This diploma thesis deals with the creation of a design for the utilization of blockchain technology in a corporate environment. The main goal of this work is to create a proposal for a business process and its implementation in a specific blockchain platform. The analysis of the current state of the process describes current process and company’s requirements for the functionality of new technology. In the design part of the work, I compared specific blockchain platforms. As a result of this part I chose the most suitable solution for the implementation of my proposal. This chapter further includes the design of a methodology for verifying whether the process is suitable for the implementation of a blockchain technology or not. Moreover, it describes how to proceed when choosing a suitable solution and highlights its key factors.

Background: The convergence of payment behaviours can contribute to the diffusion of new payment technologies and thus economic performance. There is evidence that the electrification of the retail payment system promotes the performance of the banking sector and economic growth. The retail payment market is a prime example of a two-sided market where new payment instruments need to reach a critical mass of users to become viable and grow further (Martikainen, Schmiedel & Takalo, 2015). Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse Bitcoin, as a payment method, and review the models already used to shed more light on its further potential adoption by retailers. We apply the DOI theory and review the TAM model to determine the underlying characteristics of Bitcoin that will enable further adoption or rejection among retailers. Method: We conduct a case study on Bitrefill AB which offers a rich method for investigating and researching. With the process of interpretation in context, we make inference from the case of Bitrefill in connecting with events and experiences of other retailers (Expedia, Alibaba, Overstock and CheapAir). Conclusion: According to the results, the adoption of Bitcoin relies heavily on positive relative advantages to other payment methods, compatibility and simplicity of its use while negative characteristics that pull it back from being adopted include the complexities in understanding the technology behind it, damaging outcomes varying from the expected.

Health Informatics has enlightened by the recent development in the internet of medical things 4.0. Healthcare services have seen greater acceptance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in recent years; in light of the increasing volume of patient data, the traditional way of storing data in physical files has eventually moved to a digital alternative such as Electronic Health Record (EHR). However, the conventional healthcare data systems are plagued with a single point of failure, security issues, mutable logging, and inefficient methods to retrieve healthcare records. Solid (Social Linked Data) has been developed as a decentralized technology to alter digital data sharing and ownership for its users radically. However, Solid alone cannot address all the security issues posed to data exchange and storage. This work combines two decentralized technologies, Solid ecosystem and Blockchain technology, to tackle potential security issues using Solidity-based Smart Contracts, thereby providing a secure patient centric design. This research evaluates a model solution for secure storage, emphasizing secure auditing of accessing the data stored. The architecture will also come with algorithms that will provide developers with logical instructions to implement the artefact.

Maladministration at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) resulted in the loss of public trust and negative implications on voluntary tax compliance and may encourage taxpayers to partake in aggressive tax planning schemes. This maladministration also resulted in the degeneration of SARS systems whilst technology advanced internationally. Digitalisation at SARS is crucial to address aggressive tax planning that has become more advanced as a result of the mobility of the digital economy. This study used a qualitative research methodology based on exploratory research which involved literature reviews of textbooks and articles in order to provide recommendations of how digitalisation can be adopted by SARS with a specific focus on ensuring the effectiveness of the South African Reportable Arrangements legislation. The operation of the South African Reportable Arrangements legislation was explained in order to benchmark it against the design features and best practices recommended by the OECD in Action 12 of the BEPS project and to highlight how digitalisation can enhance these provisions. Recommendations made considered the current state of digitalisation at SARS, how other countries’ tax administrations have become more digitalised and practical concerns to be borne in mind when deciding the appropriate technology. The study found that there are a handful of recommendations remaining on how South Africa could improve reportable arrangement legislation without unnecessarily increasing the compliance burden. Digitalisation techniques that could be considered are advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and Application Programme Interfaces. The study proposed, amongst others, that these could be adopted by SARS to be able to gather information from various sources in real time to identify further characteristics of aggressive tax planning, perform completeness checks on reported transactions and re-deploy resources to investigate pre-identified possible reportable transactions. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil (International Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / pt2021 / Taxation / MPhil (International Taxation) / Unrestricted

Sverige är ett av de mest framträdande digitaliserade länderna inom EU. Men vissa sektorer har hamnat efter i digitaliseringsprocessen, en av dem är sjukvården. Sjukvården är en av de mest informationsintensiva sektorerna i det svenska samhället, det är kritiskt att IT-systemen är sammanhållna och kommunicerande med varandra, s.k. interoperabla. Just där brister sjukvårdens IT-system idag, men sjukvården som organisation brister också i att ha någon form av enhetlig standard för hur vårdinformation ska dokumenteras. Dessa brister leder till försämrad vårdkvalitet och arbetsmiljö för vårdpersonalen. Syftet med denna studie är att utveckla en artefakt för hur blockkedjeteknikens egenskaper kan användas för att förbättra interoperabiliteten i de svenska hälso- och sjukvårdssystemen. Vi har genomfört studien med en designbaserad metod, där vi tar fram en modell baserat på blockkedjans egenskaper och presenterade problem utifrån sex intervjuer av personer som arbetar med IT i vården. Vårt resultat visar att blockkedjan har egenskaper som kan stödja interoperabilitet i sjukvården. Resultatet visar också det krävs en balans mellan säkerhet och flexibilitet samt någon form av standard för hur vårdinformation ska dokumenteras, antingen på nationell eller regional nivå, för att skapa interoperabilitet. / Sweden is one of the most prominent digitized countries within the European Union. But some sectors have fallen behind in the digitizing process; one of them is the healthcare sector. The healthcare sector is one of the most information intensive fields in the Swedish society, where it is critical that the IT-systems are integrated and communicative with each other, so-called interoperable. Today's IT systems in healthcare are failing in terms of interoperability, but the healthcare itself as an organisation also fails to have some sort of uniform standard for documenting health data. These deficiencies lead to an impaired quality of care for the patients but also a worsened environment for the healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study is to develop an artefact for how the capabilities of the blockchain technology can be used to improve interoperability within the Swedish healthcare systems. We’ve conducted this paper by using a design-science based method, where we have developed a model based on the capabilities of blockchain technology and issues presented based on interviews with six people working with IT within healthcare. Our findings show that the blockchain technology has capabilities that can support interoperability within the healthcare systems. Our findings also show that to achieve interoperability there is a need to balance security and flexibility as well as some form of unified standard for how healthcare data is to be documented, on either a national or regional level.

Denna studie redogör för grundläggande teori bakom blockkedjeteknologi och beskriver hur den har implementerats i fastighetsregister internationellt. Studien syftar till att visa de utmaningar och möjligheter som teknologin ställs inför vid implementering på fastighetsregister, både internationellt sett och utifrån Sveriges situation. Studien aktualiseras framför allt utifrån att Sveriges regeringen i juni månad 2022 inledde en utredning om hur fastighetsregistret skulle kunna förbättras i olika avseenden. Studien aktualiseras även utifrån det faktum att Lantmäteriet tidigare har testat blockkedjeteknik, specifikt för transaktioner av fastigheter. Studien använder tre metoder: litteraturstudie, intervjuer och en fallstudie från Georgien. Resultaten visar på att det föreligger en hög grad av utmaningar för blockkedjeteknologin. Framtida studier bör således titta på framför allt möjligheterna eller nyttan med teknologin. / This study outlines the basic theory behind blockchain technology and describes how it has been implemented in land registries internationally. The study aims to show the challenges and opportunities that the technology faces when implementing it in property registers, both internationally and based on Sweden's situation. The study is brought up to date above all since the Swedish government in June 2022 started an investigation on how the property register can be improved in various respects. The study is also updated because the Swedish authority Lantmäteriet has previously tested blockchain technology in relation to real estate transactions. The study uses three methods: literature review, interviews and a case study from Georgia. The results show that there is a high degree of challenges for blockchain technology. Future studies should therefore look above all at the possibilities or benefits of the technology.

Industries with conservative mindsets are known for being reluctant toward adoption of new technologies and resistant to change. The diamond business is one of those examples that encounter challenges in implementing disruptive innovations like blockchain technology despite its potential benefits. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the antecedents influencing adoption of disruptive innovations in conservative industries, with a particular emphasis on benefits and challenges of embracing blockchain technology in the diamond industry. Employing a qualitative research approach, this thesis utilizes semi-structured interviews with the four industry experts from different companies. The empirical data is analyzed using the Technology Acceptance Model, the Innovation Diffusion Theory frameworks, and contextual data.Findings reveal that most of the antecedents are not favorable to the adoption of disruptive innovations in traditional sectors. Competition was found to enhance the adoption process, while resistance to change, industry heritage, uncertainty, and dependency on industry leaders have unfavorable effects. Transparency, customer trust/pressure were found to have both positive and negative impacts. Findings show that benefits of blockchain technology implementation outweigh its challenges for the diamond industry, however, its observability, and complexity, hinder the adoption due to the fact blockchain is a relatively new technology that is still hard to grasp for most industry professionals. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge by linking findings to the Technology Acceptance Model and Innovation Diffusion Theory frameworks, exploring deeply conservatism within industries, and identifying antecedents as obstacles and opportunities to widespread blockchain acceptance. Additionally, the researchers provide a solution for observability in the form of an in-depth marketing strategy, which aims at creating a differentiation between ‘blockchain diamonds’ and naturally mined diamonds.

The implementation of smart contract technology with their plausible applications in a business to business are explored. The thesis work shows how Blockchain technology works on the concept of decentralized system which is beneficial to eliminate the need for central authority. The thesis focuses on elimination of challenges pertaining to the selected departments in an organization. The thesis resolves challenges pertaining to lack of transparency, traceability and significant time-delays while in the process of decision making. The influence of blockchain technology and smart contract technology to eliminate these challenges are discussed. Logic of the smart contract and working of the blockchain pertaining to a specific industrial case study are demonstrated. Methodology to set up a smart contract interface in a business to business setting is investigated in this thesis. An observation study has been done in order to show how transparency, traceability and time delay in decision making is achieved by using smart contract interface. This thesis also shows how the blockchain and smart contract technology tries to implement coordination theory.

Purpose: The study explores the integration of blockchain technology with Digital Product Passports (DPP) to facilitate information transparency to address industry-wide concerns. Methodology: This research employed a qualitative exploratory design, utilizing detailed semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in the relative field. The research synthesized insights from industry reports, academic discourse, and empirical data to offer a holistic perspective on the subject matter. Findings: The study reveals a pressing need for standardized and transparent mechanisms for sharing information within the industry's supply chains. As an initial stage, adopting a Digital Product Passport contains many challenges. The research identifies three key categories of challenges (i.e. Technological, Organizational, and Regulatory challenges) and tries to investigate the role of blockchain technology in the supply chain to solve them. Implications: The integration of DPPs and blockchain holds the potential to revolutionize supply chain collaboration, enhance consumer trust, and facilitate the transition to a circular economy. The study underscores the importance of stakeholder collaboration, education, and the establishment of industry-wide standards to unlock the full transformative potential of these technologies. Value: This research contributes to the growing discourse on circular supply chains by explaining the role of DPPs and blockchain technology in promoting transparency, and traceability. The study offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the data requirements of digital product passports, bridging the gap in the existing literature. The findings serve as a foundation for informed decision-making by industry practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

[pt] Um sistema de rastreamento que armazena dados de alto volume, tais como indicadores de mobilidade, status de agentes e cargas, é de interesse tanto para empresas quanto para consumidores. Um sistema como esse permite verificar informações, como os locais visitados em um shopping center, a duração das estadias dos funcionários em determinadas partes de um prédio de escritórios ou fábrica, se um ônibus parou em cada ponto de ônibus em uma rota, a rota do entregador ou se uma equipe de seguranças está executando a ronda especificada em um bairro. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a eficiência de identificar a posição atual de uma entidade móvel e propor uma solução para transmitir, adicionar e recuperar informações como estas. A solução proposta é um framework chamado ARTIIMoR, que armazena dados de maneira segura, imutável e transparente usando um sistema de Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) multicamadas. Três camadas de DLT são utilizadas para armazenar informações de localização em diferentes níveis de abstração e agregação. O sistema visa permitir que empresas e consumidores registrem informações de posição e movimento com confiabilidade, escalabilidade e rastreabilidade. / [en] A tracking system capable of storing high volume data, such as mobility indicators, agent and cargo statuses, is of interest to both companies and consumers. Such a system enables the checking of information, such as the locations visited in a shopping center, the duration of employees stays incertain parts of an office building or factory, whether a bus stopped at each bus stop on a route, the route of a delivery driver, or whether a security team is performing the specified patrol in a neighborhood. This dissertation aims to investigate the efficiency of identifying the current position of amobile entity and propose a solution for transmitting, adding, and retrieving information like this. The proposed solution is a framework called ARTIIMoR,which stores data securely, immutably, and transparently using a multilayer Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system. Three layers of DLT are used to store location information at different levels of abstraction and aggregation.The system aims to allow companies and consumers to record position andmovement information with reliability, scalability, and traceability.