Andrea Pinna

Blockchain-oriented software engineering: challenges and new directions

In this work, we acknowledge the need for software engineers to devise specialized tools and techniques for blockchain-oriented software development. Ensuring effective testing activities, enhancing collaboration in large teams, and facilitating the development of smart contracts all appear as key factors in the future of blockchain-oriented software development.

Banking on Blockchain: Costs Savings Thanks to the Blockchain Technology

This paper looks at the challenges and opportunities of implementing blockchain technology across banking, providing food for thought about the potentialities of this disruptive technology. The blockchain technology can optimize the global financial infrastructure, achieving sustainable development, using more efficient systems than at present. In fact, many banks are currently focusing on blockchain technology to promote economic growth and accelerate the development of green technologies. In order to understand the potential of blockchain technology to support the financial system, we studied the actual performance of the Bitcoin system, also highlighting its major limitations, such as the significant energy consumption due to the high computing power required, and the high cost of hardware. We estimated the electrical power and the hash rate of the Bitcoin network, over time, and, in order to evaluate the efficiency of the Bitcoin system in its actual operation, we defined three quantities: “economic efficiency”, “operational efficiency”, and “efficient service”. The obtained results show that by overcoming the disadvantages of the Bitcoin system, and therefore of blockchain technology, we could be able to handle financial processes in a more efficient way than under the current system.

Boosting, probing and switching-off visible light-induced photocurrents in eumelanin-porous silicon hybrids

A relatively intense photocurrent density up to 3.8 mA cm−2 was induced by visible light in n+-doped porous silicon (n-PSi) coated with a eumelanin thin film produced by ammonia-induced solid state polymerization (AISSP) of 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI). The photocurrent was not affected by acetic acid vapors but was irreversibly abated by gaseous ammonia. No detectable photocurrent was observed using p+-PSi as the inorganic substrate. These results point to eumelanin as a powerful enhancer of PSi photoresponse to visible light via hole-type electrical conduction.

Crypto-trading: Blockchain-oriented energy market

Bloekehain — software technology used for peer-to-peer transaction platforms — is being increasingly applied to alternative opportunities for a variety of industries and use cases such as also in the energy sector. As of now all energy related to blockchain applications are still in a concept stage. This paper aims to present the preliminary ideas of a research project that we have launched in collaboration with a small Fintech company: the Crypto-Trading project. From a research perspective we have explored how a blockchain-based system integrating smart contract functionality can be used to share energy in order to promote smart grids for the management of electricity in the Sardinia Region. From a technical perspective the project will implement a modular blockchain-based software platform for extending the features of cryptocurrency exchanges to the renewable Energy Market, including a robo-advisor which will suggest prosumers the best selling strategy. Blockchain technology shows a lot of promise. In our opinion this might boost the growth of renewable energy production and consequently also have a positive effect on the regional economy.

CitySense: blockchain-oriented smart cities

A smart city is a connected system in which things produce a huge quantity of data. We focused the attention on monitoring the environment quality in urban area by means of a distributed network of small mobile sensors that are devices on the Internet of Things (IoT). Sensors produce digital measurements, useful for investigating and studying the life quality in every part of the city. In our vision, environmental data must be available by everyone and shared with citizens, but it must be unmodifiable. We propose to solve the problem of the sensors data storage and management using a disruptive technology called blockchain. The blockchain responds to the demand of availability and unchangeability and, thanks to the potentiality of smart contracts, makes us able to manage sensor information and implement a control logic. In order to develop the software based on blockchain we chose to apply the SCRUM methodology because of its capabilities of being a flexible, adaptive and iterative methodology.

A Petri Nets Model for Blockchain Analysis

A Blockchain is a global shared infrastructure where cryptocurrency transactions among addresses are recorded, validated and made publicly available in a peer- to-peer network. To date the best known and important cryptocurrency is the bitcoin. In this paper we focus on this cryptocurrency and in particular on the modeling of the Bitcoin Blockchain by using the Petri Nets formalism. The proposed model allows us to quickly collect information about identities owning Bitcoin addresses and to recover measures and statistics on the Bitcoin network. By exploiting algebraic formalism, we reconstructed an Entities network associated to Blockchain transactions gathering together Bitcoin addresses into the single entity holding permits to manage Bitcoins held by those addresses. The model allows also to identify a set of behaviours typical of Bitcoin owners, like that of using an address only once, and to reconstruct chains for this behaviour together with the rate of firing. Our model is highly flexible and can easily be adapted to include different features of the Bitcoin crypto-currency system.

ICOs Overview: Should Investors Choose an ICO Developed with the Lean Startup Methodology?

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is an innovative way to raise funds and launch a startup. It is also an opportunity to take part in a project, or in a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). The use of ICO is a global phenomenon that involves many nations and several business categories: ICOs collected over 5.2 billion dollars only in 2017. The success of an ICO is based on the credibility and innovativeness of project proposals. This fund-raising tool contains however some critical issues, such as the use of tokens that have no intrinsic value and do not generate direct liquidity, and the role of investors in the management of the startup. We analyzed if the Lean Startup methodology is helpful to face this critical aspects and we examined some ICOs in which the proposing team states explicitly that a lean startup approach is used.

A Blockchain Approach Applied to a Teledermatology Platform in the Sardinian Region (Italy)

The use of teledermatology in primary care has been shown to be reliable, offering the possibility of improving access to dermatological care by using telecommunication technologies to connect several medical centers and enable the exchange of information about skin conditions over long distances. This paper describes the main points of a teledermatology project that we have implemented to promote and facilitate the diagnosis of skin diseases and improve the quality of care for rural and remote areas. Moreover, we present a blockchain-based approach which aims to add new functionalities to an innovative teledermatology platform which we developed and tested in the Sardinian Region (Italy). These functionalities include giving the patient complete access to his/her medical records while maintaining security. Finally, the advantages that this new decentralized system can provide for patients and specialists are presented.

Initial Coin Offerings and Agile Practices

An ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is an innovative way to fund projects based on blockchain. The funding is based on the selling of tokens by means of decentralized applications called smart contracts written in Solidity, a programming language specific for Ethereum blockchain. The ICOs work in a volatile context and it is crucial that the team is capable of handling constant changes. The Agile methods, proven practices enabling to develop software in presence of changing requirements, could be a means for managing uncertainty. The main goals of this work are to understand software engineering activities related to ICOs, recognize the ICOs developed using Agile methods, and make a comparison between ICOs and Agile ICOs. In addition, we perform a deeper analysis of Agile ICOs concerning project planning, software development, and code features. Our work shows that the roles of the people involved in an ICO can be compared to the typical roles of the SCRUM methodology. The majority of Agile ICOs use tool of testing before storing smart contract on blockchain. Finally, the application of volumetric and complexity software metrics shows that the files of Agile ICOs is on average shorter and less complex than in other smart contracts.

Towards a smart region: The case study of a teledermatology platform in sardinian region (Italy)

Teledermatology offers the possibility of improving access to dermatologic care by using telecommunication technologies for connecting several medical centers and enabling to exchange information about skin conditions over a distance. This paper describes the main points of the implementation of a teledermatology project following the so-called smart region paradigm. A case study is presented to describe how the implementation of a virtual organization model using teledermatology is able to promote and facilitate the diagnosis on skin diseases and improve the quality of care for rural and remote areas. Initial results and assessment by general practitioners and dermatologists show that the proposed software platform can be used as a decision support system for dermatological patients.