Knowledge diffusion paths of blockchain domain: the main path analysis

Blockchain technology, as a disruptive technology, has received widespread attention in the past few years from all over the world, leading to rapid growth in research outputs. This paper adopts a quantitative method, the main path analysis, to comprehensively and systematically investigate the development trajectories of blockchain. Four different main paths, the global main path, the forward local main path, the backward local main path and the key-route main path are conducted simultaneously. By analyzing these various paths, on the one hand, this paper finds that papers on paths focus on two aspects, cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based applications. On the other hand, this paper discovers several major research areas of blockchain, including internet of things (IoT), healthcare, energy industry, voting, insurance and supply chain management. At the same time, this paper further analyzes the research hotspots, as well as the development trajectories of blockchain in the areas of IoT, healthcare and supply chain management by using the key-route main path analysis. This paper is conductive for both the new and experienced researchers to identify some influential papers and grasp the knowledge diffusion paths in these domains.