This research aims to analyze the effects of the adoption of blockchain on information governance and transaction costs. We present an exploratory, quantitative, and qualitative study. In the first stage, quantitative, a theoretical model was developed and tested based on structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Data collection was carried out through an online survey with IT and management professionals involved in blockchain projects from different countries. In the second stage, qualitative, a multiple case study was carried out in order to illustrate how the relations of the developed model are established. In the quantitative phase, the study’s hypotheses were supported and it was observed that the adoption of blockchain technology can be seen as a mechanism to reduce transaction costs, since it has a positive impact on information governance. In the qualitative phase, it was observed that, in the three cases analyzed, characteristics such as information security, transparency, and the possibility.
Sondre Flovik, Robin Amir Rondestvedt Moudnib, Polyxeni Vassilakopoulou
Blockchain is expected to enable new types of interorganizational relationships, new approaches to governance and new approaches to settlement and clearing processes. Neverthless, although the interest on blockchain is on the rise, there are not many blockchain implementations in organizations and there is limited empirical research investigating the reasons for this. This paper contributes to filling this gap by investigating the following research question: what are the impeding and motivating factors for organizational blockchain adoption? Data were collected through a survey based on pairwise comparisons of key factors identified in the literature. The data collected were analyzed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is a structured approach for deriving priorities among diverse elements. The results provide insights about the issues that matter the most for practitioners and show that infrastructural qualities (reliability, transparency, immutability) matter more than characteristics related to blockchain´s transformative potential (automation of transactions, decentralization). Furthermore, the results for impeding factors indicate that the most prominent concerns relate to maturity and scalability.
This paper focuses on using blockchain technology to enhance efficiency and cost reduction in foreign transactions through the banking system. Blockchain provides crucial features such as immutability of records and decentralization, which is then used to carry out foreign transactions. This process could be a major change in the transactions carried out by removing middle banks during transactions thereby speeding up the process. This paper aims at designing an Ethereum decentralized Banking Application for foreign money transfer using blockchain technology. Smart Contract helps to eliminate middle banks in the process by acting on rules specified in the contract. Every participant needs to abide by these rules which make it trustworthy and maintain the authenticity of the process.
Blockchain technology has emerged as a powerful solution for improving the security, transparency, and efficiency of financial transactions. Unlike traditional financial systems that depend on centralized intermediaries, blockchain uses decentralized distributed ledgers, cryptographic security, consensus mechanisms, and immutable records to ensure trust and data integrity. This study examines the role of blockchain in securing financial transactions and explores its core components, including distributed ledgers, cryptographic hashing, consensus protocols, smart contracts, and decentralized networks. The research analyzes how blockchain mitigates security threats such as fraud, double spending, identity theft, unauthorized access, and transaction tampering. It also investigates applications in digital payments, cross-border remittances, banking, trade finance, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi). A blockchain-enabled financial transaction framework is proposed and evaluated using metrics such as security, transparency, scalability, efficiency, and fraud prevention. The findings indicate that blockchain significantly enhances transaction security and transparency while reducing costs and processing times. Although challenges such as scalability, regulatory issues, interoperability, and energy consumption remain, blockchain demonstrates strong potential to transform modern financial systems and support the development of secure, efficient, and decentralized financial ecosystems.
Blockchain technology and distributed ledgers are generating a lot of buzz and sparking a lot of initiatives in many sectors. The financial sector, on the other hand, is regarded as a major user of the blockchain idea. This is owing not only to the fact that the crypto-currency Bitcoin is the most well-known use of this technology, but also to significant process inefficiencies and a huge cost base problem unique to this sector. Furthermore, the financial crisis showed that even in financial services, determining the right current owner of an asset is not always feasible. Retracing ownership over a longer chain of changing buyers in global financial transaction services is even more difficult: when Bear Stearns, a US investment bank, failed in 2008 and was completely acquired by JP Morgan Chase, the number of shares offered to the acquirer was greater than the number of shares outstanding in Bear Stearns’ books. The accounting mistakes could not be resolved, and JP Morgan Chase was forced to face the consequences of extra (digital) shares.
Nowadays, smart cities are using advanced technologies to control and coordinate physical, social, and commercial enterprise systems to deliver high-quality services to their residents while guaranteeing the effective usage of available resources. Numerous major corporations, as well as government bodies, are involved in the construction of smart cities because smart city activities also need information that is obtained from organizations. Blockchain-based technology allows for peer-to-peer exchanges as a public ledger that maintains records of transactions, smart contracts, agreements, and shipments without third-party mediators. In the future, smart cities will be equipped with several innovative technologies, a huge amount of data, a lot of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and a heterogeneous environment. However, data processing among IoT devices in futuristic smart cities is a challenging task. In this paper, the author proposed a blockchain-based big data integrity service framework for IoT devices data processing in smart cities. The author collected the necessary data from various resources and applied three experiments to evaluate the key performance indicators. K-mean algorithm was used to classify the data, and blockchain strategy was applied to ensure secure communication among IoT devices. The framework was simulated and tested using 100 devices. The proposed framework allowed IoT devices to efficiently use information collected from different resources to engage in operational processes and exchange information.
Claudia Durán, Christian Fernández‐Campusano, Raúl Carrasco, Manuel Vargas · 5 authors
Blockchain technology (BC) offers an innovation platform for decentralized and transparent transactions in the maritime port industry. This technology allows guaranteeing trust, transparency and traceability of cargo and data to be tracked. Today, in the port systems of emerging market countries, BC technology is increasingly being incorporated into information and communication processes. In parallel, the social domain has begun to be explored due to the lack of link between the port and the city it occupies, and the need to incorporate public actors in decision-making at the governance level. In this sense, the present work aims to promote BC technology in order to transform data and information into useful knowledge for effective decision making, through the use of Crowdsourcing. A Crowdsourcing Blockchain (CrowdBC) conceptual framework and its architecture are generated for a port system in which the cyber-technological, social and cognitive domains (CSTC) of smart ports, the knowledge generation process and Crowdsourcing technology are interrelated. Finally, opportunities are discussed for ports that are in permanent development to reduce the gaps with the smart industry. As a discussion, two possible scenarios and recommendations for future implementations that consider the social and cognitive aspects of Industry 4.0 are presented.
The study aimed to identify the effect of smart blockchain contracts on the financial services industry in the banking sector in Jordan, through an empirical study on the Jordanian banking sector. The study population was represented by the banks in the Jordanian environment, (15) banks were selected with their various branches. As for the study sample, it consisted of (81) including (managers, deputy directors, heads of departments, major clients), representing approximately 67.5% of the total sent questionnaires. A questionnaire was used as an instrument of the study in order to collect data from the study population. The descriptive and analytical approach was used. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant relationship regarding the impact of smart blockchain contracts on the financial services industry in the banking sector in Jordan. It was found also that the smart blockchain contracts help to reduce the cost of Banking services and enhancing operational efficiency in Jordanian banks. Moreover, they enhance and develop banking services and upgrade them in Jordanian banks. In light of the results of the field study, the researcher recommended that Jordanian banks should rely on smart Blockchain contracts in the field of banking sector that will contribute to reducing costs related to remittances and raising the operational efficiency of these banks.
Maitha Al Ketbi, Khaled Shuaib, Ezedin Barka, Marton Gergely
Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a new information security controls framework for blockchain technology, which is currently absent from the National and International Information Security Standards. Background: Blockchain technology is a secure and relatively new technology of distributed digital ledgers, which is based on inter-linked blocks of transactions, providing great benefits such as decentralization, transparency, immutability, and automation. There is a rapid growth in the adoption of blockchain technology in different solutions and applications and within different industries throughout the world, such as finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate, and the government sector. Methodology: Risk assessment and treatments were performed on five blockchain use cases to determine their associated risks with respect to security controls. Contribution: The significance of the proposed security controls is manifested in complementing the frameworks that were already established by the International and National Information Security Standards in order to keep pace with the emerging blockchain technology and prevent/reduce its associated information security risks. Findings: The analysis results showed that the proposed security controls herein can mitigate relevant information security risks in blockchain-based solutions and applications and, consequently, protect information and assets from unauthorized disclosure, modification, and destruction. Recommendations for Practitioners: The performed risk assessment on the blockchain use cases herein demonstrates that blockchain can involve security risks that require the establishment of certain measures in order to avoid them. As such, practitioners should not blindly assume that through the use of blockchain all security threats are mitigated. Recommendation for Researchers: The results from our study show that some security risks not covered by existing Standards can be mitigated and reduced when applying our proposed security controls. In addition, researchers should further justify the need for such additional controls and encourage the standardization bodies to incorporate them in their future editions. Impact on Society: Similar to any other emerging technology, blockchain has several drawbacks that, in turn, could have negative impacts on society (e.g., individuals, entities and/or countries). This is mainly due to the lack of a solid national and international standards for managing and mitigating risks associated with such technology. Future Research: The majority of the blockchain use cases in this study are publicly published papers. Therefore, one limitation of this study is the lack of technical details about these respective solutions, resulting in the inability to perform a comprehensive risk identification properly. Hence, this area will be expanded upon in our future work. In addition, covering other standardization bodies in the area of distributed ledger in blockchain technology would also prove fruitful, along with respective future design of relevant security architectures.
The blockchain (a distributed ledger) is commonly known as the backbone of the emerging digital cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, and potentially disruptive technology for the monetary system and the financial industry. However, the impact of the blockchain technology goes beyond financial sector and could also influence supply chain management, commerce, health care, real estate, data storage, supercomputing power, decentralized notarization, marketing etc. In this paper we examine the potential of blockchain technology to influence and even disrupt marketing. The areas of influence of the blockchain on marketing include but are not limited to creation of new products and services, ensuring trust and transparency, disintermediation, privacy and data ownership, digital identity, customer relationship management, loyalty programs, advertising, fighting click fraud, supply chain management, etc. Since the application of the blockchain in marketing is novel, mostly conceptual, unmatured and still in development the influence and the potential disruption of this technology is envisioned for the years to come. Anyway, there are already promising projects that have potential to change the landscape in this industry and to provide first-movers advantage for the existing or the emerging brands.
Daniel Mago Vistro, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Attique Ur Rehman, Mohsin Ali Khan
Taxation department of Pakistan collects and keeps record of legislated taxes imposed by governments. Pakistan is among those countries which still maintain records of taxations in registers, thus maintaining immutability of records is really hard. Tax records have great risk of being lost or altered by someone and results in leading towards committing fraud in taxes. Blockchain has provided advantage to many industries because of its enhanced security and traceability in current trustless environment. We have presented a tax management solution which has an objective to provide secure, efficient and auditable system in Pakistan environment using blockchain technology. Our proposed methodology is about digitizing of the records of taxations using the blockchain distributed ledger based technology. Finally, future work prediction is also given, which will help getting directions for controlling fraud cases from most senior officers posts.
Muhammad Khan, Shoaib Imtiaz, Gohar Saleem Parvaiz, Arif Hussain · 5 authors
There has been incredible interest in Internet-of-Things (IoT) and blockchain technology (BCT) around the world and across sectors. Following great achievement in the other sectors, the implementation of IoT and BCT have gained great interest in Humanitarian Logistics (HL) at many levels despite remaining in an earlier stage. The profit and non-profit organizations both are under increasing worldwide pressure for transparency, with donors and governments calling for enhanced transparency and information exchange in the humanitarian sector. This study, which is based on transactive memory systems (TMS) theory perspectives, proposes a study framework to understand “how can the transparency, public trust, and coordination in HL be improved through the integration of IoT with BCT?”. We framed and tested six research hypotheses, using data collected from Humanitarian Organizations (HOs) employees. We have applied a Covariance-based structure equation model (CB-SEM) with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This study results confirm that our all hypotheses were supported. The research results show that the association between explanatory variables (i.e., IoT and BCT) and the response variables (i.e., public trust and coordination) is mediated by transparency. This study provides substantial and valid contributions to the literature on IoT, BCT, transparency, public trust and coordination. This study proves that transparency plays a crucial role in enhancing public trust, coordination, and ultimately HL performance through the integration of IoT with BCT. The study results could be helpful for all the stakeholders of disaster risk management since they are insistently looking for strategies to support afflicts. Our study is a good candidate solution to raise awareness of fast, fair, and safe HL to reveal research gaps and provide opportunities for future research. The study will provide an enormous understanding of IoT and BCT in HL, which has not been investigated empirically before.
The 21st Century is all about technology. People are open to accepting new technologies as the need for modernization is increasing every single day. Blockchain is one of those new and revolutionary technologies that will have a significant impact on the market and industry. In layman’s terms, Blockchain is a data structure that stores transactional records while also ensuring security, transparency, and decentralization. There is a digital signature on every transaction on a blockchain, which proves the authenticity of the blockchain. In a Blockchain, data is stored which is tamper-proof and cannot be changed as it uses encryption and digital signatures. To change a record on a blockchain, one needs to change several records, and one needs to change the distributed ledger. That’s why it’s quite impossible to change the data which has already been entered into a Blockchain. The Blockchain is a technology that will allow transactions simply, safely, effectively, and also safely. This is a very promising technology. It’s already in a lot of places. It can also solve any problem in the banking sector. This technology became famous after introducing the first cryptocurrency, which is known as bitcoin. Right now, there is a huge problem with banking, and the Blockchain can solve these problems. This paper will demonstrate transacting over a secure, blockchain-based network and therefore eliminate the need for intermediary entities. This paper is a review-based paper that provides the application and opportunities of the Blockchain in the banking system. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the application and opportunities of the Blockchain for a secure banking system. In this review investigation and analysis of this paper at the beginning, related work from other authors in the same fields has been discussed. Then the working method of the Blockchain technology has been introduced with analysis. The use of blockchain technology for secure banking has been discussed. The main achievement of this paper is to demonstrate how the Blockchain works and how it can be useful in the secure banking industry.
Blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization and immutability. Since it appears, blockchain technology has received widespread attention and is considered to be the most revolutionary technology with the most promising development after cloud computing, Internet accelerated speed, and big data. Therefore, a wave of application of blockchain technology has set off around the world today. Supply chain finance is based on multi-party, relatively closed environment, and requires controllable and trusted data as supporting factors. Naturally, it has great potential room for combining with blockchain technology. The application of blockchain technology in the field of supply chain finance can provide new solutions to the problems in the development of supply chain finance. Therefore, the research on supply chain finance based on blockchain has become a new research hotspot. This article reviews the current literature on the application of blockchain to supply chain finance. Numerous studies have shown that the application of blockchain technology will open a new door for the development of supply chain finance and promote the vigorous and healthy development of supply chain finance.
To provide secure and reliable services using the internet of things (IoT) in the smart cities/villages is a challenging and complex issue. A high throughput and resilient services are required to process vast data generated by the smart city/villages that felicitates to run the applications of smart city. To provide security and privacy a scalable blockchain (BC) mechanism is a necessity to integrate the scalable ledger and transactions limit in the BC. In this paper, we investigated the available solutions to improve its scalability and efficiency. However, most of the algorithms are not providing the better solution to achieve scalability for the smart city data. Here, proposed and implemented a hybrid approach to improve the scalability and rate of transactions on BC using practical Byzantine fault tolerance and decentralized public key algorithms. The proposed Normachain is compares our results with the existing model. The results show that the transaction rate got improved by 6.43% and supervision results got improved by 17.78%.
Purpose This paper aims to retrieve key components of blockchain applications in supply chain areas. It applies natural language processing methods to generate useful insights from academic literature. Design/methodology/approach It first applies a text mining method to retrieve information from scientific journal papers on the related topics. The text information is then analyzed through machine learning (ML) models to identify the important implications from the existing literature. Findings The research findings are three-fold. While challenges are of concern, the focus should be given to the design and implementation of blockchain in the supply chain field. Integration with internet of things is considered to be of higher importance. Blockchain plays a crucial role in food sustainability. Research limitations/implications The research findings offer insights for both policymakers and business managers on blockchain implementation in the supply chain. Practical implications This paper exemplifies the model as situated in the interface of human-based and machine-learned analysis, potentially offering an interesting and relevant avenue for blockchain and supply chain management researchers. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, the research is the very first attempt to apply ML algorithms to analyzing the full contents of blockchain-related research, in the supply chain sector, thereby providing new insights and complementing existing literature.
Recently, Blockchain technology has attracted great attention in both private organisations and the public sector around the world. However, not many are aware and understand this new technology. Thus, lack of understanding of the Blockchain technology could influence the intention in adopting the technology. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify the behaviour intention towards adopting Blockchain Technology in the Malaysian Public Sector. Data were gathered using a questionnaire to analyse the relationship between factors such as Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions and Trust with Behavioural Intention to adopt Blockchain Technology. The data were gathered from 100 officers in various government department. The survey revealed that majority of the government officers are aware about the Blockchain technology. However, most of them have inadequate exposure and knowledge about the technology. Findings from the regression analysis found that Trust, Performance Expectancy and Social Influence positively and significantly influence the behaviour intention of government officers in adopting Blockchain technology. Meanwhile, Effort Expectancy and Facilitating Conditions were found not significant. The findings from this study suggest that it is essential to develop strategies to implement a suitable Blockchain application in the public sector. Prior to such implementation, it is imperative for government officers to be equipped with knowledge, skills and resources related to the Blockchain technology.
Daeheon Choi, Chune Young Chung, Thou Seyha, Jason Young
From a supply chain perspective, new technologies such as blockchain can improve the efficiency and competitiveness of logistics and increase customer satisfaction. Although blockchain technology has been lauded as a way for firms to build sustainable supply chain networks, the rate of acceptance of this technology remains low. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the factors that discourage firms from merging blockchain with the supply chain. Instead of providing further reasons for adopting blockchain technology, we try to understand what deters firms from adding blockchain to their operations. Following the deductive approach, a confirmatory factor analysis is conducted on pre-test questionnaires to test, improve, and verify the constructs (questions) to measure the hypothesized factors. A theoretical model is proposed based on the hypotheses, and structural equation modeling is applied. The results are estimated using the partial least squares approach and a sample of 83 respondents. Our findings based on our empirical data support most of our hypotheses. We find that various factors impede the adoption of blockchain technologies, including technological barriers, constraints rooted in organizations and the environment, and system-related governmental barriers. In addition, various factors are critical determinants of resistance to blockchain in the technological, organizational, and environmental dimensions.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain as an intangible resource for open and distance learning (ODL) to attain and sustain competitive advantage by creating a more learner centric learning ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach Research design included review of the literature, desk research and case analyses to conduct this study so that the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain, a technological innovation, for ODL could be explored adequately. Findings The findings of the paper reveal that ODL must not miss out on the opportunity of harnessing the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain in its quest of attaining and sustain competitiveness vis-a-vis conventional system of learning. Results of this study sufficiently hint at the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL. Practical implications Results of this study sufficiently indicate the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL which in turn make them significant for decision-makers and policymakers engaged in developing ODL. Findings hint that ODL needs to make efforts to harness the strategic potentialities of blockchain for attaining and sustaining competitiveness which would also be helpful for ODL to contribute towards achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper attempts to provide a strategic viewpoint to the use of this technological innovation as a significant intangible resource discussing primarily the strategic perspectives of blockchain helpful in the further development of ODL. Originality/value Although uses of blockchain-enabled applications in ODL are relatively new, the growth is very fast. The present paper offers originality and value by filling the gap created by the inadequacies of studies focusing on the idiosyncratic characteristics including but not limited to decentralization and security of blockchain. Findings suggest that blockchain offers huge potentialities in terms of benefits for entire ODL ecosystem comprising different stakeholders such as institutions, learners, educators, etc.
Utilization of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provides increasing demands on decreasing traffic congestions, transportation safety, and environmental problems as well as increasing transportation capacity. Over the past few years, one of the most disruptive and transformational technologies, blockchain technology, has emerged. As a result of offering more security, privacy, traceability, transparency, and decentralized authority, the utilization of blockchain technology in ITS have increased drastically. Despite this increase, there is a lack of a good understanding of what are the Critical Success Factors (CSF) to support IT providers for designing their products properly, and to provide industry leaders to focus on the main drivers of their outstanding projects. This study aims to explore and analyze CSFs that can facilitate the success of blockchain-based ITS, which has so far been neglected despite its remarkable relevance. In doing so, eleven primary studies, identified as a result of conducting a systematic literature review (SLR), were taken as a baseline to develop the model of CSFs. Additionally, since the number of existing studies related to CSFs for blockchain and ITS are limited, an expert panel was formed to evaluate and contribute to the model. The developed model of CSF for blockchain-based ITS, having a comprehensive approach, consists of 29 CSFs defined under five main contexts, namely technical, management, governance, quality of service, and quality of life. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2020-SP1-03 Full Text: PDF
Abstract This research explores blockchain as a competitive advantage (CA) for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. The respondents’ awareness of the relevance of blockchain use was also tested. The researcher aims to verify if blockchain is a foundational technology to be implemented in academe. Theoretical framework was formulated based on the knowledge procurement cycle and distributed learning ledger. The researcher proposes that conceptual framework, centered on blockchain (Ethereum), will enhance recordkeeping in education. Frequency, percentage, and weighted mean determined the degree of relevance of blockchain as CA of Philippine HEIs. One-way ANOVA determined respondents’ significant relationship (SR) with regard to blockchain awareness and identified SR of blockchain as CA over other colleges in terms of cost and differentiation. The results showed that students were most aware of the relevance of blockchain while professors were least aware. Both null hypotheses were accepted. There is no SR on the respondents’ awareness on the use of blockchain. Respondents considered technology relevant and a foundational technology in recordkeeping. The research proposes EduChain Activity Flow Model to enhance recordkeeping in the academe. It will offer ample job opportunities to students in the field of blockchain. Also, the researcher suggests that administrators may incorporate blockchain training as part of faculty development. This research will pave the way for future researchers to study other aspects of blockchain in education. Keywords: blockchain, blockchain technology, EduChain Activity Flow Model
Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi, Jong Han Yoon, Nishant Dass
In the supply chain, information sharing is critical for facilitating decision making, accelerating the schedule, reducing costs, and enhancing the final quality of the project. However, information sharing is challenging in the construction supply chain when information asymmetry could help certain individuals avoid liability or help others maximize their profits by using substandard materials. In this environment, the stakeholders may not truly trust one another and may be reluctant to share complete information. Even though several studies have emphasized the importance of trust for information sharing, few studies have focused on promoting trust and verifying information using technology. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of Blockchain technology for establishing a trust-enhanced environment with distributed trust that will benefit the construction supply chain. This paper presents three logical scenarios for the application of Blockchain technology in information-sharing systems in order to demonstrate that the technology helps establish a trust-enhanced environment for reliable information sharing while eliminating counterfeiting and reducing bullwhip effect. These scenarios will demonstrate the value of Blockchain-based information sharing in the construction supply chain and possibly provide direction for future research with greater depth and specificity.
Tan Gürpinar, Sophie Harre, Michael Henke, Farah Saleh
Purpose: Supply chain networks face an increasing demand to integrate globally distributedcustomers and suppliers. As supply chain processes are deemed to lack sufficienttransparency and security, blockchain solutions are piloted to offer an IT infrastructurecovering these needs. This paper aims to bring current projects one stepfurther and evolves a model for integrating blockchain solutions into supply chainprocesses. Methodology: In order to get an overview of existing models for technology integration,an exploratory research study is conducted. In addition, requirements for thespecific integration of blockchain solutions are gathered and categorized in a systematiccontent analysis. Based on these requirements, the models are evaluated,compared and utilized for the development of a new model. Findings: Since none of the presented models fully meet the specific blockchainbasedrequirements, the existing models must be further developed. Specifically, increasesin the number of supply chain partners and external stakeholders involvedin blockchain-based systems are not supported by current models, and need to beintegrated systematically. Originality: In this paper, an integration model is developed that is particularly suitablefor blockchain integration into supply chain processes. In order to give startingpoints for a validation of the model, a case study is conducted in the field of blockchain-based payment gateway solutions.