The Potential of Blockchain in Optimizing Project Management Tasks

This essay explores the potential of blockchain technology and smart contracts for project managers, highlighting their role in optimizing tasks and enhancing security. Blockchain is defined as a distributed database containing transactional details, while smart contracts are computer programs automating digital currency and asset transfers. The essay discusses the advantages of blockchain, such as non-repudiation and integrity, along with limitations like privacy concerns. It emphasizes the importance of project managers in implementing these technologies and managing projects within time constraints. The application of smart contracts minimizes conflicts and improves efficiency, offering benefits like faster transactions and enhanced security compared to traditional systems. The essay also delves into the fundamental structure of blockchain, including blocks, cryptographic hashes, and the peer-to-peer network, illustrating its use across various industries and its potential for future development. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
Block Chain Technology
Individual Assignment 1
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The potential of adopting block chain technology and developing smart
contracts for project managers
The foremost determination of this essay is to focus on the importance of the potential of
adopting block chain technology and developing smart contracts for project managers. The
extensive developments in different kinds of industries have led to the increase of new
technologies which are used to optimize any kind of task associated with the organization. The
concept of block chain is similar to the concept of digital currency. This new rapidly growing
technology has provided much more security regarding any kind of transaction from one entity
of an organization to another. A block chain is defined as the type of technology which is used as
a database which contains all the transactional details of any particular project or unit.
On the other hand it can be said that the block chain technology is a kind of computer
paradigm which helps in solving complex computations and smaller programs in the form of the
smart contracts (English, Auer & Domingue, 2016). Block chain can also be defined as a type of
distributed database which is replicated across several departments of a business enterprise. The
application of the block chain technology is involves trusted third parties such as the banking
authorities, accountancy firms, legal firms, service provider in specific industries and
government agencies. This essay reflects on the importance of this advanced technology and the
development of the smart contracts related to the technology and organization (Belle, 2017).
Compared to the other type of centralized technologies, this technology is useful to minimize the
risks and vulnerabilities associated with the transactions. The advantage of using this new
technology is non-repudiation and maintenance of integrity. The prime limitation of this
technology is the privacy issues, latency and availability.

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The prime objective of this unit of this paper is to focus on the management of the project
by the project managers, every business organisation have a specific business objective which
are very important for the growth and development of the organisation and it is the role of the
project managers to ensures that the project they handle finish within the proposed time period
and accomplish the desired results (Peters & Panayi, 2016). The role of project manager in
highlighting their role is the main topic of discussion in this unit of the essay. The different types
of industries using this technology are information services industry, real estate industry, banking
industry, education industry.
The different parameters of the project such as the operations costs, infrastructural costs,
architectural costs, maintenance costs, management of time constraints all these should be
effectively managed by the project managers. To accomplish the business objectives, the project
manager has to go through lots of difficulties such as the resistance to change or the
implementation of the new technologies, all these issues have to be solved by the project
managers so that the projects get underway smoothly (Zheng et al., 2016). Different types of
industries involve different approaches which are essential for the proper functionality of this
technology. Every organization have different kinds of stakeholders such as the internal
stakeholders such as the CEO, board of directors, operational managers, line managers, team
leaders and employers and the external stakeholders are the vendor, third parties, marketing and
production team. All the sponsors and associated sponsors are also external stakeholders. Each of
the stakeholders of this organization works collectively for the productivity of their entire unit
(Kosba et al., 2016). Every big organization works on a contractual basis with each of the
stakeholders of the organization which provide security to both the stakeholder as well as the
organization. The contract defines the role and responsibility of the employers, all the details of

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their existing projects and future projects along with the deadlines and resources involved in the
projects are described in those contracts. The contract signing by the stakeholders of the
organization is done with the help of the digitals signature after reading all the rules and
regulation of the organization. The contracts clearly state the business objectives of the
concerned employee. The ever-changing needs and requirements of the client of this technology
is the main reason for the incorporation of the new set of strategies by the project managers
(Crosby et al., 2016). The roles of the project manager do not stop with the management of the
projects but they are also responsible for the overall professional development of both the
employees and the organisation.
The prime determination of this part of the essay is to focus on the application of smart
contracts and block chain technology. The smart contracts or the crypto contracts are the
computer programs which directly controls the transfer of digital currencies and assets between
parties under certain rules and regulations (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017). These smarts contracts are
kept in a safe place as the growth and development of the company is dependent on it. The
functionality of the production teams and the entire business unit of an organization may
dependent on those smart contracts. The management of those contracts is very important as it
have a direct impact on the future of the organization. The smart contracts are made to store in
the block chain technology which is a type of decentralized system. That exists among all the
stakeholders of a business organization, and it does not require any human intervention (Cachin,
Sorniotti & Weigold, 2016). One of the main objectives of this contract is that it minimizes
problem related to the time and conflict among the different stakeholders of the organization.
The most significant characteristic features of block chain technology are that is very fast and
cheap compared to the other technologies. The security provided by the block chain technology

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is much more as compared with the primitive legacy systems used by the organizations (O'Leary
et al., 2017). The efficiency and productivity of this technology is improving every day with the
extensive developments in the field of science and technology. Different types of unwanted
disputes can be minimized with the help of the block chain technology.
The application of smart contracts is useful for different kinds of activities such as the
exchange of money, property, shares and other assets (Idelberger et al., 2016). All the
transactions are done smoothly with the help of the block chain technology. Bitcoin concept is
similar to the concept of block chain technology. This new concept is not most widely used due
to the enhanced skills required to operate and maintain this technology so project managers
should be dedicatedly working so that employees are comfortable in working with this
technology as it have all the capability to ensure security to all the stakeholders of the
organisation (Delmolino et al., 2016). The technical skills required for using this technology
should be given to all the concerned employees by experienced professions. Those professional
should be hired with the help of specific types of contracts which are described in the later
sections of the essay.
The concept of block chain technology is a new concept which involves smart contracts.
All the transactions of an organization in the block chain technology are done using the smart
contracts (Yli-Huumo et al., 2016). This is a type of open decentralized system where the third
arty authentication is either eliminated or considered with a limited extent. This technology
should be used by every project managers which can help them to maintain the productivity and
efficiency of the organization.

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This section of the essay will be highlighting on the concept of block chain technology
and smart contracts and the other related concepts. Designed in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto,
block chain technology is defined as the type of technology which is used in different types of
industries such as the healthcare industry, music industry and human resource industry (Cachin,
2016). The concept of block chain technology involves block chain placed as blocks and the
main purpose of the concept was to eliminate the third parties involved in each industry to
provide more transparency to the productivity.. Each block of the block chain is connected using
the cryptography. Each block of the block chain contains a timestamp, cryptographic hash and
data related to the transaction. Any kinds of modification or alteration of data are very much
complicated (Underwood, 2016). The block chain technology is efficiently used by different
types of organization which deals with essential data; each minute details of the transaction can
be recorded and managed with the help of this technology. This technology is used by many
organizations due to its improved efficiency. All the organization who has successfully
implemented this technology has seen their growth and development (Bahga & Madisetti, 2016).
The block chain technology is managed by the peer to peer network. The data which are stored in
the block chains are very much difficult to get altered but the security provided by this
technology is its exquisite feature.
The block chain technology is a distributed, decentralized storage medium which are
used to store and record transactions across several systems. This specification helps every
organization to store their transactions in an economical way (Prinz, 2018). The infrastructural
cost of this technology is also very much suited for different big or small industries.
This section of the essay will be focussing on the basic fundamental structure of each
block in block chain technology. Each block in the block chain technology records some sort of

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valid transactions which are encrypted into a Merkel tree (Azaria et al., 2016). The blocks
present in the block chain includes the cryptographic hash of the previous work in the block
chain. The entire modules of the block chain technology can be customized according to the
requirements. Along with the existing block, new blocks can be added to the system with the
help of the temporary forks. Each block chain has a unique algorithm for scoring different
versions of the history so that the lower and higher values can be selected from the remaining.
The highest storing version of the database is mostly considered in this system. Each node of the
block chain has a copy of the block chain (Biswas & Muthukkumarasamy, 2016). The quality of
service provided by the block chain technology is incomparable with the other similar
technologies.
This unit of the essay will be discussing the working mechanism of the block chain
technology. Each block in the block chain technologies have different types of data. Each block
is pointed to another block with the help of a reference which is an essential hash value of the
previous block known as parent block. All the different blocks are managed using a master
block. The first block in the block chain which do not have any kinds of parent block is known as
the genesis block of a block chain. A block consists of a block header and block body where the
block header has the following instructions.
Hash Block 0 Hash Block 1 Hash Block n
Time Stamp Time Stamp Time Stamp
Nonce Nonce Nonce
Genesis block Block n Block n+1

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Table1: Structure of blocks in block chain technology
Created by the author
Block version: The block chain indicates the set of block validation rules which are generally
followed in the process.
Parent block hash: It is a 256 bit hash value that points to the previous block.
Merker tree root hash: The hash value of all the transactions in the block.
Timestamp: Current time stamp seconds since the 1970-01-01T00:00 UTC.
Nonce: It is defined as the type of 4 byte field which generally starts with 0 and increases with
every hash function.
Nbits: The functionality of the n bits is the current hashing target in the compact format.
The quality of transactions and data saved in the block chain technology is maintained
with the help of complex computations and massive database replication (Baliga et al., 2018).
The extensive development in the field these transaction protection fields have led to the
increased use of this technology.
The block chain consists of a transaction and a counter transaction. The maximum
number of transaction that a block can contain depends on the block size and the size of each
transaction.
Block chain technology is a type of book keeping technology which can store a
transaction in such a way so that the transaction will not be corrupted under any adverse
circumstances. The transaction stored in the block chain is very much transparent so that it can

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be easily accessed and understood by the concerned organization (Atzei, Bartoletti & Cimoli,
2017). The block chain technology is more user friendly than the primitive technologies which
worked dedicatedly for the same purpose. One of the main advantages of using this type of
technology is that it do not require any kind of approval in the form of authentication and the
drawback of this technology is that it can become very much prone to threats and vulnerabilities
in adverse business conditions such as debt crisis.
The block chain technology is implemented in multiple areas such as the crypto currency,
smart contracts and banks (Till et al., 2017). The smart chains based on the block chain
technology are the type of contracts which can be partially of fully executed with the human
intervention. Among the different types of objectives one of the key objectives of the smart
contracts used in the block chain technology is the automated escrow. The smart contracts
associated with the block chain technology are useful in reducing the moral hazards.
Crypto currencies: The crypto currencies which are used all over the world use the block
chain technology for recording all of their transaction as this technology is a very much secured
process. Ethereum network and bit coin network are the different types of networks are the most
common examples of this technology.
There are different types of block chain such as the public block chain, private block
chain and consortium block chain (Androulaki et al., 2017). Each type of block chain has a
specific property which is very much important to know for every corporation who are planning
to incorporate this technology into their system. The public block chains do not have any kinds
of access restrictions. The private block chains are practiced with permission, only an invitation
from the network administrator who authenticates the process.

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This unit of the paper will be highlighting the block chain technology and smart contracts
and also the other associated concepts. There are lots of aspects related to the block chain
technology and smart contracts. The application of the block chain technology has a direct
impact on all the different sectors which incorporates this technology (Tapscott & Tapscott,
2016). ). The concept helps in the elimination of the intermediaries and secured transactions.
Different types of concept of block chain technology and smart contracts are used in different
types of the industries such as automobile, healthcare and retail. The use of this technology and
similar technologies similar to this technology such as the bit coin and crypto currency are
increasing every day. Most of the big and small companies deal with this technology due to the
enhanced services provided by this technology (Sun, Yan & Zhang, 2016). The use of the smart
contracts is similar to using mini computers.
The specifications of smart contracts which make it a globally accepted concept are as
followings:
Transparency: All the data inside the contract is very much transparent and is
completely understood by all the involved parties. The information stored in the smart contracts
is visible to all the participants involved in the block chain environment. The smart contract is
one of the most transparent ways of doing any kinds of business.
Precision: All the probable conditions related to the smart contract are stored in the form
of a computerized code.
Speed: The complexities associated with the extensive documentation can be
purposefully solved using the concept of smart contracts. The minimization of the documentation
of a system significantly helps in accelerating the speed of the transaction process.

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Security: The use of the smart contracts increases the security of the transactions, the
encryption process helps in providing adequate security to the transactions.
Ethereum technology is one of the biggest technologies which use the smart contract. The
ethereum is designed and developed in such a way that it supports all the specifications of smart
contracts, it do not have any kinds of compatibility issues with the smart contracts. The backend
design and development of the smart contract is done with the help of a programming language
known as Solidity (Huckle et al., 2016). The specifications of solidity are much similar to the
JavaScript programming language.
The programming language solidity is a type of contract oriented language which is a
type of high level language. This language is highly influenced from languages such as Python
and C++. The different types of industries which use the smart contracts are power industry,
public sector industries, media and entertainment industry, real estate industry and insurance
industry (Swan, 2015). The validations of the algorithms which are used to achieve consensus
are of two types such as the Proof of work and Proof of State.
Proof of work
The use of the random cryptographic messages of the block chain technology increases
the efficiency of the transaction. According to the protocol followed in transactions if any of the
participants have any issue regarding any type of sub transactions then the new sub transaction
are not added to the overall transaction procedures. Complex algorithms are used to verify the
transactions in the block chain technology (Sikorski, Haughton & Kraft, 2017). There are lots of
multiple transactions involved in the bigger organizations, and with the help of complex
algorithms this transaction are solved. The validation of the transaction are done with the help of

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the blocks present in the block chain and the process helpful in solving the block are known as
mining and the dedicated entity who is assigned to solve these blocks are called miners (Weber
et al., 2016). The process can be solved with the help of the hardware known as ASIC, this
hardware is very costly so every organization who are looking forward to use this technology
should be having a proper strategic team who will be dedicatedly looking forward to all the
issues related to these technologies.
Proof of stake
It states about the ownership of the attributes associated with the transactions as it is one
of the most important parameters regarding the overall efficiency of the transactions associated
with an organization. The block created by the user is known as forged and the user who created
this block is known as the forger (Ølnes, Ubacht & Janssen, 2017). According to the system
protocol used in the block chain technology, users with more wealth have greater chance to be
selected than the other random users. This issues and challenges associated with this problem can
be effectively solved with the help of methods such as coin age based selection and randomized
block selection.
The foremost determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the life advices of
Albert Einstein. Those advices are useful in different kinds of activities in our daily life. This
section of the essay will be focusing on the application of those advices in the block chain
technology and the smart contracts (Silver, 2018). The extensive development in the field of
science and technology has led to the growth of technologies which helps the organization to
maintain their security from different kinds of threats and vulnerabilities which are discussed in
details in this paper. Einstein stated the importance of simplicity in every aspect of life. He stated