Blockchain-Based Software Engineering

Abstract

Blockchain technology has found a great number of applications, from banking to the Internet of Things (IoT). However, it has not yet been envisioned whether and which problems in Software Engineering (SE) Blockchain technology could solve. In this paper, we coin this field "Blockchain-based Software Engineering" and exemplify how Blockchain technology could solve two core SE problems: Continuous Integration (CI) Services such as Travis CI and Package Managers such as apt-get. We believe that Blockchain technology could help (1) democratize and professionalize Software Engineering infrastructure that currently relies on free work done by few volunteers, (2) improve the quality of artifacts and services, and (3) increase trust in ubiquitously used systems like GitHub or Travis CI.