Unveiling the Positive and Negative Effects of Blockchain Technologies on Environmental Sustainability in Practice

Blockchain is defined as a technology that allows users belonging to the same community to validate, store, and synchronize the contents of one or more transactions within a distributed ledger. Besides its primary contribution to enhance bitcoin diffusion, the technology is suitable to meet in non-financial applications, of both the public and private sectors. Blockchain technology appears to be an innovative and successful solution able to revolutionize the production systems and the execution of logistics activities in the agri-food sector, in the construction and energy sectors. Throughout a number of empirical applications of blockchain technologies in non-financial sectors, Chap. 4 provides an overview of both positive and negative effects of this Industry 4.0 technology on environmental related SDGs.