A great challenge for democracy is to account for the conflict between the ideal of self-governance and the capacity of the average person to participate in democratic decision-making. This challenge has led some observers to question the defensibility of democracy and consider other systems of social organization. I argue instead that the problem can be solved with a technologically enhanced version of Thomas Christiano’s choice of aims model of democracy. I begin by setting up the voter competency problem: I describe the ideals of democracy and the role that is ascribed to citizens under traditional accounts of democracy, then proceed to a discussion of the empirical evidence that shows how unlikely it is that voters could ever adequately perform such a role. While I consider a number of alternative democratic models which attempt to reconstruct the role of citizens in a way that is consistent with their capacities and with the democratic ideal of self-governance, I find that the choice of aims model strikes this balance in a way that is most tenable. Despite this, I argue that changes to the way information is distributed in modern democracies, to do with the rise of the internet, pose a serious threat to the viability of even this model, as it is becoming increasingly difficult for voters to ascertain reliable information. The second half of the thesis offers support to Christiano’s model in the form of technologically enhanced institutions. Chapter 3 provides a basic understanding of an emerging technology called distributed ledger technology, which offers a new paradigm for how information is stored, controlled, and distributed around society. The final chapter demonstrates how this technology can be used to strengthen democratic institutions so that citizens are able to truly be said to self-govern in a way that is consistent with their capacities. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This article analyses the impact of the IOTA distributed ledger technology (DLT) on smart cities. The world population is rapidly increasing while at the same time trends such as urbanization shape future demographics. Thus, fast-growing cities face the challenge of increasing demands in resources such as energy, water, transportation, while at the same time aiming to increase life quality by reducing burdens such as pollution and waste. The concept of a “Smart City” emerged with the ambition to solve a city’s issues by creating social and economic advantages while providing efficient resource allocation processes. Nevertheless, current information communication technologies tend to underperform a smartcities systems requirement since the quantity of connected devices increases which slows down the transition of a city becoming smart. The distributed ledger technology IOTA promises to enable automated, feeless transactions and processes with a high level of integrity, which may impact the development of smart cities. In this research the IOTA technology is introduced and investigated. The advantages of IOTA compared to conventional information communication technologies and the blockchain technology are highlighted. Thereafter, the current state of IOTA in smart cities is reviewed by analysing current research and use cases. To investigate the concept of a smart city the smart city initiative framework, including its subcategories is introduced. Additionally, different experts working on IOTA integrations related to smart city initiatives were interviewed giving insights into their field ofexpertise. Finally, an analysis and discussion of the IOTA technology use cases are put into relation with the multi-level perspective framework (Geels, 2006) highlighting the positive impact of IOTA on the development of smart cities. / I den här artikeln analyseras effekterna av IOTA:s teknik för distribuerade huvudböcker (DLT) på smarta städer. Världens befolkning ökar snabbt samtidigt som trender som urbanisering formar framtidens demografi. Snabbt växande städer står därför inför utmaningen att öka kraven på resurser som energi, vatten och transporter, samtidigt som de strävar efter att öka livskvaliteten genom att minska belastningar som föroreningar och avfall. Begreppet smart stad uppstod med ambitionen att lösa stadensproblem genom att skapa sociala och ekonomiska fördelar och samtidigt tillhandahålla effektiva processer för resursfördelning. Den nuvarande informations- och kommunikationstekniken tenderar dock att inte uppfylla kraven på system för smarta städer, eftersom mängden anslutna enheter ökar, vilket gör att övergången till en smart stad blir långsammare. Den distribuerade huvudbokstekniken IOTA lovar att möjliggöra automatiserade, felfria transaktioner och processer med en hög grad av integritet, vilket kan påverka utvecklingen av smarta städer. I den här forskningen introduceras och undersöks IOTA-tekniken. Fördelarna med IOTA jämfört med konventionell informationskommunikationsteknik och blockkedjetekniken lyfts fram. Därefter granskas det nuvarande läget för IOTA i smarta städer genom att analysera aktuell forskning och användningsfall. För att undersöka begreppet smart stad introduceras ramverket för initiativet för smarta städer, inklusive dess underkategorier. Dessutom intervjuades olika experter som arbetar med IOTA-integrationer isamband med initiativ för smarta städer för att ge en inblick i deras expertisområde. Slutligen analyseras och diskuteras IOTA-teknikens användningsområden i förhållande till ramverket för flernivåperspektivet (Geels, 2006), där IOTA:s positiva inverkan på utvecklingen av smarta städer lyfts fram.

Financial interactions on the capital market involve a wide variety of actors and processes. The requirement of security and privacy results to a large extent in non-shared and unintegrated databases among the different parties, leading to complex, time consuming and costly procedures. The last decade's introduction of innovative blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin, has brought attention to the possibilities of decentralized peer-to-peer networking in general, and its potential influence in the financial sector in particular. This master thesis investigates the possibilities for the capital market to adapt such a system from a technical point of view, with main focus on scalability. The analysis covers crucial aspects such as a peer-to-peer application's ability to handle large transaction volumes while maintaining security. The degree project also includes continued work on Visigon's blockchain application prototype with main focus on the network communication, as well as simulations of its performance capability. Results from the simulations showed that the transaction throughput capacity is limited to the time of broadcasting the transaction to the network, and thus decreasing linearly with increasing network size. The required time for handling other parts in the process appears constant and takes up a small fraction of the total time, therefore future work lays in further optimization of the communication protocol.

Airline disruption management traditionally seeks to address three problem dimensions – aircraft scheduling, crew scheduling, and passenger scheduling – in that order. However, current efforts have, at most, only addressed the first two con-currently and do not account for the propagative effects that uncertain scheduling outcomes in one dimension can have on another. Uncertainties in scheduling out-comes originate from random disruption events (like inclement weather and aircraft malfunction), the order in which they occur, and how they are resolved. As such, these uncertainties propagate through all problem dimensions of airline disruption management on day of operation. Existing approaches for airline operations recovery include human specialists who decide on the necessary corrective actions to airline schedule disruptions on the day of operation. However, human specialists are limited in their ability to process copious amounts of information, necessary to make robust decisions that simultaneously address all three problem dimensions in operations recovery. Therefore, there is a need to augment the decision-making capabilities of a human specialist with quantitative and qualitative tools that can rationalize complex interactions amongst the three dimensions in airline operations recovery, and provide objective insights to the specialists in the Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC).To this effect, this dissertation provides a discussion of an agnostic and systematic paradigm for enabling simultaneously-integrated recovery of all problem dimensions in airline disruption management, through an intelligent multi-agent system that employs principles from artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) stands to benefit industries such as financial services with transparency and censorship resistance. DLT systems need to be scalable to handle mass user adoption. Mass user adoption is required to demonstrate the true value of DLT. This dissertation first analyses scalability in ethereum and EOS. Currently, ethereum 1.0 uses proof of work (PoW) and handles only 14 transactions per second (tps) compared to Visa's peak 47 000 tps. Ethereum 2.0, known as Serenity, introduces sharding, proof of stake (Casper), plasma and state channels in and effort to scale the system. EOS uses a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) protocol, where 21 super-nodes, termed ‘block producers' (BPs), facilitate consensus, bringing about significant scalability improvements (4000 tps). The trade-off is decentralisation. EOS is not sufficiently decentralised because the BPs yield significant power, but are not diverse. This dissertation conducts an empirical analysis using unsupervised machine learning to show that there is a high probability collusion is occurring between certain BPs. It then suggests possible protocol alterations such as inverse vote weighting that could curb adverse voting behaviour in DPoS. It further analyses whether universities are suitable BP's before mapping out required steps for universities to become block producers (leading to improved decentralisation in EOS)

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is one of the latest in a long list of digital technologies, which appear to be heading towards a new industrial revolution. DLT has become very popular with the publication of the Bitcoin Blockchain in 2008. However, when we consider its suitability for dynamic networking environments, such as the Internet of Things, issues like transaction fees, scalability, and offline accessibility have not been resolved. The IOTA Foundation has designed the IOTA protocol, which is the data and value transfer layer for the Machine Economy. IOTA protocol uses an alternative blockless Blockchain which claims to solve the previous problems: the Tangle. This thesis first inquires into the theoretical concepts of both technologies Tangleand Blockchain, to understand them and identify the reasons to be compatible or not with the Internet of Things networking environments. After the analysis, the thesis focuses on the proposed implementation as a solution to address the connectivity issue suffered by the IOTA network. The answer to the problem is the development of a Neighbor Discovery algorithm, which has been designed to fulfill the requirements demanded by the IOTA application. Dealing with IOTA network setup can be very interesting for the community that is looking for new improvements at each release. Testing the solution in a peer-to-peer specific protocol (PeerSim), with different networking scenarios, allowed us to get valuable and more realistic information. Thus, after analyzing the results, we were able to determine the appropriate IOTA network configuration to build a more reliable and long-lasting network.

Fueled by the success of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain technology has emerged as an interesting and promising technological solution in a variety of industries. However, it remains unclear to what extent blockchain technology possesses the potential to transform existing business models or to enable new business models. So far, scientific studies have been predominantly technologically driven; the economic viability, e.g., in the form of innovative, sustainable business models, as well as the acceptance of blockchain technology have not been sufficiently investigated. This dissertation addresses this research gap and focuses on three domains: The financial sector, the temporary employment industry, and the healthcare sector. To investigate the impact of blockchain technology on business model innovation as well as its impact on existing business models, quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in the form of a mixed-method approach. Within this approach, (acceptance) models, tools, methods, and prototypes are developed. Moreover, recommendations for decision makers are elaborated and central economic, ecological, political, legal, social, and ethical challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology for business models and business model innovations are identified and discussed. The results of this dissertation support economic and political decision makers as well as researchers in the fields of blockchain technology and business model innovation.

Today there exist no standardized payment solution for performing micropayments between Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This study was conducted to examine whether Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) could be suitable as a micropayment solution for IoT. Also, a more general demand for a scalable micropayment solution was examined, along with its potential. A qualitative study was performed by first conducting eight unstructured interviews regarding the subjects DLT and IoT, to be used as a complement to the literature research. Then, one unstructured and five semi-structured interviews were held to answer the research questions. The Bitcoin blockchain does not work as a micropayment solution, due to scalability issues. This study identified a positive outlook on the idea of Lightning Network, solving the scalability problems with off-chain transactions. However, since a fully functioning network is yet to be implemented, there exist uncertainties, for example regarding how decentralized it will really become. Also, issues considering the usage of DLT:s on small IoT devices arose, stemming from CPU and storage constraints. A demand of a sustainable micropayment solution was identified, possibly being a catalyst of the emergence of pay-per-use business models. Considering more powerful IoT devices, the Lightning Network could function as a micropayment solution. Such a technology is sought after, and its applicability will only increase as IoT devices evolve. / Det finns idag ingen standardiserad betalningslösning för att genomföra mikrobetalningar mellan Internet of Things (IoT) enheter. Denna studie genomfördes för att undersöka huruvida Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) skulle kunna användas som en mikrobetalningslösning för IoT. En mer generell eterfrågan för en skalbar mikrobetalningslösning, och effekterna av en sådan, undersöktes. En kvalitativ studie genofördes, där åtta ostrukturerade intervjuer gällande ämnena DLT och IoT, hölls för att komplementera litteraturstudierna. Sedan genomfördes en ostrukturerad och fem semi-strukturerade intervjuer för att kunna besvara de frågeställningar som definierats. Bitcoin blockkedjan funderar inte som en mikrobetalningslösning på grund utav dess skalbarhetsproblem. Studien identifierar en positiv syn på Lightning Network, som löserskalbarhetsproblemen genom att använda sig av transaktioner utanför kedjan. Denna lösning är dock inte fullständigt implementerad, vilket leder till flera osäkerheter angående exempelvis hur decentraliserat nätverket verkligen kommer att bli. Utöver detta finns även svårigheter med användandet av DLT:s för små IoT-enheter, vilket härstämmar ifrån deras CPU- och lagringsbegränsningar. En efterfrågan på en hållbar mikrobetalningslösning identifieras, och denna skulle kunna fungera som en katalysator för etablerandet av pay-per-use affärsmodeller. Tittar vi på mer kraftfulla IoT-enheter skulle Lightning Network fungera som en mikrobetalningslösning. En sådan teknologi är eftertraktad och dess användbarhet kommer bara att växa i och med utvecklingen av IoT-enheter.

Yes / • This article discusses the current situation in the market of cryptocurrencies and joins the debate about the regulation of these financial innovations. • It argues that the appearance of cryptocurrencies was a response to market demand for more affordable and more inclusive banking. • It also argues that distributed ledger technology (DLT) which supports cryptocurrencies and has different characteristics than the technology used by traditional banking could help to create with cryptocurrencies a new, lower cost, more inclusive financial ecosystem separate from the traditional one. • The two ecosystems (traditional and new one) would form a larger two-tier financial ecosystem, which, overall would be more inclusive and more affordable. Also, it would be more effective in containing contagion and major economic disruption during future financial crises. • The current reliance on a single, ever growing, and immensely complex financial ecosystem is not sustainable longer term as systemic risks grow with the system and there are no mechanisms available to fully eliminate these risks. The costs of regulating the current market architecture are also excessively high.

The changing nature of the energy grid in recent years has prompted key stakeholders to think of ways to address incoming challenges. Transactive energy is an approach that promises to dynamically align active grid elements coming up in the previously inactive consumers' side to achieve a reliable and smarter grid. This work models the distribution grid structure as a combination of microgrids. A blockchain-in-the loop simulation framework is modelled and simulated for a residential microgrid using power system simulators and transactive agents. Blockchain smart contracts are used to coordinate peer-to-peer energy transactions in the microgrid. The model is used to test three market coordination schemes: a simple auction-less scheme, an auction-less scheme with a normalized sorting metric and an hour ahead single auction scheme with penalties for unfulfilled bids. Case studies are presented of a microgrid with 30 homes, at different levels of solar and energy storage penetration within the microgrid, all equipped with responsive and unresponsive appliances and transactive agents for the HVAC systems. The auction-less scheme with a normalized sorting metric is observed to provide a fairer advantage to smaller solar installations in comparison to the simple auction-less method. It is then concluded that the auction-less schemes are most beneficial to users, as they would not need sophisticated forecasting technology to reduce penalties from bid quantity inaccuracies, as long as the energy mix within the microgrid is diverse enough. / Master of Science / The legacy energy industry involved the bulk transfer of energy from huge generation plants through long transmission lines to the end consumers. However, with the onset of improved renewable energy and information technologies, energy is now being generated closer to the consumer side with appliances capable of actively participating in the energy system now widely available. Transactive energy with blockchain has been proposed in order to dynamically coordinate these systems to work towards a more reliable and smarter grid using economic value in a transparent and secure way. This work models a transactive power grid as a combination of microgrids using a blockchain network to coordinate hourly peer-to-peer energy transactions. The blockchain-in-the-loop simulation model is used to compare three different market mechanisms in a residential microgrid of 30 homes with varying levels of solar panels, batteries and transactive thermostats installed. Two auction-less schemes - one with a normalized sorting metric - and an hour ahead single auction mechanism are analyzed. While the auction-less scheme with the normalized metric is seen to be fairer than the simple auction-less scheme, it is concluded that the auction-less schemes are most beneficial to residents. This is because sophisticated forecasting technology would not be needed like in the hour ahead auction scheme, provided that the microgrid has participants with diverse energy consumption and production profiles throughout the day.