On the Origins and Variations of Blockchain Technologies
Cryptography and Security
2018-10-16 v1
Abstract
We explore the origins of blockchain technologies to better understand the enduring needs they address. We identify the five key elements of a blockchain, show embodiments of these elements, and examine how these elements come together to yield important properties in selected systems. To facilitate comparing the many variations of blockchains, we also describe the four crucial roles of blockchain participants common to all blockchains. Our historical exploration highlights the 1979 work of David Chaum whose vault system embodies many of the elements of blockchains.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.06130,
title = {On the Origins and Variations of Blockchain Technologies},
author = {Alan T. Sherman and Farid Javani and Haibin Zhang and Enis Golaszewski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.06130},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
14 pages, 3 tables, includes all references. A short version with ten references will be submitted to IEEE Security & Privacy in October 2018