Software Engineering Applications enabled by Blockchain Technology: A Systematic Mapping Study

The novel, yet disruptive blockchain technology has witnessed growing attention, due to its intrinsic potential. Besides the conventional domains that benefit from such a potential, such as finance, supply chain and healthcare, blockchain use cases in software engineering have emerged recently. This study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge of blockchain-oriented software engineering. Based on a systematic mapping study, we provide a quantitative and qualitative overview of the software engineering applications enabled by blockchain technology. We identified 22 primary studies and extracted data within the research type, research topic and contribution type facets. Findings suggest an increasing trend of studies since 2018. Additionally, findings reveal the potential of using blockchain technologies as an alternative to centralized systems, such as GitHub, Travis CI, and cloud-based package managers, and to establish trust between parties in collaborative software development. We also found out that smart contracts can enable the automation of a variety of software engineering activities that usually require human reasoning, such as the acceptance phase, payments to software engineers, and compliance adherence. In spite of the fact that the field is not yet mature, we believe that this study provides a holistic overview that may benefit researchers interested in bringing blockchain to the software industry; and practitioners willing to understand how blockchain could transform the software development industry.