A Survey on Blockchain Technology: Evolution, Architecture and Security

Abstract

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that is making a great impact on modern society due to its transparency, decentralization, and security properties. Blockchain gained considerable attention due to its very first application of Cryptocurrencies e.g., Bitcoin. In the near future, Blockchain technology is determined to transform the way we live, interact, and perform businesses. Recently, academics, industrialists, and researchers are aggressively investigating different aspects of Blockchain as an emerging technology. Unlike other Blockchain surveys focusing on either its applications, challenges, characteristics, or security, we present a comprehensive survey of Blockchain technology's evolution, architecture, development frameworks, and security issues. We also present a comparative analysis of frameworks, classification of consensus algorithms, and analysis of security risks & cryptographic primitives that have been used in the Blockchain so far. Finally, this paper elaborates on key future directions, novel use cases and open research challenges, which could be explored by researchers to make further advances in this field.

Blockchain for the Metaverse: A Review

“…Many technical and applicable aspects of all current blockchain versions have been attracting much more research activities, including consensus algorithms, network management, and blockchain interoperability. As consensus algorithms ensure the agreement of states of certain data among authorized nodes in a distributed network, numerous variations of consensus mechanisms have been introduced to achieve high throughput and low latency, but security, scalability, and decentralization could not be obtained concurrently [104]. In this context, it is necessary to develop and sharpen some hybrid innovative consensus algorithms (e.g., Proof-of-Capability, Proof-of-Burn, and Leased Proofof-Stake) to effectively handle the above-mentioned issues.…”

Blockchain for Modern Applications: A Survey

“…The writers of [ 38 ] provided an in-depth examination of blockchain technology’s evolution, architecture, development frameworks, and security concerns. They also gave a comparison of frameworks, a categorization of consensus methods, and an examination of security threats and cryptographic primitives employed in the blockchain.…”

Review on Energy Application Using Blockchain Technology With an Introductions in the Pricing Infrastructure

“…This study applied this categorization to the aforementioned energy applications (Table 3). Moreover, a general BC-layered architecture was proposed by Bhutta et al [88][89] to develop other distributed applications. This architecture consisted of an application layer (e.g., IoT, market security), contracts layer (e.g., algorithms and SCs), incentive layer (e.g., allocation mechanism), consensus protocols (e.g., POW, PoS), network layer (e.g., P2P network, verification mechanism), and data layers (e.g., data block, chain structure, and timestamp).…”

“…This type of attack occurs when BC miners' control 51% of the hash mining (or computation), causing a curb in the new storing block process, double spending, inhibiting the remaining miners from confirming the block. [88] explained that invaders could exploit this vulnerability in different ways, such as overturning operations, eliminating and adjusting transaction ordering, and obstructing normal of mining and operations confirmation. Another attack with block-withholding threats is a selfish mining attack [118], [119].…”