A Taxonomy of Blockchain Consensus Methods

For a blockchain, consensus is the foundation protocol that enables cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to maintain state. Additionally, to ensure safety and liveness for a publicly accessible and verifiable ledger, fault tolerance must be robust. However, there appears to be a degree of misunderstanding about how consensus is applied across blockchains. To assist researchers considering variations between them, this study presents a rational classification of consensus methods applied to current blockchains. The study provides a survey of 19 methods classified by the scarce resource they employ: clock-cycles, bits, tokens, votes, time, and biometrics. Blockchain implementations are split between consensus algorithms requiring proof of resource and those that use majority voting to update the ledger.

Human Rights and Reformist Islam

This chapter takes the form of a transcribed interview and consists of a reflection on the relationship between traditional Islam and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its related covenants, and provides a solution for making traditional Islam compatible with the idea of human rights. It critiques traditional Islamic approaches to the question of compatibility between human rights and Islam and argues instead for their reconciliation from the perspective of a reformist Islam. The chapter focuses on six controversial case studies: religious discrimination; gender discrimination; slavery; freedom of religion; punishment of apostasy; and arbitrary or harsh punishments. Explaining the strengths of structural ijtihad, the author’s approach is based on the rational classification of Islamic teachings as temporal or permanent on the one hand, and four criteria of being Islamic on the other: reasonableness, justice, morality and efficiency. In the chapter, all of the verses of the Qur’an and the Hadith that are problematic in relation to the notion of human rights are abrogated rationally according to these criteria. The result is a powerful, solutions-based argument based on reformist Islam – providing a scholarly bridge between modernity and Islamic tradition in relation to human rights.

Human Rights and Reformist Islam

Human Rights and Reformist Islam critiques traditional Islamic approaches to the question of compatibility between human rights and Islam and argues instead for their reconciliation from the perspective of a reformist Islam. The book focuses on six controversial case studies: religious discrimination; gender discrimination; slavery; freedom of religion; punishment of apostasy; and arbitrary or harsh punishments. Explaining the strengths of structural ijtihad, Mohsen Kadivar’s approach is based on the rational classification of Islamic teachings as temporal or permanent on the one hand, and four criteria of being Islamic on the other: reasonableness, justice, morality and efficiency. In the book, all of the verses of the Qur’an and the Hadith that are problematic in relation to human rights are abrogated rationally according to these criteria. The result is a powerful, solutions-based argument based on reformist Islam – providing a scholarly bridge between modernity and Islamic tradition in relation to human rights. The book’s fourteen chapters are organized in five sections, including freedoms of belief, religion and politics, women’s rights, and slavery in contemporary Islam. Adding an extensive new introduction and annotations throughout the text from Kadivar bring the work up-to-date and place it in its academic and public contexts. In the introduction, the author critically compares his approach to Islam and human rights with those of five leading contemporary scholars: Mahmoud M. Taha, Abdullahi A. an-Na’im, Ann E. Mayer, Mohammad M. Shabestari and Abdulaziz A. Sachedina.

To the question on classification of constitutional rights and freedoms for application by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation

The subject of this research is the constitutional human rights and freedoms in the Russian Federation. The goal is to substantiate their most rational classification for application in human rights advocacy of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation. The author conducts the analysis of these rights and freedoms, as well as underlines the need for their classification for the purpose of application by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation. Various approaches within modern national legal literature towards such classification. The author also presents an original approach based on the quantitative criterion – degree of perception of rights and freedoms by population of the country. The proposed new classification significantly differs from the officially accepted in its commitment to results of human rights advocacy of the for Human Rights of the Russian Federation.

The index of ideality of correlation: models of the flash points of ternary mixtures

Reliable information related to the flash point of ternary mixtures assists in the rational classification of different ternary mixtures of liquids.

The Operational Mechanics of Contemporary Systematic Theology

The primary goal of this article is to provide both a descriptive and comparative analysis of two representative models of systematic theology. The findings of this study show each model to be capable of processing biblical facts, packaging them into a systematic whole, and exhibiting the facts. Yet, inescapably, the conclusions inextricably connect authorial purpose to operational structure, suggesting it is necessary to reevaluate the contemporary stigmas accompanying authorial presuppositions. There is also, however, the uncovering of a potential danger area within systematic theology, namely: the scientific-rational classification system, driven by cause and effect, which engenders classifications removed from Scripture.