Editorial for the IJNM Special Issue From the Best Papers of IEEE ICBC 2023 “Advancing Blockchain and Cryptocurrency”

This special issue contains extended versions of the best papers from 2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. The conference was held from May 1 to May 5, 2023, in Dubai, UAE. The papers in this special issue explore crucial advancements in illicit activity tracking, transaction mechanisms, synchronization, and database integration. The following papers highlight critical advancements and address complex challenges in these domains. The first paper, “The next phase of identifying illicit activity in Bitcoin” by Jack Nicholls and his team, deepens the discourse on securing Bitcoin transactions. By analyzing current methods and proposing enhancements through machine learning, this paper provides crucial insights into improving the detection of illicit activities and enhancing network security. In the second paper, “Transaction fee mechanisms with farsighted miners,” authored by Jens Leth Hougaard and colleagues, strategic miner behaviors in the Ethereum network are explored under the new fee mechanism, EIP1559. The paper extends the discussion to strategic foresight in mining operations, presenting a model that evaluates the impacts of varying degrees of hashing power and foresight on network throughput and block variability. The third contribution, “Out-of-band transaction pool sync for large dynamic blockchain networks” by Novak Boskov et al., innovates the synchronization of transaction pools across large and dynamic blockchain networks. Employing the novel SREP algorithm, this study provides a comprehensive approach with proven scalability and performance improvements, particularly emphasizing reduced block propagation delays and bandwidth overhead. The fourth paper, “DELTA: A Modular, Transparent and Efficient Synchronization of DLTs and Databases” by Fernández-Bravo Peñuela et al., addresses the integration of blockchain data into traditional databases. The DELTA system offers a seamless, efficient solution for querying blockchain data within enterprise systems, proving significantly faster and more reliable than existing methods. These papers collectively enhance our understanding of blockchain technology's application, offering new methodologies, insights into miner behavior, security enhancements, and integration techniques for enterprise systems. Their contributions are instrumental in paving the way for more robust, efficient, and secure blockchain networks. We are immensely grateful to the authors for their innovative research, the reviewers for their critical insights, and the editorial team for their commitment to compiling this transformative special issue.