Blockchain 1.0 to Blockchain 4.0—The Evolutionary Transformation of Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a propitious technology that has gained immense popularity and tractions. It has tremendously revolutionized the peer-to-peer information exchange by combining cryptographic principles with decentralization, immutability and transparency. The term blockchain has been coined from its fundamental feature of being a distributed ledger where each record or block is secured and bound to its successive blocks through hash functions thus resulting in this chain of blocks. This chapter first gives the historical background of this expeditious technology. It then proffers a description of the basic terminologies in blockchain, it’s types, basic structure of block and different consensus models popularly known. The prime emphasis of this chapter is to bestow an extensive study of the chronological evolutions in Blockchain Technology by highlighting the nitty-gritty of each generation in detail. It also illustrates a parameter wise differences amidst the several generations in terms of their principle areas, consensus models used, utility of smart contracts, the energy and cost requirements and execution speed and scalability. In the end, a Blockchain in Supply Chain Management test case has also been elaborated in this chapter.