Blockchain Performance in Industry 4.0: Drivers, use cases, and future directions

Solutions based on Blockchain (BC) technologies are gaining more and more attention in the context of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). While the research community has provided significant effort in either BC or I4.0 research domains, the complex implications of the adoption of BC technologies in this specific context are not analyzed in depth. This is a serious drawback because of the multiple and heterogeneous interactions between participants in the production network. In fact, researchers and practitioners involved in planning and deployment of I4.0 solutions may still face questions related to the needs solved by BC, the I4.0-related adoption scenarios explored, and the Key Performance Indicators to assess the effectiveness of these technologies. In this paper, we survey the existing literature to identify shared definitions and drivers that lead to the adoption of BC technologies in I4.0. Then, we analyze several practical use cases-under the umbrella (smart) contexts of Factory, Healthcare, and Energy-highlighting the need for comprehensive analysis including not only functional and architectural characteristics but also performance. We collect a number of Key Performance Indicators and organize the dozen aliases and variants, explaining their relationships and pointing at the relevant studies. Finally, we discuss limitations, challenges and future directions related to BC application to I4.0, and the role of performance analysis in this research.