The Blockchain as a Software Connector

Digital Supply Chain Transformation toward Blockchain Integration

“…To address the limitations described above, we consider the use of blockchain technology [1], the following features of which can be seen as potential solutions: a public ledger of transactions copied to all nodes of the blockchain network without transaction party identities [34]; the use of public key infrastructure (PKI) to decrypt and encrypt a transaction and to notify counterparties about the existence of an executable transaction with unique single-time keys [34,35]; and the concept of the smart contract [35].…”

“…In addition, the ledger is copied to all nodes of the network [1,35]. If a transaction is changed, a new block is created and chained to previous blocks.…”

“…To conduct DSC transactions and document exchange, parties must agree how that is to be done; this is where smart contracts enter the picture [35]. According to Zsabo's definition from the 1990s, "a smart contract is computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract.…”

“…For example, a smart contract could be used to enable programmable transactions and machine-to-machine communication in IoT; one such platform is IBM's ADEPT (Autonomous Decentralized Peer-To-Peer Telemetry) project. In general, requisite software components include ledger (e.g., Enigma), security (PKI) and smart contract (e.g., Ethereum or ADEPT) platforms, as well as software connectors [35].…”

M2M Security Technology of CPS Based on Blockchains

“…With the fundamental technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain has gained more and more attention and has begun to be applied to various fields [30], such as medicine [31,32], economics [33,34], the Internet of Things [35,36], and software engineering [37]. We believe that there will be a wide range of applications in M2M security.…”