Contract Platform Research Articles

Electronic Contract Ledger System Based on Blockchain Technology

The rapid development of the information Internet has promoted the development of electronic contracts, but user identities have been stolen and electronic contracts are easily tampered with. Seriously affected the fairness and security of online electronic transactions. For the main body of the transaction, how to confirm that the data identity of the transaction body has not been misused and the transaction electronic contract has not been tampered is the key problem which needs to be solved first. This paper designs the electronic contract platform by combining user identity authentication, encrypted transmission of electronic contracts and blockchain ledger storage. Ensure user identity uniqueness, contract transmission data integrity and non-tampering, and traceability of the signing process, thereby achieving security and fairness.

블록체인 기반 탈중앙화 신원증명 환경에서의 계약 플랫폼

블록체인 기반 탈중앙화 신원증명 환경에서의 계약 플랫폼

Technological Systems and Economy: a Heterodox Approach and Institutional Framework

Technologies determine the level of innovative development and economic growth. The article studies a methodological platform for a new unit of analysis in economic science such technological system. This phenomenon involves the research program, the study of the specifics and features this mesolevel pattern. The methodological basis of the research includes Neoclassical and Neoinstitutional Economic theories, Strategic Management and Complexity Economic. The research program we apply a Heterodox approach as a set of the Contract theory, Evolutionary theory, Complexity Economic and Platform ecosystems. The authors define a technological system as an economic meso-level pattern that coordinate actions and knowledge about system and component technologies and functioning through the quasi-self-enforcing contracts based on standards and independent of property rights. Any meso-level pattern that has technological and institutional identity is a technological system. The types of technological systems in the economy are highlighted on the basis of the consolidated classification “blurring of the bundle of property rights to technology – the degree of technology decentralization”. The results create the basis for further research of identifying boundaries and analyzing the competitiveness of technological systems, as well as assessing public administration strategies in this area.

Implementing a Smart Contract PKI

Public key infrastructures (PKIs) provide the foundations for securing Internet communications. Currently, PKIs are operated by centralized authorities, which have been involved in numerous security incidents. Blockchain or smart contract PKIs employ their distributed, fault-tolerant log of transactions to store either all identity records, or, constant-sized data to verify identity records stored off-chain. However, as most of these systems have never been implemented, there is little information regarding their practical implications. In this article, we implement, evaluate, and provide a complete security proof for the smart contract-based PKI of (Patsonakis et al.) on Ethereum. This construction incurs constant-sized storage at the expense of computational complexity. To explore this tradeoff, we propose and implement a second construction which, eliminates the need for trusted setup, preserves its security properties and show that it is the only version with constant-sized state that can be deployed on Ethereum's live chain. We compare these constructions with the simple approach of storing all identity records on the smart contract's state, to illustrate several shortcomings of Ethereum and its cost model. We propose several modifications for fine tuning the model, which should be considered for any smart contract platform like Ethereum so that it may support arbitrary distributed applications.

Blockchain Use in IoT for Privacy-Preserving Anti-Pandemic Home Quarantine

The outbreak of the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused the world to face an existential health crisis. To contain the infectious disease, many countries have quarantined their citizens for several weeks to months and even suspended most economic activities. To track the movements of residents, the governments of many states have adopted various novel technologies. Connecting billions of sensors and devices over the Internet, the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), has been used for outbreak control. However, these technologies also pose serious privacy risks and security concerns with regards to data transmission and storage. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based system to provide the secure management of home quarantine. The privacy and security attributes for various events are based on advanced cryptographic primitives. To demonstrate the application of the system, we provide a case study in an IoT system with a desktop computer, laptop, Raspberry Pi single-board computer, and the Ethereum smart contract platform. The obtained results prove its ability to satisfy security, efficiency, and low-cost requirements.

Freedom to (Smart) Contract

Since Friedrich Kessler wrote “Contracts of Adhesion-Some Thoughts About Freedom of Contract” in 1943, condemning narrow adherence to the principle of “freedom to contract” in the face of large scale enterprises’ growing preference for standard form contracts, Courts have balanced their desire to uphold contracts while protecting weaker parties from adhesion. Today, they face similar challenges with the rise of code-driven smart contracts and blockchain governance. Similar to Kessler’s world, where standard-form contracts were a tool for “excluding or controlling the ‘irrational factor’ in litigation” such as uncertain outcomes of judicial interpretation, automated smart contracts aim to put themselves outside the control of both contractual parties and the courts, thus removing any ability to breach or tamper with the original terms. Smart contract advocates contend that removing the judiciary as the governing body over contract law and imposing contractual performance via decentralized blockchain governance improves efficiency and certainty.
 But, how much can one really write a contract that completely circumvents the potential for legal intervention or judicial enforcement? Will smart contracts finally achieve the complete separation between private and public law that advocates of “freedom to contract” originally claimed, or does the common law legal system’s deep-rooted belief in the rule of law and due process prevent the judiciary from being excluded from contract enforcement regardless the medium? And is there a risk that, as smart contract sceptics posit, smart contract platforms and blockchain governance create a new feudal order with a “potentially illegitimate exercise of power” and “normatively suspect” wealth distributions?
 The short answer, as this paper will demonstrate, is that as long as smart contracts meet the traditional requirements of a contract, they cannot fall outside the establish legal system’s purview. The only thing a smart contract truly adds to traditional contracts is automated execution that is enforced by the blockchain’s consensus mechanism; this may provide some efficiency to the legal system by streamlining basic performance but it cannot be the only form of governance over smart contracts. While there may be procedural challenges to undoing or enforcing specific performance under smart contracts because of their decentralized features, any substantive problems that could occur within a smart contract are imminently addressable with and must be subjected to the principles and remedies found in traditional contract law. Finally, I will conclude with current developments in smart contracts which point to a potential for them to become an integral part of our legal system going forward. Overall, I will argue that smart contracts, if carefully drafted to consider potential pitfalls and the future needs of contracting parties to amend or enforce, can hold the potential to provide efficiencies and greater legal certainty to contracting parties. This is achieved, not through circumventing the legal system, but by working with it to automate simple performance enforcement and deferring more complex contractual breakdowns to the judiciary.

Toward Scalable User-Deployed Ultra-Dense Networks: Blockchain-Enabled Small Cells as a Service

Neutral host SCPs represent a key element of the 5G vision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly focus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel chains. These business agreements are regulated through binding SLAs, which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller-scale SCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full potential. In this article, we propose a framework to enable the participation of small- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering network resources to MNOs. To this purpose, we review the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs can use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of blockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative to traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a proof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform for best effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential smart contract-based deployments in city center Dublin show that the received signal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of 10 percent.

Service Orchestration in NFV-Based Traditional and Emerging Cloud Environments: State of the Art and Research Challenges

Neutral host SCPs represent a key element of the 5G vision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly focus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel chains. These business agreements are regulated through binding SLAs, which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller-scale SCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full potential. In this article, we propose a framework to enable the participation of small- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering network resources to MNOs. To this purpose, we review the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs can use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of blockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative to traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a proof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform for best effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential smart contract-based deployments in city center Dublin show that the received signal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of 10 percent.

Why Stake When You Can Borrow?

As smart contract platforms autonomously manage billions of dollars of capital, quantifying the portfolio risk that investors engender in these systems is increasingly important. Recent work illustrates that Proof of Stake (PoS) is vulnerable to financial attacks arising from on-chain lending and has worse capital efficiency than Proof of Work (PoW). Numerous methods for improving capital efficiency have been proposed that allow stakers to create fungible derivative claims on their staked assets. In this paper, we construct a unifying model for studying the security risks of these proposals. This model combines birth-death Polya processes and risk models adapted from the credit derivatives literature to assess token inequality and return profiles. We find that there is a sharp transition between 'safe' and 'unsafe' derivative usage. Surprisingly, we find that contrary to there exist conditions where derivatives can reduce concentration of wealth in these networks. This model also applies to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols where staked assets are used as insurance. Our theoretical results are validated using agent-based simulation.

Smart Contracts on the Blockchain – A Bibliometric Analysis and Review

Smart contracts are decentrally anchored scripts on blockchains or similar infrastructures that allow the transparent execution of predefined processes. Using smart contracts, assets like money become programmable, which opens up previously inaccessible application potential. To date, smart contracts control billions in value. This paper analyzes 468 peer-reviewed articles on the topic of smart contracts and their 20,188 references, providing a summary and analysis of the current state of research on smart contracts. Using exploratory factor analysis for co- citation analysis, we identify six different strands of research that concern technical, social, economic and legal disciplines: I) technical foundations, development and open questions of blockchain networks, II) blockchain and smart contracts for the Internet of Things, III) smart contract standardization, verification and security, IV) blockchain and smart contracts for the disruption of existing processes and industries, V) potentials and challenges of smart contracts, and VI) smart contracts and the law. The interrelations between these groups are visualized using social network analysis. We thus obtain a structured overview of the main strands of research concerning smart contracts, their development over time, the relevance of smart contract platforms in research, and conceptual connections between publications and discourses. The results offer researchers and practitioners a substantial basis for their work on smart contracts.

A Survey of Smart Contract Vulnerability Research

Smart contract is a decentralized application that operates on a blockchain platform, providing secure and reliable capabilities to contract participants. Smart contracts play an important role in decentralized application scenarios. They are widely used in many fields, such as equity crowdfunding, games, insurance, and the Internet of Things, making them attractive to attackers. Compared to traditional programs, the security of smart contracts affects not only the fairness of contracts but also the safety of high volume digital assets on the blockchain managed by contracts. Therefore, analyzing the security of smart contracts and associated vulnerabilities is crucial. In this paper, we analyzed the characteristics of smart contracts and new security risks they bring. We propose a three-layer threat model, i.e., threats from high-level languages, virtual machines, and the blockchain, for characterizing smart contract security. We use the world′s largest smart contract platform Ethereum as an example to illustrate 15 types of common vulnerabilities in smart contracts. We then summarize the main challenges and progress of smart contract security research on vulnerability, including automated vulnerability detection, automated exploit generation and mitigations for smart contracts. At the end of this paper, we highlight the future of smart contract security research, and proposed two potential research directions.

Access Control Mechanism for IoT using Blockchain

In our everyday lives, IoT plays a vital role. It is crucial to sense, capture and share data from connected devices via internet. Existing system proposed centralized client/server approach where central authority keeps a record of all the activities. Failure of such centralized authority makes the whole system fail. A decentralized / distributed approach is therefore needed if a single failure point is avoided. In this paper contains information to integrating Blockchain in IoT ecosystem in order to achieve access control. We proposed smart contract based architecture which consist multiple permission contract, one decision contract and one entry contract, to achieve distributed and secure IoT device access control. To conclude system framework, we provide a case study in an IoT system with two laptops and one Raspberry Pi single-board computers, where the PCs, DC and EC are implemented based on the Ethereum smart contract platform to achieve the access control.

UKRAINIAN CRYPTОCURRENCY IMPLEMENTATION AS A TOOL FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT

The article is devoted to a detailed analysis of the Ukrainian cryptocurrency implementation peculiarities and its impact on changes in Additionally, the article gives a brief description of the world economy transformation processes, which are influenced by innovative instruments, primarily cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies and smart contracts. These changes can fundamentally reshape current economic models and shape the new digital economy. It's proved that Ukraine's economy must be open and flexible to such transformation processes, and therefore the national cryptocurrency development and implementation can prepare the domestic economy and give it considerable leading advantages over other countries. Moreover, currently working Ukrainian cryptocurrency projects have been researched and the main limitations and pitfalls of their functioning have been studied. The main attention is paid to the private UCH project, which is not only based on the blockchain technology like previous projects, but also uses smart contract platforms in three different spheres of Ukraine's economy and has a great potential for launching significant positive changes for Ukraine's Furthermore, the advantages of the national cryptocurrency introduction and its possible functional features are considered in the article. These are: modernization of financial relationships — the national cryptocurrency is expected to improve, simplify and modernize the financial process; decentralization of financial relationships — the cryptocurrency is based on decentralized databases, which can reduce the number of intermediaries and significantly optimize financial transactions; security improvement of financial relationships — new financial technologies are claimed to provide a higher level of protection against errors and fraud; financial transactions transparency and speed increasement — cryptocurrency payments are more faster and more transparent to customers thanks to innovative instruments; the enhancement of currency functionality — the national cryptocurrency is able to extend the current functional characteristics of money; competitive advantages — the modernization of financial relations will allow to stimulate Ukraine's economy development. As a conclusion, the main obstacle of the national cryptocurrency successful implementation is the lack of comprehensive legislative regulation of the crypto market, which would meet the new needs and challenges of the modern

Secure Modular Smart Contract Platform for Multi-Tenant 5G Applications

Trusted decentralized applications based on distributed ledger technologies provide many potential opportunities to 5G applications and verticals, as well as in fifth generation mobile network (5G) enabling technologies, systems, and services. Apart from the tamper-proof exchange of transactions, distributed ledgers can provide a software environment for the trusted execution of smart contracts. In this article, we explore the security aspects of decentralized applications and, in particular, the security of smart contracts. Distributed ledger characteristics impose distinct requirements on smart contract design, implementation, deployment, and management. We briefly present the approach to the development of secure smart contracts, and highlight key smart contract vulnerabilities and the developer tools supporting smart contract security. We developed a secure, upgradeable modular multi-contract platform. It combines per-contract Smart Contract Tunnels and per-user-based access control to minimize vulnerabilities. The smart contract platform is comprised of service-agnostic, auxiliary, and service-specific smart contracts. It can be therefore easily adapted to different 5G application verticals. For illustration and evaluation, we elaborated on the proposed solution on a case of smart electric charging. During the design and development, state-of-the-art code analysis was applied. Finally, we propose an architecture for the integration of the secure multi-contract platform into a 5G architecture. The integration proposal utilizes hybrid private-public blockchain networks for possible security, scalability, performance, and transaction cost optimization.

Smart Contract-Based Trusted Content Retrieval Mechanism for NDN

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a new clean-slate architecture for the future Internet. Efficient content retrieval is the original intention of NDN design. The content retrieval process driven by content consumers in NDN includes the following challenges, consumers do not know whether the content exists and whether the content producer is reliable. Invalid interest packets could cause the occupation of limited network resources and DoS attack problem. To ensure the authenticity and integrity of the data packets, consumers need to pre-configure the trust schema, which is centralized and prone to the single point of failure problem. Blockchain has widespread attention to build trust in a distributed way, and Ethereum is a programmable blockchain, a decentralized smart contract platform. To lighten the burden of consumers, we proposed a Smart Contract-based Trusted Content Retrieval Mechanism (SCTCRM) for NDN in this paper. The mechanism contains a trustworthy information base for content and producers based on smart contracts, and provides content retrieval and name resolution services for content consumers. The purpose of this mechanism is to improve the efficiency and security of content retrieval process. We described the framework and the workflow of SCTCRM, and used Colored Petri Nets to create a formal mathematical model and analyze the security of the mechanism. Finally, the cost of storage and Gas in smart contracts are evaluated through the prototype deployment. From the results, we can see that the proposed mechanism is security and practicality.

A Framework Based on Distributed Ledger Technologies for Data Management and Services in Intelligent Transportation Systems

Data are becoming the cornerstone of many businesses and entire systems infrastructure. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are no different. The ability of intelligent vehicles and devices to acquire and share environmental measurements in the form of data is leading to the creation of smart services for the benefit of individuals. In this paper, we present a system architecture to promote the development of ITS using distributed ledgers and related technologies. Thanks to these, it becomes possible to create, store and share data generated by users through the sensors on their devices or vehicles, while on the move. We propose an architecture based on Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) to offer features such as immutability, traceability and verifiability of data. IOTA, a promising DLT for IoT, is used together with Decentralized File Storages (DFSes) to store and certify data (and their related metadata) coming from vehicles or by the users' devices themselves (smartphones). Ethereum is then exploited as the smart contract platform that coordinates the data sharing through access control mechanisms. Privacy guarantees are provided by the usage of distributed key management systems and Zero Knowledge Proof. We provide experimental results of a testbed based on real traces, in order to understand if DLT and DFS technologies are ready to support complex services, such as those that pertain to ITS. Results clearly show that, while the viability of the proposal cannot be rejected, further work is needed on the responsiveness of DLT infrastructures.

An overview on smart contracts: Challenges, advances and platforms

Smart contract technology is reshaping conventional industry and business processes. Being embedded in blockchains, smart contracts enable the contractual terms of an agreement to be enforced automatically without the intervention of a trusted third party. As a result, smart contracts can cut down administration and save services costs, improve the efficiency of business processes and reduce the risks. Although smart contracts are promising to drive the new wave of innovation in business processes, there are a number of challenges to be tackled. This paper presents a survey on smart contracts. We first introduce blockchains and smart contracts. We then present the challenges in smart contracts as well as recent technical advances. We also compare typical smart contract platforms and give a categorization of smart contract applications along with some representative examples.

A Survey on Efficient Parallelization of Blockchain-based Smart Contracts

The main problem faced by smart contract platforms is the amount of time and computational power required to reach consensus. In a classical blockchain model, each operation is in fact performed by each node, both to update the status and to validate the results of the calculations performed by others. In this short survey we sketch some state-of-the-art approaches to obtain an efficient and scalable computation of smart contracts. Particular emphasis is given to sharding, a promising method that allows parallelization and therefore a more efficient management of the computational resources of the network.

Singapore’s Open Digital Token Offering Embrace: Context & Consequences

The overall global public’s ability to purchase some portion of a digital token project’s initial batch of tokens is the defining feature of an open digital token offering. Using a dataset that differentiates this token distribution model from other varieties – a distinction often underemphasised in regional analyses of digital token sale trends – this research estimates 2017-18 open digital token offering activity by jurisdiction, finding that Singapore-registered projects accounted for 21 percent of Q3/Q4 2018 dollar-volume, more than any other country. Conversely, by late 2018, previous hubs of this distribution model represented a much smaller share. Reasons for Singapore’s rise as a global hub of the open digital token offering are explored, with a particular focus on examining contrasting regulatory approaches to distinguishing between this token distribution model and traditional securities offerings. Notably, 11 percent of Singapore-registered Q3/Q4 2018 token offering dollar-volume was purely-private, versus 94 percent in the U.S. Policy considerations related to this distribution method and the open digital token offering are presented, as are contrasting outcomes: this research estimates that over 70 percent of Singapore’s one-to-two-year-old open token offerings resulted in operational networks or minimum-viable-products, versus fewer than 40 percent of U.S. private sales. Also, about 40 percent of smart contract platform projects that conducted 2017-18 token sales were Singapore-registered – many more than in any other country. For reasons explored in this research, these findings support the view that open digital token offerings benefit projects aiming to concurrently raise funds, build up a user-base, and incentivise technologists to contribute to project development. Moreover, risks to retail participants posed by this distribution method are manageable. Singapore’s policy approach towards open digital token offerings has benefited the Lion City, which was likely home to more digital token projects that conducted 2018 token sales than any other city in the world.

Dissecting Ponzi schemes on Ethereum: Identification, analysis, and impact

Ponzi schemes are financial frauds which lure users under the promise of high profits. Actually, users are repaid only with the investments of new users joining the scheme: consequently, a Ponzi scheme implodes soon after users stop joining it. Originated in the offline world 150 years ago, Ponzi schemes have since then migrated to the digital world, approaching first the Web, and more recently hanging over cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Smart contract platforms like Ethereum have provided a new opportunity for scammers, who have now the possibility of creating “trustworthy” frauds that still make users lose money, but at least are guaranteed to execute “correctly”. We present a comprehensive survey of Ponzi schemes on Ethereum, analysing their behaviour and their impact from various viewpoints.