Framework for determining the suitability of blockchain: Criteria and issues to consider

Abstract

Various distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), such as blockchain, have evolved significantly in recent years. These technologies provide a robust and effective solution for providing confidentiality, integrity, nonrepudiation, authentication, and transparency. While blockchain has many advantages, it has various limitations as well, such as complexity, low throughput, privacy, and so on. We discuss the issues that must be considered when deciding whether to use these technologies in a given case or not. We describe the operation of blockchain, application areas where blockchain is suitable, and those where it is not. We also discuss the applicability of other emerging DLTs, apart from blockchain technology, such as Hashgraph, Zcash, Nano coin, and IOTA. INTRODUCTIONAs the name suggests, a blockchain can be considered as a database where digital information (ie, "Blocks") is stored in a distributed network as a chain of blocks. Blockchain falls in the class of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) that allow a database to be used and maintained in a distributed manner. Blockchain provides a shared ledger of transactions 1 that can be read, verified and stored in the form of blocks, forming a chain-like structure. Depending on the size of the transaction, a block may store up to a few thousand transactions (eg, a single block in the bitcoin blockchain can store about 1 MB of data). The security and anonymity provided by blockchain relies on the use of public key based digital signatures, hash functions, and the distributed nature of the database. Participants in a blockchain are connected through a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and are independent of each other. 2 This architecture allows the sharing of resources, 3 avoids single point of failure, and reduces the likelihood of data tampering because the data is not stored or managed by specific nodes. [4][5][6] However, there are many challenges 7 that need to be resolved in the case of distributed networks. These challenges include accountability, confidentiality, integrity, nonrepudiation, and authentication, due to the absence of any central authority. Another major issue is trust because there is no central authority that can resolve any ambiguities or disagreements that may occur. Blockchain resolves all these issues. Confidentiality and authentication are ensured using two-way encryption, that is, by encrypting the data first by the sender's private key and then by the receiver's public key. To decrypt it, first the receiver's private key is used and then the sender's public key. Consequently, data remains confidential, integrity is achieved and because the data can be obtained using sender's public key, it acts as a digital signature that authenticates the data and eliminates the possibility of nonrepudiation. Trust is obtained by introducing a consensus Trans Emerging Tel Tech.

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“…The users trust on block chain based data storage due to its verification and security process. Blockchain has a great verification process that helps to secure confidential data of a company or user [17]. It is discussed in this research that the users get benefits from the block chain through creating an account on the block chain database and the users can implement this in software to use this.…”

Business Blockchain Suitability Determinants: Decision-Making through an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Method

“…However, substantial limitations have been reported in the literature, including a lack of consensus between researchers and professionals over what constitutes "suitability" and how to identify suitability measurement criteria. The majority of suggested frameworks consider the assessment from a single point of view; that is, they either address the applicability of blockchain technology with use case functional requirements [27,[38][39][40][41], assess the potential of adopting blockchain technology within an organization [42][43][44][45] or evaluate the feasibility of utilizing blockchain solutions within an intended ecosystem [28,[46][47][48][49]. Moreover, there is an absence of a generic evaluation framework that addresses these issues regardless of the application area or industry.…”

Blockchain in Financial Services: Current Status, Adaptation Challenges, and Future Vision

“…The financial services industry understands that the data it manages is very valuable to bad actors, yielding many benefits and financial motivations [117]. While organizations deploy significant resources to ensure their systems are as secure as they can practically be, deployment of new technology comes with a higher level of risk.…”