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Blockchain Technology

as a probabilistic state machine and cannot be used in domains where exact deci­

sions are required (Saito & Yamada, 2016). This technology can be used for solv­

ing various issues in several domains, such as Internet of Things (IoT), government

identification, healthcare, insurance, shipping, border control, energy, real estate,

advertising, waste management, supply chain management, industry and many more

such application areas.

The properties that make blockchain technology different from traditional data­

bases are as follows:

14.1.1 Distributed: Blockchain is not a centralized scheme and has a peer-to-

peer network technology. All the incoming data blocks can be verified,

recorded, stored and updated by all other nodes in the blockchain. If the

data is found valid, it is added to the chain; if not, it is discarded.

14.1.2 Autonomous: It is the consensus property of the blockchain system that

makes it autonomous in nature. Every node on the system can perform

the desired operation on a data block with the consensus of the majority

of nodes present in the network.

14.1.3 Transparent: Any kind of update or addition in any block by any node of

the blockchain is visible to all the nodes of that blockchain, thus improv­

ing the transparency of the system.

14.1.4 Immutable: Blockchain blocks are preserved for the future, and any ille­

gal modification in any block can be done only after gaining the compu­

tational powers of 51% of all the nodes present in the network.

14.1.5 Anonymous: Most blockchain systems are open to the public and sup­

port anonymous transactions, only requiring the user to know the block­

chain wallet address.

14.2  APPLICATION AREAS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

The idea of blockchain technology emerged from bitcoin cryptocurrency, but later,

the concept was used for different applications. Some of the application areas of

blockchain are discussed here:

14.2.1 Healthcare: Better services for end users can be provided by the health­

care sector adopting the latest technologies, such as blockchain. Health

data related to patients is crucial for individuals, families and society.

Privacy is one of the major concerns that need attention in the healthcare

sector. Blockchain can be used to ensure the privacy of the digital data­

base, which can be shared among various users.

14.2.2 Internet of Things: IoT can be defined as a collection of various heteroge­

neous devices exchanging information with each other. The application

domain of IoT includes smart agriculture, smart healthcare, wearable

technology, smart retail, smart cities, smart homes, smart grid, smart

healthcare, etc. Most of the IoT applications have centralized system

architecture. Some of the drawbacks of having a centralized system are