Quality and Innovation with Blockchain Technology

In recent years, hype surrounding the proliferation of blockchain-based technology has been significant. Apart from the creation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it has been difficult to determine what practical utility might lie in the adoption of blockchain, mainly because there are so few in existence at present. Even so, interest in the technology has increased tremendously. This paper is a primer for software quality professionals. It briefly describes the history of blockchain technology, attempts to define and disambiguate terminology, fosters a general understanding of how blockchain works, and discusses how and why software quality professionals might want to invest time and energy in learning about, implementing, or using blockchain-based technologies in their own organizations -- or alternatively, improving the quality of blockchain technology itself.