The blockchain conundrum: An in‐depth examination of challenges, contributing technologies, and alternatives

Abstract

Summary The accelerated development of information and communication technologies has generated a demand for data storage that is effective, transparent, immutable, and secure. Distributed ledger technology and encryption techniques such as hashing and blockchain technology revolutionised the landscape by meeting these requirements. However, blockchain must overcome obstacles such as low latency, throughput, and scalability for its full potential. Investigating blockchain's structure, types, challenges, promises, and variants is necessary to understand blockchain and its capabilities comprehensively. This paper overviews various aspects, such as emergent blockchain protocols, models, concepts, and trends. We classify blockchain variants into five essential categories, DAG, TDAG, Sharding, Consensus, and Combining methods, based on the structure each follows, and conduct a comparative analysis. In addition, we explore current research tendencies. As technology progresses, it is essential to comprehend the fundamental requirements for blockchain development.