The main trends in the development of blockchain technologies and the prospects for their use to protect fraud

Abstract

The monograph examines the main stages of the development of blockchain technologies. The use of blockchain technologies in the activities of various companies is analyzed. The purpose of the study is to analyze the main trends in the development of blockchain technologies and the prospects for their use for fraud protection. The research methodology includes the use of the historical method to study the main stages of the development of blockchain technologies and study the practices of using blockchain by various companies. The research methodology is based on the use of data from the Report to the Nation and the results of other surveys, for a comparative analysis of types of economic fraud by volumes, periods, territorial affiliation and countermeasures. The relationship between the stages of evolution and the levels of the blockchain has been established. The main types of blockchains are systematized (public blockchains; private blockchains; semi-private blockchains; sidechains; permissioned; distributed ledger; shared ledger; fully private proprietary blockchains; tokenized blockchains; blockchains without tokens). The peculiarities of the practical implementation of blockchain technologies in the activities of companies in various sectors of the economy have been studied. A SWOT analysis was conducted that revealed that blockchain technology will undoubtedly continue to evolve, impacting many industries, including government, retail, information technology, travel, healthcare, education, agriculture, and entertainment. The 8 most risky departments in which various types of fraud occur have been identified. It was found that corruption is also the most common in each department. Thus, in the Operations Department, the second most common types of fraud are Billing (16%) and Noncash (16%); in the Accounting department - Check and payment tampering (29%); in the Executive / upper management department - Billing (31%); in the Sales Department - Noncash (18%); in the Customer service department - Noncash (17%); in the Administrative Support Department - Billing (23%); in the Purchasing - Billing department (27%); in the Department of Finance - - Billing (26%). One of the ways to improve the use of blockchain technologies should be: increasing the confidentiality of operations; scaling block chains; establishing compatibility between different blockchain systems; strengthening the security of blockchain operations; an individual approach to the use of blockchain technologies.