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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-019-00735-4

A survey of blockchain technology on security, privacy,

and trust in crowdsourcing services

Ying Ma1,2 · Yu Sun3 · Yunjie Lei1 · Nan Qin1 · Junwen Lu1,4

Received: 29 April 2019 / Revised: 3 August 2019 / Accepted: 22 September 2019 /

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Blockchain is a new decentralized distributed technology, which guarantees trusted trans-
actions in untrustworthy environments by realizing value transfer network. Because of its
important value and significance to lead human society from the information transmission
internet era to the value transmission internet era, it has attracted the attention of researchers
in crowdsourcing services. This paper firstly observes the development trend of blockchain
technology from the perspective of global government and enterprises. Then we briefly
review the related concepts of blockchain and basic model of blockchain. On this basis, a
comprehensive summary of the state of the blockchain research has been made on related
articles which are recently published. In order to show its functional value, further investiga-
tion has been taken on the main technologies on security, privacy, and trust in crowdsourcing
services and application scenarios related to this field. Finally, the advantages and chal-
lenges of blockchains are discussed. It is hoped to provide useful reference and help for the
future research on blockchain technology used in crowdsourcing services.

Keywords Blockchain · Crowdsourcing services · Security · Privacy · Trust

1 Introduction

Blockchain technology is a new decentralized basic distributed architecture with the grow-
ing use of digital encrypted currency such as Bitcoin, which has attracted widespread
attention from governments, financial institutions, and high-tech companies. In October
2016, China’s MIIT published the white paper of Blockchain Technology and Appli-
cation Development in China in 2016. In December of the same year, China included
the blockchain in the future national informatization plan. In 2017, Arizona passed the

This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Special Issue on Trust, Privacy, and Security in
Crowdsourcing Computing
Guest Editors: An Liu, Guanfeng Liu, Mehmet A. Orgun, and Qing Li
 Ying Ma
maying@xmut.edu.cn
 Yu Sun
sunyu6336@163.com

Extended author information available on the last page of the article.

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Blockchain Signature and Smart Contract Legality Act. In the same year, the US Congress
announced the establishment of the Congressional Blockchain Decision-Making Commit-
tee. The Trump administration’s representative assembly executives recognized the potential
of the blockchain and called for the development of blockchain technology in the public
sector. In January 2018, Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) has begun to build a
blockchain ecosystem and plans to start pilot projects in core industries such as logistics and
energy in April, and regard this technology as the fourth industrial revolution [69]. In the
same year, the Global Block Chain Status Report pointed out that the new member Corda
2.0 was added to the Block Chain Alliance R3. Blockchain technology is considered the
fourth milestone of value network because of its subversive importance in computing [72].
At present, most countries are increasing the importance of blockchain technology and
establishing their own blockchain research institute. Some countries have also raised the
blockchain technology to the national strategic level, which shows the influence of the
blockchain on the world today [37, 56]. This paper will introduce the operation principle
and key technologies of blockchain in detail to form an overall cognitive framework of
blockchain. It hopes to provide useful reference for crowdsourcing research.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Sections 2 and 3 briefly review the related
concepts of blockchain and basic model of blockchain respectively. Section 4 investigates
relevant articles and analysis the state of the blockchain technology research. After describes
the key blockchain technologies associated with crowdsourcing services in Section 5,
the value and application scenarios of blockchain technology are provided in Section 6.
Section 7 finalizes the paper with challenges and the future work of blockchain technology
applied in the area crowdsourcing services.

2 Basic concept of blockchain

2.1 Blockchain definition

Blockchain technology is the basic support technology of Bitcoin [31], that has been running
steadily for many years without any centralized operation and management [71]. This article
uses Bitcoin as a typical example to discuss the application of blockchain in digital currency.
There is currently no universally approved strict blockchain definition in the industry
because blockchain technology is still developing rapidly [60]. We mainly compare the
interpretation of blockchain from the following definitions. Wikipedia defines a blockchain
as a distributed database that can be used to manage data in a time-recorded order and
ensure the data cannot be tampered. The data structure is composed of chronologically
ordered blocks of data, each of which contains transaction information for a period of time,
a corresponding timestamp, and a pointer to the previous block.
Nakamoto’s white paper regards the blockchain as a decentralized, de-trusted, collec-
tively maintained distributed database [54], where distributed refers not only to distributed
storage, but also to distributed records of data [14]; “The promise of the blockchain:
The trust machine”, an article published by the international authoritative magazine-The
Economist, believes that blockchain is an internet protocol similar to HTTP protocol, which
can build mutual trust without third-party supervision. The technical means of mutual trust
can be used as the basic protocol of the second generation internet– “Value Internet”. The
status of basic protocols is comparable to that of current HTTP [53]. A cover article of The
Economist also argues that the blockchain is a mechanism of trust that allows trust to be
transmitted and continuously generates new trust relationships.
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From a technical point of view, blockchain is a new way of data structure, storage and
expression that is integrated with new technologies [19, 58, 93]. From a narrow point of
view, blockchain is a distributed databases based on chain data structure that links blocks
in time sequence to avoid tampering with and counterfeiting by using cryptography tech-
nology [13]. From a broad point of view, blockchain is a new distributed infrastructure
and computing paradigm, which can use blockchain data structures to verify and store
data; use distributed node consensus algorithms to generate and update data; use cryptogra-
phy to ensure data transmission and access security; and use smart contracts composed of
automated script code to program and manipulate data [89].
The blockchain is an interdisciplinary field, which needs to be considered from multiple
perspectives. In order to facilitate understanding, we will firstly review the blockchain from
block structure and block generation.

2.2 Block structure

Blocks are connected by chains. Block is a kind of data carrier set up to record transaction
information when transaction occurs, that is, database record [70]. A block has been created
for each input. In the bitcoin system, a block is generated in about ten minutes, and generally
includes a block header and a block body. The block header plays the most important and
decisive role in the entire block chain.
Block headers are used to record the meta-information of the current block and describe
the structure, semantics, and usage. Block headers include version number, previous block
chain header hash, Merkle root, timestamp, block complexity, random values [27]. The
details of block data structure is shown in Table 1.
The blockchain version number is used to determine the validation rule of the block set;
the block complexity, the previous block chain header hash must be less than or equal to
its value; the Merkle root hash is generated for all transactions of the block, which ensures

Table 1 Block data structure

Data item Data Type Byte Description

version number Int32 4 The block version number, which

determines the verification rules of
the block set
Previous block chain header hash char 32 Referencing the hash of the previ-
ous block in the blockchain
Block Merkle root char 32 A SHA256 hash value
Headers timestamp Unit32 4 Timestamp is a Unix time
the block complexity Unit32 4 The difficulty target of the block
workload algorithms
random values Unit32 4 Record and decrypt the answer
value of the math problem related
to the block
Transaction counter 1∼ 9 Number of transactions
Transaction 1 Record transaction
Transaction Transaction 2 Change information in the block
Transaction 3
Transaction ...
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Figure 1 Data block structure

the immutability of the transaction. Each valid transaction of Bitcoin needs to be digitally
signed with a private key to obtain a hash value. In the Merkle tree, the hash value of
each transaction is hashed and a hash root value is saved in the block head(Multiple hash
operations eventually get a hash value, plus the characteristics of the hash operation, to
ensure that the transaction is not repeated and unforgeable). The Merkel tree belongs to the
block body. The timestamp is a Unix Time [4], which records the time when the miner began
mining. Its value is greater than the timestamp between the eleven blocks. In addition, other
blocks do not accept timestamps after two hours.
A hash algorithm is a function that compresses a message of any length into a message
summary of a fixed length. Hash operation has two characteristics that make it applicable
to the blockchain. First, the operation is irreversible, that is, H ash(A) = B, but even if
B is the result of hashing, it cannot deduce the pre-hash system A. Second, there are any
slight changes in the input value of the transaction record, and the results obtained will be
completely changed.

2.3 Block generation

A block is not equal to one node. Since any networked terminal can access the block chain,
while the nodes on the block chain are numerous, the number of blocks on the block chain
is limited and will not increase after reaching a certain number [36]. The process of block
formation is as follows:
1) Record the transaction information in the local memory to the block body.
2) Generate a Merkle tree1 in the block body for all transaction information in the block,
and save the value of the Merkle tree root in the block header.
3) Input the previous block header data into SHA256 algorithm [34], and get the hash
value as the parent hash value of the current block.
4) Save the current time in the timestamp field.

1 ethereum-whitepaper.http://ethfans.org/posts/ethereum-whitepaper
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5) The difficulty value field will be adjusted according to the average generation time of
the block in the previous period to cope with the changing total calculation amount of
the entire network.
If the calculation power is higher, the difficulty is higher. If the calculation power is
reduced, the difficulty can be reduced, so that the time for completing the next block is
expected to be still within a certain time.
Finally, all the blocks that record the best and fastest information are connected together
to create a blockchain [6]. The data block structure is shown in Figure 1.

3 Basic model of blockchain

3.1 Infrastructure

The blockchain infrastructure is divided into six layers, including data layer, network layer,
consensus layer, incentive layer, contract layer, and application layer [92]. Each layer com-
pletes a core function and cooperates to achieve a decentralized trust mechanism, as shown
in Figure 2.
The data layer is the bottom layer of data encapsulation based on block chain hard-
ware. The main technologies used include encryption technology, encapsulation technology,
timestamp technology and so on. This layer mainly implements two key functions-data stor-
age and security, to ensure the realization of account transactions. Here, the data storage
is based on a tree structure named Merkle tree,2 the node values of which are calculated
through a hierarchical relationship.
The network layer implements the interaction between the nodes of the blockchain to
maintain communication by maintaining a common blockchain network, which is essen-
tially a P2P network, also known as peer-to-peer net without a central server, relying solely
on user groups to exchange information [55].
The consensus layer package various consensus algorithms according to the consensus
mechanism, which is the core technology of this layer. It has the critical function of consen-
sus among the highly decentralized nodes. Since decentralized nodes are highly unreliable,
it is particularly important to agree on the accuracy of transactions in blockchain.
The incentive layer encourages the nodes by means of economic balance to actively
participate in the security verification operation of the whole system. It ensures that the
accounts are not tampered with and destroyed, so as to maintain the continuous operation
of the network. Incentive mechanism is another important concept in the blockchain.
The contract layer, which encapsulates various scripting code, algorithms, and more
complex contract, is the basis for the blockchain’s programmable features [73]. This layer
provides the basic guarantee for the block chain to trust, that is, to achieve the state of
automatic execution through some constraint method without third party interference. For
example, Ethereum [9]’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) can theoretically write systems
with different functions, while Bitcoin itself has a simple scripting function.
The application layer supports various necessary tools and methods for different appli-
cation scenarios of block chains, such as applications on the computer operating system,
various blockchain applications deployed on the Ethereum and so on. The application layer

2 ethereum-whitepaper.http://ethfans.org/posts/ethereum-whitepaper
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Figure 2 Block chain infrastructure

is the fastest developing layer at present, and the business models of all industries will be
built on this layer in the future.
The data layer, network layer, and consensus layer are the necessary elements to construct
blockchain technology. The lack of any layer can not be called the blockchain technology
in the true sense. Some blockchain applications may not include the last three layers.

3.2 Transaction process

So far, there have been many blockchain-based systems, such as Ethereum, Hyperledge
[24], each type of which has its own characteristics. Regardless of the type, the systems
have the same way of work and work flow, which are the product of the same type of
technical structure in essence. For example, in a bitcoin blockchain, when a node generates a
transaction, it must be verified by other nodes [35]. The method is to encrypt the transaction
data through encryption algorithm and input it into Hash function to obtain the unique hash
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code of the transaction. Then the hash code will be broadcast so that other participating
nodes can verify its feasibility. The specific process is as follows:
(1) Owner A uses the private key to sign a digital signature of the previous transaction(ie,
the Bitcoin source) and the next owner B. And then appends a signature to the end of
the currency to make a transaction order, where B uses the public key as the receiving
address.
(2) When A broadcasts the transaction order to the entire network, the bitcoin is sent to B,
and each node merges the received transaction information into one block. Bitcoin will
immediately appear in the Bitcoin wallet for B, but will not be available until the block
is confirmed. One of the most common strategies is that a bitcoin can be confirmed
from the payment to the final confirmation and can be confirmed by six blocks.
(3) Each node solves a mathematical problem to gain the power to create a new block,
and strives to obtain a new bitcoin reward. The node repeatedly tries to find a value,
combining the hash of the last block in the blockchain and the transaction order into
three parts, that can be input into the SHA256 algorithm to compute the hash code X
to meet certain conditions.
(4) When a node finds a solution, it broadcasts all timestamp transactions recorded by the
block to the whole network, and is checked by other nodes of the whole network. The
timestamp is used to verify that a particular block exists within a certain time. The
Bitcoin network takes time from more than five nodes and then takes the intermediate
value as a timestamp.
(5) The other nodes of the whole network check the correctness of the accounting of the
block. Without errors, they will compete for the next block after the legal block to
form a blockchain of legal accounting. The generation time of each block is usually
ten minutes. As the computing power of the whole network continues to change, the
generation time of each block will be shortened with the increase of computing power
and extended with the decrease of computing power.
(6) The final step is to complete transaction verification. Once all nodes accept the block,
the blocks that have not completed the PoW work will be invalidated, and each
node will re-establish a block and continue the next PoW calculation. An example of
transfer transaction process is shown in Figure 3.

3.3 Blockchain type

With the development of blockchain, three basic types-public blackchain, private

blackchain, and consortium blackchain are derived according to different application
scenarios and user requirements [4].
In public blackchain, anyone can access the system to read data, download complete
blockchain data, competing for accounting, and send transactions for valid confirmation.
The public blackchain is completely decentralized, free from the interference of developers
and any third-party organizations. As long as have sufficient technical conditions, they can
participate in the application of public blackchain. However, the low throughput and trans-
mission efficiency result in low transaction speed and limited transaction volume. Common
public blockchain applications include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and hyperledger etc.
The private blockchain refers to the blockchain whose reading and writing permission
belongs to an individual organization. The purpose is to restrict the reading permission
or the opening permission. Only a small number of nodes in the private blockchain have
high level of trusts, and each node is not required to verify a transaction, so the private
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Figure 3 Transfer transaction process

blockchain transactions are faster. Providing better protection for privacy, the data of the
private blockchain will not be made public [15].
The consortium blackchain has consensus process that is usually controlled by pre-
selected nodes and managed jointly by institutions with multiple nodes. In most cases, a
single organization may have multiple nodes. It is not allowed to read, write, and send
transaction data within the organization, and the data only interact among different orga-
nizations. The consortium blackchain is more like a model of consensus between firms or
organizations. It is necessary to pre-designate several nodes as billers, and the generation of
the blocks is determined by all pre-selected billers.
In general, there is no absolute advantage in these three kinds of blackchains. The
comparison of different blockchains is shown in Table 2.

4 Relevant articles analysis

In order to investigate the existing research about blockchain technology, a articles analysis
was conducted on 16 April 2019 using the well-established and acknowledged databases,
Web of Science (WoS).
The number of the articles reached 284 from 2013 to 2019 in the query results. The
number of the articles reaches 284 from 2013 to 2019 in the query results. Figure 4 depicts
the percentage of the articles distributed over different countries. PEOPLES R CHINA,
USA, ENGLAND, and SOUTH KOREA are ranked in the top 4, with a total proportion
reaching 60%.
We also can see seven organizations have published more than 5 articles as shown in
Figure 5. These organizations are: BEIJING UNIV POSTS TELECOMMUN, CHINESE
ACAD SCI, GUANGDONG UNIV TECHNOL, UCL, NANYANG TECHNOL UNIV,
SUNGK YUN KWAN UNIV, and UNIV CHINESE ACAD SCI. We also investigated the
most cited 10 articles related to blockchain technology, and found that four most cited
papers were published in IEEE journals, as shown in Table 3. The most cited article is a
systematic review published by a comprehensive academic journal, which mainly publish
interdisciplinary researches. From Figure 6, among the most popular journals in this field,
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Table 2 Blockchain comparison table

Type Public blockchain Private blockchain Consortium blockchain

Admission mechanism Completely closed All nodes are free to join and exit After the organization or organization is authorized, you can join
Billing rights Organization or institution itself All nodes Pre-selected node
Reading authority Can be made public within a certain range All nodes Pre-allied node
Trading range Record only internal transactions All nodes Pre-allied node
Advantage Faster transaction speed Lower Access threshold is low Protect pri- Transaction speed Wide range of
transaction costs Better pricy pro- vacy Data is transparent Data anti- applications
tection tampering
Disadvantage Controversial Easy to be manipu- Low throughput Trading speed is High Node performance Easy con-
lated slow centration of power
Typical application Linux Foundation Ant Financial Bitcoin, Ethereum Hyperledger
Service
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Figure 4 Articles distributed over different countries

IEEE access is ranked no.1. Although not a traditional journal, this journal published more
than 50articles, which can be considered as a natural outlet for blockchain analysis.

5 Key technologies on security, privacy, and trust of blockchain

The main technologies of blockchain used in crowdsourcing can be classified in the aspects
of security, privacy, and trust. More importantly, the implementation of these technologies
relies on programs running on blockchains, commonly referred to as smart contract.

5.1 Security: encryption technology

Among all the technologies of blockchain, encryption mechanism is the support of the
whole blockchain technology [39]. Once the encryption algorithm is cracked, the data secu-
rity of blockchain will be attacked, and the untouchable modification of blockchain will not
exist [66]. Encryption algorithms are divided into symmetrical encryption algorithm and
asymmetrical encryption algorithm, asymmetrical encryption algorithm is mainly used in
blockchain.
Encryption technology is the core security technology of blockchain. Asymmetric
encryption refers to the use of two different keys for encryption and decryption. These two
keys are the public and private keys. The encryption of Bitcoin transactions is mainly per-
formed by the sender of the transaction encrypting the information using the public key of
the transaction recipient and then transmitting the information to the recipient. The receiver
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Figure 5 Number of articles from different organizations

decrypts the information using his private key. The digital signature is encrypted by the
sender using its own private key and sent to the recipient. The receiver decrypts using the
sender’s public key, thereby ensuring that the information is sent by the sender.
The private key is a random number of 256-bit random numbers consisting of “0” and “1”
randomly generated by the Bitcoin system. These numbers can take any value between 0 and
2256 − 1. The private key is used as input. The corresponding public key can be generated
by using the elliptic curve algorithm. The formula is K = k ∗ G, K is the public key, k is
the private key, and G is the discrete constant point. The public key is fully transparent and
can be made public to the entire node, without risk after disclosure. The public key is then
used as input to generate an address using a one-way cryptographic hash function. Bitcoin
address, the essence is a string starting with 1, A = RI P EMD160(SH A256(K)) where
K is the public key and A is the 20-byte address of the bitcoin (finally formed by Base58).
In Bitcoin, two hash algorithms (SH A256, RI P EMD160) are combined into two
functions, one is Hash H ash256(d) = SH A256(SH A256(d)), which is mainly used to
generate identifiers, such as block ID. Transaction ID, etc. The other is H ash160(d) =
RI P EMD160 (SH A256(d)), which is mainly used to generate bitcoin addresses. Where
d is the byte array to be hashed, and the two generate hexadecimal values of 256 bits (32
Table 3 Most cited articles related to blockchain technology

Title Authors Journal Times Year

Where Is Current Research on J.Yli-Huumo et al. Plos one 76 2016

Blockchain Technology? -A Sys-
tematic Review
Designing microgrid energy mar- E.Menge lkamp et al. Applied energy 58 2018
kets A case study: The Brooklyn
Microgrid
Blockchain technology JJ.Sik orski et al. Applied energy 53 2017
in the chemical industry:
Machine-to-machine electricity
market
IoT security: Review, blockchain M.A. Khan et al. Future generation computer system 44 2018
solutions, and open challenges
Security and Privacy in Decen- N.Z. Aitzhan et al. IEEE Trans. on Dependable and Secure Computing 37 2018
tralized Energy Trading Through
Multi-Signatures, Blockchain and
Anonymous Messaging Streams
When Intrusion Detection Meets W. Meng et al. IEEE Access 34 2018
Blockchain Technology: A Review
Enabling Localized Peer-to-Peer J. Kang et al. IEEE Transactions on industrial informatics 34 2017
Electricity Trading Among Plug-
in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Using
Consortium Blockchains
Industry 4.0: state of the art and future trends L.D. Xu et al. International journal of production research 30 2018
Blockchain distributed ledger tech- T. Kuo et al. Journal of the american medical informatics association 30 2017
nologies for biomedical and health
care applications
Blockchain-Based Dynamic Key A. Lei et al. IEEE internet of things journal 28 2017
Management for Heterogeneous
Intelligent Transportation Systems
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in reverse.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
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IEEE ACCESS
SUSTAINABILITY
SENSORS
ADVANCES IN COMPUTERS
BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS TOOLS AND USE CASES
FUTURE GENERATION COMPUTER SYSTEMS
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SYSTEMS
SECURITY AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
APPLIED ENERGY
BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
COMPUTER

Figure 6 Number of articles from different journals

ENERGIES
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE
IEEE SECURITY PRIVACY
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISTRIBUTED SENSOR NETWORKS
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH
SYMMETRY BASEL
APPLIED SCIENCES BASEL
COMPUTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
IEEE CLOUD COMPUTING
IEEE SPECTRUM
INFORMATION SCIENCES
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
WIRELESS PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS
COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS

bytes) and 160 bits (20 bytes), respectively. First, a random number generator is used to

ing a known private key. When the public key is known, it cannot calculate the private key
key. SECP256K1 is an elliptic curve algorithm that can calculate the public key when pass-
account. The private key is generated by the SECP 256K1 algorithm to generate a public
generate a private key, typically a 256-bit number, which is used as the private key of the
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This is the algorithm basis for securing bitcoin security. Perform two hash operations on
the public key to obtain the public key hash; then connect the address version number of
one byte to the public key hash header (this byte is “0”), and then perform two SH A256
operations on it. The first 4 bytes of the result are used as the checksum of the public key
hash, and are connected at the end. The result of the previous step is encoded using BASE58
(Bitcoin Custom Edition) to obtain the wallet address. The detail is shown in Figure 7.

5.2 Privacy: hash function, Merkle tree

Hash algorithm can significantly reduce the number of data comparisons when searching for
a piece of data in massive data, because Hash is according to some Correspondence(Hash
function) to arranging data together. For example, if there is information related to the key in
the data, this information must be stored in the location of the hash function f (key), and the
key value can be any length of data, but f (key) must be a fixed length value. So if you want
to verify that two very large data are the same in the block chain, you can hash the data to get
the hash value of the specified length, and then compare it. Hash algorithm is irreversible,
that is mean the result after the hash operation is irreversible, and the original data value
key cannot be obtained by the hash value f (key). So when the block chain transmits data,
if you want to prevent data tampering , it is only necessary to simultaneously pass the hash
value of the data, the party receiving the data only needs to regenerate the hash value of the
data, and then compare whether the passed hash value is the same as the regenerated hash
value, and then it can be known whether the data has been tampered with.
In addition, the hash function also has anti-collision. If x  = y, but f (x) = f (y), then
the function f does not have anti-collision, on the contrary, it has anti-collision. Although it
is computationally infeasible to find two messages that can generate a collision, it does not
mean that the two collision messages do not exist. Other, the problem-friendliness of hash
functions means that there is no convenient way to generate a hash value that satisfies special
requirements. For each n bit of output m, choose x from a higher unpredictability (high and
low entropy) distribution, it is impossible to find y in less than 2n time. Let f (x||y) = N ,
then the hash function f is problem-friendly.
Moreover, the problem-friendliness of the hash function constitutes the basis of the con-
sensus algorithm (PoW) for the proof of workload in the blockchain. PoW in block chains
is a proof mechanism to confirm how much work has been done, it is the core mechanism

Figure 7 Asymmetric encryption

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to decentralize blockchains. The principle is that the data of the block is combined with the
selected nonce value, and the hash value is calculated by the calculation power, and the first
n bits of the hash value are all 0. Explain the algorithm flow of PoW with examples. Suppose
you give a known string “proof of work”, the workload requirement is to add the integer
value of nonce to the string “proof of work” and perform the SH A256 hash operation. This
means that the SH A256 hash operation is performed on “proof of work once” (the work-
load proof function of the Bitcoin system is SH A256). If the result is a hexadecimal hash
value starting with “0000”, the verification is passed.
According to this regulation, starting from nonce = 1, increasing the nonce value in turn,
it takes 65536 hash calculations to find the hash hash of the first 4 bits of “0”, if you want
to find the hash value of the first 6 bits of “0”, you need to perform 620969 hash operations.
There is no more efficient way to find a hash that meets the requirements. Therefore, the
hash value that meets the specific requirements obtained by this operation can be used as
proof of the workload.
The Merkle tree (MT) is a hash binary tree consisting of a set of leaf nodes, a set of inter-
mediate nodes, and a root node. The bitcoin blockchain system uses the Merkle binary tree
to quickly summarize and verify the integrity of the block data. It hashes the data packets
in the blockchain and continuously recursively generates new ones. Only one Merkle root
is stored in the block header in the end. Each hash node always contains two adjacent data
blocks or their hash values [52], as shown in Figure 8.
There are many advantages to using the Merkle tree in the Bitcoin system: first, it greatly
improves the efficiency and scalability of the blockchain, so that the block header only needs
to contain the root hash value without having to encapsulate all the underlying data; sec-
ondly, Merkle tree can support Simplified Payment Verification Protocol (SPV), which can
also verify transaction data without running complete blockchain network nodes. Therefore,
it is necessary to use a data structure such as Merkle tree in the blockchain.
The Merkel tree is a tree structure in the data structure. It can be a binary tree or a multi-
branches tree in a broad sense, but the Merkel tree in Bitcoin is a complete binary tree.
It performs a hash operation on all the transaction events in the block, and the obtained
hash value continues the hash operation in pairs until a complete binary tree is obtained.
As shown in Figure 8 [52], you can see that T radeA, T radeB, T radeC, T radeD are the
data contained in the leaf nodes at the bottom, and there is a corresponding hash value to
it. To the upper level, H A, H B, H C and H D Is the leaf node, which is the hash value
obtained by hashing the data blocks (that is, T radeA, T radeB, T radeC, and T radeD). To

Figure 8 Merkle tree

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the upper level, H AB and H CD are intermediate nodes, they are not directly performing
hash operations, but Is the hash value obtained by hashing each H A and H B into a string,
and hashing the H C and H D into a string and then performing a hash operation. Then,
the root node is the hash value obtained by hashing the combination string of H AB and
H CD, this is the root hash of this Merkel tree. Suppose there are n data, and n nodes are
created by hashing the data. Then combine the n nodes in pairs to generate n/2 nodes until
there is one left node, the root node. The procedure did n hashes, the time complexity is
O(n), and the height of the tree is log(n) + 1.
From the structure of Merkel tree, we can see that the transaction value of any leaf node
is changed, the corresponding hash value of leaf node will change, and the hash value of
root node will change. So the hash value of the determined root node can be used as the
only summary of a set of transactions accurately. The Merkel tree verifies a transaction, as
shown in Figure 9.
Suppose you want to verify that there is a transaction with a hash value of 7CXe:15 in
the block. You only need to know 3F Xe : 27, bc50, and 9f 52 to calculate the hash of 892c,
6b42 and Root nodes. If the final calculated Root node hash is The hash (8b0a) recorded in
the block header is consistent, which means that the transaction exists in the block. This is
because the two points mentioned above, one is that the Merkel tree is calculated layer by
layer from bottom to top, so as long as you know the hash value of another adjacent node,
you can always go up to the root node. The other is that the root node’s hash value can be
accurately used as a unique summary of a set of transactions. Based on these two points,
you can verify whether a transaction exists.

5.3 Trust: consensus mechanism

The blockchain is decentralized and does not require the support of third-party trust insti-
tutions to achieve efficient transfer of value information. The consensus mechanism solves
the problem of how the blockchain achieves consistency in distributed scenarios [17, 75].
The consensus mechanism is the core technology of the blockchain, it defines who has
the right to book, and the selection process and reasons for the bookkeeping rights. Different
digital currencies adopt different consensus mechanisms, such as PoW, PoS, DPoS, PBFT
and so on.
PoW, Proof of Work [8, 62] is a kind of distribution mechanism according to work. How
much coin can be obtained in the process of mining depends on the contribution of mining.

Figure 9 Merkel tree validates a transaction

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The longer the process takes and better the computer performance, the more you can mine.
The main feature of the workload proof system is that the client needs to do some difficult
work to get a result, but the verifier can easily check whether the client has completed
the corresponding work through the results. One of the core features of this approach is
asymmetry: work is moderate for the requester and easy for the verifier to verify.
PoS, Proof of Stake [20] is a system that pays interest by calculating the amount and time
of money held by users. In the PoW mechanism, it takes a lot of power and time cost to find
a random number that meets the conditions. Therefore, in order to save resources and make
each block generate faster, the PoS mechanism removes the process of exhaustive random
numbers. Then, the following faster algorithm is used: SH A256(SH A256(Bprev), A, t)
≤ balance(A)m. H is a hash function, t is the UTC timestamp, Bprev refers to the previous
block, balance(A) represents the balance of account A. The only parameter that can be
continuously adjusted is t, and M on the right side of the equation is a fixed real number.
So the greater the balance(A), the greater the probability of finding a reasonable t. In the
network, there is a general limit on the range of t. For example, the timestamp that can
be tried cannot exceed the standard timestamp by one hour. In other words, a node can try
7200 times to find a qualified t. And if can’t find, this node will give up. Therefore, the
more balances an account has in a PoS, the easier it is to find the next block with the same
computational power.
DPoS, Delegate Proof of Stake [38] is the fastest, most effective, most decentralized, and
most flexible consensus model among all consensus agreements. On the basis of PoS, DPoS
first selects the biller through equity, and then records the bills between the billers, similar to
the board vote. The DPoS consensus algorithm has strong anti-forking ability. When a super
node generates a block on both forks, the Evolution OS (EOS) holder will delete the super
node in the next round of voting, and the EOS community will give the relevant malicious
node a certain penalty. Therefore, in general, EOS using DPoS is difficult to fork.
PBFT, Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance [10, 25] is a replication algorithm of state
machine, that is, service is modeled as state machine, and state machine is replicated at
different nodes of distributed system. Let number of malicious nodes tolerated in PBFT be
g, in order to ensure the normal operation of the system, it needs 2g + 1 normal nodes. The
total number of nodes is: |R| = 3g + 1, which has (R − 1)/3 fault tolerance.
Each consensus mechanism has its own advantages and disadvantages, adapting to
different scenarios, as shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Advantages and disadvantages of the consensus mechanism

Formula algorithm PoW PoS DPoS PBFT

Performance higher higher high high

The need for tokens yes yes yes no
Maximum 51% 51% 51% 33%
number of
permissible
malicious nodes
Application type Public blackchain Public blackchain Public blackchain consortium blackchain
Technology maturity Mature Mature Mature Mature
Degree of decentralization decentralized decentralized decentralized Semi-centralized
Special hardware no no no no
Prevent witch attacks yes yes yes no
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5.4 The soul of blockchain: smart contract

A smart contract is an automatic evaluation and execution by a computer program when

certain conditions are met. Smart contracts allow trusted transactions to be made without
relying on any credit endorsements, and these transactions are traceable. The difference
between a smart contract and a traditional contract is that it does not involve human
subjective ideas and runs on the computer to ensure that the participants execute the
promised code. Through smart contracts, users and strangers can exchange anything of value
without conflict and transparency. Smart contracts can be implemented independently of
blockchains, but the underlying nature of blockchain decentralization determines that smart
contracts are more suitable for use in blockchains. Therefore, smart contracts are one of the
characteristics of blockchain technology.
When there is a problem with the traditional contract, it requires a lot of agencies to
intervene and consume a lot of material and financial resources. The blockchain-based smart
contract will compile the contract execution power and obligation conditions into a code
that does not require third-party trust, and can automatically determine the trigger condition
to select the corresponding next step [59].
The decentralized nature of blockchain technology itself makes it highly secure. Combin-
ing smart contracts with blockchains avoids the interference of malicious behavior on smart
contracts and reduces contract costs. At the same time, the state machine system built by
the blockchain consistency algorithm also enables smart contracts to run efficiently. Smart
contracts are also flawed. First, the author of a smart contract must be very rigorous, and the
contract that is not rigorous causes a loss to a certain participant. In addition, all users on
the blockchain can see smart contracts based on this blockchain, which also causes all vul-
nerabilities to be visible. But overall, the role of smart contracts in the future will certainly
become more and more clear.

6 The value and application scenarios of blockchain technology

Blockchain technology is a trust-creating technology, which is considered to have the char-

acteristics of distributed fault tolerance, privacy, security and reliability. The corresponding
crowdsourcing related characteristics include:
(1) Security: Multi-signature encryption and multiple computing technologies can provide
reliable accounting and auditing, reducing the possibility and risk of digital activity
crime.
(2) Privacy: Privacy protection solutions including zero-knowledge proof and homomor-
phic encryption cover up the details of transactions and verify the correctness of
transactions;
(3) Trust: This technology can provide a highly trusted distributed network e-book
platform to avoid third party intervention;

6.1 Application scenarios of blockchain technology

Based on the technical characteristics of the blockchain, scenarios that may be applied based
on blockchain technology will include:
(1) Financial market
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Financial market is one of the important areas in the innovative exploration of

blockchain. For example, blockchain can help build a P2P financial market in a secure
and reliable way. Noyes designed a method combining peer-to-peer mechanisms and
MPC (multi-party computing) protocols to create a P2P financial MPC market [97]. The
blockchain-based MPC market allows computing tasks to be distributed to anonymous
peer-to-peer networks [57].
(2) Data analysis and data management
Blockchains have many natural technological advantages in the combination of large
data applications [46]. In terms of data management, the blockchain leverages its distributed
and secure features to store important data and ensure that the data is raw [76]. In terms of
data analysis, transactions on the blockchain can provide public convenience for big data
analysis [47, 94]. For example, the trading behavior of potential partners can be analyzed
by extracting user transaction patterns.
(3) Identification
Blockchain security, anonymity and trustworthiness can be applied to the field of identity
[28, 67]. The Enigma [76] model proposed by Guy Zyskind et al. uses the blockchain feature
to eliminate the need for trusted third-party and to authenticate and securely store identity
in a completely anonymous and provably correct manner. It realizes the automatic control
of personal data.
(4) Ownership management
Blockchain technology can be well used for ownership management and tracking of
property rights, legal deposits, etc [2, 74]. The traditional method of forensic verification
has a long registration time and high cost, and there is a possibility that the individual
or the centralized organization falsifies the data, so that the credibility is difficult to be
guaranteed. It can also be used to protect the reliability of authentication information by
adding timestamps and private key signatures during copyright information storage and
legal deposit.
(5) Logistics chain
In the traditional mode, goods from the producer to the consumer need to go through
multiple intermediate links and cross-border shopping will be very complicated. At the same
time, counterfeit and shoddy goods are also flooding the market. Since different entities
retain their own supply chain information, information is not exchanged and lacks trans-
parency, resulting in a costly logistics process. In addition, once problems such as fakes and
frauds occur, it is difficult to trace and deal with them. In contrast, blockchain technology
provides a transparent and reliable information platform that can capture the status of items
at any time and trace the production and delivery process to ensure logistics reliability and
efficiency on the basis of reduced logistics costs [49]. In addition, in the process of disputes,
the process of proof-testing has become simpler and clearer [63].
(6) Medical field
Personal medical privacy is a key concern in this field, and the blockchain has the techni-
cal advantages of natural anonymization and decentralization on this issue [5, 18]. MedRec,
proposed by Asaph Azaria et al., uses blockchain technology to process electronic medical
records, helping patients manage authentication, medical record information, and achieve
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secure, unalterable data sharing [1]. In addition to electronic medical records[86], clinical
trial records [68], electronic health cases [64], DNA wallets [23], drug anti-counterfeiting
[3], medical contracts [26], etc. are all possible applications of blockchain in medical field
areas.
Depending on the application scenario, the features and values embodied in the
blockchain are also different. All the monopoly, information opaque, and security that can-
not be reliably guaranteed by the form of centralized organization, and the transaction
process related to information, credit, and value (including currency, securities, copyright,
digital goods, etc.) will be inspired or directly benefited from blockchain technology.

6.2 Blockchain technology applied in crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is mainly divided into two types based on commercial platforms and social
networks [29, 42, 43, 43–45, 81, 82, 84, 100]. Crowdsourcing can solve problems with a
lot of intelligence based on less overhead, so it is widely used in tasks that are difficult for
computers or individuals to accomplish, such as image tagging, audio translation, and so on
[48, 87, 88, 95]. However, due to inherent features of social computing, the crowdsourcing
network is challenging in terms of security, privacy, and trust.
(1) Security technology of blockchain applied in crowdsourcing
Analyzing the four marked features such as people involvement, task crowdsourcing,
dynamic topology, heterogeneity, Yang et al. [90] investigated the security and privacy
issues in mobile crowdsourcing networks. Li et al. [40] proposed a blockchain-based
decentralized framework for crowdsourcing named CrowdBC to enhance the security and
usability for users. This framework can also strengthen the flexibility of crowdsourcing and
reduce costs. Zhu et al. [99] summarized the advantages of using blockchain technology
in equity crowdfunding in many respects, such as simplification of the trading and trans-
fering, peer-to-peer transactions between investors and entrepreneurs, and supporting for
regulatory activities.
For the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises or private networks of
Internet of things (IoT), Lin et al. [41] use the advantages of blockchain technology and
LoRaWAN technology to provide open, credible, decentralized and tamper-proof network
systems. Based on the concept of crowdsourcing and sharing economy, the system provides
consistent services for large-scale alliance networks, such as end-user roaming services and
accounting and settlement services for all parties. Durand et al. [16] used a blockchain-
connected packet forwarding application and off-the-shelf hardware to build a prototype
of a decentralized IoT network. The prototype system is based on blockchain technology,
which builds a network “join” server share, globally synchronized key-value storage with-
out the involvement of trusted parties. Lu et al. [50] designed a simple incentive mechanism
based on the dense and random computing technology of open blockchain by crowdsource
computing the execution of various complex programs through blockchain, thus preventing
any wrong calculation results. Wang et al. [80] proposed a running model of Crowdsourced
Energy Systems (CES) in distribution networks with different types of crowdsourcing based
on blockchain encryption. These CES were validated from distributed small-scale energy
production or energy trading. The model produces a market equilibrium that describes
traditional distributed generator and load set points.
(2) Privacy technology of blockchain applied in crowdsourcing
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Blockchain technology has its own unique advantages in privacy protection and data
security. Based on the decentralized framework of blockchain, Fernandez-Carames et al.
[22] proposed another framework that does not rely on any central third party to protect
user privacy. The health data that the IoT Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System
can collect in this framework can also monitor patients for patients based on remote access.
The framework utilizes a distributed mobile smart phone’s fog computing system to col-
lect data from CGM, select a joint blockchain to increase transaction privacy, and speed
up transactions and verification. Yang et al. [91] proposed a novel blockchain privacy pro-
tection crowdsourcing system, which can protect the location privacy of staff and improve
the success rate of completing the assigned tasks. This system not only uses anonymous
features of blockchain technology to hide user’s identity information, but also builds pri-
vate blockchains to disperse participants’ transaction records, and chooses tasks in various
private blockchains to avoid the destruction of participants’ transaction records.
Considering that there is a server in the blockchain system, multiple smartphone users
and miners, Wang et al. [79] proposed a proprietary blockchain incentive mechanism in
crowdsourcing services. To eliminate security and privacy issues associated with central
nodes, cryptocurrencies are used as security incentives to ensure security and efficiency
by validating data quality assessments and predefined transmission conditions and node
collaboration privacy protection. Based on k-anonymity and differential privacy protection,
Chi et al. [12] proposed a new location privacy protection strategy for mobile crowdsourcing
system, which improved the level of privacy protection and quality of service. The validity
of the proposed location privacy protection is verified on the taxi mobile trace data set.
In order to meet the workers’ privacy requirements, Hu et al. [30] used a peer-to-
peer space K-anonymity method to protect the location privacy of staff in the mode of
space crowdsourcing. The selection algorithm and assignment algorithm in this method can
achieve optimal results while ensuring their location privacy. Zhu et al. [98] developed a
novel privacy protection scheme for crowdsourcing location. A two-level spatial task allo-
cation algorithm in this scheme can effectively accomplish spatial task allocation and avoid
publishing the location privacy of staff.
Tasks in mobile crowdsourcing services are associated with mobile users performing
their geographic location. Wang et al. [78] proposed an optimal privacy protection task
allocation framework for mobile crowdsensing, which can protect participants’ location
privacy and minimize overall travel distance through differential geographic confusion.
Chatzopoulos et al. [11] used the smart contract on the blockchain to protect the pri-
vacy of mobile users while ensuring the validity of their location in mobile crowdsensing
applications. Their approach uses an intermediary between mediators to address privacy
issues that protect group perception in a cost-optimized manner. Zhao et al. [96] applied a
blockchain-based dynamic and privacy-protected reputation management scheme to mobile
crowdsourcing, overcoming the security issues of centralized servers in traditional applica-
tions. They designed a delegating agreement to improve the basic scheme so that there is
no impact on the system when recruiting users to leave the system without providing per-
ceptual data, and it can defend against malicious users in the dynamic mobile crowdsensing
scenario.
Without relying on any third party information arbitrator, Lu et al. [51] constructs,
analyses, and implements a private and anonymous distributed data crowdsourcing system
based on blockchain. The protocol in this system can guarantee the faithful implementa-
tion of a kind of incentive mechanism, while protecting confidential data and identity from
the influence of blockchain network. Jia et al. [33] proposed a hybrid incentive mecha-
nism that considers privacy protection and virtual credit to prevent data processed by the
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obfuscation mechanism from being attacked. This mechanism protects the user’s private
information by using blockchain protection mechanisms, motivating users to participate in
perceived tasks and ensuring that data is not tampered with by others. Wu et al. [85] design
a blockchain-based privacy-preserving task matching scheme for crowdsourcing, called
BPTM, which builds an autonomous, accurate, decentralized platform that can be used to
replace potentially dishonest and vulnerable platforms. They not only try to achieve identity
anonymity and reliable matching by combining smart contracts with searchable encryption,
but also construct a searchable encryption scheme to protect task requirements and worker
preferences for privacy protection task matching.
(3) Trust technology of blockchain applied in crowdsourcing
Blockchain trust mechanism is widely used in crowdsourcing system to establish trust
between totally distrusted nodes. Rashid et al. [65] provided a blockchain-based architecture
named TEduChain platform of crowdsourcing fund for tertiary education and managing.
The architecture is based on blockchain information trust mechanism, so that any record
of investors and students can be easily identified and tracked. Wang et al. [83] proposed
an improved authentication scheme based on the new blockchain technology to solve the
problem of identity authentication and identity forgery in multi-node system of vehicle
networking. This scheme uses two trust mechanisms, namely, saving DNS service point-
ing to the source and exchanging secure communication files, to ensure the legitimacy of
vehicle nodes and the reliability of other vehicles. Jacynycz et al. [32] implemented a new
decentralized crowdsourcing platform based on blockchain. The platform is completely
decentralized, with no third party tampering with its code for diverting funds or charging
commissions to its users. Zou et al. [101] proposed a new “Proof of Trust” (POT) consensus
protocol to address the immoral behavior that often occurs in crowdsourcing services net-
works. It divides transaction verification and block record into two different groups in the
traditional blockchain environment to solve the problem that traditional methods are neither
efficient nor secure. Compared with other consensus protocols and methods, this consensus
protocol has better security and scalability.
Because trust is critical to most crowdsourced IoT systems, Pinto et al. [61] propose
a blockchain IoT solution based on the blockchain technology of public key infrastruc-
ture roles. The scheme try to link each device public key to a specific person and ensures
that every action performed by a node on the network can be assigned to the appropri-
ate entity. Considering the social awareness and credibility of crowdsourcing in social IoT,
Wang et al. [77] proposed a trusted crowdsourcing framework for discovering services and
resources. In addition, this framework includes a message forwarding algorithm based on
social awareness mechanisms, and introduces a reputation mechanism to assess the reli-
ability of crowdsourced to detect unreliable crowdsourced participants. Feng et al. [21]
proposed a novel blockchain in mobile crowdsourcing, which not only greatly reduces com-
putational overhead, but also solves the fork and concentration problems encountered by
most existing blockchain-based systems. The consistency algorithm in the method ensures
that a unique block can be determined even if multiple generated blocks occur at the same
time. Based on the trust evaluation mechanism, end users can choose reliable staff. Bhatia
et al. [7] proposed a distributed crowdsourcing platform based on blockchain-based trust
technology, which solved the problem that existing centralized solutions are vulnerable to
attacks by central servers or abuse by central agencies. The platform does not rely on any
third parties and overcomes the malicious manipulation of the reputation system’s reputa-
tion and various other attacks. At the same time, it has the invariance of the blockchain, and
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the reputation score provided by the system is credible and traceable, which can prevent
unverified data modification.

7 Conclusion and future work

The core meaning of blockchain technology is to build a self-operating social trust network
that does not rely on third-party, and promote the value interconnection of the whole society.
The untouchable modification of blockchain technology has fundamentally changed the
centralized way of credit creation. The birth of blockchain is the beginning of human beings
to build a value transmission network, which is expected to lead us from personal trust,
institutional trust to machine trust. The advantages of blockchain include decentralization,
collective maintenance, information not tampering, security, privacy, trust, anonymity, etc.
Although the blockchain can be widely used in many fields, it also faces many problems and
challenges. These problems restrict the application of blockchain technology to a certain
extent, and also put forward higher requirements for the development of crowdsourcing
systems.
Traditional centralized crowdsourcing service relies on a centralized system to publish
and receive tasks, with problems such as privacy disclosure, single point of failure, poor
trust assessment, low security degree, and high service cost. Blockchain technology pro-
vides a promising method to solve the security, privacy, and trust problems of this tripartite
system model. Crowdsourcing tasks contain huge amounts of data, and storing and process-
ing them is a big challenge. When the amount of data in a single block is too large, message
synchronization and disk usage issues occur. Therefore, the storage and processing of large-
scale crowdsourced data on the basis of blockchain is an urgent problem to be solved in the
future. Meanwhile, the transfer process of crowdsourcing system based on blockchain may
be blocked by malicious behaviors. Therefore, under the completely decentralized crowd-
sourcing framework based on blockchain, one of the future jobs is to effectively guarantee
the fairness between requesters and recipients. When using the new version or new proto-
col, the crowdsourcing system is difficult to be compatible with the previous version, and
the old and new nodes cannot accept the blocks generated by the current version, resulting
in a decrease in the trust of the blockchain-based crowdsourcing platform.
Research on the consensus mechanism involved in the blockchain technology is also the
direction of future attention, which mainly includes improving PoW algorithm, PoS algo-
rithm and traditional distributed consistency algorithm. The security of systems based on
intelligent contracts is also very important. For example, an attack on intelligent contracts
based on system vulnerabilities will lead to catastrophic losses. As users in blockchain with-
out central structure declare the ownership of assets based on public address and key, key
preservation is very critical. If the key is lost, the tamper-proof feature of blockchain will
lead to the inability to guarantee the ownership of assets by modifying blockchain records.
A large number of crowdsourcing problems are still to be discovered, and a large number
of crowdsourcing applications are still to be developed. Crowdsourcing system based on
blockchain technology will be a hot research direction in the future.

Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant No. 61502404), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. 2019J01851),
Distinguished Young Scholars Foundation of Fujian Educational Committee (Grant No. DYS201707), Xia-
men Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 3502Z20183059), and Open Fund of Key Laboratory
of Data mining and Intelligent Recommendation, Fujian Province University. We thank the anonymous
reviewers for their great helpful comments.
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Affiliations

Ying Ma1,2 · Yu Sun3 · Yunjie Lei1 · Nan Qin1 · Junwen Lu1,4

Yunjie Lei
yunjielei@yeah.net
Nan Qin
quinnqin7@gmail.com
Junwen Lu
jwlu@xmut.edu.cn
1 Department of Computer and Information Engineering, Xiamen University of Technology,
Xiamen, China
2 Key Laboratory of Data Mining and Intelligent Recommendation of Fujian Province, Xiamen University
of Technology, Xiamen, China
3 Department of Education and Learning Technology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
4 Engineering Research Center for Software Testing and Evaluation of Fujian Province, Xiamen, China