An Analysis on the Use of Blockchain by Developers and Application Users

Abstract

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is being studied more and more in academia and applied in industry. Some of these characteristics are immutability, traceability, and security. Several areas can be benefiting from Blockchain, such as health, transport, and agriculture. With its diffusion, it is natural that the application development areas start to use it, involving different types of professionals. This paper aims to provide an overview of blockchain technology users’ profiles and opinions, whether developers or application users. To meet this objective, an online questionnaire with demographic, technical and open questions was designed. Regarding to open questions, a qualitative analysis was performed, through Grounded Theory. We identified as the main conclusions from our work: (i) security is a feature very well seen by users, (ii) there are difficulties in blockchain learning, and (iii) there are many tools for blockchain development, however, support is needed.