Opportunities and Barriers for Application of Distributed Ledgers in the Context of EU Digital Single Market Strategy

Decentralization, on one hand, brings more transparency and trust to the parties involved in transactions, but on the other hand, it narrows possibilities for central control. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a recent decentralized innovation in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) that acts as self-sustainable ledger for documenting transactions self-protected against counterfeiting and hacker attacks. The aim of the current research paper is to reveal opportunities and barriers for utilization of distributed ledgers in the context of EU digital single market strategy. The main tasks are (1) to analyze functionality dynamics of existing distributed ledgers, (2) to analyze utilization areas of distributed ledgers, (3) to analyze digital trends related to utilization of distributed ledgers within the EU. The current research paper utilizes methods of content analysis, grounded theory, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The research has revealed that half of EU Digital Single Market priorities can be facilitated through distributed ledgers.