Blockchain Applications Research Articles

Revolutionizing the Banking Industry: The Impact of Blockchain Technology on Financial Services

Blockchain technology represents a significant innovation with far-reaching implications across multiple industries, having initially emerged as the backbone of Bitcoin to enable secure, decentralized digital transactions. Its decentralized structure, which replaces centralized databases with multiple shared copies across nodes, enhances security and reduces the risk of data breaches. Despite its growing use in banking, finance, supply chains, and other sectors, a gap exists in fully understanding its transformative potential in improving business processes. This research aims to analyze blockchain’s impact on the security, efficiency, and transparency of digital transactions. By employing a comparative analysis of blockchain applications across industries, we find that its decentralized, encrypted ledger system significantly reduces fraud risk and improves transactional efficiency. These results highlight blockchain’s role as a critical tool for future digital economies, with broader implications for enhancing trust and security in various sectors.

Blockchain Applications for the Sustainable Management of High-Rise Buildings

Blockchain Applications for the Sustainable Management of High-Rise Buildings

Blockchain applications in the agri-food sector: current insights, challenges and research avenues

PurposeWith the growing entrepreneurial enthusiasm surrounding blockchain, there has been a notable surge in academic discussions regarding the business implications of integrating this technology into the agri-food industry. This trend is expected to persist and evolve in the future. Hence, there is a need to organize and consolidate the existing knowledge, discern prevailing trends and articulate a comprehensive roadmap for guiding future research endeavors in this domain.Design/methodology/approachWe combine bibliometric network analyses with a detailed systematic review of the related management literature published between 2008 and 2022.FindingsOur results indicate that debate has clustered around the operations management domain, with a dominance of practice-oriented topics. Most of the literature has been published in top-tier journals, with a recent opening toward empirical research and conceptualization efforts. Both signs show that scholars have acknowledged the prominence of the construct and started to theorize about it. Eventually, the analysis provides a conceptual map, unveils the trends emerging in the received studies and yields conclusions that are helpful to scholars engaging with digital tools in traditional industries.Originality/valueOur approach blends quantitative analysis with a comprehensive and systematic overview, providing a complementary viewpoint on the topic.

Location factors and ecosystem embedding of sustainability-engaged blockchain companies in the US. A web-based analysis

While many digital technologies provide opportunities for creating business models that impact sustainability, some technologies, especially blockchain applications, are often criticized for harming the environment, e.g. due to high energy demand. In our study, we present a novel approach to identifying sustainability-focused blockchain companies and relate their level of engagement to location factors and entrepreneurial ecosystem embeddedness. For this, we use a large-scale web scraping approach to analyze the textual content and hyperlink networks of all US companies from their websites. Our results show that blockchain remains a niche technology, with its use communicated by about 0.6% of US companies. However, the proportion of blockchain companies that are committed to sustainability is significantly higher than in the overall firm population. Additionally, we find that such sustainability-engaged blockchain companies have, at least quantitatively, a more intensive embedding in entrepreneurial ecosystems, while infrastructural and socio-economic location factors hardly play a role.

Investigating the potential of blockchain technology for geospatial data sharing: Opportunities, challenges, and solutions

Blockchain technology holds transformative potential for geospatial data sharing by offering enhanced security, transparency, and decentralization. This paper explores the integration of blockchain into managing geospatial data, focusing on its capabilities to revolutionize data storage, identification, property rights confirmation, and traceability. Through a comprehensive review of current blockchain applications and a detailed analysis of scalability, privacy, security, and cost concerns, this study identifies key challenges hindering blockchain adoption in geospatial data workflows. To address these issues, the research proposes solutions such as off-chain scaling, advanced encryption techniques, and cloud-based blockchain infrastructures. The study emphasizes the importance of aligning blockchain applications with existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including GDPR and other data protection laws. While blockchain presents significant opportunities for improving geospatial data management, this study concludes that successful implementation requires overcoming technical and regulatory hurdles. Future research should focus on developing standardized protocols and exploring innovative use cases to maximize the benefits of blockchain in geospatial contexts.

Utilizing blockchain to enhance project management information systems: insights into project portfolio success, knowledge management and learning capabilities

PurposeThis paper explores how blockchain technology can enhance information quality within project management information systems (PMIS), thereby positively affecting knowledge management, learning capabilities and project portfolio success.Design/methodology/approachWe employ a literature review and a theory-based approach to develop a conceptual framework and set of propositions that integrate key principles from blockchain technology, project management and dynamic capabilities theory. Subsequently, a focus group is conducted to refine our propositions, providing insights and examples demonstrating the potential value of blockchain in project management.FindingsThe findings suggest that blockchain significantly impacts the information quality within PMIS. This improvement in information quality enhances traceability, reliability and security of project data, facilitating better decision-making and governance. The focus group revealed blockchain’s benefits in managing confidential data and streamlining knowledge sharing processes, ultimately contributing to project portfolio success.Originality/valueThis research offers a novel conceptual framework and original insights into the application of blockchain in project management, particularly within the context of Industry 4.0, paving the way for future research on digital transformation in project management.

Blockchain on Sustainable Environmental Measures: A Review

Blockchain has emerged as a solution for ensuring accurate and truthful environmental variable monitoring needed for the management of pollutants and natural resources. The immutability property of blockchain helps protect the measured data on pollution and natural resources to enable truthful reporting and effective management and control of polluting agents. However, specifics on what to measure, how to use blockchain, and highlighting which blockchain frameworks have been adopted need to be explored to fill the research gaps. Therefore, we review existing works on the use of blockchain for monitoring and managing environmental variables in this paper. Specifically, we examine existing blockchain applications on greenhouse gas emissions, solid and plastic waste, food waste, food security, water usage, and the circular economy and identify what motivates the adoption of blockchain, features sought, used blockchain frameworks and consensus algorithms, and the adopted supporting technologies to complement data sensing and reporting. We conclude the review by identifying practical works that provide implementation details for rapid adoption and remaining challenges that merit future research.

A sharding blockchain protocol for enhanced scalability and performance optimization through account transaction reconfiguration

Sharding is a critical technology for enhancing blockchain scalability. However, existing sharding blockchain protocols suffer from a high cross-shard ratio, high transaction latency, limited throughput enhancement, and high account migration. To address these problems, this paper proposes a sharding blockchain protocol for enhanced scalability and performance optimization through account transaction reconfiguration. Firstly, we construct a blockchain transaction account graph network structure to analyze transaction account correlations. Secondly, a modularity-based account transaction reconfiguration algorithm and a detailed account reconfiguration process is designed to minimize cross-shard transactions. Finally, we introduce a transaction processing mechanism for account transaction reconfiguration in parallel with block consensus uploading, which reduces the reconfiguration time overhead and system latency. Experimental results demonstrate substantial performance improvements compared to existing shard protocols: up to a 34.7% reduction in cross-shard transaction ratio, at least an 83.2% decrease in transaction latency, at least a 52.7% increase in throughput and a 7.8% decrease in account migration number. The proposed protocol significantly enhances the overall performance and scalability of blockchain, providing robust support for blockchain applications in various fields such as financial services, supply chain management, and industrial Internet of Things. It also enables better support for high-concurrency scenarios and large-scale network environments.

From tradition to technological advancement: embracing blockchain technology in family businesses

PurposeDespite the rapid advancement of blockchain technology across various sectors, scholarly research on its application within family businesses remains significantly underdeveloped. This study aims to address this gap by examining the application of blockchain technology within family businesses to identify key application domains, benefits and implementation challenges.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a conceptual approach, drawing on existing literature on family businesses and blockchain technology. This review aimed to identify the unique characteristics of family businesses, their challenges and the distinctive features of blockchain technology that can potentially be mapped to each other. Based on the literature review, we develop a conceptual framework exploring blockchain technology applications in family businesses. Real-world case studies of family businesses that have implemented blockchain technology were identified to provide practical insights and implementation challenges.FindingsBlockchain technology possesses transformative potential for family businesses across several critical domains. It includes enhancing trust and transparency in operations, improving governance and decision-making and facilitating succession planning and intergenerational wealth management. Case study evidence illustrates the tangible benefits of blockchain, including enhanced supply chain transparency, optimized business processes, increased customer trust and resultant business sustainability. Blockchain technology implementation challenges include data privacy concerns, integration with legacy systems, regulatory uncertainty and change management issues.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited by its reliance on existing literature and case studies. It may not capture the full spectrum of challenges and opportunities associated with blockchain applications in family businesses. Future research should focus on longitudinal and empirical research to provide a deeper understanding of the impact of blockchain technology application in family businesses.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by exploring the intersection of family businesses and blockchain technology, an area that has received limited academic attention. It identifies potential application domains of blockchain technology in family businesses and develops a conceptual framework based on existing literature. Through case studies, the research provides practical insights and valuable lessons for family businesses considering blockchain implementation. It also addresses key considerations and challenges, providing a clear roadmap for blockchain technology integration in family businesses. The study lays the groundwork for further research and exploration in blockchain technology and family businesses.

P-Chain: Towards privacy-aware smart contract using SMPC

Smart contract, as the representative application of blockchain, has recently fueled extensive research interests from both academia and industry. However, with its wide applications, the weaknesses of smart contract have been gradually revealed. The major barrier to the widespread adoption of smart contract involves concerns about on-chain privacy which refers to the details of input/output privacy. To address privacy concerns, we propose in this paper, P-Chain, a privacy-aware framework for smart contracts of permissioned blockchain to protect sensitive data of users based on Secure Multi-party Computation (SMPC). Unlike existing work that suffer several key drawbacks, including introducing a third party who could get the details of the deal, and high overhead for on-chain and off-chain communication, as well as lacking a privacy protection for output data, we enhance the privacy protection for smart contracts system by adding a new secure multi-party computation layer in P-Chain. Through secure multi-party computing, sensitive inputs of smart contracts are divided into multiple sub-inputs and sent to computing participants for operation respectively, which ensures that each participant can only access part of the user’s information. A stochastic strategy based on (t;n) threshold secret sharing to select calculating parties is also been proposed, which makes it difficult for an attacker to aggregate t of n participants for launching a collusive attack. In addition, we propose the output privacy protection method that makes it possible to reach a consensus without the need to know the output. The extensive experimental evaluation and analysis demonstrate that our scheme enjoys the advantages of calculation correctness, input–output privacy as well as anti-collusion.

The Future of Blockchain Technology

Blockchain, the next generation of the Internet, has already made a significant impact in the realtimeoperations of the financial sector over the past decade. Cryptocurrency, the Internet of Things (IoT),financial services, etc. all benefit from its robust set of tools, which facilitate the cross-pollination of theseand other technologies. Decentralization long-term reliability are the two most crucial aspects ofBlockchain technologies. Despite the fact that Blockchain Bitcoin technologies are both beneficial, theyare nonetheless often confused with one another. In addition, this article distinguishes between the twowith the help of the smart contract's development highlights the potential advantages of blockchaintechnology. While several research have focused on how blockchain can be used in specific contexts,neither the technology nor its potential uses have been systematically surveyed. We undertake anextensive assessment of blockchain technology, architecture, analyzes blockchain applications, technical problems to address this knowledge gap.

The Application of Financial Technology in Carbon Finance

With the rapid development of the economy, the pollution of the environment in various countries is also increasing, and the concept of carbon finance is gradually emerging. Fintech has gradually entered people's vision, and how to use Fintech to help the realization of carbon finance has become a research issue for some scholars. Existing research mainly focuses on a specific application and lacks a literature review. By summarising the literature on fintech and carbon finance, this paper outlines several currently common applications. It mainly covers the application of blockchain in carbon finance, such as using the tamper-proof nature of blockchain to make the carbon credit trading process more transparent, and using the contract layer of blockchain-smart contracts to prevent the accumulation of carbon credits by adding smart contracts into the trading process of carbon credits, etc. This paper concludes the application of big data and cloud computing in carbon finance, such as using big Data and cloud computing technology to analyze massive data, as a way to reduce the risk of carbon trading, etc. The research puts forward a certain degree of recommendations on the application of financial technology in carbon finance.

Blockchain and smart contracts for supply chain transparency and vendor management

Blockchain technology and smart contracts are emerging as transformative tools for enhancing transparency and efficiency in supply chain management and vendor relations. Traditional supply chains often face challenges such as inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and susceptibility to fraud (Kouhizadeh & Sarkis, 2018). Blockchain, a decentralized ledger technology, coupled with smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms directly written into code, offers promising solutions to these challenges (Wang, Han, & Beynon-Davies, 2019). This paper explores the application of blockchain and smart contracts in these domains, examining their potential to provide immutable records, streamline processes, and mitigate risks (Casado-Vara et al., 2018). Through a comprehensive analysis of current literature and case studies, we identify key benefits including improved transparency, enhanced efficiency, and better risk management (Christidis & Devetsikiotis, 2016; Tian, 2016). Our findings suggest that blockchain and smart contracts can significantly improve supply chain transparency and vendor management, though their implementation requires careful consideration of technical, regulatory, and organizational factors (Saberi et al., 2019). Notable case studies, such as Walmart’s blockchain pilot for food safety and De Beers' diamond tracking initiative, illustrate the practical benefits and challenges of adopting these technologies in real-world scenarios (Casino, Dasaklis, & Patsakis, 2019; Kshetri, 2018). Despite the promising outlook, further research is needed to address scalability, interoperability, and regulatory compliance issues to fully realize the potential of blockchain and smart contracts in supply chain management (Hughes et al., 2019).

The Analysis of Blockchain Application in Asset-backed Securitization--Taking Du Xiaoman Financial ABS as an Example

In this article, we first give a brief introduction for the background knowledge and research motivation of the article (mainly because I want to explore the relationship between two future-filled areas - blockchain and ABS). In addition, we will give a detailed discussion of the blockchain in history, operation mechanism, and technical framework three aspects. Fully explain the advantages and prospects of blockchain technology, a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the logic of blockchain technology, and the problems solved in the traditional ABS field to lay the groundwork for the following article. Then, we will take Du Xiaoman Financial ABS as an example to introduce the operation mechanism of the project and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the application results of blockchain by comparing the traditional ABS project and combining the achievements of Du Xiaoman Financial ABS. Finally, we will put forward some personal suggestions for improving the project from the analysis of the previous research.

The Adoption of Digital Technologies by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises for Sustainability and Value Creation in Pakistan: The Application of a Two-Staged Hybrid SEM-ANN Approach

Digital technologies have revolutionized the business field, offering significant opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enhance sustainability and value creation. This study investigates the impact of digital technology adoption on economic and social value creation, as well as SME performance. Specifically, it examines how social media applications, big data analytics, IoT applications, blockchain applications, and AI-enabled applications influence economic and social value within SMEs. We employed a hybrid approach integrating Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques using SmartPLs 4.0 Application; this research analyzes these relationships. For our analysis, data were collected from 305 SME managers operating in Upper Sindh, Pakistan, specifically from major cities like Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, and Khairpur. The findings reveal that social media applications, big data analytics, IoT applications, and blockchain applications significantly contribute to both economic and social value creation for SMEs. Conversely, AI-enabled applications show no significant impact on value creation. Importantly, economic and social value creation positively correlates with enhanced SME performance. This study enriches our understanding of how digital technologies influence SMEs in Pakistan, particularly in enhancing economic and social value creation. Through advanced methodologies and rigorous analysis, it bridges theory with practical applications in SMEs’ digital transformation.

Integrating Blockchain in Scheduling: A Comprehensive Review of Current Trends and Future Directions

This review paper offers a comprehensive exploration of blockchain technology's integration in scheduling activities across various industries. It systematically gathered and analyzed literature, identifying 133 relevant documents through rigorous screening from 2017 till 2023. The bibliometric analysis, including co-authorship and co-occurrence maps, revealed key trends, influential authors, and emerging research areas. Content analysis focused on blockchain applications in service optimization, system and resource planning, management, project and production planning, energy optimization, and security enhancement. The research acknowledged significant advancements in these areas, particularly in terms of improved efficiency, transparency, and security. The findings underscore the potential of blockchain in revolutionizing scheduling and management processes across different sectors, highlighting the need for further exploration of its applications and implications in various professional contexts. The paper aims to bridge the gap in the literature by presenting a holistic view of blockchain's role in advancing scheduling methods, driving innovation, and fostering more robust, efficient, and transparent scheduling systems across industries.

Using Blockchain Technology at Supply Chain: The Sample of Migros

This study aims to determine the functionality and benefits of blockchain technology in food procurement. Within the scope of the study, Migros Trade Inc., a retail food supply company implementing blockchain technology in Türkiye, was examined as a case study. The study employed a qualitative research case study design, asking expert participants from Istanbul and Izmir to give their opinions on pre-designed themes, and conducting descriptive analyses of the data collected. The themes of the research are food supply chain, good agricultural practices, sustainability in food, blockchain applications in food supply and food safety. At the end of the study, it was found that the transparency and traceability principles of blockchain have a positive impact on consumers and supply chain stakeholders. However, challenges such as technical infrastructure and performance, as well as the reasons for not starting the process directly from the field, were the problems experienced. The data shows that blockchain technology is an efficient system that should be expanded in the food supply chain.

Archaeometa: leveraging blockchain for secure and scalable virtual museums in the metaverse

The rapid evolution of the digital landscape has catalyzed the integration of blockchain technology within the domain of cultural heritage, particularly in virtual museums within the Metaverse. This study introduces ArchaeoMeta, a novel framework designed to leverage blockchain technology to enhance security, authenticity, and visitor interaction in a virtual museum environment. Utilizing smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, the framework manages visitor interactions and secures digital artifacts, addressing challenges associated with scalability and user experience under varying loads. The performance evaluation involved simulating user interactions, scaling up to ten thousand concurrent users, to assess the impact on transaction latency, gas usage, and blockchain size. Findings reveal significant scalability challenges, as transaction latency and blockchain size increased with the number of users, highlighting areas for optimization in managing high user traffic within the blockchain infrastructure. This study contributes to the understanding of blockchain applications in cultural heritage, suggesting that while ArchaeoMeta offers a robust platform for virtual museums, enhancements in scalability through layer-2 solutions or alternative blockchain platforms are essential for its practical implementation. The framework sets a precedent for future research in the convergence of blockchain technology and cultural heritage preservation, promising a transformative impact on how digital cultural experiences are curated and consumed.

Survey on the Application of Blockchain in Enhancing Mutual Trust in Smart Grid Transactions

Survey on the Application of Blockchain in Enhancing Mutual Trust in Smart Grid Transactions

Analysis of Evolving Technologies and Impact of Smart Shipping on the Future Workforce in the Maritime Industry

Purpose: There is a shift in phase within the maritime industry toward smart shipping, where IoT and AI are used. The real question revolved around these technologies' impact on future employees in ships and shipping. The reason is to understand how this rapidly changing technological world affects these maritime professionals. Study design/methodology/approach: A systematic review was performed according to the system of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta−Analyses (PRISMA). The literature review aimed at analysing a comprehensive spectrum from academic publications to industry reports and white papers in order… The Smart Shipping case studies were studied to provide practical knowledge on the integration of IoT and AI in maritime operations. Findings: The resulting analysis was a diverse and changing technological environment, including blockchain, AI, IoT, autonomous vessels, and innovations that are driven by sustainability. The use of blockchain applications allows for achieving increased transparency, while AI-based developments bring improvements in navigation, logistics and maintenance. The introduction of IoT allows industries to transform via the collection of data in real time. Autonomous vessels offer both challenges and opportunities designed to impact seafaring jobs. Sustainability innovations aim at clean energies and more ecological applications. Smart Shipping case studies demonstrated various positive outcomes on the deployment of IoT and AI applications that are realised in terms of operational efficiency gains up to issues with workforce adaptation. Originality/value: The paper sheds light on the maritime environment as well as its potential impact on determining the future workforce. The strategies to deal with the changes, such as job role change, workforce adaptation strategy and overcoming challenges, should be considered essential. Whereas merits arising from technical development enable the companies to benefit as far as efficiency is concerned, missing opportunities for careers in seafaring imply that active measures to build workforce capacities have become inevitable. The paper ends with recommendations for policy-makers, industrial representatives, and researchers who can help take successful steps in the face of changing fields associated with technology use encompassing maritime operations.