Virtual currency schemes – the future of financial services
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to determine the future role of virtual currencies. This paper indicates their pros and cons as alternatives to “real” money and explains their appearance as the reflection of the present trends. It also presents the possible scenarios of their development. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the former foresight research results and literature review. It highlights the main trends in contemporary economy and their impact on financial services. The Bitcoin case is the starting point for the virtual currencies’ market analysis and construction of possible market changes scenarios. Findings – Virtual currency schemes are the reflection of present trends. They are just ahead of our times but may become a common means of payment, changing the way of providing financial services, eliminating intermediaries and marginalizing the role of financial institutions. Research limitations/implications – The multiplicity of virtual currencies and ceaseless introducti...
E-Business and Telecommunications
With the development of new multimedia applications, telecommunication networks should be developed to offer real QoS. Different protocols such as MPLS, IntServ and DiffServ introduce new mechanisms which can be used to offer QoS in high speed Next Generation Networks (NGN). This paper is focused essentially on QoS and QoE mechanisms in wired and wireless networks through the presentation of communication architectures and protocols.
Complex Systems Architecture Framework: Extension to Multi-objective Optimization
This paper shows the utility to follow an architecture framework in order to design complex systems with a holistic approach. Multi-objective Optimization techniques extend and complete the architecture framework to support trade-off analysis and decision making in the Systems Engineering design process. The merging and combination of these two approaches, decision making and systems engineering, contribute to the efficient design of systems by helping to meet needs and constraints stemming mainly from the system analysis.