Graphic Abstract According to the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals are framed for improving rural health, hunger, poverty issues, environmental conditions, and illiteracy globally. With the upcoming technology, there have been many advances in the lifestyle of people all around the world. Comparatively, more emphasis has been given to the development of urban areas than rural. The sustainable development of a country depends on the growth of its rural areas. Countless technological and theoretical models, projects, and frameworks have been proposed and implemented to help overcome sundry issues and challenges faced by rural people in quotidian life. New technological methods are deemed to be the future of livability, therefore; a technologically advanced solution for sustainable rural development is called for. Blockchain Technology is the next step for innovation and development and it has far many applications in sustainable rural development that are yet to be discovered. The objective of this paper is to explicitly review research conducted in rural development to fill the undone work in the future with better research ideas, to make rural areas a livable and advanced place while also maintaining their integrity leading to sustainable development. To conduct such a review, a systematic research methodology is applied following regulations in the conduction of standardized but explorative analysis. Within the timeline of 2010–2021, 112 papers are carefully selected to perform the systematic review. This review will provide a comprehensible as well as concise research compendium for all applications proposed, implemented, and possible in the future to realize the concept of smart villages for the development of rural areas using blockchain technology.

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