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In this study, we discussed several aspects, including the definition of the general concept of traditional crowdfunding, which aims to finance emerging small projects and innovative ideas as well as financing medium-sized projects that cannot provide sufficient guarantees for banks to obtain the necessary liquidity for their projects. These companies use crowdfunding to obtain this required liquidity for new projects through electronic platforms. In the same context, some of the challenges facing these companies when obtaining crowdfunding from these electronic platforms were discussed, with the presentation of the regulatory framework for crowdfunding in light of Islamic funding standards, which differ from traditional funding in that it is essentially non-profit as much as it targets charitable and social work as well as it regulates the collection of funds and the distribution of profits to the principles of Islamic finance. On the other hand, the general concept of blockchain, its general characteristics, and working mechanisms were discussed. Then, the reasons that may lead to the shift from traditional models in Islamic crowdfunding to the use of blockchain in enhancing Islamic crowdfunding mechanisms were discussed through exposure to the Ventera project model of crowdfunding using blockchain technology as a model as well as exposure to other models of Islamic crowdfunding, where the study suggests that it can improve their performance through the use of blockchain technology as it may bring them a number of benefits and help them overcome a number of challenges. This chapter aims to explore the impact of the application of blockchain technology in Islamic crowdfunding operations and also bridge the gap between the academic side and the applied professional side in the field of using modern technologies, such as blockchain as a safer, faster, and lower-cost alternative in Islamic finance projects, as there are only few studies that dealt with this area despite its importance. This chapter discusses the benefits of blockchain in Islamic crowdfunding with an illustration of some projects as an applied model, after identifying the challenges facing traditional Islamic crowdfunding and the advantages of developing it using blockchain applications; this study ends with presenting models of Islamic crowdfunding projects that can be developed using blockchain technology.

Blockchain is being viewed as a mechanism that can further protect and enhance the security of data due to its properties of immutability, auditability and encryption, whilst providing transparency between parties who may not know each other and who therefore are operating in a trustless environment. It’s true that blockchain has its roots in cryptocurrency applications and is still evolving for that purpose in the financial sector, but many other organisations across different industries are beginning to see the non-crypto use cases in which this mechanism can be used to record data that cannot be changed or reversed or as smart contracts (as a way to time-stamp transactions between parties). Consequently, blockchain is becoming extremely relevant and purposeful. Organisations have various options. They can run blockchain as permissionless (anyone can join), permissioned (invitations are required) or hybrid (like a consortium). They can also choose whether data should be held on-chain or off-chain in data lakes. With industry entering its fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), the addition of blockchain as a complementary technology has its place; there are some industries very suited to the significant impact it may bring. Also, the advances made in areas such as Internet of Things and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence may have considerable impact on the amount of data we collect for analysis and the ways in which we store, manage and analyse it. They may also increase the likelihood of cyber attacks and the ripple effects they cause. This has also become complicated, as cyber attacks have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Cyber attacks come in different configurations, and various industry sectors have suffered from a range of these different attack vectors, resulting in some devastating outcomes. These cyber attacks have manifested in the shape of ransomware, malware, manipulation methods, phishing and spear-phishing. Whilst data breaches are a serious incident, there is a growing concern in most organisations regarding attacks that are designed to have a more destructive effect, such as the Ukraine cyber attack in 2015 that resulted in a shutdown of the power grid, or the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017 that caused widespread chaos with healthcare institutions unable to carry out any tasks since access to data/systems was unavailable.

We introduce economic research on blockchains and its recent advances. In particular, we highlight the (i) unifying concepts on blockchain as a decentralized consensus and its core benefits, (ii) equilibrium characterizations and allegedly irreducible tensions among consensus formation, decentralization, and scalability, (iii) major issues including network security, overconcentration, energy consumption and sustainability, adoption, multi-party computation and encryption, smart contracting, and information distribution and aggregation, and (iv) future directions concerning blockchains and their applications such as informational and agency issues, as well as game-theoretical and mechanism design approaches to blockchain protocols.

Among recent FinTech developments, new digital ledger technologies have the potential to facilitate the financing of entrepreneurial projects, as they can enable different and better financing contracts. Costly verification is arguably one of the main reasons why bank financing and debt contracts have been traditionally so prevalent, with investors not being easily assured that entrepreneurs will report accurately future cash flows generated. The adoption of digital ledger technologies can mitigate this friction, by offering a better tool to maintain a shareable history of transactions, which not only reduces verification costs but also further enables “smart contracts” which can benefit from adjusting optimally to incoming data. Such smart contracts (the optimal form of which is found to be a dynamically adjusting profit-sharing rule) dominate less flexible debt and equity contracts that do not give the right incentives for the entrepreneur to continue to try to generate sales, especially when there is learning from data. There remain unresolved issues around digital ledger technology, especially with “proof-of-work” systems, which create limitations for realizing its potential. Permissioned systems may solve some of these problems but remain at an experimental stage. Third-party platforms that collect and share information are another way to reduce the verification costs faced by individual investors, and there seems to be a close link between the evolution toward “smart” contracts and crowdfunding. The appropriate supporting regulation still needs to be established and will have to tackle issues that are quite novel compared to what banking regulations and securities markets regulations have had to address.

Blockchain, the technology behind digital currency, is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions in digital assets. By authenticating and recording immutable transactions, decentralized blockchains perform the same function as many intermediaries in our society that establish trust and maintain integrity between transacting parties. Due to its natural relation to accounting and possible uses in accounting functions, business operations, and financial services, it is important that accountants learn about blockchain technology and its opportunities and limitations. This chapter explores applications of blockchain technology in finance, auditing, financial reporting, and supply chain. We first discuss the classification, characteristics, and issuance of cryptoassets and the evolving regulatory environment. Then, we address potential innovative uses of blockchain in auditing and financial reporting, keeping in mind the limitations of its application. Finally, we explore how blockchain technology can enhance communication and trust between organizations in a supply chain or in contracting relationships.

The takāful and insurance industry is an evolving process of safeguarding the assets of people from loss and uncertainty. It may be described as a social device to reduce or eliminate risk of loss to life and property. Insurance offers financial protection to both individuals and business, in the risks of a loss and as such, plays an essential role in mitigating risks through risk-sharing in uncertain but potentially injurious episodes. The risk landscape is continually evolving, and in order to keep up, the insurance industry needs to trace and provide customized insurance policies that can serve specific indemnity needs of the new economy. The insurers have to possess full understanding of every risk covered in their policies and when disaster hits, compensation and claims will be done in a timely and judicious manner.

Latest developments in FinTech promises more efficiency and reduced costs causing significant shifts in the financial landscape, and the impending disruption in the insurance industry is inevitable. Blockchain today is something like where the Internet was in the 1990s — on the strategic interest of forward-looking companies, but still a while from extensive implementation. Therefore, the question for most insurance companies is not whether they will adopt blockchain, but rather, what to start with and how to test and prove the value proposition.

In this chapter, we provide a strategic discourse on how blockchain can provide additional value to the insurance and takāful industries, understand the change in processes, issues that need to be overcome, and efficiency benefits, projected cost-saving, and risk management.

The healthcare industry faces a critical need for digital innovation, as personalization and data science prompt patients to engage in the details of their healthcare and restore agency over their medical data.

In this chapter, we discuss ways as to how technologies like the blockchain can primarily secure personal and confidential patient data giving permissioned-access approved by the patient herself/himself to related parties like healthcare providers, pharmacies, and healthcare or medical insurers. Patients do not transfer the data to the parties requesting it, but he/she is merely giving them access to view it to enable their work. This protects the privacy of the patients.

Responsible governance is a crucial issue in strengthening the performance of Islamic Social Finance institutions, viz. waqf, zakat, and those pertaining to inheritance (fara’id). Although past research has found that good governance in these institutions has been well implemented in some aspects, they, however, have not been implemented comprehensively.

This research aims at elaborating good governance from the perspective of Islam and proposing technology to fill gaps in governance due to various factors, by effectively tracking and tracing assets such that it ends up to the deserving beneficiaries with minimal leakages.

In this chapter, we provide ways as to how technologies like the blockchain and AI can operationalize the transparency and accountability that is required of important social institutions that govern the dispensation of fara’id law, and the management and distribution of waqf and zakat. These areas go beyond efficiency benefits in processes or projected cost-savings, but demand the highest level of ethical implementation of governance.

As the world adopts more and more of blockchain-based technologies, it will increasingly attract malicious users who will find and exploit their vulnerabilities. Therefore, the study of these vulnerabilities and how they are exploited becomes vital. In this chapter, we have reviewed a variety of vulnerabilities of blockchain. We have looked at these vulnerabilities from networking as well as programming perspective. We have also discussed various attacks on blockchain-based systems as a case study to understand how vulnerabilities are exploited in the real world. We have also provided some tools and techniques that can help in detecting vulnerabilities and enhance security of the blockchain system.