Internet of Things applications are not only the new opportunity for digital businesses but also a major driving force for the modification and creation of software systems in all industries and businesses. Compared to other types of software-intensive products, the development of Internet of Things applications lacks a systematic approach and guidelines. This paper aims at understanding the common practices and challenges among start-up companies who are developing Internet of Things products. A qualitative research is conducted with data from twelve semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis reveals common types of Minimum Viable Products, prototyping techniques and production concerns among early stage hardware start-ups. We found that hardware start-ups go through an incremental prototyping process toward production. The progress associates with the transition from speed-focus to quality-focus. Hardware start-ups heavily rely on third-party vendors in term of development speed and final product quality. We identified 24 challenges related to management, requirement, design, implementation and testing. Internet of Things entrepreneurs should be aware of relevant pitfalls and managing both internal and external risks.

This systematic literature review provides an extensive categorization of the blockchain-enabled applications across the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Within the paradigm of distributed ledger technology (DLT), the communication models and practices for VANETs have been revolutionized. An analytical review and a survey were conducted to explore the advancements of blockchain and VANETs. The techniques, limitations, and advantages of blockchain deployment in VANETs are discussed for the effective implementation of a decentralized network. To this end, 68 studies were selected on the basis of the procedural steps to provide a comprehensive overview of blockchain and the smart contracts in VANETs. In particular, a decentralized communication model is also proposed for the advanced implementation of blockchain in VANETs. Researchers and practitioners are being attracted to these technologies for applications for various industrial sectors. Therefore, this study also emphasizes the identification of any blockchain-related open issues for future prospects. The comprehension of blockchain applications for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is also explored in order to fill the research gap on advanced communication networks across the Internet of Things.

Most of the banks issue the chequebooks to their customers having different background colors where as the original specimen signature is always taken on the white paper at the time of the opening of the account. When these signatures are verified digitally the results are not accurate. In this paper, we have proposed a mechanism that automates the offline signature verification for bank cheques even with different background colors. Work present in this paper is focused, to examine whether an input signature of colored bank cheque is a genuine signature or a forged. This task is performed by comparing the collected signature samples (white background) with input signatures (colored background). The signature verification of colored cheques (SVCC) system of verifying the signatures having different background colors in spite of white paper specimens through variation of color intensity is discussed and presented.

Every field is improving day by day as technologies become advance. The banking industry needs to improve as well, due to face lots of pressure for their backward system and having a lot of issues, such as data storage, privacy, scalability, and transparency. These issues, forced to drive the banking system towards advancements. We know that the banking system is the core of finance. So, banking should adopt blockchain technologies due to their characteristics, such as decentralization, data privacy, immutability, transparency, etc. which could help the banking industry to cope with the issues of the traditional centralized banking system. There are many systems already proposed to the banking industry, that are based on blockchain techniques like transaction, auditing, trading, data sharing, off-chain, and on-chain systems. But there is no proper solution base system for banking that carries out the banking process flow using consortium and ensures to solve all issues discussed above. Keeping these problems, we proposed a theoretical model for the banking sector. This model uses the techniques of on-chain and off-chain transactions based on a consortium blockchain. In which, a user ID, with the public key, and a private key are provided to each banking user. In this model, data stored in a third-party database as an off-chain mechanism, and mapped using (public\private) Keys and user ID as an on-chain mechanism, which will be updated and validate periodically using Smart Contract. So, if data will tamper between two periodic checks, then this tempering gets caught. This technique ensures security. In this model consortium, P2P (Peer-to-peer) protocol is also applied to ensure data privacy and partial transparency. Also, three more services provide by this model are, registration, transaction to contractual party, and transaction to the customer from the bank. The first two services are handled off-chain and the third service is handled on-chain, which ensures authentication of registered clients. In this regard, as we mentioned above, that still no banking system proposed an idea to use the consortium technique yet. So, we compare our model with the previously proposed transaction models. Our proposed model covered almost all aspects required for a banking system. This model will help to implement a blockchain-based banking system, which is more robust, secure, transparent, and scalable.