The world is currently witnessing an immense shift in the digital revolution. The fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0) marks the beginning of an era of technological evolution, in which a fusion of technologies is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
[1]Technology has already infiltrated every aspect of human life. One of the main drivers of IR4.0 is blockchain technology, which is described as a distributed ledger that allows data exchange without the need to engage a trusted third party. Similar to the development of the web, the evolution of blockchain has gone through three generations, namely blockchain 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.
[2] The first generation concerns Bitcoin, which popularised blockchain with its emergence after the global financial crisis in 2008.
[3] The second generation is Ethereum, a blockchain platform that allows the creation and running of decentralized applications, which in turn serve as a basis for smart contracts.
[4]The third generation, which is yet to be defined, focuses on the scalability of blockchain technology.
