A Taxonomy of Blockchain-Based Systems for Architecture Design

Xiwei Xu, Ingo Weber, Mark Staples, Liming Zhu, Jan Bosch, Len Bass, Cesare Pautasso, Paul Rimba

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

588 Scopus citations

Abstract

Blockchain is an emerging technology for decentralised and transactional data sharing across a large network of untrusted participants. It enables new forms of distributed software architectures, where agreement on shared states can be established without trusting a central integration point. A major difficulty for architects designing applications based on blockchain is that thetechnology has many configurations and variants. Since blockchains are at an early stage, there is little product data or reliable technology evaluation available to compare different blockchains. In this paper, we propose how to classify and compare blockchains and blockchain-based systems to assist with the design and assessment of their impact on software architectures. Our taxonomy captures major architectural characteristics of blockchains and the impact of their principal design decisions. This taxonomy is intended to help with important architectural considerations about the performance and quality attributes of blockchain-based systems.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2017
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages243-252
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781509057290
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 May 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2017 - Gothenburg, Sweden
Duration: 3 Apr 20177 Apr 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2017

Conference

Conference2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2017
Country/TerritorySweden
CityGothenburg
Period3/04/177/04/17

Keywords

  • Distributed databases
  • Software architecture

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