Blockchain Application Development Using Model-Driven Engineering and Low-Code Platforms: A Survey

TL;DR

This survey reviews model-driven engineering and low-code/no-code platforms for blockchain app development, highlighting current approaches, a case study, and future requirements to make blockchain development more accessible.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of academic and industrial no-code/low-code blockchain development tools and presents a case study demonstrating their integration.

Findings

Identifies key requirements for future no-code blockchain platforms

Highlights the potential of low-code approaches to lower technical barriers

Provides a case study illustrating current state-of-the-art solutions

Abstract

The creation of blockchain-based software applications requires today considerable technical knowledge, particularly in software design and programming. This is regarded as a major barrier in adopting this technology in business and making it accessible to a wider audience. As a solution, no-code and low-code approaches have been proposed that require only little or no programming knowledge for creating full-fledged software applications. In this paper we review academic approaches from the discipline of model-driven engineering as well as industrial no-code and low-code development platforms for blockchains. We further present a case study for an integrated no-code blockchain environment for demonstrating the state-of-the-art in this area. Based on the gained insights we derive requirements for the future development of no-code and low-code approaches that are dedicated to the field of blockchains.