relevant features for the BC selection are presented.