Picking the juiciest cherries from the blockchain tree: Is the hype still alive?

Over the last years, blockchain technology has been promoted to revolutionize industries through trustless transactions. However, it has recently faced scrutiny for its failure to deliver on its alleged potential. This paper shows how blockchain applications have fallen short of their claims, including trustless and fraud-less transactions, as well as transparency systems. Building on this analysis, this research inspects how Blockchain’s building blocks, such as the Merkle tree and digital signatures, are still highly relevant technological concepts since their introduction decades ago. The paper examines these aspects, the unfulfilled claims, and the salvageable features through a critical analysis, offering insights into various sectors and jurisdictions, using as an example case a public project developed in Colombia. From cases of wrongful implementations, the paper demonstrates the necessity to put specific needs and requirements of real-world applications before the urge to apply blockchain technology without diligent social analysis, especially considering public funds.