Blockchain in the Eyes of Developers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how developers discuss and use blockchain technology in practice by analyzing Stack Overflow posts, revealing question types and relevant entities to guide community improvements and novice learning.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of developer concerns and common questions about blockchain through a large-scale case study of Stack Overflow data.

Findings

Blockchain is a rising topic on Stack Overflow.

Identified 13 types of developer questions about blockchain.

Detected 45 blockchain-related entities like frameworks and tools.

Abstract

The popularity of blockchain technology continues to grow rapidly in both industrial and academic fields. Most studies of blockchain focus on the improvements of security, usability, or efficiency of blockchain protocols, or the applications of blockchain in finance, Internet of Things, or public services. However, few of them could reveal the concerns of front-line developers and the situations of blockchain in practice. In this article, we investigate how developers use and discuss blockchain with a case study of Stack Overflow posts. We find blockchain is a relatively new topic in Stack Overflow but it is rising to popularity. We detect 13 types of questions that developers post in Stack Overflow and identify 45 blockchain relevant entities (e.g., frameworks, libraries, or tools) for building blockchain applications. These findings may help blockchain project communities to know where to improve and help novices to know where to start.