A Science-based Study of E-commerce Developmentsin the Blockchain Era

Blockchain is a fundamental technology; that has changed the digital world. The purpose of this articleis to provide an overview of the evolution of e-commerce in the blockchain era. This article usesreports on the development of smart contract applications in the e-commerce environment andprovides an overview of five applications including smart contracts in digital asset sales and capitalmarkets, smart contracts for supply chain management, and record-keeping, Smart for Governmentand E-Cities, Smart Contracts for Real Estate Registration, and Smart Contracts for EmpoweringIndependent Identity. Moreover, it explains how blockchain has transformed the e-commerceenvironment by playing a role in smart contracts.This article examines the issue with a descriptive-analytical approach. Studies have shown thatblockchain is a distributed, decentralized and anti-invasive digital recording of transactions(distributed general ledger) that gives contracts high credibility, trust and security features. This haschanged the world of e-commerce contracts, transactions and their storage. Thus, blockchaincredibility and trust protocols have restored some of the social contract features that were lost with theadvent of the Internet to online commerce. Smart blockchain-enabled contracts provide more securityand trust for online transactions than they have for the e-commerce environment over the past 20years. Emerging applications of smart contracts in the e-commerce environment are subject tocompletely different legal regimes.