Trade Settlement Research Articles

An Architecture and Performance Evaluation of Blockchain-Based Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

Several recent studies have suggested Blockchain for Peer-to-Peer energy trading (P2P-ET) to achieve better security, privacy and fast payment settlement. Most of them however rely on either public Blockchains (which have low performance) or permissioned blockchains (which have low decentralization level and do not provide byzantine fault tolerance). Moreover, these solutions have limitations when capturing the business model of existing energy trading systems. This article proposes a Unified permissioned blockchain-based P2P-ET Architecture (UBETA) that integrates three different types of energy markets and provides a unified energy trading and payment settlement model. The UBETA system is based on an enterprise Ethereum Blockchain, known as Hyperledger Besu, and Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance (IBFT) consensus algorithm. We compared the performance of the proposed IBFT-based system with three existing systems (i.e., Ethereum Clique, Ethereum Proof of Work and Hyperledger Fabric's Raft) using specific performance metrics (i.e., read/write transaction latency, read/write transaction throughput and fail rate). The experiments were carried out on a network size of up to 60 nodes and a real energy trading data set from the Western Australian energy market was used. The experiment results indicate that the IBFT-based system has 15x lower latency and nearly 2x throughput compared to existing Proof of Work based P2P-ET solutions. Moreover, the system provides better scalability and success rate than existing Raft based P2P-ET systems: the fail rate of the IBFT-based system only increased by 11% while that of Raft increased by 20% when increasing the number of nodes from 20 to 60. In addition, the proposed unified energy trading model provides lower latency and reduces the number of blockchain transactions compared to the non-unified counterpart.

ЗАПАДНОБАЛТСКИЙ ФЕНОМЕН В ЭПОХЕ ВИКИНГОВ

The movement of Vikings not for all regions of our continent was concussion of bases of public life. In Grobiņa and on Kaup Scandinavians didn’t manage to take decisive places in these settlements and their activity proceeded under strict control of local power structures. Westbaltic sacral phenomenon became the absence reason in Grobiņa and Kaup of settlements with the lines typical for the trade and craft settlement of an era of Vikings.

Framework for agricultural e-trading platform adoption using neural networks

The digital e-trading platform is an ambitious and priority intervention in the agricultural sector. The research study is among the very few that identifies and prioritizes the predictors of wholesale electronic trading platform adoption in agricultural marketing. The research has been conducted in two phases—identification of predictors based on a scholarly articles’ review and generating the predictive function between the identified predictors and adoption using the multilayer perceptron neural networks method. A case study of the electronic national agriculture market platform is undertaken to understand the predictors in the context of a real project. The study has revealed significant predictors of priority (high to low) as fast transaction cycles, higher prices, easier to use, infrastructure availability, trust, social influence, low transaction costs and customer care. Post-adoption, the user expects to get benefits like transparency, quick trade settlement, reduced transaction cost, expanding the market reach, and increase in the product price realized by the farmer. The improvement in the critical predictors of the electronic trading platform may help the de-facto national initiative to succeed. In new markets, the prediction framework using the neural network may be used to identify users with the propensity to adopt e-commerce or digital initiatives in the agricultural sector and proactively approach them to get a high number of transactions—an essential ingredient of success. The digital e-trading initiative is a growth catalyst of Agriculture 4.0 and may transform the agricultural supply chain for the better.

Islamisation and the formation of vernacular Muslim material culture in 15th-century northern Sumatra

ABSTRACT This study presents a distinctive type of Muslim gravestone found on the northern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, that dates to the 15th century. These grave markers, locally known as plang-pleng, provide evidence for the formation and disappearance of an early form of vernacular Muslim material culture in Southeast Asia. We documented over 200 of these gravestones during a large-scale archaeological landscape survey. In this article, we present a typology of these gravestones based upon shape, morphology and ornamentation. We then discuss their geographical distribution and periodisation based on examples with dated Arabic inscriptions. Our results show that these gravestones were initially a cultural product of the historic trading settlement of Lamri dating from the early 15th century. By the middle of the 15th century, variations of these stones started to appear widely near the Aceh river. The plang-pleng tradition was displaced in the early 16th century by the batu Aceh gravestones associated with the Aceh sultanate, which became a standardised part of Muslim material culture in the region for the next two centuries.

On the origins and chronology of the Wolin emporium

The paper concerns the problem of the origin of Wolin as an emporium in the early Middle Ages. The excavations conducted in the 1960s and 1970s in the Old Town of Wolin recorded extremely rich cultural deposits of considerable thickness, in some cases exceeding eight meters. Results of recent studies on the finds and on the archival documentation from these excavations indicate that it can be dated to the period between circa 800–1400. During this time four main stages of land-use in the place are clearly visible. The second of them, dated since circa 850 up to circa 1100, involved a large settlement of the area of a few hectars with a tightly packed, regularly laid-out wooden buildings and wood-paved communication roads leading to the port. The size of the settlement, its regular layout and a building style are alien to the Baltic Slavic region of that period. Considering also remains of intense craft production recorded on the site, it may be concluded that in that period there was a craft and trade settlement with all the features of a Baltic emporium. This was established in the place of an older, small, seasonal settlement. The transformation and the growth of the settlement must have been related to the development of the so-called Baltic economic zone of the Viking period and can be also attributed to a change in communication routes in the mouth of the Oder and the collapse of the craft and trade settlement in Menzlin on the Peene.

EIB Working Papers 2019/01 - Blockchain, FinTechs and their relevance for international financial institutions (Volume 2019/1)

The purpose of this working paper is to provide a primer on financial technology and on Blockchain, while shading light on the impact they may have on the financial industry. FinTechs, the financial technology and innovation that competes with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services, has the potential to improve the reach of financial services to the broader public and facilitate the creation of a credit record, especially in the developing world. Some Blockchain applications like cryptocurrencies, could be problematic as cryptocurrencies cannot substitute traditional money due to the high risk of debasement, luck of trust and high inefficiencies relating to the high cost in electricity and human effort required to clear cryptocurrency transactions. Cryptocurrencies' high volatility renders it a poor means of payment and store of value, while resembling a fraudulent investment operation. Yet, other Blockchain applications, like Blockchain securities, could facilitate the functioning of an International Financial Institutions (IFI) due to the volume of securities they issue as Blockchain securities enable an almost instantaneous trade confirmation, affirmation, allocation and settlement and reconciliations are superfluous releasing collateral to be used for other purposes in the market. IFIs could promote awareness and understanding about Blockchain technology among different IFI services and launch Blockchain labs in order to pilot projects that can improve governance and social outcomes in the developing world. Financial inclusion, at the core of IFI's mandate, could be enhanced by investing into FinTechs who facilitate access to payment systems. IFIs could also ponder the development of Blockchain software aimed at improving transparency and efficiency in public resources that finance development projects. IFIs could promote Blockchain applications in several sectors like agricultural lending where Blockchain technology is used in the supply chain in order to improve transparency and efficiency in agricultural and commodity production. Other sectors include transport and logistics and even energy distribution. IFIs could benefit by utilizing FinTechs' knowhow in the analysis of big data in order to understand better the investment gaps and the financing needs of prospective clients. Finally, FinTechs' knowhow could be used by IFIs in order to streamline their internal processes concerning credit underwriting and risk management.

An Exploratory Study on FinTech Utilization in International Trade Settlement

Purpose - In this study, we analyze the problems of the trade settlement system, verify the necessity of applying block chain technology in the trade settlement process, and propose an application model of block chain technology. Design/Methodology/Approach - This study was based on various literature on trade settlement and blockchain technology. Findings - In this study, the author proposes a trade settlement model using blockchain technology. The use of blockchain technology aided trade settlement model is expected to solve existing trade settlement issues, such as clarification of trade conditions, real-time tracking of documents and goods, resolution of double settlement problems, and prevention of disputes among the interested parties. Research Implications - Existing paper-based trade settlement process has many problems, including complexity, excessive costs, delayed arrival of documents, inconsistencies between shipping documents, and fraud through forgery or tampering. In order to solve these problems and facilitate trade settlement, the author proposed a trade settlement model using blockchain technology and made a suggestion on the future research.

Research on the Application of Blockchain Technology in International Trade Risk Management

In International Trade, due to the Heterogeneity of language, culture, legal system, etc., the trade payment and settlement process is complicated, and there are many risks. With the wide application of Internet technology in the field of international trade, especially the emergence of blockchain technology, it provides a new way to solve the above-mentioned complicated risk management. Based on the concept and characteristics of blockchain technology, this paper probes into its value and application mode in risk management and control in international trade, in order to promote international trade facilitation and scientific risk management and control.

The earliest domestic cat on the Silk Road

We present the earliest evidence for domestic cat (Felis catus L., 1758) from Kazakhstan, found as a well preserved skeleton with extensive osteological pathologies dating to 775–940 cal CE from the early medieval city of Dzhankent, Kazakhstan. This urban settlement was located on the intersection of the northern Silk Road route which linked the cities of Khorezm in the south to the trading settlements in the Volga region to the north and was known in the tenth century CE as the capital of the nomad Oghuz. The presence of this domestic cat, presented here as an osteobiography using a combination of zooarchaeological, genetic, and isotopic data, provides proxy evidence for a fundamental shift in the nature of human-animal relationships within a previously pastoral region. This illustrates the broader social, cultural, and economic changes occurring within the context of rapid urbanisation during the early medieval period along the Silk Road.

Bilateral swap agreement and renminbi settlement in cross-border trade

This research empirically examines the impact of China’s renminbi (RMB) Bilateral Swap Agreements (BSAs) on the usage of the currency in cross-border trade transactions. By using a unique dataset from SWIFT including cross-border settlement messages of 91 countries/regions between October 2010 and November 2015, we confirm that the signing of an RMB BSA helps increase the number, value and proportion of the RMB settlement in cross-border trade. Our results are robust with respect to the choice of different models, including multi-level mixed model, two-stage regression model, and difference-in-difference model. In addition to justifying the effectiveness of China’s BSA-signing strategy to promote the RMB usage in trade settlement, our results clarify that the signing of those RMB BSAs is not purely for China’s political ends as some scholars claim.

WTO ADJUDICATION@ me.too: Are Global Public Goods like the World Trade Organization Owned by Governments or by Peoples and Citizens?

As the most frequent and most successful user of the dispute settlement system of the WTO, the US has welcomed judicial clarifications by WTO dispute settlement bodies whenever they confirmed legal claims of the US. Yet, the Trump administration increasingly rejects judicial findings against the US trade restrictions as violating the WTO prohibitions of “add(ing) to or diminish(ing) the rights and obligations provided in the covered agreements.” This contribution criticizes the illegal US ‘blocking’ of the WTO Appellate Body and the underlying, hegemonic nationalism and protectionist interest group politics. It suggests that reasonable and responsible citizens benefitting from the WTO trading, legal and dispute settlement systems must resist illegal power politics, for instance, by supporting a WTO Adjudication@me.too “enlightenment campaign” pressuring democratic institutions and governments to protect rule of law and judicial remedies in international trade as prescribed by parliaments when they approved the WTO Agreement.

Geochemical analysis of the truncated Viking Age trading settlement of Heimdalsjordet, Norway

AbstractSingle and multielement archaeological geochemistry has been applied to research and rescue projects for many decades to enhance our understanding of the past use of space. Often applied on one contextual plane, this ignores the complex palimpsest resulting from past occupation and soil processes. Furthermore, many important sites are now heavily truncated by plowing, leaving little more than negative features below the homogenized topsoil. These challenges require new approaches to archaeological geochemistry to gather information before these sites are lost to modern land use. The research presented here applied coring as a sampling method on a truncated site, the sample locations guided by high‐resolution ground‐penetrating radar data and excavation, before using portable X‐ray fluorescence directly on the core samples to understand the phase by phase composition of the deposits and thus past human occupation. The results suggest that even in truncated and secondary contexts, such as the case study of the Viking Age trade settlement of Heimdalsjordet, Norway, archaeological geochemistry can give insight into the chronological and spatial development of the site, and is especially relevant for detecting nonferrous metalworking activity.

Upaya Penataan Lingkungan Sosial dan Ekonomi Pedagang Kaki Lima di Kota Surakarta Berdasarkan Tipologi Lokasi Stabilisasi Surakarta

The street vendors (SVs) select the trading locations according to the activity characteristics. The selected locations are often located in the areas of public facilities or state-owned lands which are all at once close to productive main activities. This way is aimed to drive many people to come and buy their goods after doing certain main activities. In addition, street vendors tend to choose trading locations on highways having vast social activities. The Surakarta City Government has controlled street vendors through structuring in the form of stabilization and relocation. This study aims to identify changes in the social and economic environment of street vendors based on the typology of street vendor stabilization locations in Surakarta. This study used a qualitative descriptive analysis to analyze changes in the social and economic environment with the typology of street vendor stabilization locations in Surakarta. The setting location typologies were determined based on the characteristics of street vendors’ stabilization locations viewed from the proximate main activities. The results of study showed that there were three typologies of stabilization locations, namely the locations approaching trading areas, settlement, and recreation. The operating hours of the street vendors depended on the proximate main activities. The street vendors in the settlement areas tended to open earlier and end their activities later at night than the street vendors proximate to the trade and recreation areas. The street vendors' capital starts at ≤ Rp. 500,000 to > Rp. 3,000,000. The street vendors with small capital usually trade longer than the street vendors with large capital. The street vendors with large capital are most often found trading at night.

Zuiderzeestädte an der Ostsee

Zuiderzee towns in the Baltic. ‘Vitten’ and ‘Vögte’ – Space and urban representatives in late-medieval ScaniaThe Scania peninsula in the southwest of present-day Sweden was one of the most important trading centres of medieval Northern Europe due to the seasonal presence of immense swarms of herring which attracted large numbers of fishermen and traders. Streching back from the beach of Scania were the so-called vitten, which the traders, grouped by region or city, held as their own, legally autonomous trade settlements, from the Danish King. Initially, these were seasonal trading colonies that were occupied only for the duration of the fair, which began in August and ended in November. In the late Middle Ages the vitten developed into miniature towns, modest off-shoots from the traders‘ mother city. The presence on a small peninsula (c 50 km2) of so many fishermen and merchants who did business together and came from different cities could easily have led to tensions and conflict.
 What was the relationship between the spatial arrangement of the vitten at Scania and the urban representatives of the vitten, the so-called vögte or governors? This question is addressed by focusing on the vitten of the Zuiderzee towns. Their vitten, among which were numbered those of eastern Zuiderzee cities like Kampen and Zutphen as well as those of western cities like Amsterdam, Brielle and Zierikzee, were part of the Hanse. However, the vitten of these cities have been virtually neglected in historiography. The territorial or local-topographical development of these vitten was characterized by regional concentration: the Zuiderzee vitten were located close or adjacent to one another. The new vitten of Zierikzee and Amsterdam bordered on that of Kampen. Traders from cities and towns without their own vitte were housed in a vitte of a neighboring city: those of Deventer and Zwolle, for instance, in the vitte of Kampen, those of Enkhuizen and Wieringen in the Amsterdam vitte and those from Schouwen island in the vitte of Zierikzee.
 The vitten of the eastern Zuiderzee towns were founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century, that is on average half a century earlier than those of the western Zuiderzee towns. The count of Holland and Zealand initially appointed the Zierikzee vogt or governor for all his subjects. Later on, the cities in his counties then had their own governors, first appointed by the count, later by the city (with or without the count‘s approval). The development of the representation of Holland and Zeeland towns in Scania differs from what was characteristic of the eastern Zuiderzee towns. Neither the Count /Duke of Guelders nor the bishop of Utrecht (as overlord of the Oversticht) attempted to interfere with the individual towns‘ governors or the vitten.
 The trend towards territorialisation in Scania was unmistakable. Although foreign traders, by reason of their origins, were subject to the jurisdiction of their mother city (the personality principle), a fact reflected in the responsibility of the vogt for the citizens in question, they were also increasingly spatially limited in Scania. This was a consequence of the limited space available, of the pursuit of control over one’s own community, and of the goal of allowing different urban groups to live together peaceably, prevent conflicts and guarantee the conduct of international trade. In this way the vitten, in particular those of the Zuiderzee towns that were further away from their mother cities, can be understood as urban colonies overseas.

CSDR settlement discipline costs and how to reduce or avoid them

The European Union’s (EU) Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) entered into force on 17th September, 2014. CSDR contains a section (Chapter III) on ‘settlement discipline’, which includes measures to improve settlement efficiency, such as cash penalties for fails and the provision for mandatory buy-ins. The CSDR settlement discipline regime (SDR) is expected to apply from September 2020 and covers any global entity who settles a security in one of the European CSDs. This could be a very impactful regulation, so industry participants need to assess their current processes to make sure that they have the best chance of settling all of their trades. There are many parts to the trade life cycle, and ensuring a robust process for each part is essential. The trade life cycle covers • data handling and onboarding, • trade economics matching, • notification, • settlement management, and • data analytics. This article covers each of these parts with an aim of discussing how clients could achieve a highly efficient trade settlement process.

Margin practices and requirements during the National Banking Era: An early example of macro‐prudential regulation

AbstractThe New York stock market was plagued by a series of financial crises during the National Banking Era, culminating in the Panic of 1907. The traditional view holds that the crises were rooted in structural flaws related to trade settlement as well as excessive and indiscriminate margin lending that remained unaddressed until the formation of the Federal Reserve Bank. An examination of the historical record, however, shows that brokers sought to control contagion and spillover effects through reform of the settlement process and by modulating margin lending rates and maintenance requirements according to macroeconomic conditions, counterparty credit‐worthiness and market volatility. Using newly gathered archival data, we show that the New York Stock Exchange enacted macro‐prudential regulations that may have reduced the severity of crises during this period. By providing early evidence of private sector responses to rising systemic risk, the paper addresses an important aspect of early market microstructure.

WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism Without the Appellate Body: Some Observations on the US-China Trade Deal

The paralysis of the Appellate Body (‘AB’) has significant ramifications for the effective functioning of WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism (‘DSM’). It remains unclear how WTO Members will utilise the various options in resolving disputes in the absence of the AB. The recently-concluded US-China Phase One trade deal adds more uncertainties about the future of the DSM and the multilateral trading system in general. It is hoped that the two giant powers can turn their confrontation into cooperation and bridge their divergences through the creation of new and better rules on international trade and dispute settlement so as to lay the groundwork for multilateral negotiations.

WTO Adjudication@me.too: Are Global Public Goods Like the World Trade Organization Owned by Governments or By Peoples and Citizens?

As the most frequent and most successful user of the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the USA has welcomed judicial clarifications by WTO dispute settlement bodies whenever they confirmed legal claims of the US. Yet, the US Trump administration increasingly rejects judicial findings against US trade restrictions as violating the WTO prohibitions of ‘add(ing) to or diminish(ing) the rights and obligations provided in the covered agreements’. This contribution criticizes the illegal US ‘blocking’ of the WTO Appellate Body and the underlying, hegemonic nationalism and protectionist interest group politics. It suggests that reasonable and responsible citizens benefitting from the WTO trading, legal and dispute settlement systems must resist illegal power politics, for instance by supporting a WTO Adjudication@me.too ‘enlightenment campaign’ pressuring democratic institutions and governments to protect rule of law and judicial remedies in international trade as prescribed by parliaments when they approved the WTO Agreement.

Research on Electricity Market Transaction Model under the Background of Big Data

With the advancement of electricity market reform and the influence of new entities, electricity market transactions have formed a diversified development trend, which puts forward higher requirements for transaction technology support systems. In the trading market a few days ago, power producers participated in the bidding of electricity generation. The trading center gave the optimal trading plan and settlement price under the condition of satisfying the safety constraints of the power grid according to the published competitive load curve and the declared data of power generation companies. The commodities traded in the electricity market are electric energy and various services necessary for the realization of electric energy trading, so the trading in the electricity market is very different from the traditional generation plan. Only by establishing the bidding trading plan model of the trading center can the trading plan be carried out, thus forming the power purchase plan for the power generation company. This paper analyzes the basic sources and characteristics of big data in the power market, obtains the characteristic values of big data attributes of mutual benefit and win-win of both parties through the model, and realizes the visualization of transaction price.

Гончарство тунисского Набёля: древние традиции и современность

The article examines the pottery production of the Tunisian city of Nabeul, the administrative center of the province of Cap Bon, located in the north-eastern part of the country, on the Mediterranean coast. Modern Nabeul is situated on the site of the ancient city of Neapolis. A common occupation of local residents — pottery — is due to the large deposits of marl clays available in the district. The origins of this craft originate in the first centuries of our era, when the Romans founded their city on the site of a small Greek trading settlement and brought here their traditions of pottery. Archaeological surveys in Nabeul and its environs have revealed the existence of several pottery workshops engaged in the manufacture of both large ceramic containers — amphorae, and fine tableware imitating the Roman Terra sigillata. From here, Nabeul ceramics spread throughout the Mediterranean and was discovered in archaeological sites in Libya, Egypt, Spain, Britain and other regions. This phenomenon illustrates trade relations between various provinces of the Roman Empire. Nabeul’s modern pottery production, oriented both to the domestic market and tourists, also focuses on the production of large forms and richly ornamented tableware, the decor of which generally reflects the style of Islamic glazed ceramic products, but is more closely related to the style of modern Arabic ceramics of the Maghreb countries, especially Morocco. Also, Tunisian modern ceramics shows similarities in form, ornament and color palette with modern provincial ceramics in Spain, especially Andalusia, and probably has common roots.