Exploring the Sustainability of the Intermediary Role in Blockchain

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper discusses how many industries' processes will change and their roles after blockchain adoption used case study. I have several suggestions and questions.

1. In the introduction and conclusion sections, the sustainability concept has discussed. However, in your case study analysis, you did not discuss how the Blockchain will impact sustainability. The authors need to reconsider the title name. 
2. In the abstract, the paper shows "new technology is increasingly replacing intermediaries in their roles of connecting players; involving, committing, and mobilizing 18 players; and solving, avoiding, or mitigating potential conflicts of interests.". The sentence needs to be changed. There are many functions in one sentence.
3. Line 75: This sentence needs to be fixed. "combining strategies for improving efficiency and adaptability". What is the meaning of adaptability in sustainability? 
4. Line 79-80. Please discuss the basic concept of transactional cost theory. Readers who do not know this theory will feel difficult to understand it. 
5. Line 140-142. The sentence needs to revise appropriately.
6. Methods part; This study used a structured qualitative interview. I could not find any information about how to perform this interview, when, and where? Please add data collection information.
7. Case study 1: Medical Care: When NMR system introduced the Blockchain?
8. Findings section: Suddenly, six types of intermediaries appear in this section. Rather than discussing the sustainability concept in your literature review section, it is better to introduce those types of intermediaries. 
9. Table 4 shows your findings. To prove your classification validation, did you have an interview with the industry's people?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors.

This paper (Exploring the Sustainability of the Intermediary Role in Blockchain) provides little information. But, it is good motivation and result. So, I give Major Revision.

#1.
Is the content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background and empirical research (if applicable) on the topic? Can be improved
    
Are the research design, questions, hypotheses and methods clearly stated? Can be improved
    
Are the arguments and discussion of findings coherent, balanced and compelling? Can be improved
    
For empirical research, are the results clearly presented? Must be improved
    
Is the article adequately referenced? Can be improved
    
Are the conclusions thoroughly supported by the results presented in the article or referenced in secondary literature? Must be improved
    
#2. You need to match MDPI Sustainability template (format).

#3. Contribution
It is almost impossible to understand the contribution of the paper.

#4.
Improve the related works
Intermediary Role? (Please more explain)

What is Exploring the Sustainability? (Please more explain: Related Work)

What is Blockchain? (Please more explain: Related Work)

Also, improve the related works (Photovoltaic), an important aspect has been mentioned:
e.g. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9].

[1] "Blockchain-a financial technology for future sustainable development." 2016 3rd International conference on green technology and sustainable development (GTSD). IEEE, 2016.

[2] "The potential of blockchain in building construction." Buildings 9.4 (2019): 77.

[3] "Legal challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology in the real estate sector." Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law (2020).

[4] "Improvement of MPPT control performance using fuzzy control and VGPI in the PV system for micro grid." Sustainability 11.21 (2019): 5891.

[5] "The blockchain consensus algorithm for viable management of new and renewable energies." Sustainability 11.11 (2019): 3184.

[6] "Autochain platform: expert automatic algorithm Blockchain technology for house rental dApp image application model." EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing 2020.1 (2020): 1-23.

[7] "Powering software sustainability with blockchain." Proceedings of the 28th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering. 2018.

[8] "Blockchain challenges and opportunities: A survey." International Journal of Web and Grid Services 14.4 (2018): 352-375.

[9] "Exploring the feasibility of blockchain technology as an infrastructure for improving built asset sustainability." Built Environment Project and Asset Management (2019).

#5.
Also, more to 10 new papers published from 2018~2021 by major publishers such as IEEE, ACM, Springer, Elsevier, MDPI, and Wiley.

#6.
Moderate English changes required.

#7.
If you have time "Future work" write more.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments have addressed the updated version of the paper. But all the detailed content should be made a double check after submission again, especially grammer errors.

Line 517 sentence should be revised. Line 584 and 668 also need to be revised.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors

The revision adequately address the concerns expressed in last review. 
So, I recommend that this revised manuscript can now be recommended for publication (Accept as is).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx