Blockchain Technology

This chapter elaborates on blockchain technology for building trust between parties via data transparency and cryptography, thus facilitating collaboration. A blockchain briefly represents a chain of blocks, namely, records or transactions that are linked using cryptographic hashes. By relying on a distributed and peer-to-peer network, each connected computer (called a node) has a copy of all transactions in a specific chain. Because any change in a previous record (or transaction) will break that chain, blockchains are highly secured against data manipulation and hacking. One of the most well-known blockchain examples relates to digital money or cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoins, but many other applications exist. To illustrate, we report on a blockchain application in the fashion industry, which has also a strong sustainability lens. Additionally, this chapter discusses different blockchain types and consensus algorithms while also referring to the role of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and quantum-safe computing.