Practical Byzantine Consensus for Internet-of-Things

Use of IoT/WSN assisted smart-systems in the current age is making our living much more easier. However, components of such systems bear a high chance of getting compromised which may result in a substantial damage or loss. Use of fault tolerant consensus protocols provides a way towards solving this problem. Existing solutions for IoT/WSN systems mostly assume simple non-Byzantine node failures which is not enough to solve the problem. To combat the presence of smart devices with malicious intention, Byzantine fault tolerance support is highly essential in building trustworthy decentralised system. Byzantine fault tolerance has not been addressed much in the context of IoT/WSN because of its inherent requirement of extensive data sharing among the nodes. In this work, we approach to bring a solution to the problem using synchronous communication. In particular, we recast the well-known \textit{Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant} (PBFT) consensus strategy to an efficient form that is suitable for use in IoT/WSN systems. We demonstrate that our proposed design can work upto 80% faster and consume upto 82% lesser energy compared to a naive implementation of the strategy in publicly available IoT/WSN testbed having 45 nodes.<br>

Practical Byzantine Consensus for Internet-of-Things

Use of IoT/WSN assisted smart-systems in the current age is making our living much more easier. However, components of such systems bear a high chance of getting compromised which may result in a substantial damage or loss. Use of fault tolerant consensus protocols provides a way towards solving this problem. Existing solutions for IoT/WSN systems mostly assume simple non-Byzantine node failures which is not enough to solve the problem. To combat the presence of smart devices with malicious intention, Byzantine fault tolerance support is highly essential in building trustworthy decentralised system. Byzantine fault tolerance has not been addressed much in the context of IoT/WSN because of its inherent requirement of extensive data sharing among the nodes. In this work, we approach to bring a solution to the problem using synchronous communication. In particular, we recast the well-known \textit{Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant} (PBFT) consensus strategy to an efficient form that is suitable for use in IoT/WSN systems. We demonstrate that our proposed design can work upto 80% faster and consume upto 82% lesser energy compared to a naive implementation of the strategy in publicly available IoT/WSN testbed having 45 nodes.<br>

Contact Tracing: Ensuring Privacy and Security

Faced with the biggest virus outbreak in a century, world governments at the start of 2020 took unprecedented measures to protect their healthcare systems from being overwhelmed in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. International travel was halted and lockdowns were imposed. Many nations adopted measures to stop the transmission of the virus, such as imposing the wearing of face masks, social distancing, and limits on social gatherings. Technology was quickly developed for mobile phones, allowing governments to track people’s movements concerning locations of the virus (both people and places). These are called contact tracing applications. Contact tracing applications raise serious privacy and security concerns. Within Europe, two systems evolved: a centralised system, which calculates risk on a central server, and a decentralised system, which calculates risk on the users’ handset. This study examined both systems from a threat perspective to design a framework that enables privacy and security for contact tracing applications. Such a framework is helpful for App developers. The study found that even though both systems comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe’s privacy legislation, the centralised system suffers from severe risks against the threats identified. Experiments, research, and reviews tested the decentralised system in various settings but found that it performs better but still suffers from inherent shortcomings. User tracking and re-identification are possible, especially when users report themselves as infected. Based on these data, the study identified and validated a framework that enables privacy and security. The study also found that the current implementations using the decentralised Google/Apple API do not comply with the framework.

Securities Custody Services: International Experience

The relevance of the study is explained by the underdevelopment of the securities market in Ukraine, which barely started establishing the institutions and mechanisms of a market economy. Ukraine has a decentralised system of depository services, which hinders the development of the stock market, because the decentralised system of accounting for rights to securities complicates the procedure of transactions and increases risks. The purpose of the study was to investigate the international experience of securities depository in the rapidly expanding securities markets, especially in Eastern Europe and Asia, their technology, identifying their new functionality and dominant models of their architecture in the context of regulation, interaction of market participants and protection of their property rights. The main methods of study of international experience in the provision of securities custody services were empirical, analytical, and inductive methods, which together allowed describing the systems of securities circulation in different countries, analysing them to identify common features that are important for their implementation in Ukraine for integration into the global system of redistribution of financial resources. The study considered various securities storage systems, national depository systems, covered the features of national mechanisms of interconnection of all participants in the securities market, identified conceptual problems of securities market organisation in Ukraine, substantiated the need to adapt international experience for institutional development of the national depository system of Ukraine. The materials of the study have practical value for the development of the depository system in Ukraine as a basis for the functioning of the securities market, compatible with technological international depository systems in full functionality, which guarantees investors' property rights and enables Ukraine to become a full-fledged redistributor of global financial resources and, accordingly, to attract investments for economic development pursuant to international rules and standards of “transparent” functioning of securities markets, thus putting institutional barriers to corruption influences. The comparative analysis of depository systems of different countries allowed covering weaknesses in the existing depository system of Ukraine, outlining the conceptual approaches to legislative and organisational actions on its development

Smart Grid Local Energy Trading Based Crypto Token Using Blockchain

Smart grid is envisioned to be the technology capable of scheduling user's energy requirement based on demand and decentralized nature. These challenges pose extreme pressure on finding advanced technologies and sustainable solutions for secure and reliable operations of the power system working inside the blockchain technology for managing exchange and trading of energy by means of specific tokens. For efficient utilization and functioning of the power grid we need a decentralised system which is transparent, trustless and makes transactions faster, there are a number of solutions proposed but none of them address the issue of transaction time in trade and penalty for defaulters. In this work we propose here an energy transaction network which implements blockchain technology for validating transaction of energy between producer/consumer or prosumer and saves energy and time using smart grids

The Educational Reforms of the 1990s in Sweden and Their Consequences in the End of the 2010s

In the beginning of the 1990s, Sweden implemented educational reforms of the same type as in several other countries: privatisation, decentralisation and freedom of choice. The steering of the education system was changed from highly centralised and a very limited number of students in private schools to an extremely decentralised system and with an increasing number of private providers of education. The results almost 30 years later are not very encouraging. The most apparent feature is declining results in the international tests

Part VIII Cooperation in Antirust Enforcement, 19 Cooperation Within the ECN and Strengthening of National Competition Authorities

This chapter assesses the cooperation between the European Commission and national competition authorities (NCAs) in a decentralised system of antitrust enforcement. The recent adoption of a Directive to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers (ECN+ Directive) aims at ensuring more effective enforcement and mutual assistance among NCAs throughout the EU by putting in place minimum guarantees and powers to detect and tackle infringements. The chapter then explains the role of the European Competition Network (ECN), how it is organised and governed. The ECN was created in conjunction with the adoption of Regulation 1/2003. It consists of the NCAs and the Commission forming together a network of public authorities applying the EU competition rules in close cooperation.

DECENTRALISATION AND EDUCATION FOR ALL IN INDONESIA

The discourse on decentralisation in developing countries is seen as a strategy in restructuring and improving economic, social and public welfare including the education sector. This idea is fundamentally in line with the goals of Education for All (EFA). The experience of Indonesia that had shifted from a strongly centralised system to a decentralised one in the early 2000s provides an interesting case. This article argues that the current decentralised system in education has seen an insignificant effect in achieving EFA. Through an extensive literature study, this article draws attention to the particular concerns of human resources, curriculum, corruption and poverty issues as contributing factors to the seemingly failing efforts in the decentralised settings, all in the light of Indonesia's historical development.