REVIEW article
Front. Blockchain
Sec. Blockchain Technologies
Multivocal Literature Review of Software Architectures for Blockchain Networks
Juan Manuel Sobral 1
Mario De los Santos 2
Martin Solari 1
Santiago Matalonga 3
1. ORT Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay
2. SpaceDev, Montevideo, Uruguay
3. University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
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Abstract
Blockchain technology continues to promise transformative impact across domains such as supply chains, finance, and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, the rapid growth and increasing heterogeneity of blockchain platforms have made architectural decision-making progressively more complex for software architects. This study extends and updates a previous Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) to systematically identify and characterize active blockchain networks across foundational protocol layers. We analyze key architectural dimensions including consensus mechanisms, decentralization and access control models, smart contract support, block and ledger structures, interoperability features, and architectural lineage. Drawing on both academic and gray literature, we characterize a total of 147 blockchain networks spanning Layers-0 through-2. Our findings reveal an ecosystem largely driven by industrial innovation, with limited consolidation in the formal academic literature. The resulting architectural mappings aim to support software architects in making informed, evidence-based decisions when integrating blockchain technologies into software-intensive systems.
Summary
Keywords
Architecture Design Decision, Blockchain, Multivocal literature review, Smart contracts, software architecture
Received
05 January 2026
Accepted
18 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Sobral, De los Santos, Solari and Matalonga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Juan Manuel Sobral
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.