Application of the Blockchain Technology in Banks and Corporations

[pic 1]

Application of the Blockchain Technology in Banks and Corporations

A Capstone

Presented to the Faculty of European University

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for

The Degree: Bachelor of Science in Business Finance 

By: Andrei Anikin

(26.01.2017)

DECLARATION FORM

I hereby undersign that the work submitted is my own effort. I certify that all material in this Dissertation, which is not my own work, has been identified and acknowledged. No materials are included for which a degree has been previously conferred upon me.

Signed                                                                Place/Date

Acknowledgments

I wish to firstly thank my parents for granting me this opportunity to study at EU business school and for supporting me during all the time of my studies. I would like to thank my friends who encouraged me to write this work. Especially, I am thankful to my supervisor, Professor Cornel Gavata for his assistance, endless support, and for showing the future perspectives of my life related to the topic of this paper.

Table of Contents

Executive summary        7

1. Introduction        8

1.1 Aims        9

1.2 Objectives        9

1.3 Background        9

1.4 Anticipated conclusion        10

2. Literature review        11

2.1 Bitcoin        11

2.1.1 Advantages of Bitcoin        12

2.1.1.1 Decentralisation        12

2.1.1.2 Lower fees        12

2.1.1.3 Secure transactions        13

2.1.1.4 Pseudonymous and transparent        13

2.1.2 Disadvantages of Bitcoin        14

2.1.2.1 Volatility        14

2.1.2.2 Rising costs        14

2.1.2.3 Confirmation window        15

2.1.2.4 Orphan blocks        16

2.1.2.5 «51% attack»        16

2.1.2.6 Illegal activities        17

2.1.2.7 Imperfect anonymity        18

2.1.2.8 Satoshi Nakamoto        18

2.1.3 Hijacking of Bitcoins        19

2.1.3.1 Border Gateway Protocol        19

2.1.3.2 Wallets        20

2.1.3.3 Malicious software        20

2.2 Bitcoin alternatives: altcoins        21

2.2.1 Cryptocurrencies        22

2.2.1.1 Unlimited supply        23

2.2.2 Crypto assets        23

2.2.2.1 Second life        25

2.2.3 Scamcoins        26

2.2.3.1 Crowd funding        27

2.3 Blockchain        27

2.3.1 Block        28

2.3.1.1 Blockchain fork        28

2.3.2 Merkle tree        29

2.3.2.1 SPV        29

2.3.3 Consensus        29

2.3.3.1 Proof-of-Work        30

2.3.3.2 Proof-of-Stake        30

2.3.3.3 Proof-of-Burn        31

2.3.4 Sidechains        31

2.3.5 Altchains        32

2.4 Implementation of the blockchain        33

2.4.1 Timeline        34

2.5 Potential of the blockchain        34

2.5.1 Decentralized autonomous organization        35

2.5.2 NATO and the Pentagon        36

3. Methodology        37

3.1 Appropriate method        37

3.2 Limitations, disadvantages and issues        37

4. Key Findings        39

4.1 Mean of exchange        39

4.2 Distributed ledger        39

4.3 Private key        40

4.4 Application        40

5. Conclusion        42

6. Recommendations        43

6.1 Government intervention        43

6.2 Owner discovery related threat        43

6.3 Control the blockchain        43

6.4 Realization of blockchain        44

7. Discussion        45

Bibliography        46

Appendixes        49

Interview №1        49

Interview №2        51

Glossary of Abbreviations        53

Executive summary

The paper describes the application of the blockchain technology in banks and corporations. It commences with the brief description of the subject of the research. Then, it provides the reader with the aims and objectives of the research and continues with the background of studies and anticipated conclusion. Afterward, the next chapter of literature review follows highlighting Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Yet, it mentions advantages and disadvantages of Bitcoin as they are extremely related to the blockchain technology. Among advantages of using Bitcoin, there are the absence of the third party, lower costs of transactions, a higher level of security, and pseudonymous transactions. The disadvantages of the system are volatility of the price of Bitcoin, rising costs of approving transactions, quite long time to confirm the transaction, orphan blocks, possibility to take over the system by acquiring the control of 51% of the involved computing power. The last chapter discussed in Bitcoin-related part investigates the ways of the hijacking of Bitcoins. Then, the literature review continues with the bitcoin alternatives featuring service offering altcoins, which are divided by alternative cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, and scamcoins. Afterward, the paper is describing step by step the features of blockchain technology.  Those features include a structure of the blockchain and ways of approving the transactions. Else, it provides the reader with the latest developments of the blockchain such as sidechains and altchains. The major difference between these two types of distributed ledger is that the first is based on a similar to Bitcoin’s blockchain code with slight modifications and the second is constructed on the entire other code. The last two chapters of the literature review describe the issues of implementation of blockchain and the potential of its future adoption. The third chapter describes the proposed methodology for researching on the thesis. It includes the reasoning on the appropriateness of the chosen methods for the research, disadvantages of those methods and issues faced while applying the selected methodology. The fourth chapter describes the key findings determined after the careful research on the topic. Those findings include key issues of the legalization of the blockchain in regards to using it as a mean of exchange, the problem of distributed ledger, issues of storing the private keys and issue with the application of the technology. Following chapter make a conclusion based on the revised information. Then, the chapter culminates with the author’s recommendations on the elimination of the key issue of both blockchain and cryptocurrency. Final chapters include bibliography and appendixes with an interview and a glossary of abbreviations.

...