Title: Blockchain challenges and opportunities: a survey

Authors: Zibin Zheng; Shaoan Xie; Hong-Ning Dai; Xiangping Chen; Huaimin Wang

Addresses: School of Data and Computer Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China ' School of Data and Computer Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China ' Faculty of Information Technology, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau SAR ' Institute of Advanced Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Digital Life, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China ' National Laboratory for Parallel and Distributed Processing, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

Abstract: Blockchain has numerous benefits such as decentralisation, persistency, anonymity and auditability. There is a wide spectrum of blockchain applications ranging from cryptocurrency, financial services, risk management, internet of things (IoT) to public and social services. Although a number of studies focus on using the blockchain technology in various application aspects, there is no comprehensive survey on the blockchain technology in both technological and application perspectives. To fill this gap, we conduct a comprehensive survey on the blockchain technology. In particular, this paper gives the blockchain taxonomy, introduces typical blockchain consensus algorithms, reviews blockchain applications and discusses technical challenges as well as recent advances in tackling the challenges. Moreover, this paper also points out the future directions in the blockchain technology.

Keywords: blockchain; consensus algorithms; cryptocurrency; IoT; internet of things; smart contract.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2018.095647

International Journal of Web and Grid Services, 2018 Vol.14 No.4, pp.352 - 375

Received: 28 Aug 2017
Accepted: 28 Sep 2017
Published online: 16 Oct 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article