NFTs will have wide applications once hype settles

Significance Yet NFTs divide opinion over whether they are a bubble waiting to burst or will redefine ownership of digital assets and become a core element of the metaverse. The two outcomes are not mutually exclusive. Impacts Digitisation will increase the need to replicate physical properties such as scarcity, uniqueness and proof of ownership of digital assets. An NFT's value is based on what a buyer is willing to pay for it, making it a speculative alternative asset class for investors. NFTs mostly require a cryptocurrency to purchase, thus tying their value to another volatile asset.

Openness and privacy in born-digital archives: reflecting the role of AI development

Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) are striving to retain audience attention to issues related to cultural heritage, by implementing various novel opportunities for audience engagement through technological means online. Although born-digital assets for cultural heritage may have inundated the Internet in some areas, most of the time they are stored in “digital warehouses,” and the questions of the digital ecosystem’s sustainability, meaningful public participation and creative reuse of data still remain. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are used to bring born-digital archives to light, aiming to enhance the public’s engagement and participation. At the core of this debate lies both the openness of data and issues of privacy. How open to the public should born-digital archives be? Should everything be open and available online, and what does it take to achieve balance between openness and privacy, especially through AI initiatives? The study is qualitative and builds on the rationale of grounded theory. The role of AI development is critically investigated in relation to opening up born-digital archives online, by considering privacy and ethics issues. Grounded in the context of the author’s PhD research, the paper proposes a human-centred approach to AI development for democratising its development towards fairness and social inclusion, contrary to the stereotypical cliché of blackboxing, allowing space for the plurality of born-digital archives to flourish.

Trade or Trick?

The prosperity of the cryptocurrency ecosystem drives the need for digital asset trading platforms. Beyond centralized exchanges (CEXs), decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are introduced to allow users to trade cryptocurrency without transferring the custody of their digital assets to the middlemen, thus eliminating the security and privacy issues of traditional CEX. Uniswap, as the most prominent cryptocurrency DEX, is continuing to attract scammers, with fraudulent cryptocurrencies flooding in the ecosystem. In this paper, we take the first step to detect and characterize scam tokens on Uniswap. We first collect all the transactions related to Uniswap V2 exchange and investigate the landscape of cryptocurrency trading on Uniswap from different perspectives. Then, we propose an accurate approach for flagging scam tokens on Uniswap based on a guilt-by-association heuristic and a machine-learning powered technique. We have identified over 10K scam tokens listed on Uniswap, which suggests that roughly 50% of the tokens listed on Uniswap are scam tokens. All the scam tokens and liquidity pools are created specialized for the "rug pull" scams, and some scam tokens have embedded tricks and backdoors in the smart contracts. We further observe that thousands of collusion addresses help carry out the scams in league with the scam token/pool creators. The scammers have gained a profit of at least $16 million from 39,762 potential victims. Our observations in this paper suggest the urgency to identify and stop scams in the decentralized finance ecosystem, and our approach can act as a whistleblower that identifies scam tokens at their early stages.

Old frauds with a new sauce: digital assets and space transition

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the evolution of fraud schemes with historically conducted with fiat money in physical space to the crypto-assets in digital space as follows: ransomware, price manipulation, pump and dump schemes, misrepresentation, spoofing and Ponzi Schemes. To explain how fraud schemes have evolved alongside digital asset markets, this study applies the space transition theory. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used is a review of the media regarding six digital asset fraud schemes that have evolved from physical space to virtual space that are currently operational, as well as a review of the literature regarding the space transition theory. Findings This paper finds that the digital space and digital assets may facilitate pseudonymous criminal behavior in the present regulatory environment. Research limitations/implications The field is rapidly evolving, however this study finds that the conversion from physical to virtual space obfuscates the criminal activity, facilitating anonymity of the perpetrators, and creating new challenges for the legal and regulatory environment. Practical implications This paper finds that the digital space and digital assets may facilitate pseudonymous criminal behavior in the present regulatory environment. An understanding of the six crypto-asset fraud schemes described in the paper is useful for anti-financial crime professionals and regulators focusing on deterrence. Social implications The space transition theory offers an explanation for why digital space leads criminals to be better positioned to conduct financial crime in virtual space relative to physical space. This offers insights into behavior of digital asset fraudster behavior that could help limit the social damage caused by crypto-asset fraud. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to detail the evolution of fraud schemes with fiat money in physical space to their corresponding schemes with digital assets in physical space. This study is also the first to integrate the space transition theory into an analysis of digital asset fraud schemes.

Digital Euro: A (Digital) Symbol of Progress and Integration in Europe

The emergence of crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ether exposed a number of advantages that these digital assets based on distributed ledger technology (DLTs) can offer. As cash is becoming less and less popular in the eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) is currently looking at the scenario of creating a digital euro as a kind of central bank money that may be used by the general public. DLT may be used to tokenize central bank money via digital currencies (CBDCs) issued by central banks, as well as to digitally represent bank deposits. The purpose of this article is to analyse what are the solutions for the future digitization of the monetary and financial systems and if current CBDC projects and prototypes, including those by the Chinese and Swedish central banks and the attempts of the ECB, have the chance to succeed with or without DLT.

Technological Characteristic of Futures Based on Virtual Assets

A virtual asset is a type of asset which does not have a material representation, although its value is reflected in a real currency. Due to their nature, the price of digital assets is usually highly volatile, especially with futures, which are derivative financial contracts. This is the most important contributing factor to the problem of the low usability of digital-based contracts in enterprise operations.Previously existing virtual assets included photography, logos, illustrations, animations, audiovisual media, etc. However, virtually all of such assets required a third-party platform for exchange to currency. The necessity of having a trusted by both sides mediator greatly limited the ease of use, and ultimately restricted the number of such transactions. Still, popularity of digital assets only grew, as evidenced by an explosive growth of software applications in the 2000s, as well as blockchain-based asset space in the 2010s.The newest and most promising solution developed is based on cryptoassets. Underlying usage of block- chain technology for the transactions checking and storage ensures clarity in virtual assets’ value history. Smart contracts written for the Ethereum platform, as an example, provide a highly trustful way of express- ing predefined conditions of a certain transaction. This allows safe and calculated enterprise usage, and also eliminates the need of having a mutually trusted third-party. The transactions are fully automated and happen at the same time as the pre-defined external conditions are met.Ethereum was chosen as an exemplary platform due to its high flexibility and amount of existing development. Even now, further advancements are being explored by its founder and community. Besides Ether, it is also used nоn-fungible tokens, decentralized finance, and enterprise blockchain solutions. Another important point is how much more nature friendly it is compared to main competitors, due to energy-efficiency of the mining process, enforced by the platform itself. This makes it ideal for responsible usage as well as further research.This article explores the digital assets usage, as well as explains cryptoassets technological background, in order to highlight the recent developments in the area of futures based on virtual assets, using certain Ether implementation as an example, which offers perpetual futures.

ZAŠTITA POTROŠAČA NA TRŽIŠTU DIGITALNE IMOVINE

Increased importance and availability of different forms of digital assets have resulted in increased consumers’ interest to conduct transactions with this specific type of assets. Increased consumers’ presence on the markets for digital assets has become one of the major challenges that modern consumer law encounters. The main risk faced by consumers who trade with different forms of digital assets arises from their instability and volatility. For that reason, the possibility of a loss of invested means is significantly higher compared to other similar marketplaces. The main subject of this paper is a review of basic mechanisms of consumers’ protection on the markets for digital assets. The review has been based on a comparative analysis of the Serbian Law on Digital Assets and of the EU Proposal for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets. Before the analysis of concrete legal provisions on consumer protection has been made, the author indicates to certain traits of digital assets and problems and risks that consumers face in this innovative and dynamic marketplace.

DIGITALNA IMOVINA U PRAVNOM SISTEMU SRBIJE: OSNOVNE KARAKTERISTIKE

Increased importance and availability of different forms of digital assets have resulted in an increased interest of state legislators around the globe for this type of application of modern technologies in the area of finance. Serbian law belongs to a small group of legal systems that already possess comprehensive regulation of digital assets. The main subject of this paper is the analysis of crucial characteristics of the Serbian legal regime of digital assets, with a short review of the solutions contained in the EU Proposal for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets. The analysis has been conducted by determination of the most important characteristics of the Serbian Law on Digital Assets, considered to be the most relevant for its future implementation: 1) defining the main types of digital assets; 2) clear determination of the scope of application of the rules on digital assets; 3) comprehensive regulation of the entire market in digital assets through prescribing rules on the issuance and secondary trading of digital assets, as well as the rules on all market actors present in the digital assets market. A review of the main benefits and risks and problems concomitant to digital assets precedes the analysis of mentioned characteristics of digital assets.

Regulating Global Stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies in Selected G20 Countries

Digitalization of the global economy, which has intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, is leading to the development of digital currencies. Financial authorities in most countries are working to design regulation aimed at minimizing the risks associated with privately issued digital assets. At the same time, research is being carried out, and several pilot projects have been launched, on the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)—a new payment instrument that can potentially contribute to stimulating innovations, expanding access to financial services, simplifying cross-border payments, and maintaining financial stability. In this article, the author examines the approaches of some G20 members to regulating CBDCs and global stablecoins (GSC)—a financial instrument pegged to real assets, which is a potential alternative to traditional fiat currencies. The author then identifies general tendencies in the approaches of the considered jurisdictions to regulation and proposes recommendations on intensifying the development of Russia’s national rules and norms in this area, primarily for GSC, and strengthening international cooperation.

Community Views About Zakat on Cryptocurrencies

<p><em>The cryptocurrency industry has exploded, with an increasing number of individuals investing in digital assets — even Malaysians who adhere to Shariah financial norms. The surge in Islamic faith members' involvement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum has given birth to Zakat payments. Zakat is the third pillar of Islam, and it compels Muslims to make charitable contributions if they have sufficient means. The major considerations to explore are whether zakat is required on cryptocurrency investments and how the community sees zakat on cryptocurrencies. As a result, this paper will investigate the prospect of </em><em>cryptocurrencies as a digital assets</em><em> being a new source of revenue for zakat from an Islamic perspective by acquiring appropriate rulings (fatwas) and then investigating community attitudes on zakat on cryptocurrency.</em><em></em></p>