CONSOLIDATING BLOCKCHAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

Blockchain technology has become a foundational innovation in digital systems, offering unique features that address trust, transparency, and security in decentralized environments. Despite its increasing application across diverse fields such as supply chain, finance, and e-government, the academic literature reflects inconsistency in defining and operationalizing blockchain’s core characteristics. This study conducts a semi-systematic review to synthesize and classify the commonly cited characteristics of blockchain. Drawing from academic sources across multiple domains, the review categorizes these characteristics into core (e.g., decentralization, transparency), peripheral (e.g., privacy, scalability), and technical (e.g., programmability, tokenization) traits. The paper highlights areas of convergence and divergence and proposes a taxonomy to guide future research and instrument development. The findings offer a clearer conceptual foundation for evaluating blockchain systems and support the creation of standardized measurement tools for empirical investigations.