A Systematic Literature Review of Blockchain Technology for Smart Villages

Abstract

Graphic Abstract According to the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals are framed for improving rural health, hunger, poverty issues, environmental conditions, and illiteracy globally. With the upcoming technology, there have been many advances in the lifestyle of people all around the world. Comparatively, more emphasis has been given to the development of urban areas than rural. The sustainable development of a country depends on the growth of its rural areas. Countless technological and theoretical models, projects, and frameworks have been proposed and implemented to help overcome sundry issues and challenges faced by rural people in quotidian life. New technological methods are deemed to be the future of livability, therefore; a technologically advanced solution for sustainable rural development is called for. Blockchain Technology is the next step for innovation and development and it has far many applications in sustainable rural development that are yet to be discovered. The objective of this paper is to explicitly review research conducted in rural development to fill the undone work in the future with better research ideas, to make rural areas a livable and advanced place while also maintaining their integrity leading to sustainable development. To conduct such a review, a systematic research methodology is applied following regulations in the conduction of standardized but explorative analysis. Within the timeline of 2010–2021, 112 papers are carefully selected to perform the systematic review. This review will provide a comprehensible as well as concise research compendium for all applications proposed, implemented, and possible in the future to realize the concept of smart villages for the development of rural areas using blockchain technology.

Smart Life: Review of the Contemporary Smart Applications

“…Smart state is described in [24] as a direction of "Knowledge-Based Urban Development". In [25], a literature review is done on the usage of the blockchain technology in Smart villages. Finally, the term Smart world appeared in the literature [26] [27] as a unifying term of various Smart applications.…”

A Tertiary Review on Blockchain and Sustainability with Focus on Sustainable Development Goals

“…16 (16.6), 17 (17.16, 17.17) (So.5) Fraud and corruption prevention: monitoring and ensuring human rights, fair trade and fair working practices [14], [18]; potential to end unethical and illegal practices, such as, slavery and Illegal, Unreported and Un-regulated (IUU) fishing [15], [37]; monitoring and overseeing sustainable conditions and regulatory policies [14]; [12], [26]; improving access to affordable and reliable water resources [2], [26]. 6 (6.4), 7 (7.1) (So.7) Improved product safety, quality and traceability: ensuring product (food, drink, drug, etc.,) provenance and quality [18], [28], [37], [50]; anti-counterfeiting [37]; traceability for sustainable agriculture [41], [50] and a sustainable supply chain (medical, food, agri-food, etc.) [45], [50], [51].…”

“…6 (6.4), 7 (7.1) (So.7) Improved product safety, quality and traceability: ensuring product (food, drink, drug, etc.,) provenance and quality [18], [28], [37], [50]; anti-counterfeiting [37]; traceability for sustainable agriculture [41], [50] and a sustainable supply chain (medical, food, agri-food, etc.) [45], [50], [51]. Legal and regulatory impact (Lr) (Lr.1) Automatic compliance to regulatory and standards requirements: automatic verification and enforcement of compliance to regulations with auditable data and smart contracts [14], [37].…”

“…It is an efficient tool to meet consumers' concerns about the origin of their food and drinks and improve traceability and integrity in global food supply chains. Tracking food products can also help in the fight against fraud and counterfeiting of products, ensure food quality and reduce food recall and waste [37], [40], [41], [43], [45], [46], [50], [51], which contributes to secure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food (SDG target 2.1). Several use cases related to traceability in the food supply chain have been analyzed in [37], for example, Alibaba ("Food trust framework" in global food supply chains), Walmart (tracking of Chinese pork and U.S. mango), Intel (seafood supply chain) and Bext360 (coffee supply chain).…”

“…Blockchain facilitates sustainable agriculture (So.7). Blockchain technology combined with IoT and big data analysis can improve crop or food production and encourage food producers to pursue sustainable practices in agriculture (SDG targets 2.3 and 2.4) [50]. [48] recommends using blockchain and smart contracts in the plantation, in harvesting and in the milling process in the palm oil industry, for instance, using blockchain to enhance product traceability across the supply chain and using smart contracts to decide the premium price of products with good quality.…”