Blockchain challenges and opportunities: a survey

作者：Zibin Zheng, Shaoan Xie, Hong‐Ning Dai, Xiangping Chen, Huaimin Wang · 发表于：International Journal of Web and Grid Services · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1504/ijwgs.2018.095647 · 被引用次数：3331 · 研究领域：Blockchain Technology Applications and Security、IoT and Edge/Fog Computing、Caching and Content Delivery

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.