From enfant terrible to problem-solver? Tracing the competing discourse to explain blockchain-related technological diffusion

Since the inception of blockchain-related technologies over a decade ago, investors’ uptake of the technologies has grown rapidly. But even with the advancement in standing from conceptual beginnings to real-world experimentation, mainstream adoption of the technologies in either organizational or individual contexts has yet to eventuate. To resolve this paradox, we examine progression of the technologies’ diffusion instead, and in the process, seek to uncover the underlying dynamics of sentiments at play. Diffusion involves multiple actions by different parties, with social discourses via diverse media playing an essential role. In demonstrating the interplay of support to resistance via media framing and the diffusion of innovation theory, findings from our paper contribute to the technology adoption literature. Understanding resistant behavior toward a new technology area could help resolve potential issues that may arise. This would hopefully lead to better technological implementation outcomes in future.     

A hidden Markov model to detect regime changes in cryptoasset markets

The objective of this work is to understand the dynamics of cryptocurrency prices. Specifically, how prices switch between different regimes, going from “bull” to “stable” and “bear” times. For this purpose, we propose a hidden Markov model that aims at explaining the evolution of Bitcoin prices through different, unobserved states. The implementation of the proposed model includes a likelihood ratio test that allows to compare models with different states and with different covariance structures. Our empirical findings show that the time movements of Bitcoin prices across different exchange markets are well-described by the proposed model. In particular, a parsimonious model with a diagonal covariance matrix leads to better predictions, compared with a model with a full covariance matrix.     

The novel secure testament methodology for cryptocurrency wallet using mnemonic seed

ABSTRACT

Recently, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc, have rapidly been recognized as an asset, often called a digital asset. Comparing to the real assets, it would be handled carefully due to its own characteristics that are completely different. The disadvantage of such digital assets, on the one hand, is that whoever knows the private key of the wallet, they can easily take over that digital asset. On the other hand, if the wallet’s owners are dead without passing credential information to others, that asset will be lost forever. We thus propose the novel secure testament methodology for a digital asset such as Bitcoin to solve the mentioned problems. The mechanism is based on managing the mnemonic seed of the wallet so that an inheritor will obtain the mnemonic seed in a secure way. Two mechanisms of the proposed methodology are implemented. The first is to save the mnemonic seed in a secure repository. Therefore, no one can access to the cryptocurrency wallet while the owner still being alive and does not wish anybody to access. The second is to deliver the mnemonic seed securely to legitimate inheritor when the owner is suspected to be dead or disappeared. Finally, based on our experiment, the results show that the aforementioned problems can be solved. Furthermore, the proposed mechanism can help the owner of the asset to managing the confidentiality of their assets.     

Cryptocurrency value formation: An empirical study leading to a cost of production model for valuing bitcoin

This paper aims to identify the likely determinants for cryptocurrency value formation, including for that of bitcoin. Due to Bitcoin’s growing popular appeal and merchant acceptance, it has become increasingly important to try to understand the factors that influence its value formation. Presently, the value of all bitcoins in existence represent approximately $7 billion, and more than $60 million of notional value changes hands each day. Having grown rapidly over the past few years, there is now a developing but vibrant marketplace for bitcoin, and a recognition of digital currencies as an emerging asset class. Not only is there a listed and over-the-counter market for bitcoin and other digital currencies, but also an emergent derivatives market. As such, the ability to value bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies is becoming critical to its establishment as a legitimate financial asset.Using cross-sectional empirical data examining 66 of the most widely used cryptocurrencies, a regression model was estimated that points to three main drivers of cryptocurrency value: the level of competition in the network of producers, the rate of unit production, and the difficulty of algorithm used to “mine” for the cryptocurrency. These amount to relative differences in the cost of production of one digital currency over another at the margin, pointing to differences in relative cost of production – electricity goes in, cryptocurrency comes out. Using that as a starting point, a no-arbitrage situation is established for Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies followed by the formalization of a cost of production model to determine the fair value of a bitcoin.     

基于比特币的私有信息检索支付协议

私有信息检索（PIR）是一种密码学工具,使用户能够从远程数据库服务器中获取信息,而不会让服务器知道用户获取了什么信息。PIR方案基本上由两种类型组成,即信息论私有信息检索（Information Theoretic PIR,IT-PIR）和计算性私有信息检索（Computational PIR,C-PIR）。IT-PIR方案要求服务器之间不共谋。一旦服务器共谋,就无法保证用户的隐私。共谋问题一直以来都没有一个比较好的解决办法。比特币和区块链的出现为解决公平和信任的问题提供了一种新方法。在本文中,我们创新地使用区块链来处理IT-PIR中的共谋问题,提出了一种基于比特币的PIR支付协议。在此支付协议中,客户通过比特币交易支付服务费。我们通过比特币脚本控制交易兑现的条件,使得如果服务方相互串通,则使服务方受到利益损失。通过这种方式,该支付协议可以在一定程度上降低共谋的可能性。     

基于比特币系统的隐蔽通信技术

为了满足日益增多且机密性要求很高的情报传输需求,急需提出新的隐蔽通信方式。隐蔽通信技术需要满足的性能包括安全性和隐藏率。与此同时,区块链技术具有去中心化、匿名性、可追溯且分布式记账等特点,比特币是最为经典且普及的区块链货币应用。因此,本文提出了利用比特币的P2P网络广播机制和交易机制构造了BDTX(Broadcast-Transaction,广播-交易)隐蔽信道;利用比特币的节点连接机制构造ADDR(ADDR,地址广播)隐蔽信道。对两种隐蔽信道分别进行了详细介绍,分析了两种隐蔽信道的安全性和隐藏率,并将其与传统IP隐蔽信道进行对比。两种隐蔽信道的安全性相比传统IP网络隐蔽信道都有提高。     

采用工作量证明共识机制的区块链中挖矿攻击者间的“鲶鱼效应”

近年来,采用工作量证明共识机制(Proof of Work,PoW)的区块链被广泛地应用于以比特币为代表的数字加密货币中.自私挖矿攻击(Selfish mining)等挖矿攻击(Mining attack)策略威胁了采用工作量证明共识机制的区块链的安全性.在自私挖矿攻击策略被提出之后,研究者们进一步优化了单个攻击者的挖矿攻击策略.在前人工作的基础上,本文提出了新颖的两阶段挖矿攻击模型,该模型包含拥有单攻击者的传统自私挖矿系统与拥有两个攻击者的多攻击者系统.本文的模型同时提供了理论分析与仿真量化分析,并将两个攻击者区分为内部攻击者与外部攻击者.通过引入内部攻击者与外部攻击者的概念,本文指出传统自私挖矿系统转化为多攻击者系统的条件.本文进一步揭示了在多攻击者系统中两个攻击者将产生竞争并面临着“矿工困境”问题.攻击者间的竞争可被总结为“鲶鱼效应”:外部攻击者的出现导致内部攻击者的相对收益下降至多67.4%,因此内部攻击者需要优化攻击策略.本文提出了名为部分主动发布策略的全新挖矿攻击策略,相较于自私挖矿策略,该策略是半诚实的攻击策略.在特定场景下,部分主动发布策略可以提高攻击者的相对收益并破解攻击者面临的“矿工困境”问题.     

可监管的比特币隐私保护混淆服务

随着比特币隐私保护研究的深入,比特币作为一种新型“数字货币”变得更加难以监管。针对该问题,提出了一种可监管的比特币隐私保护混淆方案RBmix。RBmix模型使用公平盲签名算法,并引入可信第三方,具有可监管性、匿名性、可扩展性、比特币兼容性以及抗DoS攻击性。实验结果表明RBmix协议具有良好的扩展性和执行效率。     

基于熵值理论的区块链网络去中心化程度量化评估方法

去中心化是区块链网络的重要优势。然而,尽管人们普遍认识到这一性质的重要性,但大多数关于这一主题的研究缺乏量化,而且没有对它们在实践中实现的去中心化程度进行计算。熵是随机变量不确定性的度量,也就是数据集的随机性度量,正好可以用来衡量区块链网络的去中心化程度。本文以比特币和以太坊为例,提出一种基于信息论中熵值理论来量化计算这些区块链网络去中心化程度的方法。利用信息熵计算出比特币和以太坊的出块数量和地址余额的随机程度,以此作为量化比特币和以太坊去中心化程度的指标。计算结果表明,基于出块数量的全样本统计,比特币比以太坊要高出大约12%的去中心化程度,并且基于10000个地址余额的样本统计,比特币也比以太坊要高出大约9.2%的去中心化程度。本文提出的方法具有普适性,可以用来量化评估任何区块链网络的去中心化程度。     

公平理性委托计算协议

传统委托计算的验证过程计算和通信开销较高,且参与者要么诚实,要么邪恶;理性委托计算是引入理性参与者,通过效用函数来保障计算结果的可靠性.本文首先在委托计算中引入博弈论,给出了唯一稳定均衡解.其次,基于比特币和Micali-Rabin的随机向量表示技术,设计一种新的理性委托计算协议.针对协议的公平性问题,参与双方分别提交特殊构造的比特币押金,保障参与者双方的利益;针对验证复杂问题,运用Micali-Rabin的随机向量表示技术,验证过程简单高效,且不会泄漏关于计算结果的任何信息.最后,安全性和性能分析结果表明,该协议不但解决了传统委托计算的验证复杂问题,同时保证了诚实者的利益.