Information: A Review of Blockchain-Based Systems in Transportation

information
Review
A Review of Blockchain-Based Systems in Transportation
Vittorio Astarita 1 , Vincenzo Pasquale Giofrè 1 , Giovanni Mirabelli 2 and Vittorio Solina 2, *
1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy; [email protected] (V.A.);
[email protected] (V.P.G.)
2 Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende,
Italy; [email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]

Received: 3 December 2019; Accepted: 24 December 2019; Published: 29 December 2019
Abstract: This paper presents a literature review about the application of blockchain-based systems
in transportation. The main aim was to identify, through the implementation of a multi-step
methodology: current research-trends, main gaps in the literature, and possible future challenges.
First, a bibliometric analysis was carried out to obtain a broad overview of the topic of interest.
Subsequently, the most influential contributions were analysed in depth, with reference to the
following two areas: supply chain and logistics; road traffic management and smart cities. The
most important result is that the blockchain technology is still in an early stage, but appears
extremely promising, given its possible applications within multiple fields, such as food track
and trace, regulatory compliance, smart vehicles’ security, and supply-demand matching. Much
effort is still necessary for reaching the maturation stage because several models have been theorized
in recent years, but very few have been implemented within real contexts. Moreover, the link
blockchain-sustainability was explored, showing that this technology could be the trigger for limiting
food waste, reducing exhaust gas emissions, favouring correct urban development, and, in general,
improving quality of life.
Keywords: blockchain; literature review; transportation; logistics; supply chain
1. Introduction
The blockchain is a universally acclaimed innovation based on a distributed ledger technology,
which originated from the efforts of anonymous developers to create a secure digital currency. Digital
currencies that are based on a blockchain are defined cryptocurrencies, since they rely on cryptographic
mathematical tools. The first blockchain originated from a paper anonymously published in 2008
on the cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com [1]. Since 2008, a great development, which has
been carried out on initial concepts, has led to the creation of many distributed and active blockchains.
The blockchain concept involves different kinds of knowledge and is technically complicated to the
point that Bill Gates publicly said on TV about this technology: “I think it’s a technical tour de force.”
Many applications have been imagined for blockchain data systems, and many scientists and financial
experts expect great innovations to be centred on this innovative concept, especially in the logistics
sector [2–5]. Some authors have even defined this new technology as disruptive, with reference to the
transportation field [6].
Recently, the number of academic papers published on blockchain-related subjects has
dramatically increased. Many of the scientific contributions listed in [7] deal with technical topics,
which are the main challenges of the blockchain technology (BT), such as security, usability, privacy,
and wasted resources. It should be noted that several blockchain-based potential applications have
been proposed and discussed in the literature. In [8], the following five main application domains are
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presented: finance, security and privacy, IoT, reputation systems, and public and social services.
The main field of application of blockchain technologies is the financial one, as the technology
originated precisely with the invention of the Bitcoin. There is a large base of Bitcoin users who believe
the technology will disrupt the banking sector. Some ideas are presented in [9–12]. Big companies
such as IBM and Microsoft have started to consider offering blockchain services. Insurances can take
advantage of blockchain technologies in claims processing [13] and introducing smart contracts [14];
moreover, blockchain technology can also reduce custody risk and help in cross-border asset transfers.
From 2004, some banks such as Santander have started to develop payments applications that allow
customers to make international money transfers in 24 h [15]. Moreover, there are many potential
blockchain Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications according to [16,17]. Special attention has been given
to the potential of blockchain technology to strengthen the IoT by allowing secure sharing of data
sets [18]. In general, blockchain security features are considered useful, if coupled with IoT, where
security issues are a growing concern [19]. Privacy applications of blockchains have been proposed,
especially to protect personal data [20] against cyber attacks [21] in public services such as health
care [22–24] and voting systems [25–27], and in other government owned databases [28]. Blockchains
can, in fact, store personal data (e.g., health care records or identity data [29,30]), allowing only the
owner and the public entity to access with private keys. Every data access would then be stored
on the blockchain forever, granting complete security and accountability. Blockchains are also able
to store receipts of expenses that could be automatically sent to central entities as proof. Moreover,
blockchains have been envisioned as having a great role in smart cities [31,32]. The blockchain ledger
can be used to track ownership and movements of a certain merchandise along the supply chain [33]
until it reaches the final consumer.
As previously said, there are many new technological features of blockchains. These innovations
are the basis for many to signal the start of a “blockchain revolution” [34,35]. The main innovative
technological features are:
• The possibility of safely completing trust-less exchanges between two parties without any control,
supervision, or intermediation of a third party [36].
• Robustness, resilience, trustworthiness, and durability, since blockchains are distributed and do
not have a central point that can be attacked. This feature is a guarantee against attacks, and
a blockchain, which has nodes across the globe, can be expected to keep working as long as
there is an internet connection between nodes. Data will be reliably kept, yet in many potential
applications it remains to be solved how to ensure that they are also reliably entered [37].
• Open structure, which guarantees transparency [38] and the immutability of data [39]. Data
stored on a blockchain cannot be altered.
• Pseudonymity: Owners of data or users in general can decide to stay anonymous or give proof
of their identity as necessary. Blindly signed exchanges and contracts are possible on specific
blockchains [40].
• Process reliability: In the sense that users can trust the system to execute transactions as requested,
removing the need for a middle entity or supervisor and allowing the users to set up “smart
contracts” [41].
Next to the above-listed technological features, there are also many problems, which must be
solved in practical applications:
• Blockchains may be environmentally costly, in the case that they have a proof of work based on
computer calculations, because they could use up an incredible amount of energy.
• Lack of regulation can create risks for the users. Smart contracts constitute a very new application
which has still to be experimented on in practice to understand the application limits: one very
important event in cryptocurrency history is the Ethereum fork, where a malicious use of an
existing (badly laid-out) smart contract was able to extract the equivalent of 50 Million dollars
from the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) network in 2016 [42].
• Blockchains represent a quite complex system, and many potential users may not understand the
advantages and adopt the technology.
• Blockchains can also be slow in transactions when they become main-stream and are not the best
place to store a huge amount of data. In other words, there is also a scalability problem which has
been evidenced in the original Bitcoin system [43].
Potential Applications of Blockchain-Based Systems in Transportation

By transportation we intend the movement of people or goods from one place to another. In the
following, we will distinguish specifically everything that pertains to movement of goods and we
will consider it as part of a research cluster in supply chain and logistics. Regarding the means of
transportation, we will show that the blockchain-based systems are being researched, especially in the
road sector in connection with the concept of new autonomous and connected vehicles.
Transportation management can be positively affected by the adoption of blockchain technologies,
in many ways. In the very well-made report of Catapult Transport Systems [6], blockchain technology
is considered potentially disruptive for transport systems; at the same time, this report presents the
fact that many experts involved in a survey on BT trends do not seem to be very informed about this
emerging system. This work concludes by evidencing how the convergence of emerging services and
technologies, such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS), IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) with deep learning,
5G (the new generation of wireless mobile data protocol), and distributed smart objects, may reshape
the future of logistics and transportation.
The most widely discussed topic in terms of application of the BT in transportation is logistics;
in fact, many papers have been presented in recent years, such as: [3,33,38,44–50]. BTs are presented
by many as disruptive for the way supply chains are managed. In a globalised world, most industries
have to develop efficient and long supply chains to succeed. This means that the complexity of
delivering and tracing goods must be met with adequate informatics systems. Blockchains can serve
many different functions by securing goods and data from any malicious attacks in multi-agent supply
chains. Blockchains provide the possibility of controlling product storage quality during transportation
and guaranteeing the origin of products, thereby creating trust among suppliers. Various important
problems can be addressed in supply chain management by a blockchain, such as cost and quality control,
avoiding counterfeiting, speed of transfer, reporting on stopped goods, risk reduction, and flexibility [44].
Important companies, such as IBM and Maersk, have created partnerships to investigate
blockchain implementations. Multiple stakeholders can rely on the blockchain to gain trust and
to manage the flux of information. Traceability along the supply chain can be facilitated, adding value
to the final product: every transfer of goods could be recorded and validated through the consensus
of all blockchain entities. The main problem in these supply chain BT applications is to overcome
the difficulties of guaranteeing that the physical layer (i.e., the real goods) corresponds to the digital
layer (i.e., data that are stored). The use of certified smart objects of IoT could brighten the future
of these kinds of system. Many companies have invested in supply chain applications of BT, such
as Provenance, Jiocoin (which is also launching its own crypto-coin), SKUchain, and Blockverify,
which has created a service to avoid counterfeiting of goods. Special interest has been paid by many
companies to BT, applied to the diamond supply chain for obvious reasons.
Many applications have been proposed also in the automotive sector [51] and for intelligent
transportation systems (ITS) [52]. The automotive industry could use BT to shift its products toward
MaaS, and the following services could be offered: remote software-based vehicle maintenance
operations, insurance services, smart charging services, and car sharing services. Many companies
have invested in car sharing and data sharing BT-based business, such as Arcade City and La’Zooz.
Many potential applications of BT may emerge, especially in ITS systems where connected and
autonomous vehicles may take advantage of this innovation and the convergence of IoT and MaaS.
Many companies and governments have started activities by setting up blockchain systems in
different sectors [53] among them: Charity: Bitgive [54]. Cybersecurity: Guardtime [55]. Finance:
Barclays [56], Aeternity [57], and Augur [58]. Governments: Dubai, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and
others [59]. Healthcare: SimplyVital Health [60]. Media: Ujo music [61] and Kodak, which in 2018
announced that it would start “KODAKcoin” [62], raising concerns that the blockchain technology
was announced for mere promotion issues [63]. Peer to peer retail market: Openbazaar [64] (raising
concerns that a new “Silk Road” [65] may start). Real estate: Ubitquity [66].
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 contains the most relevant
information to explain to the reader the general functioning of blockchain technology; in Section 3,
the methodology for conducting the literature review is explained and its first steps are implemented;
Section 4 contains a bibliometric analysis and a study of the main scientific articles in the literature,
in terms of topics covered, starting issues, and contributions; Section 5 provides a discussion about
research trends, gaps that still need to be filled in the literature, possible future challenges, and
perspectives. The conclusions are shown in Section 6.
2. Blockchain Technology: How Does It Work?

The first original paper on blockchain technology was the work: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer
Electronic Cash System” [1], describing the conceptual basis for developing a digital currency called
“Bitcoin”. In January 2009 the first active blockchain was launched. Many websites, papers, and
reports [67] explain in detail how a blockchain works. In the following, we just introduce the main
concepts. A blockchain is based on a piece of distributed ledger technology, which is a distributed
database with some specific characteristics. In the original version of financial blockchains, the ledger
holds the currency transactions between different parties. In a blockchain, information is stored on
many “distributed” computers which can be in different parts of the world and that store the same
replicated ledger and database. Each computer that is holding the distributed database is called “node”
of the blockchain network. The database in a blockchain is structured in blocks which are replicated
and copied on all the nodes of the network. Every block is generated and univocally linked to the
preceding block by a cryptographic signature system, creating a chronological chain of blocks and
containing information regarding transactions (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The blockchain made simple.
Consensus on the validity of data is reached in the blockchain with a mechanism that guarantees
a certain effort before a network node is allowed to add a block in the chain. In other words, blocks
in a blockchain can be added by every node of the network when certain conditions are met. To
avoid the problem that different blocks (n + 1) could be added at the same time in different nodes
of the network, this “consensus” algorithm is applied: in some instances of blockchain technology,
the longest main blockchain prevails and the blocks added to other side chains are discarded. The
mechanism is such that it is in the interest of every node to add new blocks to the main chain and to
replicate the other blocks which are added to the main chain. One possible consensus mechanism is
called proof of work (PoW). The PoW consists of performing computationally complex operations
on each block that is added. The way PoW is performed guarantees that nobody can easily add an
altered block at some point of the chain, since it would be necessary to also add all subsequent blocks,
and that is computationally infeasible. PoW in cryptocurrencies has been criticised, since it requires
enormous calculation power, which turns into a huge electricity drain [68].
In a general purpose blockchain, the information stored in a block is not only about currency
transactions. Every datum could, in theory, be inserted in a block, including information about an event,
value and object transactions of different kinds (e.g., logistic data of goods that are handled), and even
automatic transactions which can be activated if a given condition is met (i.e., smart contracts). This is one
of the main features that make blockchains useful for many different applications in the transport sector.
The Blockchain Is an Immutable Distributed Database with Specific Characteristics

As a consequence of their structure, blockchains offer some specific features in addition to the fact
that they are decentralised, such as that they are immutable and irreversible, they can be transparent,
and as described above, they are based on some form of consensus.
The transactions and the information which are stored in a blockchain become public and
immutable. A block cannot be altered or faked once is added to the blockchain, since the crypto-graphical
algorithm applied to connect univocally subsequent blocks makes any alteration infeasible. Each block
also bears a time stamp. A blockchain can certify the sharing of information across a network of different
entities, even in the case where two parties never met and do not trust each other, and without the need
for a trusted middle or central entity. For this reason, blockchains are credited to being able to create trust
and greater collaboration among potential partners that may be far away from each other.
It must be noted that the concept of the distributed database [69] has not been invented with the
blockchain, yet other distributed databases were centrally managed. The innovation of blockchain
systems is that they manage to be completely decentralised with competing and not friendly computer
nodes that find the incentives to cooperate to keep the blockchain working. The incentive in
cryptocurrency systems to persist in running a network node is that the computer nodes are candidates
to receive award coins for the creation and the insertion of one block in the blockchain. In a normal
database, the operations performed are: read, write, and verify data. In a blockchain, data are written
only once by different parties, and signatures (verification) by different stakeholders are performed in
every block. In this way the addition of every subsequent block guarantees the impossibility of data
tampering. The trust in the information held in the blockchain can be complete, without requiring
intermediation of a central server or entity. Blockchain databases can perform these services: history
and proof of ownership of a physical (consignment) or documentary asset (data and intellectual
property); immutability; consensus and agreement on the validity of data; a single version of truth,
since the database is replicated in all nodes of the network; data transparency can be customised,
allowing restricted data access according to who is reading the data (i.e., who is able to read what
data); and decentralisation. As a consequence, a blockchain can allow users to operate transactions
without a middle entity, perform a complete track of information, and establish smart contracts. Smart
contracts [70] are contracts in the form of computer code that will execute, for example, a currency
transfer when a certain condition is met. The typical example of a smart contract in logistics is a
payment that is issued automatically when certain goods are received by a certain entity.
3. Review Methodology
The literature review about blockchain-based systems in transportation sector, proposed in this
research work, has been carried out through the seven-step procedure shown in Figure 2. Similar
methodologies are quite common in the literature [71,72].
Figure 2. Seven-step procedure for literature review.
3.1. Database Selection

There are numerous scientific research databases which collect the contributions of various
scholars. In this study, Scopus was selected. It contains more than 20,000 peer-reviewed journals,
belonging to the most important publishing houses, such as Springer, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis,
IEEE, and Emerald. Scopus is more comprehensive than Web of Science (WoS), another important and
recognised database, which includes only ISI indexed journals; then, about 12,000 titles [73].
3.2. Keywords Selection

With the aim of constructing an exhaustive literature review in the transport sector, the authors
identified a sufficiently large number of keywords to be combined with the term “blockchain”:
traffic, logistic, supply chain, airport, transport, transportation. A query was carried out through
the “document search” of Scopus using simultaneously the AND and OR connectors, as follows:
(blockchain AND traffic) OR (blockchain AND logistic) OR (blockchain AND supply AND chain) OR
(blockchain AND airport) OR (blockchain AND transport) OR (blockchain AND transportation).
3.3. Collection of Documents and Filtering (Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria)

The first query returned a total of 874 publications. In order to have an idea about the contribution
of each keyword to this result, Table 1 shows the number of documents retrieved by performing the
queries separately. Obviously, a higher number (i.e., 1050) was obtained because some duplications
were possible in this case.
Table 1. First search results.
Search Keywords Results (No. of Documents)

Blockchain AND Supply Chain 522
Blockchain AND Traffic 190
Blockchain AND Transportation 138
Blockchain AND Logistic 122
Blockchain AND Transport 72
Blockchain AND Airport 6
Total 1050
It can be noted that the application of blockchain technology in the airport sector seems to be a
research branch still quite unexplored; on the contrary, the number of contributions grows considerably
if we refer to the supply chain topic.
Subsequently, all documents, belonging to one of the following types, were excluded: “Conference
Review”; “Note”; “Editorial.” Therefore, the number of publications was reduced to 745. Then, the
authors read the abstract (and in some cases also the full paper) of the remaining documents, one by
one, with the aim of excluding: duplicate publications (i.e., articles presented at conferences and then
published in journals as an extension), documents not written in English, and especially, documents not
relevant to the topic of this research work. The number of selected documents was further reduced to
371—those examined by the descriptive analysis below.
4. Bibliometric and Document Analysis

In this section, the application of the fifth step of the above presented review methodology
is described.
4.1. Bibliometric Analysis

The bibliometric analysis was partly supported by the free software VOSviewer (1.6.13
version) [74].
4.1.1. Publication and Citation Frequency

In Figures 3 and 4, the number of publications and citations about the application of the blockchain
technology in the transport sector over the years are reported, respectively.
Figure 3. Number of publications on blockchain and the transport sector over the years.
Figure 4. Number of citations on blockchain and the transport sector over the years.
As can be seen, in the last three years there has been a considerable growth in the application,
theoretical or practical, of blockchains to the transport sector. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of
published articles almost doubled, while the number of citations tripled. This trend is one of the main
reasons behind the present study, which responds to the need for detecting the current state of the
art and the main research gaps. In fact, the very high number of contributions published in recent
years makes the issue of classifying and discussing the main methodologies proposed by the various
authors very interesting.
4.1.2. Source Analysis

In Table 2, the top sources in terms of the number of published documents are reported.
Table 2. Main sources, in terms of published documents.
Source No. of Documents

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 13
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 13
IEEE Access 12
Proceedings—IEEE 2018 International Congress on Cybermatics 11
ACM International Conference Proceedings Series 9
International Journal of Information Management 8
International Journal of Production Research 8
Supply Chain Management 5
Sustainability (Switzerland) 5
Computers and Industrial Engineering 5
CEUR Workshop Proceedings 5
Communications in Computer and Information Science 5
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Comp. Sci., Soc. Inf. and Telecom. Eng. 5
It should be pointed out that a very large number of sources concern conference proceedings. That
means that the blockchain topic has been commonly debated within the recent scientific conferences.
The recent IEEE International Congress on Cybernatics (2018) has collected a significant number of
contributions. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, and Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, are, however, the most prolific sources with 13 documents. IEEE Access, the International
Journal of Information Management, and the International Journal of Production Research are, instead,
the first three journals (i.e., sources not related to proceedings). It is worth mentioning also, that
transportation-related journals have not yet published many works about blockchain technologies.
4.1.3. Keywords Statistics

In Table 3, the 10 most used keywords are shown.
Table 3. Top 10 keywords.
Keyword No. of Occurrences

Blockchain 319
Supply chains (OR supply chain) 202
Internet of things 103
Supply chain management 87
Smart contract (OR smart contracts) 65
Information management 34
Intelligent systems 32
Blockchain technology 31
Food supply 28
Since the software used is not able to distinguish between singular and plural terms, nor between
words having the same roots, the occurrences of the keywords having the same meanings (e.g., supply
chain and supply chains) were merged. As expected, the term blockchain was the most used (86%),
followed by supply chains (or supply chain) and internet of things, used, respectively, in 54% and 28% of
cases. In order to highlight the links between the different keywords used in the 371 selected documents,
a co-occurrence analysis was carried out. Only the keywords with a number of occurrences greater than
10 were taken into consideration, for a total of 52. Also, in this case, a cleaning phase was necessary for
excluding duplicates. The output of this analysis is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Output of the co-occurrence analysis on all the keywords of the 371 selected documents.
Note that the number of occurrences was the unit chosen for the size of each node of the created
bibliometric network; therefore, a node was greater the higher the number of occurrences detected.
Moreover, given two nodes in the network, the closer they are, the more likely the co-occurrence of
the respective keywords they represent. Based on this aspect, four clusters, with different colours,
were created. The green cluster is mainly concerned with the supply chain information management
topic, and the most representative keywords, in this context, were: “information management,” “big
data,” “digital storage,” “traceability systems,” “transparency,” “supply chains,” and “food safety.”
The red cluster, instead, mainly concerns logistics aspects, and some important recent research trends
were detected: “smart cities,” “autonomous vehicles,” “intelligent vehicle highway systems,” and
“vehicle-to-vehicle communication”. The blue and yellow clusters were the smallest and substantially
concerned the basic aspects of the blockchain technology: “peer-to-peer networks”, “distributed
computer systems,” “smart contract,” and “distributed ledger.”
The output of the co-occurrence analysis is extremely useful for defining the directions through
which to explore the existing literature. In particular, from the observation of the network, it is possible
to define two macro-clusters (i.e., C1 and C2 ): the first one concerns the application of blockchain-based
systems to supply chains or logistics; the second one, instead, is related to road traffic management
and smart cities.
In parallel, by reading the documents one by one, a manual categorization was carried out in the
topics indicated in Table 4:
Information 2020, 11, 21 10 of 24
Table 4. Results of the manual categorization on the 371 documents selected.
Topic No. of Occurrences

Supply Chain and Logistics 244
Road Transportation 78
General Interest 30
Smart Cities 9
Air Transportation 5
Maritime Transportation 4
Railway Transportation 1
The results of the manual categorization confirmed the validity of the keyword analysis, which
led to the aggregation of most papers in the two macro-clusters C1 and C2 . Moreover, it can be said
that very few papers have been published in the railway, maritime, and air transportation sectors: 10
out of 371; in other words, just around 2.5% of the total number of documents.
4.2. Document Analysis

For each of the two macro clusters C1 and C2 , the 10 most cited articles (excluding the documents
in the form of a literature review) were selected, in order to highlight the main current research trends
and the gaps that have yet to be filled. Tables 5–10 show the analyses of the papers, respectively,
belonging to C1 and C2 . The following features were taken into account: topics, starting issues,
and contributions.
Table 5. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C1 (part 1/3).
Reference Topic Starting Issues Contribution

[45] Alimentary
Supply Chain • Lack of information for consumer about the • A blockchain-based approach for storing
& Traceability origin of food products all the transactions information regarding
• The recent increase in the amount of digitized the alimentary supply chain of the
data also means greater risk of attacks by case study
malicious parties, which may wish to modify, • A multi-agent system (MAS), which
eliminate or even steal private information exploits the functionality of smart
contracts for efficiently managing the
processes of the supply chain and
enabling the circular economy principles
• A ranking system for rewarding the actors,
which mostly follow the rules of the new
proposed supply chain model
[75] Agri-Food
Supply Chain • Traditional agri-food logistics systems are • An RFID and blockchain based agri-food
& Traceability currently not able to match demand market supply chain traceability system, in China,
• Food scandals, occurred in recent years, for ensuring: food product safety &
especially in China, such as: “Sudan red” and quality, decreases in losses during the
“trench oil” [76] logistics processes
• Very early stage of Chinese agri-food
supply chain systems: lack of modern
equipment, high difficulty in tracking
and tracing the processes undergone by
agri-food products, uncertain and undefined
regulatory environment
[77] Food Supply

Chain & • Traceability systems are often centralized, • A food supply chain traceability system
Traceability monopolistic, and asymmetric; therefore, based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and
they are very vulnerable because a single Critical Control Points), blockchain and
point of failure can cause the dangerous IoT, for ensuring real-time food tracing
collapse of the whole system • Guarantee of the following features:
• Trust in the information shared among the openness, transparency, neutrality,
actors of the supply chain reliability, security
Information 2020, 11, 21 11 of 24

[78] Pharmaceutical
Supply Chain • In the healthcare context, regulations • Description of the main innovations by
& Regulatory regarding the transport of medicines are modum.io, a start-up, which uses the principles
Compliance stringent and complex of IoT and blockchain to guarantee: data
• Need to automatically monitor immutability, accessibility of temperature
compliance with the law regarding the records, decrease in operational costs within
shipment of medicines (e.g., temperature pharmaceutical supply chains
and humidity must be checked) • Provision of a list of start-ups in non-financial
areas, involved in the blockchain implementation,
is shown. The main aspects and results are
shown, in order to highlight the possibility of
using blockchain not only in the financial area,
where it was born some years ago
[79] Supply Chain

& Traceability • Great difficulty of granular traceability of • Development of a blockchain-based ontology for
physical goods, considering the significant supply chain provenance
complexity of modern supply chains • Proof-Of-Concept implementation
• Need to exploit new tools, such as IoT
and blockchain, for evaluating knowledge
provenance in an efficient way
[80] Supply Chain

& Traceability • Traceability systems usually store • OriginChain, which consists of the use of
information in centralized databases, blockchain, instead of a centralized database,
under the control of the service providers; with the aim to: automate regulatory-compliance
the risk of data tampering is high checking, guarantee tamper-proof traceability
[81] Agricultural
Supply Chain • Supply-demand matching • A public blockchain based on a double chain
• Security and transparency of transactions; architecture for agricultural supply chain
user privacy • Introduction of the proposed public blockchain
• Platform credibility: the dissemination into a public service platform
of untruthful information about demand
and supply of agricultural products is an
event to be avoided
[76] Supply Chain

& Traceability • Inability of current information systems • A framework, consisting of a set of private
to track shipment in real-time distributed ledgers and a single blockchain public
• Many existing solutions for shipment ledger. It is independent, crowd-validated, and used
tracking are extremely limited because they for online shipment tracking. Information about the
are populated from a single source (i.e., distribution phase is provided to all stakeholders,
the carrier) and are not validated by an in order to increase supply chain visibility
independent entity • Attempt to address the divide between
completely private/permissioned and completely
public/open blockchain architectures
• Demonstration of the potential of combining
public and private ledgers, for solving some
issues in the supply chain
Information 2020, 11, 21 12 of 24

[82] Agri-Food
Supply Chain • Many current IoT traceability systems are based on • AgriBlockIoT, a fully decentralized,
& Traceability centralized infrastructures, which lead to some open blockchain-based traceability solution
issues, such as: data integrity and tampering, single for agri-food supply chain management.
points of failure It can ensure IoT devices integration
• The majority of traditional logistic information • Evaluation and comparation of two different
systems in agri-food supply chains cannot blockchain implementations (i.e., Ethereum
provide important features, such as: transparency, and Hyperledger Sawtooth) on a classical
traceability, and auditability use-case “from-farm-to-fork,” in terms of:
latency, CPU, and network usage
[83] Supply Chain

Management • There are information asymmetries among the • A blockchain-based solution for
actors of the supply chain, which negatively overcoming two main problems of
influence the algorithms for planning activities supply chain management: double
• The data sharing between manufacturers, marginalization, information asymmetry
suppliers, and customers is an extremely
important aspect, so that the entire supply chain
can react effectively and efficiently in the face of
high market variability
• The coordination of information has become
more difficult due to the great complexity of
modern supply chains

[51] Interconnected
Smart Vehicles • There is a need to make smart vehicles safer • A decentralized blockchain-based architecture
because malicious attacks can compromise to protect user privacy and to increase the
passengers’ safety security of the smart vehicle ecosystem
• There are cases of attacks on the car
infotainment system to take control of the
vehicle’s core functions
• Data exchanged between interconnected
vehicles can be very sensitive (e.g., location),
then user privacy must be ensured
• Current smart vehicles systems rely on
centralized infrastructures, which can
collapse when the number of users is too
large; moreover, a single point of failure can
compromise the entire network
[52] Intelligent
Transportation • Lack of trust among the ITS actors. As a • A blockchain-based ITS framework for
Systems (ITSs) consequence, the information flow is usually ensuring stability, efficiency and profitability
complex and slow. For example, money cannot of the ITS ecosystem
be transferred from an entity to another one, • A case-study for blockchain-based real-time
without the support of trusted intermediaries ride-sharing services
• The presence of centralized authorities or
cloud computing can cause performance
limitations or even temporary unavailability
of the ITS, owing to malicious attacks
[84] Smart City

• According to the 2014 report on the global • A blockchain-based vehicle network architecture
outlook for urbanization in the United Nations, (Block-VN) in the smart city context
most of the world’s population lives in urban • Analysis of the evolution of the vehicle
areas, and a further 2.5 billion people are network, when using paradigms focused on
expected to arrive by 2050. For urban networking and vehicular information
communities the challenge of satisfying • Service scenarios and design principles are
residents’ requests will be increasingly complex discussed for Block-VN
• Privacy and security of vehicular network
Information 2020, 11, 21 13 of 24

[85] Heterogeneous
Intelligent • Despite the recent developments in the Vehicular • A framework for secure key management within
Transportation Communication Systems (VCS), much effort is still a heterogenous network. The first part is a
Systems needed to improve the key management schemes blockchain-based decentralized network topology,
• Cryptographic materials need to be sent in timely which is very useful to simplify the distributed key
manner to the Security Manager (SM), who is very management. The second part is a flexible transaction
useful in collecting and managing main vehicle collection period selection method to reduce the key
information (e.g., vehicle departure information) transfer time of the blockchain scheme
• A set of simulations and analysis that shows the
efficiency of the proposed framework with respect to
a structure with a central manager. In particular, the use
of a dynamic scheme allows the SM to fix the various
traffic levels in a very flexible way
[86] Vehicular
Announcement • Difficulties in forwarding reliable announcements, • CreditCoin, a blockchain-based privacy-preserving
Network without knowing the users’ identities incentive announcement network. Users are motivated
• Lack of motivation and enthusiasm from users to to share traffic information, through some incentives
forward announcements, especially for privacy • A set of experiments to show that CreditCoin is efficient
and monetary reasons and practical in smart transportation simulations
[87] Vehicular
Networks • The non-trusted environments make it difficult • A blockchain-based decentralized trust management
for vehicles to evaluate the credibility of system for vehicular networks
exchanged messages • A joint Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake
consensus mechanism
• Performance evaluation of the system via simulation
to demonstrate that it is effective and feasible in terms
of collection, calculation and storing trust values in
vehicular networks
[88] Electric Vehicles
• There is a need for an approach that allows • A protocol for dynamic tariff decisions for electric
customers to query charging stations for the vehicle charging
lowest available price, but preserving their • The presented protocol relies on a blockchain, where
privacy: current position and energy need should electric vehicles show their demand, while charging
not be revealed to the public stations send bids. The overall mechanism is similar
to an auction
[89] Electric Vehicles

• Exploit the availability of some data (i.e., • Design of an architecture of a system for autonomous
planned route, car battery status, real-time traffic selection for electric vehicles charging station,
information, drivers’ preferences), to support a including: negotiation for the most convenient
matching between the demand and supply of option, automated payment
energy for electric vehicles, using the potential of • UML model to make clear the role of the various
smart contracts and blockchain entities involved
[90] Smart City

• There is a need to satisfy the design principles • DistArch-SCNet, an efficient, scalable, blockchain-based
of modern service requirements for sustainable smart city network architecture, enabled by the
smart cities efficiently light-fidelity (Li-Fi) communication technique
• The strong increase in smart devices, in terms • A hybrid communications modulation scheme, to
of numbers and diversity, opens up important utilize bidirectional multi-access Li-Fi communication
challenges about: scalability, efficiency, flexibility • A controller-hoping algorithm, to optimize the
and availability in the context of smart cities performance of the distributed network
[91] Connected vehicles &

forensic applications • Lack of some features, very useful for a • Block4Forensic (B4F), a blockchain-based vehicular
comprehensive dispute resolution, in the case of forensic system
accident investigation: data overwriting does not • Vehicular forensic investigation framework, to solve
allow a complete reconstruction of the vehicle a dispute (e.g., car accident) in an efficient way
history due to the limited storage; moreover, the
involved parties do not have direct control on the
extracted data and third parties are necessary for
guaranteeing data integrity. Finally, a system able
to integrate all parties (i.e., other vehicles, road
conditions, manufacturers, maintenance centres)
does not existing
Information 2020, 11, 21 14 of 24
5. Discussion and Future Research Perspectives

Summarising, some of the articles of the first cluster (i.e., four out of 10) are strongly focused on the
use of blockchain technology, with the aim of ensuring product traceability in food chains [45,75,77,82].
Although several frameworks have been introduced over the past few decades to protect food quality
and safety, many limitations still remain and the blockchain can be a valuable means of overcoming them.
Moreover, the attention towards the origin of the product by the final consumer has strongly increased
in recent years. Three other contributions concern the concept of traceability, but in more general terms
refer to the supply chain [76,79,80]. From the data in Tables 5–7, other important possible objectives,
achievable through the adoption of the blockchain technology, can be highlighted: regulatory compliance
in pharmaceutical supply chains [78], right supply-demand matching in agricultural supply chains [81],
and alignment of information sharing among supply chain actors [83].
The second cluster refers first of all to intelligent transportation systems and interconnected
smart vehicles; in this context, the blockchain is considered a valid means to: increase trust among
actors and secure the exchange of money and information [52], minimise malicious attacks to cars by
increasing security standards [51], improve key management schemes [85], and provide legal support
in the event of a road accident [91]. Moreover, two research works aimed to increase the credibility
of messages exchanged between vehicles, introducing incentives for drivers who are motivated to
share information about traffic or unexpected events, such as car accidents [86,87]. An important
branch of research concerns electric vehicles and, in particular, the matching between the demand and
supply of energy for recharging: the use of smart contracts and a blockchain can indeed promote safe
auction mechanisms [88,89]. Smart cities are another important topic treated: in a world where mobile
devices are increasingly widespread, a blockchain can face challenges such as scalability, efficiency,
and flexibility [84,90].
Practically, the vast majority of the documents that belong to the macro-clusters C1 and C2
and that are listed in Tables 5–10 present ideas and concepts that are applied without developing
and implementing a real blockchain. Some of them propose new platforms just at a concept
level [45,51,52,75,77,83,84,88,89,91], some of them present proofs of their concepts [76,79,81], and
only three of them present a real implementation based on real blockchains: [78,80,82].
It must be noted that developing, implementing, and maintaining a working blockchain is a
complex task that requires great computational resources. By definition, a blockchain is a distributed
ledger so it requires a network of nodes that act as servers for the system, while classic databases are
hosted on a single server. To keep active the different nodes of a blockchain, it is necessary to introduce
some form of incentive for the different node owners, and it would be a contradiction of the blockchain
premise if a single interested entity should rule all the nodes.
In detail, for the macro-cluster C1 , related mostly to traceability problems in supply and
logistics, the only listed paper that introduces a real implementation based on a new blockchain
is [80], which introduces the private developed blockchain OriginChain. Papers [78,82] also
propose real implementations, but based on existing blockchains: Ethereum [78] and Ethereum and
Hyperledger [82]. Other works in macro-cluster C1 propose a proof of concept based on Ethereum [79],
Matlab [81], and an experimental blockchain based on three nodes [76]. The remaining papers of
cluster C1 present platforms that are proposed only at a concept level [45,75,77,83]. In the macro-cluster
C2 , there are no real implementations or computationally derived proofs of concept. Papers [85–87,90]
conducted analyses of the proposed systems in simulations. This proves how the implementation
of blockchain technology for the solution of road traffic problems is still in its early stages. Table 11
summarises the implementation level of the proposed solutions in papers belonging to the two
macro-clusters C1 and C2 . Checkmarks and hyphens mean, respectively, adoption and non-adoption
of a certain level of implementation.
Information 2020, 11, 21 15 of 24
Table 11. Level of implementation of papers belonging to C1 and C2 .
Reference Platform Proposed at a Concept Level Real Implementation Based on Proof of Concept Based on
[45] - -
[75] - -
[77] - -
[78] - Ethereum -
[79] - - Ethereum
[80] - OriginChain (private blockchain) -
[81] - - Matlab
[76] - - A testing environment consisting of three nodes
[82] - Ethereum and Hyperledger -
[83] - -
[51] - -
[52] - -
[84] - -
[85] Simulation of performances - -
[88] - -
[89] - -
[91] - -
Figure 6 depicts the main issues emerging from our literature review. First of all, some
general issues can be detected: trust, regulatory compliance, decentralisation, information sharing,
and supply-demand matching (i.e., use of smart contracts). However, there are also four main
transportation-based issues: food track and trace, electric vehicle recharging, smart city enabling,
and smart vehicle security. These latter four are explored below, including in the discussion the five
detected general issues as well, and highlighting the current state of the art and the possible future
research perspectives.
• Food Track and Trace: Food traceability has been one of the main research challenges of the past
few decades. Several approaches have been proposed by scholars to increase food quality and
safety: RFID, QR Code, NFC, ontology, etc. The main purpose is to provide the final consumer
with all the information about the processes that a product on the shelf has undergone. In
particular, tracking means being able to collect all the information about the various steps of
the food supply chain from upstream to downstream, while tracing is the ability to reconstruct
the product history backwards [92]. The benefits of food traceability are twofold: (1) increasing
the perceived value of goods; (2) guaranteeing regulatory compliance [93]. However, even
today there are several shortcomings because many traceability systems are ineffective: frauds
are still quite widespread [94], while the recall costs are often very high in the case of food
scandals because the granular traceability is onerous, especially in the case of batch mixing [95].
In this context, blockchain technology constitutes an immense opportunity to improve food
traceability: the decentralisation of the overall system avoids the existence of third parties, and
this makes the information exchange between the actors faster and more efficient; the information
recorded remains over time and it is quite easy to trace the actor who inserted it into the system.
Furthermore, there is no problem of incompatibility among the information systems of the various
entities involved, because a single platform can be used. The main future research perspectives are
the following: the need to have real case studies because the simulations present in the literature
are not enough to demonstrate the feasibility of the blockchain; some companies are practically
applying this technology in the food supply chains, but still few real data are present on the
academic side. Moreover, considering that, especially in agriculture, many supply chains are not
very technology-based, we should investigate more about the impacts that the introduction of
mobile devices could have on the entities involved: the costs to train the actors and to redefine
the chain processes should be most investigated in the next few years.
Information 2020, 11, 21 16 of 24
Figure 6. General and transportation-based emerging issues in the application of blockchain technology.
• Electric Vehicle Recharging: Electric vehicles are becoming more widespread, as are the stations for
recharging them. The application of blockchain technology in this area is something new and
little explored. One of the main purposes concerns the right matching between energy demand
and supply. On the one hand, there is a group of motorists who, on the basis of their geographical
location, show the need for a recharge within a certain time window, and on the other, a set of
energy suppliers able to decide prices, based on demand and competitors. This mechanism could
favour both parties because drivers could choose, each time, the cheapest offer in their area, and
suppliers could dynamically vary their prices, maximising the expected profit. In fact, the use of
smart contracts could enable auction mechanisms. However, important efforts are needed to make
the blockchain-based architectures sufficiently scalable [88]; in fact, over the years the number of
motorists and suppliers who could decide to join the electric vehicle ecosystem could dramatically
grow. The functionalities offered by the blockchain (e.g., secure payments through cryptocurrency)
could, however, constitute the trigger to give a definitive impulse to the spread of electric cars.
• Smart City Enabling and Smart Vehicles’ Security: Many cities are defined "smart" when the following
features are present: broadband connectivity, a knowledge workforce, and digital inclusion.
One of the main goals of smart cities is to improve the services offered to citizens, reducing
administrative costs through the use of technology. Considering that the use of IoT, although
very useful, leads to security problems in data management, the introduction of blockchain
technology could solve this important issue. In the near future, almost all vehicles produced and
marketed will be called smart; in fact, they will be able to connect to the internet and communicate
with each other. Additionally, in this case, the main problems concern privacy and security
[51]; in fact, the use of centralised infrastructures poses the alarming issue of data control by
a single entity. Implementing blockchain technology could mean making drivers more secure
Information 2020, 11, 21 17 of 24
in sharing information about: real-time position, traffic conditions, and any unexpected events,
such as road accidents. However, even in this case there is a great need for practical experiments:
there is a lack of real implementations within smart cities and the propensity of drivers to share
very confidential information (e.g., geographical location) should also be strongly evaluated and
analysed (e.g., some questionnaires could be submitted to drivers, in order to have a complete
picture). It is important to note that traffic congestion is one of the main problems of modern cities
and one of the main causes of air pollution; its reduction is a big challenge nowadays. Traditional
efforts to solve congestion problems have been centred in attempts to move the demand on
the transit system [96] and on a better management of road traffic using tools such as traffic
simulation [97–102], dynamic network loading equilibria, and dynamic models [103,104] for the
simulation and management of user route choice [105–109]. New technologies such as intelligent
transportation systems and co-operative intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS) have also been
considered for an increase in road traffic sustainability [110–112], though the true innovation is
possibly coming from the future generation of vehicles that will be electric, “connected,” and
“autonomous.” New vehicles are considered by many the key to completely transform traffic
networks in terms of reduced energy consumption, improved safety, and reduced pollution.
The future introduction of autonomous vehicles and the switch from fuel-based technologies
to electric vehicles has the potential, in fact, to completely change the road traffic sector: goods
and people will be moved by driver-less autonomous vehicles in smart cities. Human driven
taxi services will be substituted by autonomous vehicles and new business models will emerge
where mobility as a service could take the place of the current car-ownership paradigm. In this
future scenario, vehicles will have also to refuel autonomously and the current paradigm of
the credit card-based transaction could become inadequate for the exchange of services and
energy between machines. The trust management problem in vehicular networks [113] could
be solved by blockchain technologies, and new, secure systems based on blockchain technology
could support the development and deployment of an electric and autonomous mobility where
all transactions are "broadcasted" and stored on a secure, open, and unalterable data base. The
development of smart cities, where the above-listed services and technologies are implemented,
can create demand for blockchain technology. As an example, blockchain systems could satisfy
the future needs of citizens and authorities to exchange and store personal data safely.
With reference to the previously analysed transportation-based issues, we can see a great closeness
between the two terms blockchain and sustainability:
• The greater effectiveness of traceability systems could minimise the number of lots that are
recalled from the market in the event of food scandals, limiting food waste.
• The use of smart contracts could stimulate the growth of the electric car market, with consequent
benefits for the environment, considering the reduction of exhaust gas emissions.
• The information sharing among motorists, stimulated by rewarding mechanisms through an
appropriate cryptocurrency, could reduce traffic in overcrowded urban areas, improving the
quality of life.
• The blockchain technology could lead to a continual increase in the number of smart cities,
favouring sustainable urban development.
Other potential applications of blockchain technologies may emerge from the convergence of
emerging services and technologies, such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS), IoT, artificial intelligence
(AI) with deep learning, 5G, and distributed smart objects. This convergence may be able to create a
fertile ground for blockchain technologies and may determine the conditions for the development of
blockchain applications in the other transportation sectors that have not been yet extensively covered
in the literature: transit, rail, maritime, and air transportation. Blockchain technologies might be
introduced in these sectors when the level of the development of the transportation systems reaches
that of what is clearly envisioned for road transportation and that involves the future adoption of
Information 2020, 11, 21 18 of 24
autonomous and connected vehicles. As for now, the literature analysis, which was carried out in this
paper, tells us that blockchain innovation in the context of rail, maritime, and air transportation is not
seen as an emergent topic.
In general, however, there are some “obstacles” for adopting blockchain in the transportation
sector. Some barriers for using blockchains in sustainable supply chains have been detected in [114].
They have been categorised into: intra-organisational barriers (e.g., lack of knowledge and expertise;
financial constraints), systems-related barriers (e.g., immaturity of technology; hesitation to adopt
blockchain technology, due to negative public perception), inter-organisational barriers (e.g., cultural
differences of supply chain partners), and external barriers (e.g., lack of government policies and lack
of external stakeholders’ involvement). Other significant limitations are: lack of willingness of the
actors of the chain to share information [115], limits on the number of transactions per unit of time,
compared to other players such as Visa or Mastercard (i.e., performance and scalability issues) [116],
and regulatory uncertainty [47]. Moreover, trading on a blockchain system could be expensive, because
any mistake is irreversible and increases the transaction costs [117]. These barriers are only some
among those debated in the literature; additional information can be found in [118–120]. Basically, this
technology is still immature and not ready for large-scale dissemination.
6. Conclusions
In this review, we focused on scientific papers that are directly connected with the transportation
sector. Therefore, we did not take into account documents specifically centred on: trust issues, internet
of things, trade, and general business.
It must be noted that the majority of scientific papers examined in the transportation sector
are centred on potential applications. There are very few real blockchain systems in the literature.
The relevance of blockchain technology for the logistics sector is claimed for traceability and for a
better integrated supply chain management. Blockchain technologies can improve trust and data
sharing among supply chain actors. The introduction of blockchain technologies is often related to
the diffusion of the Internet of connected systems and devices (i.e., IoT). The blockchain databases
have to be connected with the physical world, and in many works it is foreseen that this connection
will be carried on by IoT devices. The “connected” vehicle will become a part of the IoT, and this is
the reason for a growing popularity of blockchain technologies in road traffic management and smart
cities. Cooperative data sharing, transactions, and any other data (or currency) exchanges that will be
possible between “autonomous” and “connected” vehicles, may be facilitated by the use of blockchain
technologies that can guarantee specific features that cannot be guaranteed by traditional databases.
Blockchain technologies applied to the transportation sector are in an early phase of development,
and while many authors advocate the use of this technology, there are also some concerns about practical
applications, since some early blockchain projects have failed in the first years of deployment. The debate
will go on until many applications have been deployed and used, and until the specific applicative
field of blockchain technologies is properly “framed.” The positive and objective view, which emerges
from our review, is that there is a growing interest in the scientific world, in blockchain applications
in the transportation sector. However, much effort is still needed, mainly on the part of transportation
engineering researchers, so that this promising technology can reach its final degree of maturation.
Author Contributions: Conceptualisation, V.A. and V.S.; methodology, G.M. and V.S.; software, G.M. and V.S.;
validation, V.A. and V.P.G.; formal analysis, V.A. and V.P.G.; investigation, V.A., V.P.G., G.M. and V.S.; resources,
G.M. and V.S.; data curation, V.A., V.P.G.; writing—original draft preparation, V.A. and V.S.; writing—review
& editing, V.A., G.M. and V.S.; visualization, V.A., V.P.G., G.M. and V.S.; supervision, V.A. and G.M.; project
administration, V.A. and G.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments: Some icons have been retrieved from the Flaticon website (www.flaticon.com).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Information 2020, 11, 21 19 of 24
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Keywords: blockchain; literature review; transportation; logistics; supply chain

Information 2020, 11, 21; doi:10.3390/info11010021 www.mdpi.com/journal/information

Potential Applications of Blockchain-Based Systems in Transportation

2. Blockchain Technology: How Does It Work?

Figure 1. The blockchain made simple.

The Blockchain Is an Immutable Distributed Database with Specific Characteristics

Figure 2. Seven-step procedure for literature review.

3.1. Database Selection

3.2. Keywords Selection

3.3. Collection of Documents and Filtering (Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria)

Table 1. First search results.

Search Keywords Results (No. of Documents)

4. Bibliometric and Document Analysis

4.1. Bibliometric Analysis

4.1.1. Publication and Citation Frequency

4.1.2. Source Analysis

Table 2. Main sources, in terms of published documents.

Source No. of Documents

4.1.3. Keywords Statistics

Table 3. Top 10 keywords.

Keyword No. of Occurrences

Table 4. Results of the manual categorization on the 371 documents selected.

Topic No. of Occurrences

4.2. Document Analysis

Table 5. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C1 (part 1/3).

Reference Topic Starting Issues Contribution

[77] Food Supply

Table 6. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C1 (part 2/3).

Reference Topic Starting Issues Contribution

[79] Supply Chain

[80] Supply Chain

[76] Supply Chain

Table 7. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C1 (part 3/3).

Reference Topic Starting Issues Contribution

[83] Supply Chain

Table 8. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C2 (part 1/3).

Reference Topic Starting Issues Contribution

[84] Smart City

Table 9. Analysis of the most relevant documents belonging to C2 (part 2/3).

[89] Electric Vehicles

[90] Smart City

[91] Connected vehicles &

5. Discussion and Future Research Perspectives

Table 11. Level of implementation of papers belonging to C1 and C2 .

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