Source-linked AI summary
A Survey of Blockchain Applications in Different Domains
Wubing Chen, Zhiying Xu, Shuyu Shi, Yang Zhao, Jun Zhao
TL;DR
The paper addresses the need for a broad summary of blockchain applications beyond surveys focused on technical issues or selected applications. It surveys seven domains, documenting uses and constraints while presenting the work as a timely resource for interested readers.
Problem
Prior blockchain surveys focus on technical issues or specific applications, while this paper identifies a need for a summary spanning application domains.
Source: §1 · p. 1Method
The paper surveys blockchain applications in cryptocurrency, healthcare, advertising, insurance, copyright protection, energy, and societal applications.
Source: §4 · p. 4Results
The survey describes applications across those domains and notes unresolved copyright authentication and energy performance constraints.
Source: §2.5 · p. 3, §2.6 · p. 3, §4 · p. 4Takeaways & Limitations
The authors present the survey as a timely summary for interested individuals and organizations and envision it motivating more blockchain applications.
Source: §1 · p. 1, §4 · p. 4Copyright protection still faces initial-upload ownership authentication and anonymous-buyer monitoring issues, while energy applications face performance and common-standard challenges.
Source: §2.5 · p. 3, §2.6 · p. 3
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Blockchains have received much attention recently since they provide decentralized approaches to the creation and management of value. Many banks, Internet companies, car manufacturers, and even governments worldwide have incorporated or started considering blockchains to improve the security, scalability, and efficiency of their services. In this paper, we survey blockchain applications in different areas. These areas include cryptocurrency, healthcare, advertising, insurance, copyright protection, energy, and societal applications. Our work provides a timely summary for individuals and organizations interested in blockchains. We envision our study to motivate more blockchain applications.
1. INTRODUCTION
The paper surveys blockchain applications across domains, positioning its scope against surveys focused on technical issues or specific applications. It describes blockchain as a tamper-resistant, decentralized record system.
- A blockchain is a distributed, append-only log of timestamped records cryptographically protected from tampering and revision.Source: §1 · p. 1
- The survey provides a timely summary of blockchain applications in different areas, unlike prior surveys focused on technical issues or specific applications.Prior examples focus on security, consensus protocols, the Internet of Things, or banking [7].Source: §1 · p. 1
- The paper covers blockchain applications in Section 2, related work in Section 3, and conclusions in Section 4.Source: §1 · p. 1
2. BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATIONS
The paper surveys blockchain applications across financial, healthcare, advertising, insurance, copyright, energy, and societal settings. It describes proposed uses alongside practical constraints, including privacy, authentication, performance, and coordination challenges.
2.1 Cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrency and financial applications include smart contracts, payments, exchanges, repurchase agreements, and digital identities, but security and privacy constrain financial use.Blockchain-based financial applications are described as more vulnerable to attack than traditional facilities, while transparent data can be unsuitable for secret financial scenarios.Source: §2.1 · pp. 1–2
2.2 Healthcare
- Blockchain could combine fragmented healthcare records for tracking, but technical, policy, and privacy barriers remain.The paper also describes lower-cost tracking of healthcare services and money as a possibility.Source: §2.2 · p. 2
2.3 Advertising
- Advertising applications target fraud, inefficiency, and opacity through transaction platforms, seller verification, smart contracts, and direct customer interaction.The paper describes Ads.txt Plus for identifying fraudulent sellers and resellers and blockchain platforms for planning and reporting ad buys.Source: §2.3 · p. 2
2.4 Insurance
- Insurance applications aim to improve efficiency through fraud elimination, automated claims, IoT data analysis, and reinsurance; a self-insurance platform was also proposed.Source: §2.4 · pp. 2–3
2.5 Copyright protection
- Copyright platforms use blockchain records and image fingerprints to support ownership authentication and track circulation, but upload ownership and anonymous-buyer monitoring remain unresolved.Source: §2.5 · p. 3
2.6 Energy
- Energy trading involves complex coordination across counterparties and departments; blockchain may streamline processes, but performance and industry-wide standards limit adoption.The paper gives Bitcoin capacity as three transactions per second currently and seven per second maximum.Source: §2.6 · p. 3
- Energy applications span market restructuring or incremental improvements, financing, sustainability attribution, and electric-vehicle charging and energy storage.The paper describes recording renewable-energy shares and emissions, and using smart contracts to coordinate EV charging and discharging.Source: §2.6 · p. 3
2.7 Society Applications
- Societal applications include using smart contracts and virtual assets for lending, transferring ownership protocols, tracking music royalties, and supporting voting and government fund oversight.Source: §2.7 · p. 4
3. RELATED WORK
Prior blockchain surveys focus either on technical issues or specific applications, whereas this paper surveys applications across different areas. The authors also identify additional domains for future survey coverage.
- Prior surveys address technical issues such as security and consensus protocols, or specific applications such as the Internet of Things and banking.Source: §3 · p. 4
- Education, real estate, transportation, charity, and food supply chains are identified as additional applications for a more detailed future survey.Source: §3 · p. 4
4. CONCLUSION
The paper surveys blockchain applications across multiple domains and offers a timely summary for interested entities, with the aim of motivating applications in more domains.
4. CONCLUSION
- The survey covers blockchain usage in cryptocurrency, healthcare, advertising, insurance, copyright protection, energy, and societal applications.Source: §4 · p. 4
- The paper presents a timely summary for entities interested in blockchains.Source: §4 · p. 4
- The discussion aims to motivate blockchain applications in more domains.Source: §4 · p. 4