Overview of Taxonomy and Ontology Approaches for the Classification of Blockchain Components

Abstract

Blockchain and the distributed ledger technology (DLT) that underpins it are progressively being incorporated into the infrastructure of the biomedical, academic, financial, and governmental sectors. Blockchain facilitates immutability, traceability, transparency, and decentralized data storage. Consensus is a collection of algorithms applied in complicated blockchain networks of users, technology, and transactions to achieve security, stability, and scalability. Researchers and practitioners use technology- and ontology-based approaches to comprehensively address the complexity of blockchain technology and categorize its constituent parts. This article provides a brief overview of key blockchain concepts and reviews the literature for articles that categorize the elements of decentralized blockchain systems. The purpose of this article is to give readers a summary of open-access, free scientific studies that thoroughly explain the intricacies of blockchain. To do this, articles published between January 2018 and January 2023 are searched for in the scientific database Google Scholar. A narrative style review is used to assess fourteen articles. The investigation demonstrates that taxonomy and ontology based approaches simplify technological complexities and highlight connections between blockchain-related concepts.