Das Ziel des vorliegenden Papers ist die Darstellung eines Konzepts zur Lösung des Oracle Problems im Kontext der Wasserstoffproduktion mit erneuerbaren Energieproduktionsformen. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz setzt auf die Authentifizierung des Stroms, der für die Produktion des Wasserstoffs verwendet wird, durch eine Vielzahl an umliegenden Akteuren mit gleichen Stromgewinnungsanlagen, welche die Authentizität der Stromproduktion bezeugen. Das Konzept setzt auf einen Authenticity-Score, welchen jedes Zertifikat erhält, sowie einen Trust-Score, der jedem Zeugen zugeschrieben wird. Jedes Zertifikat muss von verschiedenen Akteuren mit ausreichenden Trust-Score bezeugt werden, um einen Authenticity-Score zu erhalten, der über einer festgelegten Schwelle liegt und somit nachweist, dass der produzierte Wasserstoff tatsächlich „grün“ ist.
Over the last two decades, the rapid advances in digitization methods put us on the fourth industrial era’s cusp. It is an era of connectivity and interactivity between various industrial processes that need a new, trusted environment to exchange and share information and data without relying on third parties. Blockchain technologies can provide such a trusted environment. This paper focuses on utilizing the blockchain with its characteristics to build machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and digital twin solutions. We propose a conceptual design for a system that uses smart contracts to construct digital twins for machines and products and executes manufacturing processes inside the blockchain. Our solution also employs the decentralized identifiers standard (DIDs) to provide self-sovereign digital identities for machines and products. To validate the approach and demonstrate its applicability, the paper presents an actual implementation of the proposed design to a simulated case study done with the help of Fischertechnik factory model.
As part of the research project Trusted Blockchains for the Open, Smart Energy Grid of the Future (tbiEnergy), one of the objectives is to investigate how a holistic blockchain approach for the realization of a local energy market could be accomplished and how corresponding hardware security mechanisms can be integrated. This paper provides an overview of the implemented prototype and describes the system and its processes.
Procurement processes are deemed to lack supporting digital technologies that raise efficiency and automation.
Blockchain solutions are piloted in procurement in order to offer a decentralized IT infrastructure covering these needs. This paper aims at identifying current blockchain approaches in the field of procurement and presenting affected business processes. In order to get an overview of the current state of the art, a systematic literature mapping is conducted.
Moreover, the out-comes are gathered and categorized in a classification scheme. Based on the analysis, systematic maps are presented to showcase relevant findings. Within the findings, several blockchain use cases in the field of procurement are identified and information about addressed challenges, utilized blockchain frameworks and affected business processes are extracted.
Rollen und Aufgaben Interdisziplinärer Projektteams zur Blockchain-Integration im Unternehmensumfeld
(2021)
Bei der Einführung von Blockchain-Lösungen im Unternehmensumfeld sind zahlreiche Unternehmensfunktionen und Mitarbeiter unterschiedlicher Disziplinen involviert, deren Zusammenarbeit zum einen notwendig sind, zum anderen jedoch auch zahlreiche Herausforderungen hervorrufen. Relevante Rollen und Disziplinen werden in diesem Paper identifiziert und beschrieben, um Handlungsempfehlungen für die interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit und somit zur erfolgreichen Integration von Blockchain-Lösungen in Unternehmen und insbesondere unternehmensübergreifenden Geschäftsbeziehungen zu entwickeln. Auf Basis existierender Blockchain-Projekte werden die Rollen „Management und Finanzen“, „Supply Chain Management“ und „IT und IT-Sicherheit“ fokussiert und entlang eines Vorgehensmodells zur Integration mit konkreten Rollenbeschreibungen und Aufgaben beschrieben.
Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Prozess des Minings von Bitcoin. Dabei soll erklärt werden, wie elektrische Energie genutzt wird, um neue Blöcke zur Blockchain hinzuzufügen und welche Renditen dabei zu erwarten sind. Gleichzeitig soll geklärt werden, ob das Mining von Bitcoin ein Geschäftsmodell ist, mit welchem Anlagen zur Erzeugung erneuerbarer Energie auch ohne Förderung durch das Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) wirtschaftlich betrieben werden können.
Es wird beschrieben, wie sich diverse Einflussgrößen auf die Wirtschaftlichkeit des Minings auswirken. Eine Auswahl an Mining-Hardware wird hinsichtlich ihrer zu erwartenden Erträge geprüft. Außerdem werden die Risiken dieses Geschäftsmodells näher betrachtet.
Mit diesem Beitrag wollen wir Ihnen einen Einblick zum gezielten Einsatz der Blockchain-Technologie für Mobilitätsanwendungen geben.
Im Fokus steht dabei die Entwicklung der digitalen Identität für verschiedene Mobilitätsträger. Dabei werden heutige und zukünftige Anforderungen aufgezeigt und aktuelle Entwicklungen betrachtet. Mit der dezentralen Blockchain-Technologie soll beispielsweise ein Fahrzeug in der Lage sein, seine digitale Identität selbst zu verwalten, ohne von einem zentralen Identitätsdienstleister abhängig zu sein. Am Beispiel einer dezentralen Plattform für Sharing Mobility im ländlichen Raum wird die Bedeutung digitaler Identitäten für Mobilitätsträger erforscht und ein Ausblick auf zukünftig in der Geschäftswelt autonom handelnde Fahrzeuge gegeben. Es wird praxisnah gezeigt, wie die Blockchain-Technologie helfen kann, die Anforderungen an eine digitale Identität für Mobilitätsträger zu erfüllen und wie diese in einem nachhaltigen Geschäftsmodell Anwendung finden kann
Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies are evolving into enabling infrastructures for innovative ICT-solutions. Numerous features, such as decentralization, programmability, and immutability of data, have led to a multitude of use cases that range from cryptocurrencies, tracking and tracing to automated business protocols or decentralized autonomous systems. For organizations that seek blockchain adoption, the overwhelming spectrum of potential application areas requires guidance reducing complexity and support the development of blockchain-based concepts. This paper introduces a classification approach to provide design and implementation guidance that goes beyond current textbook classifications. As an outcome, a typology for management and business architects is developed, before the paper concludes with an instantiation of existing use cases and a discussion of their classes.
Blockchain-Governance wird immer wieder mit der Führung von Unternehmen oder von Nationalstaaten verglichen, obwohl diese sich oft eher als Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) definieren. In diesem Beitrag werden rechtliche Konzepte, die den Rahmen für die Entscheidungsfindung in Unternehmen und Staaten bilden, sowie die Grundlagen einer DAO mit der Governance von Polkadot verglichen. Im Ergebnis weist der Staat aufgrund der starken Prägung durch die physische Sphäre und der Selektion seiner Bürger die größten Unterschiede zur Polkadot-Governance auf. Von den Unternehmen ist die Genossenschaft in ihrem Ziel der Förderung der Mitglieder und Verwaltung gemeinsamer Infrastruktur, die sich jeweils auch in den Rechten der Mitglieder und der Besetzung der Organe niederschlägt, am nächsten. Die höchste Übereinstimmung hat die Polkadot-Governance jedoch mit der DAO, insofern als sie über die Zeit immer stärker den Gedanken der dezentralen und autonomen Entscheidungsfindung umsetzt.
Reputation is indispensable for online business since it supports customers in their buying decisions and allows sellers to justify premium prices. While IS research has investigated reputation systems mainly as review systems on online platforms for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions, no proper solutions have been developed for business-to-business (B2B) transactions yet. We use blockchain technology to propose a new class of reputation systems that apply ratings as voluntary bonus payments: Before a transaction is performed, customers commit to pay a bonus that is granted if a service provider has performed a service properly. As opposed to rival reputation systems that build on cumulated ratings or reviews, our system enables monetized reputation mechanisms that are inextricably linked with online transactions. We expect this system class to provide more trustworthy ratings, which might reduce agency costs and serve quality providers to establish a reputation towards new customers.
Mapping identities, digital assets, and people’s profiles on the internet is getting much traction in the blockchain cosmos lately. The new technology is currently forming architectures that will further pave new ways to reach fundamental mechanisms to interact in a decentralized, user-centered manner. These schemes are often declared as the next generation of the web. Within the article will be shown, how the internet has evolved in managing identities, what problems arose, and how new data architectures help build applications on top of privacy rights. Both technological and ethical perspectives are viewed to answer which guidelines should be considered to fulfill the upcoming branch of decentralized services and what we can learn from historical schemes regarding their privacy, accounting, and user data.
The financial world of blockchains is mostly covered by Bitcoin, taking up about 210 billion dollars in market cap. Despite the huge security and independence which the technology offers to the users, it's not quite easy to adapt with upcoming applications due to the regulated infrastructure behind. For small-scale transactions, everyday use applications or the access to a variety of crypto technologies and projects, Bitcoin is relatively limited in future development. The compatibility for most of those applications is covering currencies from more development-driven blockchains like Ethereum. Those want to reach out for the user base that's already in hold of Bitcoins and offer them a seamless transition to new applications without the risk of losing their funds. Within the article, atomic swaps and tokenization are covered up and current approaches compared. Both mechanisms are used to fulfill this symbiosis between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
To get a more practical view, an example on how to implement such a tokenization within an app is shown. This will give deeper insights and offers inspiration for digital identity-based app development.
The topic of soulbound, non-transferable tokens is getting lots of interest within the blockchain space lately as decentralized societies become more tangible with Web3 social media applications and DAOs. In this article, I want to outline how such tokens function, their problems for adoption and standardization, and how they differ from verifiable credentials in the SSI field. As such soulbound assets will likely rely on extended recovery and asset management schemes to become viable identities that safely gain reputation and trust, features like social recovery and contract-based accounting are incorporated. By combining those new technologies and the theoretical crypto-native identity construct, the paper will give an impression of the future user-centric data economy.
The wind energy sector is undergoing digitalization processes that span multi-tier supply chains of turbine components and wind farm maintenance, amongst others. In an industrial use case that includes Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Vestas and APQP4Wind, the processes of producing, fastening, and servicing bolts in turbines are mapped to a digital model. The model follows the lifetime of turbine bolts from the manufacturing phase, to fastening in turbines and maintenance, until their replacement and recycling. The development of the digital model is iteratively addressed in a design science research approach, as the authors actively contribute to the project. Distributed ledgers (DLs) support the notary documentation of the bolts and turbines, from their registration phase to the assembly-, technical service verification- and recycling phases. The immutable and decentralized nature of DLs secures the data against tampering and prevents any changes taken unilaterally by engaging the service stakeholders and component providers in a blockchain consortium.
In the field of Blockchain Technology applications and research, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained significant attention in recent years. Whilst current research is focused on NFT use cases or the purchase of NFTs from an investor’s perspective, the NFT launch (i.e. primary market) from a creator’s perspective remains uncovered. However, the launch strategy is considered to be an important factor for the success of a product. Therefore, our research paper aims to explore launch strategies of NFTs. Thereby, we discuss the marketing mix instruments price (i.e. pricing strategy), place (i.e. mint mechanism), and promotion. Through an empirical approach of conducting eight expert interviews, we examine parameters that are used to define an NFT launch strategy and assess their preference of different stakeholders.
Global challenges like climate change, food security, and infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic are nearly impossible to tackle when established experts and upstart innovators work in silos. If research organizations, governments, universities, NGOs, and the private sector could collaborate on these challenges more easily, lasting solutions would certainly come more quickly. Aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, SAIRA connects key players in different arenas: scientists and engineers at research and technology organizations (RTOs) looking to collaborate on sustainable development projects, companies seeking R&D support to tackle their most challenging problems, and startups with innovative ideas and a desire to scale. The platform is a blockchain-secured open innovation platform, anchored on Max Plank Digital Library's blockchain network bloxberg, that assures the authenticity and integrity of all user-generated content and collaboration processes.
While blockchain technology is still in an early stage of its development, it is already of surging economic importance.
In the literature, blockchain is referred to as either being a disruptive, institutional, foundational, or general purpose technology. There is still no consensus about the economic theory that should apply for analyzing its economic effects. This article draws on use cases from the coffee supply chain to explore, which theories could potentially apply to an emerging blockchain economy.
To enable smart devices of the internet of things to be connected to a blockchain, a blockchain client needs to run on this hardware. With the Trustless Incentivized Remote Node Network, in short Incubed, it will be possible to establish a decentralized and secure network of remote nodes, which enables trustworthy and fast access to a blockchain for a large number of low-performance IoT devices. Currently, Incubed supports the verification of Ethereum data. To serve a wider audience and more applications this paper proposes the verification of Bitcoin data as well, which can be achieved due to the modularity of Incubed. This paper describes the proof data that is necessary for a client to prove the correctness of a node’s response and the process to verify the response by using this proof data as well. A proof-object which contains the proof data will be part of every response in addition to the actual result. We design, implement and evaluate Bitcoin verification for Incubed. Creation of the proof data for supported methods (on the server-side) and the verification process using this proof data (on the client-side) has been demonstrated. This enables the verification of Bitcoin in Incubed.
The cryptocurrency ecosystem has seen significant growth with Ethereum and Bitcoin as foundational pillars. Ethereum introduced smart contracts revolutionizing decentralized applications (dApps) across various domains. Scalability challenges led to alternative ecosystems like Binance Smart Chain and Polygon, maintaining compatibility through the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Bitcoin also faces scalability issues, leading to the Lightning Network's development—an off-chain solution with payment channels for scalable instant transactions. Interoperability is increasingly crucial as the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow, enabling seamless interactions between assets and data across multiple blockchain platforms. EVM-compatible blockchains and the Lightning Network offer unique advantages in their respective use cases. This paper utilizes atomic swaps to create a secure, fast, and user-friendly trustless bridge between the Lightning Network and EVM-compatible blockchains, fostering the growth of both ecosystems and unlocking novel opportunities.
Humans started using the principles of insurance thousands of years ago when they lived in tribes in smaller villages. If one of the tribe members were injured, the others would take care of him and his family. The basic principle of insurance is several people covering each other against a particular risk. Today, most people in regions like Europe have access to insurance, while many people worldwide still have no access at all. The cost and accessibility may be improved with a blockchain-based parametric approach. The insurance process in a parametric approach is exclusively based on data, and decisions are made objectively. Blockchain is a necessary and integral part of the approach to create transparency and connect the customer’s and investor’s risk capital. The paper offers an overview of the opportunities and challenges of blockchain-based parametric insurance, a catalog of criteria for such insurance, a description of all components and their interaction for implementation on Ethereum, and a reference implementation of a train delay insurance in Germany.