**6. Blockchain benefits and challenges toward SDGs and open innovation**

The following paragraphs summarize the key main benefits that blockchain will bring to SDGs and their main open challenges.

Blockchain may provide significant operational benefits, since current information systems rely on centralized databases that operate in silos. By having a single, timestamped, immutable, and unique version of the truth, transparency and simplified audits can be guaranteed.

Furthermore, re-balancing the degree of information symmetry between stakeholders will help to achieve SDGs and will enable new forms of corporate governance and decentralized corporations. A collaborative mindset (the so-called coopetition) will be necessary to find additional ways to create value.

In terms of the maturity of the technology, there are a number of open challenges related to scalability, interoperability, standardization, or even energy consumption. The process of mining public networks, especially in the case of Bitcoin [67], requires enormous amounts of electricity. Therefore, although the underlying networks can provide sustainable applications, their footprint cannot be neglected [68].

From the cybersecurity standpoint, it is essential to provide secure applications with no single point of failure that comply with the expected degree of privacy. Nonetheless, it must be noted that blockchain can be also subject to cyberattacks [6]. The evolution of quantum computers will affect the security of public-key cryptosystems and hash functions. For instance, the authors of [9] analyze how to evolve blockchain cryptography to resist attacks based on Grover's and Shor's algorithms.
