A multi-layered ontological approach to blockchain technology

In 2009, blockchain led the foundation of an era of cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin playing the role of avant-garde in the series. This phenomenal technology behind Bitcoin has been visualized by many as having far reaching impacts not only in finance and economy, but also in other sectors. This decade has witnessed the emergence of different types of blockchain, associated platforms and a plethora of applications without any standardization of the associated concepts. To facilitate a common interpretation of this technology among its users, we present a multi-layered blockchain ontology that can be leveraged for constructing a structured knowledge management and representation system in this domain. We propose a new Ontology Development Life Cycle and a methodology for the design of such complex ontologies of emerging technologies like blockchain. We devised a prototype tool leveraging the proposed methodology that will enable implementing a multi-layered modularized ontology for any domain and design applications for that domain.