06/2020 Proceedings

Eigelshoven, Felix | Ullrich, André | Bender, Benedict

Public blockchain – a systematic literature review on the sustainability of consensus algorithms

Abstract

Blockchain has the potential to change business transactions to a major extent. Thereby, underlying consensus algorithms are the core mechanism to achieve consistency in distributed infrastructures. Their application aims for transparency and accountability in societal transactions. As a result of missing reviews holistically covering consensus algorithms, we aim to (1) identify prevalent consensus algorithms for public blockchains, and (2) address the resource perspective with a sustainability consideration (whereby we address the three spheres of sustainability). Our systematic literature review identified 33 different consensus algorithms for public blockchains. Our contribution is twofold: first, we provide a systematic summary of consensus algorithms for public blockchains derived from the scientific literature as well as real-world applications and systemize them according to their research focus; second, we assess the sustainability of consensus algorithms using a representative sample and thereby highlight the gaps in literature to address the holistic sustainability of consensus algorithms.

Category Proceedings
Authors Eigelshoven, Felix; Ullrich, André; Bender, Benedict
Place of publication Marrakech, Morocco
Date 06/2020
Conference Title Twenty-Eighth European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS2020) – A Virtual AIS Conference.
pp. 1-19
DOI https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1201&context=ecis2020_rp
Keywords Blockchain, Consensus algorithms, Sustainability, Systematic literature revieew