Source-linked AI summary
Applications of Blockchain Technology beyond Cryptocurrency
Mahdi H. Miraz, Maaruf Ali
TL;DR
The paper addresses the need to understand Blockchain applications beyond cryptocurrency, including their security, privacy, and implementation challenges. It surveys research and projects across non-monetary domains, concluding that Blockchain and its variants are being adopted for human- and machine-to-machine transactions while remaining limited by IoT processing demands and immature technology.
Problem
The paper examines how Blockchain and similar digital-ledger techniques are implemented beyond cryptocurrency, including their security, privacy issues, and associated challenges.
Method
The study surveys recent research articles and projects or applications concerning Blockchain-enabled systems across diverse domains.
Results
Blockchain and its variants are used to secure transactions in human-to-human and machine-to-machine communications, with adoption appearing especially relevant to the global emergence of IoT.
Takeaways & Limitations
The reviewed applications indicate Blockchain use extending beyond cryptocurrency to broader transaction-security contexts, including IoT-related systems.
Takeaways & Limitations
IoT deployment demands more processing power than current IoT devices support, and Blockchain technology has not yet reached maturity.
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Blockchain (BC), the technology behind the Bitcoin crypto-currency system, is considered to be both alluring and critical for ensuring enhanced security and (in some implementations, non-traceable) privacy for diverse applications in many other domains including in the Internet of Things (IoT) eco-system. Intensive research is currently being conducted in both academia and industry applying the Blockchain technology in multifarious applications. Proof-of-Work (PoW), a cryptographic puzzle, plays a vital role in ensuring BC security by maintaining a digital ledger of transactions, which is considered to be incorruptible. Furthermore, BC uses a changeable Public Key (PK) to record the users' identity, which provides an extra layer of privacy. Not only in cryptocurrency has the successful adoption of BC been implemented but also in multifaceted non-monetary systems such as in: distributed storage systems, proof-of-location, healthcare, decentralized voting and so forth. Recent research articles and projects/applications were surveyed to assess the implementation of BC for enhanced security, to identify associated challenges and to propose solutions for BC enabled enhanced security systems.
1. Introduction
The paper reviews Blockchain and related digital-ledger applications beyond cryptocurrency, focusing on their uses, security and privacy issues, challenges, and future directions.
- 1. Introduction: The review surveys a representative sample of Blockchain and similar digital-ledger research from the field’s early work across the last ten years.
- 1. Introduction: The study examines diverse applications, associated challenges, and security and privacy issues beyond cryptocurrency.
- 1. Introduction: The review’s main focus is identifying promising directions for future Blockchain use beyond cryptocurrency.
- 1. Introduction: Blockchain is presented as a technology for enhanced security and privacy across domains including the IoT ecosystem.
2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain
Blockchain records participant-triggered transactions in blocks and distributes the resulting ledger across a public or private network. Its append-only, distributed structure supports public verification while access and data interpretation remain controlled.
- 2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain: A Blockchain consists of transactions representing participant actions and blocks collecting transaction data with sequence and creation-timestamp details.
- 2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain: Public Blockchains can provide broad read and write access, whereas private Blockchains restrict access to selected trusted participants.
- 2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain: Each participating entity holds an updated transaction record, making changes publicly verifiable while block data remains encrypted by a private key.
- 2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain: New blocks are appended only after transactions are validated by participants in the relevant Blockchain ecosystem.
- 2. Technology Fundamentals of Blockchain: A transaction is broadcast to network parties, approved as valid, combined with a succeeding-block hash, and communicated for chain append.
3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency
Beyond cryptocurrency, Blockchain is described as a decentralized mechanism for trusted transactions, provenance, and records across cloud, IoT, and digital-economy applications. These uses may improve integrity and accountability, but IoT deployment remains constrained by device processing limits.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: Blockchain supports peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries while validating transactions, preserving permanent records, and keeping user-identification information incognito.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: Potential applications include legal documents, healthcare data, IoT, cloud services, smart deeds, and decentralized or autonomous organizations.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: ProvChain applies a fully decentralized Blockchain architecture to cloud data provenance to protect records from alteration and improve transparency.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: Blockchain-based provenance increases the availability, trustworthiness, privacy, and value of provenance data.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: IoT Blockchain deployment may improve scalability, security, reliability, and privacy while removing single points of failure, but requires more processing power than IoT devices currently support.
- 3. Use of Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency: Blockchain can gather chronological transaction information as a large networked time-stamping system, including for NASDAQ’s private securities transactions.
4. The Future of Blockchain
The paper places Blockchain near the peak of inflated expectations in the 2017 Gartner Hype Cycle, while forecasting faster maturation because of adoption across applications beyond cryptocurrency.
- 4. The Future of Blockchain: The 2017 Gartner Hype Cycle places Blockchain at the “Peak of Inflated Expectation,” forecasting a plateau in five to ten years.
- 4. The Future of Blockchain: The authors forecast Blockchain’s maturation timeframe shifting from five to ten years to two to five years because of broad application adoption.
6. Concluding Discussions
Blockchain adoption has expanded beyond Bitcoin because its security, privacy, traceability, data provenance, time-stamping, and decentralized properties support human and machine transactions across diverse applications. The authors view it as especially relevant where trust is difficult to establish, while noting that the technology has not yet reached maturity.
- Blockchain adoption has expanded beyond its initial Bitcoin application because of its security, privacy, traceability, data provenance, and time-stamping properties.
- Blockchain variants are used to secure both human-to-human and machine-to-machine transactions, particularly alongside the global emergence of the Internet of Things.
- Its decentralized operation across the established Internet is appealing for ensuring data redundancy.
- Blockchain is considered especially suitable for developing nations where establishing trust is a major concern.
- The technology has not yet reached maturity, although novel applications continue to be implemented globally.