Smart Contract execution costs optimisation on blockchain network

Smart contracts on a blockchain network can be implemented to control digital value. A key question that arises is the extent to which smart contracts can, or should, operate as “smart legal contracts”. Simply put, can smart contracts meet requirements of validity at law and practical efficacy. In order to achieve the goal of value maximization, the efforts of policy-makers, standards organisations and regulators should be informed by first principles. Standards, and other regulatory activities, must be driven by consideration of the techno-legal functions of contracting. Blockchain-based smart contracts offer the potential to reduce transaction costs through new methods of stateful computation. When applied to commercial transactions, smart contracts can represent enforcement of an executed state. This paper argues that distributed ledger and smart contracts standards should seek to provide sufficient flexibility to facilitate contracting parties to coordinate in an optimal manner.

SummaryThe block chain is the emerging domain that offers the features like shared, immutable, and decentralized dataset that saves the asset's history. Security and storage are the most challenging aspect. The classical techniques' issues and challenges are an encouragement for developing a fresh block chain‐assisted IPFS model with access control policies. Hence, this research paper introduces an effective access control and authentication based on an interplanetary file system (IPFS)‐based block chain and access control system for attaining secured transactions. The developed method comprises five entities, that is smart contract, data owner, data requester, block chain and IPFS along with eight phases, to be exact setup, user registration, initialization, storage and data encryption, authentication, testing, access control, and decryption phase, to provide better access control and storage capacity. The proposed IPFS‐based block chain and access control system offered effective storage and secure transactions in the block chain network. The highest detection rate (0.870), lowest communication overhead (0.766 MB), and highest privacy rate (0.719) are all achieved by the proposed IPFS‐based block chain and access control system.

In these years, Blockchain technology is growing in importance thanks to cryptocurrencies. This technology offers many features such as the immutability of data stored in the data chain, the replicability of data in nodes, the management without a central repository, etc. These features are widely adopted also in other fields such as in distributed measurement systems. Although the Blockchain technology is widespread worldwide, there is still a legislative gap in the adoption of this technology in various states. This paper will examine the challenge and future trends on distributed measurement systems based on Blockchain technology in the European context. In particular, critical aspects of Blockchain technology will be examined under GDPR point of view and in particular in the management of data and privacy. The advantages and disadvantages of using Blockchain technology in applications such as the Internet of Things and smart contracts will be discussed and some aspects of legal metrology in Blockchain networks will be analyzed. At the end, future trends in Blockchain technology applied to distributed measurement systems will be shown.

The convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), fog computing, and block chain technology has revolutionized contemporary digital ecosystems by making data management decentralized, efficient, and scalable. Nonetheless, this integration poses serious security and privacy threats. IoT devices produce enormous amounts of sensitive data, making them easy targets for cyber attacks, unauthorized access, and data breaches. Classic cloud-based solutions tend to be challenged by latency, bandwidth limitations, and centralized attacks, making the use of fog computing inevitable to decentralize data processing for better responsiveness and decreased dependency on remote cloud servers. While fog computing offers advantages, it also poses new security threats through possible insider attacks and data integrity issues. Block chain technology solves these problems by presenting a tamper-resistant, decentralized ledger that improves trust, security, and transparency for IoT networks. Block chain, via cryptographic authentication, consensus protocols, and smart contracts, ensures the secure transaction of data while alleviating risks against unauthorized data manipulation. Scalability, computational complexity, and energy efficiency are still challenges that need to be met for widespread IoT adoption. This chapter discusses the complex security and privacy problems in IoT, fog, and blockchain networks and examines current threats and countermeasures. Advanced cryptographic methods, secure communication schemes, and access control techniques for strengthening the security of these connected systems are mentioned. It further presents future research directions and trends that will improve a safer, more efficient, and privacy-augmented digital infrastructure.

Blockchain technology, smart contract and microgrid systems have facilitated innovations and breakthroughs in the electricity industry. The once bundled electricity market dominated by a few key players is now gradually becoming unbundled to a more consumer-centric market due to these new technologies. To facilitate the use of community microgrids, this study develops a new trend in peer-to-peer energy trading. In this work, a model for a smart microgrid system, a decentralized energy trading platform based on blockchain, and smart contract technologies is proposed, considering an islanded community microgrid network of energy prosumers. Smart meters were used to ensure the bi-directional flow of data and power, thereby giving prosumers control over their power usage. Storage and validation of participants’ data are stored on the blockchain network, which has a strong feature of decentralization, transparency, security and data immutability. The smart contract automatically executes power delivery and transfer of tokens from the buyer’s wallet to the seller’s energy wallet based on the transaction logic and protocol. A web-user interface was designed to enable the ease of transactions by market participants and the web-user interface was designed on React.Javascript while the smart contract codes were done on the solidity programming language. Algorithms were also developed for the market trade operations in real time and sets of mathematical equations were formulated for energy pricing based on the supply and demand philosophies to curtail over-pricing and underpricing of energy.

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

With the increasing use of Blockchain, community has become increasingly worried about its security, that has led to substantial research by academics, with anomaly detection being a major issue. Regardless of the fact that they can provide availability and integrity, the bulk of public Blockchain systems are decentralized and have minimal confidentiality. The Blockchain network is vulnerable to transaction privacy breaches since all of the network's keys are exposed to everyone. Various security flaws in Ethereum and smart contracts have recently been discovered. As a result, it's critical to improve Blockchain’s security features. This research will mainly use the literature survey method and the inductive analysis method to analyze the relevant research works for anomaly detection in Blockchain technology and to find out the trends and characteristics of the development and application of the anomaly detection models and explore its feasibility in ensuring security in Blockchain technology. This paper also proposes a framework for anomaly detection in Blockchain technology.

BackgroundAn estimated US $2.6 billion loss is attributed to health care fraud and abuse. With traditional health care claims verification and reimbursement, the health care provider submits a claim after rendering services to a patient, which is then verified and reimbursed by the payer. However, this process leaves out a critical stakeholder: the patient for whom the services are actually rendered. This lack of patient participation introduces a risk of fraud and abuse. Blockchain technology enables secure data management with transparency, which could mitigate this risk of health care fraud and abuse.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to develop a framework using blockchain to record claims data and transactions in an immutable format and to enable the patient to act as a validating node to help detect and prevent health care fraud and abuse.MethodsWe developed a health care fraud and abuse blockchain technical framework and prototype using key blockchain tools and application layers including consensus algorithms, smart contracts, tokens, and governance based on digital identity on the Ethereum platform (Ethereum Foundation).ResultsOur technical framework maps to the claims adjudication process and focuses on Medicare claims, with the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as the central authority. A prototype of the framework system was developed using the blockchain platform Ethereum (Ethereum Foundation), with its design features, workflow, smart contract functions, system architecture, and software implementation outlined. The software stack used to build the system consisted of a front-end user interface framework, a back-end processing server, and a blockchain network. React was used for the user interface framework, and NodeJS and an Express server were used for the back-end processing server; Solidity was the smart contract language used to interact with a local Ethereum blockchain network.ConclusionsThe proposed framework and the initial prototype have the potential to improve the health care claims process by using blockchain technology for secure data storage and consensus mechanisms, which make the claims adjudication process more patient-centric for the purposes of identifying and preventing health care fraud and abuse. Future work will focus on the use of synthetic or historic CMS claims data to assess the real-world viability of the framework.

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.

PurposeCross border trade, involving different business environments between the sellers’ and buyers’ countries, may result in conflicts because of asymmetry in the information structure across the borders. The International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) has laid down ground rules on terms of shipment and payment, enabling harmonization and standardization of business process, and fixing of responsibilities for international trade. The international commercial (INCO) terms by ICC define the duties, obligations and cost borne by the exporter and the importer. An exporter’s uncertainty looms once the goods cross his/her border. Therefore, there is a need for a smart contract that is secured, transparent, legitimate and trustworthy. The authors propose a blockchain technology-based smart global contract (BTGC) framework for international trade.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors develop the framework based on value chain analysis (VCA) of international trade and an ontology-driven-blockchain-design approach. The paper analyzes the sequence of activities in the value chain of global trade, the terms of the contract, the data structure templates, the validation rules and the points-of-failure, and proposes the smart contract blockchain structure.FindingsThis paper proposes the BTGC framework considering the INCO terms 2020; it provides the validation rules and the probability of failures; and identifies the elements that cause the halting of contracts and conditions of creation of side blockchains. The framework also includes the governance of the BTGC system.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed framework not only has implications at the firm level as it automates and secures a global sale contract but also is expected to harmonize the global-trade process as well. The developers may use the attributes, data structure templates and the rules identified in this paper for developing the GC software. Future research may consider using case analysis, class diagrams and the related steps for developing the blockchain software.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a complete value chain of global contract (GC) concerning exports, an ontology of GC and a blockchain-based smart-contract framework based on global standards. Besides, it specifies the elements of fraud (such as the non-integration of side chains) and uncertainty, i.e. the probability of failures. Such a framework will harmonize the global-trade process and build an international standards for smart GC based on blockchain technology (ISSGCBT), which is not yet done.

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.

The blockchain technology has become a revolutionary new idea that has a lot of promise to make financial activities safer. This essay looks at how blockchain can be used to make financial systems safer by focusing on how it is independent and can't be changed. When it comes to standard financial transactions, monopoly comes with risks like single points of failure and being open to hacking. Blockchain solves these problems by spreading transaction records among a network of nodes, with each node keeping a log that is always up to date. This autonomous design makes sure that no one organization has access to all past transactions. This lowers the chance of scam or changing data without permission. Also, the fact that blockchain records can't be changed makes sure that financial deals are open and trustworthy. Once a transaction is recorded, it can't be changed after the fact without agreement from everyone in the network. This makes blockchain a strong tool for making financial processes auditable and accountable. Adding smart contracts to blockchain makes it even more useful for keeping financial activities safe. Smart contracts are deals that run themselves and have rules and conditions that are written into the blockchain network. These contracts handle tasks and make sure they are done correctly, which cuts down on the need for middlemen and the chance of mistakes made by people when transactions are settled. Blockchain's cryptographic methods also offer high-level security features like digital signatures and cryptographic hashing. These systems make sure that players are who they say they are and that data is correct throughout the entire transaction process. This makes the system more resistant to hacking and illegal access. This essay looks at examples and case studies of how blockchain has been used successfully in the financial sector. It shows how it can stop fraud, lower trade costs, and make operations run more smoothly.

With the growing utility of blockchain technology, the desire for reciprocal interactions among different blockchains is growing. However, most operational blockchain networks currently operate in a standalone setting. This fragmentation in the form of isolated blockchains creates interoperability difficulties, inhibiting the adoption of blockchains in various ecosystems. Interoperability is a key factor in the healthcare domain for sharing EHRs of patients registered in independent blockchain networks. Each blockchain network could have its own rules and regulations, obstructing the exchange of EHRs for improving diagnosis and treatments. Examples include patients being treated by healthcare providers in different countries or regions, or within one country but with a different set of rules per state or emirate. By contrast, a federation of blockchain networks can provide better communication and service to stakeholders in healthcare. Thus, solutions for facilitating inter-blockchain communication in such a blockchain federation are needed. However, this possibility has not been fully explored, and further investigations are still being conducted. Hence, the present study proposes a transaction-based smart contract triggering system for inter-blockchain communication, enabling EHR sharing among independent blockchains. We use local and global smart contracts that will be executed once a transaction is created in the blockchain. Local smart contracts are used for EHR sharing within the blockchain, whereas global smart contracts are used for EHR sharing among independent blockchains. The experimental setup is conducted using the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform. Inter-blockchain communication between two independent fabric networks is conducted through a global smart contract using Hyperledger Cactus for EHR sharing in a health federation setup. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to implement an inter-blockchain communication model in the healthcare domain.

Блокчейн у системі охорони здоров’я: проблеми правового забезпечення

Η τεχνολογία Blockchain χρησιμοποιήθηκε αρχικά από τον Shatoshi Nakamoto το 2009 για την δημιουργία της πλατφόρμας bitcoin, ενός ψηφιακού κρυπτονομίσματος που ακόμα και σήμερα θεωρείται το πιο επιτυχημένο κρυπτονόμισμα παγκοσμίως. Η πλατφόρμα του bitcoin χρησιμοποιείται κυρίως για την εκτέλεση ψηφιακών οικονομικών συναλλαγών μεταξύ αγνώστων χωρίς την ύπαρξη μιας οντότητας που μεσολαβεί για την έγκυρη ολοκλήρωση τους. Η δημιουργία του bitcoin άλλαξε ριζικά τον τρόπο που γίνονται οι διαδικτυακές συναλλαγές. Μετά από το bitcoin αναπτύχθηκαν πολλές ακόμα μορφές κρυπτονομισμάτων αλλά οι περισσότερες ακολουθούσαν παρόμοια αρχή λειτουργίας με το bitcoin χωρίς να προσφέρουν κάτι διαφορετικό. Όμως η τεχνολογία blockchain συνέχισε να εξελίσσεται και κατά συνέπεια το φάσμα των εφαρμογών στις οποίες χρησιμοποιείται συνεχώς επεκτείνεται. Πλέον η τεχνολογία αυτή χρησιμοποιείται σε εφαρμογές της βιομηχανίας, της οικονομίας και της απλής καθημερινότητας ενός ατόμου λόγω της ασφάλειας και της εγκυρότητας που προσδίδει. Το 2013 δημιουργήθηκε, από τον Vitalik Buterin, το Ethereum blockchain, μία πλατφόρμα που υποστηρίζει τη δημιουργία κατανεμημένων εφαρμογών γνωστά ως DApps (decentralized applications). Οι κατανεμημένες εφαρμογές που αναπτύσσονται στο ethereum blockchain δεν περιορίζονται μόνο σε οικονομικές συναλλαγές όπως στο bitcoin διότι η πλατφόρμα του ethereum επιτρέπει την δημιουργία ποικίλων ειδών εφαρμογών χρησιμοποιώντας λογική που είναι αποθηκευμένη μέσα στο δίκτυο, τα γνωστά έξυπνα συμβόλαια. Τα έξυπνα συμβόλαια είναι αρχεία κώδικα που εκτελούνται με απολυτότητα και ντετερμινισμό, με αποτέλεσμα η λειτουργικότητα τους να είναι καθολική. Πιθανές εφαρμογές που βασίζονται στη λειτουργικότητα ενός έξυπνου συμβολαίου και δεν αφορούν οικονομικές συναλλαγές είναι η κατοχύρωση δικαιωμάτων, logistics ή ακόμα και εφαρμογές που προσδίδουν μια μορφή ιεραρχίας. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία δημιουργήθηκε με σκοπό να αναδείξει τις δυνατότητες και τα όρια των έξυπνων συμβολαίων καθώς και προβλήματα που μπορεί να υπάρξουν κατά την ανάπτυξη τους και κατά την εφαρμογή τους. Η εφαρμογή αναπτύσσεται σε ένα τοπικό ethereumblockchain δίκτυο και πραγματεύεται την δημιουργία ψηφιακών τεκμηρίων(token). Τα ψηφιακά τεκμήρια είναι γνωστά στη κοινότητα του ethereum σαν άυλα περιουσιακά στοιχεία τα οποία μπορούν να πάρουν τη μορφή κρυπτοοικονομίας ή να έχουν την ιδιότητα της μοναδικότητας, με αποτέλεσμα να είναι ξεχωριστά και να αποκτούν συγκεκριμένα χαρακτηριστικά. Στην συγκεκριμένη εφαρμογή αναπτύσσονται και τα δύο ήδη τεκμηρίων που αναφέρθηκαν με αποτέλεσμα να δημιουργηθεί μία ψηφιακή αγορά με μοναδικά τεκμήρια τα οποία μπορούν να δημιουργηθούν, να αγοραστούν και να πωληθούν με αντάλλαγμα τα τεκμήρια που προσομοιάζουν την κρυπτοοικονομία. Σε κάθε περίπτωση ο κοινός παράγοντας για την δημιουργία των τεκμηρίων είναι η «ιδιότητα της ιδιοκτησίας», δηλαδή ότι ένα τεκμήριο, είτε είναι μοναδικό είτε είναι νόμισμα, ανήκει σε έναν συγκεκριμένο χρήστη που έχει όλες τις δυνατότητες που του προσδίδει αυτό το τεκμήριο και κανείς άλλος χρήστης δε μπορεί να το χρησιμοποιήσει.