ABSTRACT
The blockchain has evolved into one of the most fiercely contested topics in the past few years with the advent of cryptocurrencies. The blockchain technology has made a significant progress in both theoretical framework and real-life applications since the launch of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto [1]. It appeals to a variety of businesses and industrial sectors such as transportation, healthcare, banking, and financial services because it not only allows for distributed and decentralized transactions but also provides trust and transparency in the information shared. For a comprehensive survey on blockchain technology, the readers may refer to the excellent books [2–4] and the survey articles [5–7]. Several real-world applications of blockchains have emerged, including blockchain banking [8, 9], blockchain business [10, 11], blockchain supply chain management [12–14], blockchain Internet of Things [15–17.], blockchain sharing economy [18, 19], and blockchain healthcare [20]. Despite extensive real-world applications of blockchain technology, there have only been a few published mathematical studies on blockchain systems in the literature. These mathematical investigations generate stochastic models, offer performance analysis and optimization, and establish beneficial correlations between important factors or fundamental parameters.
