Applications and Innovations in Non-financial Blockchain Technology

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchain and Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) enable decentralized transaction and data management over a peer-to-peer network topology. Blockchain technology represents a new paradigm for how information is stored and shared as it mitigates or eliminates the influence of extractive intermediaries or can be used when no intermediaries exist. Smart contracts rather than intermediary actions provide transparent, verifiable, and immutable means to embed and automatically execute governance rules and business logic.

This Special Issue will publish research that supports the progress of non-financial blockchain applications, as such uses may have a greater impact in the long-run compared to cryptocurrencies, which have been more thoroughly investigated. We invite papers that explore how to overcome the technological and socio-economic challenges and limitations of blockchain, how it can shape innovation and competition in digital platforms, and advancements of applications including but not limited to environmental accounting, access to supply chain finance for smallholder farms in the agri-food sector, credential dissemination for higher education, business-to-business cross-border trade and logistics, supply chain management, tracking of intellectual property, blockchain-based e-voting, personal identity security, and government record security. We welcome novel interdisciplinary approaches in blockchain research that draw from several disciplines including but not limited to computer science, operations management and information systems, statistics, game theory, economics, and law.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Agriculture
• Blockchain
• Distributed ledger technology (DLT)
• E-voting
• Intellectual property
• Supply chains
• Traceability
• Transparency
• Security analysis
• Smart contracts