Revista
de la
Universidad
del Zulia
Fundada en 1947
por el Dr. Jesús Enrique Lossada
DEPÓSITO LEGAL ZU2020000153
ISSN 0041-8811
E-ISSN 2665-0428
Ciencias del
Agro,
Ingeniería
y Tecnología
Año 13 N° 36
Enero - Abril 2022
Tercera Época
Maracaibo-Venezuela
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The potential of applying blockchain technologies in various
sectors of the digital economy
Olha Milashovska*
Natalia Liba**
Oksana Korolovych***
Nataliia Smyrnova****
Valeria Slatvinska*****
ABSTRACT
The objective of the article is to determine the potential of blockchain technologies in various sectors
of the digital economy, in the case of the countries of the European Union. Methodology. The
research assesses the use of digital technologies to ensure the country's digital development, based
on data from the European Commission and the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). On the
basis of DESI, a cluster diagram was created to determine the potential for the use of blockchain
technology in the countries of the European Union. Results. The potential for the use of blockchain
technology in each country depends and is significantly connected with the introduction of different
technologies and the availability of the Internet, the provision of digital services by the government,
the development of human capital. The main potential advantages of the technology include the
following: acceleration of globalization processes, ensuring the country's transition from real
production to technological development, change of established business models, transformation
and optimization of value chains of different sectors of the economy by reducing costs;
transformation of the nature of mediation due to technological changes; the use of cryptocurrency to
achieve the consensus of economic agents on the allocation of scarce resources on a global scale.
KEY WORDS: digital technology; digitization; Information and Communication Technologies;
Economy.
*Professor, Head of the Department of Hotel and Restaurant Business, doctor of science, Department of Hotel and
Restaurant Business, Faculty of Management and Hospitality Industry, Mukachev State University. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2381-7534. E-mail: sms11111@rambler.ru
** Doctor of science, Associate Professor at the Аccounting, Taxation and Marketing Department, Аccounting,
Taxation and Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics, Management and Engineering, Mukachev State
University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7053-8859. E-mail: sms11111@rambler.ru
*** PhD in Economic, Associate Professor at the Аccounting, Taxation and Marketing Department, Аccounting,
Taxation and Marketing Department, Faculty of Economics, Management and Engineering, Mukachev State
University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5878-0925. E-mail: oxykk@yahoo.com
**** Ph.D., associate professor, Faculty of International Economics; Department of Marketing, Odessa. National
University of Economics. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7482-4606
E-mail: petuniya3@gmail.com
***** Teacher, Department of Criminal Law, Process and Criminalistics, International Humanitarian University.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6082-981X. E-mail: slatvinskaya_valeriya@ukr.net
Recibido: 04/10/2021 Aceptado: 01/12/2021
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El potencial de aplicar tecnologías blockchain en varios sectores de
la economía digital
RESUMEN
El objetivo del artículo es determinar el potencial de las tecnologías blockchain en varios
sectores de la economía digital, en el caso de los países de la Unión Europea. Metodología. La
investigación evalúa el uso de tecnologías digitales para asegurar el desarrollo digital del país,
basándose en los datos de la Comisión Europea y el Índice de Economía y Sociedad Digital
(IESD). Sobre la base de IESD, se creó un diagrama de clúster para determinar el potencial de
uso de la tecnología blockchain en los países de la Unión Europea. Resultados. El potencial
de uso de la tecnología blockchain en cada país depende y está significativamente conectado
con la introducción de diferentes tecnologías y la disponibilidad de Internet, la provisión de
servicios digitales por parte del gobierno, el desarrollo del capital humano. Las principales
ventajas potenciales de la tecnología incluyen las siguientes: aceleración de los procesos de
globalización, asegurando la transición del país de la producción real al desarrollo
tecnológico, cambio de modelos de negocio establecidos, transformación y optimización de
cadenas de valor de diferentes sectores de la economía mediante la reducción de costos;
transformación de la naturaleza de la mediación debido a cambios tecnológicos; el uso de la
criptomoneda para lograr el consenso de los agentes económicos sobre la asignación de
recursos escasos a escala global.
PALABRAS CLAVES: tecnología digital; digitalización; Tecnologías de la Información y
Comunicación; Economía.
Introduction
Blockchain as a technology has demonstrated the ability to eliminate intermediaries,
streamlining transactions based on registers in various sectors of the economy, from
cryptocurrency to centralized voting. In many countries, blockchain-based technologies
ensure the transparency of transactions between different sectors and market participants,
helping to reduce the level of corruption and increase the trust of various economic agents.
“Blockchains as digitized decentralized ledgers make it possible to conducts records of
single-rank transaction records, thus, eliminating the necessity for trusted third parties to
intervene” (Bhimani, Hausken & Arif, 2021). Currently, the blockchain technology is
considered as the most significant invention after the Internet. While the latter brings people
together to implement business processes online, the former can solve the problem of trust
through peer-to-peer networking and public key cryptography (Efanov & Roschin, 2018).
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The importance of the blockchain determines the relevance of studying the potential impact
and applying the technology in different sectors of the digital economy, as well as identifying
possible effects of the impact on digitalization.
The purpose of the academic paper lies in determining the potential of blockchain
technologies in various sectors of the digital economy on the example of EU countries
differing in the level of the ICT sector development.
1. Literature Review
Since the end of the twentieth century, a lot of scientific works explain the concept of
digitization and the digital economy; however, since 1997, the relevant regional aspects have
remained poorly understood. Herewith, there are no agreed definitions of the digital sector,
digital products or digital transactions in the scientific literature (International Monetary
Fund, 2018). Consequently, the conceptual paradigm of the digital economy envisages both
activities based on online platforms and activities involving the use of digitized data. This
ambiguous definition of the digital economy leads, among other things, to conflicting
estimates of the size of the digital economy (Góźdź & Van Oosterom, 2016).
Scientists use various indicators to assess technological progress outside the digital
economy. Initially, the digital economy was defined as an economic system characterized by
the widespread use of ICT, covering basic infrastructure, e-business and e-commerce.
Subsequently, the scope of the concept has expanded at the same pace as the development
and evolution of digital technologies. Therefore, the digital density index, developed in 2015,
contains 50 indicators grouped into 4 areas of activity and 18 groups of indicators (Szeles &
Simionescu, 2020). In 2016, as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Digital Economy and
Society Index (DESI) was created in order to reflect the performance results of EU member
states in the field of digital competitiveness. Currently, it is estimated that the size of the
digital economy ranges from 4,5 to 15,5% of world GDP (UNCTAD, 2019). By lapse of time,
a great number of investigations have examined the major drivers, dimensions and indicators
of the digital economy, focusing on specific dimensions of the digital economy and using
particular analysis between countries. E-commerce, Internet use and human resources in ICT
are some of the variables commonly used to assess the digital economy, also included in the
most popular digital economy indices such as DESI.
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Conceptually, blockchain is a distributed database containing transaction records
that are shared by participants. Each transaction is confirmed by consensus of the majority
of participants, making it impossible for fraudulent transactions to go through collective
confirmation. Once a record is created and accepted by blockchain, it can never be changed
or deleted (Efanov & Roschin, 2018). Blockchain, like the Internet, is an open, global
infrastructure that provides an opportunity to companies and individuals, carrying out
transactions, to eliminate intermediaries, reducing transaction costs and working times
through third parties. The technology is based on the structure of the distributed book and
the consensus process. The structure makes it possible to create a digital ledger of
transactions and use it between distributed computers in the network. The register is not
owned or controlled by a single central authority or company it can be viewed by all network
users (Underwood, 2016).
Blockchain (Tripoli & Schmidhuber, 2018) is derived from the terms “block” and
“chain”, a list of transactions known as the block connected with the encryption method.
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer blockchain managed by a network of peer partners used to store
and retrieve information. The block header and transactions are included in each block. The
hash, common measure, one-time value, and root value of the previous block header are
stored in the block header. It is impossible to change the information in the block. The main
use of blockchain is to eliminate inconsistencies (Baralla et al., 2018). Blockchain can be
represented by digital public records documenting bitcoin exchanges or cutting-edge cash
at record demand. Upon completion, the block enters blockchain as immutable information.
Each block contains the hash of the previous block, the data of the current block and its own
hash data. Taking into consideration that blockchain is a complex record with limited
capabilities, when data is placed in a block, it is extremely difficult to change it; for this
reason, this kind of innovation is used in programs such as money management and
intellectual property. Blockchain provides the opportunity for customers to conduct their
web applications on their local and primitive computers. The blockchain tool has no servers;
it is restricted to any place where customers can have or manage their data or applications
running on their devices. Blockchain is a distributed ledger of transactions. This makes it
possible for community members to share data with other services without the involvement
of a third party and to track the transaction. Instead of storing information on a single server,
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it is shared between multiple servers, making it extremely difficult to change or delete
records. Protection against unauthorized access includes a trademark, as well as a method
ensuring that all data entered into the blockchain is reliable, creating public confidence
(Corallo et al., 2018). Peer-to-peer networks are used to distribute and support blockchains.
A network can exist without a centralized authority or a server controlling it, forasmuch as
it is a distributed ledger and its data quality can be maintained through database replication
and computational trust. Blockchain technology is a type of distributed ledger technology.
In order to create a secure and distributed consensus, not all distributed ledgers use a chain
of blocks. The blockchain structure distinguishes it from other types of distributed registers.
In blockchain, data is collected together and encrypted. A distributed ledger is a database
covering multiple nodes or computing devices. Each node duplicates and saves a copy of the
ledger. Each node-member of the network is updated independently. The cost of trust is
greatly reduced by distributed ledger technology. Constructions and structures of the
distributed ledger can help reduce dependence on banks, governments, lawyers, notaries and
officials in compliance with regulatory requirements. Corda, developed by R3, is an example
of a distributed ledger.
The scientific literature explores the issue of using blockchain technologies in the
following areas of the digital economy, namely: the financial system at the macro and micro
levels (in particular, financial and technological companies) (Vovchenko et al., 2017;
Karapetyan et al., 2019), insurance system, public administration system (Babkin et al., 2017;
Britchenko & Cherniavska, 2019), infrastructure (Abodei et al., 2019), e-commerce system,
industry, agriculture (for supply chain management in agriculture) (Tripoli & Schmidhuber,
2018; Baralla et al., 2018; Sajja et al., 2021), intellectual property, education, health care
(Dorofeyev et al., 2018; Muminova et al., 2020). Blockchain is also being actively implemented
in the tourism sector, especially in island countries (Treiblmaier et al., 2020). For instance,
the Caribbean countries have launched the first legal digital means of payment; Aruba has
developed a blockchain platform in order to ensure the growth of tax revenues from tourism
(Kwok & Koh, 2019). One of the sectors where blockchain technologies are being introduced
at a rapid pace is the financial sector. Babkin et al. (2017) have systematized the features of
different countries in the implementation of state regulatory mechanisms of blockchain as
follows: creating a favourable climate for the development of new digital technologies
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(blockchain), applying technologies in the private, public sector (for instance, for the
implementation of infrastructure projects of public-private partnership (Abodei et al., 2019);
high growth rates of the cryptocurrency market and the lack of adaptation of tax legislation
to the challenges of this trend (Crosby et al., 2016; Yeoh, 2017); for this reason, the potential
for receiving revenues to budgets is reduced; the necessity to develop common standards for
blockchain regulation at the international level.
Along with this, in the scientific literature, there are few empirical quantitative
studies of the potential for using blockchain in the context of the digital economy
development. Therefore, the present research is aimed at assessing numerically the potential
of technology by measuring the development of digitalization aspects as follows:
Connectivity, Digital Public Services, Human Capital, and Integration of Digital Technology.
2. Methodology
The first part of the research has identified the major tendencies in the development
of the digital economy of the EU in three key sectors, namely: state, private and public. In
order to assess the development of the digital economy, the indicators of the Eurostat
database (section “Science, Technology and Digital Society”, subsection “Digital Economy
and Society”) have been used by the categories as follows: 1) indicators of ICT use by
households and individuals; 2) indicators of ICT use by enterprises; 3) indicators of ICT
sector development. The second part of the research has assessed numerically the use of
digital technologies in order to ensure the digital development of the country based on data
from the European Commission (2021) on the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI)
taking into accounts the aspects as follows: Connectivity, Digital Public Services, Human
Capital, and Integration of Digital Technology. Integration of digital technology measures
the level of implementing the following indicators in countries, namely: 1) Digital intensity;
2) SMEs with at least a basic level of digital intensity; 3) Digital technologies for businesses;
4) Electronic information sharing; 5) Social media; 6) Big data; 7) Cloud; 8) AI; 9) ICT for
environmental sustainability; 10) e-Invoices; 11) Blockchain. Thus, DESI serves as an
assessment of the synergistic impact of blockchain together with other technologies on the
digital economy. On the basis of DESI, a tree cluster diagram has been constructed in order
to visually display the clusters of countries in the context of the digital economy
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development. A cluster analysis of the EU-27 countries according to DESI sub-index
estimates in 2020 has been conducted.
3. Results
Accelerated use and expansion of the Internet as a means of communication, mobile
Internet, social networks, commercial platforms, usually perceived as digitalization, has had
a significant impact on the functioning and state of the economy, on the activities of
enterprises, government agencies and individuals. The state of digitization of business and
various sectors of the economy varies between countries and regions of the European Union
(EU). Each EU country implements its own digitalization model in order to ensure economic
growth, productivity and competitiveness.
The EU countries are characterized by the implementation of various models of digital
transformation due to differences in the established economic and social policies (Szeles &
Simionescu, 2020). The digital economy is growing rapidly, especially in developing
countries; however, the values and indicators of the digital economy are limited and
divergent. The core of the digital economy is the “digital sector”: that is, the IT / ICT sector
producing basic digital goods and services. The digital economy is defined as “that part of
economic production that derives exclusively or primarily from digital technologies with a
business model based on digital goods or services, including the digital sector and new digital
services”. The ICT sector, penetrating into all sectors of the economy, is defined as the “digital
economy”, the size of which amounts about 5% of world GDP and 3% of world employment
(Bukht & Heeks, 2017; Barefoot et al., 2018).
The average value of the share of the ICT sector in the EU-27 GDP was 4,1% in 2008-
2018, growing by 0,34% over ten years (Eurostat, 2021a). All countries can be classified
according to the level of development of the ICT sector into three groups, namely:
1) high level of development with a share of ICT in GDP of more than 5%, which
includes countries as follows: Malta – 7,97%, Bulgaria – 6,1%, Hungary – 5,95%, Sweden –
5,94%, Estonia – 5,38%;
2) average level of development with the value of the share of ICT in GDP in the range
of 3,5-5%, which includes countries as follows: Latvia – 4,92%, Finland – 4,85%, the Czech
Republic – 4,56%, Denmark – 4,56%, Croatia – 4,45%, Germany – 4,4%, France – 4,31%,
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Slovakia – 4,13%, Iceland – 4,03%, Belgium – 3,96%, Romania – 3,74%, Poland – 3,59%,
Slovenia – 3,59%, Austria - 3,58%;
3) low level of development with the share of ICT in GDP less than 3,5%, which
includes countries as follows: Norway – 3,37%, Italy – 3,29%, Spain – 3,28%, Lithuania –
3,13%, Greece – 2,49%.
Accordingly, in the EU countries the share of population employed in the ICT sector
(Eurostat, 2021b; 2021c) and the needs of the labour market in ICT professionals differ. The
average share of employment in ICT was 2,79% in the EU-27 in 2009-2018. The largest share
of people employed in the ICT sector is observed in the following countries, namely: Malta –
4,77%, Sweden – 4,75%, Estonia – 4,3%, Latvia – 4,15%, which can be attributed to the group
with the most developed digital economy, where the share of employed population exceeds
4%. The following group of countries with an average employment rate in ICT in the range
of 3-4% is as follows: Finland – 3,79%, Hungary – 3,6%, Denmark – 3,51%, the United
Kingdom – 3,43%, Slovakia – 3,31%, Germany – 3,16%, Switzerland – 3,16%, the Czech
Republic – 3,13%, Norway – 3,08%, France – 3,07%. The group of countries with low
employment in ICT (less than 3%) should include as follows: Belgium – 2,85%, Bulgaria –
2,85%, Slovenia – 2,72%, Lithuania – 2,64%, Austria – 2,63%, Croatia - 2,57%, Poland –
2,54%, Romania – 2,52%, Spain – 2,48%, Italy – 2,43%, Greece – 1,51%.
Over the last ten years (2011-2020), the share of the population using the Internet has
increased significantly, which means that the digital economy is developing at a rapid pace,
ICTs are penetrating into various spheres of social life. The average value of Internet use by
individuals is 88% in the EU-27 with a deviation of 7,55%, reaching 99% in some countries
(Figure 1).
For the period of 2010-2019, e-commerce has increased significantly: the share of
individuals who made online purchases in the last 12 months in 2010 was 36%, in 2019 - 60%,
in 2020 - 65%. At the same time, a significant differentiation of countries in the development
of e-commerce is observed (Figure 2).
Thanks to ICT, e-government is developing, providing penetration into the public
sector of technologies in order to facilitate the interaction of the private sector and
individuals with public authorities (Figure 3). Therefore, the share of people using the
Internet for interaction with the authorities increased from 41% in 2011 to 57% in 2020.
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Figure 1. Individuals - internet use, 2011-2020, EU--27, %
Source: compiled by the authors according to the Eurostat data (2021d).
Figure 2. Internet purchases by individuals (2020 onwards) for last 3 or 12
months in EU-27, 2020 у 2020
Source: compiled by the authors according to the Eurostat data (2021e).
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Figure 3. Use of ICT at work and activities performed (the share of the population of
EU countries using the Internet to interact with the authorities, % of the total
population)
Source: compiled by the authors according to the Eurostat data (2021d).
The most advanced EU countries are characterized by higher assessments for the sub-
indices of the digital economy development (Table 1).
The simultaneous priority of two high marks is typical for different EU countries. For
instance, the quality of digital public services is highly assessed in Estonia, Finland, and
Sweden; high estimates of human capital and Internet availability are observed in Denmark,
Malta, Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands.
The cluster diagram makes it possible to visually highlight 3 clusters of countries in
the context of the digital economy development, depending on the level of their digital
proximity, assessed on the basis of DESI (Figure 4).
The first cluster includes the countries as follows (Table 2): Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus,
the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovenia. In
these countries, the average value of the Connectivity sub-index is 11,91, Digital Public
Services – 16,76, Human Capital – 11,45, Integration of Digital Technology – 9,49 (Table 2).
The second cluster includes the countries as follows: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The average values of the
subindexes of this cluster are as follows: Connectivity – 14,66, Digital Public Services – 20,90,
Human Capital – 14,43, Integration of Digital Technology – 12,11.
The third cluster contains 6 countries as follows: Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, and Slovakia. The average values of the subindexes of the third cluster are as
follows: Connectivity – 11,35, Digital Public Services – 11,56, Human Capital – 9,53,
Integration of Digital Technology – 6,29. The conducted clustering suggests that the
potential for using blockchain technology depends on different indicators of the
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development of the digital economy. In countries with a higher level of implementation of
digital public services, the average indicators of Internet accessibility, human capital
development, and integration of digital technologies are simultaneously higher.
Table 1. The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), EU countries, 2021
Country
Connecti
vity
Digital Public
Services
Integration of Digital
Technology
Austria
13,2476
19,9584
10,3259
Belgium
12,0994
16,4566
12,4435
Bulgaria
9,52411
14,012
5,12099
Croatia
11,3528
12,993
9,99231
Cyprus
10,4539
15,4553
7,63476
Czechia
11,1606
14,6472
9,7681
Denmark
18,5098
21,7714
14,4818
Estonia
11,6392
22,9407
10,3657
European
Union
12,5403
17,0132
9,39214
Finland
12,817
21,679
14,8735
France
11,8522
18,248
8,69166
Germany
14,499
16,8684
8,88743
Greece
9,43265
10,4854
7,13132
Hungary
12,9993
12,2897
5,82488
Ireland
14,1027
20,652
12,0052
Italy
10,5877
15,7985
10,3619
Latvia
12,5948
19,9076
6,6998
Lithuania
10,4286
19,5123
10,3024
Luxembourg
15,2424
19,8404
9,85591
Malta
13,5281
21,0487
12,7111
The
Netherlands
17,1111
19,9755
12,6746
Poland
11,3289
13,775
6,46908
Portugal
12,1309
17,2369
9,14354
Romania
13,2932
5,37211
5,93985
Slovakia
11,5633
13,4307
7,27292
Slovenia
13,2983
16,9984
10,5799
Spain
15,5073
20,169
9,68769
Sweden
14,8928
20,9863
14,0838
Source: European Commission (2021).
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Figure 4. Tree cluster diagram for visual representation of clusters of countries in the
context of the digital economy development
Tree Diagram for 28 Cases
Single Linkage
Euclidean distances
Romania
Greece
Estonia
Sweden
Finland
Netherlands
Denmark
Latvia
Italy
Hungary
Slovakia
Poland
Cyprus
Bulgaria
Germany
Czechia
Croatia
Lithuania
Slovenia
France
Portugal
European Union
Belgium
Spain
Luxembourg
Malta
Ireland
Austria
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Linkage Distance
Source: compiled by the authors based on the European Commission (2021).
Table 2. Average values of indicators of digital economy development of the
countries of various clusters
Mean
Standard
Variance
1 cluster
Connectivity
11,91654
1,225463
1,501759
Digital Public Services
16,76128
1,940707
3,766344
Human Capital
11,45266
1,302394
1,696230
Integration of Digital Technology
9,49145
1,477654
2,183460
2 cluster
Connectivity
14,65980
2,056121
4,227632
Digital Public Services
20,90214
1,001115
1,002231
Human Capital
14,43409
1,767834
3,125239
Integration of Digital Technology
12,10652
1,972683
3,891479
3 cluster
Connectivity
11,35691
1,646328
2,71040
Digital Public Services
11,56082
3,298341
10,87905
Human Capital
9,53016
1,123990
1,26335
Integration of Digital Technology
6,29317
0,826013
0,68230
Source: compiled by the authors based on the European Commission (2021).
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The conducted cluster analysis of the digital economy development of the EU
countries proves that the potential for using blockchain technology in each country depends
on and is associated with the introduction of different technologies, the availability of the
Internet, the provision of digital services by the government, and the development of human
capital.
4. Discussion
Blockchain as a new technology accelerates globalization processes, ensuring the
country’s transition from the real sector to the network sector of the economy, thereby
contributing to the digital economy development (Vovchenko et al., 2017). Catalini (2017)
highlights the following key transformations of the digital economy through blockchain,
namely: changing established business models and existing value chains; a radical change in
the nature of mediation due to a new wave of technological change; significant reduction in
the cost of verifying transaction attributes that can be recorded on the blockchain and the
cost of the network; the use of cryptocurrency in order to achieve consensus by economic
agents on the allocation of scarce resources on a global scale.
Harris (2018) systematizes the risks of blockchain technology in underdeveloped
countries as follows: risks of damage or failure, security risks due to attacks, the trend
towards centralized technology management, limited user access, privacy and autonomy,
legislative problems due to the need for concluding contracts, regulation and taxation,
problems of scaling and storage, speed and verification. From among the main problems of
blockchain implementation, Karapetyan et al. (2019) have identified as follows: gaps in
legislative regulation; a significant number of projects at the development stage that have not
proven their own economic feasibility; lack of full understanding of the potential for the
introduction of blockchain technology, the expected results in terms of the number and
timing of their receipt by government officials, business representatives, society; discussions
on the circulation of cryptocurrencies in countries, their potential impact on the national
economy.
The potential impact of blockchain technology on the collaborative economy (CE), or
the sharing economy, may be manifested in the rapid integration of the latest technological
advances, including artificial intelligence, big data analysis, augmented reality, smart grid,
and blockchain technologies into different sectors of the economy (Ertz & Boily, 2019). It
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may be expected that blockchain will ensure the revolution in industry and commerce; it will
drive economic change on a global scale forasmuch as the technology is immutable,
transparent, redefining trust between economic agents, providing safe, fast, reliable and
transparent solutions that can be of public or private nature (Underwood, 2016). Technology
provides people in developing countries with a recognized identity, asset ownership and
affordability. At the same time, blockchain prevents a recurrence of the 2008 financial crisis;
it supports effective health care programs, as well as improves, optimizes, and transforms
supply chains. In the future, the technology can eliminate unethical high-cost, high-value
business behaviour, leading to significant intermediary costs or fraudulent risks.
Conclusion
The present research has analysed and systematized the core quantitative indicators
of the digital economy of the EU countries, determining the potential of applying the
blockchain technology in the EU states. The conducted cluster analysis of the digital
economy development of the EU countries proves that the potential for using blockchain
technology in each country depends on and is associated with the introduction of different
technologies, the availability of the Internet, the provision of digital services by the
government, and the development of human capital. Consequently, in countries with a high
level of social-economic development, high ratings for the quality of digital public services,
the development of human capital and the availability of the Internet, the simultaneous high
level of integration of technologies into different sectors of the digital economy is observed
(Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden should be noted). In the future, the potential of blockchain technology will be
manifested in the acceleration of globalization, technological development of countries,
especially countries with a high quality of human capital, transformation of doing business
and elimination of intermediation, optimization of value chains by reducing transaction
costs. In the most advanced countries, economic agents will be more optimal in allocating
available resources, forasmuch as the blockchain effect as a tool of eliminating the risks of
corrupt fraudulent schemes will enhance the effects of a low level of corruption and a high
level of trust in institutions in such countries.
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