Blockchain-based Initiatives: Current state and challenges

Abstract

Blockchain is considered a distributed ledger that can transact securely and trustfully without involving any third party. It has caused a lot of interest in various sectors, like government, finance, banking, etc. Blockchain technology is suitable for areas where multiple data storage and transaction types generally require the third party to authenticate the transactions involving transaction cost and authentication issues. In this paper, various aspects of Blockchain technology applications in public concern sectors have been analyzed in detail. This paper also reviews the multiple case studies and implementations of Blockchain technology in these sectors and their current status that provide a detailed insight into all the aspects of its application. This paper finally comes up with various implementation requirements in Government, Health, Finance, Economics, and Energy. Further, it identifies the challenges in successfully implementing Blockchain technology in these mentioned sectors to provide a reference for future deployments.

Introduction

Blockchain technology's inception is considered from Satoshi Nakamoto's famous paper on Bitcoin that describes Blockchain technology as a means of direct financial transaction between parties without and trusted third party [1]. It is a decentralized ledger in which all transactions are safely accumulated in blocks, with each block connected to the next in a chain. When a new block is attached to the chain, it is appended. The Blockchain consists of a distributed database containing records of all the transactions and events, and it is a special form of distributed ledger that maintains a log of stored data in the form of the ledger in which a new transaction or information can be appended at the end. It does not allow any modification in the already stored data items. Any newly created data is not directly added instantly, but it is collected in batches in the form of a block, and then these blocks are further approved by consensus algorithms then only these data items are added into the existing Blockchain. A sample transaction in the Blockchain has been depicted in Fig. 1.

Researchers have classified the Blockchain into three types [2,3]:

• Public Blockchain: It allows anyone to create, modify, and validate the block, and every node can participate in the consensus process. Every user having similar resources possesses equal authority in creating a new node. It is also known as Permissionless or Public Permissionless Blockchain.

• Private Blockchain: It allows only a set of certified users in the network to make, modify, and create transactions inside the ledger. Only a limited number of users can be allowed in the consensus and new block generation. It is also referred to as Permissioned or Private Permissioned Blockchain.

• Hybrid (federated) blockchain: This type of Blockchain is a mixture of public and private Blockchain that makes a balance between these two and offers attributes of both. It allows each user to participate in the consensus mechanism but allows only certain users to create a new node explicitly designated. It is also considered a Public Permissioned Blockchain.

The high level of investment by Governments and enterprises in implementing Blockchain technology for various initiatives is an indicator of potential benefits. Various pilot projects based on are ongoing, and it is being used and proposed in every domain where a secure and reliable transaction is required. The analysis of multiple case studies and final outputs will further guide the best suitable approach for Blockchain application in various aspects [4]. Blockchain can be implemented in various domains like government, banking, healthcare, legal, economy, supply chain, real estate, Internet of things (IoT), etc., to improve efficiency, security, and other related aspects. The acronyms and abbreviations used in this paper are listed in Table 1.

The broad application domains of Blockchain technology have been shown in Fig. 2. Some of the application domains are Government, Health, Finance, Economics, and Energy. Blockchain technology application in these domains has been briefly defined here, and further analysis is given in section 2.

The security issues related to the government data exchanges can be addressed using Blockchain technology. The lack of trust in the election process is rising as a "most serious crisis" in recent years, and disenchantment from the process and lack of confidence are increasing day by day. In the case of Blockchain-based implementation for the electoral process, the votes can be traced accurately and counted quickly if the voters have been correctly identified and entered into the system. The Blockchain-based system will eliminate the requirement of citizen's data duplication by different government agencies, and the same data can be shared. Data stored using distributed ledger technology is secure from malicious modification or deletion. Using the distributed ledger technology, the Government needs not spend money on the massive data centers resulting in reduced maintenance cost. A significant chunk of around 2 billion citizens is out of the banking domain, and there is much scope for improving financial inclusiveness.

According to the world bank survey in 2014, around 18 percent of citizens do not have access to financial services due to the lack of digital identity or the inability to offer proof of identity [5]. There are many issues in the old financial system, like high transaction fees, financial viability for the current financial system. Some of the significant issues of inclusive growth in the financial sector can be resolved using Blockchain technology by reducing the transaction cost and time, reducing the investment cost in infrastructure building, and facilitating secure digital identity. So, Blockchain technology in the financial sector is an emerging application. The financial industry's size is enormous; there is a significant scope to introduce Blockchain technology in the financial sector. The use of Blockchain in financial services is at its early stage. Global institutions and regulators have recognized that Blockchain provides a significant role in fast-tracking rapid growth and financial inclusion. Introduction of the Blockchain technology in the finance sector has complex obstacles that require a combined creative solution from private and Government players to support the ecosystem. The energy sector comprises millions of transactions related to the trade and distribution of energy, which can be transformed using Blockchain technology. Blockchain technology uses the decentralized platform to optimize and control data at the facilities level in the energy sector, which results in high productivity in the existing grids, peer to peer transmission, support, and creation of the micro-grids [6].

Blockchain technology will be beneficial for the health sector. This technology can be used to maintain and exchange health records and manage the medicine supply chain management since this technology is decentralized and secure, which will provide an efficient solution to the health sector [7]. The health sector's big challenge is the isolated electronic health records maintenance by various entities that are not connected. Since the exchange of information is costly, each system needs different data standards and processes that are challenging to inter-operate [8]. The patient's record is distributed through other systems, making it hard for doctors to access their medical history.

The supply chain management of medicines is also a significant concern since many medical items are susceptible to a specific temperature range [9]. When exposed to a particular range of temperatures, the drug will not be effective as per the expected outcome or, in some cases, can also harm [10]. With the use of Blockchain technology in supply chain management, medical professionals can track and verify the medicines according to the environmental conditions and decide to discard or accept medicine as per medical standards. Blockchain technology can create better coordination between machine-to-machine communications in industries using the IoT device [11]. Also, it makes a decentralized marketplace for consumers and explains the Blockchain application in the IoT ecosystem [12]. Blockchain technology will create decentralized governance and drastically change the organization's current management scenario [13].

The economist Hernando de sotto states that poor people cannot access the formal economy and hesitant to share transaction information due to the unreliable record-keeping systems in developing countries. These countries can harness the potential benefits of Blockchain technology to become a developed economy. The benefits of using Blockchain are very high compared to the traditional record management system, like less cost and resources required to implement the Blockchain technology [14]. The concept of the digital economy is 20 years old. Still, today it got an appropriate technological platform recently in the form of Blockchain 2.0, which involves economic and financial applications, money transfers, and transactions. Economic and financial applications include the traditional loan and mortgage application process, financial markets like stocks, bonds, derivatives, contracts, other property assets [15].

The main evolving use case of Blockchain technology is a smart contract. It will automatically execute the condition as the pre-smart contract contains some of the agreement conditions like payments etc. The smart contract will transparently run pre-agreement that all parties agreed previously. In 2015 Visa and DocuSign displayed a smart contract for car leasing without the manual filing of forms [16].

Various surveys and literature reviews have been conducted on different aspects of Blockchain adaptability in different domain domains. These reviews are in specific areas and do not cover all the major areas of public concern. These reviews are based on individual areas that have been included in section 2. Few studies have tried to cover different domains, but these are not comprehensive and just discuss the fundamental aspects of usability [17,18,19]. A comparative study of the most recent literature reviews of Blockchain-based initiatives has been presented in Table 2.

This research work includes the major domains of public concern, namely Government, Health, Finance, Economic, and Energy, and reviews existing Blockchain-based systems in these domains and analyses the various challenges, requirements, and future applications. This review provides a platform for further research and helps in choosing future research directions. The main contribution of this research paper is as follows:

• Presented an overall view of Blockchain implementation benefits and scope of implementation

• Presented and reviewed the current initiatives in the major sectors of public concern, namely in the field of Government, Health, Finance, Economic, and Energy

• Identified the requirements for implementing Blockchain in various areas of identified sectors.

• Highlighted the challenges for the successful implementation of Blockchain in these areas of public concern.

This article is organized further as follows. In Section 2, various public concern areas, namely in the field of Government, Health, Finance, and energy-based initiatives, have been summarized. Multiple factors required for Blockchain implementation in these areas have been discussed. Section 3 highlights the significant challenges in implementing Blockchain technology in these areas that have been explained and analyzed. Further, this paper examines these factors in Section 4 and finally concludes the outcomes. Fig. 3 categorically shows the organization of the article.

Many countries have started projects for blockchain implementation in the public sector. These initiatives are mainly in the initial stage and being evaluated. Only a few initiatives are at a mature stage, but more and more countries are joining the blockchain platform for public sector systems. In this section, the various blockchain implementation in public sector initiatives around the world is presented.

The Government application is highly dependent on reliable and timely information that is safe from unauthorized disclosures and modifications [29]. These Government applications vary from voting, legal aid, startup support, land registry, civil supply, etc. Some significant aspects/requirements of the government sector need to be addressed [19]. These factors are mainly Data Reliability, Trust Management, Immutability of records, Personal data control, Transparency [30]. Some other factors inherent in these factors are Security, Privacy, Authentication, which are essential for Data Reliability.

These factors are necessary for a government system that records a big chunk of personal and confidential data. Without trust and security of records, the public will be hesitant to use these systems. The majority of government policies and decisions are based on available records that need reliable and transparent data records for quality decisions. Blockchain is a robust technology that can be very useful in government sector schemes and systems [31] [32]. In this section, various initiatives in different aspects of government have been summarized using Blockchain technology. Blockchain applications in government have been outlined in Fig. 4. Table 3 summarizes all the Blockchain-based initiatives in the Government sector, and Fig. 5 shows the initiatives country wise.

• In India, the State of Andhra Pradesh is developing a "Blockchain-based Land Title Registry," applying Blockchain technology for the land title registry to provide a secure and transparent way for land trading [18].

• Australia Post has taken the initiative named "Blockchain-Based Voting" for secure E-Voting using Blockchain. The permission is granted to the voters using a digital access key, and the ballot is secured using the cryptographic technique. However, the preference of vote given by the voter is also protected from being publicly available. The initiative is in the initial stage [33].

• Canadian Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development has taken the initiative named "The Blockchain Corridor Report" that explains the need for Blockchain technology to solve bottlenecks in industries' startups. Also, Blockchain can be used to solve policy and regulatory issues, monitor the process, and improve spending Issues in the field of research and development. The initiative is in the initial stage [34].

• Netherland's legal aid board has used Blockchain technology to create a secure and faster acknowledgment process for legal support. As the legal support board consists of no lawyers, by using Blockchain, we can first check the income of the individual who wants to have legal aid and adjudged his/her eligibility for free legal help. The lawyer can also work on different legal aids until he/she has not consumed all his credits allocated to him for the year 2017 [35].

• In India, the State of Andhra Pradesh is developing a "Civil Supplies Registry" that employs Blockchain technology to securely store public aids and land records that are generally prone to cyber-attacks. The State of Andhra Pradesh is engaged with some local startups working to make Blockchain-based services [36].

• United Arab Emirates, Smart Dubai office is developing a "Dubai Blockchain Strategy" as Blockchain technology provides secure safe, and simple transactions. That will give rise to safe, efficient, and impactful city experiences [37].

• The Estonian Government has completed a Blockchain-based i-Voting system that is useful for the Estonian citizens to cast their votes using the Internet throughout the world as per their timing and will. Estonia becomes the first country to use the i-Voting in the national parliamentary election of 2007. That will save the Government's cost and machinery and make the voting process simple and secure [38].

• E-Estonia has completed an initiative named "Blockchain-based Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI)" that can be used in Blockchain applications. It will make the unauthorized modification of the available data in the Blockchain networks impossible. Also, KSI makes sure that all the Blockchain network data is free from any compromise and achieves 100% data privacy [39].

• South Korea, Gyeonggi-do Province, has completed an initiative named "Local Government Voting" to enable the citizens to propose their project idea for government aid requirements. The citizens will vote for the available proposals. Blockchain-based voting will help secure and reliable voting and enable the Government to select the project's ideas and allocate the budget. Previously this was done using the paper-based or online system. Still, the project's selection was not reliable and tamper-proof, which is prone to the corrupt practices of backdoor selection by the officials [40].

There are various domains under the government sector where Blockchain can be effectively applied. These are

Digital Identity is a fundamental building block of the digital world. There are various forms of digital identity that provide access control, information security, and authentication. There are several issues like user control over their data and privacy in traditional digital identity [42]. Blockchain has been proposed to fulfill the self-sovereign identity principles that can provide user control, anonymity, and security to the user information. Many Blockchain-based identity management systems have been proposed. Still, some implications are like a key-management, identity revocation, and infrastructure building in Blockchain usage in identity management that need to be considered [43].

Throughout the world, governments and other aid agencies are providing financial support for inclusive development. Corruption is a significant hindrance to the full utilization of resources. Blockchain can help identify beneficiaries, check the cash flow, and transparency of records. It can remove the intermediaries like credit card companies to save a big chunk of transaction costs [44].

Public distribution systems aim to support poor citizens in fulfilling their food needs. It deals will the procurements of food grains and the distribution of these items to the poor. There are many frauds and corruption issues in this domain and a loss of food grains. It also takes place due to improper management and tracking. Blockchain can serve as a platform to eradicate the inherent administrative corruption and reaching out to maximum beneficiaries while safeguarding the food grain quality [45].

Taxation is the backbone of any country to run its financial needs. In developing countries, there is a different set of taxation regulations at the country and state levels. Also, the centralized or manual storage of records has a chance for alteration. By integrating the different sets of records from asset management, income tax, value-added tax, and invoicing into the Blockchain platform, a robust and immutable record management system can be developed to stop taxation fraud and government loss revenues [46].

Evidence is the basis that defines the outcome of any investigation and judicial process. It is crucial to maintain the evidence in the sequence of events, and their integrity should also be maintained for providing justice. Influential violators can try to alter the evidence that will be difficult to spot in the case of a traditional evidence management system. In the case of Blockchain, every aspect of evidence and communications can be documented and accessible to authorized entities only. It can help significantly in law enforcement and storing tamper-proof evidence [47].

Apart from evidence management, several aspects of the judicial process can be enhanced in some cases and can be replaced using Blockchain. Notary services and intermediaries in case of some validation can be dissolved entirely or replaced using Blockchain to reduce corruption and bribing.

In many cases, the legal proceedings go for a long wait due to a lack of judges and delay from various staff involved in the judicial process. These petty cases related to fines and contract violations can be easily handled using Blockchain and smart contract technology. It will lessen the load on judges, and they can be involved in other important cases. It will also remove the chances of bias, corruption, bribe, and unnecessary delays [48].

The health sector is one of the core sectors of any country. This sector has started adopting Information Technology in various domains of its operation like patient record management, sharing of records, the supply chain for healthcare, etc. These records vary from simple patient contact details to various personal medical records and historical archives of patients [49] [50]. A general structure of the Blockchain application in healthcare is given in Fig. 6.

Based on the technological domain development, different expert systems are being used by many countries for automated analysis and decision-making processes and shared by many constituents like nurses, doctors, health workers, management, and government entities [51,52]. There various factors of data management that need serious concern for large-scale adaptability and trust in the system. There are some specific requirements for this field. These are anonymity, control of personal data, privacy, immutability, decentralization, and proper authorization of records [53]. Few of them can be solved using centralized storage with appropriate authentication. Still, specific requirements, like the control of personal records, anonymity, and immutability, are challenging to implement in this scenario [54].

The health sector is one of the prominent fields that has seen many Blockchain-based initiatives due to the inherent requirement of data privacy, anonymity, immutability, and security of records [55,56]. All these requirements make the Blockchain the most suitable tool for the health sector. Many projects have been completed, and many more initiatives are either at the pilot project state or development stage. Some of the major initiatives have been summarized in this section.

• The Russian president signed a law that allows the use of Blockchain technology in healthcare and medical services. The ministry of health in Russia has taken the initiative named "Blockchain application in public health records" that uses the Blockchain for storing, identifying, and authenticating personal patient records to have better cooperation between different healthcare departments related to the patient health record. The initiative is in the initial stage [57].

• The Netherlands has taken the initiative named "Public Healthcare Benefits Subsidy," which uses Blockchain to speed up the administrative and financial process to subsidize healthcare services. The project is in the development stage [35].

• The Netherland healthcare institute has taken the initiative named "Healthcare Process Authorization" to develop an application using Blockchain for the people in case of an emergency to get authorization process from different health providers smoothly. As health providers always do not know each other, but by using Blockchain, they can trust various health providers and get authorization speedily that will result in the immediate treatment process for the person in an emergency. The initiative is in the development stage [35].

• The municipality of Stitches Vecht, Netherland, has taken the initiative named "Requesting Medical Devices" using Blockchain to request medical devices like wheelchairs and stairs, etc. secure and speedy. The procurement process requires many eligibility checks, supply, and delivery acknowledgments. This advanced system can handle these issues and remove these bottlenecks and speed up the process. The initiative is in the development stage [35].

• Dubai Global Blockchain Council planned to establish a "Global Blockchain council" for securing Public health records, business, tourism, title transfer, gold, and diamond trading. Using Blockchain, the Council will establish public-private cooperation between various government agencies, health providers, new startups, and business entities [58].

• The United Kingdom-based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has taken the initiative named "Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in Energy, Healthcare, Banking, and Policy-Making" for making transparent, secure, and privacy-preserving system in the healthcare sector. This initiative is in the initial phase [59].

• Health and Human Services of the United States have taken the initiative named "Blockchain in Healthcare Code" that uses Blockchain technology to manage patients' identity management and store patient records. Later these records are required by the healthcare providers, and it also secures the shared channel for data sharing related to the patient record [60].

• The Canadian government planned to establish the Blockchain Research Institute in the City of Toronto to intensify the Blockchain-based initiative, research, and development of new strategies in the Government and health sectors to better health management process Economic growth. This initiative is in the development stage [61].

• Estonia government had completed a Blockchain initiative," E-Health Records," in partnership with the Guardtime to secure the 1 million patient records using KSI and Oracle databases real-time visualization into the patient's records [62].

• E- Estonia had completed an initiative named "X-Road Interoperability Services" that use Blockchain to secure the record of 1 million patient [63].

Table 4 summarizes all the Blockchain-based initiatives in the Health sector, and Fig. 7 shows the initiatives country wise.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) has helped improve patient health records, but there are security and privacy issues during information exchange and collaboration in this system. Blockchain technology can help in exchanging information in a trusted and reliable manner [66].

Health records are required for research and analysis purposes, but the main problem is patients are not interested in sharing their details due to privacy concerns. Blockchain can help provide the health details while maintaining the anonymity feature that will fulfill the privacy requirements and provide complete data sets to research institutions with a high accuracy level [46].

In current EHR systems, there is a lack of interoperable data standards that hinders the collaboration with a different system and lacks collaborative decision making that is the need of time. Patients suffer from various diseases, consult with different medical experts and different hospitals. These organizations and medical experts may use different types of systems. There is a need for complete interoperable systems so that information can be collected and collaborated from various organizations and individuals [67].

Health insurance processing is a tedious and time-consuming task at the same time; many frauds are taking place by submitting false details to claim money from insurance agencies. Also, multiple claims are possible for fake claims. There is a need to integrate different health insurance companies' records and link them with health service providers [68]. It will resolve the issue of fraudulent health insurance claims and help in the efficient and fast processing of insurance claims [69].

There are several cases of fake medicines and vaccines that can be life-endangering, especially in the case of developing countries. The traceability of products and supplies during transit is also a significant factor. Blockchain technology can be used to develop a system that can guarantee the authenticity of the medical supply and real-time monitoring of supplies during transit. It can also help the big organizations with multiple locations in optimal use of medical resources and automated ordering while maintaining a safe level of stored medical supplies like medicines, vaccines, medical equipment, etc. [70,71].

Rapid changes occur in the energy sector, moving from a conventional energy generation model to a non-conventional generation that further requires a different transmission mode and tariff [72,73]. This sector also adopts IT-based solutions for monitoring the consumption and bill generation based on various parameters instead of the previous manual based straightforward tariff and billing [74]. Energy farming by individuals and private organizations, mobility and electric vehicle use, and charging, IoT-based applications in this sector is growing. Still, various factors are hindering their growth [75]. These collaborations of a significant number of participants and smart grid applications require a secure and reliable platform that can facilitate safe and reliable communication [76,77].

Also, such collaboration with unknown entities lacks trust between different objects. Overall the energy sector requires a technology that can guarantee secure and reliable communication/exchange, authentication, transparency, trust, and immutability [78,79,80]. Blockchain is gaining ground in this sector, and many systems/applications have been proposed based on Blockchain technology in the energy sector to resolve the bottlenecks. In this section, some major Blockchain implementations in the field of energy have been reviewed. Major applications and structure of Blockchain applications in the energy sector have been given in Fig. 8.

Table 5 summarizes all the Blockchain-based initiatives in the Energy sector, and Fig. 9 displays the initiatives country wise.

• Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate, the Netherlands, is working on an initiative named "Toxic Waste Transport" that will use Blockchain technology for managing toxic waste transportation. In the old system, the management of these tasks is paper-based and requires all the parties involved in the toxic waste removal to have their administration. Using Blockchain will automate the process of approvals from different authorities for toxic waste removal. The process takes less cost and time as compared to the old system using Blockchain [81].

• Australian government body named "DownUnder" has started an initiative called "Regulatory Hackathon" that organized a one-week program having representatives from finance and government sectors to judge and encouraged the Blockchain-based solutions for the heavily controlled energy sector [19].

• The city of Fremantle, Australia, initiated a "Blockchain-Powered Distributed Energy and Water Systems" that will assess the use of Blockchain technology in energy and water system. This initiative also supports the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Western Power, for low carbon emission [35].

• Gemeente Utrecht, Netherlands, is working on the initiative named "Waste Sector Data Sharing". The Blockchain-based waste removal process is automated and is efficient in terms of cost and time by connecting the waste weight data per container to the transporters, mediators, and final processors. Previously the parties involved in the waste removal have a different administration; using Blockchain, there will be a joint administration [35].

• The United States Department of Energy initiated a project named "Small Business Innovation Research", which encourages Blockchain technology to create robust and less vulnerable Energy systems. Blockchain and IoT in electric meters will give real-time and tamper-proof data measurement [82]. This initiative is in the pilot implementation stage [83].

• State of Illinois, United States, initiated a "Renewable Energy Credit Marketplace" using Blockchain to give the tax credits for Green Energy production that will increase the traceability and liquidity of tax credits and results in better green energy outcomes [58].

These are many possible applications of blockchain technology in the field of the energy sector. These have been discussed in this section:

In the energy sector, different organizations are using different platforms. Also, in the case of new micro-grids, there is a need for collaboration among various organizations to utilize energy resources better. Blockchain can be a possible solution in the energy sector case as in the case of other sectors to provide a platform for interoperability among different service providers. Users will have a choice also to choose the best available options as per the conditions [86].

Instead of fixed tariffs for electricity and other energy supplies, there is a need for varying tariffs based on the demand and available resources. In traditional systems, it is not possible to implement such solutions. Blockchain technology can provide a flexible and real-time valuation of generated resources and invoices based on defined parameters and demand-supply links [87,88].

In this connected and highly energy-dependent world, nothing can be assumed without electricity. There is a gap between demand and supply and also a lack of proper supply. The load requirements vary in different areas at different times. Sometimes it is very high and sometimes low, but due to lack of smart implementation, there is a similar supply all the time. Blockchain-based electricity supply chains and smart grids can accurately predict the load and balance requirements at different locations [89].

The finance sector is one of the significant users and where Blockchain has been implemented at the initial stage [90]. This sector's new decentralized business model is also a major facilitator of rising Blockchain applications [91,92]. Blockchain technology emerged from bitcoin and seemed more suitable in the financial sector in comparison to other sectors. Real-time, fast, automated, and reliable solutions are the financial sector's requirement with transparency and security of records [93,94]. Blockchain technology can solve the finance sector's needs like cost-effective solutions by automating the tasks, reliability, security of records, trust management while transacting with unknown parties, transparency, efficiency, and reduced time. In this section, the finance sector's existing Blockchain applications have been reviewed and presented [95]. Table 6 sums up all the Blockchain-based initiatives in the Finance sector, and Fig. 10 indicates the initiatives country wise.

• La Poste Tunisienne, Tunisia, has completed an initiative named "eDinar Digital Currency" that makes Tunisia the first country to issue a Blockchain-based cryptocurrency. The Tunisian Government has agreed with Monetas to enable its digital currency to make payments, money transfers, and all financial transactions [40].

• Reserve Bank of Australia has taken the initiative named "Developments in Financial System Architecture". It is working on using DLT based currency for Australia's reserve bank. The initiative is in the initial stage [96].

• Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) has taken the initiative named "Palestinian e-Currency" that makes the cryptocurrency the central currency for all the payments and financial transactions. That results in secure, transparent, easy to use, and corruption-free financial infrastructure to avoid the restriction that does not allow the reserve bank to issue its currency [97].

• Ontario Securities Commission, Canada, hosted a competition named "RegTech Hackathon," which highlighted the idea of using distributed ledger technology to make reliable, efficient, and transparent capital markets. The use of Distributed ledger technology will simplify the process of Know Your Customer (KYC) information collection [98].

• People's Bank of China is working on an initiative named "Central Bank Digital Currency" that will use cryptocurrencies, having the potential to reduce the frauds, forgery, corruption, and the cost of a transaction that will subsequently result in easy access to financial services. It will make the cryptocurrency easy to obtain, increase international transactions, and attract more investors, resulting in the economy's rapid growth [99].

• The Central Bank of Barbados has successfully implemented an initiative named "Central Bank Digital Currency" to use cryptocurrency in financial transactions. The reserve bank also keeps a significant chunk of physical currencies to manage the exchange rates [100].

Proper loan evaluation and risk assessment are very critical for the success of any financing agency. These assessments require information from different sources and the evaluation of various factors. In the case of human assessment, the time of processing is very high, and the chances of bias and corruption are very much. These factors affect the financial health of the organization negatively. The Blockchain-based approach can use interoperability concepts to integrate different data sources to investigate, and smart contracts can be used to make decisions based on defined factors intelligently automatically. This approach will reduce the processing time and chances of mistakes or corruption drastically [103].

Cheques and other modes of payments can be automated using Blockchain technology to function effectively and securely. However, most financial institutions have been designed IT solutions and automated the financial transactions and cheque clearance facility that has reduced the processing time. Still, these automated systems need scanning and uploading Magnetic ink character recognition MICR-based cheques and other related documents prone to cybersecurity threats. A Blockchain-based cheque clearance system can provide an e-cheque facility that can be used across different platforms and organizations to offer a high security and transparency level with fast, automated transactions [104,105].

Verification of customers or KYC is a regulatory requirement for the financial institution and very important for stopping fraud and foul plays. Generally, it is a manual process where customers or users submit their documents for physical verification in front of a verifying authority. Also, those documents need to be verified that is cumbersome and time-consuming. The KYC process can be automated with a high level of authenticity and removing any chance of fraud using Blockchain [106].

Payment gateways are the most crucial factor in online transactions, and their security is prime for financial transaction user trust.

Blockchain-based payment gateways can significantly reduce transaction processing, and they can provide a high level of security. Transactions can be easily traced, and any fraudulent transaction attempt can be stopped.

The digital economy is growing faster, and faster electronic commerce is fast becoming a standard instead of traditional marketplaces [91].

Even the conventional markets and other economic activities depend on collaboration between different entities and transactions of records [92,94]. The Blockchain application network in various aspects of the economic sector has been presented in Fig. 11.

This virtualization of the economy takes place in each domain and requires a trust management mechanism between unknown entities [27,107]. Another significant aspect of the economic sector is transparency, security, and transaction reliability [108,109]. These factors are suitable for Blockchain technology implementation to resolve such an important aspect and help further this sector's growth.

In this section, a summary of an existing blockchain-based system for the economic sector has been review. Table 7 abridges all the Blockchain-based initiatives in Economical sector, and Fig. 12 shows the initiatives country-wise.

• Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in collaboration with IBM corporation, are working on the initiative named "IBM Blockchain Innovation Centre" to build expertise in the financial trading system using Blockchain. Several entities are also working with innovation centers like Infocomm Development Authority, financial institutions, Port Authority of Singapore, etc. [6].

• State of Colorado, United States, has taken the initiative named "Blockchain Legislative Study" to make records collection more secure from cyber-attacks. Also, the Distributed ledger technology will eliminate the paper-based records and the cost of updating the records manually. The initiative is in the initial stage [35].

• Data61 unit of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia, has taken the initiative named "Data Monetization" to review the implementation issues and the advantages of using Blockchain in Government and industries. The entity uses the proof of Blockchain concept, and industry and government experts will further evaluate it. The initiative is in the initial stage [110].

• Smart Dubai Office, United Arab Emirates, has taken the initiative named "Global Blockchain Challenge". It plans to improve people's life using Blockchain potential. The project objective is to discover the innovative Blockchain-based solution and support the Simplification of establishing the industries and empowering various startups and businesses. The initiative is in the initial stage [111].

• Belgium, Antwerp Port Authority, is working on the initiative named "Blockchain-based System for Port Container Release," which will make the process of container handling more efficient and secure. This system involves several parties like drivers, carriers, terminals, etc. Using Blockchain technology has digitalized all processes and eliminated the middle man involvement between different parties during the process of container handling in ports [112].

• State of Delaware, United States, is working on the initiative named "Smart Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Filings" that uses the Blockchain to automate the process of records submission in line with the laws for the preservation and destruction of the documents [113].

Due to globalization and cross border trade, the global supply-chain volume is rising rapidly. Rapid and accurate traceability and immutable supply trail can provide an authentic and reliable supply-chain management using Blockchain. Blockchain technology can effectively counter counterfeit products and any chance of fraud and mismanagement by maintaining an accurate and timely record of trails during the complete supply-chain process [117,118].

Outcome-based payment (OBP) is a fascinating model to promote effectiveness and quality instead of quantity. Especially in healthcare and software development, it is being weighed, and implementation is in the initial stages. Various key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to define efficiency and effectiveness. The OBP model can support merit and promote effective work culture instead of traditional volume-based payment. Still, various factors hinder its implementation and transparency of the model, like trust and accurate data availability, while preserving privacy and confidentiality. Blockchain technology can only solve these issues [119].

Several aspects of copyright and intellectual property right (IPR) include recording the ownership, transfer of copyright and royalty payment, etc. Traditional copyright registration and processing are tiresome and time-consuming. This process becomes more difficult in the case of digital media content. License verification and pay per use concepts already use Blockchain technology. Blockchain technology can effectively resolve the current system's issues by countering piracy, lack of transparency, payment as per usage, and proper recording of rights and ownership transfer [120].

In the process of human resource management, checking the credentials requires a lot of paperwork and heavily dependent on manual processing. These processes take lots of time and prone to chances of fraud and dishonesty. Hiring unqualified persons based on fake credentials can cause a significant loss to organizations and impedes job chances for honest people. Blockchain-based credential management and checks can effectively counter these issues [121].

Crowdfunding is to collect funds from the masses either for any venture or for the cause. One of such a platform's major issues is the lack of transparency that makes it less acceptable for mass level adoption and sharing. Blockchain technology can provide a platform to monitor the funds, their utilization, and further incentives, if any, effectively and transparently [122].