Modern power systems face different challenges such as the ever-increasing electrical energy demand, the massive growth of renewable energy with distributed generations, the large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) devices adaptation, the emerging cyber-physical security threats, and the main goal of maintaining the system’s stability and reliability. These challenges pose extreme pressure on finding advanced technologies and sustainable solutions for secure and reliable operations of the power system. The blockchain is one of the recent technologies that have gained lots of attention in different applications including smart grid for its uniqueness and decentralized nature. In the last few years, this technology grew a momentum specifically with the cryptocurrencies’ industry such as the Bitcoin and Etherium. The Blockchain’s applications in the smart grids could offer many innovative and affordable solutions to some of the challenges that the future and the current smart grids will be facing. This paper reviews different prospects, advantages, approaches, and technical challenges of utilizing the blockchain technology in the smart grid, and presents frameworks for key smart grid blockchain-based applications; more specifically, it is shown that how the blockchain can be used as the smart grid’s cyber-physical layer.
Abstract The future of energy is complex, with fluctuating renewable resources in increasingly distributed systems. It is suggested that blockchain technology is a timely innovation with potential to facilitate this future. Peer-to-peer (P2P) microgrids can support renewable energy as well as economically empower consumers and prosumers. However, the rapid development of blockchain and prospects for P2P energy networks is coupled with several grey areas in the institutional landscape. The purpose of this paper is to holistically explore potential challenges of blockchain-based P2P microgrids, and propose practical implications for institutional development as well as academia. An analytical framework for P2P microgrids is developed based on literature review as well as expert interviews. The framework incorporates 1) Technological, 2) Economic, 3) Social, 4) Environmental and 5) Institutional dimensions. Directions for future work in practical and academic contexts are identified. It is suggested that bridging the gap from technological to institutional readiness would require the incorporation of all dimensions as well as their inter-relatedness. Gradual institutional change leveraging community-building and regulatory sandbox approaches are proposed as potential pathways in incorporating this multi-dimensionality, reducing cross-sectoral silos, and facilitating interoperability between current and future systems. By offering insight through holistic conceptualization, this paper aims to contribute to expanding research in building the pillars of a more substantiated institutional arch for blockchain in the energy sector.
Food traceability has been one of the emerging blockchain applications in recent years, for improving the areas of anti-counterfeiting and quality assurance. Existing food traceability systems do not guarantee a high level of system reliability, scalability, and information accuracy. Moreover, the traceability process is time-consuming and complicated in modern supply chain networks. To alleviate these concerns, blockchain technology is promising to create a new ontology for supply chain traceability. However, most consensus mechanisms and data flow in blockchain are developed for cryptocurrency, not for supply chain traceability; hence, simply applying blockchain technology to food traceability is impractical. In this paper, a blockchain–IoT-based food traceability system (BIFTS) is proposed to integrate the novel deployment of blockchain, IoT technology, and fuzzy logic into a total traceability shelf life management system for managing perishable food. To address the needs for food traceability, lightweight and vaporized characteristics are deployed in the blockchain, while an integrated consensus mechanism that considers shipment transit time, stakeholder assessment, and shipment volume is developed. The data flow of blockchain is then aligned to the deployment of IoT technologies according to the level of traceable resource units. Subsequently, the decision support can be established in the food supply chain by using reliable and accurate data for shelf life adjustment, and by using fuzzy logic for quality decay evaluation.
In the past decade, crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin have developed rapidly. Blockchain as the underlying technology of these digital crypto-currencies has attracted great attention from academia and industry. Blockchain has many good features, such as trust-free, transparency, anonymity, democracy, automation, decentralization and security. Despite these promising features, scalability is still a key barrier when the blockchain technology is widely used in real business environments. In this article, we focus on the scalability issue, and provide a brief survey of recent studies on scalable blockchain systems. We first discuss the scalability issue from the perspectives of throughput, storage and networking. Then, existing enabling technologies for scalable blockchain systems are presented. We also discuss some research challenges and future research directions for scalable blockchain systems.
Traceability and integrity are major challenges for the increasingly complex supply chains of today's world. Although blockchain technology has the potential to address these challenges through providing a tamper-proof audit trail of supply chain events and data associated with a product life-cycle, it does not solve the trust problem associated with the data itself. Reputation systems are an effective approach to solve this trust problem. However, current reputation systems are not suited to the blockchain based supply chain applications as they are based on limited observations, they lack granularity and automation, and their overhead has not been explored. In this work, we propose TrustChain, as a three-layered trust management framework which uses a consortium blockchain to track interactions among supply chain participants and to dynamically assign trust and reputation scores based on these interactions. The novelty of Trustchain stems from: (a) the reputation model that evaluates the quality of commodities, and the trustworthiness of entities based on multiple observations of supply chain events, (b) its support for reputation scores that separate between a supply chain participant and products, enabling the assignment of product-specific reputations for the same participant, (c) the use of smart contracts for transparent, efficient, secure, and automated calculation of reputation scores, and (d) its minimal overhead in terms of latency and throughput when compared to a simple blockchain based supply chain model.
In the last century, the automotive industry has arguably transformed society, being one of the most complex, sophisticated, and technologically advanced industries, with innovations ranging from the hybrid, electric, and self-driving smart cars to the development of IoT-connected cars. Due to its complexity, it requires the involvement of many Industry 4.0 technologies, like robotics, advanced manufacturing systems, cyber-physical systems, or augmented reality. One of the latest technologies that can benefit the automotive industry is blockchain, which can enhance its data security, privacy, anonymity, traceability, accountability, integrity, robustness, transparency, trustworthiness, and authentication, as well as provide long-term sustainability and a higher operational efficiency to the whole industry. This review analyzes the great potential of applying blockchain technologies to the automotive industry emphasizing its cybersecurity features. Thus, the applicability of blockchain is evaluated after examining the state-of-the-art and devising the main stakeholders’ current challenges. Furthermore, the article describes the most relevant use cases, since the broad adoption of blockchain unlocks a wide area of short- and medium-term promising automotive applications that can create new business models and even disrupt the car-sharing economy as we know it. Finally, after strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, some recommendations are enumerated with the aim of guiding researchers and companies in future cyber-resilient automotive industry developments.
The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on blockchain technology, present some trends and consider its potential value in supply chain management (SCM).,Papers that contained the word “blockchain” in their titles, keywords or abstracts were selected for conducting trend analyses.,The blockchain technology is rapidly making inroads in many industries and there is tremendous potential to eliminate intermediaries and to make SCM more efficient.,This analysis is limited to 299 papers from the EBSCO database through December 2018.,This paper highlights the imperative role of blockchain technology that has created a discourse in the world of innovation and technology. This work will help academics to further the understanding of blockchain technology.,Blockchain technology will provide transparency to consumers.,This paper presents the first review of blockchain technology and delves into its value in SCM. This work will help researchers in identifying the areas where blockchain is the most desirable and can be implemented.
Industry 4.0 is a concept devised for improving the way modern factories operate through the use of some of the latest technologies, like the ones used for creating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), robotics, or Big Data applications. One of such technologies is blockchain, which is able to add trust, security, and decentralization to different industrial fields. This article focuses on analyzing the benefits and challenges that arise when using blockchain and smart contracts to develop Industry 4.0 applications. In addition, this paper presents a thorough review of the most relevant blockchain-based applications for Industry 4.0 technologies. Thus, its aim is to provide a detailed guide for the future Industry 4.0 developers that allows for determining how the blockchain can enhance the next generation of cybersecure industrial applications.
Blockchain forensics inherently involves dynamic and iterative investigations, while many existing approaches primarily model it through static inference pipelines. We propose a paradigm shift towards Agentic Blockchain Forensics (ABF), modeling forensic investigation as a sequential decision-making process. To instantiate this paradigm, we introduce LOCARD, the first agentic framework for blockchain forensics. LOCARD operationalizes this perspective through a Tri-Core Cognitive Architecture that decouples strategic planning, operational execution, and evaluative validation. Unlike generic LLM-based agents, it incorporates a Structured Belief State mechanism to enforce forensic rigor and guide exploration under explicit state constraints. To demonstrate the efficacy of the ABF paradigm, we apply LOCARD to the inherently complex domain of cross-chain transaction tracing. We introduce Thor25, a benchmark dataset comprising over 151k real-world cross-chain forensic records, and evaluate LOCARD on the Group-Transfer Tracing task for dismantling Sybil clusters. Validated against representative laundering sub-flows from the Bybit hack, LOCARD achieves high-fidelity tracing results, providing empirical evidence that modeling blockchain forensics as an autonomous agentic task is both viable and effective. These results establish a concrete foundation for future agentic approaches to large-scale blockchain forensic analysis. Code and dataset are publicly available at https://github.com/xhyumiracle/locard and https://github.com/xhyumiracle/thorchain-crosschain-data.
Atefeh Nekouie, Majid Vafaei Jahan, Mohammad Hossein Moattar
et al.
Abstract Access control and data privacy are two of the main necessities in managing electronic health records (EHRs) across distributed domain. There are privacy gaps that expose EHRs to risks like unauthorized access by unaffiliated medical personnel. Traditional attribute-based encryption (ABE) allows encryption based on user attributes but is unable to incorporate data-specific attributes, such as the type of medical information included in the record or the potential physician. This paper introduces a novel approach that integrates ABE with large language models (LLMs) and blockchain technology to enhance security and contextual access control in EHR systems. Specifically, a domain-specific LLM, such as ClinicalBERT, is leveraged to automatically extract semantic data attributes from unstructured medical records, enabling a more granular and context-aware encryption process. By embedding both user and data attributes into the ABE framework, access policies are dynamically refined, ensuring that only authorized users can view specific types of medical information. Furthermore, blockchain’s immutable ledger enhances trust, streamlines attribute revocation, and fortifies the system against unauthorized modifications and security threats. The proposed framework significantly strengthens EHR privacy by integrating machine learning-driven attribute extraction with cryptographic access control, outperforming existing schemes in both security and flexibility. Evaluations validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in preventing unauthorized access while maintaining efficient and transparent data management.
Javad Zarrin, Hao Wen Phang, Lakshmi Babu Saheer
et al.
Blockchain has made an impact on today’s technology by revolutionizing the financial industry through utilization of cryptocurrencies using decentralized control. This has been followed by extending Blockchain to span several other industries and applications for its capabilities in verification. With the current trend of pursuing the decentralized Internet, many methods have been proposed to achieve decentralization considering different aspects of the current Internet model ranging from infrastructure and protocols to services and applications. This paper investigates Blockchain’s capacities to provide a robust and secure decentralized model for Internet. The paper conducts a critical review on recent Blockchain-based methods capable for the decentralization of the future Internet. We identify and investigate two research aspects of Blockchain that provides high impact in realizing the decentralized Internet with respect to current Internet and Blockchain challenges while keeping various design in considerations. The first aspect is the consensus algorithms that are vital components for decentralization of the Blockchain. We identify three key consensus algorithms including PoP, Paxos, and PoAH that are more adequate for reaching consensus for such tremendous scale Blockchain-enabled architecture for Internet. The second aspect that we investigated is the compliance of Blockchain with various emerging Internet technologies and the impact of Blockchain on those technologies. Such emerging Internet technologies in combinations with Blockchain would help to overcome Blockchain’s established flaws in a way to be more optimized, efficient and applicable for Internet decentralization.
PurposeBlockchain technology is booming in many industries. Its application in supply chain management is also gradually increasing. Supply chain management (SCM) has long been committed to reducing costs and increasing efficiency and is trying to optimise resources and reduce the sector's fragmentation. Trust has always been an important factor in managing supply chain relationships, and it also affects the efficiency of supply chain operations. To this end, this study aims to examine how trust is affected by the introduction of blockchain technology in construction supply chain management.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on semi-structured interviews and publicly available information from experts in blockchain and construction supply chain management. Through content analysis, the data are analysed thematically to explore how various types of trust, such as system-based, cognition-based and relation-based, are affected by blockchain technology.FindingsBlockchain technology provides solutions for data tracking, contracting and transferring resources in supply chain management. These applications help enhance the various sources of trust in SCM and provide supply chain partners with protection mechanisms to avoid the risks and costs of opportunistic behaviour in collaboration, shifting trust from relational to system-based and cognition-based.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses only on inter-organisational rather than interpersonal trust and empirical data from experts whose knowledge and cognition could be subjective.Practical implicationsLeveraging the potential of digitalisation to manage trust requires that leaders and managers actively try to improve contractual arrangements, information sharing and being open to new innovative technologies like blockchain.Social implicationsFrom a relational view of supply chain management, the extent to which blockchain technology can develop and spread depends on the readiness of the social capital to accept decentralised governance structures.Originality/valueThis study builds upon an original data set and discusses features and applications of blockchain technology, explores the sources and dimensions of trust in supply chain management and explains the impact of blockchain technology on trust.
Abstract The Internet of Things (IoT) has penetrated its roots in almost every domain of life. Smart healthcare is one of the major domains that extensively uses IoT infrastructures and solutions. IoT-based smart healthcare systems have immensely added value to the healthcare domain with the use of wearable and mobile devices. This leads to a substantial use of health data sharing for the improved, accurate, and timely diagnosis. However, smart healthcare systems are highly vulnerable to several security breaches and various malignant attacks, such as privacy leakage, tempering, forgery, etc. Recently, the blockchain technology emerged as a propitious solution against such breaches and challenges. This paper presents an up-to-date survey on different challenges and open issues faced in smart healthcare due to the traditional security measures along with the security requirements of such domains. It also amalgamates the potentials of blockchain technology as a promising security measure, highlights potential challenges in the healthcare domain, and provides an analysis of different blockchain-based security solutions.
ABSTRACT This study aims to compare the financial performance of 13 companies from the 2021 Forbes blockchain 50, all of which are also featured in the Brand Finance Global 500 for their high brand value, excluding firms in the banking and insurance sectors. The Forbes blockchain 50 list was chosen because it identifies leading firms actively leveraging blockchain technology (BT), making it a relevant source for examining the relationship between blockchain use and financial performance. The financial performance of these companies was assessed using the TOPSIS multi‐criteria decision‐making method, with performance scores derived from profitability ratios. Results showed that companies in the technology, logistics and commercial services sectors achieved higher performance index scores compared to others. The findings demonstrate that technology companies utilising BT and possessing high brand values showed elevated performance index scores. These results suggest that the adoption of BT has a favourable impact on the financial performance and brand value of companies. This study highlights the strategic importance of BT and its role in shaping the future of financial performance and brand value across various sectors.
PurposeThis paper discusses how the features of blockchain technology impact supply chain transparency through the lens of the information security triad (confidentiality, integrity and availability). Ultimately, propositions are developed to encourage future research in supply chain applications of blockchain technology.Design/methodology/approachPropositions are developed based on a synthesis of the information security and supply chain transparency literature. Findings from text mining of Twitter data and a discussion of three major blockchain use cases support the development of the propositions.FindingsThe authors note that confidentiality limits supply chain transparency, which causes tension between transparency and security. Integrity and availability promote supply chain transparency. Blockchain features can preserve security and increase transparency at the same time, despite the tension between confidentiality and transparency.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted at a time when most blockchain applications were still in pilot stages. The propositions developed should therefore be revisited as blockchain applications become more widely adopted and mature.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to examine the way blockchain technology eases the tension between supply chain transparency and security. Unlike other studies that have suggested only positive impacts of blockchain technology on transparency, this study demonstrates that blockchain features can influence transparency both positively and negatively.
ABSTRACT While blockchain technologies are gaining momentum within supply chains, academic understanding of concrete, real-life design and implementation is still lagging, hence offering very limited insights into the true implications of blockchain technology on supply chains. This paper reports a two-year design science research (DSR) study of a smart contract initiative piloted by a consortium in the UK’s construction sector. We seek answers to the research question, ‘How should a blockchain enabled supply chain be designed?’ Guided by the theory of business model, we explore how a group of supply chain actors collectively designs and pilots a blockchain solution that addresses the supply chain transparency and provenance problem. Our research is one of the very few longitudinal empirical studies to offer in-depth evidence about how blockchain is deployed in complex multi-tier supply chain networks. In compliance with DSR research paradigm, we make contributions at three levels: designing and instantiating the blockchain architect and proving its utility in addressing the target problem; developing a set of design principles as a mid-range theory that can be applied and tested in different blockchain supply chain contexts; and refining and extending the kernel theory of business value at supply chain network level.
BackgroundGlobal supply chains are increasingly challenged by disruptions, environmental pressures, and evolving market demands, necessitating a strong digital transformation. This study explores how the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing supply chain management (SCM) by improving operational efficiency, transparency, resilience, and sustainability.MethodsAdhering to the PRISMA framework, a systematic review of literature published between 2010 and 2024 was undertaken. Comprehensive searches were conducted in Scopus database. The collected literature was rigorously screened and analyzed using Atlas-ti software to identify recurring themes and assess the synergistic impact of AI, Blockchain, and IoT on supply chain operations.ResultsThe review reveals that digital transformation significantly improves SCM through improved demand forecasting, optimized inventory management, and real-time decision-making capabilities. AI provides predictive insights that mitigate risks and streamline processes, Blockchain offers secure, transparent, and immutable records that improve trust and traceability, and IoT enables real-time monitoring and connectivity across the supply chain network. Despite these benefits, challenges remain, including cybersecurity vulnerabilities, interoperability with legacy systems, and the need for workforce upskilling.ConclusionThe integration of AI, Blockchain, and IoT into SCM presents a compelling pathway toward creating more resilient and sustainable supply chains. The paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and challenges associated with these digital technologies and provides strategic recommendations for practitioners and policymakers to encourage a balanced, technology-driven, and sustainable supply chain ecosystem.JEL codesO33, M11, M15
Abstract Aiming at the critical challenges of fragmented environmental-economic value tracking and inefficient multi-stakeholder coordination in green electricity trading, this study proposes a blockchain-based collaborative management method integrating environmental attributes (e.g., carbon offsets) with economic transactions. Leveraging blockchain’s decentralized, tamper-proof distributed ledger, the method ensures transaction transparency, automates settlement via smart contracts, and establishes a verifiable audit trail for environmental benefits. Experimental comparisons demonstrate that the blockchain platform reduces transaction costs by 30%, shortens settlement time by 75%, and significantly enhances market liquidity and transparency versus traditional modes. This approach optimizes resource allocation, minimizes intermediary dependencies, and provides a robust technical pathway for scaling green power adoption. Key implementation barriers include blockchain’s energy consumption, smart contract vulnerabilities, and regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions. Future work will focus on enhancing blockchain energy efficiency and developing cross-regional regulatory frameworks for green power markets.
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are poised to revolutionize modern transportation, offering enhanced safety, efficiency, and convenience. However, AV architectures' increasing connectivity and complexity have introduced significant cybersecurity risks. This survey provides a comprehensive review of AV security challenges, focusing on widely adopted threat modeling frameworks such as STRIDE, DREAD, andMITRE ATT&CK. By examining common attack vectors and real-world case studies, including the Jeep Cherokee and Tesla Model S exploits, we highlight the urgent need for robust cybersecurity in in-vehicle systems and external interfaces. To complement existing modeling practices, we introduce Hybrid-SCDM, a novel framework that combines STRIDE-based threat classification with CVSS-derived DREAD scoring. This model transforms qualitative threat identification into quantitative risk prioritization by mapping CVSS metrics to DREAD dimensions through normalization. Applied to a generic multi-layered AV architecture, our findings show that intra-vehicle networks, especially CAN bus spoofing and fuzzing attacks, and suspension attacks, represent the most critical vulnerabilities due to their high exploitability and systemic impact. Beyond technical modeling, the survey explores emerging defense mechanisms such as blockchain-enabled Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication, AI-driven anomaly detection, and secure Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. We also examine legal and ethical considerations surrounding data privacy, user safety, and regulatory compliance. By integrating analytical modeling with broad system insights, this work provides actionable recommendations for advancing the cybersecurity posture of autonomous vehicles.
Transportation engineering, Transportation and communications
The People’s Republic of China is the global leader in terms of community code of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The article describes the current digital regulation of legal proceedings in China. The analysis involved The Rules for Online Proceedings of People’s Courts (2021) and The Rules for the Online Operation of People’s Courts (2022) issued by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China. These documents strengthen the principles of justice, efficiency, security, and equality for all citizens who use digital technologies as part of court proceedings. These regulatory acts protect documents published on smart court platforms: for the first time in world practice, these documents acquire gratum preasumptione if created with the help of blockchain technologies. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence serve as effective tools of supervision that control the professional activities of judges: in China, such supervision is believed to increase public confidence in the judiciary. The consolidation of ethical principles for the use of digital innovations is a key priority of the judicial system in the People’s Republic of China.