Blockchain for Business Process Reengineering and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchain will change lifestyles and business models in the future. With regard to the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), cars can park and pay tolls through blockchain, as well as paying to download music or other kinds of multimedia files. Additionally, with regard to real estate management, blockchain can be used in renting unused spaces and calculating payments automatically. In the future, the concept of blockchain could be applied not only in the sectors of the Internet of Things (IoT) and enterprises but also in many other fields, such as food safety, electronic voting, intellectual property rights, and medical care. The concept of blockchain possesses the capacity to change existing business models. In the financial industry, for instance, people no longer need to do wire transfer during bank operating hours, as blockchain techniques enable people to transfer money between currencies, which reduces the costs of rent and personnel, while consumers can enjoy safe online transactions. The sharing economy is another sector that uses blockchain. For example, ride-sharing platforms allow users to check available cars for sharing via a mobile application, eliminating the need for intermediaries in the process.

The influence of blockchain also changes the IoT; with the rapid advancement of the IoT, the more sensors in a system, the more data the system will obtain. Therefore, centralized databases and network security are one of the critical challenges that the IoT should conquer. Blockchain is important in the concept of the IoT, as it supports the functions of distributed ledger technology and network security. Moreover, blockchain management has the advantages of data access and data immutability. The IoT mainly uses peer-to-peer computing to transfer data, so user privacy and data security are essential issues. Using blockchain and smart contracts will ensure user authenticity and increase trust at both ends of a transaction. For example, blockchain techniques in smart electric grids can calculate electricity bills; when plugging into a socket, the system can identify whether the user’s bitcoin is enough to pay the bill and the system will stop calculating when a device is fully charged. In recent years, many countries have started to pay attention to smart medical care. For instance, sharing patients’ information and medical records benefits the development of telemedicine, public health services, and disease control; avoids wasting vital medical resources; and narrows the disparity of medical resources between urban and rural areas. Adding blockchain technology into intelligent medical care systems can improve the security of sharing data. Apart from safeguarding the security of medical information, blockchain and smart contracts also control access rights and save event logs, protecting the safety of data and preventing record tampering. We hope that this Special Issue will attract many experts and researchers in the fields of communications networks and information technology to present solutions for effective business process reengineering by implementing blockchain. Topics appropriate for this Special Issue include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Methodologies, techniques, new architectures, and models for blockchain;
• Data collection and preprocessing for blockchain;
• Data protection methods for blockchain;
• Data transmission technology for blockchain;
• Applications of blockchain in business process reengineering;
• Applications of credit rating in blockchain;
• Blockchain in cloud, edge, and fog computing;
• Blockchain for artificial intelligence;
• Implementation challenges facing blockchain technologies;
• Authentication and authorization in blockchain;
• Smart contracts and distributed ledger for the IoT;
• Blockchain in social networking;
• Applications of smart health in blockchain;
• Creating and measuring business value from blockchain;
• Open issues and trends in blockchain;
• Scheduling and offloading business processes in blockchain;
• Service placement and composition for business processes in blockchain applications, security and privacy, and smart contracts;
• Applications for blockchain in economy and finance and bitcoin security;
• Social networking;
• Blockchain for the Internet of Things;
• Smart health using blockchain;
• Artificial intelligence based on blockchain in the IoT;
• Sharing economy;
• Other blockchain applications and their implementation;
• Blockchain foundations.

Prof. Dr. Mu-Yen Chen
Dr. Pedro Peris-Lopez
Prof. Dr. Hsin-Te Wu
Guest Editors

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• blockchain
• sustainability
• business process reengineering