Main Barriers of the Implementation of the Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed database, where participants can exchange the value of, i.e. information or financial resources without the participation of a trusted third party. Despite of a number of positive features, this technology is not free of defects. The aim of the article is to present the barriers of the discussed technology, which prevent the discussed technology from further dissemination. Therefore, in a first step, the review of basic concepts related to blockchain was conducted. It includes a discussion of key characteristics as well as dominant types of blockchain. Afterwards, the author presents barriers of the implementation of the blockchain technology: technical, socio-organizational and legal. Blockchain gained its popularity thanks to the bitcoin cryptocurrency, which was launched in 2009 as a consequence of the global financial crisis. Since then, the technology has gone a long way of evolution and development, and its use goes far beyond only the financial sector. Therefore, the article is not focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the bitcoin blockchain network, as this has already been the subject of many other publications (i.e. Yli-Huumo et al., 2016; Koteska et al., 2017), but aims to highlight barriers of its deployment. Consequently, the limitations faced by bitcoin blockchain or, more broadly, the world of cryptocurrencies, have been passed in this article advisedly.