blockchain dissertation topics

Research Topics & Ideas

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency

If you’re just starting out exploring blockchain-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas related to blockchain and crypto, including examples from recent studies.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . These topic ideas provided here are intentionally broad and generic , so keep in mind that you will need to develop them further. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

To develop a suitable research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan to fill that gap. If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Blockchain & Crypto-Related Research Topics

• The application of blockchain technology in securing electronic health records.
• Investigating the potential of smart contracts in automating insurance claims.
• The impact of blockchain on the traceability and transparency in supply chain management.
• Developing a blockchain-based voting system for enhancing electoral transparency.
• The role of blockchain in combating counterfeit goods in the luxury goods market.
• Assessing the security implications of quantum computing on cryptocurrency encryption.
• The use of blockchain for royalty distribution in the music industry.
• Investigating the scalability challenges of Ethereum and potential solutions.
• The impact of blockchain technology on cross-border remittances in developing countries.
• Developing a blockchain framework for real-time IoT device management.
• The application of tokenization in real estate asset management.
• Examining regulatory challenges for cryptocurrency exchanges in different jurisdictions.
• The potential of decentralized finance (DeFi) in disrupting traditional banking.
• Investigating the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining and potential sustainable alternatives.
• The role of blockchain in enhancing data security in cloud computing.
• Analysing the impact of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) on traditional venture capital funding.
• The use of blockchain for enhancing transparency in charitable organizations.
• Assessing the potential of blockchain in combating online identity theft and fraud.
• Investigating the use of cryptocurrency in illicit trade and its regulatory implications.
• The application of blockchain in automating and securing international trade finance.
• Analysing the efficiency of different consensus algorithms in blockchain networks.
• The potential of blockchain technology in managing intellectual property rights.
• Developing a decentralized platform for peer-to-peer energy trading using blockchain.
• Investigating the security vulnerabilities of various cryptocurrency wallets.
• The role of blockchain in revolutionizing the gaming industry through in-game assets.

Blockchain & Crypto Research Ideas (Continued)

• Assessing the impact of cryptocurrency adoption on monetary policy and banking systems.
• Investigating the integration of blockchain technology in the automotive industry for vehicle history tracking.
• The use of blockchain for secure and transparent public record keeping in government sectors.
• Analysing consumer adoption patterns and trust issues in cryptocurrency transactions.
• The application of blockchain in streamlining and securing online voting systems.
• Developing a blockchain-based platform for academic credential verification.
• Examining the impact of blockchain on enhancing privacy and security in social media platforms.
• The potential of blockchain in transforming the retail industry through supply chain transparency.
• Investigating the feasibility of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
• The use of blockchain in creating tamper-proof digital evidence systems for law enforcement.
• Analysing the role of cryptocurrency in financial inclusion in underbanked regions.
• Developing a blockchain solution for secure digital identity management.
• Investigating the use of blockchain in food safety and traceability.
• The potential of blockchain in streamlining and securing e-commerce transactions.
• Assessing the legal and ethical implications of smart contracts.
• The role of blockchain in the future of freelance and gig economy payments.
• Analysing the security and efficiency of cross-chain transactions in blockchain networks.
• The potential of blockchain for digital rights management in the media and entertainment industry.
• Investigating the impact of blockchain technology on the stock market and asset trading.
• Developing a blockchain framework for transparent and efficient public sector audits.
• The use of blockchain in ensuring the authenticity of luxury products.
• Analysing the challenges and opportunities of blockchain implementation in the healthcare sector.
• The potential of blockchain in transforming the logistics and transportation industry.
• Investigating the role of blockchain in mitigating risks in supply chain disruptions.
• The application of blockchain in enhancing transparency and accountability in non-profit organizations.

Recent Blockchain-Related Studies

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a  research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual studies in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of recent studies to help refine your thinking. These are actual studies,  so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• A Novel Optimization for GPU Mining Using Overclocking and Undervolting (Shuaib et al., 2022).
• Systematic Review of Security Vulnerabilities in Ethereum Blockchain Smart Contract (Kushwaha et al., 2022).
• Blockchain for Modern Applications: A Survey (Krichen et al., 2022).
• The Role and Potential of Blockchain Technology in Islamic Finance (Truby et al., 2022).
• Analysis of the Security and Reliability of Cryptocurrency Systems Using Knowledge Discovery and Machine Learning Methods (Shahbazi & Byun, 2022).
• Blockchain technology used in medicine. A brief survey (Virgolici et al., 2022).
• On the Deployment of Blockchain in Edge Computing Wireless Networks (Jaafar et al., 2022).
• The Blockchains Technologies for Cryptocurrencies: A Review (Taha & Alanezi, 2022). Cryptocurrencies Advantages and Disadvantages: A Review (Qaroush et al., 2022).
• Blockchain Implementation in Financial Sector and Cyber Security System (Panduro-Ramirez et al., 2022).
• Secure Blockchain Interworking Using Extended Smart Contract (Fujimoto et al., 2022).
• Cryptocurrency: The Present and the Future Scenario (Kommuru et al., 2022).
• Preparation for Post-Quantum era: a survey about blockchain schemes from a post-quantum perspective (Ciulei et al., 2022).
• Cryptocurrency Blockchain Technology in the Digital Revolution Era (Astuti et al., 2022).
• D-RAM Distribution: A Popular Energy-Saving Memory Mining Blockchain Technology (Jing, 2022).
• A Survey on Blockchain for Bitcoin and Its Future Perspectives (Garg et al., 2022).
• Blockchain Security: A Survey of Techniques and Research Directions (Leng et al., 2022).
• The Importance and Use of Blockchain Technology in International Payment Methods (Erdoğdu & Ünüsan, 2023).
• Some Insights on Open Problems in Blockchains: Explorative Tracks for Tezos (Invited Talk) (Conchon, 2022).

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

Get 1-On-1 Help

If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

• [email protected]

Blockchain Research Topics for PhD, Masters, and Undergrad

Whether you’re a PhD student or an undergrad, the blockchain research topics listed here will offer great insights into the blockchain technologies field. For those who have followed the events happening in the banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the past one decade, the term blockchain could be familiar.

What is Blockchain?

A blockchain is a continuously expanding collection of digital records, known as blocks, which are connected together via encryption. Blockchains are designed to be immutable and resistant to data alteration. Communities, the decentralized Web, token economies, and worldwide peer-to-peer data transfers are all made possible by blockchain.

Blockchain technology is built on top of a number of different technologies.

A huge number of key criteria influence the success of a blockchain ecosystem. Layer 1 DLT systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum have accomplished a lot, but no one blockchain protocol can remove all of the inherent restrictions. For example, increasing throughput without necessarily jeopardizing security is quite challenging.

Layer 1 blockchain protocols that are secure and efficient must either solve important challenges at the protocol level or allow solutions at a higher level.

Blockchain is the record-keeping technology behind the infamous Bitcoin network. Most importantly, blockchain is a type of database. It differs from typical databases in how it stores information.

Blockchains store data in blocks. Those blocks are then chained to each other. Any new incoming data is stored into a fresh block.

Once a single block is filled with data it is chained onto the previous block, which makes the data chained together in chronological order.

Blockchains store different types of information. Today, storing a ledger for transactions seems to be the most common use of blockchains.

In the case of Bitcoin, blockchain helps in creating a decentralized process so that no single individual has control. Instead, all users have a collective control over their activities.

Without wasting time further, let’s dive into the topics about blockchain.

Blockchain research topics

Even though blockchain technology has seen some great progress in recent years, the field is still ripe for investigations. This section contains a list of chosen research topics , as well as information on current issues and latest events.

Research Topics on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

• The unobvious risks of an unregulated global p2p currency
• Changes in people’s attitudes toward cryptocurrencies.
• How social media influences the prices of cryptocurrencies.
• How to Make Bitcoin a Better Currency
• Evaluating the scalability and security of bitcoin.
• Regulatory responses to cryptocurrencies in the global stage.
• Does cryptocurrency have a place in global economic development?
• The disruption, challenges and opportunities of cryptocurrencies.
• Optimal selfish cryptocurrency mining.
• An Empirical Analysis Leading to a Cost of Production Model for Valuing Bitcoin.
• Examination of the standards for identification on blockchain.
• Issues in designing community currencies based on blockchain.
• Empirical analysis of denial-of-service attacks in the cryptocurrency ecosystems.
• Investigating the potential significance of blockchain in improving transparency in electoral processes across developing democracies.
• Limitation of computational power to the implementation of blockchain technologies.
• Exploring inefficiencies associated with blockchain e.g. speed

Internet crime and security issues facing blockchain

Cryptocurrencies may promote crime and the trade of illegal goods.

For instance, the recent rush by users to obtain bitcoins has raised many questions about the cryptocurrency. There is a strong belief that bitcoin will, in the near future, unleash a great economic potential because it provides a borderless peer-to-peer democratic and self-regulating system.

Despite all these benefits identified in the article, the authors note that blockchain may promote a wide range of illegal activities such as the sale of illegal drugs, illegal weapons, assassinations, unlawful gambling, money laundering, and even outright theft.

Illegal use of blockchain scare away potential new users that otherwise would prevent the rapid growth of cyptoccurencies to surpass the traditional payment methods since no users with good intentions would want to associate with a currency that promotes such unlawful activities.

The following 10 blockchain research topics could be helpful while pursuing your PhD studies:

• The effects of bitcoin regulation on the reduction of drug trafficking.
• Anti-money laundering legislations to prevent, detect and prosecute cryptocurrency-driven money laundering.
• The ease of tracing hacked bitcoins.
• The mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in developing countries.
• Bitcoin mining vulnerability in open computer networks.
• Efforts to achieve full decentralization of blockchain networks in the United States.
• Relationship between metadata of transactions and respect for the privacy of blockchain users.
• Evaluation of current incentive mechanisms on- and off-chain.
• The valuation of different crypto-assets.
• Is it possible to achieve crypto-trading: the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another.
• Bitcoin mining acceleration and quantification of blockchain performance.

Topics on Applications of Blockchain in Banking and finance

Banks tend to be more skeptical about forming deals with bitcoin companies. This is one of the obstacles facing the uptake of bitcoin. 

As a result, a hot debate has been triggered whether bitcoin has the potential to become a dominant global currency or it will be wiped out in the next few years.

With the continued growth of the value of bitcoin cryptocurrency, some investors believe that digital currencies will dominate the future. However, bitcoin, a forerunner in becoming a dominant cryptocurrency is faced with several obstacles that must be addressed for it to assert its dominance in the financial world.

Here are a list of 10 blockchain research topics related to banking and finance:

• How has blockchain technology revolutionized banking in Asia?
• Effects of blockchains on the speed of cross-border payments.
• The skepticism of traditional banking institutions about forming partnerships with cryptocurrencies.
• Analysis of IBM’s Food Trust blockchain.
• Potential improvements in speed of banking transactions after integration of blockchain into business operations.
• Settlement and clearance in international stock trading using blockchain.
• Estimation of banking and insurance fee saved through the use of blockchain-based applications.
• The role of blockchain technology in streamlining paperwork and bureaucracy in trade finance.
• The impacts of government sanctions on the adoption of blockchain technologies in their trade finance.
• Tracking the popularity and financial gains associated cryptocurrency scams.

Our expert writer can come up with a new topic and produce a high quality, original paper for you.

• The application of cryptocurrencies in blockchain-based crowdfunding.
• How blockchain can lower the cost of meeting regulatory requirements for syndicated lending.
• Contributions of blockchain to transformation of accounting, bookkeeping and audit.
• Smart contracting . There has been significant development in this field, with the goal of identifying the main needs for smart contracts and establishing templates for their creation. In order to make smart contracts safer and more secure, additional research is needed in this field.

Blockchain research topics in Healthcare

In healthcare, the privacy of patients is important. Some personal information health records must remain the health provider’s secret.

To avoid privacy complaints and potential legal implications, some hospitals can apply blockchain technology to secure millions of health records.

Below are some of the blockchain research topics in healthcare that could be valuable for researchers:

• Secure storage of patient medical records by leveraging blockchain technology.
• The use of blockchain to fight drug counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry.
• The contribution of blockchain-timestamped protocols to improving the trustworthiness of medical science.
• The application of blockchain to medicine traceability across an individual country.
• How blockchain technologies can reduce health-related follow-up costs.

Final remarks

Blockchain seems to be the future. Its application in many sectors including banking and healthcare are inevitable.

In any case, researchers have identified an ever-rising tidal wave of blockchain powered technologies in finance that show its ability to disrupt the finance industry.

You still need help with blockchain dissertation topics? Call us or chat with our live agent today. We will be glad to work with you and help you prosper.

e-mail address: [email protected]

Tel 7639361621

Blockchain is a promising security system to protect transactions between multiple parties. It collects the information from different sources and stores it in multiple blocks. Further, these blocks are chained together after performing some security operations . Though it is a budding technology, it has several misconceptions. But, on the other side, it has numerous beneficial impacts and scope for advanced security technologies. This article gives you end-to-end research updates to craft Blockchain Thesis Ideas.

Nowadays, everyone prefers a decentralized system to avoid single-point failure. But, assuring the fullest security is a big challenging task for a decentralized system. Blockchain is also a decentralized system but it has one unique property as a distributed ledger which no one has.  The role of this ledger is to keep a record of the transactions that take place in the network. Before recording the transaction, the transaction should reach the smart contract by a consensus mechanism. Also, there is no need for a separate trusted third party instead the network nodes admit the transaction by themselves. Now, we can see the three most significant technologies that bind up with the blockchain mechanism.

What are the technologies used in blockchain?

• Here, it’s a consensus mechanism to ensure that every block is admitted by the peer nodes through a smart contract for storage purposes. Then, the transaction in that block will be added to the blockchain at regular intervals. Further, the validators will get the native token as a reward for transaction validation.
• Here, each data in the block is encrypted through a cryptographic hashing function. So, the network information is fully secured by this cryptographic technique. In the blockchain, the first block is referred to as Genetic Block. And, every block in the network has restricted storage. Further, it forms the chain by connecting the previous block hash value.
• In the network, every full node will store and keep the transaction information in the block for avoiding dependability on another node.  

What are the types of blockchain?

There are different types of blockchain with different nature and features. Below, we specified consortium blockchain, private blockchain, and public blockchain along with their characteristics. In specific, it is compared with each other through several performance metrics. And, some of them are Efficiency, consensus determination, immutability, read permission, and more.

• Permissioned
• Selected Set of Nodes
• Either Public or Restricted
• Might Be Tampered
• One Organization
• Permissionless
• All Peer Nodes
• Very Difficult To Tamper

Next, we can see the interesting features of the blockchain. These features gain the attention of information technology to make their data secure and reliable . Also, it is now spreading its popularity in all the major sectors ranging from personal to business.

What Are the Key Features of Blockchain?

• Data protection : In any case, if the data owner and source peer are the same, then there is no need of third-party, the source will directly protect the data
• Decentralized ledger technology : Core functionality of blockchain which is used to register the transaction detail. It is common for all types of users either public or private use-cases.
• Blockchain as a data structure : Similar to the data structure, blockchain also store diverse data such as medical, insurance, user identity, etc.
• Double spending : By combining distributed ledger and consensus protocol technologies, the blockchain system tackles the double-spending issue of the existing system
• Better user anonymity : Assure the secrecy of the users to value their privacy. So, it is the best feature in comparison with other conventional systems.
• Immutability : The information stored in the blockchain is cannot be altered without compromising miners. If someone attempts to change data, then it is easy to trace the tamper.

What are the big challenges of blockchain?

Though blockchain has many positive impacts on digital society, it has some technical shortcomings in real-time deployment. It comes across various blockchain adoption issues when it holds hands with society. Some, widely experienced common issues are security, scalability, cost, and delay . More than these, it also has other challenges that are still under the research phase.  And, they are:

• Inefficient Blockchain Architectural Design
• Anonymous Characteristics increase the criminal actions
• Lack of Scalability
• High Energy Utilization and Ecosystem Cost
• Network Security and Privacy Challenges
• Insufficient Developers with sufficient Knowledge
• Slow Transaction Process and Execution
• Lack of Popularity among Public
• Inadequate law and regulation information clarity
• Lack of user-friendly APIs for end-users
• Complex in Structural Design means

We offer a full range of research paper support through staff that is fully qualified to help you. We can help you with every step of the process such as:

• Choose the recent Blockchain Thesis ideas
• Write the complete research proposal (Include Aim, Problem, and Solutions)
• Develop the project using appropriate tools and technologies
• Write the flawless Thesis or Dissertation (based on Acceptable format)
• Revise the thesis for validation and verification purposes (Proofreading)
• Prepare the defendable point for your research based on comments

How to Choose Research Topics for Blockchain Thesis?

Generally, selecting the best research is a very important task in the whole research journey. Since the entire journey fully relies on that topic only. Also, one should more attentive in finalizing the topic. Before the topic confirmation, analyze the originality of the topic, relevancy of the topic, appropriateness of the topic, and future scope of the topic.

Our experts are here to guide you in these aspects. We also encourage our clients to say us their opinion or ideas regarding their projects which helps us to develop more precise projects . Further, we have also given you important Blockchain thesis ideas based on current research areas for your study,

• Government Document Distribution and Storage using Blockchain
• Employment of blockchain for Global Payroll system
• Secure E-voting Blockchain System
• Secure Real Estate Information Management using Blockchain
• Blockchain-enabled Secure Mobile Financial Transactions
• Dynamic Music Download Payments Using Blockchain
• Blockchain-based Healthcare Application and Services
• Blockchain Smart contracts for Smart Supply Chains
• Advance Analyzes for Blockchain Legal Issues
• Enhancement of Blockchain Standardization

Further, we are also listed other important thesis ideas that we are currently undergoing research on. And, some of them are in the development stage.

Top 15 Interesting Blockchain Thesis Ideas

• Privacy-Preserving blockchain Techniques
• Economic Implication on Cryptocurrency Adoption
• New Blockchain Adoption and Attacks Use Cases  
• Blockchain Solutions for Authorization and Authentication
• Smart Scripting Smart Contract for Blockchain Ledger
• Emerging Blockchain Forensics Monitoring and Analysis
• Effective Consensus Protocol Mechanism for Blockchain
• Developing Cryptographic Technologies in Blockchain
• Blockchain-enabled IoT Security Applications
• New Developments Blockchain Cyber-Physical Systems
• Advance Game Theory for Blockchain Resource Mining
• Blockchain Applications for Digital Forensics
• Secure Smart Cities Infrastructures using Blockchain Technology
• Decentralized Exchanges and Pooled Trading Platform Applications

Our projects are designed to unite all levels of challenges in your topics through our smart technical teams. Thus, we are proud enough to believe in our teams which make our customers trust our service by fulfilling their expectations every time. For every project, performance evaluation is very essential to analyze the efficiency of the system . So, we have given a few blockchain models with their performance evaluation metrics .

Blockchain Models for Performance Analysis

• Fluid Queue
• M/M B /I Queue
• Non-Exhaustive Queue
• CTMC GI/M/1 Queue
• M/G/1 Queue Variant
• (n, k) Fork-Join Queue
• M/G/I and M/M/I Queue
• M/G B /1 Queue Variant
• Discrete-Time GI/GI N /1 Queue
• Stochastic Reward Nets (SRN)
• Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN)
• Discrete-Time Markov Chain (DTMC)
• Absorbing Discrete Time Markov Chain (Absorbing DTMC)

Performance Metrics of Blockchain

For the evaluation process, the presence of a system is required in spite of their type as either public or private. Further, we have also given you the other experimental result analysis metrics for comparative study.

Foremost comparison parameters

• Maximum Amount of Gas
• Number of Peer Nodes
• Number of Blocks for Mining
• Total Number of Nodes
• Number of Transactions / Records
• Development Platform of Blockchain

Last but not least, our developers have listed the top 3 worldwide famous blockchain benchmarks which is the framework to the developed blockchain system through pre-defined models and get the test outcome.

Top Three Popular Blockchain Benchmarks

• Byteball, Nano and IOTA
• Number of Input / Output transactions
• Account Balance
• Data Transfer (Value)
• Success Indicator, Transaction Free, Resource Utilization, Transaction Data Length, Throughput, Scalability, and Delay
• Ethereum, Huperledger, FISCO BCOS, and blockchains (Burrow, Fabric, Besu, Sawtooth, and Iroba)
• Configuration file (self-defined)
• Delay, Success Rate, Throughput, and Resource Usage
• Quorum, Ethereum, Parity, and Hyperledger Fabric (HLF)
• Micro : IOHeavy,  Do Nothing, CPUHeavy, and Analytics
• Macro : Etherld, WavesPresale, Doubler, Smallbank (OLTP), and YCSB (k- v store)
• Robustness, Delay, Throughput, and Scalability

Further, if you need detail about any blockchain-supported solutions, then communicate with us. Also, we let you know more Blockchain Thesis Ideas in advanced research areas. On the whole, we will help you at your needy time despite research obstacles.

• Distributed Computing

Blockchain Technology and its Impact on International Trade-what does the Future Hold?

• Thesis for: Master of Science

• University of Salford

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations

• TRENDS FOOD SCI TECH
• Andreas Kamilaris

• J SCI FOOD AGR
• Francesca Antonucci

• Corrado Costa
• Paolo Menesatti

• Cornelius C. Agbo

• J. Mikael Eklund
• INT J INFORM MANAGE

• Santosh K. Misra
• Viswanadh Akella
• TRANSPORT RES E-LOG
• Pankaj Dutta

• Surbhi Somani
• Richa Butala
• Yanling Chang

• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

• Architecture and Design
• Asian and Pacific Studies
• Business and Economics
• Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Computer Sciences
• Cultural Studies
• Engineering
• General Interest
• Geosciences
• Industrial Chemistry
• Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Library and Information Science, Book Studies
• Life Sciences
• Linguistics and Semiotics
• Literary Studies
• Materials Sciences
• Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Sports and Recreation
• Theology and Religion
• Publish your article
• The role of authors
• Promoting your article
• Abstracting & indexing
• Publishing Ethics
• Why publish with De Gruyter
• How to publish with De Gruyter
• Our book series
• Our subject areas
• Your digital product at De Gruyter
• Contribute to our reference works
• Product information
• Tools & resources
• Product Information
• Promotional Materials
• Orders and Inquiries
• FAQ for Library Suppliers and Book Sellers
• Repository Policy
• Free access policy
• Open Access agreements
• Database portals
• For Authors
• Customer service
• People + Culture
• Journal Management
• How to join us
• Working at De Gruyter
• Mission & Vision
• De Gruyter Foundation
• De Gruyter Ebound
• Our Responsibility
• Partner publishers

Your purchase has been completed. Your documents are now available to view.

A Systematic Overview of Blockchain Research

Blockchain has been receiving growing attention from both academia and practices. This paper aims to investigate the research status of blockchain-related studies and to analyze the development and evolution of this latest hot area via bibliometric analysis. We selected and explored 2451 papers published between 2013 and 2019 from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The analysis considers different dimensions, including annual publications and citation trends, author distribution, popular research themes, collaboration of countries (regions) and institutions, top papers, major publication journals (conferences), supportive funding agencies, and emerging research trends. The results show that the number of blockchain literature is still increasing, and the research priorities in blockchain-related research shift during the observation period from bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain, smart contract, internet of thing, to the distributed ledger, and challenge and the inefficiency of blockchain. The findings of this research deliver a holistic picture of blockchain research, which illuminates the future direction of research, and provides implications for both academic research and enterprise practice.

1 Introduction

With the era of bitcoin, digital cash denoted as BTC makes it possible to store and transmit value through the bitcoin network [ 1 ] . And therewith, blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, which adopts a peer-to-peer network to authenticate transactions, has been gaining growing attention from practices, especially Libra, a global currency and financial infrastructure launched by Facebook, and digital currency electronic payment. Currently, blockchain is also an increasingly important topic in the academic field. Blockchain research has considerably progressed, attracting attention from researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] .

Considering the huge potential benefits that blockchain would bring in various aspects of industries, for instance, finance and economy [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] , internet of things [ 13 , 14 , 15 ] , energy [ 16 , 17 ] , supply chain [ 18 , 19 ] , and other areas. It is often compared with the Internet and is even referred to as a new form of the Internet. As a result, the number of publications in the blockchain is growing rapidly. According to an initial search on the Web of Science Core Collection, over 2000 scientific papers published are related to blockchain.

Under the circumstances where the number of research publications in the blockchain is quickly increasing, although studies have tried to provide some insights into the blockchain research via literature reviews [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ] . Comprehensive scientometric analysis of academic articles published in influential journals are beneficial to the further development of blockchain research. This research conducts a bibliometric visualization review and attempts to deliver an overview of the research in this fast-growing field.

The objectives of this research are as follows. First, we intend to build an overview of the distribution of blockchain-related research by time, authors, journals, institutions, countries (regions), and areas in the blockchain academic community. Second, we probe the key research topics of blockchain study, for which purpose, we conduct keyword co-occurrence analysis. Third, we picture the intellectual structure of blockchain study based on co-citation analysis of articles and author co-citation analysis. Finally, we identify the direction for the evolution of blockchain study. We adopt Citespace to detect and visualize emerging trends in blockchain study. To achieve these targets, we posed the following research questions:

Q1: What is the distribution pattern of blockchain publications and citations over recent years? Q2: Which are the main international contributing countries (regions) and institutions in blockchain research, and the collaboration network among them? Q3: What are the characteristics of the authorship distribution pattern? Q4: What are the key blockchain subjects based on the number of publications? Q5: Which are the major journals or conferences for blockchain-related research? Q6: Which are the most influential papers in blockchain research based on the number of citations? Q7: Who are the most influential authors in blockchain research according to the author co-citation network? Q8: What are the research trends in blockchain? Q9: What are the most supportive funding agencies for blockchain research?

Our intended contributions in this research are twofold. First, it is an attempt of adopting co-citation analysis to provide comprehensive and up-to-date developing trends in the lasted hot area, blockchain. Second, this study depicts a state-of-the-art blockchain research development and gives enlightenment on the evolution of blockchain. The findings of this research will be illuminating for both academic researchers, entrepreneurs, as well as policymakers.

The rest of the article is organized as follows. The literature review mainly summarizes related work. The “Data and methodology” section describes the data source and methodological process. The “Results” section presents the main results based on the bibliometric analysis as well as statistical analysis. “Conclusions and implications” conclude this research provides answers to the aforementioned research questions and poses directions for further work.

2 Literature Review

Scientometric analysis, also known as bibliometric network visualization analysis has been widely adopted in numerous areas to identify and visualize the trends in certain fields. For instance, Bonilla, et al. analyzed the development of academic research in economics in Latin America based on a scientometric analysis [ 25 ] . Li, et al. conducted research on emerging trends in the business model study using co-citation analysis [ 26 ] . Gaviriamarin, et al. applied bibliometric analysis to analyze the publications on the Journal of Knowledge Management [ 27 ] .

Since the birth of bitcoin, as the foundation of which, blockchain has gained an increasing amount of attention in academic research and among practices. The research papers focus on the blockchain are quite abundant and are continuing to emerge. Among a host of papers, a few studies investigate the research trend of blockchain-based on a bibliometric analysis [ 22 , 23 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] .

Table 1 presents a summary of these bibliometric studies that summarized some findings on blockchain research, yet very few investigated the co-citation network and the evolution of popular topics in a timeline view. The number of papers these articles analyzed is relatively small, which may be because they used simple retrieval formula in searching blockchain-related articles, and it could pose a threat to bibliometric analysis. Therefore, this research aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the status of blockchain research, which is beneficial to future research and practices.

An overview of existing bibliometric studies on blockchain research

Note: NP = number of publications; WOS = Web of Science Core Collection; CNKI = China National Knowledge Infrastructure Databases; EI = EI Compendex, an engineering bibliographic database published by Elsevier; Scopus = Elsevier’s abstract and citation database.

3 Data and Methodology

This section elaborates steps to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric-based analysis: 1) data collection, 2) methodological process. The overall approach and methodology are shown in Figure 1 , the details could be seen as follows.

Research methodology

3.1 Data and Collection

As the leading database for science and literature, the Web of Science Core Collection has been widely used in bibliometrics analysis. It gives access to multidisciplinary information from over 18,000 high impact journals and over 180,000 conference proceedings, which allows for in-depth exploration of the complete network of citations in any field.

For the sake of acquiring enough articles that are relative to the blockchain, we select keywords from Wikipedia and industry information of blockchain, and some existing research literature [ 1 , 20 , 23 , 30 ] . Moreover, in consideration of that, there are a host of blockchain research papers in various fields, in fact, although some papers use keywords in abstract or the main body, blockchain is not the emphasis of the researches. Therefore, in order to get more accurate research results, we choose to conduct a title search instead of a topic search. Table 2 presents the retrieval results with different keywords in the titles, we find that among publications that are relative to the blockchain, the number of Proceeding Papers is the biggest, which is closely followed by articles, and a few reviews. Based on the comparison of five search results in Table 2 . In addition, for accuracy and comprehensiveness, we manually go through the abstract of all the papers form conducting a title search, and choose papers that are related to blockchain. Finally, a dataset with 2451 articles is used in the subsequent analysis.

The dataset we choose has good representativeness, although it may not completely cover all papers on the blockchain, it contains core papers, and in bibliometric analysis, core papers are enough to provide a holistic view for a comprehensive overview of blockchain research.

Blockchain research article characteristics by year from 2013 to 2019

Note: Document type include: Article(A), Proceedings Paper(P), Review(R); Timespan = 2013 ∼ 2019, download in May 31, 2019; Indexes = SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, ESCI, CCR-EXPANDED, IC.

3.2 Methodological Process

The bibliometric approach has received increasing attention in many research domains. In this study, the methodological process mainly includes three methods: 1) descriptive statistical analysis, 2) article co-citation, author co-citation, and cluster analysis on co-cited articles; 3) time-zone analysis on co-cited keywords.

Descriptive statistical analysis displays an overall status of the research development in the target field, which mainly presents an overview by publication years, document types, the research area of published journals, number of citations, and in terms of most cited paper, influential author, institutions and countries. Co-citation analysis helps to identify the frequency of co-cited papers and authors and provides crucial insights into the intellectual structure of certain research fields [ 31 ] . Time-zone analysis helps to understand the flow of information and research trends in the target area [ 32 ] .

Various visualization tools have been designed and developed as computer software such as Citespace and VOSviewer. In this study, we use Citespace for co-citation analysis and timezone analysis, VOSviewer is adopted for social network analysis and visualization, we also apply other tools such as Excel and Tableau for basic statistical analysis and the visualization of the bibliometric results. Notably, in Citespace, core nodes are displayed as “citation tree-rings”, which contain abundant information of an article, for instance, the color of a citation ring denotes the year of corresponding citations, and the rule of colors in Citespace is the oldest in dark blue and newest in light orange with a spectrum of colors in between, the thickness of a ring is proportional to the number of citations in a time slice [ 33 ] . Figure 2 illustrates the details of the citation tree-rings. In addition, Citespace adopts a time-slicing mechanism to produce a synthesized network visualization [ 34 ] .

Citation tree-rings [ 33 ]

4.1 Distribution by Publication Year

Table 3 illustrates several characteristics of blockchain-related publications sorted by the year of publication. The annual number of articles and countries has been growing continuously since the proposing of Nakamoto’s paper in 2008 [ 1 ] , and the first blockchain research paper was published in 2013. By examining the published papers over time, there were only eight articles published in 2013. Afterward, with a continuous increase, a peak of 1,148 articles was published in 2018, and the number of publications is likely to grow ever since. Meanwhile, the annual number of countries taking part in blockchain research has also rapidly increased from 6 to 93 between 2013 and 2017, whereas the average number of Times Cited for single articles declined from 34.00 to 1.73 between 2013 and 2018. Over the observation period, 97 countries took part in the research on the blockchain with a sample of 44 in the H-index of our paper.

Statistical description of Blockchain research article from 2013 to 2019

Note: NP = number of publications; No.CO = number of countries; AV.TC = average number of Times Cited.

Figure 3 presents the cumulative numbers of published articles and citations from 2013 to 2019. There was a drastic increase in the number of papers published annually after 2016. As for the cumulative number of citations, there was no citation of blockchain literature before 2013, and 272 citations in 2013. By 2018, this number has grown over 10,000, which implies a widespread influence and attention of blockchain study in recent years.

Cumulative growth in blockchain publications and citations, 2013–2019

The exponential growth is a typical characteristic of the development of research fields [ 35 ] . The model can be expressed as:

where C is the cumulative number of articles or citations, Y is the publication or citation year, α , and β are parameters. In this study period, the cumulative articles and citations in the filed grow exponentially by R articles  2 = 0.9463 and R citations  2 = 0.8691 respectively. This shows that the research quantity curve of the blockchain is like an exponential function, which means the attention of academic circles on the blockchain has been increasing in recent years.

4.2 Distribution and International Collaboration Among Countries/Regions

A total of 97 countries/areas have participated in blockchain research during the observation period. Table 4 shows the number of articles for each country (region) contributing to publications. Remarkably, an article may be written by several authors from different countries/areas, therefore, the sum of articles published by each country is large than the total number of articles. As can be seen from Table 4 , the USA and China play leading roles amongst all countries/areas observed, with publications of 532 (20.94%) and 489 (19.24%) articles respectively, followed by the UK, which published 214 (8.42%) articles.

Blockchain research country (region) ranked by number of articles (top 25)

Note: NP = number of publications; No.TC = number of total Times Cited; AV.TC = average number of Times Cited; No.CA = number of Citing Articles.

From the perspective of citations, according to country/area distribution in Table 4 , we also find that USA-authored papers were cited by 1,810 papers with 3,709 (36.57%) citations, accounting for 36.57% of total citations. Meanwhile, articles from the USA also have a very high average number of citations per paper with a frequency of 6.97, which ranks third among the top 25 countries/ areas. Interestingly, the articles from Austria and Singapore appeared with the highest average number of citations per paper, with a frequency of 7.44 and 7.16 respectively, whereas the number of publications from these two countries was relatively low compared with the USA. The second was China, following the USA, papers were cited by 753 articles with 1,357 (13.38%) citations. Although the number of articles from China is close to the USA, the average number of citations per paper is lower with a frequency of 2.78. The subsequent countries include the UK, Germany, and Italy. The results indicate that the USA is the most influential country in blockchain.

International collaboration in science research is both a reality and a necessity [ 36 ] . A network consisting of nodes with the collaborating countries (regions) during the observation period is shown in Figure 4 . The network is created with the VOS viewer in which the thickness of the linking lines between two countries (regions) is directly proportional to their collaboration frequency. We can see from Figure 4 that the USA has the closest collaborative relationships with China, the UK, Australia, Germany, and Canada. China has the closest collaborative relationships with the USA, Australia, Singapore, UK, and South Korea. UK has the closest collaborative relationships with the USA, China, France, and Switzerland. Overall, based on the collaboration network, collaboration mainly emerges in highly productive countries (regions).

International collaboration network of the top 25 countries (territories), 2013–2019

4.3 Institution Distribution and Collaboration

A total of 2,190 institutions participated in blockchain-related research, and based on the number of publications, the top 25 of the most productive institutions are shown in Table 5 . Chinese Academy of Sciences had the highest number of publications with 43 papers, followed by the University of London with 42 papers, and Beijing University of Posts Telecommunications ranked third with 36 papers. The subsequent institutions included the University of California System and the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). In terms of the number of total Times Cited, Cornell University is cited most with 499 citations, and the average number of Times Cited is 20.79. Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed closely with 407 citations and with an average number of Times Cited of 22.61. The University of California System ranks third with 258 citations and an average number of Times Cited of 8.06. ETH Zurich ranked fourth with 257 citations and an average number of Times Cited of 10.28. It is notable that the National University of Singapore also had a high average number of Times Cited of 12.56. These results indicate that most of the influential institutions are mainly in the USA and Europe and Singapore. The number of publications from institutions in China is large, whereas few of the papers are highly recorded in average Times Cited. Papers from the National University of Defense Technology China took the highest of average Times Cited of 7.79.

Blockchain research country (territory) ranked by number of articles (top 25)

To further explore data, the top 186 institutions with at least 5 articles each are chosen for collaboration network analysis. The collaboration network map is shown in Figure 5 , the thickness of linking lines between two institutions is directly proportional to their collaboration frequency. As seen from the cooperation network in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cornell University, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), University of Sydney, and ETH Zurich cooperated widely with other institutions. This shows that collaboration between institutions may boost the research of blockchain which echoes with extant research that proposes with-institution collaboration and international collaboration may all contribute to article quality [ 37 ] .

Collaboration network for institutions, 2013–2019

4.4 Authorship Distribution

The total number of authors who contribute to the publications of blockchain is 5,862. Remarkably, an article may be written by several authors from different countries (regions) or institutions. Therefore, the total number of authors is bigger than the total number of articles. In fact, during the observation period, the average number of authors per paper is 2.4 articles. Reveals the distribution of the number of authors with different numbers of papers. As seen from the results, most of the authors had a tiny number of papers, i.e., among 5,862 authors, 4,808 authors have only one paper, 662 authors have two papers, and 213 authors have three papers.

According to the participation number of articles, the most productive author in the blockchain is Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond from Univ Texas San Antonio, who took part in 14 articles in blockchain, followed by Marchesi, Michele from Univ of Cagliari, who took part in 13 articles related to blockchain. The third most productive author is Bouri, Elie from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, and David Roubaud from Montpellier Business School. Miller, Andrew, Shetty, Sachin, and Xu, Xiwei ranked fourth, who took part in 10 articles related to blockchain.

The distribution of number of author with different numbers of articles

Note: No.AU = number of author; No.AR = number of articles.

Figure 6 displays the collaboration network for authors. The thickness of the linking lines between the two authors is directly proportional to their collaboration frequency. As we can see from Figure 6 , it indicates the most productive authors cooperate widely with others.

Collaboration network for authors, 2013–2019

4.5 Distribution of Subject Categories

Table 7 presents the top 25 blockchain categories ranked in terms of the number of articles published. As can be seen from Table 7 , among the top 10 categories, six are related to the Computer Science field, which indicates that blockchain-related researches are more abundant in the field of Computer Science compared with other research fields. Besides, there are also publications in the category of Business & Economics with 385 records.

The top 25 blockchain categories ranked by the number of publications

Figure 7 illustrates the betweenness centrality network of papers of the above categories by using Citespace after being simplified with Minimum Spanning Tree network scaling, which remains the most prominent connections. We can see from Figure 7 , the centrality of Computer Science, Engineering Electrical Electronic, Telecommunications, Engineering, and Business & Economics are notable.

Categories involved in blockchain, 2013–2019

4.6 Journal Distribution

The research of blockchain is published in 1,206 journals (conferences), the top 25 journals (conferences) are displayed in Table 8 . Blockchain research papers are concentrated in these top journals (conferences) and with a concentration ratio of nearly 20%. The major blockchain research journals include Lecture Notes in Computer Science, IEEE Access, Economics Letters, Future Generation Computer Systems, and Finance Research Letters, with more than 20 articles in each one. Meanwhile, the major blockchain research conferences include IEEE International Conference on Hot Information-Centric Networking, International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems Proceedings, International Conference on New Technologies Mobility, and Security, and Financial Cryptography and Data Security, with at least 14 articles published in each of these.

The top 25 blockchain publication journals (conferences)

Note: NP = number of papers; No.TC = number of total Times Cited; Italic represents conference.

4.7 Intellectual Structure of Blockchain

Since the notion of co-citation was introduced, there are a host of researchers have adopted the visualization of co-citation relationships. The work is followed by White and Griffith [ 38 ] , who identified the intellectual structure of science, researches then broaden the unit of analysis from articles to authors [ 39 , 40 ] . There are two major types of co-citation analysis, namely, article cocitation analysis and author co-citation analysis, which are commonly adopted to visualize the intellectual structure of the research field. In this study, we explore the intellectual structure of blockchain by using both article co-citation analysis and author co-citation analysis. We apply Citespace to analyze and visualize the intellectual structure [ 41 ] .

In this study, mining spanning trees was adopted to present the patterns in the author cocitation network, a visualization of the network of author co-citation is demonstrated in Figure 8 . In the visualization of the co-citation network, pivot points are highlighted with a purple ring, and landmark nodes are identified with a large radius. From Figure 8 , there are six pivot nodes and landmark nodes: Nakamoto S, Buterin V, Eyal I, Wood G, Swan M, Christidis K. These authors truly played crucial roles during the development of blockchain research. Table 9 shows the ranking of author citation counts, as well as their prominent publications.

Network of author co-citation, 2013–2019

The top 15 co-cited author ranked by citation counts

Nakamoto S, as the creator of bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, created and deployed bitcoin’s original reference implementation, is not surprised at the top of the co-citation count ranking, and has 1,202 citations in our dataset. Buterin V, a Russian-Canadian programmer, and writer primarily are known as a co-founder of ethereum and as a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, follows Nakamoto S, receives 257 citations. Eyal I, an assistant professor in technion, is a third of the ranking, with a representative article is “majority is not enough: Bitcoin mining is vulnerable”. Wood G, the ethereum founder, and free-trust technologist ranks fourth with 244 citations. The other core author with high citations includes Swan M, Christidis K, Bonneau J, Szabo N, Zyskind G, Castro M, and Meiklejohn S, with more than 150 citations of each person, and the typical publications of there are present in Table 9 .

To further investigate the features of the intellectual structure of blockchain research, we conducted an article co-citation analysis, using cluster mapping of co-citation articles networks to complete a visualization analysis of the evolution in the research field of blockchain. According to the article co-citation network, we adopted Citespace to divide the co-citation network into several clusters of co-cited articles. The visualization of clusters of co-cited articles is displayed in Figure 9 .

Clusters of co-cited articles, 2013–2019

As we mentioned earlier in the “Data and Methodology” section, the colors of citation rings and links are corresponding to the different time slices. Therefore, the deeper purple cluster (Cluster #1) is relatively old, and the prominent clusters (Cluster #0 and #2) are more recent. Cluster #0 is the youngest and Cluster #1 is the oldest. Cluster labels are identified based on burst terms extracted from titles, abstracts, keywords of bibliographic records [ 26 , 41 ] . Table 10 demonstrates six predominant clusters by the number of members in each cluster.

Results show that the research priorities of the clusters keep changing during the observation period. From the earlier time (Cluster # 1), bitcoin and bitcoin network are the major priorities of researchers, then some researchers changed the focuses onto cryptocurrency in blockchain research. Notably, more researchers are most interested in blockchain technology and public ledger recently.

According to the characteristics of pivot nodes and landmark nodes in the co-citation article network. The landmark and pivot nodes in co-citation articles are shown in Figure 10 , Five pivot nodes are Nakamoto S [ 1 ] , Wood G [ 44 ] , Kosba A [ 51 ] , Eyal I [ 12 ] and Maurer B [ 55 ] . The main landmark nodes are Christidis K [ 45 ] . Swan M [ 2 ] , Zyskind G [ 48 ] Nakamoto S [ 1 ] , Kosba A [ 51 ] , Notably, some nodes can be landmark and pivot at the same time.

Landmark and pivot nodes, 2013–2019

Summary of the largest 6 blockchain clusters

Details of the largest cluster (Cluster #0, top10)

Details of the largest cluster (Cluster #1, top10)

Details of the largest cluster (Cluster #2, top10)

As seen from Table 10 , Cluster #0 is the largest cluster, containing 36 nodes, for the sake of obtaining more information about these clusters, we explored the details of the largest clusters. Table 11 illustrates the details of the Cluster 0#.

We also explored Cluster #1 and #2 in more detail. Table 12 and Table 13 present the details of Cluster #1 and Cluster #2 respectively, it is notable that the most active citation in Cluster #1 is “bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system”, and the most active citation in Cluster #2 is “bitcoin: Economics, technology, and governance”. The core members of Cluster #1 and Cluster #2 deliver milestones of blockchain research related to the bitcoin system and cryptocurrency.

Table 14 lists the first 10 most cited blockchain research articles indexed by the Web of Science. These articles are ranked according to the total number of citations during the observation period. Among these articles, the publication of “blockchains and smart contracts for the internet of things” by Christidis is identified as the most cited paper of 266 citations. The paper also has the highest average number of citations per year.

The top 10 cited blockchain articles

4.8 Keywords Co-Citation Analysis

According to Callon, et al. [ 77 ] co-word analysis is a useful way of examining the evolution of science. In our study, among 2,451 articles related to blockchain, we obtained 4,834 keywords, 594 keywords appeared 3 times, 315 keywords appeared 5 times, and 130 keywords appeared 10 times. Table 15 presents the most important keywords according to frequency. As seen, ‘blockchain’ ranks first with an occurrence frequency of 1,105, followed by ‘bitcoin’ of 606. The other high occurrence frequency keywords include: ‘cryptocurrency’, ‘smart contract’, and ‘iot’ (internet of thing).

The top 25 keywords ranked by frequency

For the sake of further exploration of the relation amongst the major keywords in blockchain research papers, we adopted the top 315 keywords with a frequency no less than 5 times for co-occurrence network analysis. The keywords co-occurrence network is illustrated in Figure 11 . In a co-occurrence network, the size of the node represents the frequency of the keywords co-occurrence with other keywords. The higher the co-occurrence frequency of the two keywords, the closer the relationship between them.

The keywords co-occurrence network, 2013–2019

We can see from Figure 11 , the size of blockchain and bitcoin are the largest among all keywords. This means, in general, blockchain and bitcoin have more chances to co-occurrence with other keywords. Besides, blockchain is closer with a smart contract, iot, Ethereum, security, internet, and privacy, whereas bitcoin is closer with digital currency and cryptocurrency.

Figure 12 displays the time-zone view of co-cited keywords, which puts nodes in order from left to right according to their years being published. The left-sided nodes were published in the last five years, and on the right-hand side, they were published in recent two years. Correspondingly, some pivot nodes of keywords are listed in the boxes. We hope to show the evolution of blockchain in general and the changes of focuses in blockchain study.

The time-zone view of co-cited keywords, 2013–2019

The results suggest that, in 2013, when blockchain research begins to surface, bitcoin dominated the blockchain research field. Reasonably, the bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology, and the influential essays include quantitative analysis of the full bitcoin transaction graph [ 54 ] ; a fistful of bitcoins: Characterizing payments among men with no

names [ 50 ] ; and bitcoin meets google trends and Wikipedia: Quantifying the relationship between phenomena of the internet era [ 69 ] . Afterward, as various altcoins appeared, cryptocurrency and digital currency are widely discussed in blockchain-related research. The high-citation article is Zerocash: Decentralized anonymous payments from bitcoin [ 74 ] and privacy, which is the prominent characteristic of cryptocurrency. In 2015, blockchain and smart contract become a hotspot, the core publications include blockchain: A blueprint for a new economy [ 2 ] ; decentralizing privacy: Using blockchain to protect personal data [ 48 ] ; at the same time, some researchers also focus on the volatility and mining of cryptocurrency. In 2016, a growing number of researchers focus on the internet of things. The most popular article is blockchains and smart contracts for the internet of things [ 45 ] . In 2017, distributed ledger and blockchain technology become a research focus point. From 2018 onward, research focus on the challenge, and the inefficiency of blockchain appear.

4.9 Funding Agencies of Blockchain-Related Research

Based on all 2451 funding sources we analyzed in this study, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has supported the biggest number of publications with 231 papers, followed by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, which supported the publication of 88 papers. Comparatively, the National Science Foundation of the USA has only supported 46 papers. It is remarkable that the “Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan” supported 22 papers, which is more than the European Union. Table 16 illustrates the top 20 funding agencies for blockchain research ranked by the number of supported papers. The results indicate that China is one of the major investing countries in Blockchain research with the biggest number of supporting articles.

The top 20 funding agencies of blockchain-related research

5 Conclusions and Implications

5.1 conclusions.

This research comprehensively investigates blockchain-related publications based on the Web of Science Core Collection and provides a quick overview of blockchain research. In this study, a coherent comprehensive bibliometric evaluation framework is adopted to investigate the hot and promising blockchain domain. We outline the core development landscape of blockchain, including the distribution of publications over time, by authors, journals, categories, institutions, countries (territories), intellectual structure, and research trends in the blockchain academic community. Combining the results of statistical analysis and co-cited articles, authors, and keywords, we formulate the answers to the following research questions:

RQ1 What is the distribution pattern of blockchain publications and citations over recent years?

The published blockchain papers significantly increased since 2013, when the first blockchain paper was published. An increasing number of articles were published since. In 2018, 1,148 articles were published at the peak, and the number of publications is likely to continuously grow. As for the cumulative number of citations, there were only 272 citations in 2013. By 2018 this number has grown to more than 10,000, which implies a widespread influence and attention attracted by blockchain study in recent years.

RQ2 Which are the main international contributing countries (regions) and institutions in blockchain research, as well as collaboration networks among them?

A total of 97 countries (regions) participated in blockchain research during the observation period. USA and China play the leading roles among all countries (regions), with publications of 532 (20.94%) and 489 (19.24%) articles respectively, followed by the UK, Germany, Italy, and Australia. From the aspect of citations, USA-authored papers were cited by 1,810 papers with 3,709 (36.57%) citations, accounting for 36.57% of total citations. Articles from the USA also have a very high average number of citations per paper with a frequency of 6.97. Although the number of articles from China is close to the USA, the average number of citations per paper is lower with a frequency of 2.78. The results indicate that the USA is the most influential country in the field of blockchain.

A total of 2,190 institutions participated in blockchain-related research. Among them, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has the highest number of publications with 43 papers, followed by the University of London, Beijing University of Posts Telecommunications, University of California System, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Beihang University, University of Texas System, ETH Zurich. In respect of the number of total Times Cited and the average number of Times Cited, Cornell University is cited the most with 499 citations, and the average number of Times Cited is 20.79. followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California System, and ETH Zurich. The number of publications forms institutions in China is large, whereas few papers own high average Times Cited.

In terms of collaboration networks among different institutions, we found that the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cornell University, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), University of Sydney, and ETH Zurich cooperated widely with other institutions.

RQ3 What are the characteristics of the authorship distribution?

The total number of authors who contribute to the publications of blockchain is 5,862. the average number of authors per paper is 2.4. Among 5,862 authors, 4,808 authors have only one paper, 662 authors have two papers, and 213 authors have three papers. Based on the number of participated papers, the most productive author in the field of blockchain is Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond from Univ Texas San Antonio, who participated in 14 articles in the field of blockchain, followed by Marchesi M, Bouri E, David R, Miller A, Shetty S and Xu X.

RQ4 What are the core blockchain subjects and journals based on the number of publications?

Blockchain-related researches are more abundant in the field of Computer Science compared with other categories. Other major fields include Engineering, Business & Economics, Telecommunications, and Business & Economics.

RQ5 What are the major journals or conferences for blockchain-related research?

The research of blockchain is published in 1,206 journals (conferences), the major blockchain research journals include Lecture Notes In Computer Science, IEEE Access, Economics Letters, Future Generation Computer Systems, and Finance Research Letters. Meanwhile, the major blockchain research conferences include IEEE International Conference on Hot Information-Centric Networking, International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems Proceedings, International Conference on New Technologies Mobility and Security, and Financial Cryptography and Data Security.

RQ6 What are the most influential papers in blockchain research based on the number of citations?

Ranked by the total number of citations during the observation period, the publication: “blockchains and smart contracts for the internet of things” by Christidis and Devetsikiotis [ 45 ] is identified as the most cited paper with 266 citations, which also has a highest average number of citation per year, followed by decentralizing privacy: Using blockchain to protect personal data [ 48 ] with 169 citations and 33.80 average number of citations per year.

According to the number of times co-cited, the top five influential publications are as follows: Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system [ 1 ] , A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform [ 42 ] , Majority is not enough: Bitcoin mining is vulnerable [ 12 ] , Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger [ 44 ] , Blockchain: Blueprint for a new economy [ 2 ] .

RQ7 Who are the most influential authors in blockchain research according to the author co-citation network?

Some authors played a crucial role during the development of blockchain research, Nakamoto S, as the creator of Bitcoin, and the author of the bitcoin white paper, created and deployed bitcoin’s original reference, therefore is not surprised at the top of the co-citation count ranking and got 1,202 citations in our dataset. Buterin V, a Russian-Canadian, programmer, and writer, primarily known as a co-founder of Ethereum and as a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine who follows Nakamoto S and receives 257 citations. Other core authors with high citations include Eyal I, Wood G, Swan M, Christidis K, Bonneau J, Szabo N, Zyskind G, Castro M, and Meiklejohn S.

According to co-cited articles clusters, the research priorities in blockchain-related research keep changing during the observation period. Bitcoin and bitcoin network are the main priorities of researchers, then some researchers changed to focus on cryptocurrency in blockchain research.

RQ8 What are the research trends of blockchain?

The research priorities in blockchain-related research evolve during the observation period. As early as 2013, when the research on blockchain first appears, bitcoin dominated the blockchain research field. Then only one year later, as various altcoins begin to appear, cryptocurrency and digital currency are widely discussed in blockchain-related research. In 2015, blockchain and smart contracts become a hotspot till 2016 when a growing body of researches begin to focus on the internet of things. In 2017, distributed ledger and blockchain technology become the research focal point. From 2018 onward, research focus on the challenge and inefficiency of blockchain.

RQ9 What are the most supportive funding agencies of blockchain research?

The most supportive funding agency of blockchain research is the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) which has supported the publication of 231 papers. The results indicate that China is one of the major investing countries in Blockchain research with the biggest number of supporting articles.

Given the potential power of blockchain, it is noticeable that governments, enterprises, and researchers all pay increasing attention to this field. The application of blockchain in various industries, the supervision of cryptocurrencies, the newly rising central bank digital currency and Libra, are becoming the central issues of the whole society.

In our research, we conducted a comprehensive exploration of blockchain-related research via a bibliometrics analysis, our results provide guidance and implications for academic research and practices. First, the findings present a holistic view of research in the blockchain domain which benefits researchers and practitioners wanting to quickly obtain a visualized overview of blockchain research. Second, according to our findings of the evolution and trends in blockchain research, researchers could better understand the development and status of blockchain, which is helpful in choosing valuable research topics, the distributed ledger, the discussions on the inefficiency and challenges of blockchain technology, the supervision of cryptocurrencies, the central bank digital currency are emerging research topics, which deserve more attention from the academic community.

5.2 Limitations and Future Work

As with any research, the design employed incorporates limitations that open avenues for future research. First, this study is based on 2,451 articles retrieved from the Web of Science of Core Collection, although the Web of Science of Core Collection is truly a powerful database for bibliometric analysis, we can’t ignore the limitation brought by a unique data source. Future research can deal with this limitation by merging the publications from other sources, for instance, Scopus, CNKI, as well as patent database and investment data of blockchain, and it could help to validate the conclusion. Second, we mainly adopt the frequency indicator to outline the state-of-the art of blockchain research, although the frequency is most commonly used in the bibliometric analysis, and we also used H-index, citation to improve our analysis, some other valuable indicators are ignored, such as sigma and between centrality, therefore, it’s beneficial to combine those indicators in future research. Besides, it should be noted that, in co-citation analysis, a paper should be published for a certain period before it is cited by enough authors [ 26 ] , the newest published papers may not include in co-citation analysis, it’s also an intrinsic drawback of bibliometric methods.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71872171), and the Open Project of Key

Laboratory of Big Data Mining and Knowledge Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences

[1] Nakamoto S. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.eps 2008. Search in Google Scholar

[2] Swan M. Blockchain: Blueprint for a new economy. O’Reilly, 2015. Search in Google Scholar

[3] Weber I, Xu X, Riveret R, et al. Untrusted business process monitoring and execution using blockchain. Business Process Management, 2016: 329–347. 10.1007/978-3-319-45348-4_19 Search in Google Scholar

[4] Mettler M. Blockchain technology in healthcare: The revolution starts here. International Conference on E-health Networking, Applications and Services, 2016: 1–3. 10.1109/HealthCom.2016.7749510 Search in Google Scholar

[5] Paech P. The governance of blockchain financial networks. Modern Law Review, 2016, 80(6): 1073–1110. 10.1111/1468-2230.12303 Search in Google Scholar

[6] Yue X, Wang H, Jin D, et al. Healthcare data gateways: Found healthcare intelligence on blockchain with novel privacy risk control. Journal of Medical Systems, 2016, 40(10): 1–8. 10.1007/s10916-016-0574-6 Search in Google Scholar PubMed

[7] Maupin J. Mapping the global legal landscape of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2930077 2017. 10.2139/ssrn.2930077 Search in Google Scholar

[8] Sachin K, Angappa G, Himanshu A. Understanding the blockchain technology adoption in supply chains. International Journal of Production Research, 2018: 1–25. Search in Google Scholar

[9] Tasca P, Tessone C J. A taxonomy of blockchain technologies: Principles of identification and classification. Ledger, 2019, 4: 140. 10.5195/ledger.2019.140 Search in Google Scholar

[10] Catalini C, Gans J S. Some simple economics of the blockchain. Communications of the ACM, 2016, 63(7): 80–90. 10.3386/w22952 Search in Google Scholar

[11] Csoka P, Herings P J. Decentralized clearing in financial networks. Management Science, 2017, 64(5): 4681–4699. 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2847 Search in Google Scholar

[12] Eyal I. Blockchain technology: Transforming libertarian cryptocurrency dreams to finance and banking realities. Computer, 2017, 50(9): 38–49. 10.1109/MC.2017.3571042 Search in Google Scholar

[13] Huckle S, Bhattacharya R, White M, et al. Internet of things, blockchain and shared economy applications. Procedia Computer Science, 2016: 461–466. 10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.074 Search in Google Scholar

[14] Bahga A, Madisetti V K. Blockchain platform for industrial internet of things. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 2016, 9(10): 533–546. 10.4236/jsea.2016.910036 Search in Google Scholar

[15] Dorri A, Kanhere S S, Jurdak R. Towards an optimized blockchain for IoT. IEEE/ACM Second International Conference on Internet-of-Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI), 2017: 173–178. 10.1145/3054977.3055003 Search in Google Scholar

[16] Aitzhan N Z, Svetinovic D. Security and privacy in decentralized energy trading through multi-signatures, blockchain and anonymous messaging streams. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2018, 15(5): 840–852. 10.1109/TDSC.2016.2616861 Search in Google Scholar

[17] Mengelkamp E, Notheisen B, Beer C, et al. A blockchain-based smart grid: Towards sustainable local energy markets. Computer Science — Research and Development, 2018: 207–214. 10.1007/s00450-017-0360-9 Search in Google Scholar

[18] Korpela K, Hallikas J, Dahlberg T. Digital supply chain transformation toward blockchain integration. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2017: 1–10. 10.24251/HICSS.2017.506 Search in Google Scholar

[19] Toyoda K, Mathiopoulos P T, Sasase I, et al. A novel blockchain-based product ownership management system (POMS) for anti-counterfeits in the post supply chain. IEEE Access, 2017: 17465–17477. 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2720760 Search in Google Scholar

[20] Yuan Y, Wang F Y. Blockchain: The state of the art and future trends. Acta Automatica Sinica, 2016, 42(4): 481–494. Search in Google Scholar

[21] Yli-Huumo J, Ko D, Choi S, et al. Where is current research on blockchain technology? — A systematic review. PLoS One, 2016, 11(10): e0163477. 10.1371/journal.pone.0163477 Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

[22] Zeng S, Ni X. A bibliometric analysis of blockchain research. IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2018: 102–107. 10.1109/IVS.2018.8500606 Search in Google Scholar

[23] Miau S, Yang J. Bibliometrics-based evaluation of the blockchain research trend: 2008–2017. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2018, 30(9): 1029–1045. 10.1080/09537325.2018.1434138 Search in Google Scholar

[24] Hawlitschek F, Notheisen B, Teubner T. The limits of trust-free systems: A literature review on blockchain technology and trust in the sharing economy. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 2018: 50–63. 10.1016/j.elerap.2018.03.005 Search in Google Scholar

[25] Bonilla C A, Merigo J M, Torres-Abad C. Economics in Latin America: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics, 2015, 105(2): 1239–1252. 10.1007/s11192-015-1747-7 Search in Google Scholar

[26] Li X, Qiao H, Wang S. Exploring evolution and emerging trends in business model study: A co-citation analysis. Scientometrics, 2017, 111(2): 869–887. 10.1007/s11192-017-2266-5 Search in Google Scholar

[27] GaviriamarinM,Merigo JM, Popa S. Twenty years of the journal of knowledge management: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2018, 22(8): 1655–1687. 10.1108/JKM-10-2017-0497 Search in Google Scholar

[28] Faming W, Meijuan Z. Bibliometric analysis on the research hotspots of blockchain in China. Journal of Intelligence, 2017, 36(12): 69–74. Search in Google Scholar

[29] Mu-Nan L. Analyzing intellectual structure of related topics to blockchain and bitcoin: From co-citation clustering and bibliographic coupling perspectives. Acta Automatica Sinica, 2017, 43(9): 1501–1519. Search in Google Scholar

[30] Dabbagh M, Sookhak M, Safa N S. The evolution of blockchain: A bibliometric study. IEEE Access, 2019: 19212–19221. 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2895646 Search in Google Scholar

[31] Chen C, Ibekwesanjuan F, Hou J. The structure and dynamics of co citation clusters: A multiple perspective co-citation analysis. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2010, 61(7): 1386–1409. Search in Google Scholar

[32] Chen C. Visualizing scientific paradigms: An introduction. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2003, 54(5): 392–393. 10.1002/asi.10224 Search in Google Scholar

[33] Chen C. CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2006, 57(3): 359–377. 10.1002/asi.20317 Search in Google Scholar

[34] Chen C, Morris S A. Visualizing evolving networks: Minimum spanning trees versus pathfinder networks. IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2003: 67–74. Search in Google Scholar

[35] Guan J, Ma N. China’s emerging presence in nanoscience and nanotechnology: A comparative bibliometric study of several nanoscience giants. Research Policy, 2007, 36(6): 880–886. 10.1016/j.respol.2007.02.004 Search in Google Scholar

[36] Wagner C S, Leydesdorff L. Network structure, self-organization, and the growth of international collaboration in science. Research Policy, 2005, 34(10): 1608–1618. 10.1016/j.respol.2005.08.002 Search in Google Scholar

[37] He Z, Geng X, Campbellhunt C. Research collaboration and research output: A longitudinal study of 65 biomedical scientists in a New Zealand University. Research Policy, 2009, 38(2): 306–317. 10.1016/j.respol.2008.11.011 Search in Google Scholar

[38] White H D, Griffith B C. Author cocitation: A literature measure of intellectual structure. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1981, 32(3): 163–171. 10.1002/asi.4630320302 Search in Google Scholar

[39] Chen C. Searching for intellectual turning points: Progressive knowledge domain visualization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004: 5303–5310. 10.1073/pnas.0307513100 Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

[40] Borner K, Chen C, Boyack K W. Visualizing knowledge domains. The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, 2005, 37(1): 179–255. 10.1002/aris.1440370106 Search in Google Scholar

[41] Chen C. CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2006, 57(3): 359–377. 10.1002/asi.20317 Search in Google Scholar

[42] Buterin V. A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform. https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ 2014. Search in Google Scholar

[43] Eyal I, Sirer E G. Majority is not enough: Bitcoin mining is vulnerable. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2014: 436–454. 10.1145/3212998 Search in Google Scholar

[44] Wood G. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum Project Yellow Paper, 2014, 151: 1–32. Search in Google Scholar

[45] Christidis K, Devetsikiotis M. Blockchains and smart contracts for the internet of things. IEEE Access, 2016: 2292–2303. 10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2566339 Search in Google Scholar

[46] Bonneau J, Miller A, Clark J, et al. Sok: Research perspectives and challenges for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2015: 104–121. 10.1109/SP.2015.14 Search in Google Scholar

[47] Szabo N. Formalizing and securing relationships on public networks. First Monday, 1997. 10.5210/fm.v2i9.548 Search in Google Scholar

[48] Zyskind G, Nathan O, Pentland A. Decentralizing privacy: Using blockchain to protect personal data. IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops, 2015: 180–184. 10.1109/SPW.2015.27 Search in Google Scholar

[49] Castro M, Liskov B. Practical byzantine fault tolerance and proactive recovery. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS), 2002, 20(4): 398–461. 10.1145/571637.571640 Search in Google Scholar

[50] Meiklejohn S, Pomarole M, Jordan G, et al. A fistful of bitcoins: Characterizing payments among men with no names. Internet Measurement Conference, 2013: 127–140. 10.1145/2504730.2504747 Search in Google Scholar

[51] Kosba A, Miller A, Shi E, et al. Hawk: The blockchain model of cryptography and privacy-preserving smart contracts. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2016: 839–858. 10.1109/SP.2016.55 Search in Google Scholar

[52] Reid F, Harrigan M. An analysis of anonymity in the bitcoin system. Security and Privacy in Social Networks, 2013: 197–223. 10.1109/PASSAT/SocialCom.2011.79 Search in Google Scholar

[53] Luu L, Narayanan V, Zheng C, et al. A secure sharding protocol for open blockchains. ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2016: 17–30. 10.1145/2976749.2978389 Search in Google Scholar

[54] Ron D, Shamir A. Quantitative analysis of the full bitcoin transaction graph. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2013: 6–24. 10.1007/978-3-642-39884-1_2 Search in Google Scholar

[55] Maurer B, Nelms T C, Swartz L. When perhaps the real problem is money itself? The practical materiality of bitcoin. Social Semiotics, 2013, 23(2): 261–277. 10.1080/10350330.2013.777594 Search in Google Scholar

[56] Tschorsch F, Scheuermann B. Bitcoin and beyond: A technical survey on decentralized digital currencies. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 2016, 18(3): 2084–2123. 10.1109/COMST.2016.2535718 Search in Google Scholar

[57] Radziwill N. Blockchain revolution: How the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world. The Quality Management Journal, 2018, 25(1): 64–65. 10.1080/10686967.2018.1404373 Search in Google Scholar

[58] Azaria A, Ekblaw A, Vieira T, et al. Medrec: Using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. International Conference on Open and Big Data (OBD), 2016: 25–30. 10.1109/OBD.2016.11 Search in Google Scholar

[59] Narayanan A, Bonneau J, Felten E, et al. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies: A comprehensive introduction. Princeton University Press, 2016. Search in Google Scholar

[60] Miers I, Garman C, Green M, et al. Zerocoin: Anonymous distributed e-cash from bitcoin. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2013: 397–411. 10.1109/SP.2013.34 Search in Google Scholar

[61] Ober M, Katzenbeisser S, Hamacher K. Structure and anonymity of the bitcoin transaction graph. Future Internet, 2013, 5(2): 237–250. 10.3390/fi5020237 Search in Google Scholar

[62] Moore T, Christin N. Beware the middleman: Empirical analysis of bitcoin-exchange risk. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2013: 25–33. 10.1007/978-3-642-39884-1_3 Search in Google Scholar

[63] Androulaki E, Karame G O, Roeschlin M, et al. Evaluating user privacy in bitcoin. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2013: 34–51. 10.1007/978-3-642-39884-1_4 Search in Google Scholar

[64] Barber S, Boyen X, Shi E, et al. Bitter to better — How to make bitcoin a better currency. International International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2012: 399–414. 10.1007/978-3-642-32946-3_29 Search in Google Scholar

[65] Böhme R, Christin N, Edelman B, et al. Bitcoin: Economics, technology, and governance. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2015, 29(2): 213–238. 10.1257/jep.29.2.213 Search in Google Scholar

[66] Cheah E T, Fry J. Speculative bubbles in bitcoin markets? An empirical investigation into the fundamental value of bitcoin. Economics Letters, 2015, 130: 32–36. 10.1016/j.econlet.2015.02.029 Search in Google Scholar

[67] Urquhart A. The inefficiency of bitcoin. Economics Letters, 2016, 148: 80–82. 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.09.019 Search in Google Scholar

[68] Dyhrberg A H. Bitcoin, gold and the dollar — A GARCH volatility analysis. Finance Research Letters, 2016, 16: 85–92. 10.1016/j.frl.2015.10.008 Search in Google Scholar

[69] Ciaian P, Rajcaniova M, Kancs D A. The economics of bitcoin price formation. Applied Economics, 2016, 48(19): 1799–1815. 10.1080/00036846.2015.1109038 Search in Google Scholar

[70] Kristoufek L. BitCoin Meets Google Trends and Wikipedia: Quantifying the relationship between phenomena of the internet era. Scientific Reports, 2013, 3(1): 3415–3415. 10.1038/srep03415 Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

[71] Dwyer G P. The economics of bitcoin and similar private digital currencies. Journal of Financial Stability, 2015, 17: 81–91. 10.1016/j.jfs.2014.11.006 Search in Google Scholar

[72] Nadarajah S, Chu J. On the inefficiency of bitcoin. Economics Letters, 2017, 150: 6–9. 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.10.033 Search in Google Scholar

[73] Katsiampa P. Volatility estimation for bitcoin: A comparison of GARCH models. Economics Letters, 2017, 158: 3–6. 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.06.023 Search in Google Scholar

[74] Bouri E, Gupta R, Tiwari A K, et al. Does bitcoin hedge global uncertainty? Evidence from wavelet-based quantile-in-quantile regressions. Finance Research Letters, 2017, 23: 87–95. 10.1016/j.frl.2017.02.009 Search in Google Scholar

[75] Sasson E B, Chiesa A, Garman C, et al. Zerocash: Decentralized anonymous payments from bitcoin. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2014: 459–474. 10.1109/SP.2014.36 Search in Google Scholar

[76] Garay J, Kiayias A, Leonardos N. The bitcoin backbone protocol: Analysis and applications. International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2015: 281–310. 10.1007/978-3-662-46803-6_10 Search in Google Scholar

[77] Callon M, Courtial J P, Laville F. Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: The case of polymer chemistry. Scientometrics, 1991, 22(1): 155–205. 10.1007/BF02019280 Search in Google Scholar

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

• X / Twitter

Supplementary Materials

Please login or register with De Gruyter to order this product.

Journal and Issue

Articles in the same issue.

• DSpace@MIT Home
• MIT Libraries
• Graduate Theses

Blockchain technology in supply chain and logistics

Other Contributors

Terms of use, description, date issued, collections.

Show Statistical Information

Mon - Sat 9:00am - 12:00am

• Get a quote

Exploring the Effective Cryptocurrency Research topics

Cryptocurrency is a rich and varied field of research that touches on a range of important issues, from the impact on traditional financial systems to the environmental sustainability of cryptocurrency mining. Cryptocurrency research topics can provide insights into topics such as economic policy, financial markets, and the nature of money and value. It can also support to shed light on the underlying technologies, such as block chain, which have the potential to have wide-reaching impacts beyond the realm of cryptocurrency. By continuing to invest in research, we can gain a better understanding of the potential and limitations of cryptocurrency and its underlying technology. We offer here the latest and trending research finance thesis topic ideas for the field of cryptocurrency to keep the student updated with ongoing advancements in the field without any need to search for any additional sources.

Not only that, we provide here the top cryptocurrency research topic that can be an important and rewarding topic for Business students, as it has the potential to have a significant impact on the academic career of the student and getting good grades. The students who research cryptocurrency could potentially have a significant gain the broad idea about the topics through the given Thesis topics on the future of these industries.

Get an Immediate Response

Discuss your requirments with our writers

Get 3 Customize Research Topic within 24 Hours

Undergraduate Masters PhD Others

Cryptocurrency Thesis Topics

The topic of cryptocurrency has generated a significant amount of research and discussion in recent years, as it has the potential to disrupt traditional financial systems and challenge established economic and regulatory models. Some of the key cryptocurrency research topics in today’s world include Security, Decentralized Applications, regulation of cryptocurrency, and Economics.

The students who research cryptocurrency in their thesis project could gain valuable insights from given cryptocurrency thesis topics that could also be applied to the direction of the beginning of their project. The given topics are novel and not already well-researched so that students can gain a unique contribution from the field. The topics offers are feasible for students to research within the constraints of their time and resources, without facing any confusion and wasting their time in their choice ofthesis topics. The website is not only easy to navigate and use, with the topics presented in a clear and organized manner, and also provides a variety of field resources or support to help students with their research, such as access to data or guidance on research methods.

How “The Research Guardian” Can Help You A lot!

Our top thesis writing experts are available 24/7 to assist you the right university projects. Whether its critical literature reviews to complete your PhD. or Master Levels thesis.

Blockchain Thesis Topics

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are still relatively new and are constantly evolving. This means that there is a lot of room for research and the potential to make significant contributions to the field. Having access to our website that provides a wide range of outstanding blockchain thesis topics that are free of cost which can be helpful for students who are interested in pursuing research in this field. It can provide them with different blockchain thesis ideas to explore and can also help them to understand what areas of blockchain research are currently trending. Not only that, but It also delivers a useful resource for professors and academic advisors who are helping and advising students in selecting the thesis topics.

Latest topics of Cryptocurrency of 2022

We have provided the hot research topic of Cryptocurrency that are in the current business world.  In Today’s world cryptocurrency has attracted a lot of attention in the business world, and many companies are exploring ways to incorporate it into their operations. Overall, the most essential part of this platform like this is that it provides students with a range of high-quality, thought-provoking topics that will inspire them to select and conduct their research in the given area of this field. As cryptocurrency continues to evolve, there is likely to be a wide range of cryptocurrency research topics in 2022 that will be of interest and beyond. Here are a few potential cryptocurrency research topics that could be explored in the coming years for the students, along with aims and objectives.

The potential of cryptocurrency is to enable new forms of economic activity and facilitate the creation of new markets

Aim and objectives.

The aim of this study is to examine the potential of cryptocurrency to enable new forms of economic activity and facilitate the creation of new markets.

• To evaluate the use cases for cryptocurrency in enabling new forms of economic activity and creating new markets.
• To identify the different businesses that are using cryptocurrency to enable new forms of economic activity.
• To analyze the potential impacts of cryptocurrency on businesses, consumers, and regulators.
• To investigate the challenges and risks associated with using cryptocurrency to enable new forms of economic activity.

Machine learning as the digital platform to enhance activities of the cryptocurrency market

The aim of this study is to identify opportunities for using machine learning to enhance the efficiency and security of cryptocurrency systems.

• To analyze the impact of cryptocurrency activities on the digital platform of machine learning.
• To identify opportunities for using machine learning to enhance the efficiency and security of cryptocurrency systems.
• To evaluate machine learning algorithms and models that could be applied to these tasks, and assess their effectiveness and scalability.
• To examine the potential risks and limitations of using machine learning in the cryptocurrency industry.

Analysis of the practice of cryptocurrency for money laundering and other illegal activities, and to combat these activities.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of current efforts to combat the use of cryptocurrency for money laundering and other illegal activities.

• To examine the extent and nature of cryptocurrency use for money laundering and other illegal activities.
• To analyze the approaches taken by different countries and organizations to combat the use of cryptocurrency for illegal activities.
• To identify the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches.
• To suggest recommendations for improving the effectiveness of efforts to combat the use of cryptocurrency for illegal activities.

The economic implications of cryptocurrency and its potential to disrupt traditional financial systems as a store of value

The aim of this study is to examine the use of cryptocurrency as a store of value and its potential to compete with traditional assets.

• To review the existing literature on the use of cryptocurrency as a store of value.
• To analyze the historical performance of cryptocurrency as a store of value compared to traditional assets such as gold.
• To recognize the factors driving the demand for cryptocurrency as a store of value.
• To suggest recommendations for investors considering cryptocurrency as a store of value.

Get Help from Expert Thesis Writers!

TheresearchGuardian.com providing expert thesis assistance for university students at any sort of level. Our thesis writing service has been serving students since 2011.

The environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining and efforts to make these systems more sustainable.

The aim of this study is to identify the current state of cryptocurrency mining and its environmental impacts.

• To examine the impact of the environment on cryptocurrency mining.
• To evaluate the current state of cryptocurrency mining, including the energy consumption and carbon emissions of different mining operations.
• To understand the key drivers of the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining.
• To develop recommendations for reducing the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining.

The challenges and opportunities presented by blockchain technology in today’s world

The aim of this study is to examine the regulatory challenges and opportunities faced by blockchain technology.

• To review existing literature on the regulatory challenges and opportunities presented by blockchain technology.
• To analyze the different approaches taken by different countries and jurisdictions to regulating blockchain.
• To identify the framework for how policymakers should approach regulating blockchain technology, taking into account its potential benefits and risks.

The technical and security challenges facing cryptocurrency systems

The aim of this study is to identify the technical and security challenges facing cryptocurrency systems

• To evaluate the existing literature on the technical and security challenges facing cryptocurrency systems.
• To analyze the trade-offs involved in different approaches to addressing these challenges.
• To identify the practices and strategies to cope with these technical and security issues of the system.
• To suggest recommendations for the potential solutions to these challenges.

Examine the potential applications of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency in different industries

The study aims to examine the potential applications of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency, with a focus on the impact on industries such as supply chain management and real estate.

• To evaluate the impact of blockchain technology on key performance indicators in these industries such as supply chain management and real estate.
• To examine practices for implementing blockchain technology in different industries.
• To identify the challenges and opportunities presented by blockchain technology in different industries.
• To recommend strategies for optimizing the use of blockchain technology in different industries.

The psychology behind the adoption and use of cryptocurrency, including factors that influence people's decisions to buy, hold, or sell digital assets

The aim of this study is to identify the psychological factors that influence people’s decisions to buy, hold, or sell cryptocurrency.

• To examine the factors of psychological that influence people’s decisions to buy, hold, or sell cryptocurrency.
• To investigate the comparison between the psychological factors that influence the adoption and use of different cryptocurrencies.
• To evaluate the common patterns and trends in these psychological factors.
• To identify the strategy for business sectors to understand and influence people’s decisions related to cryptocurrency.

Analysis of the impact of cryptocurrency in the emerging business market and its potential to provide financial inclusion to underserved populations

The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of cryptocurrency in the emerging business market and its potential to provide financial inclusion to underserved populations.

• To examine the potential of cryptocurrency to provide financial inclusion in emerging markets.
• To recognize the key factors that contribute to the successful adoption and use of cryptocurrency for financial inclusion in emerging markets.
• To identify the barriers and challenges that underserved populations face in accessing financial services.
• To develop recommendations for effectively promoting the use of cryptocurrency for financial inclusion in emerging markets.

Decentralized applications (dApps) on blockchain technology and their potential to revolutionize industries

The aim of this study is to identify the current state of decentralized application development on the Block Chain technology

• To examine the different cases that use decentralized application development.
• To investigate the dApps in various industries including supply chain management, real estate, and others.
• To identify common trends and patterns in dApp development and use.
• To suggest a strategy for businesses and developers interested in leveraging dApps in their industries.

Analysis of the Social and technological factors that have shaped the development and adoption of cryptocurrency

The aim of this study is to examine the social and technological factors that have shaped the development and adoption of cryptocurrency

• To examine the social, technological, and economic factors that have influenced the development and adoption of cryptocurrency.
• To analyze trends in the adoption and usage of cryptocurrency by different demographics and industries.
• To estimate the future impact of cryptocurrency on various industries and stakeholders.
• To identify the key challenges and opportunities associated with the future development and adoption of cryptocurrency.

Factors Affecting Consumer Protection and Satisfaction with awareness of the Cryptocurrency market

The aim of the study is to examine the factors affecting consumer protection and Satisfaction with awareness of the Cryptocurrency industry.

• To investigate the current state of consumer protection satisfaction with the cryptocurrency market.
• To evaluate the impact of consumer satisfaction on key performance indicators in the cryptocurrency industry.
• To identify the challenges and opportunities presented by consumer protection in this market.
• To examine strategy and practice  for improving consumer protection and satisfaction in the cryptocurrency market.

Analysis of the scheming of community currencies based on blockchain technology

The aim of this study is to analyze the challenges and opportunities involved in scheming community currencies based on blockchain technology.

• To evaluate the use of blockchain for community currencies and alternative exchange systems.
• To analyze the key design considerations for community currencies based on blockchain technology, such as monetary policy, governance, and scalability.
• To examine the framework for how community currencies based on blockchain technology can be designed.
• To identify strategies of different approaches to designing and implementing community currencies based on blockchain technology.

Analyses the model of the cost of production for blockchain in the cryptocurrency market

The aim of this study is to the analysis of the cost of production model for blockchain technology in the Cryptocurrency market.

• To evaluate the existing literature on the cost of production for blockchain technology.
• To identify the key factors that impact the cost of Blockchain.
• To analyze a model for the cost of production for blockchain technology in the cryptocurrency market, and assess its accuracy and validity.
• To examine the impact of different factors on the cost of production for blockchain technology.

Looking For Customize Thesis Topics?

Take a review of different varieties of thesis topics and samples from our website TheResearchGuardian.com on multiple subjects for every educational level.

Meet Our Professionals Ranging From Renowned Universities

Related topics.

• Sports Management Research Topics
• Special Education Research Topics
• Software Engineering Research Topics
• Primary Education Research Topics
• Microbiology Research Topics
• Luxury Brand Research Topics
• Cyber Security Research Topics
• Commercial Law Research Topics
• Change Management Research Topics
• Artificial intelligence Research Topics

Home » Blockchain Research Topics for PhD

Blockchain Research Topics for PhD

A blockchain system is envisioned to store, process, and trace the resources regardless of central authority approval. For this purpose, each activity of transaction is registered in the distributed ledger of the blockchain. So, this technology is secure, robust, and scalable to share the resources fairly among peer nodes. For the most part, it eases the bottleneck of many-to-one network traffic. This page mainly deals with the current Blockchain Research Topics for PhD with its creative research areas and open issues!!!

In addition, it overcomes the single point failure because of its decentralized structure. Though it is one of the security mechanisms, it has few shortcomings when it is applied in real-world scenarios. And they are the issues related to privacy, consensus protocol, scalability, security, interoperability, governance, and standards.

4 Layers of Blockchain Technology

• Smart contract
• Cryptocurrency
• Digital Copy
• Proof of Stake (PoS)
• Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
• Proof of Work (PoW)
• Data Storage
• Merkle tree
• Communication Mechanism
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Network

Our researchers have years of experience in working with blockchain technology. So, they have vast knowledge in all recent research areas. From our recent study on the blockchain , we have listed the following areas as an innovative domain to handpick the best Blockchain Research Topics for PhD.

What are the research areas of Blockchain Technology?

• Blockchain Technology for precision agriculture
• Social Blockchain Network
• Blockchain-based 5G / 6G Communication Networks
• Blockchain in Internet of Things (IoT) Security
• Blockchain solutions for Intelligent Transportation System
• Integration of Blockchain with Advance Smart Grids
• Blockchain Standards. Tools, Testbeds, and Platforms
• Artificial intelligence (AI) in Blockchain Technology
• Private blockchain Decentralized Storage Systems
• Wireless Cellular Blockchain Networks
• Blockchain-enabled Information-centric Network
• Computing (cloud, fog, edge) Services in Blockchain Network

For your add-on information, we have also listed a few research ideas for Blockchain technology projects. All these notions are collected from budding research areas to give you up-to-date research facts.

Top 10+ Blockchain Research Topics for PhD Scholars

• Impact of Blockchain in Social Networks
• Advanced Cryptographic Technologies in Blockchain
• Blockchain Smart Contracts Applications
• Data Consistency, Transparency and Privacy in Blockchain
• Emerging Blockchain Models for Digital Currencies
• Blockchain for Advance Information Governance Models
• Blockchain in Future Wireless Mobile Networks
• Blockchain Law and Regulation Issues
• Blockchain Transaction Processing and Modifying
• Collaboration of Bigdata with Blockchain Network
• Blockchain-based Public Registries Record Maintenance and Replacement 
• Blockchain in Internet of Things Applications
• Network Security Issues in Blockchain Architectures
• Accountability, Data Integrity and Privacy Issues in Blockchain Solutions
• New Blockchain Taxonomies and Trust Models in Government and Public Services

Next, we can what is consensus algorithm in blockchain and why it is important. Attainment of the smart contract is the most challenging process ever in blockchain technologies . Though it is a challenging process, it is an important task performed by a consensus algorithm in the entire system. When the new block is created is over the network, it must be added to the chain once the peer nodes are admitted. Even if the small change is done in transaction/block, it needs to be updated with peers.

As a result, it stops the attackers to hack the block and do changes until the majority of peers are compromised. Also, the blockchain structure is intended to verify the reliability of the network to ensure security. On account of this security need, several consensus algorithms are developed and some of them are given as follows, 

Blockchain Consensus Algorithms

• Proof of Activity
• Proof of Burn (PoB)
• Proof of Weight (PoWeight)
• Proof of Importance
• Proof of Capacity
• Proof of Elapsed Time
• Proof of State (PoS)
• Delegated Proof of Stake (PoS)
• Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance
• Delegated Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance
• Directed Acyclic Graphs

How to evaluate the performance of blockchain?

Further, we can discuss how the blockchain system is assessed. Once, the blockchain application is developed then the overall efficiency of the system is needed to assess for weighting the performance. For that, it has several performance metrics to measure the system scalability, quality, and many more. This helps to create a new standard for new blockchain in comparison with other versions. Below, we have specified a few general parameters followed in run-time blockchain execution.

• It measures the number of transactions/records that are submitted and stored every second where the submission and storage values are computed independently
• Also, it helps to know the capacity of the blockchain system for scalability
• It measures the ratio of active full and partial nodes in the network
• Through this measurement, it can avoid historical data loss due to zero active node
• For keeping enough ledger redundant copies, it is used to trace the data
• It measures the number of active nodes in the network for a certain duration (per day/week/month)
• The count of the active node should be open to all other nodes in the network
• If there are more nodes are currently active then it means many nodes are trusting that blockchain application
• It measures the time taken by the transaction to record, submit and store in blockchain
• In other words, it measures the execution time of the consensus algorithm
• To compute the number of processing blocks, it needs to be measured
• Based on the timestamp of the block, the number of blocks is determined for a particular period (per hour/day)  
• Overall, this metric help to calculate the performance and scalability of the blockchain system
• It measures the time for validating and adding the blocks to the chain
• For that, it divides the total number of transactions (commit and validate) with the total time taken by the transaction (validate and store)
• It measures the time taken between submission and registration (i.e., included/excluded in a ledger)
• Based on the transaction timestamp, it compares the time of submission and storage
• It also exposes the fastness of the consensus algorithm

Further, we have given you the three most essential factors that are required to compute the total account score. Also, these factors play a significant role in increasing the score value . Let’s have a look at the following factors,

• Transaction Number and Size : A transaction higher than the minimum size will increase the score. Also, the repeated transaction will create a positive impact
• A partnership of Transaction : Look for transactions made with other NEM accounts where more transactions will increase the score
• Vesting : Count the vested coins for a specific period where more numbers will increase the score

As you know well, consensus algorithm has high importance in the blockchain system . So, we have given the list of parameters/criteria used for evaluating the performance of the consensus mechanism/protocol.

Criteria for Consensus Algorithms Assessment

• Trust Model
• Permission Model
• Blockchain Governance
• Sybil Attack
• Double Spending Attack
• Block Creation or Latency
• Transactions per Second (TPS)
• Verification Time
• Transaction Fees
• Power Utilization
• Special Hardware Dependency
• Mining Reward

So far, we have discussed the blockchain system research point of view. Now, from the development point of view, our developers have given a few platforms that are well-suited for effectively implementing blockchain applications.

Blockchain-Based Platforms

Further, they have also listed a few widely important programming languages which support blockchain projects development. More than this, we also give you information on other blockchain programming languages.

Top 5 Blockchain Programming Languages

• Python : Hyperledger Fabric, NEO, Ethereum and Steem
• C++ : Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin, Steller, QTUM, Ripple and Monero
• Java : NEM, NEO, IOTA, Ethereum, and Hyperledger Fabric
• Solidity – Ethereum-assisted smart contracts and other inherited models
• Go (Go language): Hyperledger Fabric, GoChain, Ethereum, and Dero
• C# : NEO, IOTA and Stratis

From the above, Python, Java, and C++ are highly used languages in developing the blockchain system. Then, Go and solidity languages are newly developed languages for blockchain projects where solidity support only ethereum projects.

            Last but not least, for the demonstration purpose, we have given the sample which gives an idea of in what way the blockchain is developed using python language. In specific, it gives information on basic requirements, implementation phases, functions, and block structure .

How to construct a Blockchain System using Python?

Basic Necessities

• Fundamental skills in coding
• IDE / Text Editors – Sublime Text and PyCharm
• Flask –Micro Web Framework (in Python)
• Python – Programming Language (Multi-paradigm)

Steps for Developing Blockchain

• At first, create the blockchain
• Then,  establish the communication with blockchain
• At last, integrate the API with blockchain

Key Methods for blockchain

• _init_(self)  –  To initialize the blockchain
• register_node() – To record a node to the network
• new_block(self)  –  To build and append a new block in the chain
• hash(block) – To implement hash function over a block
• new_transaction() – To create new transaction / record
• valid_chain() – To authenticate the chain
• poof_of_work() – To apply proof of work (PoW) consensus protocol
• valid_proof() – To authenticate block before adding to the chain

Block Structure

• Previous Block Hash
• Timestamp in Unix Time
• Transaction List

Further, if you require more Blockchain Research Topics for PhD projects , then contact our team. We will complete support to fulfill your requirements on time through our friendly guidance.

• [email protected]
• +91-97 91 62 64 69

Blockchain Master Thesis Topics

Blockchain has an objective to store digital information securely despite challenges. Due to its popular potentialities, it is deployed in many industrial sectors for its business applications. Nowadays, many blockchain-supported platforms are developed to build and test blockchain applications in various scenarios before direct implementation. From this page, you can get useful information on Blockchain Master Thesis Topics!!!

Most importantly, Ethereum and Bitcoin Blockchain have achieved massive attention for real-world deployment. Though it has several benefits, still it is lacking in many aspects. Some of the major issues of blockchain are cost, latency, scalability, storage, and throughput which is given as follows,  

What are the important limitations of blockchain technology? 

• In the blockchain consensus mechanism, each block is verified by the peer nodes. Only after the confirmation, the block is get registered in the ledger and added to the chain. For this verification service, the user must pay the peers. If the verification is done by externals then the user can pay a low cost for more transactions.
• Measure the amount of time required to accept the transaction from the time of submission. If there are huge transactions, then it takes more time for miners/peers verification. For example, Bitcoin takes 600 seconds for 1 block mining so the acceptance time also increases.
• Currently, blockchain looking forward to a solution to improve the scalability of the network. In other words, it requires high throughput but without affecting the security and distributed nature of the network . Further, the scalability also depends on elements such as storage, delay, and cost
• Each block in the blockchain has limited capacity (MB) but when there are large-scale transactions are ready to record then eventually the blockchain size will get increase. So, it requires more storage space to deal with huge records.
• Ethereum (ETH) – 222.58 GB and Bitcoin (BTC) – 305.23 GB
• Public : Ethereum – 15 tx/s and Bitcoin – 7 tx/s
• Private : Paypal – 193 tx/s and Visa – 1700 tx/s

Next, we can see the important features of the blockchain. These features define exactly what is blockchain. Also, you can able to identify how the blockchain is much better than the conventional security mechanisms. Let us now see about interesting key properties before implementing blockchain master thesis topics.

Key Properties of Blockchains

• Problem – In a centralized system, the controller who acts as an admin will take a decision. One wrong decision may affect the whole system.
• Solution  – Blockchain utilizes distributed consensus mechanism to manage smart contracts and check majority votes from miners to take decisions.
• Problem – The user can repudiate the communications or transactions in the system.
• Solution  – Blockchains apply digital signatures on each block/transaction to create everlasting databases.
• Problem – Proving the security algorithms is a difficult process in existing approaches.
• Solution – Blockchain uses strong cryptographic techniques and algorithms. In addition, it has decentralized consensus smart contract to strengthen the security
• Problem – In exiting system, if the employed third party is compromised by illegal activities then the threat of privacy and security risk will increase
• Solution – Blockchain enforces trust by considering the peer node’s validation. Only if an attacker gains 60% majority votes, they can control the network.
• Problem  – The modern system requires decentralized control to avoid single-point failure. But the existing systems are centralized in nature. In some cases, they are decentralized but don’t have effective security techniques.
• Solution – Blockchain offers the decentralized security platform for sort users

Further, we have also given you the blockchain research scope. These areas have the special attention of scholars to lead the future direction of blockchain research. For your awareness, we have listed a few of them,

Major Research Scopes of Blockchain 

• New important challenges in different blockchain solutions
• Recent security techniques and performance evaluation parameters
• Significant pros and cons of the blockchain system during the performance assessment
• In what way different blockchain systems are assessed in terms of consensus mechanism

Due to the increased growth of the blockchain in research, numerous platforms are introduced to support blockchain solution development. Though it is useful, it has some open issues for implementing the blockchain is real . For your reference, we have given a few of them,

Open Issues of Blockchain Platforms 

• Geth v1.4.18  – Consensus protocols
• Parity v1.6.0  – Transaction signing
• Etherum v.5.9  – transaction propagation, cost of consensus and peer discovery
• HLF  – Ordering service
• HLF v0.6.0  – Consensus protocols
• Byteball  – data storage in RDBMS
• HLF  – Consensus Mechanism
• Private Ethereum  – Transaction reading and writing logs
• Private Ethereum  – Consensus Mechanism
• HLF  – v1.0 – No parallel processing and commitments for the transaction
• HLF v1.0+  – Ordering service from user to write ledger
• HLF v1.2  – When the transaction is less, then it is committing phase. Similarly, when the transaction is more, then it is endorsement phase
• HLF v1.0 – endorsement policy, validation policy, and commitment policy for transaction

In addition, our researchers have pointed out three key security challenges in blockchain technology . And they are standard risks, value transfer risks, and smart contract risks . Let’s see them in detail,

What are the security risks of Blockchain?

• Standard : There is no proper standardization for blockchain technologies in a business environment. So, it has no transparent laws, policies, and regulations  
• Value transfer : Due to the distribution of the blockchain, the nodes in the network will transfer the valuable data among other nodes directly. The value may be sensitive information of business which ends up in new risk
• Smart contract : Though smart contract has a strong encryption technique to hash the block/transaction, it has one-to-one mapping i.e., physical to a digital platform. So, it has some security risks.  

Security Attacks in Blockchain 

To solve security attacks, one should use effective measures through advanced blockchain solutions and technologies . For instance, one can minimize the mining fee limit for each block. Below, we have bulletined five common blockchain attacks vectors,

• Mining pool attacks
• Smart contract attacks
• User wallet attacks
• Blockchain network attacks
• Attack on verifying the transaction

Though distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is rare to occur in blockchain, they can hack the network. To hack the network, it continuously sends massive requests to the network. As a result, increase the network traffic which slows down the system computing speeds. On the whole, DDoS attackers will succeed in disconnecting a network’s crypto exchanges, e-wallets, mining pools, and other user services. So, it is essential to take effective measures to prevent DDoS attacks on the application layer. Here, we have also given you other threatening attacks in different phases.

• Consensus Delay
• Finney Hack / Attacks
• Selfish Mining
• Timejacking Attacks
• DNS Hijacks / DNS redirect
• Eclipse Attack
• Block Withholding Attack
• Majority Attack / 51% Attack
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route Hijacks
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
• Balance Attacks
• Wallet Hacking
• Overflow Attacks
• Cryptojacking
• Replay Attacks
• Reentrancy Attacks
• Double-spending
• Short Address Attacks
• Smart Contract Denial of Service (DoS)
• Orphaned Blocks

So far, we have discussed the blockchain research scope, open issues in platforms, security risks, attacks, etc. Now we can see the foremost Blockchain Master Thesis Topics which has future scope for sure.  

Blockchain Master Thesis Topics

• Inspection of Attacks in Blockchain Layer and Application Layer
• Optimization of Consensus Algorithm for Public and Private Blockchain
• Blockchain-based Secure Distributed Data Storage and Access

Moreover, we have also listed current research ideas for master thesis topics . More than this, we have an enormous amount of the latest research notions. You can find us as the right place to get up-to-date research updates.  

What are the master’s thesis ideas in blockchain? 

• Blockchain-based Secure Digital Polling System
• Deployment of IoT enabled Blockchain in Fog-Edge Computing Environment
• Secure Government Documents Management and Distribution using Blockchain Technology

Next, our native writer team suggested some steps / key points that make you write the best thesis. Since a thesis is the best opportunity to deliver your research efforts and capabilities to the readers and followers.   

How to write a good master thesis? 

• Make clear research objectives
• Collect the recent Blockchain Master Thesis Topics
• Select the optimal Topic in your interest
• Perform Thorough Literature Survey (take nearly 40+ topics)
• Analyze the advantage and disadvantages of the papers
• Narrow down the topic and point out the research problem for the Thesis
• Elaborate the handpicked Optimal Solutions (Techniques and Algorithms) to solve the problem
• Analyze and Discuss the Experimental Results
• Give Summary, Limitation, and Conclusion (emphasis the findings)
• Recommend the Future works

On the whole, if you need extraordinary Blockchain Master Thesis Topics then contact us. Our experts will guide you in the right direction to reach your research success in a remarkable way of approach.

Opening Hours

• Mon-Sat 09.00 am – 6.30 pm
• Lunch Time 12.30 pm – 01.30 pm
• Break Time 04.00 pm – 04.30 pm
• 18 years service excellence
• 40+ country reach
• 36+ university mou
• 194+ college mou
• 6000+ happy customers
• 100+ employees
• 240+ writers
• 60+ developers
• 45+ researchers
• 540+ Journal tieup

Payment Options

Our Clients

Social Links

• Terms of Use

Opening Time

Closing Time

• We follow Indian time zone

Dissertation Services

• Dissertation Writing Service
• Dissertation Assistance Service
• Dissertation Consulting Service
• Buy Dissertation
• Dissertation Abstract Writing Services
• Dissertation Formatting Service
• Buy Dissertation Methodology
• Dissertation Case Study Service
• Pay For Dissertation
• Dissertation Chapter Writing Services
• Dissertation Conclusion Services
• Dissertation Data Analysis Services
• Dissertation Discussion Writing Services
• Dissertation Introduction Writing Service
• Dissertation Outline Service
• Online Dissertation Help
• Write My Dissertation
• Do My Dissertation
• Help With Thesis Writing Service
• Dissertation Writing England
• Dissertation Writing Service London
• Dissertation Writing Northern Ireland
• Dissertation Writing Scotland
• Dissertation Writing Wales
• Personal Statement Writing Service

Dissertation Subjects

• Marketing Dissertation
• Digital Marketing Dissertation
• Law Dissertation Help
• Economics Dissertation
• Accounting Dissertation
• Business Management Dissertation
• Nursing Dissertation
• Psychology Dissertation
• Social Media Marketing Dissertation
• English Literature Dissertation Help
• Finance Dissertation
• History Dissertation
• HRM Dissertation
• IT Dissertation
• Linguistics Dissertation Help
• Supply Chain Management Dissertation Help
• Health And Social Care Dissertation

Dissertation Levels

• Buy Master Dissertation
• MBA Dissertation Writing Service
• Buy PhD Dissertation
• Masters Dissertation Proposal Help
• MBA Dissertation Proposal Help
• PhD Data Collection Services
• PhD Dissertation Proposal Help
• PhD Qualitative Data Analysis Services
• Master Thesis Help
• PhD Thesis Writing Help
• PhD Dissertation Editing
• Finance Dissertation Editing
• Digital Marketing Dissertation Editing
• Accounting Dissertation Editing
• Sociology Dissertation Editing
• English Literature Dissertation Editing
• Economics Dissertation Editing
• Linguistics Dissertation Editing
• Business Management Dissertation Editing
• Psychology Dissertation Editing
• Marketing Dissertation Editing
• Academic Poster Designing Services
• Dissertation PowerPoint Presentation Service
• Dissertation Presentation Writing Services
• Literature Review Writing Service
• Primary Data Collection Service
• Qualitative Data Dissertation Services
• Research Data Collection Service
• Secondary Data Collection Help
• DISSERTATION SERVICES
• DISSERTATION SUBJECTS
• DISSERTATION LEVELS
• Buy MBA Dissertation
• PhD Dissertation Editing Services

Hire a Writer

Get an expert writer for your academic paper

Check Samples

Take a look at samples for quality assurance

• Dissertation Topics

Free customised dissertation topics for your assistance

Blockchain Dissertation Topics

• Accounting Dissertation Topics (8)
• Banking & Finance Dissertation Topics (10)
• Business Management Dissertation Topics (35)
• Economic Dissertation Topics (1)
• Education Dissertation Topics (12)
• Engineering Dissertation Topics (9)
• English Literature Dissertation Topics (3)
• HRM Dissertation Topics (3)
• Law Dissertation Topics (13)
• Marketing Dissertation Topics (9)
• Medical Dissertation Topics (7)
• Nursing Dissertation Topics (10)
• Other Topics (10)
• Supply Chain Dissertation Topics (2)
• Biomedical Science (1)
• Business Management Research Topics (1)
• Computer Science Research Topics (1)
• Criminology Research Topics (1)
• Economics Research Topics (1)
• Google Scholar Research Topics (1)
• HR Research Topics (1)
• Law Research Topics (1)
• Management Research Topics (1)
• Marketing Research Topics (1)
• MBA Research Topics (1)
• Medical Research Topics (1)
• How To (22)

Get a native to improve your language & writing

Enjoy quality dissertation help on any topic

Qualitative & Quantitative data analysis

Date published October 24 2020 by Stella Carter

This study aims to focus on blockchain technology evolution that occurred in commercial sector. Moreover, the research intends to focus on an introductory aspect of blockchain technology as basis of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Additionally, its objective is to provide detailed information regarding extension of capabilities of blockchain technology in light of it being a source of decline of preference of Bitcoin technology in commercial area. The research is directed towards discussion of Blockchain as source of revolutionised industry and commerce and its ability of overpowering bitcoin as driving power behind economic change.

Aims of variety of studies revolving around blockchain technology focus on identification of use cases along with examples of applications based upon blockchain in healthcare. However, this study is directed differently, focuses on development of understanding of challenges and limitations of use of variety of healthcare applications based on blockchain. It also strives to provide current trend of technical approaches, concepts and methods used in development of these applications and resulting limitations of these various operations in healthcare sector. This study seeks to provide details of adverse effects that blockchain applications have on healthcare and way in which they limit progression in this sector.

The focus of this study is on investigating various methods through which blockchain technology is likely to influence future of supply chain policies and practices. This study intends to highlight current and past momentum of blockchain technology in global supply chains. It seeks to provide information regarding predominating factors of blockchain technology in betterment of global supply chains. It attempts to extend information available on visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalisation and disintermediation which has occurred due to implementation of blockchain technology in this sector. It also aims to discuss resulting benefits of blockchain utilisation such as improved data security and smart contracts in various global supply chains.

This study seeks to focus on rapid implementation of blockchain technology with purpose of progression of these companies. The study intends to explain swift developing perception of business in financial sector regarding blockchain being source of success. By highlighting this aspect of blockchain in financial sector, this research aims to develop noteworthy information regarding various impact that this technology has left on financial services of various companies. However, it majorly plans to evaluate various jobs positions developed due to adoption of this technology in financial sector.

This research has explored perspective that exists regarding implementation of blockchain-based system integrating smart contract functionality in energy sector. It highlights ways in which blockchain affects sharing of energy for promotion of smart grids found to be helpful in management of electricity. It seeks to provide assessment of technical perspective of implementation of modular blockchain-based platform for extending exchanges of cryptocurrencies for renewable energy source. However, due to significance associated with this implementation, study strives to provides an evaluation of possible risks which could derail this process and caused hazardous results.

This paper aims to provide an assessment of potential blockchain databases for reduction of possibility of tax evasion among various people transferring money to foreign banks. This information will be shared against backdrop of recent advancements that have occurred in banking sector. The research will emphasis upon unique set of blockchain capacities of blockchain technology in banking sector. Conclusively, this research intends to provide information regarding evaluation of role that blockchain plays in increasing transparency in banking sectors which reduces risks of tax frauds and flow of dividends.

Significant shift in trend observed in global tourism industry which is use of cloud for data and service is focus of this study. It aims to provide need for this implementation due to need of convenience, savings and better provision of service. Moreover, this study in addition to need of this technology adoption focuses majorly limitations in use of primitive of conventional blockchain technology and models of access control. These limitations associated with security concerns regarding data in cloud environment in tourism sector around the globe.

In this research, blockchain technology is utilised, its current use in variety of sectors such as finance is focused throughout this entire research. In primary part of research, it initially provides through concept of virtual contracts. Furthermore, this study strives to signify various challenges associated with use of Virtual contacts which various financial sectors around the globe are trying to mitigate. Through identification of these issues, study aim to provide contacts in use of blockchain and their effects on rate of application of blockchain in finance.

This study is directed towards highlighting various risks that are associated with implementation of blockchain. The research intends to provide significant risks associated with endangerment of data relevant to various sectors such as healthcare. This study seeks to provide important details regarding concept of DDoS attack. It also brings to light various adverse outcomes that it can result for patient’s lives and reputations of hospitals. This research also strives to develop an understanding of various methods available for reduction of risks of DDoS attacks along with implementation of these methods in cloud-based blockchain environment.

This study introduces adoption of technologies which has been discovered to leave a significant impact on acquiring and development of skills in 21 st -century students. It also identifies increasing need for preparing workforce according to future needs of changing financial market. It focuses on prominent demands for providing students’ skills and lifelong learning with are becoming requirement for acquiring a job. Furthermore, this study aims to identify capacity of blockchain technology for restructuring educations system for fulfilling future needs.

This research focuses on examination of blockchain technology as an act of keeping list of company’s debit and credit in business sector. The study aims to provide elaborate details of evolution of technology in business sector in recent years. It highlights significant details of process of automated ledger keeping which emerged due to introduction of blockchains. Discussion of various uses, as well as methods of blockchain technology, will be identified as means of changes which has occurred in sector of business. This research seeks to provide elaborate details of revolution of accounting processes in businesses due to implementation of blockchain technology.

The study seeks to bring to light, pressing issue of offshore financing as means of tax evasion among various individuals, public figures and companies. Selectively, purpose of this article is accumulation of various pieces of evidence regarding unlawful financial fraudulent activities and cases across globe. It also strives to provide clear identification of relationship of such incidents to governments lack of interest in adopting blockchain technology as means of management of economy globally.

This research investigates impact of hindrance developed towards adoption of technology among consumers on basis of absence of significant knowledge regarding it. It aims to depict ways in which positive adoption decision is developed on basis of criteria of adoption. This study draws various aspects of blockchain technology such as negative press associated with it along with risk as well as trust of businesses. It examines various dimensions of consumer decision of adoption of a technology like this. Additionally, it focuses on development of relationship among various factors of implementation decision of consumer and significant lack of proper knowledge among companies.

Rapid research on blockchain technology has started expanding knowledge regarding use of this technology for diverse purposes, one of which this study proposes. The research intends to highlight effects of blockchain technology on prevalent poverty in developing countries majorly India. It seeks to highlight significant gap present between access to banking system among various financial classes in India. This study aims to put focus on factors such as increased level of access to banking, micro-lending and micro trading as a source of improvement of current rate of poverty in India.

This study is intended to target key influencers of performance of blockchain on management of global accounts in retail businesses spread worldwide. The research intends to study various effects and deliverables along with outcome as indicators of performance of accounts managements through use of Blockchain technology among global retail. Intention of this study is to highlight implications of use of blockchain on efficiency of management of accounts in an elaborate manner while identifying nature of these effects as positive or adverse.

This study aims to identify significant role of blockchain technology such as Blockchain-Based Mobile Edge Computing Frameworks in provision of therapies to children. It intends to highlight ability of such frameworks of provision of data regarding range of motions for children who are physically challenged. It seeks to identify influence that such blockchain technology-based framework has on therapy diagnosis and analytical data collection for delivery of efficient remedies to children. It majorly plans to bring these aspects to light to identify role of blockchain technology in providing improved therapeutic remedies to children.

Blockchain start-ups are focus of this study which initially introduces intensive discourse of social media on this technology. The study focuses on promotion of methods such as initial coin offering as financial instrument for start-ups. However, this study seeks to provide diverse aspects of deep rootedness of sentimental value of money among consumers as well as investors and financiers. This research intends to develop an understanding regarding variety of reasons causing failures of start-ups in blockchains. Through this, it aims to develop relation between sentiments that variety of people hold towards money and successful progression of blockchain start-ups.

The article intends to introduce blockchain in new light of being an independent resource. It plans to focus on presentation of blockchain as a business owned by no one and depiction it as a resource being used as a foundation in variety of ways. It seeks to present evidence that it is source of development of diverse customisable off-the-shelf solutions for vast numbers of vendors on global scale. For introducing blockchain technology as service, this study focuses on presenting evidence of its deployment in service providers such as Microsoft and Amazon AWS. Through this, the study aims to identify various effects of use of this technology as a service.

Brexit will be an initial focus of this article as it will assess various aspects of Brexit on UK. It intends to evaluate relationship that exists between Brexit and influence of technologies. Throughout this research, reflective purpose will be various aspects of blockchain influence in UK region. This study seeks to deliver UK in light of being a country emerging as being adversely affected by Brexit. This paper would present evidences regarding nature of these effects in regards to blockchain influence which presents a significant opportunity for this region.

This study focuses on real industry and present elaborate details of US real state industry. It also plans to present existence of blockchain technology in US various sectors including real estate. It seeks to present blockchain technology in light of being a management method which can be used in diverse settings. It aims to study influence of blockchain in real state industry along with ways in which it is being used for storing and management of asset information and ownership. Using this approach, this study intends to develop an understanding of role of Blockchain in US real estate industry.