Browsing by Keyword "Blockchain"
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Item Blockchain and Smart Contract Engineering(2020-09-01) Larrucea, Xabier; Pautasso, Cesare; Tecnalia Research & InnovationBlockchains help to build trust among a decentralized network of unknown and untrusted peers who need to agree on a common protocol and trust the correctness and compatibility of the corresponding software implementations. The software engineering discipline cannot ignore this trend, as it fundamentally affects the way software is designed, developed, deployed, and delivered.1 As with the emergence of the Internet, software smart contracts for solving new classes of real-world problems, as opposed to introducing blockchains everywhere, where they may be unnecessary, or provide an inefficient and environmentally unsound solution.4Item A Blockchain-Based Audit Trail Mechanism: Design and Implementation: Design and implementation(2021-11-26) Regueiro, Cristina; Seco, Iñaki; Gutiérrez-Agüero, Iván; Urquizu, Borja; Mansell, Jason; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; CIBERSEC&DLTAudit logs are a critical component in today’s enterprise business systems as they provide several benefits such as records transparency and integrity and security of sensitive information by creating a layer of evidential support. However, current implementations are vulnerable to attacks on data integrity or availability. This paper presents a Blockchain-based audit trail mechanism that leverages the security features of Blockchain to enable secure and reliable audit trails and to address the aforementioned vulnerabilities. The architecture design and specific implementation are described in detail, resulting in a real prototype of a reliable, secure, and user-friendly audit trail mechanism.Item Burnable Pseudo-Identity: A Non-Binding Anonymous Identity Method for Ethereum: A Non-Binding Anonymous Identity Method for Ethereum(2021) Gutierrez-Aguero, Ivan; Anguita, Sergio; Larrucea, Xabier; Gomez-Goiri, Aitor; Urquizu, Borja; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; CIBERSEC&DLTThe concept of identity has become one common research topic in security and privacy where the real identity of users must be preserved, usually covered by pseudonym identifiers. With the rise of Blockchain-based systems, identities are becoming even more critical than before, mainly due to the immutability property. In fact, many publicly accessible Blockchain networks like Ethereum rely on pseudonymization as a method for identifying subject actions. Pseudonyms are often employed to maintain anonymity, but true anonymity requires unlinkability. Without this property, any attacker can examine the messages sent by a specific pseudonym and learn new information about the holder of this pseudonym. This use of Blockchain collides with regulations because of the right to be forgotten, and Blockchain-based solutions are ensuring that every data stored within the chain will not be modified. In this paper we define a method and a tool for dealing with digital identities within Blockchain environments that are compliant with regulations. The proposed method provides a way to grant digital pseudo identities unlinked to the real identity. This new method uses the benefits of key derivation systems to ensure a non-binding interaction between users and the information model associated with their identity. The proposed method is demonstated in the Ethereum context and illustrated with a case study.Item ICT Requirements in a Smart Grid Environment(Springer, Cham, 2019-10-25) Horsmanheimo, Seppo; Tuomimäki, Lotta; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Raúl; Andrén, Filip Pröstl; Andersen, Claus Amtrup; Tecnalia Research & InnovationEnergy systems are moving towards more flexible and distributed structures as the share of distributed energy resources gets bigger. New resources connected to the distribution grid offer ancillary services for congestion management and balancing including, e.g. frequency control, aFRR/mFRR, and voltage control. The new TSO-DSO coordination schemes presented in Chap. 2 are studied in this chapter from ICT’s perspective. This chapter introduces a conceptual reference model to help assess where new communication technologies are needed. The second section introduces potential technologies that could be applied. Our focus is more on wireless technologies to ensure flexibility, cost-efficiency, and scalability in large geographically distributed systems. We also present different types of service architectures to manage, secure and orchestrate the increasing number of services created by the new market models. The provision of ancillary services from distribution networks involves the coordination and close interaction between different actors and systems. In the last section, we present a process of capturing ICT requirements for energy systems. The process utilises the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) that presents a structured approach for modelling the Smart Grid architecture.Item Privacy-enhancing distributed protocol for data aggregation based on blockchain and homomorphic encryption(2021-11) Regueiro, Cristina; Seco, Iñaki; de Diego, Santiago; Lage, Oscar; Etxebarria, Leire; CIBERSEC&DLT; Tecnalia Research & InnovationThe recent increase in reported incidents of security breaches compromising users' privacy call into question the current centralized model in which third-parties collect and control massive amounts of personal data. Blockchain has demonstrated that trusted and auditable computing is possible using a decentralized network of peers accompanied by a public ledger. Furthermore, Homomorphic Encryption (HE) guarantees confidentiality not only on the computation but also on the transmission, and storage processes. The synergy between Blockchain and HE is rapidly increasing in the computing environment. This research proposes a privacy-enhancing distributed and secure protocol for data aggregation backboned by Blockchain and HE technologies. Blockchain acts as a distributed ledger which facilitates efficient data aggregation through a Smart Contract. On the top, HE will be used for data encryption allowing private aggregation operations. The theoretical description, potential applications, a suggested implementation and a performance analysis are presented to validate the proposed solution.Item Real Business Applications and Investments in Blockchain Technology(2022-02-01) Lage, Oscar; Saiz-Santos, María; Zarzuelo, José Manuel; CIBERSEC&DLTThis paper provides an empirical study to identify the objective of companies that are currently investing in adopting blockchain technologies to improve their processes and services. Unlike other studies based on the theoretical potential application of blockchain technology in different sectors, the main objective of this paper is to analyze real projects and investment of companies in blockchain technology. More than 100 blockchain projects from different sectors were examined with the aim of extracting the perceived applicability and business value of blockchain technology by managers, customers, and partners. We identified the most demanded business value and functional properties in each sector and company size, as well as the relationship between the properties that are demanded together. This article assesses the main functional values attributed to blockchain, highlighting those really appreciated by companies that invest in them and identifying new applications of blockchain technology in different sectors, and generating organizational change. The article reveals that, as expected, significant deviations are already occurring between theoretical applications identified in the literature and those finally adopted by the industry.Item The Value and Applications of Blockchain Technology in Business: A Systematic Review of Real Use Cases(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Lage, Oscar; Saiz-Santos, María; Zarzuelo, José Manuel; Prieto, Javier; Partida, Alberto; Leitão, Paulo; Pinto, António; CIBERSEC&DLTThis work provides an empirical study to identify the specific objective pursued by companies that are currently investing to develop blockchain technologies to improve their processes. Unlike other studies based on the theoretical potential application of blockchain technology in different sectors, the main objective of this paper is to analyse real projects and investment of companies in blockchain technology to identify the main value or use that managers prioritize in their technology development efforts. More than one hundred blockchain projects from different sectors have been examined with the aim of extracting the perceived value of blockchain technology by managers, customers, and partners. Identifying the business value that is most demanded in each sector and company size, as well as the relationship between the values that are jointly demanded. This article assesses the main values attributed to blockchain, highlighting those really appreciated by companies to invest in them and identifying new applications of blockchain technology in different sectors, and generating organisational change.