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Blockchain Initiatives Literature Review

While most applications of blockchain technology have emerged in the financial sector (for example, Zcash, Circle, and Abra), its practical applications go beyond finance, because essentially any type of digital asset can be tracked and traded through a blockchain. Many different industries are experimenting in the blockchain space, even though this experimentation is still in its early stages. Examples range from medical records (MedRec, PokitDok), to digital rights and micropayments (Brave Browser, Ascribe, Open Music Initiative), identity systems (uPort), and supply chains (Everledger, Hyperledger).

For your literature review this week, you are required to choose a blockchain initiative that interests you. It could be an existing application that you have come across in your own research, one of the examples listed above, or an idea that you may have for blockchain technology as a solution to a business problem.

You are to review the literature on your blockchain initiative and discuss problems and gaps that have been identified in the literature. You will expand on the issue and how researchers have attempted to examine that issue by collecting data – you are NOT collecting data, just reporting on how researchers did their collection.

Paper Layout:

1. Title Page
2. Table of contents:
   1. Use a Microsoft Enabled Table of Contents feature.
3. Background:
   1. Describe the issue, discuss the problem, and elaborate on any previous attempts to examine that issue. Be sure to discuss similar blockchain initiatives here.
4. Research Questions:
   1. In the identified problem area that you are discussing, what were the research questions that were asked? Be sure to include main research questions from all the literature you are reviewing.
5. Methodology:
   1. What approach did the researcher use, qualitative, quantitative, survey, case study? Describe the population that was chosen. You will discuss the methodology for all the literature you are reviewing.
6. Data Analysis:
   1. What were some of the findings, for example, if there were any hypotheses asked, were they supported?
7. Conclusions:
   1. What was the conclusion of any data collections, e.g., were research questions answered, were hypotheses supported? Be sure to also include the similarities and differences between the literature. Also discuss here the future of this blockchain initiative and if it is a viable initiative.