Abstract
This chapter aims to be an introductory guide in understanding how blockchain technology works, including its terminology and characteristics that make it different and revolutionary. It also discusses the cases for which its implementation could be beneficial/of interest for society and people, mostly related to the trust aspects of its use. This is accomplished through a literature and documentary review of papers, business cases, and regulations implemented, particularly in Mexico. The findings seem to point towards a social benefit for economies, as long as the foundations of a legislation that regulates its applications and possible impacts and misuse is established. Finally, this chapter looks at the need to establish a reference framework that helps those who wish to adopt this technology for the creation of value in different contexts.
TopBackground
Blockchain technology has triggered a new rush of innovation, which started to reshape the landscape. Besides empowering digital currencies, this technology is enabling innovation through the creation of new ways to develop, deploy, and diffuse decentralized applications, as well as new ways to raise capital and engage stakeholders (Yan, 2018).
Regarding organizations’ landscape, the use of blockchain technology might enhance and create new value for companies and ecosystems. But none of them without facing risks that need to be mitigated. These strategic risks may be related to business, technology and legal issues. New perspectives need to be developed to face these new threats, which in turn can become unique opportunities (Malhotra, O’Neill, & Stowell, 2022).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Hyperledger: Open source, collaborative technology that tries to promote projects under Blockchain technology (Hyperledger, 2020 AU44: The in-text citation "Hyperledger, 2020" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
SHA-256: Secure Hashing Algorithm. It is a cryptographic algorithm used by cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Ethereum: Open source, decentralized and programmable platform, which means that developers can use it to create new types of decentralized applications and that it is used to program smart contracts. Supports the cryptocurrency ETHER (Ethereum, 2021 AU43: The in-text citation "Ethereum, 2021" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
NFT: Is a digital asset that has a certificate of authenticity that is unique in the world. For this, it is given a unique string of characters, a kind of serial number, which represents it in the blockchain.
Ripple: Open source protocol designed for fast and cheap transactions. It is considered both a platform and a currency (Ripple, 2021 AU45: The in-text citation "Ripple, 2021" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Digital Signature: Digital code generated by public encryption that adheres to a document transmitted electronically to verify its contents and the identity of the that sends it.
Proof-of-Work: Consensus algorithm for validating blocks.
Cryptographic Hash Function: Produces a fixed-size hash value of an input of variable size. The SHA-256 algorithm, used by the bitcoin network, is an example of cryptographic hash.
Twitch: Platform that allows live broadcasts, which is owned by Amazon, Inc (Twitch, n.d AU46: The in-text citation "Twitch, n.d" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. .).
Hash Function: Is the process of taking an input string of data, of any lenght, and transforming it into a fixed length.