About the book : Are you curious about the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Look no further! This comprehensive book delves into the history and evolution of blockchain technology, as well as the different types of cryptocurrencies and consensus mechanisms that exist today. From exploring smart contract platforms like Ethereum to diving into decentralized finance and security tokens, you'll gain a deep understanding of the exciting world of blockchain and its endless possibilities. The book also covers real-world applications of blockchain in fields such as supply chain management, cybersecurity, gaming, and the music industry. And don't miss out on the fascinating discussion of the metaverse and its potential to revolutionize the way we live, work, and play in a virtual world. Get ready to be inspired and amazed by the future of decentralized technology!"

Decentralized Frameworks for Future Power Systems: Operation, Planning and Control Perspectives is the first book to consider the principles and applications of decentralized decision-making in future power networks. The work opens by defining the emerging power system network as a system-of-systems (SoS), exploring the guiding principles behind optimal solutions for operation and planning problems. Chapters emphasize the role of regulations, prosumption behaviors, and the implementation of transactive energy processes as key components in decentralizing power systems. Contributors explore local markets, distribution system operation and proactive load management. The role of cryptocurrencies in smoothing transactive distributional challenges are presented. Final sections cover energy system planning, particularly in terms of consumer smart meter technologies and distributed optimization methods, including artificial intelligence, meta-heuristic, heuristic, mathematical and hybrid approaches. The work closes by considering decentralization across the cybersecurity, distributed control, market design and power quality optimization vertices. - Develops a novel framework for transactive energy management to enhance flexibility in future power systems - Explores interactions between multiple entities in local power markets based on a distributed optimization approach - Focuses on practical optimization, planning and control of smart grid systems towards decentralized decision-making

Web3.0: The Decentralized Web of the Future is a comprehensive guide to the emerging world of Web3.0 technologies, exploring the potential impact on society and the economy. The book covers the key principles of Web3.0, including decentralized governance, blockchain technology, and peer-to-peer networks. It also delves into the opportunities and challenges that come with the adoption of these technologies in various industries such as finance, healthcare, education, and entertainment. With a clear and engaging writing style, this book is suitable for anyone interested in the future of technology and its impact on our world. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of technology and how it will shape the world we live in.

In the evolving landscape of finance, traditional institutions grapple with challenges ranging from outdated processes to limited accessibility, hindering the industry's ability to meet the diverse needs of a modern, digital-first society. Moreover, as the world embraces Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, there becomes a need to bridge the gap between innovation and traditional financial systems. This disconnect not only impedes progress but also limits the potential for financial inclusion and sustainable growth. AI-Driven Decentralized Finance and the Future of Finance addresses the complexities and challenges currently facing the financial industry. By exploring the transformative potential of AI in decentralized finance, this book offers a roadmap for navigating the convergence of technology and finance. From optimizing smart contracts to enhancing security and personalizing financial experiences, the book provides practical insights and real-world examples that empower professionals to leverage AI-driven strategies effectively.

This book identifies, analyzes and discusses the current trends of digitalized, decentralized, and networked physical value creation by focusing on the particular example of 3D printing. In addition to evaluating 3D printing’s disruptive potentials against a broader economic background, it also addresses the technology’s potential impacts on sustainability and emerging modes of bottom-up and community-based innovation. Emphasizing these topics from economic, technical, social and environmental perspectives, the book offers a multifaceted overview that scrutinizes the scenario of a fundamental transition: from a centralized to a far more decentralized system of value creation.

The Future of Decentralized Electricity Distribution Networks assesses the evolution of the services delivered by the distribution network as demands placed on it proliferates from distributed, self-generating, power storing and power sharing 'consumers' – which Sioshansi terms 'prosumagers'. The work outlines the processes by which passive and homogeneous electricity consumers become prosumers and prosumagers, the nature of their service needs, and dependence on the services delivered by the distribution network diverges. Contributors assess how consumers are discovering and exercising options to migrate away from total reliance on upstream generators to produce electricity and on the delivery network for its transmission. As they do so, the "utilities" – be they distributors or retailers – must rethink the traditional utility business model. How will they find sufficient revenues to cover their fixed and variable costs as volumetric consumption declines when some consumers become prosumers – or go a step further and become prosumagers? This work argues that new service, business models and new methods for collecting sufficient revenues to maintain the network are mandatory for the survival of modern utilities. - Examines the future of services demanded by electricity customers as some diverge from their traditional total reliance on the network for delivery of all their service needs - Reviews the emergence of new business models to meet the diverging needs of customers - Explores the costs imposed by new types of customers on the delivery network and how to collect sufficient revenues from all to maintain it in ways that are efficient, equitable and fair

When the Spanish invaded the Inca empire in 1532, the cult of the ancestors was an essential feature of pre-Columbian religion throughout the Andes. The dead influenced politics, protected the living, symbolized the past, and legitimized claims over the land their descendants occupied, while the living honored the presence of the dead in numerous aspects of daily life. A central purpose of the Spanish missionary endeavor was to suppress the Andean cult of the ancestors and force the indigenous people to adopt their Catholic, legal, and cultural views concerning death. In her book, Gabriela Ramos reveals the extent to which Christianizing death was essential for the conversion of the indigenous population to Catholicism. Ramos argues that understanding the relation between death and conversion in the Andes involves not only considering the obvious attempts to destroy the cult of the dead, but also investigating a range of policies and strategies whose application demanded continuous negotiation between Spaniards and Andeans. Drawing from historical, archaeological, and anthropological research and a wealth of original archival materials, especially the last wills and testaments of indigenous Andeans, Ramos looks at the Christianization of death as it affected the lives of inhabitants of two principal cities of the Peruvian viceroyalty: Lima, the new capital founded on the Pacific coast by the Spanish, and Cuzco, the old capital of the Incas in the Andean highlands. Her study of the wills in particular demonstrates the strategies that Andeans devised to submit to Spanish law and Christian doctrine, preserve bonds of kinship, and cement their place in colonial society. "Rapid and widespread death decimated the descendants of the Inca Empire, but the mere number of the dead does not tell the story. Rather, Ramos brilliantly demonstrates that, beginning with the execution of Atahualpa, death and the dead were one of the great colonial sites of ongoing contestation about both the here and now and the hereafter. In an exquisitely researched study, Ramos traces the shift from pre-Columbian to colonial Andean funerary rituals and the differing ways that they became the center of how 'Andeans and Europeans communicated and exchanged their visions of power and the sacred, ' in a true dance of death." --Thomas B. F. Cummins, Harvard University "Death and Conversion in the Andes is a highly innovative study that looks at the conquest period in a new light. By analyzing how the conception of death and death rituals changed during the early colonial period, Gabriela Ramos is able to gain many new insights into how the conquest modified indigenous beliefs. For those interested in ethnohistory and the effects of colonialism in Spanish America, this is a must read." --Erick D. Langer, Georgetown University

Aquesta publicació analitza la descentralització fiscal, amb especial atenció al cas espanyol des d'una perspectiva econòmica i politològica.