No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
2017 Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study
... With the significantly emerging cryptocurrency market since the first release of Bitcoin as the pioneer of cryptocurrency, Hileman and Rauchs [2] argued that there has been more flexibility in the financial industry as there is more blurred lines between virtual exchange and the use of traditional wallet because both has provided better utilization for wide range of functions. ...
... For example, risks can arise from the decentralized exchange of Bitcoin that is not supported by any institution that should have been responsible for regulating the quality and the transaction of the currency, as stated by Abraham et al. [4]. Meanwhile on the wallets sectors, cryptocurrency has a digital program with the use of private and public cryptographic keys management, helping the users to store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies [2]. Furthermore in the payments sectors, cryptocurrency has a primary function in facilitating payments along with the highly integrated blockchain system, but Steinmetz et al. [5] mentioned that currently, cryptocurrencies are not extensively used as a means of payment because users tend to maintain the way they usually pay goods and services with fiat currencies, especially with the fact that Bitcoin is more widely used as the users' speculative assets rather than for payment instrument. ...
... However, currently there are still a few countries and shops that accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, therefore the usage for payment is limited. On the mining sector of cryptocurrency, Hileman and Rauchs [2] explained that individuals as well as organizations are able to process their transactions and obtain rewards and transaction fees through the use of the blockchain as the global ledger that is responsible for enumerating the large number of hashes to look for added valid blocks. ...
The presence of cryptocurrencies as means of trading and investing has presented new opportunities to make profits. Unfortunately, investment bias becomes a phenomenon that accompanies investing behavior for many people which actually results in losses and regrets. This study uses a narrative review method to identify cognitive, affective, and contextual factors that correlate with investment biases in cryptocurrency. The results of the review indicate that a number of factors - i.e. self-affirmation, anticipation of postdecision dissonance, fear of missing out (FoMO), overconfidence, perception of the investment process and regulation - play a pivotal role in explaining investment biases in cryptocurrency.
... Cryptocurrency is a digital token that users exchange within a distributed, decentralized, peer-to-peer virtual network (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). Each cryptocurrency transaction is triggered by a private key that proves the ownership of cryptocurrencies and then validated with secure cryptographic algorithms (Nakamoto, 2008). ...
... Validated transactions are then grouped into blocks and linked to each other creating a shared ledger that is constantly updated providing users with the entire transaction history (Nakamoto, 2008). Users have no identities attached and can leave this network at any time (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). ...
... The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin which emerged in 2008 after the global crisis. Its great popularity led to the emergence of over 1,600 cryptocurrencies enabling the creation of an ecosystem where cryptocurrencies are exchanged among themselves or with national currencies (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). Simultaneously with the growing rate of its acceptance by individuals and merchants, cryptocurrency value and use cases have increased in the same span (Rejeb et al., 2021). ...
Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the factors driving individuals’ behavioral intention to use cryptocurrency in Saudi Arabia using the extended TRA model. Background: Despite the great potential of cryptocurrencies and the exponential growth of cryptocurrency use throughout the world, scholarly research on this topic remained scarce. Whereas prior studies are mostly done in developed countries or specific cultural contexts, limiting the generalizability of their results, they mainly used technology adoption models that cannot fully explain the acceptance of new technology involved with financial transactions such as cryptocurrency and provided contradictory evidence. Entire regions have been excluded from the research on this topic, including Saudi Arabia which has a high potential to increase the volume of cryptocurrency use. Methodology: This study extends the theory of reasoned action (TRA) with the factors from technology adoption models that proved relevant for this topic, namely perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, perceived innovativeness, and perceived risk with three sub-factors: security, financial, and privacy risk. Data are collected using a quantitative research methodology from 181 respondents residing in Saudi Arabia and then analyzed by several methods, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). Contribution: This study contributes to the scientific knowledge by extending the TRA model with a range of factors from the technology adoption field, thus enabling the analysis of this topic from human, financial, and technology perspectives and providing additional empirical evidence on the factors that previously either provided contradictory evidence or were not explored in this field. This research also provides the first empirical data on this topic in Saudi Arabia and enables further research on the topic and a comparison of the results. The study also contributes to practice by enhancing the actual understanding of the phenomena and providing valuable information and recommendations for governments, investors, merchants, developers, and the general population. Findings: The study found attitude, subjective norm, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, personal innovativeness, privacy risk, and financial risk as significant predictors of the intention to use cryptocurrencies, whereas the influence of security risk was not found to be significant in Saudi Arabia. Recommendations for Practitioners: Using this study’s results, governments can create appropriate legal frameworks, developers can design fewer complex platforms, and merchants may create appropriate campaigns that emphasize the benefits of cryptocurrency use and transpire trust in cryptocurrency transactions by enhancing the factors with a positive impact, such as usefulness, enjoyment, and personal innovativeness while reducing concerns of potential users regarding the risky factors. By promoting a positive user experience, they can also improve attitudes and social norms towards cryptocurrencies, thus further stimulating the interest in their use. Recommendation for Researchers: As this study validated the influence of factors from technology, financial, and human-related fields, researchers may follow this approach to ensure a comprehensive analysis of this complex topic, especially as privacy risk was never examined in this context, while personal innovativeness, perceived enjoyment, financial, and security risk were explored in just a few studies. It is also recommended that researchers explore the impact of each part of subjective norms: social media, friends, and family, as well as how information on the benefits of cryptocurrencies affects the perception of the factors included. Impact on Society: Understanding the factors affecting cryptocurrency use can help utilize the full potential of cryptocurrencies, especially their benefits for developing countries reflected in safe, speedy, and low-cost financial transactions with no need for an intermediary. The research model of this study could also be used to investigate this topic in other contexts to discover similarities and differences, as well as to investigate other information systems. Future Research: Future studies should test this research model in similar and different contexts to determine whether its validity and study results depend on cultural and contextual factors. They can also include different or additional variables, or use mixed methods, as interviews would augment the comprehension of this topic. Future studies may also explore whether the impact of variables would remain the same if circumstances changed or use cases expanded, and how the preferences of the target population would change within a longitudinal time frame.
... Digital payment, one of the disruptive technology in the banking domain (Boraty nska, 2019), is not only the main payment method of e-commerce (Bezhovski, 2016) but also have been adopted by consumers in retail purchases in Thailand (Chaveesuk et al., 2021). Digital payment methods can be categorized by payment channels, characteristics, facilities, and instruments, including mobile payment (Chen & Nath, 2008;Hoofnagle et al., 2012), e-wallets (Bagla & Sancheti, 2018;Lipton et al., 2016;Ramadan & Aita, 2018), e-banking (Ahmed et al., 2006;Alkhowaiter, 2020;Furst et al., 2002;Siam, 2006), mobile banking (Pousttchi & Schurig, 2004;Sardana & Singhania, 2018;Shaikh & Karjaluoto, 2015), web-based internet banking (Furst et al., 2002), and cryptocurrency (Grinberg, 2011;Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). With a wide range of digital payment solutions and the effort to continuously improve digital payment technology by commercial banks (Lipton et al., 2016), systematic reviews of the literature have demonstrated a substantial number of digital payment acceptance studies that have been conducted for decades (Alkhowaiter, 2020;Sardana & Singhania, 2018;Shaikh & Karjaluoto, 2015). ...
... (vi) Cryptocurrency was introduced in 2019 and is known as "Bitcoin". Currently, hundreds of cryptocurrencies are being traded in the cryptocurrency market, and more than a thousand cryptocurrencies are being launched that exist at a certain point (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). Bitcoin is the first digital and decentralized money, which is not backed up by gold or any commodities and not backed by any government or legal entities (Grinberg, 2011). ...
... Bitcoin is the first digital and decentralized money, which is not backed up by gold or any commodities and not backed by any government or legal entities (Grinberg, 2011). The price of cryptocurrencies varies from time to time by the demand concept and other related factors (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). Therefore, the summary of the digital payment study is illustrated in Table 1. ...
Digital payment or e-payment is well known in the present digital age and cashless society because of its variety and benefit. With an increasing amount of digital payment technology, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) has been utilized for decades to investigate consumers’ acceptance. However, youths’ behavioral intention toward digital payment usage in northeastern Thailand is unknown. We thus collected the data from 384 participants of Thai youths in the northeastern region. We discovered that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence expectancy positively influence youth’s behavioral intention. In addition, facilitating conditions and behavioral intention have a positive effect on youth’s use behavior. Furthermore, we found behavioral intention to be the strongest determinant in use behavior and that behavioral intention is the most influenced by performance expectancy. This result implies that more functional digital payment solutions lead to a robust intention to use by consumers. We anticipate that digital payment service providers will develop functional services and a user-friendly interface for the market. In a similar vein, we also expect businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as virtual or physical operations, to adopt digital payments and offer them to both existing and potential consumers.
... The blockchain is known as a distributed ledger maintained by all the peers in the network that records the executed transactions in the form of blocks on a chronological chain [1,2]. In recent decades, the surprising success of blockchain technology has brought it into more application scenarios, including a variety of enterprise-level applications. ...
... To address above, we consider improvement from two aspects: (1) how to strengthen the decentralization of the system as much as possible; (2) how to avoid the loss of system performance caused by abandoning the full-replication strategy. ...
... Due to the successful application of blockchain technology, BFT protocols have been applied in a wider area, and their design goal shifts to further relax the time assumption. The network connection may be unreliable, and the delay may be time-varying [1]. Various works construct asynchronous BFT protocols that can make progress even if the time assumption does not hold. ...
The high storage costs brought by the full-replication storage strategy adopted in most existing blockchain systems have become the main bottleneck to system scalability. To address the above, we propose an asynchronous committee-based blockchain storage strategy named lightweight BFT (LBFT), which can be applied to more diverse scenarios with better system performance. It is the first blockchain storage scheme that is designed on the conception of the zero-trust model, achieving higher-level security and fending off internal, as well as external attackers. In addition, it makes the following progress on system performance on the premise of maintaining the merits of the blockchain: (1) decreases communication complexity by involving only a part of the nodes in each decoding round; (2) enhances the robustness of the scheme regardless of the time assumption of the network; (3) improves the computational efficiency in the encoding and decoding process; and (4) reduces the storage costs and improves system scalability. In addition, we implemented experiments on LBFT and two other existing blockchain-based storage strategies, and the experimental results showed that LBFT indeed has significant improvements in system performance.
... With time, the distributed ledger keeps growing because the write operations are performed in Fig. 4. 6G Requirements vs Applications [11], [35], [38] exclusively append mode [76]. From a technological viewpoint, blockchain is considered as one single technological innovation which is a unique, and powerful mix of underlying concepts, techniques and technologies [77]. For instance, blockchain uses cryptographic techniques like Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), hashing, digital signature, and Merkle tree. ...
... There exist different types of blockchain and many times the clear distinction between them is missing. Figure 5 shows different types of blockchain and the classification is based on (i) who is allowed to read, write and commit transactions in blockchain (i.e., permission configuration) [77], and (ii) on ...
... Closed Type Fig. 5. Types of Blockchain [77], [79] what type of servers hosting is done [79]. The read permission allows a node to access and see all the past transactions, and the write permission enables nodes to create and broadcast a transaction to all the other nodes in the blockchain network. ...
While 5G is at the early deployment state around the globe, the research and industrial communities have already started concentrating their efforts on formulating the overall 6G vision comprising requirements, key enabling technologies, performance indicators, and applications. Following the trend, it is evident that 6G will emerge as highly softwarized and open networks allowing the participation of multiple stakeholders. This undoubtedly will make 6G more flexible, agile, autonomous, intelligent, and cost-efficient networks. However, the programmability and openness will make 6G networks more prone to issues like security, privacy, traceability, interoperability, auditability, resource manageability, spectrum efficiency, and 3D mobility. To address these issues, a deep integration of blockchain technology with 6G networks is foreseen. Thus, we aim to put together blockchain and 6G under a magnifying lens to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of blockchain in the 6G ecosystem. We begin by providing an overview of the envisioned 6G networks and blockchain technology. Next, we present a high-level view of the role of blockchain for 6G trends and requirements. Following that, we conduct an in-depth study on how the blockchain can provide a secure, transparent, and decentralized underpinning to various technical aspects and use cases of 6G. Thereafter, we discuss the deployment challenges to be faced while integrating blockchain in 6G and the possible solutions. Finally, future research directions are expounded to set the floor for further advancements in the blockchainized 6G.
... These different types of cryptocurrencies vary slightly from one another in their protocols. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, and it is the most widely supported among participating exchanges, as shown in Fig. 1 [9]. Because of its impact and its dependency to the PoW algorithm, this paper uses Bitcoin as the case study. ...
... Many cryptocurrencies' systems are currently using the energy-intensive PoW algorithm, which involves a lucky miner getting the right hash digest to earn a reward. Bitcoin is the biggest culprit in computational energy consumption and thus the focus of this research [9]. Bitcoin consumes about 2.5 times more energy than Ethereum, as shown in Fig. 3. ...
... Most popular cryptocurrency among participating exchanges, wallets and payment companies[9]. ...
Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm is a popular blockchain algorithm employed in many blockchain applications such as Bitcoin. Cryptographic hashing is the foundation of the PoW algorithm and blockchain technology in general. Unfortunately, the use of hashing in PoW has led to huge computational requirements. Researchers and industrialists are aware of the immense energy consumed by the PoW algorithm in blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoin currently consumes above 110 TWh of electricity annually. This vast amount of energy is used to calculate non-valuable cryptographic hashes, which eventually becomes a waste when the right nonce value is found. Bioinformatic researchers depend on molecular docking simulation, which is effective but requires heavy computing resources. This paper proposes a solution to the above issues by taking advantage of the wasted computing power harnessed by the PoW algorithm and subsequently channelling the computing resources towards molecular docking simulations for drug discovery. With the new proposed framework, molecular docking is introduced into PoW algorithm where energy from a PoW system like bitcoin can be used to help researchers crunch bioinformatics data for computer aided drug discovery. A target protein receptor and ligands are introduced at the beginning of a new mining period, rather than computing random computer bits to discover a nonce, mining nodes will perform docking simulations with the receptor and ligands to generate docked conformations for drug creation research. This research does not seek to reduce the computational energy of the PoW rather utilise this energy for valuable drug creation process. Keywords— Blockchain, Bitcoin, PoW, Ligand, Molecular docking, RMSD, Score
... Investments using cryptocurrency have rapidly increased in popularity. The number of active cryptocurrency wallet users was 5.8 million worldwide in 2017 (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). By 2022, this number had reached approximately 300 million (Tuwiner, 2022). ...
... To be eligible for survey participation, people had to be 18 years or older, and either had to have cryptocurrency investment experience or be interested in doing so in the future. We did not limit participants to specific countries because cryptocurrency users are widely spread around the world (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017;Tuwiner, 2022). ...
With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrency, many people are interested in cryptocurrency investments, but have so far hesitated. Many others have made investments without adequate preparation. To help interested investors improve their understanding of cryptocurrency and make rational investment decisions, it is important to study their concerns and motivations and to draw upon experienced investors’ experiences and practices. Therefore, we surveyed crypto investors and inexperienced potential investors interested in trading cryptocurrency (n = 395). Our results showed that extreme price volatility is the primary incentive and a substantial obstacle to market participation. Fraud risks, lack of personal funds, insufficient knowledge, and difficulty identifying credible information sources are also common barriers. Our findings highlight the need to build trustworthy exchange platforms and integrate educational features. Based on the reported concerns and experiences, we (1) identify learning components for new investors, and (2) formulate design recommendations for beginner-friendly exchange platforms.
... Despite strong criticism across academic fields, the cryptoasset economy is still a growing business sector. Hileman and Rauchs (2017), who analyzed nonpublic data for the global cryptoasset market (150 different cryptoassets, covering 38 countries from five world regions), found that the ecosystem is still a rapidly evolving industry. Since Bitcoin was the first cryptoasset in place and is still the most used one with the highest market capitalisation (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017), Bitcoin is the focus of our study. ...
... Hileman and Rauchs (2017), who analyzed nonpublic data for the global cryptoasset market (150 different cryptoassets, covering 38 countries from five world regions), found that the ecosystem is still a rapidly evolving industry. Since Bitcoin was the first cryptoasset in place and is still the most used one with the highest market capitalisation (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017), Bitcoin is the focus of our study. ...
Investors commonly exhibit the disposition effect—the irrational tendency to sell their winning investments and hold onto their losing ones. While this phenomenon has been observed in many traditional markets, it remains unclear whether it also applies to atypical markets like cryptoassets. This paper investigates the prevalence of the disposition effect in Bitcoin using transactions targeting cryptoasset exchanges as proxies for selling transactions. Our findings suggest that investors in Bitcoin were indeed subject to the disposition effect, with varying intensity. They also show that the disposition effect was not consistently present throughout the observation period. Its prevalence was more evident from the boom and bust year 2017 onwards, as confirmed by various technical indicators. Our study suggests irrational investor behavior is also present in atypical markets like Bitcoin.
... Hence, Nigeria, being a heavy importer, will be at an advantage. And, as observed by [42], Nigeria ranks seventh in the Bitcoin Market Potential Index (BMPI) and, in the second quarter of 2020, came tops among African countries trading bitcoin [43]. It was also named the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency market, with a trading volume of $34.4 million. ...
... Bitcoin mining is the process of adding transaction records to the Blockchain of the bitcoin community ledger to confirm and secure transactions, and miners are compensated in bitcoins or paid on commission based on the agreement with the vendors. According to [42], the storage sector, also known as the "Wallet segment", is a software program used to store and exchange bitcoin, which is protected by cryptography that employs unique keys (bitcoin address). However, the wallet system might be exposed through compromised systems, thus the need for safety measures [46]. ...
The rise of cryptocurrency, especially bitcoin, has opened up a lot of doors in the world of Financial Tech- nology (FinTech) by attracting investors, media, and finan- cial industry regulators. Bitcoin operates on blockchain technology, and its value is not a determinant of the value of a tangible asset, an organisation, or a country’s economy. Instead, it relies on an encryption technique that allows tracking of all transactions. Globally, over $2 trillion has been generated through cryptocurrency trading. Due to these financial prospects, the youths in Nigeria have cashed in on this virtual currency to create employment and wealth. This research investigates the adoption and sustainability of bitcoin and blockchain in Nigeria. A survey method with a non-probability purposive sampling technique and a homo- geneous approach was employed to collect 320 responses via an online survey. Descriptive and correlational analysis in IBM SPSS version 25 was used to analyse the collected data. According to the findings, bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, with 97.5% acceptance, and is expected to be the leading virtual currency in the next five years. The research findings will help researchers and authorities com- prehend the need for cryptocurrency adoption, leading to its sustainability.
... The cryptocurrency market is transforming the world of money and finance [1], and has seen significant growth in the last years [1], [2]. In particular, the number of cryptocurrencies reached more than 7000 in 2021 [3], and the crypto market capitalization hit $3 trillion the same year [3]. ...
... The cryptocurrency market is transforming the world of money and finance [1], and has seen significant growth in the last years [1], [2]. In particular, the number of cryptocurrencies reached more than 7000 in 2021 [3], and the crypto market capitalization hit $3 trillion the same year [3]. ...
With the rise of Blockchain technology, the cryptocurrency market has been gaining significant i nterest. In particular, the number of cryptocurrency traders and the market capitalization have grown tremendously. However, predicting cryptocurrency price is very challenging and difficult d ue t o the high price volatility. In this paper, we propose a classification machine learning approach in order to predict the direction of the market (i.e., if the market is going up or down). We identify key features such as Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) to feed the machine learning model. We illustrate our approach through the analysis of Bitcoin close price. We evaluate the proposed approach via different simulations. Particularly, we provide a backtesting strategy. The evaluation results show that the proposed machine learning approach provides buy and sell signals with more than 86% accuracy.
... A bitcoin wallet is a piece of software that allows you to send, receive, and store bitcoins. According to University of Cambridge researchers, there were roughly 2.9 to 5.8 million unique wallets containing cryptocurrencies in 2017, with the bulk of them being bitcoin wallets [13]. Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency that does not require the use of a third party or financial intermediary such as a central bank. ...
Cryptocurrency is a technology that uses an encrypted peer-to-peer network to facilitate digital barter. Bitcoin, the first and most popular cryptocurrency, is paving the way as a disruptive technology to long-standing and unchanging financial payment systems. While cryptocurrencies are unlikely to replace traditional fiat currency, they have the potential to alter how Internet-connected global markets interact with one another, removing the restrictions that exist around traditional national currencies and exchange rates. Technology advances at a breakneck pace, and a technology's success is almost entirely determined by the market it tries to improve. Cryptocurrencies have the potential to change digital trade marketplaces by enabling a fee-free trading mechanism. A SWOT analysis of Bitcoin is offered, which highlights some of the recent events and movements that may have an impact on whether Bitcoin contributes to a paradigm change in economics. Cryptocurrency is a relatively new payment option, and users are naturally drawn to it because it offers privacy. To measure the impact of cryptocurrency on the world payment system, we use a Cryptocurrency extra data-Bitcoin. The proposed algorithm uses Random Forest Algorithm for prediction. The RFPA has achieved a 0.073 MSE. The RFPA has achieved the best results as it can handle huge datasets with a lot of dimensionality. It improves the model's accuracy and eliminates the problem of overfitting. When compared to other algorithms, it takes less time to train.
... Peers directly interact with each other and share information or provide service to other peers. Therefore, a centralized digital wallet system is a server-side pay point for online services and goods with no or less transaction remittance from a physical bank account [18]. ...
... In the history of contemporary humanity, virtual money has acquired prominence at various times (Graeber, 2011). In recent years, the number of people who use cryptocurrencies has exploded, nearing the population of certain small countries (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). A cryptocurrency, in its most basic form, is a digital asset designed to be used as a medium of exchange that uses cryptographic technology to ensure transactional flow and limit the production of new monetary units (Gil-Cordero et al., 2020). ...
... After carefully evaluating the properties of stocks on these bar graphs and charts, the decision to buy or sell is taken. The authors of a second survey done by them in [11] concluded that, of all the approaches used to anticipate stock values, technical analysis was applied most frequently. A broad indicator was utilized by technical analysis to determine when to buy and sell specific stock currencies. ...
Accurately predicting the stock market is one of the things that investors are most interested in since it may help them make money in the economy. Given that such markets are significantly influenced by volatility and news, it is difficult to predict stock prices, which are solely dependent on market timing. Owing to this difficulty and volatility, it is vital to evaluate stock forecasting using historical data as well as external variables such as investor behaviour, social media, and financial news. Thus, this study recommends using regression and machine learning algorithms to estimate the price of equities on upcoming days based on investor sentiment. The experiment is conducted on Yahoo Finances and combines Twitter repository data on investor sentiment. In the subsequent step, the concept of sentiment analysis is applied to the monitoring of Twitter user tweets. The tweets are then sorted into positive and negative groups based on the sentiment score. In addition, machine learning algorithms are used to forecast Yahoo Finance stock values. To solve this issue, we propose reducing the complexity of time sequence models by employing regression approaches that integrate a hybridized concept of sentiment analysis and machine learning algorithms, which may result in higher accuracy. The testing results validate the best linear regression prediction accuracy and demonstrate an overall system performance enhancement.
... Bitcoin remained the only cryptocurrency for two years after which several more digital currencies joined the market. As of today, there are more than 5000 cryptocurrencies have been introduced in the market [23] with more than 5.8 million active users [24]. Bitcoin is leading the cryptocurrency market with a 58% market share, or ≈$4.9 Billion USD trade volume and more than 12,000 transactions per hour [25]. ...
Cryptojacking is the permissionless use of a target device to covertly mine cryptocurrencies. With cryptojacking, attackers use malicious JavaScript codes to force web browsers into solving proof-of-work puzzles, thus making money by exploiting the resources of the website visitors. To understand and counter such attacks, we systematically analyze the static, dynamic, and economic aspects of in-browser cryptojacking. For static analysis, we perform content, currency, and code-based categorization of cryptojacking samples to 1) measure their distribution across websites, 2) highlight their platform affinities, and 3) study their code complexities. We apply machine learning techniques to distinguish cryptojacking scripts from benign and malicious JavaScript samples with 100\% accuracy. For dynamic analysis, we analyze the effect of cryptojacking on critical system resources, such as CPU and battery usage. We also perform web browser fingerprinting to analyze the information exchange between the victim node and the dropzone cryptojacking server. We also build an analytical model to empirically evaluate the feasibility of cryptojacking as an alternative to online advertisement. Our results show a sizeable negative profit and loss gap, indicating that the model is economically infeasible. Finally, leveraging insights from our analyses, we build countermeasures for in-browser cryptojacking that improve the existing remedies.
... Although the concept of cryptocurrency can be traced back as far as 1983, it became a practical reality in 2009 with the launch of Bitcoin, which served as the prototype for the many thousands of crypto assets that exist today (Bal 2014(Bal , 2015bHileman & Rauchs 2017). Bitcoin aims to be 'an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party' (Nakamoto 2009:1). ...
This study assessed the adequacy of the guidelines available to South African taxpayers on the consequences of crypto asset transactions, and identified the income tax consequences for transactions not addressed in these guidelines. The study found that the SARS guidelines did not comprehensively address all the
crypto asset transactions addressed by the other selected tax authorities. The study recommended that SARS provide comprehensive guidance to South
African taxpayers on the income tax consequences of crypto asset transactions, the development of which would be supported by consequences identified in this study.
... Mining equipment that is gathered together in mining facilities accounts for the bulk of the entire Bitcoin network hash rate. In 2017, Hileman and Rauchs [45] conducted a study with 48 miners and found this to be true. Eleven of them were classified as big mineral extraction, with more than 50% of the worldwide Bitcoin blockchain hash rate attributed to them. ...
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer trustless network that keeps records of digital assets without any central authority. With the passage of time, the sustainability issue of blockchain is rising. This paper discusses two major sustainability issues of blockchain: power consumption and scalability. It discusses the challenge of power consumption by analyzing various approaches to estimating power consumption in the literature. A case study of bitcoin is presented for this purpose. The study presents a review of the growing energy consumption of bitcoin along with a solution for immersion cooling in blockchain mining. The second challenge addressed in this research is scalability. With the increase in network size, scalability issues are also increasing as the number of transactions per second is decreasing. In other words, blockchain is observing low throughput with its increase in size. The paper discusses research studies and techniques proposed in the literature. The paper then investigates how to scale blockchain for better performance.
... In 2015 the number of retailers accepting the cryptocurrency bitcoin has passed 100,000 (Cuthbertson, 2015), while according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance study (Hileman & Rauchs 2017) in 2017 there were already 5.9 million Bitcoin (and consequently Blockchain) users. Since it (Bitcoin) allows payments to be finalized without any bank or intermediary, Blockchain can be used in various financial services such as digital assets, remittance and online payments (Adams et al., 2017). ...
The aim of this paper is to review impact of the one of the most modern cutting edge technologies‘, namely Blockchain on Economic Security. First of all article describes concept - technological background of Blockchain technology nature, emphasizing main features that have most significant and even disruptive impact on separate industries and even whole Economy including Economic Security. Secondly contemporary challenges of this technology are provided. Thirdly multifaced concept of Economic security is explained, followed by importance of this phenomenon specifically within modern mega trends such as Globalization and Information Society. Blockhain impact has been researched through three main industries/functions – eCommerce, Payments and Logistics. Finally conclusions of the paper suggest to use Blockhain with another Industry 4.0 technologies (such as Big Data and Internet of Thing) to reach maximum possible synergy.
... Instead, purchasers in Afghanistan are flocking to digital currency in the hopes of conserving what little wealth they have (Najafizada & Bloomberg, 2022). The cryptocurrency mining map illustrates that publicly known mining operations are distributed geographically, although there is a substantial concentration in some Chinese areas (Hileman & Rauchs, 2017). Following the Taliban takeover, many Afghans are claimed to have turned to crypto trading to meet their financial demands, causing the country to progressively climb the crypto acceptance ladder. ...
The world is on the brink of rewriting business and monitoring history. It is very crucial to mention academically how Afghan crypto-monitory transactions are taking place. even though it is a soft threat to official government organizations via tax evasion, money laundering, and terrorism financing. The qualitative method with content analysis was applied because the data was in textual form. The data was analyzed through Atlis.ti 9. First of all, the interviews were coded, and then themes were created. The result showed that Bitcoin and Binance had the most users, and there were six types of cryptocurrencies in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages were highlighted. Lastly, it was highly suggested that the Afghan government have specific laws for general protection and to gain the benefits of the new world of high technology.
... At face value, it is simply a shared database, which is why it is also known as a distributed ledger, although distributed ledgers can be built with other technologies as well. What differentiates blockchain from traditional database technology is that, instead of having a single database stored by a database owner who maintains and shares the data, in a blockchain network, all participants have their own copy of the database (Hileman and Rauchs, 2017). A blockchain network ensures that everyone on the network is in agreement when it comes to the correctness and authenticity of the data, everyone has the same copy of this agreed-upon data and no one person can alter the data once it is on the network. ...
Blockchain is a verification infrastructure that offers a solution to the problem of how to verify digital identity. This publication is aimed at policy-makers in education who have an interest in understanding the affordances of blockchain technology to the education sector. Exploratory exercises with blockchain demonstrate that it is already possible to deploy the technology to cover credentialing and certification in both formal and non-formal learning. This publication presents the essential concepts and uses in a style accessible to policy-makers and experts who are not necessarily specialists in the area but need a quick introduction into the subject.
... Some scholars call this stage of adoption for this technology Blockchain 1.0 or "the Internet of Money" era. It was then in 2015 that the next era of blockchain technology, referred to as Blockchain 2.0 or "smart contracts," was introduced by Ethereum [27,28]. Smart contracts are essential computer codes that control the contractual agreements between parties in the cyber space [29]. ...
Abstract Blockchain is a powerful technology to facilitate decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization, and democratization (4D's) of the energy systems of the future. The 4D's are the driving forces of transition into new energy systems that are more sustainable, resilient, efficient, and equitable. Although this technology can be applied to a wide spectrum of applications in the power sector, a set of challenges and limitations still need to be addressed to facilitate a full‐scope implementation in energy systems. This paper presents an overview of blockchain technology from its inception through its most recent evolution and presents a thematic review of state of the art in the application of this technology in power systems. Further, it addresses the barriers preventing the power sector from large‐scale, full‐scope adoption of this technology. Finally, the emerging blockchain trends in the near future will be discussed and its potential to facilitate a secure, decentralized energy trading platform will be investigated.
... International investors, national regulators, financial experts, and financial institutions are all interested in these virtual currencies. According to Hileman and Rauchs (2017), the cryptocurrency market has had a noticeable upswing and rapid development, which has increased the trading volume of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. According to Katsiampa's (2017) research, the large profits in cryptocurrencies are caused by the significant volatility of their price movements. ...
n this paper, the researcher studies the growth of cryptocurrency trading in different countries and also investigates the speculative properties of three significant cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB) and Ethereum (ETH), and their conditional correlation with six indices of the stock market namely; IXIC, Standard & Poor’s 500, NYSE Composite, DJI, Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex from the period of April 2, 2018, to May 31, 2022. The result of this paper shows the following findings: First- the cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile as compared to indices of the stock market. Second- the stock market and cryptocurrency market are shows highly correlated values in the United State indices of the stock market as compared to the Indian indices of the stock market.
... To justify the direct relationships between FIN and CNE, we also looked into existing studies that explored a similar relationship. For example (Rauchs and Hileman, 2017)report that the center of Bitcoin in China mainly depends upon the energy from coal which is currently utilizing bitcoin mining, eventually leading to environmental pollution and continuing the same. Moreover, another study, as reported by (Dilek and Furuncu, 2019), signifies that energy used for mining bitcoin mainly comes from coal and thermal plant, resulting in more carbon dioxide emissions. ...
Since the industrial revolution, the financial sector has become a significant claimant toward the growth of human society. However, supporting the adverse environmental projects in financial terms has raised several queries about creating a direct linkage between financial market products and the environment.This research examines the nexus between sustainability, green innovations, financial technologies (FinTech), financial development, and natural resources for BRICS economies during 2000–2019. Using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), the results show that FinTech and natural resources adversely impact environmental sustainability across all three ranges of quantiles (0.10th-0.30th, 0.40th-0.60, and 0.70th-0.90th).Conversely, green innovations and financial development promote environmental sustainability across lower to higher-order quantiles (0.10th-0.90th), while economic growth contributes to higher emissions at major quantiles. Similar findings are endorsed using alternative estimators and suggest practical policy implications.
... Here are a few examples of blockchain financial services applications that are gaining popularity in the industry: (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 13, No. 11, 2022 895 | P a g e www.ijacsa.thesai.org 1) Cryptocurrency: The earliest application of blockchain technology was to record digital currency transactions, and it remains the most popular usage to date. Bitcoin was the first widely adopted cryptocurrency [85]. Since then, the numerous versions of blockchain technologies have resulted in a wide range of cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications in markets and economics. ...
Blockchain technology is based on the idea of a distributed, consensus ledger, which it employs to create a secure, immutable data storage and management system. It is a publicly accessible and collectively managed ledger enabling unprecedented levels of trust and transparency between business and individual collaborations. It has both robust cryptographic security and a transparent design. The immutability feature of blockchain data has the potential to transform numerous industries. People have begun to view blockchain as a revolutionary technology capable of identifying "The Best Possible Solution" in various real-world scenarios. This paper provides a comprehensive insight into blockchains, fostering an objectual understanding of this cutting-edge technology by focusing on the theoretical fundamentals, operating principles, evolution, architecture, taxonomy, and diverse application-based manifestations. It investigates the need for decentralisation, smart contracts, permissioned and permissionless consensus mechanisms, and numerous blockchain development frameworks, tools, and platforms. Furthermore, the paper presents a novel compendium of existing and emerging blockchain technologies by examining the most recent advancements and challenges in blockchain-enabled solutions for a variety of application domains. This survey bridges multiple domains and blockchain technology, discussing how embracing blockchain technology is reshaping society's most important sectors. Finally, the paper delves into potential future blockchain ecosystems providing a clear picture of open research challenges and opportunities for academics, researchers, and companies with a strong fundamental and technical grounding.
... Lastly, "blockchain" refers to the digital recording of auditable and immutable transactions (Hileman and Rauchs, 2017). This suggests that it is a type of network whose data storage and sharing are not susceptible to manipulation. ...
Literature suggests that interdependencies may expose construction contractors to payment risks. However, prior research has tended to assume a disconnected perspective, which ignores the interdependence effect. To bridge this gap, a network of incompatible practices was built using judgments from subject matter experts in payment dispute cases in Kenya. After that, social network analysis (SNA) techniques such as Eigenvector and Lambda partitioning were used to analyze it. Ten interdependencies that expose contractors to payment risk were identified. The interdependence between the payment upon verified performance and the failure to match the work done with the amounts paid initiates and transmits most of these risks. In line with the power-law principle, fewer than 20% initiate and transmit more than 80% of the risks. This study demonstrates how economizing strategies can influence the choice of practices, complement blockchain decentralization measures, and improve the analysis of payment dispute cases.
... Similarly, there are other entrepreneurial firms that offer services complementary to digital currencies, such as wallets, which serve to store cryptocurrencies for users. Finally, there are miners (of PoW) and validators (of PoS) who -in return for some incentive in the form of block rewards and fees -validate the transactions and create the blocks to be added to the blockchain that secures the global ledger (Hileman and Rauchs 2017). Miners and validators constitute the key stakeholder group, and they work like employees, guided by the rules and incentives in the cryptocurrency's software. ...
How can cryptocurrency gain legitimacy in the eyes of users? Drawing upon the theories of institutional uncertainty and legitimacy, we propose a process model in which legitimacy for cryptocurrencies acquired at the market level via rhetorical strategies (i.e. evasive action) will reduce uncertainty in the formal institutional environment. This reduction in institutional uncertainty will beget additional legitimacy, and thus higher performance for individual crypto firms, on average. This study (1) advances institutional entrepreneurship research by investigating the legitimation process of cryptocurrency; (2) extends our understanding of the evolution of an innovation and its diffusion under institutional uncertainty; (3) contributes to the development of institutional theory by elucidating how cryptocurrencies can change existing institutions, and even create new ones, through evasive entrepreneurship; and (4) provides an overall theoretical rationale for how cryptocurrency can become more widely accepted.
The aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of knowledge and experience in a specific domain on the formation of opinions regarding a particular issue. The research focused on cryptocurrencies, chosen due to their relatively new and unexplored nature in terms of opinion formation. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 778 university students, which were then analyzed using the SmartPLS package. The survey was conducted in Poland, a country where cryptocurrencies are treated relatively neutrally, not being banned but also not widely accepted as a means of payment. The main research question addressed whether previously acquired knowledge and experience with cryptocurrencies impact opinion formation. Four latent variables were examined: Experience, Perceived Benefits, Perceived Disadvantages, and Opinion Formation. The findings reveal that Experience has the strongest influence on Opinion Formation, followed by Perceived Benefits, which has a positive effect, and Perceived Disadvantages, which has a negative effect. Therefore, the hypotheses were supported, indicating a positive association between Perceived Benefits and Opinion Formation (H1), as well as between respondents' Experience with cryptocurrencies and Opinion Formation (H3). Additionally, H2 was supported, indicating a negative association between Perceived Disadvantages and Opinion Formation. Our research results enrich the literature, particularly in the field of interdisciplinary approaches to cryptocurrencies, knowledge, and experience.
Objet : Montrer dans quelle mesure la taxe peut constituer un instrument de contrôle des cryptomonnaies à disposition des autorités monétaires et financières. Méthodologie : En s’appuyant sur un modèle théorique qui reprend le fonctionnement d’un contrat implicite (Milgrom, 1997), la méthodologie de cet article a consisté en la résolution d’un jeu de gouvernance entre les autorités financières et les plateformes de cryptomonnaies. Résultats : Un prélèvement monétaire au moment de la conversion des cryptomonnaies en monnaies légales constitue un moyen pour les banques centrales de contrôler efficacement les cryptomonnaies, en raison notamment du refus des plateformes de cryptomonnaies de partager les informations relatives aux transactions effectuées. De plus, une coordination des autorités publiques, financières et bancaires est essentielle pour une réduction des transactions illicites et une sécurisation des échanges. Originalité : Elle réside dans l’approche méthodologique retenue. En effet, le recours à la modélisation théorique du jeu de gouvernance constitue une nouvelle approche jusqu’à présent très peu adoptée dans les travaux relatifs à l’analyse de la gouvernance financière des cryptomonnaies.
Despite recent studies focused on comparing the dynamics of market efficiency between Bitcoin and other traditional assets, there is a lack of knowledge about whether Bitcoin and emerging markets efficiency behave similarly. This paper aims to compare the market efficiency dynamics between Bitcoin and the emerging stock markets. In particular, this study indicates whether the dynamics of Bitcoin market efficiency mimic those of emerging stock markets. Thus, the paper's contribution emerges from the combination of Bitcoin and emerging markets in the field of dynamics of market efficiency. The dynamics of market efficiency are measured using the Hurst exponent in the rolling window. The study uses daily data for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the Bitcoin market over the period 2011–2022. Our results show that there is at most a moderate correlation between the dynamics of Bitcoin and emerging stock markets’ efficiency over the entire study period. The strongest correlations occur mainly in periods of high economic policy uncertainty in the largest Bitcoin mining countries. Therefore, the association between Bitcoin market efficiency and emerging stock markets’ efficiency may strengthen with an increase in economic policy uncertainty. These findings may be useful for investors and portfolio managers in constructing better investment strategies.
Today, the world of information systems and business processes is experiencing a shift in its status quo. Systems designed and operated in a centralized manner are now getting decentralized, either completely or partly, thanks to blockchain technology—specifically, distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is enabling this paradigm shift.
Millions of people, individuals, companies and other entities invested tremendous money in different cryptocurrencies worldwide. Many reports issued by regulators in many countries worldwide indicate a lack of reliable information clarifying the legal status of cryptocurrency products and the regulatory protection given when offered in the local market. However, the legal protection in some jurisdictions requires regulators to approve crypto assets-related products when introducing them to the market. In contrast, in others, it is proposed that a regulated financial institution like banks can endorse the approval of the cryptocurrency before its introduction to the market. It is worth noting that prudential regulation and conduct do not exist in many jurisdictions, which means that investors’ funds do not enjoy the protection provided to financial products and services such as e-money or online brokerages.Plenty of Crypto-asset are offered for selling in many jurisdictions; hence, it becomes almost impossible to bring them under specific regulations or even to place an effective monitoring system. One of the main reasons behind this is that cryptocurrency companies’ headquarters carefully select their firms’ locations in flexible jurisdictions for the regulations, taxation and legal systems. Therefore, most cryptocurrency trading transactions are carried out through firms and institutions primarily functioning in offshore registered financial entities. Furthermore, although cryptocurrencies are traded and exchanged in different countries, many lack the legal or regulatory framework to deal with related activities. Even though some jurisdictions require cryptocurrency activities to be registered or obtain a low authorization level, the purpose of such regulations is limited. Therefore, inadequate or non-existent regulatory instructions can negatively impact legal protection and enforcement. This paper investigates the legal risk imposed on cryptocurrency traders and explores the level of attention provided to regulatory, monitoring and supervision of legal and financial conduct worldwide. Furthermore, it will critically assess the capabilities and willingness of the current jurisdictions to address the issues concerning the legal complex facing the investors. It further examines the level, extent and context of legal protection frameworks given to cryptocurrency investors in different jurisdictions.KeywordsCryptocurrencylegal protectionregulationsinvestors and consumers
The market for non-fungible tokens (NFT) has been brewing for some time, but NFT is still a minefield of unknowns because we have yet to fully recognize its infinite potential. The notion for NFT stemmed from that of an Ethereum token benchmark which sought to distinguish the difference of one token from all the others. This instance of a token could be used to connect with digital properties as unique exotic identifiers. Now, it can be unanimously traded and it will stimulate the prosperity of decentralized currency market. NFT sales increased by more than 200 times to $17.7 billion in 2021, up from $82.5 million in 2020. Total NFT profits from auctioning or purchasing drastically increased from USD 12 mil throughout 2020 to USD 5.4 billion throughout 2021. The NFT entire ecosystem, on the other hand, is still very much in relative infancy, and so are NFT innovations. Research of state-of-the-art NFT standards, protocols and security evaluations will be carried out.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were utilized as biometrics in this research to simulate a system for identifying persons. As part of this study, ten people sent their ECG signals to the ECG lead equipment to collect data. Each of the ten patients (starting from 100 to 109) provided 65 raw ECG waveforms for analysis. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and entropy sample (SampEn) are utilized for features extracting of the signals from the unprocessed signal. Based on the ECG signal registration, the XGBoost classifier method was utilized to verify the identity of subjects. As a consequence of the study, it was determined that the EEMD had the greatest accuracy value of 95.66% percent. As a replacement for SampEn, this technique offers better performance and less functionality than SampEn.KeywordsElectrocardiogram (ECG Signals)Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)Sample entropy (SampEn)XGBoost algorithm
Блокчейн был впервые представлен в 2008 году как распределенный реестр транзакций биткоинов. Правительства, предприятия и другие организации исследуют и внедряют технологию блокчейн для удовлетворения различных потребностей, большинство из которых не имеют ничего общего с цифровой валютой. В этой связь весьма актуальной становится вопросы изучения проектов нормативно правовых актов по использованию технологий блокчейн.
cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses ryptography for security and operates independently of a entral bank. Its decentralized nature allows for secure and transparent transactions, making it an appealing alternative to traditional fiat currencies. Cryptocurrencies uses block chain technology, which is a distributed ledger that records all transactions on a network of computers. Bit coin was the first cryptocurrency to gain widespread attention, but today there are thousands of different crypto currencies with varying degrees of popularity and acceptance. Despite their potential benefits, cryptocurrencies are subject to volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and security risks, which have led to debates about their future role in the global economy. In this paper we are going to discuss different fraud prospects in cryptocurrency investment faces by users. Here we are listed possible scams happened in past and possibilities in future with cryptocurrency fund. Even we tried to discuss recent available detection & prevention methods for such scams. With the help of our future research perspective we are planning to provide technique to prevent such different scams and saving our valuable money.
Cryptocurrencies that are virtual and dematerialized are online and entirely digital currencies. Cryptocurrency has been the subject of many studies from different aspects; however, it is still a new area of investment for businesses as there are positive trends in the crypto space. Trending technologies, on the other hand, are making significant changes in all industries, and the cryptocurrency market is no exception. The employment of trending technologies can facilitate the crypto market with pattern recognition and secure transactions. This chapter aims to analyze the application of trending technologies in the crypto market and the benefits they can add to traders and brokers.
Virtual currency is a digital illustration of cost most effective to be had in electronic form. Virtual currencies truly represent a subset of virtual currencies that encompass numerous types of digital currency, such as cryptocurrencies and private-sector tokens. Virtual currency seems to be an uncontrolled type of digital money which is typically issued and handled by its developers designer as well as some of the contributors to a specific virtual currency community. The study aimed to study the conceptual framework of virtual currencies, and their role in the Indian Economy, and to analyze the legal status, issues, challenges, and future prospects of cryptocurrency.
Developments in the field of internet technologies have changed traditional shopping behaviors and led consumers to shop online on electronic commerce sites. Developments in the field of electronic commerce have also diversified payment systems and virtual currencies have started to be used in payments. When it comes to virtual currencies, the first concept that comes to mind recently is cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies, which are seen as investment instruments, have started to be used as payment methods by many brands in the global market. At this stage, the basis of the research is to reveal the intention of consumers in Turkey to use cryptocurrencies in online shopping. The goal of the study, which was conducted within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model, was to discover the implications of consumers' perceptions of cryptocurrencies' ease of use, risk, and trust factors on their perceived benefit and intention to use cryptocurrencies in online purchasing. For this aim, it was discovered that perceived ease of use and trust have a significant positive effect on perceived benefit, while perceived risk has a significant negative effect, based on the analysis of data obtained from 391 customers via the online survey technique. In addition, perceived ease of use, trust and benefit also positively affect the intention to use cryptocurrency in online shopping. It is concluded that the perceived risk factor does not affect the intention to use cryptocurrency in online shopping. The findings provide significant theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of cryptocurrency and electronic commerce.
The cryptocurrency is a social, cultural, and technological advancement that goes far beyond financial innovation. Cryptocurrencies have the ability to significantly boost the economy due to their openness. Digital assets governed by cryptographic methods are called cryptocurrencies. Different cryptocurrency subtypes exist. The most well-known cryptocurrency is arguably Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin has developed into a legitimate investment option and is on its way to having a significant impact on the globe. With an increase of almost 87% in 2019, Bitcoin's had been doing pretty well till mid February 2020.This cryptocurrency fell by over 15% at the month's end. This crisis occurred as world stocks collapsed as a result of COVID-19. But the use of cryptocurrencies globally surged by 880% in 2021, according to the Global Crypto Adoption Index provided by Chainalysis. With an index score of 0.37, India came in second place after Vietnam. In just one year, the Indian cryptocurrency market grew by 641%. The international cryptocurrency market is very promising and is growing swiftly. It seems like it could be a market for India as well. It is hard to forecast what will happen to the bitcoin or cryptocurrency market in 2023 and beyond. But by keeping a watch on a few significant crypto patterns, we'll be able to make wiser investing decisions as the market matures. The future of cryptocurrency appears bright, and India is poised to take over the global market.KeywordsCryptocurrencyBitcoinEconomyDigital currencyStock market
Cryptocurrencies have, over the years, gained an unprecedented prominence in financial discourse, with the market fielding over 5,300 digital currencies and reaching over $2 trillion in market capitalisation in 2022. The surge in market values of digital currencies and their popularity in the world of e-commerce have remained unabated and equally received special attention from researchers focusing on identifying the underlying factors that drive changes in their market values. Thus, this study models the dynamics of the prices of cryptocurrencies alongside their interconnectedness, focusing on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin along the time and frequency dimensions of monthly data from 1 March 2016 to 05/31/2022. Based on the ARDL model, results show that the volume of transactions of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, oil prices, and gold prices exert a more significant positive influence on their prices in the longrun than in the shortrun. However, the publicity of the selected cryptocurrencies (google search rates) does not significantly influence their prices. Interestingly, results from the Wavelet Granger causality tests show no causality between the raw series of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin prices. However, a bi-directional causality exists between Bitcoin and Ethereum prices during the longrun in their low frequencies, a unidirectional causality running from Bitcoin to Litecoin prices during the longrun in their low frequencies, and a unidirectional causality running from Litecoin to Ethereum prices during the shortrun, medium run and longrun in their high, medium, and low frequencies. These findings have profound implications for the global financial market and investor decisions.
This chapter examines the public sector applications of blockchain technology in government. Blockchain has found quick adoption in the public sector with versatile uses across several domains. We survey these extant and potential uses of blockchain in this chapter. Governments mediate or undertake a plethora of transactions which require transparency, security, and integrity in the long term. Blockchain technology has a strong potential to fulfill these requirements for governmental operations. We highlight the technology’s application in transforming various such government functions. Exemplary governmental uses of blockchain include those related to real estate, digital identity, infrastructure management, safety, and emergency management, and smart contracts. These cases demonstrate how the blockchain technology’s applications transcend those of the traditional use in cryptocurrency. We posit that the blockchain technology can potentially enhance efficiencies in the delivery of public services securely across several domains, but the realization of these uses requires more institutional learning and acceptance of the technology.KeywordsDigital governmentPublic servicesSmart contractsReal estateSelf-sovereign identificationInfrastructure management
Motivated by the significant role oil plays in the production of Bitcoin, we test whether its price can influence the realized volatility of Bitcoin returns. Using data over the period of January 27, 2017(coinciding with the emergence of Bitcoin bubbles) toJune3,2022, we conduct some predictability analyses and establish the following outcomes. First, we find that higher oil prices tend to raise the cost of producing Bitcoins, therefore lowering its returns and by extension its trading and volatility. Second, we find improved forecast performance of oil prices for the realized volatility of Bitcoin as our proposed model that accounts for oil price consistently outperforms the benchmark (random walk) model, regardless of the oil price variant and forecast horizon. Third, investors in the Bitcoin market that observe oil price movements when making investment decisions are more likely to derive higher economic gains than their counterparts that ignore it.
Security and reliability in Blockchain software systems is a major challenge in Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering. One of the most critical components to address at the architectural level is the consensus protocol, as it serves as the mechanism for accepting valid transactions and incorporating them into the ledger history. Given that this process is executed by specific blockchain nodes, it is crucial to consider them as a key point of focus for ensuring the integrity of the entire blockchain history. This paper addresses the major challenge of security and reliability in Blockchain software systems by proposing a new protocol for Permissioned Concurrent Proof of Authority (CPoA). This protocol involves selecting a group of nodes as authority nodes, responsible for validating new identities, blocks, and transactions. The protocol is integrated with a framework that subjects validators to a unique eligibility criterion and a combination of reputation, security score, online aging, and general performance indicators related to node reliability, significantly reducing the risk of validator misbehavior and enhancing security, reliability and confidentiality of the entire blockchain compared to other existing approaches.
Cryptocurrency is an advanced digital currency that is secured by encryption, making it nearly impossible to forge or duplicate. Many cryptocurrencies are blockchain-based with decentralized networks. The prediction of cryptocurrency prices is a very difficult task because of the absence of an appropriate analytical basis to substantiate their claims. Cryptocurrencies are also dependent on several variables, such as technical advancement, internal competition, market pressure, economic concerns, security, and political considerations. This paper proposed the hybrid walk-forward ensemble optimization technique and applied it to predict the daily prices of fifteen cryptocurrencies, such as Cardano (ADA-USD), Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), Ethereum Classic (ETC-USD), Chainlink (LINK-USD), Litecoin (LTC-USD), NEO (NEO-USD), Tron (TRX-USD), Tether (USDT-USD), NEM (XEM-USD), Stellar (XLM-USD), Ripple (XRP-USD), and Tezos (XTZ-USD). A performance comparison of these cryptocurrencies was done using classical statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and deep learning algorithms on different cryptocurrency time series. Simulation results show that our proposed model performed better in terms of cryptocurrency prediction accuracy compared to the classical statistical model and machine and deep learning algorithms used in this paper.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are well-known for their privacy properties that allow for the “anonymous” exchange of money. Bitcoin tracking with taint analysis remains challenging as it does not account for the change in Bitcoins' ownership or the usage of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) to obscure Bitcoins' movement, and often produces unessential incidents with transactions unlikely to be related to the targeted activity. In this paper, we propose to improve the Bitcoin taint analysis tracking process that adapts to the context of address ownership and avoid following unrelated transactions. First, we introduce an approach in which we incorporate Bitcoin taint analysis with address profiling. Second, we propose two context-based taint analysis strategies. Third, we introduce a set of metrics using hypothesised behaviours related to illegal Bitcoins and recognisable patterns within the blockchain. We conducted an experiment using sample data from known Bitcoin theft cases to illustrate and evaluate the approach. The results on address profile integration reveal distinct transaction behaviours in tracking theft cases following all the metrics, such as address reuse, address size and transaction fee payment. One of the context-based tracking strategies, Dirty-First, shows positive potential for illustrating illegal Bitcoins’ spending and obscuring strategies. The majority of the six metrics we defined give distinct results in transaction behaviours between the theft cases and the control groups. Our context-based tracking methodology provides a solution for one of the shortcomings in the current Bitcoin tracking methodology and the next step for future cryptocurrency and cybercrime forensic research.
The introduction of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has provided many investors the option to engage in the market, diversify their portfolios, and accumulate wealth. The high return on cryptocurrency during the pandemic has served as an incentive for all ethnic groups to participate in the market. Cryptocurrency is perceived as a hedging instrument for wealth prospects across races during COVID-19. Considering the return on investment, to what extent is blockchain a good hedging instrument for minority investors? Using weekly trade price data from Yahoo Finance, market valuations from coinranking.com, and asset/equity variables from the Federal Reserve Bank, this paper examines investment strategies of different racial/ethnic groups in cryptocurrency during the pandemic in a panel data model from 2019 to 2021. Should investors use public coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of their investment portfolio mix during the pandemic? We find that an increase in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies during the pandemic may repress the investment strategy for marginalized groups.
The increasing presence of cryptocurrency has disrupted various areas such as financial, e-commerce, etc. This has attracted many scholars to investigate this technology, including its adoption. Yet, end-users adoption remains low despite numerous attempts to study the adoption. This paper conducts a systematic literature review of empirical studies on cryptocurrency adoption from individuals’ perspectives, aiming to identify research gaps that need to be addressed. A total of 50 articles were collected and reviewed. We illustrate that the majority of papers are quantitative, and the most widely utilized theories are TAM and UTAUT. Most of the reviewed studies investigate the adoption without context. Trust is the most critical factor impacting cryptocurrency adoption. Several gaps in the current literature have been identified and discussed. Consequently, future research agendas are suggested.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.