Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.001.0001
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
Many online applications, especially in the financial industries, are running on blockchain technologies in a decentralized manner, without the use of an authoritative entity or a trusted third ...
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Many online applications, especially in the financial industries, are running on blockchain technologies in a decentralized manner, without the use of an authoritative entity or a trusted third party. Such systems are only secured by cryptographic protocols and a consensus mechanism. As blockchain-based solutions will continue to revolutionize online applications in a growing digital market in the future, one needs to identify the principal opportunities and potential risks. Hence, it is unavoidable to learn the mathematical and cryptographic procedures behind blockchain technology in order to understand how such systems work and where the weak points are. The book provides an introduction to the mathematical and cryptographic concepts behind blockchain technologies and shows how they are applied in blockchain-based systems. This includes an introduction to the general blockchain technology approaches that are used to build the so-called immutable ledgers, which are based on cryptographic signature schemes. As future quantum computers will break some of the current cryptographic primitive approaches, the book considers their security and presents the current research results that estimate the impact on blockchain-based systems if some of the cryptographic primitive break. Based on the example of Bitcoin, it shows that weak cryptographic primitives pose a possible danger for the ledger, which can be overcome through the use of the so-called post-quantum cryptographic approaches which are introduced as well.Less
Many online applications, especially in the financial industries, are running on blockchain technologies in a decentralized manner, without the use of an authoritative entity or a trusted third party. Such systems are only secured by cryptographic protocols and a consensus mechanism. As blockchain-based solutions will continue to revolutionize online applications in a growing digital market in the future, one needs to identify the principal opportunities and potential risks. Hence, it is unavoidable to learn the mathematical and cryptographic procedures behind blockchain technology in order to understand how such systems work and where the weak points are. The book provides an introduction to the mathematical and cryptographic concepts behind blockchain technologies and shows how they are applied in blockchain-based systems. This includes an introduction to the general blockchain technology approaches that are used to build the so-called immutable ledgers, which are based on cryptographic signature schemes. As future quantum computers will break some of the current cryptographic primitive approaches, the book considers their security and presents the current research results that estimate the impact on blockchain-based systems if some of the cryptographic primitive break. Based on the example of Bitcoin, it shows that weak cryptographic primitives pose a possible danger for the ledger, which can be overcome through the use of the so-called post-quantum cryptographic approaches which are introduced as well.
Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.003.0001
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
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.
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.
Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.003.0011
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
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.
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.
Gordon Conway, Ousmane Badiane, and Katrin Glatzel
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501743887
- eISBN:
- 9781501744419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501743887.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
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, ...
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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
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.
Philipp Hacker, Ioannis Lianos, Georgios Dimitropoulos, and Stefan Eich (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198842187
- eISBN:
- 9780191878206
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198842187.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law, Company and Commercial Law
This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the intersection between blockchain technology and the law. Covering EU, US, and Asian jurisdictions, it assesses the necessities of and opportunities ...
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This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the intersection between blockchain technology and the law. Covering EU, US, and Asian jurisdictions, it assesses the necessities of and opportunities for the regulation of blockchain technology in a range of key legal fields, such as competition law, securities regulation, corporate, insurance, contract, and data protection law. Instead of postulating the disruptive superiority of distributed ledger technology across potential areas of application, however, the volume offers a nuanced treatment of use cases ranging from early applications in finance to ICOs, alternative dispute resolution platforms, and smart contracts. It takes a distinct techno-social perspective in understanding the legal implications of blockchain technology as a possible new general-purpose technology. The interaction of blockchain technology with the legal system raises key questions concerning governance and government, private order and state authority, and the relationship between different ‘calculative’ spaces for assessing and allocating value. These questions do not only have a long pedigree, they are also acutely relevant to our immediate future. By drawing on technological, political, economic, and legal points of view, the volume shows why blockchain matters for societies, and why the law matters for blockchain.Less
This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the intersection between blockchain technology and the law. Covering EU, US, and Asian jurisdictions, it assesses the necessities of and opportunities for the regulation of blockchain technology in a range of key legal fields, such as competition law, securities regulation, corporate, insurance, contract, and data protection law. Instead of postulating the disruptive superiority of distributed ledger technology across potential areas of application, however, the volume offers a nuanced treatment of use cases ranging from early applications in finance to ICOs, alternative dispute resolution platforms, and smart contracts. It takes a distinct techno-social perspective in understanding the legal implications of blockchain technology as a possible new general-purpose technology. The interaction of blockchain technology with the legal system raises key questions concerning governance and government, private order and state authority, and the relationship between different ‘calculative’ spaces for assessing and allocating value. These questions do not only have a long pedigree, they are also acutely relevant to our immediate future. By drawing on technological, political, economic, and legal points of view, the volume shows why blockchain matters for societies, and why the law matters for blockchain.
Jack Parkin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197515075
- eISBN:
- 9780197515112
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197515075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization, Political Economy
Newly emerging cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology present a challenging research problem in the field of digital politics and economics. Bitcoin—the first widely implemented cryptocurrency ...
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Newly emerging cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology present a challenging research problem in the field of digital politics and economics. Bitcoin—the first widely implemented cryptocurrency and blockchain architecture—seemingly separates itself from the existing territorial boundedness of nation-state money via a process of algorithmic decentralisation. Proponents declare that the utilisation of cryptography to advance financial transactions will disrupt the modern centralised structures by which capitalist economies are currently organised: corporations, governments, commercial banks, and central banks. Allegedly, software can create a more stable and democratic global economy; a world free from hierarchy and control. In Money Code Space, Jack Parkin debunks these utopian claims by approaching distributed ledger technologies as a spatial and social problem where power forms unevenly across their networks. First-hand accounts of online communities, open-source software governance, infrastructural hardware operations, and Silicon Valley start-up culture are used to ground understandings of cryptocurrencies in the “real world.” Consequently, Parkin demonstrates how Bitcoin and other blockchains are produced across a multitude of tessellated spaces from which certain stakeholders exercise considerable amounts of power over their networks. While money, code, and space are certainly transformed by distributed ledgers, algorithmic decentralisation is rendered inherently paradoxical because it is predicated upon centralised actors, practices, and forces.Less
Newly emerging cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology present a challenging research problem in the field of digital politics and economics. Bitcoin—the first widely implemented cryptocurrency and blockchain architecture—seemingly separates itself from the existing territorial boundedness of nation-state money via a process of algorithmic decentralisation. Proponents declare that the utilisation of cryptography to advance financial transactions will disrupt the modern centralised structures by which capitalist economies are currently organised: corporations, governments, commercial banks, and central banks. Allegedly, software can create a more stable and democratic global economy; a world free from hierarchy and control. In Money Code Space, Jack Parkin debunks these utopian claims by approaching distributed ledger technologies as a spatial and social problem where power forms unevenly across their networks. First-hand accounts of online communities, open-source software governance, infrastructural hardware operations, and Silicon Valley start-up culture are used to ground understandings of cryptocurrencies in the “real world.” Consequently, Parkin demonstrates how Bitcoin and other blockchains are produced across a multitude of tessellated spaces from which certain stakeholders exercise considerable amounts of power over their networks. While money, code, and space are certainly transformed by distributed ledgers, algorithmic decentralisation is rendered inherently paradoxical because it is predicated upon centralised actors, practices, and forces.
Gregory Falco and Eric Rosenbach
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- November 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197526545
- eISBN:
- 9780197526576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197526545.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
The conclusion summarizes the importance of an Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy and the steps you can take to design and implement your own. The Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy you will ...
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The conclusion summarizes the importance of an Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy and the steps you can take to design and implement your own. The Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy you will build focuses on implementing mitigation measures that include prevention and resilience. The chapter describes how even in an evolving cyber risk landscape, the concepts described in the Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy will remain foundational. The chapter concludes with “cryptograms” from the future, in which organizational leaders confront the next generation of cyber risk challenges. The cryptograms encourage readers to apply the lessons learned and extend these Embedded Endurance strategy lessons to the future.Less
The conclusion summarizes the importance of an Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy and the steps you can take to design and implement your own. The Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy you will build focuses on implementing mitigation measures that include prevention and resilience. The chapter describes how even in an evolving cyber risk landscape, the concepts described in the Embedded Endurance cyber risk strategy will remain foundational. The chapter concludes with “cryptograms” from the future, in which organizational leaders confront the next generation of cyber risk challenges. The cryptograms encourage readers to apply the lessons learned and extend these Embedded Endurance strategy lessons to the future.
Timothy D. Lytton
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226611549
- eISBN:
- 9780226611716
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226611716.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
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 ...
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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
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.
Ed Finn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035927
- eISBN:
- 9780262338837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035927.003.0006
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Programming Languages
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 ...
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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
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.
Angela Walch
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198842187
- eISBN:
- 9780191878206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198842187.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law, Company and Commercial Law
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 ...
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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
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.
Sarah Jeong
Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262035750
- eISBN:
- 9780262338332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035750.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics
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 ...
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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
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.
Bryan Ford
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226748436
- eISBN:
- 9780226748603
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226748603.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
While technology is often claimed to be “democratizing”, the technologizing of society has more often yielded undemocratic or even anti-democratic outcomes. This chapter explores how technology has ...
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While technology is often claimed to be “democratizing”, the technologizing of society has more often yielded undemocratic or even anti-democratic outcomes. This chapter explores how technology has failed to support robust democracy—but could do better—in the context of four basic social processes: collective deliberation and choice, information distribution and filtering, economic commerce, and identity. Technology could eventually help people make better collective choices, but only if we can make digital deliberation and voting systems both truly participatory and secure. We need digital forums that enable communities to vet and filter a deluge of information democratically. Effective participation is impractical for those who must spend every moment of time struggling to survive, so a healthy digital democracy will require a reformulation of money and commerce as well. Finally, none of these social processes can resist abuse or subversion without a democratic basis for digital identity that can distinguish real people while preserving the privacy needed for freedom and true self-expression. This chapter suggests a framework or layered architecture we might take as a tentative blueprint for digital democracy.Less
While technology is often claimed to be “democratizing”, the technologizing of society has more often yielded undemocratic or even anti-democratic outcomes. This chapter explores how technology has failed to support robust democracy—but could do better—in the context of four basic social processes: collective deliberation and choice, information distribution and filtering, economic commerce, and identity. Technology could eventually help people make better collective choices, but only if we can make digital deliberation and voting systems both truly participatory and secure. We need digital forums that enable communities to vet and filter a deluge of information democratically. Effective participation is impractical for those who must spend every moment of time struggling to survive, so a healthy digital democracy will require a reformulation of money and commerce as well. Finally, none of these social processes can resist abuse or subversion without a democratic basis for digital identity that can distinguish real people while preserving the privacy needed for freedom and true self-expression. This chapter suggests a framework or layered architecture we might take as a tentative blueprint for digital democracy.
Stamatia Portanova
Paola Crespi and Sunil Manghani (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474447546
- eISBN:
- 9781474491037
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474447546.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter offers a speculative reading of the concept of rhythm in relation to capital and in the context of financial technologies such as trading algorithms, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies ...
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This chapter offers a speculative reading of the concept of rhythm in relation to capital and in the context of financial technologies such as trading algorithms, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (the blockchain), which are treated through a reading of the posthumanist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Defined as the gait of difference escaping both chaos and order, rhythm is here defined as that which continuously changes direction along critical, although infinitesimal, differentiations. Departing from this definition, the chapter focuses on different financial milieus in an attempt to understand the way in which these milieus might said to be rhythmic, that is, more than mere metric repetition. Milieus are defined by Deleuze and Guattari as periodic repetitions of coded components. In this sense, they are not normally rhythmic, they are metric. However, milieus also pass into each other in the process of becoming, transcoding themselves and giving birth to a process of differentiation. Blockchain technology is a distributed database of economic transactions that works thanks to the p2p system, a public ledger that does not need any centralized authority to register and ratify the transactions. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s terminology, the Ethereum blockchain, for example, can be defined as a technological milieu: a set of periodic repetitions of one main component (the registered transaction). In order for this economy to become rhythmic in the way described above, transactions (the blocks) should act as ‘blocks of becoming’: they would have to pass between different milieus and accept elements of different codes. To explore this proposition further, the chapter takes as a case study the Economic Space Agency, a financial platform whose aim is to share production means and to involve heterogeneous financial operators.Less
This chapter offers a speculative reading of the concept of rhythm in relation to capital and in the context of financial technologies such as trading algorithms, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (the blockchain), which are treated through a reading of the posthumanist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Defined as the gait of difference escaping both chaos and order, rhythm is here defined as that which continuously changes direction along critical, although infinitesimal, differentiations. Departing from this definition, the chapter focuses on different financial milieus in an attempt to understand the way in which these milieus might said to be rhythmic, that is, more than mere metric repetition. Milieus are defined by Deleuze and Guattari as periodic repetitions of coded components. In this sense, they are not normally rhythmic, they are metric. However, milieus also pass into each other in the process of becoming, transcoding themselves and giving birth to a process of differentiation. Blockchain technology is a distributed database of economic transactions that works thanks to the p2p system, a public ledger that does not need any centralized authority to register and ratify the transactions. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s terminology, the Ethereum blockchain, for example, can be defined as a technological milieu: a set of periodic repetitions of one main component (the registered transaction). In order for this economy to become rhythmic in the way described above, transactions (the blocks) should act as ‘blocks of becoming’: they would have to pass between different milieus and accept elements of different codes. To explore this proposition further, the chapter takes as a case study the Economic Space Agency, a financial platform whose aim is to share production means and to involve heterogeneous financial operators.
Philipp Hacker
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198863175
- eISBN:
- 9780191895678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198863175.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
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 ...
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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
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.
Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.003.0006
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
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 ...
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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
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.
Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.003.0007
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
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 ...
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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
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.
Andreas Bolfing
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198862840
- eISBN:
- 9780191895463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862840.003.0010
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Computational Mathematics / Optimization, Logic / Computer Science / Mathematical Philosophy
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 ...
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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
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.
Rowan Wilken
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190234911
- eISBN:
- 9780190234942
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190234911.003.0010
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
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 ...
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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
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.
Cecilia Alvarez Rigaudias and Alessandro Spina
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198826491
- eISBN:
- 9780191932267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198826491.003.0073
- Subject:
- Law, EU Law
Article 24 (Responsibility of the controller) (see too recital 74); Article 30 (Records of processing activities) (see too recital 82); Article 35 (Data Protection Impact Assessment) (see too ...
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Article 24 (Responsibility of the controller) (see too recital 74); Article 30 (Records of processing activities) (see too recital 82); Article 35 (Data Protection Impact Assessment) (see too recital 84); Article 39 (Tasks of the data protection officer) (see too recitals 77 and 97); Article 58 (Powers of the supervisory authorities) (see too recital 129).
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Article 24 (Responsibility of the controller) (see too recital 74); Article 30 (Records of processing activities) (see too recital 82); Article 35 (Data Protection Impact Assessment) (see too recital 84); Article 39 (Tasks of the data protection officer) (see too recitals 77 and 97); Article 58 (Powers of the supervisory authorities) (see too recital 129).
Jason Allen and Peter Hunn (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- June 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192858467
- eISBN:
- 9780191949272
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192858467.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This book provides a landmark survey of computational contracting: one of the most important legal and practical trends for centuries. Computational contracts introduce software functionalities to ...
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This book provides a landmark survey of computational contracting: one of the most important legal and practical trends for centuries. Computational contracts introduce software functionalities to operationalize, rather than merely record, acts of commercial coordination. In doing so, they bring together software and law in interesting and unchartered ways to create dynamic documents that present unique opportunities and challenges. Distributed ledger technologies have propelled ‘smart contracts’ into mainstream application over the last decade. The introduction of software into contractual relationships, however, may be implemented in a number of ways, of which such ‘smart contracts’ are only one. Broadly, it is possible both to express legal promises in code and to incorporate code-based elements within conventional (‘paper’) contracts. This volume examines the observed approaches and reflects critically on their relationship and the common issues raised. The organizing principle behind the volume is that emerging design patterns and considerations are beginning to form around the instantiation of code in contractual agreements—the ‘smart legal contract’. With incisive analyses from legal scholars, computer scientists, judges, and legal practitioners across common law jurisdictions, this volume addresses many of the foundational questions raised by smart contracts in legal theory and practice and provides a critical point of orientation in an emerging but still disparate literature.Less
This book provides a landmark survey of computational contracting: one of the most important legal and practical trends for centuries. Computational contracts introduce software functionalities to operationalize, rather than merely record, acts of commercial coordination. In doing so, they bring together software and law in interesting and unchartered ways to create dynamic documents that present unique opportunities and challenges. Distributed ledger technologies have propelled ‘smart contracts’ into mainstream application over the last decade. The introduction of software into contractual relationships, however, may be implemented in a number of ways, of which such ‘smart contracts’ are only one. Broadly, it is possible both to express legal promises in code and to incorporate code-based elements within conventional (‘paper’) contracts. This volume examines the observed approaches and reflects critically on their relationship and the common issues raised. The organizing principle behind the volume is that emerging design patterns and considerations are beginning to form around the instantiation of code in contractual agreements—the ‘smart legal contract’. With incisive analyses from legal scholars, computer scientists, judges, and legal practitioners across common law jurisdictions, this volume addresses many of the foundational questions raised by smart contracts in legal theory and practice and provides a critical point of orientation in an emerging but still disparate literature.