Table 1.
Data items extracted from the blockchain platforms
| Category | # | Data Item | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Information | 1 | Official Website | URL for the official website of the platform. |
| 2 | Software Website | Online repository system that keeps track of the source code of the platform. | |
| 3 | Explorer Website | Special type of online website, “explorer,” that keeps track of all the transactions for the platform. Note that, multiple explorers may exist for the platform which also serves as a cryptocurrency. In this case, we only list the “official” or the representative ones. Also, the living public websites do not exist for the noncryptocurrency platforms, however, the “explorer” code may be available; in this case, we list the website of their “explorer” code instead. | |
| 4 | Main Reference | Main official white papers or the other types of articles discussing the platform. | |
| 5 | Real-World Application | Examples of the institutions or companies currently using the platform. | |
| Blockchain Technology | 6 | Main Improvement over Bitcoin | Main technical difference from Bitcoin, the first distributed cryptocurrency. |
| 7 | Network Permission | Permission mechanism of the blockchain network. | |
| 8 | Consensus Protocol | Core protocol used to create a consensus chain of blocks. | |
| 9 | Special Hardware Requirement | Special hardware (ie, besides a normal personal computer) needed to “mine” (ie, create) new blocks. | |
| 10 | Smart Contracts Support | Capability to support smart contracts/properties. | |
| Public Cryptocurrency | 11 | Symbol | Short name for the cryptocurrency (eg, “BTC” for Bitcoin).80 |
| 12 | Mining for New Public Coins | Capability for participants to “mine” new coins to serve as public cryptocurrency. | |
| 13 | Anonymous Payment | Feature that prevents tracing the origin, destination and amount of the transactions. | |
| 14 | Rapid Payment | Support of the high-speed asset transferring. | |
| 15 | Coin Limit | Maximum amount of the coins that can be created for the cryptocurrency. | |
| 16 | Coin Value | Value of the coin in U.S. dollars.81 | |
| 17 | Average Transaction per Second (TPS) | Average speed of transactions (data collected in December 2017). TPSs were averaged from values on October 5, November 5, and December 5 in 2017. | |
| Application Programming | 18 | Scripting Language | Supported blockchain scripting language (run instructions such as “freezing funds until a time in the future”82). |
| 19 | Open Source | Availability of the source code. | |
| 20 | Main Implementation Languages | Programming languages used to implement the source code for the platform. | |
| 21 | Software License | Copyright license for the source code. |
Note that we included cryptocurrency-related data items considering their future plausible use in healthcare/medicine applications.