This book shows how blockchain technology can transform the Internet, connecting global businesses in disruptive ways. It offers a comprehensive and multi-faceted examination of the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT) from a new perspective: as an enabler of the Internet of Value (IoV). The authors discuss applications of blockchain technology to the financial services domain, e.g. in real estate, insurance and the emerging Decentralised Finance (DeFi) movement. They also cover applications to the media and e-commerce domains. DLT’s impacts on the circular economy, marketplace, Internet of Things (IoT) and oracle business models are also investigated. In closing, the book provides outlooks on the evolution of DLT, as well as the systemic governance and privacy risks of the IoV. The book is intended for a broad readership, including students, researchers and industry practitioners.
This book shows how blockchain technology can transform the Internet, connecting global businesses in disruptive ways. It offers a comprehensive and multi-faceted examination of the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT) from a new perspective: as an enabler of the Internet of Value (IoV). The authors discuss applications of blockchain technology to the financial services domain, e.g. in real estate, insurance and the emerging Decentralised Finance (DeFi) movement. They also cover applications to the media and e-commerce domains. DLT’s impacts on the circular economy, marketplace, Internet of Things (IoT) and oracle business models are also investigated. In closing, the book provides outlooks on the evolution of DLT, as well as the systemic governance and privacy risks of the IoV. The book is intended for a broad readership, including students, researchers and industry practitioners.
Handbook of Research on Blockchain Technology presents the latest information on the adaptation and implementation of Blockchain technologies in real world business, scientific, healthcare and biomedical applications. The book's editors present the rapid advancements in existing business models by applying Blockchain techniques. Novel architectural solutions in the deployment of Blockchain comprise the core aspects of this book. Several use cases with IoT, biomedical engineering, and smart cities are also incorporated. As Blockchain is a relatively new technology that exploits decentralized networks and is used in many sectors for reliable, cost-effective and rapid business transactions, this book is a welcomed addition on existing knowledge. Financial services, retail, insurance, logistics, supply chain, public sectors and biomedical industries are now investing in Blockchain research and technologies for their business growth. Blockchain prevents double spending in financial transactions without the need of a trusted authority or central server. It is a decentralized ledger platform that facilitates verifiable transactions between parties in a secure and smart way. - Presents the evolution of blockchain, from fundamental theories, to present forms - Explains the concepts of blockchain related to cloud/edge computing, smart healthcare, smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT) - Provides complete coverage of the various tools, platforms and techniques used in blockchain - Explores smart contract tools and consensus algorithms - Covers a variety of applications with real world case studies in areas such as biomedical engineering, supply chain management, and tracking of goods and delivery
Learn all about blockchain and its applications in cryptocurrency, healthcare, Internet of Things, finance, decentralized organizations, and more. Featuring case studies and practical insights, this book covers a unique mix of topics and offers insight into how to overcome hurdles that arise as the market and consumers grow accustomed to blockchain-based organizations and services. The book is divided into three major sections. The first section provides a historical background to blockchain technology. You will start with a historical context to financial capital markets when Bitcoin was invented, followed by mining protocols, the need for consensus, hardware mining, etc. Next, a formal introduction to blockchain is provided covering transaction workflow, role of decentralized network, and payment verification. Then, we dive deep into a different implementation of a blockchain: Ethereum. The main technical features, such as Ethereum Virtual Machine, are presented along with the smart contract programming language, Solidity. In this second section, you will look at some modern use cases for blockchain from a decentralized autonomous organization, high-performance computing in Ethereum and off-grid computations, and healthcare and scientific discovery. The final section of the book looks toward the future of blockchain. This is followed by chapters covering the rise of consortia in the blockchain world, the Hyperledger project, particularly the updates since 2018, and a chapter on educational blockchain games. This is followed by updates to EOS.IO, Chain Core, and Quorum, ICOs and a look at the major changes to financial markets brought about by blockchain and decentralized networks. What You Will Learn Get an overview of the popular games employed to teach the basic concepts of blockchain and decentralized networks Be familiar with the rise of blockchain consortiums as well as updates to Hyperledger Project, 2020 Find out about cloud blockchains, including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Webservices, and how to set up test environments Study machine learning integration in the blockchain and the role of smart contracts Who This Book Is For Blockchain developers interested in keeping up with the newest updates and students looking for a broad overview of this vast ecosystem, plus business executives who want to make informed product decisions about including blockchain as well as policy makers who want a better understanding of the current use cases
Blockchain technology is powering our future. As the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Facebook's Libra, open software platforms like Ethereum, and disruptive companies like Ripple, it’s too important to ignore. In this revelatory book, Don Tapscott, the bestselling author of Wikinomics, and his son, blockchain expert Alex Tapscott, bring us a brilliantly researched, highly readable, and essential book about the technology driving the future of the economy. Blockchain is the ingeniously simple, revolutionary protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value. Though it’s best known as the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital currencies, it also has the potential to go far beyond currency, to record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certificates to insurance claims, land titles, and even votes. Blockchain is also essential to understand if you’re an artist who wants to make a living off your art, a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from, an immigrant who’s tired of paying big fees to send money home to your loved ones, or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business. And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg. As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, blockchain technology will create winners and losers. This book shines a light on where it can lead us in the next decade and beyond.
The only globally-crowdsourced book on the future of payments (“PayTech”), offering comprehensive understanding of a rapidly evolving industry at the centre of global commerce The movement of money between individuals, organisations and governments is crucial to the world economy. The payments industry has undergone immense transformation – new regulations, technologies and consumer demands have prompted significant changes to the tools, products and use cases in payments, as well as presented lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurs and FinTech professionals. As payment technologies become faster and more efficient, companies and investors are increasingly favouring PayTech innovation due to better customer experience, increased revenues and manageable risks. The PAYTECH Book brings together a diverse collection of industry experts to provide entrepreneurs, financial services professionals and investors with the answers they need to capitalise on the highly profitable PayTech market. Written by leaders in the global FinTech and payment sectors, this informative volume explains key industry developments and presents valuable first-hand insights from prominent industry practitioners. Contributors include advisors and consultants to the payments and financial services industry, entrepreneurs and business owners utilising cutting-edge PayTech capabilities, academic researchers exploring the social-political-economic impact of PayTech and many others. Detailed chapters cover essential topics such as cybersecurity, regulation and compliance, wholesale payments and how payment systems currently work and how PayTech can improve them. This book: Defines PayTech and identifies its key players Discusses how PayTech can transform developed markets and accelerate growth in emerging economies Describes how PayTech fits into the larger FinTech ecosystem Explores the future of PayTech and its potential as an agent of social change and financial inclusion Provides diverse perspectives on investment in PayTech and what consolidation and expansion will look like The PAYTECH Book: The Payment Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and FinTech Visionaries is an indispensable source of information for FinTech investors and entrepreneurs, managers from payments companies and financial services firms and executives responsible for payments in government, corporations, public sector organisations, retailers and users of payments.
We live in a behavior economy, an environment in which people no longer engage with companies just by purchasing things, but they seek engagement with services that allow them to behave, to leave a mark, and to participate in the community of others. The economic model promoted by the behavior economy is a model where behavior is the only goal of our actions, and where intrinsic motivation is the key to participation, engagement, and the satisfaction of multiple dimensions of value. Value Creation and the Internet of Things describes value delivery and consumption, and the mechanisms by which new value is captured and created, in enterprises dedicated to competing and prospering in this new environment. This book is significant in the context of the Internet of Things becoming mainstream, forcing organizations to re-examine their value creation methodologies in light of new consumer behavior and expectations. The Internet of Things will reframe the existence of the ones enriched by it. It will do so not because it can, but because our motivation will demand it. This is a book about reframing reality for new and incumbent organizations. The reality to reframe is not an imaginary one, but the immediate reality in which one operates: the behavior economy.
This book looks at the analogic application of standard corporate valuation approaches to trendy digital tokens, expressed by cryptocurrencies, and validated through blockchain systems. Whereas traditional firm appraisal follows institutional guidelines and best practices, frontier research still must define the boundaries of these trendy issues, linking a strong theoretical background to practical advances that still need fine-tuning. This book, written by an academic and a senior consultant, combines theoretical rigor with practical insights, providing an innovative framework for evaluators, managers, and practitioners, and academics of corporate valuation and financial technology.
Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. It is intended as a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC-Internet of Things European Research Cluster, including both research and technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster, the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and the IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme, presenting global views and state-of-the-art results regarding the challenges facing IoT research, innovation, development and deployment in the next years. Hyperconnected environments integrating industrial/business/consumer IoT technologies and applications require new IoT open systems architectures integrated with network architecture (a knowledge-centric network for IoT), IoT system design and open, horizontal and interoperable platforms managing things that are digital, automated and connected and that function in real-time with remote access and control based on Internet-enabled tools. The IoT is bridging the physical world with the virtual world by combining augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the physical-digital integrations in the Internet of mobile things based on sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, cognitive systems and IoT platforms with multiple functionalities. These IoT systems have the potential to understand, learn, predict, adapt and operate autonomously. They can change future behaviour, while the combination of extensive parallel processing power, advanced algorithms and data sets feed the cognitive algorithms that allow the IoT systems to develop new services and propose new solutions. IoT technologies are moving into the industrial space and enhancing traditional industrial platforms with solutions that break free of device-, operating system- and protocol-dependency. Secure edge computing solutions replace local networks, web services replace software, and devices with networked programmable logic controllers (NPLCs) based on Internet protocols replace devices that use proprietary protocols. Information captured by edge devices on the factory floor is secure and accessible from any location in real time, opening the communication gateway both vertically (connecting machines across the factory and enabling the instant availability of data to stakeholders within operational silos) and horizontally (with one framework for the entire supply chain, across departments, business units, global factory locations and other markets). End-to-end security and privacy solutions in IoT space require agile, context-aware and scalable components with mechanisms that are both fluid and adaptive. The convergence of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) makes security and privacy by default a new important element where security is addressed at the architecture level, across applications and domains, using multi-layered distributed security measures. Blockchain is transforming industry operating models by adding trust to untrusted environments, providing distributed security mechanisms and transparent access to the information in the chain. Digital technology platforms are evolving, with IoT platforms integrating complex information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence to enable new capabilities and business models for digital business.
