Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrency

Research into the underlying ideas behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency – known by the terms Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology – which are applicable to a range of other applications, including financial services infrastructure, legal automation, provenance, supply chain management, international trade and health informatics.

Competitive advantage 

  • An interdisciplinary group of staff who are developing this new area of technology and studying its technical, legal, business and societal implications
  • Expertise in:
    • Computer Science
    • Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
    • Law and Business

Impact 

  • The Bitcoin cryptocurrency took several ideas and made them into the first successful real-world deployment of a cryptocurrency. These include the blockchain data structure, a distributed consensus protocol, and the ‘smart contract’ – a code that enforces legal terms.

Successful applications  

  • Smart contract representation languages and verification
  • Blockchain for electricity trading
  • Blockchain in Internet of Things and Automotive Systems
  • Liability in Distributed Ledger Systems
  • Business models for Bitcoin companies
  • Software licenses on Ethereum
  • Unify Rewards: a trial of a customer loyalty program that rewards shoppers with loyalty points convertible to the Ethereum cryptocurrency

 Our partners

  • Loyalty X
Tags
lensTechnology, Data Science, Privacy and Security
lensOrganisational Governance and Resilience