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.