Distributed Ledger Technology

Abstract

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has attracted tremendous attention from industry and academia. A wide scope of research and product development activities have emerged in recent years and are expected to impact every aspect of our lives. This chapter covers prominent DLTs and their applications. The chapter focuses on blockchain and directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). Applications discussed include finance, healthcare, identity management, supply chain, and energy. The chapter also discusses the Internet of Things (IoT), the weaknesses of current IoT system implementations, and how blockchain and IoT can be integrated to overcome the weaknesses of IoT. The chapter also touches on token economics and enterprise-level DLT applications. Finally, the vulnerabilities of blockchain are discussed.