Blockchain is fast emerging as a disruptive technology solution in the areas involving multiple stakeholders, each having complex business processes implemented in unique systems and infrastructure; operating in different administrative, geopolitical boundaries. With cross-organizational workflows and complex compliance requirements, industry sectors like Healthcare, Finance, Manufacturing, International Trade, Insurance, Retail, Supply Chain, Recruitment, Media, Real-estate, and Education etc. can benefit significantly by improved operational efficiency, enhanced security, and transparency offered by blockchain implementation.

Though rapid adaptation, blockchain technology practices, standardizations and research activities are in its nascent stages and evolving continuously with new tools, technologies, approaches and application strategies. In this scenario an aims of the proposed workshop is to:

-Offer a platform for the community to identify, discuss and collaborate on some of the central research and application avenues of the blockchain technology landscape.
-Help participants in developing familiarity with relevant theoretical concepts, tools, implementation strategies and current practices in the area.

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Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors are invited to submit original research papers (not being considered for publication elsewhere) from 15 to 20 pages in length in the LNCS style. Unformatted papers and papers beyond the page limit will not be reviewed. The submissions will be accepted through EasyChair.

Each paper should contain an abstract of approximately 300 words having a page limit of 20 pages including the title page, references and appendix. For preparing the manuscript, please see instructions for authors by Springer, in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (LNCS).
LaTeX and Word Templates & Submission Guidelines – https://www.springer.com/in/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines .

All submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by at least three program committee members. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register at the workshop and present the paper. Accepted and presented papers will appear in the online workshop proceedings.

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List of Topics

The workshop invites unpublished original research papers on the topics including but not limited to:

Blockchain Technology
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Evolution of Blockchain Technologies
Distributed Ledger Technology
Mining mechanisms: proof-of-work, proof of stake, proof of burn,
Incentives and payments mechanisms
Distributed consensus protocols and peer-to-peer algorithms
Formal verification of Transactions and Smart Contracts
Building Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
Game theoretic analysis of protocols

Security, Privacy and Confidentiality
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Threat Models & Attacks
Anonymity and Privacy Issues
Encryption Algorithms
Cybersecurity

Distributed Computing
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Schemes for decentralization
Peer-to- peer communication protocols
Fault-tolerant Algorithms
Scalability in Blockchain
Architecture, Protocols and Algorithms
Trustless Computing
Performance optimization

Governance
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Identity Governance
Data Governance
Business Process Integration
Enterprise Integration
Trust and regulation mechanisms
Legal, ethical, economical, and social aspects

Integration with Emerging Technologies
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Blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT)
Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML)
Blockchain and Cloud, Edge, Fog Computing
Blockchain and Big Data
Blockchain and Data Analytics

Blockchain Tools
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Platforms for decentralized consensus
Virtualization and DevOps
Tools for Deployment and Monitoring of Components
Decentralized Applications development tools, IDEs

Blockchain in Industry
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Healthcare and Insurance
Fintech
Pharmaceuticals
Supply chain
Real Estate
Precious Stones and Metals
Entertainment

Blockchain in Government
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Agriculture
Unique Identity
Civic Services
Public Health System
Land Records
Regulation and Law Enforcement
Disaster Response and Relief
Smart Cities

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Committees

Workshop Chairs
Vikram Sorathia, Kensemble Tech Labs, India
Ratnik Gandhi, Ahmedabad University, India

Program Committee
Devesh C. Jinwala, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India
Mehul Raval, Ahmedabad University, India
Sanjay Chaudhary, Ahmedabad University, India
Iyyanki. V. Murali Krishna Distinguished Fellow, RCI/DRDO, India

Technical Program Committee
Maniklal Das, DA-IICT, Gandhinagar, India
Gaurav Somani, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Central University of Rajasthan, India
Tapan Shah, GE Global Research, Bengaluru, India
G. R. Gangadharan, NIT, Trichy
Chintan Amrit, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Gowri Sankar Ramachandran, University of Southern California, USA


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Publication
IWBT18 proceedings will be published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science series by Springer.

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Venue
The conference will be held in NIT Warangal, India.

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Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to the workshop chairs.