Table 2.

Characteristics of blockchain and related applications.

Characteristics	Description	Related applications
Decentralization	There is no centralized management organization in the whole network, but rather a distributed end-to-end network structure [4-7].	Health data preservation and authorization; the preservation and authorization of health data
Autonomy	Using consensus-based specifications and protocols to enable all nodes to exchange data freely and safely in a detrusted environment [4,5,7,9,10].	Medical insurance; health status monitoring and tracking (wearable devices)
Credibility	Asymmetric cryptography is used to encrypt transaction data, and with the help of workload proof mechanism to ensure that the data are difficult to tamper with in theory [5-7,10].	Controlling of fake drugs; anticounterfeiting of electronic prescriptions; digital ledger of students’ scores
Transparency	All transaction records are open and transparent in the whole network, breaking the information asymmetry [5-10,12].	Supply chain; clinical trials; biomedical research