research

Enhancing the democratic nature of voting processes within decentralized autonomous organizations

Paper entitled “Enhancing the democratic nature of voting processes within decentralized autonomous organizations” in Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance.

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the problem of power imbalance within decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and propose potential solutions that could contribute to enhancing the democratic nature of DAOs.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors apply a qualitative methodology. Using a thematic coding analysis, the authors process data collected from interviews with 11 experts.

Findings

Multiple factors contribute to the perceived lack of democracy within DAOs, such as token concentration and effective stakeholder communication. Next, quadratic voting has the potential to enhance democracy within DAOs, but this mechanism must be implemented mindfully. Finally, the results were nuanced when it comes to the effectiveness of liquid democracy in DAOs to enhance voter participation and representation.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first research contributions to propose recommendations to address the power imbalance within DAOs and to contribute to the advancement of decentralized decision-making structures.

We Are Launching our Own NFT! Characterizing Fashion NFT Transactions-Preliminary Results

Paper presented @BRAINS2023, conference held in Paris (October 2023).

Abstract. Blockchain technology and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been a hot topic for several years now, as proven by the multitude of brands launching their own NFT projects. In this paper, we will consider some popular fashion NFT collections, namely: adidas Originals Into the Metaverse, AMBUSH OFFICIAL POW! REBOOT, Azuki x AMBUSH IKZ, CULT & RAIN – The Genesis Collection, Dolce& Gabbana: DGFamily, Dolce& Gabbana: DGFamily Glass Box, Chito x Givenchy NFT, MUGLER – We Are All Angel, RTFKT x Nike Dunk Genesis CRYPTOKICK, Prada Timecapsule. First, we will analyze and examine if we can find salient characteristics of transactions pertaining to these collections. Second, we will attempt to propose a first taxonomy of fashion NFT transactions. From the results, we can state that most transactions occur at the NFT launch and that they belong to the Memberships category. Secondly, the results show that we can propose a taxonomy of four transaction groups or clusters. The findings can have practical implications for both researchers and practitioners, indeed the results: (i) can be a stepping stone for future research on (fashion) NFTs, (ii) can help practitioners analyze transactions using our preliminary taxonomy.

Assessing the impact of network factors and Twitter data on Ethereum’s popularity

I recently published a paper entitled “Assessing the impact of network factors and Twitter data on Ethereum’s popularity” in Blockchain: Research and Applications.

Abstract. In March 2021, we witnessed a surge in Bitcoin price. The cause seemed to be a tweet by Elon Musk. Are other blockchains as sensitive to social media as Bitcoin? And more precisely, could Ethereum’s popularity be explained using social media data?

This work aims to explore the determinants of Ethereum’s popularity. We use both data from Etherscan to retrieve the relevant historic Ethereum factors and Twitter data. Our sample consists of data ranging from 2015 to 2022. We use Ordinary Least Squares to assess the relationship between these factors (Ethereum characteristics and Twitter data) and Ethereum’s popularity.

Our findings show that Ethereum’s popularity—translated here by the number of daily new addresses—is related to the following elements: the Ether (ETH) price, the transaction fees, and the polarity of tweets related to Ethereum.

The results could have multiple practical implications for both researchers and practitioners. First of all, we believe that it will enable readers to better understand the technology of Ethereum and its stake. Secondly, it will help the community identify pointers for anticipating or explaining the popularity of existing or future platforms. And finally, the results could help in understanding the factors facilitating the design of future platforms.

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Cheers!

Sarah

The Third BC4IS Workshop @ CAiSE2023

The third edition of BC4IS was held at CAiSE 2023, in Zaragoza. We are already planning the fourth edition. If you’re a researcher looking for a venue to submit your next paper, please consider BC4IS. Also, do not hesitate to share the information with anyone who might be interested in participating and/or attending the workshop in Limassol!

Blockchain technology offers a wide variety of opportunities to enable new kinds of collaborations and organizations, and to improve existing ones. However, engineering blockchain-based systems is a task that is particularly complex, and that requires specific considerations, along more traditional information systems engineering questions. In this context, research around the definition of requirements for, development, use and evolution of blockchain-based information systems are particularly relevant.

These opportunities and challenges have generated a strong and continuously growing interest from industry and academia in the engineering of blockchain-based information systems. To help further expand knowledge around this technology and to provide relevant answers to blockchain-specific engineering questions, we organized the second edition of the Blockchain for Information Systems (BC4IS) workshop.
The workshop was held in conjunction with the 35th International Confer-
ence on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE’23). It is a well-
established and highly visible conference series, addressing contemporary topics in information systems engineering.

We invited researchers working in fields including conceptual modeling, ontology engineering, business process modeling and analysis and information systems to submit their contributions to the workshop. Ultimately, we merged BC4IS with DGD. Four papers were submitted in total, and each received two single blind reviews. A meta-review of each paper was then prepared by the workshop chairs and sent to the authors. Taking into consideration the reviews and the maximum acceptance rate of Springer (set around 50% in this case), two full papers and one short paper have been accepted and presented during the combined workshop.
Additionally, we had the chance to have a PhD presentation, as well as a compelling keynote, given by Felix Härer on the topic of Blockchain interoperability, attracting both blockchain aficionados and non-experts.

To Fork or Not To Fork? Bitcoin Forks’ Success Analysis Using Twitter Data: Preliminary Results

Short paper presented @BRAINS2022, conference held in Paris.

Abstract. Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency. It is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls it and everyone can take part. And Bitcoin, just like any other open-source projects, has been subject to forks.

In this paper, we will consider some popular Bitcoin forks and we will examine if we can find a link between the value of the fork (i.e. its price) and the overall sentiment of the fork based on Twitter data. The forks we consider here are: Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), Bitcoin Private (BTCP), Bitcoin Atom (BCA), and Bitcoin SV (BSV). From the results, we can state that, for most cryptocurrencies studied here, the number of tweets follows the price trend more closely than the sentiment evolution does.

The findings can have practical implications for both researchers and practitioners, indeed the results: (i) can be a stepping stone for future research on hard forks, (ii) can help practitioners identify the relevant indicators for hard forks price evolution.

The Second BC4IS Workshop @ CAiSE2022

The second edition of BC4IS was held at CAiSE 2022, at the KU Leuven. We are already planning the third edition. If you’re a researcher looking for a venue to submit your next paper, please consider BC4IS. Also, do not hesitate to share the information with anyone who might be interested in participating and/or attending the workshop in Zaragoza!

These opportunities and challenges have generated a strong and continuously growing interest from industry and academia in the engineering of blockchain-based information systems. To help further expand knowledge around this technology and to provide relevant answers to blockchain-specific engineering questions, we organized the second edition of the Blockchain for Information Systems (BC4IS) workshop.
The workshop was held in conjunction with the 34th International Confer-
ence on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE’22). It is a well-
established and highly visible conference series, addressing contemporary topics in information systems engineering.

We invited researchers working in fields including conceptual modeling, ontology engineering, business process modeling and analysis and information systems to submit their contributions to the workshop. Four papers were submitted, and each received two single blind reviews. A meta-review of each paper was then prepared by the workshop chairs and sent to the authors. Taking into consideration the reviews and the maximum acceptance rate of Springer (set around 50% in this case), two papers have been accepted and presented during the workshop.
Considering the ongoing pandemic, the first edition of the workshop had to
be organized remotely. This year, we were very excited to hold the workshop
physically in Leuven. We also had the chance to have a compelling keynote,
given by Wim Laurier on the topic of “The Ontological Dimensions of Blockchain Initiatives”, attracting both blockchain aficionados and non-experts.

On the Popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens: Preliminary Results

Abstract. Blockchain technology supports digital assets, which can take the form of cryptocurrencies and tokens. Tokens are usually created on top of the blockchain platform, using smart contracts. Two main categories of tokens exist: Fungible Tokens and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Here, we focus on NFTs and propose a correlation analysis between various NFTs’ characteristics and the popularity of the NFTs. The results can have practical implications for both designers and users.

The First BC4IS Workshop @ CAiSE2021

My colleagues and I are organizing the first Blockchain for Information Systems (BC4IS) workshop, to be held in conjunction with the 33rd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering in June 2021. All the information regarding the workshop – including the topics of interest and the key dates – can be found on the dedicated website: bc4is.com.

Workshop presentation. Blockchain technology supports the execution and storage of transactions in a decentralized, transparent and immutable fashion. It is part of a broader set of technologies referred to as Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs). Cryptocurrencies represented the first major application of blockchain. Then, the development of smart contracts has provided the opportunity to manage other types of assets and to implement business logic running on blockchain platforms. Finally, the era of broader applications of blockchain technology beyond currencies, finance and markets has emerged. This evolution was coined Blockchain 1.0, Blockchain 2.0 and Blockchain 3.0 respectively.

The opportunities related to the evolution of blockchain technology, along with their challenges have generated a strong and continuously growing interest from industry and academia in the engineering of blockchain-based systems, and more particularly, in the engineering of blockchain-based solutions for Business Process Management (BPM). Beside classical engineering questions, new and specific challenges arise for blockchain-based solutions for organizations and for BPM, to which conceptual modeling, databases, ontology engineering and information systems communities could provide relevant answers.

BC4IS is an academic workshop which aims to bring together researchers in conceptual modeling, business process modeling and analysis, ontology engineering and information systems with business analysts, developers, managers, and consultants involved in the definition of requirements for, development, use, and evolution of blockchain-based solutions.

If you’re a researcher looking for a venue to submit your next paper, please consider BC4IS. Also, do not hesitate to share the information with anyone who might be interested in participating and/or attending the workshop in 2021.

Cheers!

A taxonomy of blockchain consensus protocols: A survey and classification framework

I recently published a paper entitled “A taxonomy of blockchain consensus protocols: A survey and classification framework” in Expert Systems with Applications.

Abstract. Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, refers to the public ledger used in a distributed network. Because blockchain does not rely on a central authority, peers have to agree on the state of the ledger among themselves, i.e., they have to reach a consensus on the state of the transactions. The way nodes reach that consensus has gained incredible attention in the literature. Bitcoin uses the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism, as did Ethereum at first. The latter decided to move from PoW to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) because of the high energy consumption required by PoW. To date, many other consensus protocols have been proposed to address the limitations of the seminal ones.

In this paper, we inform researchers and practitioners about the current state of consensus protocols research. The aim is to provide an analysis of the research introducing new consensus protocols in order to enable a more unified treatment. To that end, we review 28 new consensus protocols and we propose a four-category classification framework: Origin, Design, Performance and Security. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework by classifying the 28 protocols. Many surveys have already been proposed in the literature and some of them will be discussed later in the paper. Yet, we believe that this work is relevant and important for two reasons. Firstly, blockchain being a fast evolving topic, new consensus protocols emerge regularly and improvements are also put forward on a regular basis. Hence, this work aims at reflecting the latest state-of-the-art in terms of consensus protocols. Secondly, we aim to propose a comprehensive classification framework, integrating knowledge from multiple works in the literature, as well as introducing classification dimensions that have not been proposed before.

This work demonstrates that multiple consensus have been proposed in a short period of time, and highlights the differences between these protocols. Furthermore, it is suggested that researchers and practitioners who aim to propose consensus protocols in the future should pay attention to all the dimensions presented in the classification framework.

Feel free to share any comment or question you might have regarding the document itself or the topic in general.

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