Blockchain Technologies, Applications and Cryptocurrencies

The following sections are included:

• About the Editor
• Contents

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies are now topics of substantial impact that academia, practitioners and the IT industry need to contemplate, study, research, publish, innovate, exploit and adopt. This book titled Blockchain Technologies, Applications and Cryptocurrencies intends to provide information on the innovative, scholarly and professional research pertaining to the management, organization and technological use of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. The chapters in this book will be essential for anyone interested in these areas. This book is one of the few dedicated entirely to blockchain technologies, applications and cryptocurrencies…

Blockchain technology has to be one of the biggest innovations of the 21st century given the ripple effect it is having on various sectors, from financial to manufacturing as well as education. Unknown to many is that Blockchain history dates back to the early 1990s. Since its popularity started growing a few years back, a number of applications have cropped up all but underlining the kind of impact it is destined to have as the race for digital economies heats up. This chapter examines the literature on Blockchain technologies and potential benefits of Blockchain technologies wherever they are used. This research is being carried out because there is no literature review on Blockchain Technology and this chapter will ease the research of the scholars who want to know about Blockchain Technology. This research is important because it will make people aware about Blockchain and where all it is used and how people can benefit from this technology. Search terms identified more than 30 papers in support of blockchain technologies. The methodology used to carry out the research is also discussed in this report such as various databases searched using various search terms. From the papers identified, criteria were determined to identify further appropriate articles. Data analysis verified the purpose of blockchain, categories of blockchain and alternatives of blockchain. The findings revealed that blockchain is one of the leading technologies in the world currently with a more secure platform for carrying any task.

A taxonomy of blockchain application uses cases that include application and apps. A major obstacle identified in several disciplines is the categorization of objects in a particular area of interest into a taxonomy. Blockchain is an innovation that is decentralized and characterized by value-based information that is distributed over a vast network with many untrusted users. Developing a taxonomy for blockchain applications is a complex process. This chapter thus attempts to discuss what internal factors contribute to the success of a blockchain application. This is followed by an analysis of which organizations use blockchain and which applications and apps they use. Finally, we classify blockchains according to what they are used for. For example, Blockchains are used in such fields as finance, agriculture, education, development, etc.

Throughout history, five dimensions of basic needs have been created to establish the existential minimum. This research aims to demonstrate that Human Rights has since become the Sixth Dimension (in 2009), and it is one where the right of access to technology is fundamental to generating peace, dignity and a sustainable world. Establishing technology as a fundamental right is useful to guide the creation of an Annual Budget Plan by the leaders who use the fundamental rights to establish the margin of investment to be made in each sector proportionaly to the level of importance it would occupy in a citizen’s life. For these reasons, the research demonstrated evidence that Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies are much more than a payment system. The method used was scientific, with analysis of historical documents and social observation as well as observation into laws, doctrine and jurisprudence alongside data taken from socioeconomic statistical reports collected in 2017. This research was enough to show that Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies, when combined with AI and IoT, create the Smart Economy. Through poverty reduction, physical borders will be protected by virtual borders. Finally, the authors conclude that technology is a powerful accelerator of economic flow and can be a vehicle for the sustainable world, and this requires investments in such things as a Sixth Dimension of Human Rights that cannot be separated from others rights.

The National Agricultural Market, through networking of the APMCs, provides electronic trading for different kinds of agricultural produce. Under e-NAM, all the trading is to be done through a digital platform as prescribed to ensure transparency in the transactions and provide a fair price to the farmers. The study was conducted in three APMCs of Uttar Pradesh to analyze the ground-level practices occurring in these APMCs and to assess the level of adoption of e-NAM. A considerable variation in the arrival and bidding prices obtained from the APMCs was found when compared with the data available on the agriculture market information system (Agmarknet).

In this chapter, we thus propose blockchain-based infrastructure to facilitate a highly transparent and autonomous system to further strengthen the information system and enable the efficient application of government rules and regulations pertaining to agricultural transactions in the APMCs through the utilization of smart contracts.

Smart contracts powered by Blockchain render transaction processes more effective, secure and efficient when viewed alongside conventional contacts. Smart Contracts facilitate a trustworthy process and are characterized by time efficiency, cost-effectiveness and transparency, without any necessity for intervention by third-party intermediaries like lawyers. While Blockchains can counter, in a good way, traditional cyber-security attacks on Smart Contract Applications, cyber-criminals keep evolving new mechanisms of threats and attack vectors, capable of hacking Blockchain technologies. The research done in this chapter presents a unique framework to perform Application Security Testing on Blockchain-based Smart Contracts and also compares Manual Penetration Testing with two automated Smart Contract tools to identify critical vulnerabilities on the commercial scale in the Blockchain environment.

In today’s high-technological era, organizations have accelerated the use of blockchain technology to enhance their business processes. Blockchain is a somewhat updated version of a database, which is a powerful technology in terms of managing data when compared to normal SQL databases. In Fiji, flight information is a mission critical system as a large number of stakeholders depend on it, such as, hotels, airlines, airports, ground handlers and even the general public. Current flight information is meeting day-to-day organizational needs, but there is evidence of information technology problems associated with it, such as inconsistent information, data silos, availability, etc. With the introduction of blockchain technology, the aviation industry can become more powerful in terms of providing high-quality flight data to all its stakeholders. By the end of the research, we should be able to build a conceptual model that solves the flight data problem in Fiji.

Voting has been a fundamental part of the democratic system as it allows individuals to voice their opinions. Over the past few years, voting turnout has diminished as concerns regarding security, privacy, accessibility and integrity have been escalated.

In order to address these issues, e-voting was introduced; however, only a few countries managed to use the application due to cost and central authority approvals. Hence, blockchain technology is an emerging platform as it allows decentralization through the use of distributed technology, expanding industries and processes.

In this chapter, the researchers will discuss the significance of blockchain e-voting applications as well as provide details of the issues faced by current blockchain technologies. A comparative analysis of existing mechanisms is also provided in order to understand and mitigate the gaps before fully adopting blockchain technologies for e-voting applications.

Thus, this chapter will be a kind of roadmap for blockchain-based e-voting applications to improve the current voting practices and processes.

Blockchain is a distributed and digital ledger which has transformed supply chains in various ways. In this chapter, we will investigate how blockchain can add value to the supply chain management system. This chapter will further investigate the influence of integrating blockchain technology to the current supply chain system and discuss its long-term implications. In essence, research has been carried out to verify if blockchain technology is capable of providing the transparency and the accountability the current Supply Chain Management (SCM) system lacks. The chapter looks at advantages and disadvantages of such integration and provides feedback and recommendations on the same. The research findings aim to provide better insight into current practices used by large logistic and supply industries and what the future holds for such companies using the SCM system.

The emergence of the Internet has opened a world of possibilities to connect and interact through web portals and to exchange information over the network. In the past decade, buying and selling of goods and services online has become more common through e-commerce. With the advent of Cryptocurrencies, the possibilities of e-commerce have reached new heights for all web users who see potential in this technology. Cryptocurrencies have opened new dimensions based on a Blockchain technology for e-commerce through decentralization; increased privacy and digitalization of coins allow users to anonymously trade online. This has become more common in the Darknet, which is simply the unindexed side of the Internet. This chapter compares the three Cryptocurrencies, namely bitcoin, ethereum and monero, used for e-commerce in the Darknet.

Government and state approaches to any venture first begin with regulations being kept in place to safeguard its interests as well as those of its citizens. Cryptocurrency adoption on a global scale has been led by major players such as the U.S. and China, while some smaller countries have achieved comparable success. In this chapter, we analyze and assess a country’s level of cryptocurrency adoption on the basis of its regulatory framework. We then classify this approach according to the business function that regulates the use of these cryptocurrencies. We also derive a gradual approach to cryptocurrency adoption and regulation, which can be used by fledgling countries new to cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies have evolved erratically and at unprecedented speed over the course of their short lifespans. Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, more than 1600 cryptocurrencies have been developed, with majority of them witnessing success in the market. With the advent of cryptocurrencies, the possibility of online trading has reached new heights. Thus, this chapter focuses on enterprise cryptocurrencies and provides a thorough analysis of the various opportunities that lie with the use of cryptocurrencies for online payments. This chapter is presented as there is a need to draw a fine line between using fiat currencies and using cryptocurrencies for online transactions. It is also important as there is not much research done on using cryptocurrencies in enterprise systems, and so this will give a fair idea to researchers and organizations and help them in making decisions while making corporate payments. We are basing our research using grounded theory, and our research will focus on the certainty of using cryptocurrencies.

The following section is included:

• Index