With its inherent characteristics of decentralization, immutability, and transparency, blockchain technology presents a promising opportunity to revolutionize the South African food supply chains. Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, immutable, and secure nature, offers solutions to these challenges by improving traceability and accountability across the supply chain. This study investigates the role of blockchain technology in enhancing transparency in the food supply chain among small and medium enterprises in South Africa. SMEs form a critical part of the country's agri-food sector but face challenges such as food fraud, inefficient inventory management, and lack of transparency, which impact food safety and trust. The research adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing the Technology-Organization-Environment framework and Institutional Theory to explain blockchain adoption among SMEs. The results demonstrate that blockchain-enabled practices, such as smart contracts, records traceability, production tracking, and distribution monitoring, significantly enhance supply chain transparency. The findings highlight blockchain's potential to increase operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder trust. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, emphasizing the need for regulatory support and strategic investment in blockchain solutions to promote sustainability and competitiveness in the agri-food sector.

This article delves into the application of blockchain technology in enhancing intellectual property (IP) protection within the e-commerce sector, providing a comprehensive analysis of its future prospects. By examining the core characteristics and working principles of blockchain, the paper reveals the unique advantages it offers in strengthening IP protection for e-commerce. The article elaborates on how blockchain’s features of decentralization, data immutability, and timestamping contribute to a secure, transparent, and efficient IP protection mechanism in the e-commerce field. Furthermore, the paper discusses the practical application of blockchain technology in IP registration, management, transaction, and rights protection, highlighting its significant impact on security traceability, transaction cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. Lastly, the article anticipates the future role of blockchain technology in IP protection in e-commerce and believes that with continued technological advancements and enhanced policy support, blockchain will play an increasingly pivotal role in this domain. The paper also proposes potential challenges and solutions that require attention, aiming to foster the healthy and sustainable development of blockchain technology.

The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing the blockchain adoption in agricultural supply chains, to make a particular focus on how security and privacy considerations, policy support, and management support impact the blockchain adoption intention. it further investigates perceived usefulness as a mediating variable that potentially amplifies the effects of these factors on blockchain adoption intention, and sets perceived cost as a moderating variable to test its influence on the strength and direction of the relationship between perceived usefulness and adoption intention. through embedding the cost-benefit theory into the integrated tam-toe framework and utilizing the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method, this study identifies the pivotal factors that drive or impede blockchain adoption in the agricultural supply chains, which fills the gap of the relatively insufficient research on the blockchain adoption in agriculture field. the results further provide empirical evidence and strategic insights that can guide practical implementations, to equip stakeholders or practitioners with the necessary knowledge to navigate the complexities of integrating cutting-edge technologies into traditional agricultural operations, thereby promoting more efficient, transparent, and resilient agricultural supply chains.

The interest in smart grids and new technologies is growing around the world. Countries are investing in the development of new technologies that will help achieve environmental goals, energy supply efficiency, improve energy efficiency and increase consumer involvement in the energy generation. One of such technology is a blockchain. It is believed that the blockchain, combined with a smart grid, provides an opportunity to integrate the activities of all stakeholders, including: generators, distributors and consumers of electricity. The aim of the article is to identify the key research areas discussed by the researchers of both the smart grid and the blockchain issues. An analysis of the Scopus database from 2015 to 2023 was conducted. Using a created bibliometric query, a systematic literature review was conducted. 476 scientific publications relating to the issues addressed were identified. Using the VOSviewer software, a bibliometric analysis was performed using the author’s keywords. The bibliometric maps obtained allowed for the identification of key research areas. The article also presents potential future directions of scientific considerations, which should be focused on the issue of green smart grid and green blockchain. The results presented in the article can inspire researchers looking for research gaps or describing the current state of knowledge in the field of the smart grid and the blockchain issues.

This paper foresees a critical analysis and development of a legislative proposal for the effective implementation of blockchain technology in Civil Mediation in conflicts in condominiums. This paper provides a legal analysis of personal, property rights and condominium disputes, applying blockchain technology for the purpose of self-executing civil mediation. This paper provides several solutions for conflicts in condominiums: Condominium Statute in blockchain, telematic attendance and voting systems, the self-execution of civil mediation agreements in conflicts in condominiums and Tokenization and IoT for property remote control in condominiums. The novelty of this research lies in the fact that, based on the experience of civil mediation in conflicts in condominiums, foreseen in US States and in other States such as Canada, Spain, the regulation is adapted for the correct application of blockchain technology for mediation in conflicts in condominiums.

Blockchain technology is poised to significantly transform the corporate world, heralding a new era of innovation and efficiency. Over the past few years, its impact has been noted by leaders, academics, and government representatives around the globe this growing interest underscores businesses’ need to evolve and reconsider traditional operational models. To remain competitive, organizations must embrace this change. Before introducing such ground-breaking technology, it is crucial to assess the motivations of primary stakeholders concerning its implementation. This study looks into what influences the use of Blockchain technology in the oil and gas sector, primarily using a quantitative survey of Iraqi oil and gas companies. A questionnaire was distributed among 250 top-level managers, senior executives, project managers, and IT managers for analyzing the data, the study employs the Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) technique, with Smart PLS for data processing. The findings suggest that the intention to utilise blockchain technology is influenced by one’s attitude towards it. Competitive pressure (environmental factors), functional benefit, and privacy/security (technological factors) significantly affect blockchain adoption intention. Nevertheless, there was no discernible correlation between regulatory backing and the desire to use Blockchain. Additionally, cost concern and perceived risk (organizational factors) two factors contribute negatively to the perception of blockchain technology. Besides the direct relationship, the findings revealed that attitude toward blockchain technology mediate the relationship between cost concern, perceived risk, and intention to adopt Blockchain. Built upon the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) model and the Theory of Reasoned Action, this research offers a comprehensive framework for investigating the intention to adopt blockchain technology. The results enhance both theoretical understanding and practical implementation by providing valuable insights into the emerging area of blockchain adoption intentions.