Blockchain-Based Software Systems: Taxonomy Development

Abstract

At an era of new emerging technologies, and spotting lights to blockchain technology specifically; many promises take place. Blockchain has attracted many researchers and practitioners from various professions and disciplines, due to the powerful characteristics behind adopting such technology. And in order to formulate a better understanding of it, many researchers are interested in classifying the Blockchain-Based Software Systems (BBSSs). Unfortunately, none of the available taxonomies in the literature considers the various Software Engineering (SWE) aspects for building a BBSS. A blockchain subject matter expert (SME) may absorb a specific aspect understanding from each of the related taxonomies, and in order to have a complete understanding of the various options available for building a BBSS, they will have to flip from a resource to another in order to collect the scattered information they need. So, this paper aims to assist the blockchain SMEs to articulate a comprehensive understanding of the various and most recent concepts and design decisions available, in order to implement or propose a BBSS solution. The taxonomy is derived from the fundamental knowledge and the major SWE aspects which a BBSS implementer or researcher has to consider, and thus is not biased to a specific SWE aspect.