# The Design Principle of Blockchain: An Initiative for the SoK of SoKs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00479 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00479/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 34 of its 117 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jan 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Formalizing Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Prerequisites, Causes and Goals of Human Trust in AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.07487/) (2020)
- [Security and Privacy on Blockchain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.07602/) (2019)
- [A Survey on Ethereum Systems Security: Vulnerabilities, Attacks and Defenses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.04507/) (2019)
- [SoK: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.08778/) (2021)
- [Decentralized & Collaborative AI on Blockchain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07247/) (2019)
- [SoK: Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) with Automated Market Maker (AMM) Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12732/) (2021)
- [Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030: The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.06318/) (2022)
- [Blockchain for the Metaverse: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09738/) (2022)
- [Gathering Strength, Gathering Storms: The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) 2021 Study Panel Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.15767/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Blockchain Interoperability: Past, Present, and Future Trends](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14282/) (2020)
- [A Survey on the Security of Blockchain Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.06993/) (2018)
- [SoK: Transparent Dishonesty: front-running attacks on Blockchain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.05164/) (2019)
- [SoK of Used Cryptography in Blockchain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08609/) (2019)
- [AI Trust in business processes: The need for process-aware explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07537/) (2020)
- [SoK: Oracles from the Ground Truth to Market Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.00667/) (2021)
- [Blockchain Mutability: Challenges and Proposed Solutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07099/) (2019)
- [A Classification Framework for Stablecoin Designs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10098/) (2019)
- [SoK: Lending Pools in Decentralized Finance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.13230/) (2020)
- [Taxonomy of Centralization in Public Blockchain Systems: A Systematic Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.12542/) (2020)
- [SoK: Cryptojacking Malware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03851/) (2021)
- [SoK: TEE-assisted Confidential Smart Contract](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08548/) (2022)
- [SoK: Preventing Transaction Reordering Manipulations in Decentralized Finance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11520/) (2022)
- [SoK: Blockchain Decentralization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.04256/) (2022)
- [SoK: Not Quite Water Under the Bridge: Review of Cross-Chain Bridge Hacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.16209/) (2022)
- [On the Origins and Variations of Blockchain Technologies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.06130/) (2018)
- [SoK: Blockchain Solutions for Forensics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12640/) (2020)
- [SoK: Cross-border Criminal Investigations and Digital Evidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12911/) (2022)
- [On Blockchain We Cooperate: An Evolutionary Game Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05357/) (2022)
- [Blockchain And The Future of the Internet: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.00733/) (2019)
- [SoK: Tools for Game Theoretic Models of Security for Cryptocurrencies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.08595/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [DAM: A Universal Dual Attention Mechanism for Multimodal Timeseries Cryptocurrency Trend Forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00522/) (2024)
- [Global Public Sentiment on Decentralized Finance: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Geo-tagged Tweets from 150 Countries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00843/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Blockchain, also coined as decentralized AI, has the potential to empower AI to be more trustworthy by creating a decentralized trust of privacy, security, and audibility. However, systematic studies on the design principle of blockchain as a trust engine for an integrated society of cyber-physical-social-system (CPSS) are still absent. In this article, we provide an initiative for seeking the design principle of blockchain for a better digital world. Using a hybrid method of qualitative and quantitative studies, we examine the past origin, the current development, and the future directions of blockchain design principles. We have three findings. First, the answer to whether blockchain lives up to its original design principle as a distributed database is controversial. Second, the current development of the blockchain community reveals a taxonomy of 7 categories, namely, privacy and security, scalability, decentralization, applicability, governance and regulation, system design, and cross-chain interoperability. Both research and practice are more centered around the first category of privacy and security and the fourth category of applicability. Future scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers have vast opportunities in other, much less exploited facets and the synthesis at the interface of multiple aspects. Finally, in counter-examples, we conclude that a synthetic solution that crosses discipline boundaries is necessary to close the gaps between the current design of blockchain and the design principle of a trust engine for a truly intelligent world.