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International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society

WIS 2020: Well-Being in the Information Society. Fruits of Respect pp 145–155Cite as

Blockchain Ethics: A Systematic Literature Review of Blockchain Research

Part of the Communications in Computer and Information Science book series (CCIS,volume 1270)

Abstract

Blockchain is a recent development in technology which allows a cryptographically secured, decentralised and distributed storage of data. The technology innovation was done as a part of and became familiar through Bitcoin cryptocurrency, where it is used to openly store currency transactions among its users. Whereas a majority of recent research and development work of blockchain has been in a number of different cryptocurrency applications, the technology itself has been proposed and used in various domains ranging from open contracts to electronic voting. As the technology has potentially a remarkable power to shape the modern digital societies, its usage possesses several ethical questions. To study the state of the art in blockchain ethics research, this study present a systematic literature study (n = 26) on the phenomenon. The results show that the area is swiftly maturing, yet there is a call for concrete usable tools—for the practitioners and scholars—and deeper understanding of relevant ethical concerns.

Keywords

  • Blockchain
  • Ethics
  • Systematic literature review
  • eSociety

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering, LUT University, Lahti, Finland

    Sami Hyrynsalmi & Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi

  2. Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Kai K. Kimppa

Authors
  1. Sami Hyrynsalmi
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  2. Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi
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  3. Kai K. Kimppa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Freiburg, Germany

    Mirella Cacace

  2. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Raija Halonen

  3. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Dr. Hongxiu Li

  4. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Dr. Thao Phuong Orrensalo

  5. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Chenglong Li

  6. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Gunilla Widén

  7. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Prof. Dr. Reima Suomi

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Hyrynsalmi, S., Hyrynsalmi, S.M., Kimppa, K.K. (2020). Blockchain Ethics: A Systematic Literature Review of Blockchain Research. In: Cacace, M., et al. Well-Being in the Information Society. Fruits of Respect. WIS 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1270. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57847-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57847-3_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57846-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57847-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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