BBA’s work,
in the world.

What should an organisation know before it commits to blockchain? Whether the problem is clearly defined. What alternatives already exist. What the proposed intervention changes. And how success will be assessed.

In 2020, Naseem Naqvi and Mureed Hussain published findings from a global study of 517 blockchain projects and start-up companies in the Journal of The British Blockchain Association. Their work examines the evidence behind blockchain decisions and presents an approach that practitioners can use to structure their own enquiry.

The PCIO framework makes that enquiry concrete: Problem, Comparison, Intervention and Outcome. Alongside it, the 5A’s describe an evidence-based process: Ask, Acquire, Appraise, Apply and Assess.

For industry leaders, the value is practical: a clearer way to challenge assumptions before committing resources, compare options and decide what evidence would justify proceeding.

Research gains another route into practice when it appears in the books that decision-makers read.

Evidence-Based Blockchain is discussed in Mary C. Lacity’s Blockchain Foundations: For the Internet of Value, published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2020. A documented passage on page 396 considers the role of professional expertise and organisational, stakeholder and scientific evidence in applied blockchain decisions.

Conor Svensson’s The Blockchain Innovator’s Handbook, published in 2021, also includes an evidence-based approach. A photographed reference shows the evidence hierarchy credited to Naqvi and Hussain’s research.

Together, these references show the approach travelling beyond its original journal publications and into literature for enterprise innovators and practitioners. That is a specific, documented form of intellectual reach: readers can see where the ideas appear and follow them back to the research.

A framework becomes easier to understand when we see the question it helps someone answer.

Hannah Rudman’s agri-farming work explores how to assure particular qualities of a product through its farm lifecycle. In the gluten-free oats case, the question concerns traceability, provenance and assurance: how can information about a crop’s qualities be recorded and shared?

The accompanying CEBB infographic sets out the problem, the comparison with traditional tracking methods, the proposed distributed-ledger intervention and the outcomes of interest. It also places the work within participatory action research, involving dialogue, co-development and reflection.

For organisations considering blockchain in a supply chain, this is a useful example of starting with a specific operational problem and making the proposed value open to examination. The published proof of concept makes that enquiry available for others to examine.

How does a blockchain-based identity solution work in a public-service setting?

In July 2025, JBBA published UNJSPF Blockchain-based Digital Identity Solution for Proof-of-Life by Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio and Mirko Montuori. The paper documents experience with the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund’s digital identity solution.

For readers, the value lies in access to a specific implementation account: a defined service, an operational setting and an application that can be examined through its published research. JBBA provides a place for this experience to enter the research record and become available to other practitioners.

A technology programme needs a clear account of the value it seeks to create.

BBA’s UK National Blockchain Roadmap connects government, academia, industry and society. Its evidence-based material encourages readers to examine interventions, the quality of evidence and the relationship between technical activity and societal value.

The 2021 document includes a societal-impact diagram, levels of evidence and the PCIO framework. These give readers a way to discuss both the ambition of a project and the evidence needed to assess it.

For leaders shaping an industry initiative or public programme, the practical question is what change the work is intended to produce, for whom, and how that change will be evaluated. The roadmap gives that conversation a shared starting point.

A research community grows through opportunities to participate.

In March 2024, BBA announced a one-year complimentary membership of the Centre for Evidence-Based Blockchain for MSc and PhD researchers attending its sixth Blockchain International Scientific Conference, ISC2024, subject to the original announcement’s eligibility requirements.

The initiative is one documented example of BBA’s support for postgraduate engagement. It connected the scientific conference with participation in a community focused on evidence-based blockchain.

For those learning about BBA, this matters alongside the publications and frameworks: the work also involves creating opportunities for researchers to take part. The public announcement and its original photograph preserve that part of the organisation’s record.