Amritraj .

IP addresses can be passed on to new recipients even with a damaged reputation score. It takes a lot of effort to defend a network against storing IP address data using current required practices. A blockchain network offers a decentralized, immutable ledger to record IP data which ensures that the data will not be tampered with and the data is trustworthy. Master nodes and digital IDs are two ways the blockchain can be used to preserve a digital identity. Master nodes can act as a mediator and… Show more

IP addresses can be passed on to new recipients even with a damaged reputation score. It takes a lot of effort to defend a network against storing IP address data using current required practices. A blockchain network offers a decentralized, immutable ledger to record IP data which ensures that the data will not be tampered with and the data is trustworthy. Master nodes and digital IDs are two ways the blockchain can be used to preserve a digital identity. Master nodes can act as a mediator and store the entire blockchain to improve the validity of the blockchain. Digital IDs can make it easier to verify an identity on the blockchain. In this chapter, we explore how blockchain technology can preserve user’s digital identity more effectively. This chapter also offers a sample program that can be used to store and retrieve information with the use of the Solidity language used on the Ethereum network. Data pertaining to IP addresses is added to a solidity contract with several methods offered for reading data. The IP address data ends up more secure than if it was simply stored in a central database. Show less

Recently, public and permissionless blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have been facing a formidable challenge in the form of scalability which has hindered their expected growth. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum can process fewer than 20 transactions per second, which is significantly lower than their centralized counterpart such as VISA which can process approximately 1700 transactions per second. In realizing this hindrance for wide range adoption of blockchains for building advanced and… Show more

Recently, public and permissionless blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have been facing a formidable challenge in the form of scalability which has hindered their expected growth. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum can process fewer than 20 transactions per second, which is significantly lower than their centralized counterpart such as VISA which can process approximately 1700 transactions per second. In realizing this hindrance for wide range adoption of blockchains for building advanced and large scalable systems, the blockchain community has proposed several solutions including Sharding and Segregated Witness (SegWit). Although these proposals are innovative, they still suffer from the blockchain trilemma of scalability, security, and decentralization. Moreover, at this time, little is known or discussed regarding factors related to design choices, feasibility, limitations, and other issues in adopting these solutions in public and permissionless blockchains. Hence, this paper provides the first comprehensive state-of-the-art review of sharding and segregated witness in public and permissionless blockchains, identifying current advancements, highlighting their limitations and discussing possible remedies for the overall improvement of the blockchain domain. Show less

In the last decade, blockchain has emerged as one of the most influential innovations in software architecture and technology. Ideally, blockchains are designed to be architecturally and politically decentralized, similar to the Internet. In recent times, however, blockchain-based systems have faced stumbling blocks in the form of challenges related to scalability, privacy, security, etc. Several new methods have been proposed both by the research and professional communities to mitigate these… Show more

In the last decade, blockchain has emerged as one of the most influential innovations in software architecture and technology. Ideally, blockchains are designed to be architecturally and politically decentralized, similar to the Internet. In recent times, however, blockchain-based systems have faced stumbling blocks in the form of challenges related to scalability, privacy, security, etc. Several new methods have been proposed both by the research and professional communities to mitigate these challenges. One such recent advancement proposed is the use of sidechains. A sidechain is a secondary blockchain connected to the main blockchain with a two-way peg. Sidechains may have their own consensus protocols, which could be completely different from the mainchain's protocol. Theoretically, a sidechain can add new functionalities, improve privacy, and security of traditionally vanilla blockchains. To this date, however, little is known or discussed regarding factors related to design choices, feasibility, limitations and other issues in adopting the sidechain technology. Moreover, there is a lack of studies discussing how and where it can effectively be integrated into blockchains to remedy current issues in a clear context. Hence, this paper provides the first comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art sidechains and platforms, identifying current advancements and analyzing their impact from various viewpoints, highlighting their limitations and discussing possible remedies for the overall improvement of the blockchain domain. Show less

Blockchain as a distributed computing platform enables users to deploy smart contracts for a wealth of next-generation decentralized applications without involving a trusted third-party. The advantages of smart contracts do, however, come at a price. As with most technologies, there are potential security threats, vulnerabilities and various other issues associated with smart contracts. Writing secure and safe smart contracts can be extremely difficult due to various business logics, as well as… Show more

Blockchain as a distributed computing platform enables users to deploy smart contracts for a wealth of next-generation decentralized applications without involving a trusted third-party. The advantages of smart contracts do, however, come at a price. As with most technologies, there are potential security threats, vulnerabilities and various other issues associated with smart contracts. Writing secure and safe smart contracts can be extremely difficult due to various business logics, as well as platform vulnerabilities and limitations. Formal methods have recently been advocated to mitigate these vulnerabilities. This paper aims to provide a first-time study on current formalization research on all smart contract-related platforms on blockchains, which is scarce in the literature. To this end, a timely and rigorous systematic review to examine the state-of-the-art research and achievements published between 2015 and July 2019 is provided. The results indicate that the most common formalization technique is theorem proving, which is most often used to verify security properties relating to smart contracts, while other techniques such as symbolic execution and model checking were also frequently used. These techniques were most commonly used to verify the functional correctness of smart contracts. From the language and automation point of views, there were 12 languages (domain specific/specification/general purpose) proposed or used for the formalization of smart contracts on blockchains, while 15 formal method-specific automated tools/frameworks were identified for mitigating various vulnerabilities of smart contracts. From the results of this work, we further highlight three open issues for future research in this emerging domain including: formal testing, automated verification of smart contracts, and domain specific languages (DSLs) for Ethereum. These issues suggest the need for additional, in-depth future research. Show less

Software engineering is inherently a human-centric and collaborative process and this reflects in its teaching programs, as most of the courses comprise projects and team efforts. In order to fairly evaluate students, there is the problem of quantifying the amount of work contributed to the team development project by each of its members. Most commonly, in order to estimates student contributions, instructors use arbitrary and subjective judgment derived from observations and evaluations. The… Show more

Software engineering is inherently a human-centric and collaborative process and this reflects in its teaching programs, as most of the courses comprise projects and team efforts. In order to fairly evaluate students, there is the problem of quantifying the amount of work contributed to the team development project by each of its members. Most commonly, in order to estimates student contributions, instructors use arbitrary and subjective judgment derived from observations and evaluations. The currently used process is not a complete picture and is time consuming since it requires numerous observations and extensive paperwork's review. Emerging decentralized systems (such as git) and their widespread applications in all realms of development which capitalize on team-aware metrics, are worthwhile and can provide a solution to the problem. In this work we support a solution that utilizes git-driven technology, and its related features, to measure a team member's contributions objectively, based not only upon the completion of the project, but also at any time during progression development. Such performance assessment could generate more productive team-based learning with higher-quality graduates for better meeting software industry's expectations. Show less

The emerging blockchain technology supports decentralized computing paradigm shift and is a rapidly approaching phenomenon. While blockchain is thought primarily as the basis of Bitcoin, its application has grown far beyond cryptocurrencies due to the introduction of smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-enforcing pieces of software, which reside and run over a hosting blockchain. Using blockchain-based smart contracts for secure and transparent management to govern interactions… Show more

The emerging blockchain technology supports decentralized computing paradigm shift and is a rapidly approaching phenomenon. While blockchain is thought primarily as the basis of Bitcoin, its application has grown far beyond cryptocurrencies due to the introduction of smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-enforcing pieces of software, which reside and run over a hosting blockchain. Using blockchain-based smart contracts for secure and transparent management to govern interactions (authentication, connection, and transaction) in Internet-enabled environments, mostly IoT, is a niche area of research and practice. However, writing trustworthy and safe smart contracts can be tremendously challenging because of the complicated semantics of underlying domain-specific languages and its testability. There have been high-profile incidents that indicate blockchain smart contracts could contain various code-security vulnerabilities, instigating financial harms. When it involves security of smart contracts, developers embracing the ability to write the contracts should be capable of testing their code, for diagnosing security vulnerabilities, before deploying them to the immutable environments on blockchains. However, there are only a handful of security testing tools for smart contracts. This implies that the existing research on automatic smart contracts security testing is not adequate and remains in a very stage of infancy. With a specific goal to more readily realize the application of blockchain smart contracts in security and privacy, we should first understand their vulnerabilities before widespread implementation. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to carry out a far-reaching experimental assessment of current static smart contracts security testing tools, for the most widely used blockchain, the Ethereum and its domain-specific programming language, Solidity, to provide the first body of knowledge for creating more secure blockchain-based software. Show less

Blockchain is a promising infrastructural technology that is finding its way into a growing number of domains like big data, finance, and medical. While blockchain has come to be thought of primarily as the foundation for Bitcoin, it has evolved far beyond underpinning the virtual currency. As it becomes progressively popular, the need for effective programming means would be more demanding. Blockchain programming as a core means provides accounts of the ‘code is law’ that specifies agreements… Show more

Blockchain is a promising infrastructural technology that is finding its way into a growing number of domains like big data, finance, and medical. While blockchain has come to be thought of primarily as the foundation for Bitcoin, it has evolved far beyond underpinning the virtual currency. As it becomes progressively popular, the need for effective programming means would be more demanding. Blockchain programming as a core means provides accounts of the ‘code is law’ that specifies agreements between parties and allows its stakeholders to still trust the platform to execute the agreed-upon contract (known as smart contract) as expected. Although it seems straightforward in theory, it is hardly the case when it comes to real-life situations. There have been several instances that show smart contracts are riddled with issues and vulnerabilities in code, causing damages. What’s for sure is lacking is that the existing languages are not living up to the point to be able to unleash the full potential of the blockchain, as often have resulted in buggy code with a steep learning curve for developers. This denotes that the current research on contract development is not sufficient and is still in a stage of infancy. In order to advance the state of the research in this area, an evaluation of the current state-of-the-art practices in a thorough and experimental manner is required. Thus, the objective of this paper is to give a comprehensive analysis of such domain-specific programming practices from critical points of usability and security to provide a working guideline for newcomers and researchers. Show less