Abstract:

Blockchain has numerous benefits such as decentralization, persistency, anonymity and auditability. There is a wide spectrum of blockchain applications ranging from cryptocurrency, financial services, risk management, Internet of Things 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
• internet of things
• smart contract

Bibtex:

@ARTICLE{ZZheng:IJWGS, 
	author={Zibin Zheng and Shaoan Xie and Hong-Ning Dai and Xiangping Chen and Huaimin Wang}, 
	journal={International Journal of Web and Grid Services}, 
	title={Blockchain Challenges and Opportunities: A Survey}, 
	year={2018}, 
	volume={14}, 
	number={4}, 
	pages={352 - 375}, 
	doi={10.1504/IJWGS.2018.095647}, 
}

Note:

1. This is the first comprehensive survey on blockchain from technological and application perspectives. This paper was essentially completed in 2016 and formally published by International Journal of Web and Grid Services (IJWGS) in Oct. 2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJWGS.2018.095647
2. This paper was awarded with ESI highly-cited paper by Clarivate Analytics.