A Systematisation of Transparency, Accountability and Understandability in Blockchain Smart Contracts

Abstract

Blockchain smart contracts automate agreements, replacing third-party intermediaries with immutable and enforceable algorithms. Despite their potential, the complexity of blockchain often undermines human trust and their wide adoption. To address this challenge, we systematise existing knowledge on three critical human-centric qualities: transparency, accountability and understandability. Although these qualities are frequently invoked as pillars of trust in decentralised systems, they remain ambiguously defined and inconsistently operationalised across the literature and platforms. To establish a clearer and more coherent understanding of these qualities in the context of public blockchains and smart contracts, we introduce a structured model that organises existing knowledge into five levels: output, algorithm, external data, process, and application, acquiring insights from literature. This structured approach provides a comprehensive understanding by revealing gaps and areas of consensus, aiding researchers in identifying areas requiring further investigation. To address unclear or conflicting interpretations, we incorporated insights from experienced blockchain developers. We also conduct a comparative analysis to examine whether the characteristics of public blockchains align with standard definitions of transparency, accountability, and understandability. Our findings show that smart contracts support visibility and traceability at low system levels but lack clarity, answerability, and ease of understanding at higher organisational and user interaction levels. These gaps highlight the need for improved communication practices, clearer governance disclosure, and more human-centred design approaches.