Theme and Scope

Blockchain technology is poised to greatly enhance the future of e-commerce. It allows payment settlements instantaneously with zero fraud, extremely high tolerances to DDoS attacks, and is resistant to the scalability issues associated with the networks. Collectively, blockchain and 5G/6G allow for endogenously secure applications that run on mobile devices. When the two most promising emerging technologies, blockchain and 5G/6G, are combined, it can lead to an entirely new generation of secure electronic commerce applications. Although the combination of blockchain/5G/6G is not a new concept, and the underlying technologies have been around for many years, their convergence in e-commerce holds great potential for creating disruptive business models with improved security and privacy models. The effective integration of these techniques provides opportunities for E-commerce through the provision of cryptographically secured infrastructures that are orders of magnitude more secure than their current counterparts. These systems will greatly enhance users' privacy, freedom, and choice by decentralizing information storage and processing.

There is no doubt that future generations of 5G/6G networks will support blockchain-based solutions, which will enable users to benefit from faster operations. Blockchain technology can offer solutions including secure authentication to third parties, low transaction costs and high-security standards, using timestamps to detect fraudulent transactions. It is expected that blockchain will bring together the Internet of Things (IoT), E-commerce and emerging technologies, making them more reliable and efficient. Thus paving the way for endogenously secure e-commerce applications. Research in this stream will not only integrate blockchain and 5G/6G into a new paradigm but also increase transaction speed, security of both user and provider along with the generation of a new business ecosystem. It is expected to make great contributions to e-commerce application development within the distributed network of blockchain and 5G/6G technologies. The convergence of 5G/6G with blockchain is promising for E-commerce due to several reasons, including the fact that it holds the potential to facilitate E-commerce with endogenously secure applications. With 5G/6G enabled devices, one can easily purchase any product using Bitcoins without worrying about security issues.  Besides, its ability of traceability and transparency has created a higher demand for tracking goods and delivery of goods (for instance: food and pharmaceutical etc.). Given the billions of dollars lost every year due to fraud, this would be a welcome relief for consumers and merchants.

This special issue explores the latest trends of blockchain and 5G technologies to enable secure and distributable e-commerce applications. It covers a broad spectrum of research works, including the convergence of blockchain with 5G/6G, applications; design and implementation of different e-commerce business models; distributed ledger technology and blockchain technology; blockchain architecture; stateless hash chains for safe consensus; 5G network, and exploring an effective solution for secured database and information transmission. The prime focus is to explore how blockchain can be used to overcome current limitations in E-commerce security. The main role of the blockchain is to serve as an essential enabler of truly decentralized, secure, and efficient E-commerce.