Understanding the Blockchain Ecosystem with Analysis of Decentralized Applications: an Empirical Study

Blockchain technology is characterized by decentralization, traceability and tamper resistance. A decentralized application (Dapp) refers to a blockchain-based application deployed on Ethereum platform, with the aim to facilitate decentralized smart contracts and to prosper the blockchain ecosystem. In this paper, an in-depth analysis for the current decentralized applications is performed to reveal the structure and development situation of blockchain ecosystem. With a better understanding of the blockchain ecosystem, insights can be obtained for the Dapp developers as well as for the potential blockchain adopters. Furthermore, guidelines and suggestions are provided to inspire the business applications based on blockchain.

[1]  S. Nakamoto,et al.  Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System , 2008 .

[2]  Mary Lacity,et al.  Addressing Key Challenges to Making Enterprise Blockchain Applications a Reality , 2018, MIS Q. Executive.

[3]  Melanie Swan,et al.  Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy , 2015 .

[4]  Vitalik Buterin.  A NEXT GENERATION SMART CONTRACT & DECENTRALIZED APPLICATION PLATFORM , 2015 .

[5]  Daniel Davis Wood,et al.  ETHEREUM: A SECURE DECENTRALISED GENERALISED TRANSACTION LEDGER , 2014 .

[6]  Yujie Xu,et al.  Research on application of block chain in distributed energy transaction , 2017, 2017 IEEE 3rd Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering Conference (ITOEC).

[7]  Aron Laszka,et al.  Designing Secure Ethereum Smart Contracts: A Finite State Machine Based Approach , 2017, Financial Cryptography.

[8]  Mathias Weske,et al.  Blockchains for Business Process Management - Challenges and Opportunities , 2017, ACM Trans. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[9]  Zibin Zheng,et al.  An Overview of Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Consensus, and Future Trends , 2017, 2017 IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BigData Congress).

[10]  Miguel A. Teruel,et al.  Easing ÐApp Interaction for Non-Blockchain Users from a Conceptual Modelling Approach , 2020 .

[11]  Melanie Swan,et al.  Blockchain Thinking : The Brain as a Decentralized Autonomous Corporation [Commentary] , 2015, IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag..

[12]  Björn Scheuermann,et al.  Bitcoin and Beyond: A Technical Survey on Decentralized Digital Currencies , 2016, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

[13]  C. Bellavitis,et al.  Blockchain Disruption and Decentralized Finance: The Rise of Decentralized Business Models , 2019, Journal of Business Venturing Insights.

[14]  W. Nowiński,et al.  How Can Blockchain Technology Disrupt the Existing Business Models , 2017 .

[15]  Jannis Angelis,et al.  Blockchain adoption: A value driver perspective , 2019, Business Horizons.

[16]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  Latent Dirichlet Allocation , 2001, J. Mach. Learn. Res..