Smart Contractsas Techno-Legal Regulation

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.

In the last few years, the technological future becoming apparent by the introduction of smart contracts into mainstream technology, specifically in the development of Web3 and the metaverse. Smart contracts will play a vital role in the decentralization and autonomy of the day-to-day tasks that must be completed. Several literature reviews, considered secondary sources, highlight the current state of testing methods for smart contracts made for Blockchain applications. In this paper, we present the results from a systematic mapping study to give structure to the information found from primary sources. Systematic mapping is a well-known method to identify and categorize research papers in a field with an increasing amount of literature. For this systematic mapping, we searched for studies between 2017 and present-day (March 2022) and were able to find 303 results, from which 47 were selected, by specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, to be relevant to this study. A concept map was created from the information gathered from primary sources to the attributes such as research type, contribution type, blockchain network, smart contract language, development process, testing methods, and testing environment. We also categorized the trends and demographics found in the selected papers based on publication year, author’s country, and more. The results of this systematic mapping showed that this field is very new and quickly increasing with new research. The researchers that are interested in this field could use the results found to create opportunities for their future work.

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.

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.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), an emerging architecture that embodies flying ad-hoc networks, face critical privacy and security challenges, mainly when engaged in data-sensitive missions. Therefore, message authentication is a crucial security feature for drone communication. This paper presents a Blockchain-based Efficient, and Trusted Authentication scheme for UAV communication BETA-UAV, which exploits the inherent properties of blockchain technology concerning memorability and immutable to record communication sessions via transaction using a smart contract. The smart contract in BETA-UAV allows participants to publish and call transactions from the blockchain network. Furthermore, the transaction addresses are proof of freshness and trustworthiness for subsequent transmissions. Furthermore, we investigate the ability to resist active attacks, e.g., impersonation, replaying, and modification. In addition, we evaluate the gas costs associated with the smart contract's functions by implementing BETA-UAV on the Ethereum public blockchain. Comparing computation and communication over-heads shows that the proposed approach can save significant costs over traditional techniques.

Smart contracts are deployed and represented as bytecodes in blockchain networks, and these bytecodes are machine-readable codes. Only a small number of deployed smart contracts have their verified human-readable code publicly accessible to blockchain users. To improve the understandability of deployed smart contracts, we explored rule-based classification of smart contracts using iterative integration of fingerprints of relevant function interfaces and keywords. Our classification system included categories for standard contracts such as ERC20, ERC721, and ERC1155, and non-standard contracts like FinDApps, cross-chain, governance, and proxy. To do this, we first identified the core function fingerprints for all ERC token contracts. We then used an adapted header extractor tool to verify that these fingerprints occurred in all of the implemented functions within the bytecode. For the non-standard contracts, we took an iterative approach, identifying contract interfaces and relevant fingerprints for each specific category. To classify these contracts, we created a rule that required at least two occurrences of a relevant fingerprint keyword or interface. This rule was stricter for standard contracts: the 100% occurrence requirement ensures that we only identify compliant token contracts. For non-standard contracts, we required a minimum of two relevant fingerprint occurrences to prevent hash collisions and the unintentional use of keywords. After developing the classifier, we evaluated its performance on sample datasets. The classifier performed very well, achieving an F1 score of over 99% for standard contracts and a solid 93% for non-standard contracts. We also conducted a risk analysis to identify potential vulnerabilities that could reduce the classifier’s performance, including hash collisions, an incomplete rule set, manual verification bottlenecks, outdated data, and semantic misdirection or obfuscation of smart contract functions. To address these risks, we proposed several solutions: continuous monitoring, continuous data crawling, and extended rule refinement. The classifier’s modular design allows for these manual updates to be easily integrated. While semantic-based risks cannot be completely eliminated, symbolic execution can be used to verify the expected behavior of ERC token contract functions with a given set of inputs to identify malicious contracts. Lastly, we applied the classifier on contracts deployed Ethereum main network.

The development of digital technologies is forcing lawyers to analyze phenomena that have recently looked fantastic. This means that a phenomenon like smart contracts has ceased to be a theoretical idea of improving commodity monetary transactions and now needs a legal justification. In this article, we have analyzed smart contracts in terms of their belonging to digital technologies and the legal field, that is, how they can be equated with legal agreements, if they are their analogues, what application can it find given the legislation in the field of civil (contractual) law. The purpose of our study was to establish a link between smart contacts and their legal regulation, with the feature of smart contract implementation perspectives. The methodology used are systemic and formal-legal methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. The results found highlight that a smart contract is a computer code that is entered into a blockchain network to execute a transaction, the usual expression of which is an agreement between the parties. From a legal point of view, smart contracts are only a part of ordinary agreements (contracts) under the practice of international and national law.

Blockchain-based smart contract platforms have traditionally employed the transaction-driven execution model. This paper presents an alternate framework for blockchain-based smart contract execution called EDSC. Our platform design presents a novel approach to tackle the scalability and performance challenges facing the smart contract ecosystem. We base EDSC's design on the Ethereum template, and it can be readily implemented for other existing smart contract platforms. To evaluate our design, we perform an experimental implementation using the Ethereum client. Our experiments with performance modeling show, on average, a 2.2 to 4.6 times reduced total latency of event-triggered smart contracts, demonstrating the effectiveness of the design in supporting time-sensitive applications. Additionally, we comment on the design's potential security aspects and demonstrate its utility by discussing potential use cases.

Smart contract technology plays a significant role in various fields for achieving secure and automated transactions without the interference of third parties. There arise certain issues of security and privacy issue during the transaction with the assistance of a smart contract. In this present work, a comparative analysis is carried out between various existing techniques in blockchain-based smart contract techniques. First, analysis is done on the security issue. Second, on the basis of smart contract design. Finally, on privacy issue in smart contract platform. To analyse the performance, metrics such as consumption cost, transaction cost, time overhead and processing time are validated. The cost consumption and time overhead attained for the Auditable Access Control System (AACS) technique is 30,125,894 gas and 3,285 sec. The processing time attained for Online Auto Update Smart Contract (OAUSC) is 2,653 sec. This analysis suggested AACS technique functions better in comparison to other existing techniques.

Smart contract technology plays a significant role in various fields for achieving secure and automated transactions without the interference of third parties. There arise certain issues of security and privacy issue during the transaction with the assistance of a smart contract. In this present work, a comparative analysis is carried out between various existing techniques in blockchain-based smart contract techniques. First, analysis is done on the security issue. Second, on the basis of smart contract design. Finally, on privacy issue in smart contract platform. To analyse the performance, metrics such as consumption cost, transaction cost, time overhead and processing time are validated. The cost consumption and time overhead attained for the Auditable Access Control System (AACS) technique is 30,125,894 gas and 3,285 sec. The processing time attained for Online Auto Update Smart Contract (OAUSC) is 2,653 sec. This analysis suggested AACS technique functions better in comparison to other existing techniques.

Smart Contracts for Smart Supply Chains

Blockchain technology has revolutionized digital financial transactions and asset ownership by enabling decentralized and automated operations through smart contracts. Solidity smart contracts, used in the Ethereum blockchain network, facilitate secure and trustless execution of agreements. However, like any code, smart contracts are prone to vulnerabilities. Considering the assets and value of currency these smart contracts handle, their exploitation leads to severe financial losses and loss of operations. Such exploits have resulted in billions of dollars in stolen or locked assets. In this paper, we present an ensemble multilabel classifier model approach for the automated detection of vulnerabilities in Solidity smart contracts using a real smart contract dataset, with a detailed methodological process that includes processing the dataset. The proposed model stack achieves excellent results with F1 scores ranging from 82.0% to 99.9% for each vulnerability dataset. The proposed model is also compared with common static analyzer tools and models proposed in the literature following a similar approach. Moreover, we package the models into a web application, demonstrating deployment and functionality.

Blockchain is a type of decentralized database where all data are kept in one large chain of interconnected blocks of data stored on a large number of servers around the world. Besides decentralization, an additional advantage of this technology is the absence of intermediaries in communication between participants in the process. With the advent of the Ethereum network which is based on blockchain technology, in addition to performing financial transactions, now it is possible to create programs that could be executed on this network. However, execution of these programs, known as Smart Contract, costs money that is billed on this network in the form of gas which is directly proportional to the complexity of the computer operations performed within these contracts. Optimizing the structure and content of smart contracts directly implies reducing the cost/gas for their execution. In this paper we propose the structure of smart contracts in the context of gas optimization for their execution.

Nakamoto’s Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital cash system that utilizes a blockchain to manage transactions in its peer-to-peer network. The newer generation of blockchain systems, including Ethereum, extend their capabilities to support deployment of smart contracts within their peer-to-peer networks. However, smart contracts cannot acquire data from sources outside the blockchain since the blockchain network is isolated from the outside world. To obtain data from external sources, smart contracts must rely on Oracles, which are agents that bring data from the outside world to a blockchain network. However, guaranteeing that the oracle’s off-chain nodes are trustworthy remains a challenge. A centralized oracle that relies on a single off-chain node creates a single point of failure. Therefore, a decentralized mechanism is necessary. One possible design for a decentralized oracle is to use a game mechanism that utilizes the Schelling-point theory to identify the correct data point among various data points reported by the oracle’s off-chain nodes. In this paper, we introduce Spartan Price Oracle (SPO), a decentralized oracle designed to provide accurate price data. SPO utilizes the Schelling-point theory in its game mechanism to ensure the accuracy of the price data it provides. The mechanism design of SPO is based on SchellingCoin but with two significant improvements. Firstly, SPO uses Kernel Density Estimation to estimate the probability density function of data points that are reported by multiple off-chain nodes. This enables SPO to identify the accurate data by determining the mode of the probability density function. Secondly, SPO utilizes a redistributive economic incentive model that incorporates an appeal mechanism to increases the maximum reward for its off-chain nodes. This model has

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.