Transaction Verification Research Articles

All in One: Design, Verification, and Implementation of SNOW-optimal Read Atomic Transactions

Distributed read atomic transactions are important building blocks of modern cloud databases that magnificently bridge the gap between data availability and strong data consistency. The performance of their transactional reads is particularly critical to the overall system performance, as many real-world database workloads are dominated by reads. Following the SNOW design principle for optimal reads, we develop LORA, a novel SNOW-optimal algorithm for distributed read atomic transactions. LORA completes its reads in exactly one round trip, even in the presence of conflicting writes, without imposing additional overhead to the communication, and it outperforms the state-of-the-art read atomic algorithms. To guide LORA’s development, we present a rewriting-logic-based framework and toolkit for design, verification, implementation, and evaluation of distributed databases. Within the framework, we formalize LORA and mathematically prove its data consistency guarantees. We also apply automatic model checking and statistical verification to validate our proofs and to estimate LORA’s performance. We additionally generate from the formal model a correct-by-construction distributed implementation for testing and performance evaluation under realistic deployments. Our design-level and implementation-based experimental results are consistent, which together demonstrate LORA’s promising data consistency and performance achievement.

A hierarchical blockchain-based electricity market framework for energy transactions in a security-constrained cluster of microgrids

In this paper, a Hierarchical Blockchain-based electricity market framework is proposed for peer-to-peer energy transactions within and between Microgrids in a security-constrained cluster of Microgrids. This market enhances the energy transaction mechanism, market clearing process and security of the power market. The existing blockchain based electricity markets usually check the energy availability through a transaction verification process, however, the feasibility of energy transactions between microgrids from the power system point of view is not evaluated before approving a transaction and creating a new block. In this paper, the unique structure of the market makes it possible to consider reliability security constraints of the power grid during the transaction verification process. Furthermore, the blockchain ledger summarization and microgrid’s equivalent model development are other new features of this framework. To develop and verity this market framework, Java programming language is used to create the hierarchical blockchain-based algorithm, and a modified IEEE 37-bus distribution test feeder system is chosen as the case study. Numerical results will show the effectiveness of this market structure, especially, when several transactions are requested to transfer energy over some congested transmission corridors.

Design of a Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading Platform Using Multilayered Semi-Permissioned Blockchain

A secured and scalable Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading platform can facilitate the integration of renewable energy and thus contribute to building sustainable energy infrastructure. The decentralized architecture of blockchain makes it a befitting candidate to actualize an efficient P2P energy trading market. However, for a sustainable and dynamic blockchain-based P2P energy trading platform, few critical aspects such as security, privacy and scalability need to be addressed with high priority. This paper proposes a blockchain-based solution for energy trading among the consumers which ensures the systems’ security, protects users’ privacy, and improves the overall scalability. More specifically, we develop a multilayered semi-permissioned blockchain-based platform to facilitate energy transactions. The practical byzantine fault tolerant algorithm is employed as the underlying consensus for verification and validation of transactions which ensures the system’s tolerance against internal error and malicious attacks. Additionally, we introduce the idea of quality of transaction (QoT)—a reward system for the participants of the network that eventually helps determine the participant’s eligibility for future transactions. The resiliency of the framework against the transaction malleability attack is demonstrated with two uses cases. Finally, a qualitative analysis is presented to indicate the system’s usefulness in improving the overall security, privacy, and scalability of the network.

Efficient Decentralized Sharing Economy Model based on Blockchain Technology: A Case Study of Najm for Insurance Services Company

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is used to address ownership, centrality, and security issues in different fields. The blockchain technology has converted centralized applications into decentralized and distributed ones. In existing sharing economy applications, there are issues related to low efficiency and high complexity of services. However, blockchain technology can be adopted to overcome these issues by effectively opening up secure information channels of the sharing economy industry and other related parties, encouraging industry integration and improving the ability of sharing economy organizations to readily gain required information. This paper discusses blockchain technology to enhance the development of insurance services by proposing a five-layer decentralized model using Ethereum platform. The Najm for Insurance Services Company in Saudi Arabia was employed in a case study for applying the proposed model to effectively solve the issue of online underwriting, and to securely and efficiently enhance the verification and validation of transactions. The paper concludes with a review of the lessons learned and provides suggestions for blockchain application development process.

The More Secure, The Less Equally Usable: Gender and Ethnicity (Un)fairness of Deep Face Recognition along Security Thresholds

Face biometrics are playing a key role in making modern smart city applications more secure and usable. Commonly, the recognition threshold of a face recognition system is adjusted based on the degree of security for the considered use case. The likelihood of a match can be for instance decreased by setting a high threshold in case of a payment transaction verification. Prior work in face recognition has unfortunately showed that error rates are usually higher for certain demographic groups. These disparities have hence brought into question the fairness of systems empowered with face biometrics. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which disparities among demographic groups change under different security levels. Our analysis includes ten face recognition models, three security thresholds, and six demographic groups based on gender and ethnicity. Experiments show that the higher the security of the system is, the higher the disparities in usability among demographic groups are. Compelling unfairness issues hence exist and urge countermeasures in real-world high-stakes environments requiring severe security levels.

AISChain: Blockchain-Based AIS Data Platform With Dynamic Bloom Filter Tree

Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of vessels have equipped the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which continuously broadcasts its identity and location information for vessel collision avoidance. To utilize these scattered AIS data for further analysis, there are multiple AIS data platforms collecting AIS data from vessels around the world through their satellites and land-based stations. Thus, users can obtain AIS data of vessels from these platforms without dedicated devices. However, existing platforms work in silos, and AIS data is distributed across different platforms, resulting in reduced data availability. In addition, AIS is vulnerable to jamming and spoofing attacks, which can undermine the authenticity of AIS data. In this paper, we propose AISChain, a secure and fast blockchain-based AIS data platform. AISChain adopts consortium blockchain, which only permits those authorized parties (i.e., AIS data providers) to participate in the consensus protocol, and is compatible with current commodity AIS hardware. Since the whole system is co-maintained by multiple authorized parties, AISChain can integrate AIS data resources in a secure way. For avoiding repeated recording of AIS data on the chain, we design the Dynamic Bloom Filter Tree (DBFT) to realize efficient duplication detection in the transaction verification phase. We also propose the dual signature scheme to clarify the AIS data ownership. Moreover, we leverage the geographical location-based blockchain sharding approach to further improve the scalability of AISChain. We implement a prototype of AISChain, and conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of AISChain. Evaluation results show that the search time of DBFT is negligible (4.3 ms) with an extreme low error ratio (0.4%). Meanwhile, AISChain can achieve more than 730 tx/s throughput even when nodes scale to 36. To the best of our knowledge, AISChain is the first work to apply the blockchain technology to secure the AIS data platform.

Dynamic Transaction Confirmation Double-chain System Based on Alliance Chain

In recent years, the high performance, strong controllability and partial decentralization of the alliance chain make it have a wide range of application scenarios and development potential. However, restricted by the consensus algorithm, the alliance chain cannot fully meet the needs of practical applications at present. Aiming at the poor stability of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm, this paper proposes a fast consensus algorithm, which reduces the message size by optimizing the transaction verification process and dynamically adjusting the number of verification nodes. Combined with the reward and punishment system of points, a dynamic transaction confirmation double-chain system is designed. Compared with the alliance chain system implemented by the PBFT algorithm, the system has stronger stability in the case of multiple nodes, and the TPS is increased by at least 21% under the same number of nodes. It is suitable for some nodes with frequent access and poor network.

Improving Bitcoin Transaction Propagation Efficiency through Local Clique Network

AbstractBitcoin is a popular decentralized cryptocurrency, and the Bitcoin network is essentially an unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) network that can synchronize distributed database of replicated ledgers through message broadcasting. In the Bitcoin network, the average clustering coefficient of nodes is very high, resulting in low message propagation efficiency. In addition, average node degree in the Bitcoin network is also considerably large, causing high message redundancy when nodes use the gossip protocol to broadcast messages. These may affect message propagation speed, hindering Bitcoin from being applied to scenarios of high transactional throughputs. To illustrate, we have collected single-hop propagation data of transactions of 366 blocks from Bitcoin Core. The analysis results show that transaction verification and network delay are two major causes of low transaction propagation efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel P2P network structure, called local clique network (LCN), for message broadcasting in the Bitcoin network. Specifically, to reduce transaction validation latency and message redundancy, in LCN local nodes (logically) form cliques, and only a few nodes in a clique broadcast messages to the other cliques, instead of each node sending messages to its neighboring nodes. We have conducted extensive experiments, and the results show that message redundancy is low in LCN, and message propagation speed increases significantly. Meanwhile, LCN exhibits excellent robustness when average node degree remains high in the Bitcoin network.

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AS AN ANTI-CORRUPTION MANAGEMENT TOOL

The world has not yet come up with a single recipe for fighting corruption. But thanks to constant progress, anti-corruption strategies are replenished with effective innovation mechanisms. The global experience of using blockchain opens up new prospects for eliminating corruption in the world. Blockchain is an opportunity not only to modernize outdated functional systems, but also to apply new, more effective means of combating corruption and cybercrime. One of the main advantages of the blockchain is that all network participants have a register of transaction data. Therefore, if someone decides to hide, delete or change their recalculations in the accounting book, then copies of these transactions still remain in tens of thousands of other users and the system immediately accesses them. Therefore, a few minutes will be enough to solve the issues of detecting a crime. Today, it is worth highlighting 3 types of widespread use of blockchain technology in the fight against corruption: identity verification, asset registration and tracking of monetary transactions. For example, you can check the purpose of money transfers in real time, see salary payments, and compare prices among suppliers. Like any type of crime, corruption in human society cannot be completely excluded. However, decentralized platforms functioning on blockchain technology, already today, firstly, can directly bring together the customer and the executor, and secondly, all the conditions agreed upon by the participants can then be easily verified (thus, it will be impossible to imperceptibly inflate the price when using blockchain). Blockchain technology is in demand because it creates an unprecedented degree of trust in information in relationships between individuals and public organizations, or between the state, people and private institutions.

Energy Efficient Multiprocessing Solo Mining Algorithms for Public Blockchain Systems

Blockchain as a decentralized distributed ledger is revolutionizing the world with a secure design data storage mechanism. In the case of Bitcoin, mining involves a process of packing transactions in a block by calculating a random number termed as a nonce. The nonce calculation is done by special nodes called miners, and all the miners follow the Proof of Work (PoW) mining mechanism to perform the mining task. The transaction verification time in PoW-based blockchain systems, i.e., Bitcoin, is much slower than other digital transaction systems such as PayPal. It needs to be quicker if a system adapts PoW-based blockchain solutions, where there are thousands of transactions being computed at a time. Besides this, PoW mining also consumes a lot of energy to calculate the nonce of a block. Mining pools resulting into aggregated hashpower have been a popular solution to speed up the PoW mining, but they can be attacked by using different types of attacks. Parallel computing can be used to speed up the solo mining methods by utilizing the multiple processes of the contributing processors. In this research, we analyze various consensus mechanisms and see that the PoW-based blockchain systems have the limitations of low transaction confirmation time and high energy consumption. We also analyze various types of consensus layer attacks and their effects on miners and mining pools. To tackle these issues, we propose parallel PoW nonce calculation methods to accelerate the transaction verification process especially in solo mining. We have tested our techniques on different difficulty levels, and our proposed techniques yield better results than the traditional nonce computation mechanisms.

Blockchain for genomics and healthcare: a literature review, current status, classification and open issues.

The tremendous boost in the next generation sequencing technologies and in the “omics” technologies resulted in the generation of hundreds of gigabytes of data per day. Nowadays, via integrating -omics data with other data types, such as imaging and electronic health record (EHR) data, panomics studies attempt to identify novel and potentially actionable biomarkers for personalized medicine applications. In this respect, for the accurate analysis of -omics data and EHR, there is a need to establish secure and robust pipelines that take the ethical aspects into consideration, regulate privacy and ownership issues, and data sharing. These days, blockchain technology has picked up significant attention in diverse fields, including genomics, since it offers a new solution for these problems from a different perspective. Blockchain is an immutable transaction ledger, which offers secure and distributed system without a central authority. Within the system, each transaction can be expressed with cryptographically signed blocks, and the verification of transactions is performed by the users of the network. In this review, firstly, we aim to highlight the challenges of EHR and genomic data sharing. Secondly, we attempt to answer “Why” or “Why not” the blockchain technology is suitable for genomics and healthcare applications in detail. Thirdly, we elucidate the general blockchain structure based on the Ethereum, which is a more suitable technology for the genomic data sharing platforms. Fourthly, we review current blockchain-based EHR and genomic data sharing platforms, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these applications, and classify these applications using different metrics. Finally, we conclude by discussing the open issues and introducing our suggestion on the topic. In summary, to facilitate the diagnosis, monitoring and therapy of diseases with the effective analysis of -omics data with other available data types, through this review, we put forward the possible implications of the blockchain technology to life sciences and healthcare.

Blockchain management and machine learning adaptation for IoT environment in 5G and beyond networks: A systematic review

Keeping in view of the constraints and challenges with respect to big data analytics along with security and privacy preservation for 5G and B5G applications, the integration of machine learning and blockchain, two of the most promising technologies of the modern era is inevitable. In comparison to the traditional centralized techniques for security and privacy preservation, blockchain uses decentralized consensus algorithms for verification and validation of different transactions which are supposed to become an integral part of blockchain network. Starting with the existing literature survey, we introduce the basic concepts of blockchain and machine learning in this article. Then, we presented a comprehensive taxonomy for integration of blockchain and machine learning in an IoT environment. We also explored federated learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning algorithms usage in blockchain based applications. Finally, we provide recommendations for future use cases of these emerging technologies in 5G and B5G technologies.

Improvement in credit card fraud detection using ensemble classification technique and user data

Financial fraud a serious problem in banking system. Credit card fraud growing with increasing Internet usage, as it becomes very simple to collect user data and do fraud transaction. Fortunately, all records including fraud and legit transactions are present in the financial record. Improved data mining techniques are now capable to find solutions for such outlier detections. Financial data freely available in many sources, but this data has some challenges like,1) the profile of legit and fraudulent behavior changes constantly, 2) there a class imbalance problem in dataset, because less than 3% transaction are fraud, 3) transaction verification latency also one more problem. All this data issues are handled using pre-processing techniques like cleaning and reduction. Main aim of this research to find out, output attribute is Fraud, with better time complexity. To this end, K-means, Random Forest and J48 algorithm used, and its accuracy rates are compared to find best fit pre-processing and machine learning algorithm. It observed that accuracy rate of Random Forest 93.8% when both global and local dataset used.

Survey on Transaction Verification Model based on Blockchain Architecture

Similar to decentralized communication systems, a new technology called Blockchain (BC) has the potential to store and manage data in a decentralized manner. By removing the role of third party, all member in the chain has equal access to data. The concept BCT (Blockchain Technology) is not just limited to the cryptocurrencies, but it has been implemented in other areas like e-health, voting, finance, education, smart contract and even in Databases. This paper discusses various Blockchain applications and platforms and then compares these platforms on basis of different parameters. Despite of the advantages, Blockchain faces a significant issue of privacy. This paper examines various security related issues and challenges and presents an account of known possible attacks.

МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ РЕКОМЕНДАЦИИ ПО УЧЕТУ РАСХОДОВ ПО ПРЕТЕНЗИЯМ В СТРОИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯХ

At various stages of construction there can be additional costs referred to some inappropriate actions resulting in claims brought by interested parties. The analysis of the construction organizations’ activities has revealed a constant increase of the cost of claims brought by contractors. Today fines are of up to 5% of the works performed while penalties reach 15%. New types of inappropriate actions recorded in contract agreement emerge. All the above-mentioned results in controversies or confusions while reflecting these transactions in accounting systems of economic entities. The study has provided organizational and methodical guidelines on assessment and accounting of other costs on claims emerging at various stages of construction including determination of the stage and the legal nature of the costs involved, verification of transactions records, calculation of financial burden emerging due to inappropriate actions, keeping accounting records, tax recording, analysis and control. The consistent implementation of these recommendations would not only capture costs correctly but make the information more transparent and create conditions to manage them properly promoting a positive impact on the financial outcome

Privacy Preserved E-Voting System Using Blockchain

In modern world, elections are important however society doesn't trust their election system that may be a major concern for world. Even today, we still suffer from a blemished voting technique. Electronic balloting has been utilized in various forms since the nineteen seventies with basic edges. They have gained much more attention to improve quality and growing interests with different technologies. Among these technologies Blockchain is newer technology which can also be used in e-voting system. The Blockchain technology, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto using the cryptologic currency Bitcoin in 2008 developing a secure, clear and redistributed system with the absence of a 3rd party for access and management, within the election procedure of casting and counting of votes. Blockchain is secure public ledgers for protective transaction information and also permits transparent transaction verification. To implement in a large number, it needs the addressing issues regarding the protection and responsibility of system. This process is implemented to reduce major problems like hacking of EVM, recasting, etc. The blockchain is said as rising technology that guarantees for boosting totally different aspects of the many industries. Increasing e-voting into blockchain technology may be the answer to reduce the current issues in e-voting system. Smart contract makes blockchain a strong tool and lots of options that overcomes ancient systems. The system should be trustworthy for candidate. Because of its stability, extensive use, and facilities of smart contracts logic.

An optimized transaction verification method for trustworthy blockchain-enabled IIoT

The blockchain technology is one of the hottest research fields in recent years, and it can provide a new security solution for data transmission and storage under trust-free environments. The distributed structure of blockchain is naturally suitable for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which can be used to build distributed trustworthy IIoT with high security. The transaction database is the most important security component in the blockchain-enabled IIoT systems. Each valid transaction must be recorded in the database on the long connected blockchain. Merkle tree is designed for the transaction verification and it can guarantee the data integrity and security. Therefore, the Merkle tree has the same and fixed verification time for every transaction. Due to the human elements, only a few transactions will be verified frequently in some real scenarios. The current Merkle tree storage structure can not improve the verification efficiency for transactions that require frequent verification in IIoT systems with heterogeneous Devices. To tackle the issue, this paper proposes an optimized Merkle tree structure for efficient transaction verification in trustworthy blockchain-enabled IIoT systems. This work first analyzes the current building method and verification mechanism of the Merkle tree structure. Then we propose the optimized Merkle tree structure and its construction and verification. Finally, the superiority of our proposed method is proved through extensive experiments. The new Merkle tree structure is more efficient for verifying blockchain transactions for trustworthy blockchain-enabled IIoT systems.

Dividend or No Dividend in Delegated Blockchain Governance: A Game Theoretic Analysis

Delegated blockchain governance is the frontier of blockchain design issues that is to improve the scalability of blockchain networks. Delegated proof of stake (DPoS) blockchains such as EOS must select a few super nodes for transaction verification. In particular, the blockchain community has debated recently on whether dividend should be allowed when electing super nodes, which might be considered as unethical or unfair, leading to an open research topic and a new research gap that has theoretical value for both academia and industry. In this paper, we build a theoretical framework to study how dividend affects user decisions and welfare in a DPoS blockchain. Based on game theory, we propose a three-player Hotelling model with two policies to study the behaviors of voters and candidates. We first use a static game analysis to show that the benefits of dividend for voters and for candidates vary with the size of reward and there exists an interval, in which the zero dividend policy would be good for the welfare of both candidates and voters. Then, we use an evolutionary game analysis to examine the process dynamics of super node selection, we find that the campaign strategy of candidates has to do with the size of platform reward given to the candidates by the blockchain platform. Especially in the asymmetric case, we find that higher level of platform reward turns to benefit candidates with large number of votes even more. Our findings are instrumental for designing dividend policies in DPoS blockchains and can stimulate more potential research in blockchain governance.

Is Blockchain the Next Step in the Evolution Chain of [Market] Intermediaries?

The blockchain is a decentralized solution for handling transactions where we are concerned (among other aspects) with the accuracy and verification of transactions. One of its main promises is to eliminate the need for centralized entities or intermediaries and legal enforcement. Rather than trusting self-interested human intermediaries, the blockchain provides an alternative that relies on transparent computational protocols (Werbach 2018). In this paper, we delve into this broker-less claim and analyze whether the blockchain needs an intermediary to allow for widespread access to its functionality and whether the blockchain itself is an intermediary. The latter would turn the blockchain into a new type of middleperson that constitutes a shift in trust from humans or traditional agents to computer code. In other words, the next step in the evolution chain of intermediaries from humans to machines. The overall goal of this paper is to get the discussion started on the relationship between the blockchain and intermediaries so that we can think of plausible policy, governance, and regulatory measures to address the shortcomings and increase the opportunities for the widespread adoption of the blockchain technology in its different areas of impact. We begin by providing an overview of the workings of the blockchain before shifting our focus to an economic analysis of blockchain, where we argue that the economics literature has yet to explicitly consider blockchain as a transformative intermediary. We then explore situations in which the blockchain acts as a middleperson, as well as those where it requires an intermediary. We conclude by reflecting on the different issues that the blockchain-intermediary link entails in the policy domain.

Modelling and Verification of Cash Withdrawal Transaction in Automated Teller Machine Using Timed Automata

This study was conducted to verify a system of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) which is a facility provided by a bank. Various transactions can be done by using ATM, including cash withdrawal, payment, and transfer. However, in spite of its function, ATM can also be a target of crime such as cash robbery and frauds. Therefore, the correctness of ATM and its security is essential and for that reason, formal verification is needed. Formal verification is a technique to ensure the model of a system to satisfy a certain specification. ATM has a time variable on its system. Therefore, timed automata can be used as a model of ATM. In this paper, an algorithm is constructed based on the ATM cash withdrawal steps. Next, we construct a timed automaton model and design nine specifications. Then, timed automaton were verified against these nine specifications using UPPAAL. From the verification results, it can be concluded that the security of the ATM system is guaranteed.