Applicability Analysis of Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been generating great interest by a variety of industry sectors. Realizing the strength of blockchain technology beyond its successful application in the cryptocurrency arena, researchers have been evaluating and using blockchain for applications such as supply chain management, the energy industry, health sectors, and much more. Some of the features include smart contracts, decentralization, consensus, immutable distributed ledgers, cryptographic hashing, and digital signatures. There are multiple types of blockchain and different consensus models. However, it is often a significant undertaking to determine if an application requires a blockchain. What kind of blockchain and consensus model is best suited for a given scenario? This paper addresses this challenge by evaluating different blockchain solutions along with the consensus models to determine the applicability for different use cases. We propose a guideline and applicability analysis framework (AAF) to determine whether an application needs a blockchain solution or not. The AAF is divided into 6 domains, 11 subdomains, and 45 controls. It is designed to ingest detailed user requirements to perform a weighted evaluation that is built on mathematical constructs to determine the scenario in which a blockchain-based solution is appropriate. Moreover, this article also includes an example of evaluating applicability through AAF with the help of a use-case scenario.