Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain”
This study covers the evolutionary development of blockchain technologies over the last 11 years (2009–2019) and sheds lights on potential areas of innovation in heretofore unexplored sub-components. For this purpose, we collected and analyzed detailed data on 107 different blockchain technologies a...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Blockchain |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.613476/full |
| _version_ | 1818715839158812672 |
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| author | Florian Spychiger Florian Spychiger Paolo Tasca Claudio J. Tessone |
| author_facet | Florian Spychiger Florian Spychiger Paolo Tasca Claudio J. Tessone |
| author_sort | Florian Spychiger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study covers the evolutionary development of blockchain technologies over the last 11 years (2009–2019) and sheds lights on potential areas of innovation in heretofore unexplored sub-components. For this purpose, we collected and analyzed detailed data on 107 different blockchain technologies and studied their component-wise technological evolution. The diversity of their designs was captured by deconstructing the blockchains using the Tasca-Tessone taxonomy to build what we call the “tree of blockchain” composed of blockchain main and sub-components. With the support of information theory and phylogenetics, we found that most design explorations have been conducted within the components in the areas of consensus mechanisms and cryptographic primitives. We also show that some sub-components like Consensus Immutability and Failure Tolerance, Access and Control layer, and Access Supply Management have predictive power over other sub-components. We finally found that few dominant design models—the genetic driving clusters of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP—influenced the evolutionary paths of most of the succeeding blockchains. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T19:09:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-915f24d246a94500a985a54decffdf5a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-7852 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T19:09:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Blockchain |
| spelling | doaj.art-915f24d246a94500a985a54decffdf5a2022-12-21T21:35:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Blockchain2624-78522021-01-01310.3389/fbloc.2020.613476613476Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain”Florian Spychiger0Florian Spychiger1Paolo Tasca2Claudio J. Tessone3Center of Enterprise Development, School of Management and Law, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Winterthur, SwitzerlandUniversity of Zurich (UZH) Blockchain Center and University Research Priority Program (URPP) Social Networks, Business Administration, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandCentre for Blockchain Technologies, University College London, London, United KingdomUniversity of Zurich (UZH) Blockchain Center and University Research Priority Program (URPP) Social Networks, Business Administration, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandThis study covers the evolutionary development of blockchain technologies over the last 11 years (2009–2019) and sheds lights on potential areas of innovation in heretofore unexplored sub-components. For this purpose, we collected and analyzed detailed data on 107 different blockchain technologies and studied their component-wise technological evolution. The diversity of their designs was captured by deconstructing the blockchains using the Tasca-Tessone taxonomy to build what we call the “tree of blockchain” composed of blockchain main and sub-components. With the support of information theory and phylogenetics, we found that most design explorations have been conducted within the components in the areas of consensus mechanisms and cryptographic primitives. We also show that some sub-components like Consensus Immutability and Failure Tolerance, Access and Control layer, and Access Supply Management have predictive power over other sub-components. We finally found that few dominant design models—the genetic driving clusters of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP—influenced the evolutionary paths of most of the succeeding blockchains.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.613476/fullblockchaindistributed ledger technologytaxonomyinformation theoryblockchain analyticsinnovation |
| spellingShingle | Florian Spychiger Florian Spychiger Paolo Tasca Claudio J. Tessone Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” Frontiers in Blockchain blockchain distributed ledger technology taxonomy information theory blockchain analytics innovation |
| title | Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” |
| title_full | Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” |
| title_fullStr | Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” |
| title_short | Unveiling the Importance and Evolution of Design Components Through the “Tree of Blockchain” |
| title_sort | unveiling the importance and evolution of design components through the tree of blockchain |
| topic | blockchain distributed ledger technology taxonomy information theory blockchain analytics innovation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.613476/full |
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