Cryptocurrencies and Market Efficiency
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Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget
Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget Vitalik Buterin and Virgil Griffith Ethereum Foundation Abstract We introduce Casper, a proof of stake-based finality system which overlays an existing proof of work blockchain. Casper is a partial consensus mechanism combining proof of stake algorithm research and Byzantine fault tolerant consensus theory. We introduce our system, prove some desirable features, and show defenses against long range revisions and catastrophic crashes. The Casper overlay provides almost any proof of work chain with additional protections against block reversions. 1. Introduction Over the past few years there has been considerable research into “proof of stake” (PoS) based blockchain consensus algorithms. In a PoS system, a blockchain appends and agrees on new blocks through a process where anyone who holds coins inside of the system can participate, and the influence an agent has is proportional to the number of coins (or “stake”) it holds. This is a vastly more efficient alternative to proof of work (PoW) “mining” and enables blockchains to operate without mining’s high hardware and electricity costs. There are two major schools of thought in PoS design. The first, chain-based proof of stake[1, 2], mimics proof of work mechanics and features a chain of blocks and simulates mining by pseudorandomly assigning the right to create new blocks to stakeholders. This includes Peercoin[3], Blackcoin[4], and Iddo Bentov’s work[5]. The other school, Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) based proof of stake, is based on a thirty-year-old body of research into BFT consensus algorithms such as PBFT[6]. BFT algorithms typically have proven mathematical 2 properties; for example, one can usually mathematically prove that as long as > 3 of protocol participants are following the protocol honestly, then, regardless of network latency, the algorithm cannot finalize conflicting blocks. -
Beauty Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder
Insight Consumer and Wealth Management Digital Assets: Beauty Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder Parsing the Beauty from the Beast. Investment Strategy Group | June 2021 Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani Chief Investment Officer Investment Strategy Group Goldman Sachs The co-authors give special thanks to: Farshid Asl Managing Director Matheus Dibo Shahz Khatri Vice President Vice President Brett Nelson Managing Director Michael Murdoch Vice President Jakub Duda Shep Moore-Berg Harm Zebregs Vice President Vice President Vice President Shivani Gupta Analyst Oussama Fatri Yousra Zerouali Vice President Analyst ISG material represents the views of ISG in Consumer and Wealth Management (“CWM”) of GS. It is not financial research or a product of GS Global Investment Research (“GIR”) and may vary significantly from those expressed by individual portfolio management teams within CWM, or other groups at Goldman Sachs. 2021 INSIGHT Dear Clients, There has been enormous change in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology since we first wrote about it in 2017. The number of cryptocurrencies has increased from about 2,000, with a market capitalization of over $200 billion in late 2017, to over 8,000, with a market capitalization of about $1.6 trillion. For context, the market capitalization of global equities is about $110 trillion, that of the S&P 500 stocks is $35 trillion and that of US Treasuries is $22 trillion. Reported trading volume in cryptocurrencies, as represented by the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, has increased sixfold, from an estimated $6.8 billion per day in late 2017 to $48.6 billion per day in May 2021.1 This data is based on what is called “clean data” from Coin Metrics; the total reported trading volume is significantly higher, but much of it is artificially inflated.2,3 For context, trading volume on US equity exchanges doubled over the same period. -
Crypto-Asset Markets: Potential Channels for Future Financial Stability
Crypto-asset markets Potential channels for future financial stability implications 10 October 2018 The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is established to coordinate at the international level the work of national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies in order to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies. Its mandate is set out in the FSB Charter, which governs the policymaking and related activities of the FSB. These activities, including any decisions reached in their context, shall not be binding or give rise to any legal rights or obligations under the FSB’s Articles of Association. Contacting the Financial Stability Board Sign up for e-mail alerts: www.fsb.org/emailalert Follow the FSB on Twitter: @FinStbBoard E-mail the FSB at: [email protected] Copyright © 2018 Financial Stability Board. Please refer to: www.fsb.org/terms_conditions/ Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 2. Primary risks in crypto-asset markets ................................................................................. 5 2.1 Market liquidity risks ............................................................................................... 5 2.2 Volatility risks ......................................................................................................... -
Validation of Smart Contracts Through Automated Tooling
Faculty of Sciences and Tecnology Department of Informatics Engineering Validation of Smart Contracts Through Automated Tooling Tom´asMorgado de Carvalho Concei¸c~ao Internship Report in the context of the Master in Informatics Engineering, Specialization in Software Engineering advised by Professor Raul Barbosa and Eng. Jo~aoBarbosa and presented to the Department of Informatics Engineering / Faculty of Sciences and Technology January 2019 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank Professor Raul Barbosa, my advisor at the University of Coimbra, for, with his valuable experience and insights, guiding me through this process and always challenging me to do better. I would like to thank my advisor, Jo~aoBarbosa, not only for his technical contributions to this dissertation but for always ensuring that I had my priorities straight and was managing my time properly. Thank you for pushing me to always make healthy choices regarding my work-life balance. I want to thank the members of my jury, Professor Fernando Jos´eBarros and Professor C´esarAlexandre Domingues Teixeira, for their input and suggestions for improvement, and their constructive criticism. I would like to thank Whitesmith and Blocksmith, and in particular Gon¸caloLouzada, Maria Jo~aoFerreira and Rafael Jegundo, for accepting me on this internship, providing me with all the tools and conditions to achieve my goals and for inviting me to take part on other projects during this year. I would also like to thank my co-workers, who, since the first day and without exception, made me feel welcome and at home. I have learned something new with every single one of you. -
Pwc I 2Nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report
2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report April 2020 2 PwC I 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report Dear Clients and Friends, We are proud to launch the 2nd edition of our Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report. We hope that the market colour and insights from this report will be useful data points. We will continue to publish this report twice a year to enable you to monitor the ongoing trends in the crypto ecosystem. PwC has put together a “one stop shop” offering, focused on crypto services across our various lines of services in over 25 jurisdictions, including the most active crypto jurisdictions. Our goal is to service your needs in the best possible way leveraging the PwC network and allowing you to make your project a success. Our crypto clients include crypto exchanges, crypto investors, crypto asset managers, ICOs/IEOs/STOs/stable and asset backed tokens, traditional financial institutions entering the crypto space as well as governments, central banks, regulators and other policy makers looking at the crypto ecosystem. As part of our “one stop shop” offering, we provide an entire range of services to the crypto ecosystem including strategy, legal, regulatory, accounting, tax, governance, risk assurance, audit, cybersecurity, M&A advisory as well as capital raising. More details are available on our global crypto page as well as at the back of this report. 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report April 2020 PwC 2 3 PwC I 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report 5 Key takeaways when comparing 2018 vs 2019 There -
Consensus: Immutable Agreement for the Internet of Value
Consensus Immutable agreement for the Internet of value kpmg.com Seizing opportunity – blockchain and beyond Contents ack in early 2009, the high-profile journey of the first About the authors Bitcoin overshadowed the ingenuity of its underlying The terms 1 Seizing opportunity – Blockchain and beyond Blockchain, distributed ledgers, Sigrid Seibold technology, the blockchain protocol. These days, however, B and consensus mechanisms are Principal, Advisory Capital 2 The basics behind blockchain blockchain is garnering its own share of headlines. Inspired by sometimes used interchangeably. Markets, KPMG LLP 3 Consensus the original blockchain protocol, a variety of new consensus For purposes of this paper, we use Sigrid looks back at 25 years mechanisms and new types of distributed ledger technologies the following definitions: of working in the banking 10 Key observations are continuing to emerge. As innovation accelerates, proponents and capital markets industry. 14 Is blockchain right for your organization Blockchain: A type of distributed She primarily focuses on are eagerly seeking solutions that may work within the current ledger database that maintains a the major investment banks, leveraging her areas of 15 Maneuvering the road ahead regulatory confines of financial services and other industries. continuously growing list of transaction specialization, such as data management and digital 17 Appendix 1: Key terminology records ordered into blocks with various technologies, including financial and blockchain. As a As a result, more and more financial services companies and venture capital (VC) firms protections against tampering and respected industry thought leader, she has published 19 Appendix 2: Consensus mechanism valuation are looking closely at blockchains and other distributed ledgers, and with good reason. -
An Anonymous Trust-Marking Scheme on Blockchain Systems
An Anonymous Trust-Marking Scheme on Blockchain Systems Teppei Sato Keita Emura Tomoki Fujitani Kazumasa Omote University of Tsukuba National Institute of University of Tsukuba University of Tsukuba Japan Information and National Institute of National Institute of Communications Technology Information and Information and Japan Communications Technology Communications Technology Japan Japan Abstract—During the Coincheck incident, which recorded During the Coincheck incident, which recorded the largest the largest damages in cryptocurrency history in 2018, it was damages in cryptocurrency history in 2018, some volun- demonstrated that using Mosaic token can have a certain effect. teers tracked leaked New Economy Movement (NEM) cryp- Although it seems attractive to employ tokens as countermea- sures for cryptocurrency leakage, Mosaic is a specific token tocurrencies using Mosaic, which is a NEM-specific fea- for the New Economy Movement (NEM) cryptocurrency and ture allowing a self-made token to be sent on the NEM is not employed for other blockchain systems or cryptocurren- blockchain. These volunteers sent Mosaic to addresses that cies. Moreover, although some volunteers tracked leaked NEM received leaked NEMs from Coincheck addresses and warned using Mosaic in the CoinCheck incident, it would be better the recipients that these should not be exchanged for other to verify that the volunteers can be trusted. Simultaneously, if someone (e.g., who stole cryptocurrencies) can identify the cryptocurrencies or legal currencies. A criminal can discard volunteers, then that person or organization may be targets of such marked addresses, so it can be seen as a cat-and- them. In this paper, we propose an anonymous trust-marking mouse game. -
Short Selling Attack: a Self-Destructive but Profitable 51% Attack on Pos Blockchains
Short Selling Attack: A Self-Destructive But Profitable 51% Attack On PoS Blockchains Suhyeon Lee and Seungjoo Kim CIST (Center for Information Security Technologies), Korea University, Korea Abstract—There have been several 51% attacks on Proof-of- With a PoS, the attacker needs to obtain 51% of the Work (PoW) blockchains recently, including Verge and Game- cryptocurrency to carry out a 51% attack. But unlike PoW, Credits, but the most noteworthy has been the attack that saw attacker in a PoS system is highly discouraged from launching hackers make off with up to $18 million after a successful double spend was executed on the Bitcoin Gold network. For this reason, 51% attack because he would have to risk of depreciation the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm, which already has advantages of his entire stake amount to do so. In comparison, bad of energy efficiency and throughput, is attracting attention as an actor in a PoW system will not lose their expensive alternative to the PoW algorithm. With a PoS, the attacker needs mining equipment if he launch a 51% attack. Moreover, to obtain 51% of the cryptocurrency to carry out a 51% attack. even if a 51% attack succeeds, the value of PoS-based But unlike PoW, attacker in a PoS system is highly discouraged from launching 51% attack because he would have to risk losing cryptocurrency will fall, and the attacker with the most stake his entire stake amount to do so. Moreover, even if a 51% attack will eventually lose the most. For these reasons, those who succeeds, the value of PoS-based cryptocurrency will fall, and attempt to attack 51% of the PoS blockchain will not be the attacker with the most stake will eventually lose the most. -
An Investigative Study of Cryptocurrency Abuses in the Dark Web
Cybercriminal Minds: An investigative study of cryptocurrency abuses in the Dark Web Seunghyeon Leeyz Changhoon Yoonz Heedo Kangy Yeonkeun Kimy Yongdae Kimy Dongsu Hany Sooel Sony Seungwon Shinyz yKAIST zS2W LAB Inc. {seunghyeon, kangheedo, yeonk, yongdaek, dhan.ee, sl.son, claude}@kaist.ac.kr {cy}@s2wlab.com Abstract—The Dark Web is notorious for being a major known as one of the major drug trading sites [13], [22], and distribution channel of harmful content as well as unlawful goods. WannaCry malware, one of the most notorious ransomware, Perpetrators have also used cryptocurrencies to conduct illicit has actively used the Dark Web to operate C&C servers [50]. financial transactions while hiding their identities. The limited Cryptocurrency also presents a similar situation. Apart from coverage and outdated data of the Dark Web in previous studies a centralized server, cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin [58] and motivated us to conduct an in-depth investigative study to under- Ethereum [72]) enable people to conduct peer-to-peer trades stand how perpetrators abuse cryptocurrencies in the Dark Web. We designed and implemented MFScope, a new framework which without central authorities, and thus it is hard to identify collects Dark Web data, extracts cryptocurrency information, and trading peers. analyzes their usage characteristics on the Dark Web. Specifically, Similar to the case of the Dark Web, cryptocurrencies MFScope collected more than 27 million dark webpages and also provide benefits to our society in that they can redesign extracted around 10 million unique cryptocurrency addresses for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero. It then classified their usages to financial trading mechanisms and thus motivate new business identify trades of illicit goods and traced cryptocurrency money models, but are also adopted in financial crimes (e.g., money flows, to reveal black money operations on the Dark Web. -
Should Retailers Ride the Cryptocurrency Roller Coaster?
9/17/2018 Should Retailers Ride the Cryptocurrency Roller Coaster? Jobs Resource Guide Advertise Search Topics Events Podcasts Videos Blogs Resources Subscribe E-COMMERCE March 19, 2018 Should Retailers Ride the Cryptocurrency Roller Coaster? By Amitaabh Malhotra Cryptocurrency may be the future of money, but it’s a tough sell in the retail world right now, and for good reason. The most familiar cryptocurrency unit, bitcoin, has been on a roller-coaster ride for the past few months, rising to a peak value near $20,000 in December 2017 before crashing below $6,000 in early February 2018, and then rebounding back to around $11,000. That volatility makes bitcoin untenable as a payment in most retail situations. In 2014, rapper 50 Cent accepted a cryptocurrency payment for an album, receiving 700 bitcoins, which amounted to approximately $400,000 in dollar value at the time. He held on to the payment, and in January 2018, Newsweek reported that the value of his bitcoins had risen to nearly $8 million. As of this writing, the 700 bitcoins are worth around $4.8 million. https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/should-retailers-ride-the-cryptocurrency-roller-coaster/ 1/5 9/17/2018 Should Retailers Ride the Cryptocurrency Roller Coaster? 50 Cent’s experience as an accidental bitcoin millionaire illustrates the challenges of accepting cryptocurrency as payment for goods: the value isn’t pegged to anything solid, and when it rises and falls, the value of the goods purchased don’t rise and fall in correlation. Imagine accepting one bitcoin for a car on Feb. -
Blockchain in Japan
Blockchain in Japan " 1" Blockchain in Japan " "The impact of Blockchain is huge. Its importance is similar to the emergence of Internet” Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan1 1 Japanese Trade Ministry Exploring Blockchain Tech in Study Group, Coindesk 2" Blockchain in Japan " About this report This report has been made by Marta González for the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, a joint venture between the European Commission and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The Centre aims to promote all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between Europe and Japan. For that purpose, it publishes a series of thematic reports designed to support research and policy analysis of EU-Japan economic and industrial issues. To elaborate this report, the author has relied on a wide variety of sources. She reviewed the existing literature, including research papers and press articles, and interviewed a number of Blockchain thought leaders and practitioners to get their views. She also relied on the many insights from the Japanese Blockchain community, including startups, corporation, regulators, associations and developers. Additionally, she accepted an invitation to give a talk1 about the state of Blockchain in Europe, where she also received input and interest from Japanese companies to learn from and cooperate with the EU. She has also received numerous manifestations of interest during the research and writing of the report, from businesses to regulatory bodies, revealing a strong potential for cooperation between Europe and Japan in Blockchain-related matters. THE AUTHOR Marta González is an Economist and Software Developer specialized in FinTech and Blockchain technology. -
Evolution Or Revolution? Distributed Ledger Technologies in Financial Services
Evolution or revolution? Distributed ledger technologies in financial services Anil Savio Kavuri1 and Alistair Milne2 (There are two versions of this paper: a short summary report of 16 pages plus references; the full research report of 121 pages plus references.) 1 Loughborough University and Australian National University. [email protected] 2 Loughborough University. [email protected] Evolution or revolution? Distributed ledger technologies in financial services Contents of full report 1 Introduction to the full report ............................................................................................... 2 2 Distributed ledgers: basic concepts and supporting technologies. ...................................... 5 2.1 Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 The component technologies used in distributed ledgers ............................................. 7 2.3 How the technologies are combined: the database ‘stack’ ........................................... 8 3 Applications of distributed ledgers in financial services ..................................................... 11 3.1 Fourteen areas of application....................................................................................... 11 3.2 Seven case studies ........................................................................................................ 38 4 Distributed ledgers: the adoption decision ........................................................................