Blockchain Technology: A Literature Review

Author(s):  
Robert Anascavage ◽  
Nathan Davis
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuchih Ernest Chang ◽  
YiChian Chen

BACKGROUND Blockchain technology is leveraging its innovative potential in various sectors and its transformation of business-related processes has drawn much attention. Topics of research interest have focused on medical and health care applications, while research implications have generally concluded in system design, literature reviews, and case studies. However, a general overview and knowledge about the impact on the health care ecosystem is limited. OBJECTIVE This paper explores a potential paradigm shift and ecosystem evolution in health care utilizing blockchain technology. METHODS A literature review with a case study on a pioneering initiative was conducted. With a systematic life cycle analysis, this study sheds light on the evolutionary development of blockchain in health care scenarios and its interactive relationship among stakeholders. RESULTS Four stages—birth, expansion, leadership, and self-renewal or death—in the life cycle of the business ecosystem were explored to elucidate the evolving trajectories of blockchain-based health care implementation. Focused impacts on the traditional health care industry are highlighted within each stage to further support the potential health care paradigm shift in the future. CONCLUSIONS This paper enriches the existing body of literature in this field by illustrating the potential of blockchain in fulfilling stakeholders’ needs and elucidating the phenomenon of coevolution within the health care ecosystem. Blockchain not only catalyzes the interactions among players but also facilitates the formation of the ecosystem life cycle. The collaborative network linked by blockchain may play a critical role on value creation, transfer, and sharing among the health care community. Future efforts may focus on empirical or case studies to validate the proposed evolution of the health care ecosystem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10566
Author(s):  
Mohammad Nabipour ◽  
M. Ali Ülkü

The emergence of a new pandemic, known as COVID-19, has touched various sections of the supply chain (SC). Since then, numerous studies have been conducted on the issue, but the need for a holistic review study that highlights the gaps and limits of previous research, as well as opportunities and agendas for future studies, is palpable. Through a systematic literature review on blockchain technology (BCT) deployment in supply-chain management (SCM) concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, this research seeks to add to the content of previous studies and to enlighten the path for future studies. Relevant papers were found using a variety of resources (Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ProQuest). Seventy-two articles were systematically selected, considering the PRISMA procedure, and were thoroughly analyzed based on BCT, methodologies, industrial sectors, geographical, and sustainability context. According to our findings, there is a significant lack of empirical and quantitative methodologies in the literature. The majority of studies did not take specific industries into account. Furthermore, the articles focusing on the sustainability context are few, particularly regarding social and environmental issues. In addition, most of the reviewed papers did not consider the geographical context. The results indicate that the deployment of BCT in several sectors is not uniform, and this utilization is reliant on their services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the concentration of research on the impacts of the BCT on SCM differs according to the conditions of various countries in terms of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that there is a direct relationship between the deployment of BCT and sustainability factors, such as economic and waste issues, under the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. Finally, this study offers research opportunities and agendas to help academics and other stakeholders to gain a better knowledge of the present literature, recognize aspects that necessitate more exploration, and drive prospective studies.


Author(s):  
Marta de-Melo-Diogo ◽  
Jorge Tavares ◽  
Ângelo Nunes Luís

Blockchain technology in a clinical trial setting is a valuable asset due to decentralization, immutability, transparency, and traceability features. For this chapter, a literature review was conducted to map the current utilization of blockchain systems in clinical trials, particularly data security managing systems and their characteristics, such as applicability, interests of use, limitations, and issues. The advantages of data security are producing a more transparent and tamper-proof clinical trial by providing accurate, validated data, therefore producing a more reliable and credible clinical trial. On the other hand, data integrity is a critical issue since data obtained from trials are not instantly made public to all participants. Work needs to be done to establish the significant implications in security data when applying blockchain technology in a real-world clinical trial setting and generalized conditions of use to establish its security.


2022 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Rafael Belchior ◽  
André Vasconcelos ◽  
Sérgio Guerreiro ◽  
Miguel Correia

Blockchain interoperability is emerging as one of the crucial features of blockchain technology, but the knowledge necessary for achieving it is fragmented. This fact makes it challenging for academics and the industry to achieve interoperability among blockchains seamlessly. Given this new domain’s novelty and potential, we conduct a literature review on blockchain interoperability by collecting 284 papers and 120 grey literature documents, constituting a corpus of 404 documents. From those 404 documents, we systematically analyzed and discussed 102 documents, including peer-reviewed papers and grey literature. Our review classifies studies in three categories: Public Connectors, Blockchain of Blockchains, and Hybrid Connectors. Each category is further divided into sub-categories based on defined criteria. We classify 67 existing solutions in one sub-category using the Blockchain Interoperability Framework, providing a holistic overview of blockchain interoperability. Our findings show that blockchain interoperability has a much broader spectrum than cryptocurrencies and cross-chain asset transfers. Finally, this article discusses supporting technologies, standards, use cases, open challenges, and future research directions, paving the way for research in the area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Norman Gwangwava

Supply chain traceability is gaining momentum as a means to gain visibility across the supply chain. In order to curb poaching in wildlife sector and harvesting of resources such as ivory, there is need to introduce full proof technologies. This article proposes use of blockchain in tracing the supply chain of ivory and other wildlife products, from source to destination. The article is based on literature review on wildlife practices. Ivory trade participants were identified and mapped into a blockchain model using blockchain modeling techniques. The proposed blockchain approach allows transaction recording as blocks and visibility to relevant participants.


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