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Digital Farmers

Gordon Conway, Ousmane Badiane, and Katrin Glatzel

in Food for All in Africa: Sustainable Intensification for African Farmers

This chapter deals with digital technologies, both hardware and software, and how they can help increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable fashion. Africa is going digital, ... More

This chapter deals with digital technologies, both hardware and software, and how they can help increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable fashion. Africa is going digital, enabling millions of Africans to connect for the first time. The effect is to revolutionize the lives of African farmers—by overcoming isolation, by speeding up change, and by taking success to scale. Digital connectivity has enormous implications for agriculture and nutrition. It is already being used to disseminate information on nutrition and health, providing timely information on everything from weather predictions, crop selection, and pest control to management and finance. Technologies include the analysis of big data, using machine learning and blockchain technology applications that help to produce and analyze digital soil maps, to provide sophisticated insurance and faster breeding cycles for traditional African crops.Less

Introduction

Andreas Bolfing

in Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchain Technology: A mathematical introduction

This chapter gives an outline of Nakamoto’s main idea when introducing Bitcoin as first blockchain system in history of computer sciences. The scope of the book and its outline is described.

Conclusions

Andreas Bolfing

in Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchain Technology: A mathematical introduction

This final chapter gives a short summary of the contents of the book and represents some important lessons about the security considerations of the cryptography used in blockchain systems.

From Fork to Farm: Honing the Tools of Outbreak Investigation

Timothy D. Lytton

in Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety

This chapter details the investigation of a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul initially attributed to contaminated tomatoes but later traced to tainted hot peppers. The chapter examines the ... More

This chapter details the investigation of a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul initially attributed to contaminated tomatoes but later traced to tainted hot peppers. The chapter examines the tools that make up the “three-legged stool” of outbreak investigation: epidemiology, pathogen testing, and product tracing. The chapter describes significant advances in these three areas, including the PulseNet foodborne illness surveillance system, the development of whole genome sequencing of pathogens, and the application of blockchain to product tracing. These dramatic advances have enhanced the capacity of public health officials to more quickly identify the sources of foodborne illness outbreaks and limit the spread of illness. The faster investigators can detect an outbreak, identify a food vehicle, trace it back to the source of contamination, and track it forward through the distribution chain, the sooner contaminated products can be removed from store shelves and consumers warned to refrain from eating them. Effective foodborne illness investigation is also essential to the cycle of public health prevention, in which outbreaks offer opportunities for feedback and learning that gradually improve the capacity of the food safety system to identify, respond to, and ultimately prevent foodborne illness.Less

Counting Bitcoin

Ed Finn

in What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing

This chapter uses the growing dominance of algorithmic high frequency trading in finance to frame a reading of Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies. By defining the unit of exchange through ... More

This chapter uses the growing dominance of algorithmic high frequency trading in finance to frame a reading of Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies. By defining the unit of exchange through computational cycles, Bitcoin fundamentally shifts the faith-based community of currency from a materialist to an algorithmic value system. Algorithmic arbitrage is forcing similar transitions in the attribution of value and meaning in many spaces of cultural exchange, from Facebook and Google’s Page Rank algorithm to journalism. The fundamental shift from valuing the cultural object itself to valuing the networks of relations that the object establishes or supports leads to new practices and aesthetics of production, where form and genre give way to memes and nebulous collaborative works. Using Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology as an example of this new value model, the chapter considers the consequences of programmable value for the notion of a public sphere in the twenty-first century, an era when arbitrage trumps content.Less

In Code(rs) We Trust: Software Developers as Fiduciaries in Public Blockchains

Angela Walch

in Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges

This chapter addresses the myth of ‘decentralized governance’ of public blockchains, arguing that certain people who create, operate, or reshape them function much like fiduciaries of those who rely ... More

This chapter addresses the myth of ‘decentralized governance’ of public blockchains, arguing that certain people who create, operate, or reshape them function much like fiduciaries of those who rely on these data structures. It compares the role of leading software developers and Frankel’s conception of a ‘fiduciary’ and finds much in common, as users place extreme trust in the developers to be both competent and loyal (i.e. to be free of conflicts of interest). The chapter frames the cost–benefit analysis necessary to evaluate whether it is wise to treat these parties as fiduciaries, and outlines key questions needed to flesh out the fiduciary categorization. For example, which software developers are influential enough to resemble fiduciaries? Are all users of a blockchain ‘entrustors’ of the fiduciaries who operate the blockchain, or only a subset of those who rely on the blockchain? The chapter concludes by considering the broader implications of treating software developers as fiduciaries, given the existing accountability paradigm that largely shields them from liability for the code they create.Less

Dogecoin

Sarah Jeong

Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz (eds)

in Paid: Tales of Dongles, Checks, and Other Money Stuff

Dogecoin—a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency notable for its use of a meme of a bemused shibainu dog—is perhaps one of the most absurd and most adorable money experiments. The community around it was known ... More

Dogecoin—a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency notable for its use of a meme of a bemused shibainu dog—is perhaps one of the most absurd and most adorable money experiments. The community around it was known for being more welcoming than that of other cryptocurrencies. It engaged in community activities that were seen as charitable and wholesome, such as sponsoring the Jamaican national bobsled team. The story of Dogecoin is in many ways the story cryptocurrencies in miniature. Each and every cryptocurrency is a referendum on whether money can exist without an issuing government. But each of these grand theoretical experiments always seems to end in fraud and disappointment. This chapter tells the tale of Dogecoin’s rise and fall.Less

Regulating under Uncertainty about Rationality: From Decision Theory to Machine Learning and Complexity Theory

Philipp Hacker

in Theories of Choice: The Social Science and the Law of Decision Making

Theories of choice, and their legal consequences, dramatically differ based on whether they are premised on rational or boundedly rational actors. This chapter describes the interactions between, and ... More

Theories of choice, and their legal consequences, dramatically differ based on whether they are premised on rational or boundedly rational actors. This chapter describes the interactions between, and regulatory implications of, three types of uncertainties that the selection of an adequate theory of choice requires. First, it suggests that Knightian uncertainty concerning the distribution of degrees of rationality between regulatees obtains in many regulatory areas. More recently, this has been described as a ‘knowledge problem’ of behavioural law and economics. This chapter argues that the best regulatory response to the knowledge problem is to frame regulation as a problem of decision making under uncertainty. Second, with the rise of machine learning, it is arguably becoming ever more possible to estimate the level of bias, or even entire rationality quotients, of individual regulatees. This opens the potential for, but also the pitfalls of, personalised law. Third, even Big Data analytics generally only offers a snapshot of a distribution of rationality at one moment in time. Recent economic analyses have suggested behavioural heterogeneity can evolve over time in unpredicted ways that may lead to unforeseen consequences, leading to economic complexity. This calls for a greater role of standards, as opposed to rules, in regulating environments with dynamic behavioural heterogeneity. The chapter focuses on the normative implications of different types of uncertainty. In the end, theories of choice can aid more transparent normative trade-offs but they cannot replace the value judgments, and normative discourses, that balance the involved interests.Less

Introduction to Blockchain Technology

Andreas Bolfing

in Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchain Technology: A mathematical introduction

This chapter gives an introduction to blockchain technology which was proposed by the pseudonymous Nakamoto (2008) with his well-known Bitcoin paper to enable online payments in a decentralized ... More

This chapter gives an introduction to blockchain technology which was proposed by the pseudonymous Nakamoto (2008) with his well-known Bitcoin paper to enable online payments in a decentralized digital cash system, solving the double-spending problem where someone can make two payments with the same coin. The chapter starts with an informal outline of the application of a blockchain and a brief explanation of how a blockchain network is able to reach consensus about the common state of a transaction history. Furthermore, it introduces the Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithmwhich needs to be donein order to extend the blockchain with new blocks. Since the PoW is a very costly computational algorithm, the transaction data is stored in previous blocks resistant to modification, and thus the PoW safeguards the order of blocks, forming a tamper-proof history of transactions. As a last step, it examines the double-spending attack, which is a fundamental attack to the integrity of a blockchain based system.Less

Bitcoin

Andreas Bolfing

in Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchain Technology: A mathematical introduction

Bitcoin was proposed by Nakamoto (2008) as the first electronic payment system, which fully relies on cryptographic primitives in order to work over a purely peer-to-peer system, where everyone can ... More

Bitcoin was proposed by Nakamoto (2008) as the first electronic payment system, which fully relies on cryptographic primitives in order to work over a purely peer-to-peer system, where everyone can participate in spending funds to other users without the need for a trusted third party. This chapter first introduces the basic ideas of Satoshi Nakamoto, who defined an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures. It explains how the addresses in Bitcoin are derived, and how the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) key pair is used in order to transact funds from one user to another. For this, it shows how the transactions are constructed in Bitcoin, based on the most common transaction, which is the Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash transaction. The last section then shows how the transactions are permanently stored in the public ledger, the blockchain, and how the miners solve the Proof-of-Work in order to safeguard the records.Less

Post-Quantum Blockchains

Andreas Bolfing

in Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchain Technology: A mathematical introduction

Chapter 10 deals with the fact that quantum computers will break all current practical digital signature schemes once large-scale quantum computers become reality. The chapter starts with an outline ... More

Chapter 10 deals with the fact that quantum computers will break all current practical digital signature schemes once large-scale quantum computers become reality. The chapter starts with an outline of the major cryptographic primitives that are considered to be quantum-safe and compare their efficiency and usability for blockchain networks. For this, it compares the basic factors of the most popular classical public-key schemes and some chosen post-quantum approaches. This is followed by an introduction to hash-based cryptosystems. Based on Lamport-Diffie one-time signatures, it shows how hash-based signature schemes work and how they can be transformed to multi-signature schemes.Less

Virtual Currencies as Commodities

Lamia Chourou

in Commodities: Markets, Performance, and Strategies

The rapid advancement in encryption and network computing gave birth to new tools and products that have influenced the local and global economy alike. One recent and notable example is the emergence ... More

The rapid advancement in encryption and network computing gave birth to new tools and products that have influenced the local and global economy alike. One recent and notable example is the emergence of virtual currencies, also known as cryptocurrencies or digital currencies. Virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, introduced a fundamental transformation that affected the way goods, services, and assets are exchanged. As a result of their distributed ledgers based on blockchains, cryptocurrencies not only offer some unique advantages to the economy, investors, and consumers, but also pose considerable risks to users and challenges for regulators when fitting the new technology into the old legal framework. This chapter offers a nontechnical discussion of several aspects and features of virtual currencies and a glimpse at what the future may hold for these decentralized currencies.Less

Conclusion

Rowan Wilken

in Cultural Economies of Locative Media

The Conclusion revisits the terrain the book has covered, providing recapitulations of the arguments of each of the three parts of the book and the chapters contained within them. The argument of ... More

The Conclusion revisits the terrain the book has covered, providing recapitulations of the arguments of each of the three parts of the book and the chapters contained within them. The argument of this Conclusion is that, while locative media having shifted significantly over the course of the past decade or so, location, locative media, and location data capture remain central concerns, both in the present and within and for new technological developments. It is, for instance, central to visions of “smart” or “networked” cities, and of depth-sensing vision capture technologies. Location is also crucial to recent developments in mapping and indoor mapping, autonomous vehicle development, environmental sensing, the internet of things, machine learning, and distributed ledger technologies.Less

Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges—An Introduction

Philipp Hacker, Ioannis Lianos, Georgios Dimitropoulos, and Stefan Eich

in Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the main legal and policy implications of blockchain technology. It proceeds in four steps. First, the chapter traces the technical and legal ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the main legal and policy implications of blockchain technology. It proceeds in four steps. First, the chapter traces the technical and legal evolution of blockchain applications since the early days of Bitcoin, highlighting in particular the political ambitions and tensions that have marked many of these projects from the start. Second, it shows how blockchain applications have created new calculative spaces of financial markets that seek to challenge existing forms of money. Third, it discusses the core points of friction with incumbent legal systems, with a particular focus on the regulability of decentralized systems in general and data protection concerns in particular. Fourth, the chapter provides an outline to the contributions to the volume, which span a wide array of topics at the intersection of blockchain, law, and politics.Less

The Blockchain Paradox

Paolo Tasca and Riccardo Piselli

in Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges

Abstract This contribution deals with the problem of interoperability of blockchain technologies. Building on the framework offered by Lawrence Lessig, it will be argued that interoperability cannot ... More

Abstract This contribution deals with the problem of interoperability of blockchain technologies. Building on the framework offered by Lawrence Lessig, it will be argued that interoperability cannot be viewed as a simple matter of technological design. Blockchain technologies, in fact, give rise to complex ecosystems, which are shaped by both the architecture and social and market forces. The literature has mainly focused on the effects that the blockchain code has determined on the law of contracts. However, the action of the other modalities, in particular those of market and social forces and their interaction with the code has not been deeply investigated. By isolating the reciprocal effects of the different modalities of regulation—in particular, blockchain code and the law, blockchain code and the market, and blockchain code and social norms—this paper intends to fill this gap and sheds some more light on the internal dynamics of public blockchain. Finally, building on the insight so gained, we will explore the problem of interoperability between ledgers by analysing the pros and cons of the solution proposed so far.Less

Blockchains, Private Ordering, and the Future of Governance

Jonathan Rohr and Aaron Wright

in Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges

Ten years ago Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and launched the first Bitcoin protocol. Since then, blockchain’s potential to impact upon a wide variety of relationships and ... More

Ten years ago Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and launched the first Bitcoin protocol. Since then, blockchain’s potential to impact upon a wide variety of relationships and transactions has become evident. Blockchain-based governance is now possible, and as technologists, entrepreneurs, and legal professionals refine its implementation, it will likely become more mainstream. It is no exaggeration to say that a blockchain revolution has begun. Although not as attention-grabbing as blockchain’s earliest uses to facilitate cryptocurrency, the technology’s potential to transform the way business enterprises are governed is no less ground-breaking. This chapter considers blockchain-based governance from an American business law perspective. It argues that, despite the possibility that it will allow parties to rely less on the governance arrangements currently provided by traditional business organizations, it is nonetheless consistent with American business law’s ‘enabling’ approach and the significant room it leaves for private ordering. Furthermore, substitution of blockchain-based for traditional governance does not obviate the need for limited liability and the other advantages of separate legal personhood. Consequently, state-level efforts to accommodate blockchain-based governance in the context of limited liability entities are already appearing. The chapter concludes with a short discussion of some of the challenges that blockchain-based governance presents under American business law.Less

Corporate Governance for Complex Cryptocurrencies?: A Framework for Stability and Decision Making in Blockchain-Based Organizations

Philipp Hacker

in Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are gaining ground not only as alternative modes of payment but also as platforms for financial innovation, particularly through token sales or initial ... More

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are gaining ground not only as alternative modes of payment but also as platforms for financial innovation, particularly through token sales or initial coin offerings (‘ICOs’). All of these ventures are based on decentralized, permissionless blockchain technology, distinguished by their openness to, and the formal equality of, participants. However, recent cryptocurrency crises have shown that these architectures lack robust governance frameworks and are therefore prone to patterns of re-centralization. They are informally dominated by coalitions of powerful players within the cryptocurrency ecosystem who may violate basic rules of the blockchain community without accountability or sanction. This chapter first suggests that cryptocurrency and token-based ecosystems can be fruitfully analysed as complex systems that have been studied for decades in complexity theory and have recently gained prominence in financial regulation, too. It applies these insights to three key case studies: the Bitcoin Hard Fork of 2013; the Ethereum hard fork of 2016, following the DAO hack; and the ongoing Bitcoin scaling debate. Second, the chapter argues that complexity-induced uncertainty can be reduced, and elements of stability and order strengthened, by adapting a corporate governance framework to blockchain-based organizations: cryptocurrencies, and decentralized applications built on top of them via token sales. The resulting ‘comply-or-explain’ approach combines transparency and accountability with the necessary flexibility that allows blockchain developers to continue to experiment for the sake of innovation. Eventually, however, the coordination of these activities may necessitate the establishment of a self-regulatory institution.Less