As world is affected by demand volatility; process uncertainty; supply chain complexity and information ambiguity forming a VUCA world. To manage this scenario, industries are adopting emerging technologies for business excellence and one among them is Blockchain. Blockchain technology (BCT) is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that stores transactional records in a tamper-proof and immutable way; it is a promising solution for incorporating transparency and traceability in traditional ecosystem. As automotive industries are facing a Volatile environment, Uncertain schedules & information; Complex supply chain networks, and Ambiguous decisions that cripples the automotive supply chain (ASC). Therefore, BCT can be used to address issues related to ASC in VUCA world. Keeping this in mind, study reported a systematic literature review (SLR) of BCT applications in ASC. More than seventy research papers were reviewed based on different BCT characteristics and applications. Through content analysis, study explored how to link supply chain visibility, information transparency with BCT for an efficient ASC in VUCA world. Moreover, a BCT implementation framework is proposed for ASC, to provide a decision-making approach for practitioners in VUCA world.
Keywords: Automotive supply chain | Blockchain | Systematic literature review | VUCA world

The financial assets that are subject to major EU financial legislation (i.e. (designated types of) financial instruments) have traditionally been defined in a largely exemplary and circular manner. The recent proliferation of ‘non-traditional’ financial assets, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, is increasingly challenging the viability of these pragmatic financial asset definitions. Through the analysis of the technologies and functionalities underpinning non-traditional financial assets, legal scholarship has aimed to categorize novel assets within the existing framework of financial asset definitions. Although a solid understanding of e.g. distributed ledger applications and cryptography appears a prerequisite for future policy and legislative interventions, contemporary EU financial legislation is mostly indifferent to the technologies on which financial assets may be wired. Categorizations based on the purposes that non-traditional assets may serve (i.e. payment, utility, and investment) are more relevant to financial law, but suffer from subjectivity because they depend on the asset usage by the asset holder. Against this backdrop, this paper proposes a novel systematization of non-traditional assets that is based upon the conceptual substructure of the assets within the scope of EU financial legislation. More specifically, this paper submits that, irrespective of underlying technologies and functionalities, all assets that are subject to major EU financial legislation have a conceptual common denominator: they entail the liability of an entity and, hence, have intrinsic value. The proposed categorization singles out a welldefined group of novel financial assets that is not subject to EU financial law (i.e. assets that only have extrinsic value). Different from functionality- and technology-based categorizations, the suggested approach allows to eradicate some ambiguities that are present in the existing taxonomies. By exploring the conceptual common denominator of the financial assets that are subject to EU financial legislation, this paper aims to foster debate on the circular and exemplary character of financial asset definitions in EU financial legislation in general and the relation of these definitions to novel types of financial assets in particular.
Keywords: Financial instruments | Transferable securities | MiFID II | Intrinsic v. extrinsic asset value | Cryptocurrencies | Stablecoins | Bitcoin | Ether | Litecoin | Ripple

A distributed ledgeris a tamperproof sequence of data that can be publicly accessed and augmented by everyone, without being maintained by a centralized party. Distributed ledgers stand to revolutionize the way a modern society operates. They can secure all kinds of traditional transactions, such as payments, asset transfers and titles, in the exact order in which the transactions occur; and enable totally new transactions, such as cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. They can remove intermediaries and usher in a new paradigm for trust. As currently implemented, however, distributed ledgers scale poorly and cannot achieve their enormous potential. In this paper we propose Algorand, an alternative, secure and efficient distributed ledger. Algorand is permissionless and works in a highly asynchronous environment. Unlike prior implementations of distributed ledgers based on “proof of work,” Algorand dispenses with “miners” and requires only a negligible amount of computation. Moreover, its transaction history “forks” only with negligible probability: that is, Algorand guarantees the finality of a transaction the moment the transaction enters the ledger..
Keywords: Public ledger | Blockchain | Byzantine agreement | Distributed computation | Cryptographic self-selection | Permissionless system

Instant Messaging (IM) offers real-time communications between two or more participants on Internet. Nowadays, most IMs take place on mobile applications, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and Facebook Messenger, which have more users than social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Among the applications of IMs, online shopping has become a part of our everyday life, primarily those who are busiest. However, transaction disputes are often occurred online shopping. Since most IMs are centralized and message history is not stored in the center, the messaging between users and owners of online shops are not reliable and traceable. In China, online shopping sales have soared from practically zero in 2003 to nearly 600 hundred million dollars last year, and now top those in the United States. It is very crucial to secure the instant messaging in online shopping in China. We present techniques to exploit blockchain and machine learning algorithms to secure instant messaging. Since the cryptography of Chinese national standard is encouraged to adopt in security applications of China, we propose a blockchain-based IM scheme with the Chinese cryptographic bases. First, we design a message authentication model based on SM2 to avoid the counterfeit attack and replay attack. Second, we design a cryptographic hash mode based on SM3 to verify the integrity of message. Third, we design a message encryption model based on SM4 to protect the privacy of users. Besides, we propose a method based on machine learning algorithms to monitor the activity on blockchain to detect anomaly. To prove and verify the blockchain-based IM scheme, a blockchain-based IM system has been designed on Linux platforms. The implementation result shows that it is a practical and secure IM system, which can be applied to a variety of instant messaging applications directly
Keywords: Instant Messaging (IM) | BlockChain | Machine learning | Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) | Safety and security