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Towards Interconnected Blockchains: A Comprehensive Review of the Role of Interoperability among Disparate Blockchains

Published: 18 July 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Unprecedented attention towards blockchain technology is serving as a game-changer in fostering the development of blockchain-enabled distinctive frameworks. However, fragmentation unleashed by its underlying concepts hinders different stakeholders from effectively utilizing blockchain-supported services, resulting in the obstruction of its wide-scale adoption. To explore synergies among the isolated frameworks requires comprehensively studying inter-blockchain communication approaches. These approaches broadly come under the umbrella of Blockchain Interoperability (BI) notion, as it can facilitate a novel paradigm of an integrated blockchain ecosystem that connects state-of-the-art disparate blockchains. Currently, there is a lack of studies that comprehensively review BI, which works as a stumbling block in its development. Therefore, this article aims to articulate potential of BI by reviewing it from diverse perspectives. Beginning with a glance of blockchain architecture fundamentals, this article discusses its associated platforms, taxonomy, and consensus mechanisms. Subsequently, it argues about BI’s requirement by exemplifying its potential opportunities and application areas. Concerning BI, an architecture seems to be a missing link. Hence, this article introduces a layered architecture for the effective development of protocols and methods for interoperable blockchains. Furthermore, this article proposes an in-depth BI research taxonomy and provides an insight into the state-of-the-art projects. Finally, it determines possible open challenges and future research in the domain.

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    cover image ACM Computing Surveys
    ACM Computing Surveys  Volume 54, Issue 7
    September 2022
    778 pages
    ISSN:0360-0300
    EISSN:1557-7341
    DOI:10.1145/3476825
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    © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of a national government. As such, the Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

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    Publication History

    Published: 18 July 2021
    Accepted: 01 April 2021
    Revised: 01 February 2021
    Received: 01 October 2020
    Published in CSUR Volume 54, Issue 7

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    Author Tags

    1. Blockchain
    2. DLT
    3. blockchain interoperability
    4. consensus mechanisms
    5. distributed systems
    6. taxonomy

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